I was listening to Axioma Ethica Odini by Enslaved and have been considering this album which was released last year as an album that will be impact metal musicians in the future.
There are many albums in the 90s that have brought death metal, black metal and thrash metal to new heights. Metal is a such a genre that is diverse and highly experimental if done the right way.

What other albums do you consider an album that will be a "classic" in the future and have huge influence in the future of heavy metal?

So far I have only heard Murkrat's albums twice, but from what I heard I figure it could have a lasting impact on how female vocals can be used in metal. It avoids the typical female vocals pitfalls such as being "angelic", "sexy" or "operatic" and instead goes for a very stripped down (no double entendre intended), down-to-earth approach that could inspire other bands to go for a similar style. I realize Murkrat isn't the first band to use such an approach to female vocals, but I think it's one of the best yet, and it might catch on!

Murkrat's awesome, whose vocalist is also from Slow Death, an excellent death doom band of duel vocals (guttural male and clean female vocals).
When you say, isn't the first band to utilise such female vocals, I'm reminded of Dana Duffy of Mythic/Demonic Christ! Killer harsh vocals.

Well, there's Satan's Host's 2011 release, By the Hands of the Devil. It's fairly notorious as far as underground releases go, and it's the only example I know of which combines traditional heavy/power metal sensibilities with extreme metal elements in a very balanced a way. That might inspire other bands to do the same, something I hope for, as that album is terrific and I wouldn't mind more outfits playing that style

I find Desultor's debut release, "Masters of Hate" highly potential.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3JRdDRyehQ

Vader's "Welcome to the Morbid Reich" will one day be revered next to albums like "Altars of Madness" or "Left Hand Path". At least, I hope so. It was an extremely awesome album...easily one of the best the band has ever done.

And for new bands, the album "Crimen Laesae something something something" by Portrait is easily the greatest album I have heard from the current traditional metal scene. I can't believe how fucking awesome that singer's voice is...and the riffs...it's easily the "Don't Break the Oath" of this decade.

I believe a lot of Deathspell Omega's discography post-2010 will make huge impacts on metal--Paracletus in particular. I think Paracletus will be a source of inspiration and a "measuring stick" for black and death metal experimentation for years to come--a singularity in an expanding world of avant-garde and "post-" metal(s).

I think only albums that innovate will impact the future of metal. Established genres have their classics already. That's why I think Vader's WTTMR will not really impact metal as Paracletus will. I believe that Paracletus to future BM will be as Suffocation to modern tech/death.

On a related note, I wonder what we'll call OSDM revival in a decade or two. How much longer can we keep calling it that? If new bands play DM in the style of the 90s, doesn't that technically still classify it as regular OSDM? I'm sure we don't call 90's DM bands that are still around and writing music OSDM revival?

I hope newer BM doesn't take Paracletus too seriously. Just look at all the hideous clones Suffo unintentionally spawned, there's so much horrid stuff that it hurts!

OSDM is early nineties, it will always be and has become more of a style rather than an expression. So in 20 years time OSDM will still be the same thing it is now and the recent bands will be the "second wave/revival of OSDM", and then we'll have a third wave and so on if the world doesn't end before that.

A couple of albums I'd see as possibly influential to the future generations are Oranssi Pazuzu and Hail Spirit Noir's debut albums. Those mixes of 70s prog/psychedelia with more recent black metal make up for really original compositions that stand as innovational and fresh. More future bands could look at those albums and see that sometimes a step back is two steps forward!

Same. BM doesn't need any more "hurr dissonance" bands.

I can see The Mung adopting a following if they get big enough. They play a really odd mix of slam death, goregrind, and Pantera-style groovage that is basically just an untapped goldmine at this stage. I wouldn't be surprised if more bands begin to pick up on it.

Gotta agree with this. There's already 100s of bands sprouting up using the framework they've created. I also think Njiqahdda's "The Path..." will be highly regarded as one of the pinnacles of technical/progressive black metal along with DSO. Twilight's "Monument to Time End" has a chance of being a pretty impactful album, though I suspect it's follow up will be the one to watch.

I'm 50/50 on Blut Aus Nord's 777 trilogy. I think they've released their biggest albums pre-2010 but I suspect the Desanctification (though not my favorite) might be the most inspirational of the three.

But what decides the ending of the second wave and dawn of a third wave? I'd like to think its when the subgenre hits another stylistic development, in which its core is undeniably OSDM but its sound has progressed (like proto to second wave BM). Modern OSDM revival bands all seem to have a darker twist to their themes and sound than their founding fathers, and that is the main distinction I personally draw between the two (other than time period of course).

Well, albums that I should think impact the future of metal and albums that will are two different things. Animals as Leaders and Periphery and that whole movement, of course, is the most obvious, and will probably have the largest impact. And as much as I love these guys, the whole wank metal + sterile overproduced shit is gonna take off waaayy farther and faster than I have the appetite for. Aside from that, the stoner and desert rock scene is going places. Plus lots of bands in the genre are getting heavier. Just listen to the progression High on Fire has gone through. Their last two albums are going to be looked at as pivotal imo. I think that a lot of beard-induced fuzz and bagnin' riff fests are in our future. Lots of progressive heavy rock bands in this area too. Kvelertak and Baroness anyone? I also think some bands have made efforts to put more punk in their sound. I love the direction Darkthrone is going in and I hope to hear more badass stuff like it in the future. Circle the wagons ruled.

Finally, there was a really interesting movement with black metal going on before the 2010's started. Some people were calling it "shoegaze" black metal but there were a lot of black metal bands influenced by rock and rock bands influence by metal doing some great stuff. Altar of Plagues, Fen, Krallice, Klabautamann, Valborg, Nachtmystium, maybe even Enslaved, <code>, Mount Eerie, Liturgy, etc... I think that the uber-atmospheric trend has slipped though dude to everyones desire to become the next shred god with that whole scene on the rise so quickly. Although if anyone can rec me some notable releases in this area within the last two years I would appreciate it.

/lame analyses

Its possible that some other bands will be influenced by the massive pop sound of Epicloud. I haven't really heard much like it, and it seems like it could open a path for some other metal bands to start adding in elements of its sound.

If you take a look at the evolution of genres you notice a cyclic pattern through time where things are repeated after a while, just adapting to the current time's standards. That's what retro-thrash and OSDM revival are, the cycle beginning again. When it gets choked due to an overabundance of bands/albums and a new (old) trend hits the table time will come to move forward, which many times is actually moving backwards. I hope I'm making sense.

Metal tends to be stylistically cyclical, give it 20 years time and OSDM will be "the thing" again.

I actually made a small mistake earlier because Oranssi Pazuzu's debut is from 2009. My point remains however.

With Nightwish's new album having a lot of folk-y elements (like it or not, they're pretty damn influential), as well as folk becoming a more and more popular subgenre, you can expect it to be the flavor of the month in upcoming years.

I also wouldn't be surprised if, like Xlxlx said, more bands emulated Satan's Host's style of extreme metal atmosphere with traditional metal vocals. I would not be surprised, nor would I be disappointed.

Also, I would be so happy if we got more death/doom like Murkrat and The Slow Death. That would be fucking amazing.

Love them or not, with releases like Lawless Darkness, Watain have definitely had an effect on black-metal. Whether the effect is the one which they were actually aiming for remains to be seen. The more serious, austere and pretentious they become, the more fun their music sounds.

A Forest of Stars are a band I can see having a massive influence, and really rising to the top. Their latest album is very inspired and unique, and I can see it being heralded as a cult-classic.

This is quite true, especially in the short term. The trend movements, such as metalcore, djent, hipster BM, etc. usually make a sudden but brief impact, creating an equally sudden but enduring reaction from the trend-averse metal community in general, which ultimately renders those movements innocuous as far as leaving a lasting impression on 'metal'.
The impact and resulting influence left by the progenitors of said movements, ie. At the Gates, Meshuggah, Agalloch, respectively, will inevitably carry on in some form or another.

That said, here are a few artists and albums that I would not mind seeing future bands take a few cues from:

Ihsahn - From Anthems... and onward, Emperor was always a step ahead of the BM game as far as I'm concerned, but he's really been taking his songwriting to the next level on his past three albums. Nobody writes such jagged yet melodic solos, and Eremita and After have been two of the most seamless examples of how genre marriages can work. Black, doom, and prog metal have never sounded so happy together.

Triptykon/Celtic Frost - Admittedly these bands are tough acts to even dare to try to imitate, but I'm surprised that no one has taken a shot at it yet. Two records that are of a kind, that stand completely unique from everything else that's out there. Monotheist and Triptykon's album (whose title I cannot spell), might have changed the face of metal, were there any bands talented enough to follow up on what they started.

Disillusion - A lesser known, lesser appreciated choice. Their first album, Back To Times of Splendor, combined everything good about melodic death, gothic doom, the heavier side of folky prog, and the darker side of power metal, and the result was a masterpiece. For their second album, Gloria, they scratched everything but the theatrics, went back to the drawing board, and came back with a genre-defining work of cinematic industrial prog metal. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it's worth a listen.

There are more, but I'm outta time here.

I should note that AEO was released in 2010, not last year. However, I'd consider it easily the best album of the decade so far.

The one I'd me most excited for is the aforementioned Satan's Host / Desultor style of extreme metal with trad metal vocals. It's a simple mixture that really hasn't been utilized much.

While I don't think too many people will latch on to the idea (since nobody can do it better), I think what Sigh did on In Somniphobia will be looked back on as a genuine classic, and viewed as their Painkiller, so to speak. A hugely popular, and arguably their best album released very late in their career. It's probably the purest and most well done mixture of metal and jazz that I've ever heard.

My bad! Appreciate the correction.
Notice how the topic is heading to a direction of metal with a different take from the norm.
If there's one I'm looking to hear, is the continuation of death metal with symphonic elements. Tiamat were perhaps one of the first to innovate such, Fleshgod Apocalypse put it on the map.

And then there's also Septicflesh. Hiring an entire orchestral for their entire album, in which bands like Dimmu Borgir, Nightwish are heading to as well.

I think Gojira's new album L'Enfant Sauvage will probably be a huge influence in many future bands and will probably also be held in high regard. I personally don't care much for either Gojira or L'Enfant Sauvage, but everyone seems to think it's the shit

I tend to agree with those pointing at DSO and Blut aus Nord as being the bands that will be seen as most influential to the next ten years of the genre of extreme metal. You can make the very sound argument that what they're doing is essentially a rehash of what Enslaved, Emperor, Knjaz Varggoth, and others have already done, and I wouldn't argue with you, but that sort of activity seems to be what much of the new young metal bands that are going to try to produce really original, different sounding music will be using as inspiration.

There was a brief mention of the OSDM revival in this thread and it made me think, maybe Encoffination's unique style of using texture instead of riffs to create atmosphere may inspire future bands. I could see it happening.

on a broader note, I think the whole folk metal craze is about to die out by the end of the decade, it seems like alot of the bands that started the genre are starting to fizzle out (Korpiklaani, Ensiferum, Turisas), what that'll be replaced with (if it even gets "replaced" at all) is up to debate, but i'd love to hear more stuff like Kartikeya in the near future. It's hard telling what bands specifically may have a impact on metal directly but I'd bet we'll be hearing some Fleshgod clones in the near future (hopefully with less symphonic garbage and more blasting, Hour of Penance-y death metal).

I bought that record owing to the hype, and I really don't hear it. It's solid death metal, I would even say above average for the style, but it still doesn't excite me to the extent of Majesty and Decay or The God That Never Was, for example.

I predict that every album mentioned thus far will be entirely forgotten in the near future.

Oh you...

Agreed. For being such a supposedly "grim" record, Lawless Darkness is a surprisingly catchy album. Tracks like "Malfeitor" "Reaping Death" and "Waters of Ain" are constantly stuck in my head. "Reaping Death" has some of the catchiest choruses in any black metal track. Fun stuff--"orthodox" black metal mixed with traditional heavy metal or NWOBHM riffage? Something like that.

I don't know what will impact the future of metal as I don't have a crystal ball, but here are some releases I like.

Disma-Towards The Megalith
Vomitor-Devil's Poison

Other newer bands I find to be relevant

Ares Kingdom
Blasphemic Cruelty (the best current band in FL IMO)
Blasphemophagher
Bestial Raids
Cultes Des Ghoules
Nocturnal Vomit
Embrace Of Thorns
Negative Plane (though I thought their newest one was shitty)
Funebrarum
Repugnant
Dead Congregation
Terrorama
Morbid Insulter
Proclamation
Teitanblood
Necros Christos
Cemetery Urn

I hope Repugnant, Teitanblood and Dead Congregation get more influence. Teitanblood and Dead Congregation correctly capture what incantation worship bands like father befouled try to emulate and end up sounding completely filthy and evil in the process while still having actual riffs. Repugnant is similar but much thrashier. I'll also throw in Witchrist for similar stuff.



If by folk metal you mean more of the meadswilling party metal, than possibly yes. Out of those 3, the only one I follow at all is Ensiferum, and am dreading listening to their newest; and even their best stuff can't stand up to the top artists in the genre. The folk/viking genre as a whole I think is far from over, and I think we might see a shift to the viking/black side of the paradigm. In any case Primordial has been on an unbroken roll of awesome stuff, Cnthonic's takasago army is in constant rotation for me, Hiedevolk's batavi is both a shift to a grimmer atmosphere and an LP surpassing Oud it Goude (spelling?), manegarm is due for a new album soon, and though Moonsorrow's newest wasn't the greatest I don't see them producing another mediocre album in the near future.

Yeah, the Finntroll/Korpiklaani/Eluveitie brand of gimmicky folk is probably on its way out, which is something I don't mind at all. I don't think that we'll ever see folk metal disappear, though, as the frequent overlap with black has all but ensured its continued existence.

As for other stuff, retro-thrash is more or less dead at this point; there are very few new acts, and the existing ones have either found a somewhat less formulaic sound or stayed with something akin to their original sound and stagnated. I don't mind this at all; if there were more acts like Vektor or Mantic Ritual, I would have been cool with it. Unfortunately, most of them were bottom-of-the-barrel Exodus/Slayer/Anthrax/Nuclear Assault clones who were literally indistinguishable from one another in just about every possible way.

I very much like and support these bands, but they aren't exactly big players in the future of metal. I strongly believe that Dead Congregation is (if they decide to come up with some new material that is), more so than Repugnant or Teitanblood. Epitome of Darkness didn't shake my world like Graves of the Archangels did.

I have the same opinion on her vocals and mentioned that in my review of the one Murkrat album I heard. Great opportunity for experimentation in that style.

I wonder how bands can have a big impact on certain traditional metal styles like black metal. I see Cultes des Ghoules "Spectres over Transylvannia" as a future landmark in black metal, but whether it will really have an impact on the future of black metal, I don't know. It will hopefully be remembered as a crowning achievement, but it's nothing that's going to revolutionize the genre in any way.

This is true for pretty much all metal music right now. Recent highly praised albums may be considered classics of this decade in the future, but I feel like they'll never really revolutionize metal the way 80s to 90s stuff did. Metal as we know it was still young in the 80s and early 90s. The only revolutionizing that's going to go on is when bands create metal as we don't know it (most notably, deathcore a couple of years ago).

This is definitely the one I'll be watching for in the next few years. I haven't gotten into Satan's Host yet but I enjoyed the tracks I listened to. I stayed away from Desultor for a while because I was worried I'd like them for about a week, but that album is really, really good.

This is basically just 'list albums you really really like'...literally there is no way to quantify it. I guess it could be kind of fun to talk about but again, it's a really, really broad and vague speculation. I'd say the last Edguy album had the best hooks of their career and enough variety to become a signature album of their discography and of that sort of metal, but I dunno, saying that or anything else will impact the future of metal just seems kind of far-reaching without much grounds. It's too early to tell if we're only talking about the last two and a half years of metal.

Plus music is so broad and widespread now that the whole game is changing - classics may be defined in an entirely different manner than they were in the past. It's not exactly like the 70s and 80s where albums from the weirder and more out there genres got widespread popularity and became rock radio staples. It's too hard to tell really.

That Murkrat band sounds intriguing though. I'll check em out.

i'd say kvelertak's debut will be one of those albums - they've got a very fresh and fun style that will definitely spawn a lot of imitators

The idea of new bands playing Old School Death Metal, thus OSDM revival is something positive.
Bands like Blaspherian, Disma, Funebrarum could just be this generation of Morbid Angel, Immolation, Incantation