I think we can all agree that each different decade had a new style to add to the metal genre, in the 90s extreme metal was perfectionated and we had pretty cool scenes like Florida's death metal, Norwegian black metal, Pantera's groove metal and post thrash sound, and in the 2000's the popularity of nu metal and the beginning of metalcore and deathcore. In the 2010's I think the most important metal trend was definitely djent, post-metal, metalcore, deathcore, the revival of OSDM, thrash revival, and traditional heavy metal revival.

But now we are entering the 2020s, which do you think are the most relevant trends in the metal world right now? I have 4 bands that I think are maintaining metal as a relevant force in mainstream music.

1 - Gojira

I think they are the most relevant of the new bands, they play well, sound good and have a mix of different genres in their sound

2 - Mastodon

The same can be said about them, a mix of different styles, they are a difficult-to-classify band, same as Gojira in that case.

3 - Meshuggah

As for sound and influence in the music of modern metal i think the Swedes have taken over, the popularity of the 7 and 8 strings guitars, the ultra-heavy sound of their music, is everywhere now.

4 - Lamb of God

I am not so sure that this band is liked by the forum, probably not. But they are the most important band of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal of the 2000s and the one that came on top since most of those bands already disappeared. I think they are important because they are still relevant and are a mix of the old groove sound of the 90s and the metalcore sound of the 2000s, like a synthesis of what modern American metal is.

I think the biggest trend in metal these days is trying to fit in and be nice and tame lest people don't like it.

Call me bitter but it seems to be about everything besides pushing everything to the absolute edge of intensity and raw emotion.

But then again that's what current society seems to be about in general, I just think it's a shame that metal went that way too, I always thought it was something that was proud to be outside of that, not just another flavor of it

I have always strayed away from any trend and in fact the word itself is enough for me to become repelled, which is why I have never ever considered listening to any of the bands you mentioned here. Maybe (probably) I'm crazy for saying such.
They might be the best bands ever with the best riffs but I'd never know. I've heard Goijira reffered to as Eco metal: maybe you have too and that just really turns me off.

We have a subgenre of metal called slam that pushes the boundaries of heaviness, but it's more niche. Additionally, there are genres like brutal death metal and grindcore that are even more extreme, but they will never be part of the mainstream metal scene. I love BDM tho, i listen to it frequently.

The other thing that you said I think it depends on the country, for example, my country, Argentina, is now pretty close to electing a far-right maniac, anarcho-capitalist, libertarian, as a president. Things down here are everything except tame and nice, it really sucks to be here and having this Pinochet and Videla 2 bullshit.

I like both, underground stuff and more mainstream stuff, but to keep pushing the boundaries of the genre you have to gain the interest of a larger audience, at least that's what happened when the other styles were created.

Yeah, my condolences for having to deal with one of the most lunatic politicians in the world and what is worse, his supporters. Best wishes to you and your country

Yeah, it's pretty sad, but if the USA had Trump and Brazil, Bolsonaro, I don't know why we would be an exception to the rule. This new kind of right-wing populist are the new thing and they are here to stay. Center-left and social democratic governments haven't enough tools to fight back against this kind of politics.

Yeah my critiques are mostly more directed at the Western world, mostly cuz these are the people that have these attitudes yet don't really seem to care how harsh the rest of the world is, I mostly find fault with people who get all moral about shit just to kinda appear higher status or more sophisticated yet are just as selfish as everybody else and have more money too which is the funny thing.

So yeah my attitude is just kinda directed at what I see out of the current fanbase more than any one band in particular, I was kinda thinking about it after my main post a little deeper and I kinda figured out where my ire was really being directed so yeah thanks for calling me out on that, I just see a lot of modern day attitudes in the fanbase that irritate me

Don't have enough tools I think isn't the problem more so I think it's just liberal people really are just horrible at manipulating people to vote for them, they just speak like such pussies pardon my French to really get the frustrated lower class and poor people to really sympathize with their plight, not to mention they seem more interested in symbolic victories than really seizing power.

My opinion of course, but all the liberals bitching about all these psychopathic right wing guys taking power, uhhh it's obvious you need someone who thinks like a psychopath as well, I'm a very liberal guy myself and I think that way, but I still just don't express my support because of the way those assholes talk to me, I think more liberal politicians as well as voters need to understand that the game of politics isn't supposed to be fair, so you better buck the fuck up or accept that you'll always lose.

Guarantee you'll even get pushback for saying manipulate the voters but that's all it is lets stop pretending, politics is a mind game first and foremost, not about ideals

Well, we had the Kirchners, who were more of a left-wing populist kind of government, they ruled for three periods and they lost the election to the center-right coalition in 2015. Then that government failed hard and took a giant loan from the IMF and lost the election in 2019. Now we have that kind of soft liberal as you said in your comment (liberal as in progressive) social democratic coalition which took a lot of hits with the pandemic, the Ukraine War, and the drought which cut a lot of the money the state had in taxed to the crop exports. With the two main political coalitions having failed, the scenario for this wacko to take power only grew and grew, and now we are here.

Yeah I'm just talking again about America, cuz that's where I'm from but I think you're describing sort of what I'm saying where liberals just don't know how to console a desperate population at all besides getting all moral on everybody, which turns poor people off cuz they end up feeling like they're just being attacked and seen as the problem more than looked out for, right wing politics always carries the message to people that they can get out of this problem on their own, even if it's just a nice petty lie to get votes, left wing people end up just blaming the poor people they're supposedly so eager to help

From where I sit it seems all the liberals are more interested in people's sexuality and race than anything and that's not the issue I have it's that you completely overlook the predominantly white straight and male population that actually fucking exists in this country and is doing all the fucking work for you, guess who it is? It's poor white people like me it's poor Mexican people, it's poor black people and meanwhile all you guys care about is the rich white "sophisticated" and sexually ambiguous version of that, so hence you'll keep losing the vote because your focus is too narrow to ever win it

I'm not a trump supporter but I feel the same rage they do at the way shit is, and all you liberal idiots are gonna stop having to condescend to us as unsophisticated morons and start fucking listening because guess what it benefits you more than us to actually try to hear the frustration and deal with it.

And the funny thing is you whine constantly about poor black people more than anything, guess what they're in that same block I just described that's frustrated too, you guys just don't actually care about anything besides middle class super WHITE FUCKING BULLSHIT

And that's exactly why they deserve to lose, they don't care either, but at least the republicans are honest about not giving a shit about anything besides themselves it's more respectable to be honest about it

So yeah not sure how it works in your country but that's the way I see my country and I really just can't stand it, and there's people on here too that remind me of it so I just try to be village asshole to say I know better than this bullshit

And I'm not a voter or undecided or anything I will never vote in my life but lol democrats are so bad at the game it really makes me wanna go to the other side just out of spite but I just don't vote anyway

Oh yeah and too many people use this as an excuse to hate gay black or trans people no no no that's not me trust me I know damn well who my enemy is and it's the rich white guy using those people as pawns so I don't know who's responsible, I'm too fuckin smart for that game too

Yeah, I understand what you mean. I think it happened in a similar way here, the center-left coalition, the liberals as you would say, didn't respond to the demands of the poor people and that was a breeding ground for this kind of outsider politics, which present themselves against all the political caste, against the corruption and a state which robs people their money to use in useless things. I think with Trump happened something very similar in your country, he was the first one of this kind of New Right, there are some of these guys in Europe too, like Abascal from Spain, Le Pen from France, and Meloni from Italy.

Trump succeeded because he gave people this illusion of being outside the established system when as a business man he probably gave up power to be the president to be fucking honest.

Id have to examine how your system works where you are but in america it's already a fascist place and it always will be people kid themselves cuz they can't deal with it but it's just clear as day to me.

I don't really know what it's like in Europe I genuinely don't really follow the news but it makes sense to me how people will see what happened in America and get their dicks all hard about "oh an outsider like me is making a difference"

People are all too susceptible to this obvious form of manipulation where you take someone who has fucking everything in life, but they're fighting the system and they're a rebel, if you think critically for one fucking second you would see, uhhh both of these things can't simultaneously be true, I'm probably being lied to but you know how people are, they can't ever just admit they made a mistake to fall for bullshit, so they gotta hate the guy who supplied the bullshit, like no why don't you grow into someone who doesn't fall for the fucking bullshit next time?

I think people secretly want it to be this way but you're not supposed to say that either so ehhh id rather know I didn't fall for it my myself, I can die happy knowing that

Is this music discussion or politics? There is the tavern.

All four of the bands listed in the OP were all bigger bands in the 2000s, I would say, except for maybe Gojira, who seem to be more popular than ever right now, which is ironic because I think their last two albums are their worst. At the least, the 2000s is more when they made their impact on the metal scene, and are closer to legacy bands than they are about currently setting the trends.

When trying to discuss what the current trends are in metal today though, I think it is a bit tougher than it was 20+ years ago. The subgenres all have their certain trends and whatnot, and so it is more difficult to throw a whole blanket on metal in general than it would be for the 2000s, for instance, where you can look at that era and immediately recognize that it was the NWOAHM era or the rise of metalcore and whatnot.

This!

New bands calling themselves old school while wearing those goofy ass looking Pit Vipers.

I'd say proggy style tech death could be one, there's been a huge spate of those bands in the last few years, the whole Artisan Era type of bands. Just hazarding a guess that it's probably been driven by the rise of youtube shredder style guitarists and musicians?

Post black metal (if that's actually a thing) seems to have blown up recently too

Low effort 4chan meme DM like Sanguisugabogg is certainly having a moment.

Those hazy, foggy Lewandowski-like cover artworks

Post black metal is so 2010s, sorry.

Which songs/album do you recommend from them?

It's probably not a wide spread trend and instead is just something I'm noticing because it's relevant to my interests, but I feel like the American folk / black metal ball that panopticon started rolling continues to gain traction, and in my mind I include bands that take inspiration from indigenous American cultures like Blackbraid in this category. I'm surprised it took so long honestly since European folk was getting incorporated into black metal very early on.

Doesn't seem to me that there will be a trend in the 2020s. This looks like it will be the no-trend decade, instead of variety and musical diversity. There's all sorts of traditional genres and newer fusion genres. All of them have their following but I don't see anything breaking through. None of the bands you mention are new. They have their established fans and they are going to continue to do well. They also have their detractors and that won't change. I'm not sure that they are anymore "relevant" than other major bands within metal.

If the Youtube ads that I keep getting are an indication of anything, then lady-fronted symphonic metal seems to be a huge thing. But all of them are embarrassing euro bands that are thoroughly subpar.

We are getting more and more pop-metal bands.

I can dig some pop music, but so many of these pop-metal bands whose songs are on radio are really stale.

I'm not really keeping up with the latest trends but... that list would make sense if this would be 2009.
Actually, I'd argue that - with the exception of Meshuggah - all these bands are shadows of what they used to be. They big and popular and attract crowds? Sure. But ask any metalhead worth their salt and I bet they'll tell you their better days are far behind.

I think in general the fanbase is the problem not the bands themselves, metal has just been sterilized and cleaned up too much because that's what everyone thinks they have to do nowadays.

Like the world always was horrible anyway why do people have to act like nows the time to try to make up for it by being all nice and positive about everything, too little way too fucking late the way I see it

Intensity isn't cool these days unless you're intensely desperate to have everyone else approve of every facet of your existence like you're that important.

Of course that's the most uncool thing in the fucking world.

I can't tell if the fanbase is ashamed to like metal or that they just don't really get it in the first place, but this music is inherently outside the mainstream it's too real it's too honest it's too uncompromising, and that's the way it should stay, it's not regressive to continue to stay outside of what's hip and cool, I think some lame motherfucker told too many people that in high school and some of y'all actually listened.

Being a better person is not about changing to fit someone else's mold or sensitivity level, its about remaining rock solid and getting the person who put that trip on you to realize it's wrong for them to expect that of someone else without expecting it of themselves too.

You don't get to act like an asshole as the first option to anyone but If they give you the feeling that you're weird to them I'd say embrace it, chances are they aren't even a full version of them anyway, why would I let the half version of someone else determine the full version of me?

All those fans of lame corporate music don't like my shit? Uhhh man I'm glad Im not listening to what they like, if they saw something in the things I like I'd think man maybe this might suck

It's only excusable if you're trying to get laid that id just pretend I'm a loud brash asshole who likes metal and I'll accept people assuming I'm dumb for liking metal, they're dumb for not knowing anything at all besides loud obnoxious confident = dumb no it equals intelligence because everything in life always seemed to tell me I was nothing I was wrong, metal was the only one that told me hey you're one of us you're sick like me you're angry like me you think about fucked up things like me and don't need to hide it because of everyone else being afraid of themselves, you belong here, all the other groups want me to see it their way instead of having me accept my way

I just wish more people understood that if you don't fit into shit that everyone else does or don't follow the rules of what you're supposed to be like, chances are you're probably too good for it in the first place, like I don't think a lot of the fans understand that you already won exploring something that on the surface is so harsh and uncompromising but in reality is the nicest and most positive thing in the fuckin world

I think it's supposed to be harsh on the surface to get rid of the fakes, consider yourself better if it didn't get rid of you, you already won, the rest of them probably never will.

The real good bands know what they're talking about, the fanbase in general are idiots tho

I agree many of them sound really bland and generic and don't add anything really new to the genre.

Bands like Ghost and Baby metal are Popular right now. They bring people who are not really into metal but have other characteristics that appeal to them and I can understand.

I mean I don't really care but I just never dig when someone wants all the glory and supposed rebellion and being different that comes along with liking metal but then just doesn't really like it that much in general

It's like fuck I'm not mad you don't like it I'm mad you're just trying to be something you're not only to appear more interesting, yikes that's fucking lame

Not sure if folks are into Blackbraid, but the guy is making some big waves in the scene. Played Hellfest as you probably know. I can't recall exactly how I heard them, maybe that first single back in 2021, but it grabbed me straight away.
And to the baby metal comment above: they have been at it for quite a while, while I think the novelty sort of wore off the early stuff is still pretty rad and Kami band is fawking great too.

Lots of thoughts here.
I've noticed some guys here like to have a quote of some sort under their post: this would make a good one for sure.

why would I let the half version of someone else determine the full version of me?

That's pretty much the "only on weekends" type of listener. Just get away from them instead of trying to get them away from you, there's nothing to gain by being confrontational. Time will tell if they decide to stick with metal and explore it more or latch onto something else.

Oh I stay away trust me I think the only reason you'd have to really put up with it is if you wanted the classic metal girlfriend which I want a girl who's metal in spirit aka a fucking complete utter bitch who's not afraid to show me that's what she is

But yeah the tourists are annoying idk sucks for them if they never got it this stuff has definitely enriched my life

Ehh you even find that shit on here, idk how new you are to this but I used to get intimidated around here just cuz it always seems everyone all thinks one way but I learned that they just have certain standards of shit they don't accept which I appreciate and I just realized I don't feel the same way as those losers who support the shit that's not acceptable here, so I can be as big an asshole as I want really, I match what comes my way, but it's also fun to get under people's skin sometimes cuz you can piss them off literally just by saying what you think and they get mad call you names and at that point it's the only option like you went petty before I did now I'm just gonna make you regret it lol

And plus there's no actual hierarchy around here really, you can just tell whos really knowledgeable about shit and who thinks they are, I probably fall in the latter category but ehhh who cares? I'll still recognize when someone's more right than me

I feel a little out of touch with general trends in metal or music period. One thing I miss about MTV or radio was music being related to a certain time.

Anyways, one trend I have noticed and I like is bands 30-40 years old seeming revitalized and making great albums in the last 3-5 years. Alcatrazz, Metal Church, Overkill, Fifth Angel, Obituary, Sortilege, Narnia, Saint, Talas, Blind Guardian, Zero Hour, Stryper, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Helstar, Helloween, and Trance to name quite a few. I anticipate more great stuff is on the way.

I wouldn't say I become intimidated more than humbled.......I love learning about metal I can love. Only thing is, I don't what I like until I hear it.
It's also really cool to read and see opinions and feelings about this kind of music.
I don't' care about hierarchy as long as the members here are not condescending and lacking acceptance for noobs like me. I've been into metal since the 80's, play music, have a radio show and support heavy metal any way I can. I know I have more to learn too.

What Thy Shrine wrote reminds me of this guy I know who listens to some metal, but insists on listening to the blandest, softest power metal imaginable because he doesn't like electric guitars. Eh.

Anyway, not sure about trends in metal at large because new niches and styles are being formed all the time -- that comes naturally for a genre to evolve -- but in the metal-adjacent sphere, with Lorna Shore's massive boom in popularity thanks to YouTube reaction vids plus all of those TikTok "metal" covers of non-metal songs, I'm sure we are or will be getting plenty of melodic/somewhat melodic artists and bands whose main draw is their ability to generate throat noises.

Unfortunately that tik tok phenomenon you're talking about I strongly suspect there will be a lot of fans that will also be making throat noises, only there's something clogged this time

Half the time I read statements like these, I kind of get the purpose of having these kind of conversations. But half the time I'm also kind of like: "Who cares?"

I mean, don't get me wrong, more mainstream bands are nice to bring in new people. They are gateway bands and very essential for sure. Also they are good band. Mastodon and Gojira are bands I love myself, and I don't just think of them as "useful bands to get metalhead kids into the real stuff". They are good on their own.

But at the same time, metal never really needed to be mainstream. Metal always strived without being accessible. For instance, I'm a big death metal fan myself, and the genre is as healthy as ever, if not even healthier then it ever was right now. Are bands making a living out of just playing in their death metal band? I don't know. Some probably do, like Cannical Corpse for instance, but it doesn't seem to matter, since death metal bands keep popping up, and great death metal keeps being made. And yeah, to be quite honest, I don't think we have to thank Gojira for bands like Blood Incantation, Nightmarer or Imperial Triumphant.

There are definitely smaller, more localized trends that are quite useful to bring bands together and help promote each other, namely through playing shows together and cathing the fans attention, like the whole dissodeath (and dissoblack) "trend" or the thrash revival movement or whatnot, but these are not "mainstream trends", they are just "trends" occuring "naturally" in the scene because people want to hear more stuff in the same vein as other bands they already like.

Understand that I'm not taking a jab at you here, OP. But I'm always kind of on the fence with the importance of mainstream trends in metal.

I get what all you said, but I always thought that the genre, in general, felt a little bit stagnated in the past, trends are good because they usually push musical genres into new territories. Not so long ago metal was an essential force in the entertainment industry, beloved bands of this forum like Maiden or Priest were the biggest bands of their time in terms of commercial success.

Maybe trend is not the best word to put it, english isn't my first language so sorry for that. Maybe a better term is tendency, in the sense to push the metal genre into new territories and change the genre for good, those bands that I listed established what would be the production, riffing style, aesthetic, and vibe of modern metal. My question was if something like that exists now, like in the past decades when new subgenres gave birth to new sounds and changed the style of the music.