It’s the new year. People are trying hard to keep up their resolutions, others have already tossed in the towel. For those of you whose New Year’s Resolution is to check out all the best metal releases of 2010, well, I’m here to help. Here’s a look at some of the bigger and more anticipated releases coming out early 2010:
Check out the upcoming albums after the jump…
Twenty years is a long time. Two whole decades. Many things can change in that amount of time, but few styles of music went through as many changes as metal.
"The flute is a very heavy, metal instrument." - Ian Anderson
1989 was the tipping point that steered metal into the state we know it now. The thankful decline of the hair metal plague was in full-effect, death metal was on the rise and thrash metal was still going strong. This was the year of the infamous Jethro Tull upset over Metallica for the “Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental” in the first ever Heavy Metal Grammy (much to the dismay of the metal community and rightfully so—Jethro Tull is not even close to metal). Tipper Gore and her PMRC was bringing the hammer down on metal with their censorship threats, and Guns N’ Roses had taken over the mainstream metal territory. Metal was under fire from all angles. For the greater good of metal, however, all of these things were ultimately great. The core die hard metal community decided they had enough, and were going to take a stand by pushing metal styles to the extreme.
Prog-metal greats, Dream Theater
Dream Theater, Stratovarius and Obituary are the most notable bands who released debut albums in 1989, all of which saw moderate success, and who later came to shape their genres for the next two decades. 1989 also saw the formation of many new bands, such as Dark Tranquillity and Cannibal Corpse, who helped shape the metal world over the last twenty years. Even with the huge successes these bands saw in the 90’s, they were still not able to overcome the hip hop and grunge onslaught throughout the decade and break into the mainstream — unless you were Anthrax and did a collaboration with Public Enemy (which ultimately led to the “rap metal” fiasco of the late 90’s). I’m not talking about the popular bastardized offshoots of metal (e.g. Limp Bizkit, Nine Inch Nails, Korn, Disturbed, Deftones, etc.) that developed in the 90’s. I’m talking the “real” metal of the 90’s—Blind Guardian, At The Gates, In Flames, Symphony X, Suffocation—none of these bands got as much mainstream exposure in the 90’s as they deserved. Instead, the less abrasive grunge style took over. The mainstream was tired of the aggression-fueled style that metal brought and grunge stepped up to the plate, switching the anger for angst which hit home for the flannel-clad teenagers of the 90s.
George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher, of Cannibal Corpse
Ultimately, metal being a subterranean music style throughout the 90’s was for the betterment of all metal genres. Everyone saw what happened in the 80’s when metal broke into the mainstream (yes, hair metal). The same thing happens to most genres of music—evolution happens when the genre is not in the spotlight (which means grunge is directly responsible for the black sheep that is Nickleback). Without the 90’s era of metal, we could still have things like the horrid pop-punk and boy bands of the early 2000’s (we can actually thank hip hop for helping to rid of that nuisance). Slowly but surely, metal is making its way back into the mainstream. There are 14 metal albums in the Billboard Top 200 as I write this, one of which debuted at #6— Black Clouds & Silver Linings by our progressive pals Dream Theater. Metal is stronger than ever, and looks as though it is still on the rise. Lookout, mainstream media, we are storming your beaches, and about to take over your cities. Yes, those ones that were built on rock and roll.
One Without, an OurStage act from Sweden and recent addition to Germany’s Lifeforce Records, is a band on the edge of stardom. A bit of a surprise coming from the heart of Gothenburg, known for acts such as In Flames, At the Gates and Dark Tranquillity, the band has an undeniably pop-hook driven sound that still manages to be completely metal. Listeners might compare One Without to some of the other female-fronted metal bands out there, notably Lacuna Coil and Within Temptation, but the band has found their own little niche (and as they say, “please don’t” compare them). With a new album coming out in September, One Without could be the next female-fronted band in the metal spotlight.
MTD: Your sound is a bit different from that of the more well-known bands of Gothenburg (the forefathers of Melodic Death Metal). Is this an indication of the next trend of music in Gothenburg?
OW: Well, you never know! It could become a trend after our breakthrough! But we don’t think so, people are pretty stuck in the traditional “Gothenburg Metal Sound” over here, and we can honestly say that we are the only band with this sound, at least that we know of!
MTD: Whom would you say you have drawn the most influences from?
OW: We can’t really pin-point any special bands. We all listen to so much music in so many different genres, so it comes down to hundreds of bands. We have never strived towards sounding like any other band, we just play what we like. Everyone in the band is involved in the making of songs, and that’s probably why we get the sound we have. It doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of band working like that, which is a shame in our opinion.
MTD: I see that you are releasing an album in the fall (your debut, right?). Can you give us some cool insight on the new album?
OW: The most important part for us in the making of the album, was that we didn’t want to have any songs that we weren’t 100% satisfied with. We didn’t want to have 4-5 songs that were hits and that the rest of the songs would be standard songs just to fill out the album. So you can expect an album filled with hits! Other than that we have worked with some great people in making the album, which resulted in a very explosive, dark and emotional sound in the production.
MTD: If you could play one show with any band, who would you choose?
OW: Killswitch Engage, they seem like a nice bunch, and besides from that most of us love their work, or possibly Katatonia, a great Swedish metal band.
MTD: Are you going to be touring the US any time in the near future?
OW: We have been contacted by some tour bookers and clubs that want us to come over and work with them, but at the moment we haven’t started working with anyone concerning that. But of course we will come over and play for you guys in the near future, we just can’t say when right now!
MTD: If you could have any band cover one of your songs, who would perform it (and what song would it be)?
OW: Jose Gonzales would have been an interesting candidate, and Your Game would be the song of choice.
MTD: What is the weirdest fan interaction you have ever had?
OW: Some years back we played a gig at a small club in Gothenburg, I mean REALLY small, and back then we had not started promoting ourselves in the manner we do today, so we were a pretty unknown band. After the show two guys came up and talked to us, and they told us that they had come all the way from Belgium just to see us that night, and that they were huge fans. That felt pretty surreal. [laughs]
MTD: Describe your band in exactly 8 words.
OW: Emotional, dark, hopeful, explosive, heavy, beautiful, unexpected, unique.
MTD: What would you say if someone wanted to compare you to, say, Lacuna Coil or Within Temptation?
OW: Please don’t.
MTD: Any fun songs you cover live? Any you would want to cover live?
OW: We actually play a song called “Om Du Var Här” By Kent, a big Swedish pop/rock act that we all like very much, and people seem to enjoy our metal version of it!
MTD: How did you come to get signed by Lifeforce? Any cool story here?
OW: It actually wasn’t anything special to it, we sent them our album and they liked what they heard, so we started negotiating! Wish we could have given you a great, sick story, but that’s how it went!
MTD: Who is your “best friend band” at Lifeforce so far?
OW: Nightrage! We have been hanging a bit with Marios in the band, and he has really showed us what a great person he is. Cheers man!
