Metal Reviews

Sure the 1980's and early 1990's were an awesome time for metal with tons of innovation and tons of classics.

But the period 1995-2000 was for me personally an awesome one. I was 15-20 y.o. back then.

I loved the sound back then - it was a lot more organic and less clicky. I suppose post-2000 the digital revolution really took over.

Bands that were rocking my world back in these days:

At The Gates (well 1995 for Slaughter of the Soul)
Cradle of Filth
Children of Bodom
Dark Tranquillity
Death
Dimmu Borgir
Edge of Sanity
In Flames
Iced Earth
Nevermore
The Haunted

There was some descent Groove Metal as well - Pantera and Machine Head come to mind.

Even obscure stuff ala Ebony Tears, Theatre of Tragedy or Witchery was a blast back then though many of these haven't lasted the test of time.

Interestingly most of the above bands still exist but most of them are pale shadows of what they were in the mid-late 1990's.


Funnily enough at the time a lot of people thought metal was dead cause you had all the Nu-metal shit happening. But a look at the underground and there was some excellent stuff out there.

I like the era for none of the melodeath you just listed. Arcturus, Borknagar, Emperor, etc. etc., Norwegian black metal was starting to really break ground in this era.

I sincerely think you find that era particularly great mainly because you were 15-20 at the time. I was 13-18 myself, and yes, it was great (for the bands you and Karma mentioned, and many other as well). But today I don't find it greater than the 80's or the early 90's.

edit : oh wait, it's not what you actually said. Forget what I said.

I was 12-17 in those days. That was the time when I really got into metal. The scenes of melodic death, norwegian black and euro power metal were at its peak. Good times indeed my friends.

Metal (and music) is always evolving, and sadly for me, the evolution is moving metal away from this subgenres. It's incredibly hard to find good power metal and melodeath nowadays, perhaps it's all been done already...

I was 7-12 in those days and don't really like much of the metal from them except Neurosis. Neurosis were kicking ass. And I listened to Devin Townsend's Ocean Machine today. That's a good one too. Can't stand power metal or black metal, and not really a fan of melodeath these days so there wasn't much there for me. Been meaning to explore the sludge/stoner type metal of that time but haven't gotten around to hearing much yet.

1995-2000
Crap period for metal.

He speaks! Case closed.


That period was very good for the reasons Karma and Alex listed. Even the melodeath wasn't all bad.

Go back to the 70's you old fart!

Yay! The seventies are teh best!
But, seriously, the best times for metal were 1980-1985.

The best time for metal is when you're in high school. No responsibilities, a whole world of metal to discover, drugs, mosh pits, only metal friends...

Now I don't feel like moshing anymore, and I'm forced to socialize with more people to gain more money.

So it should have been 1987-1992 for me. Yet I'll stick with 1980-85.

Best time for metal is 2001-nowadays because that's when most of my favourite albums came out. Although that's probably because that's when most of the albums I've listened to came out. Whatever.

I didn't get into metal until I was 13 back in 2002. Metal around then was all the metalcore shit coming out pretty much and I wasn't into it so I didn't meet any cool kids into metal.

2003 is when I started to really get into metal. 1995-2000 is a great period of metal history. While the mainstream was trying to get a taste of nu-metal, the underground was laying new foundaion and ground for the next evolution of metal. Melodeath, Symphonic Metal, early Metalcore and Technical Metal are what comes to mind. Without those, the whole decade that was metal after 2000 wouldn't happen. But that decade is starting to fade away. I see that times are changing. There are no bands that can produce anything fresh and new. They are simply rehashing the same thing.

This. I love the 80's but some of the best metal I have ever heard came from 2001-2011.

I like all periods of metal. There is great stuff from the 70s, great stuff from 2011, and everything in between. I'd have a really hard time trying to select a 5 year period as my favorite.

I feel the same way. I'm sort of tired of people complaining about a time frame being the golden years of an specific sort of genre or sub-genre and living in those days and yearning for it, endlessly. There is no doubt that the 1970's were the best days of progressive rock music but there are some good bands releasing some excellent music in the veins of progressive rock with a much more modern twist and altogether their own sound (as it should be). Music has evolved tremendously and it is kind of illogical to say that "this" or "that" period were the golden days and there isn't much good music coming out in the days of our living. There are many people that say the golden days of music has past but there are a lot of good stuff being release... Just differently.

Both those periods are phenomenal and are the most innovative period for the genre.

1985-92 is my personal favourite period.

I think 1995-2000 gets slammed cause of Nu-metal yet even a cursory glance at proper heavy metal reveals some phenomenal stuff.

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh