It all began with those famous chords—the intro to Black Sabbath's 1970 Black Sabbath. Sabbath perfected what many artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and even bands such as The Beatles had begun to do. Black Sabbath had found the right song structure, lyrical content, and distortion to create the heaviest sound they could, forming the heavy metal genre. With their first four albums, they laid the groundwork for many different versions of metal, from heavy metal to doom or stoner metal, and even thrash metal. Because of their work, the genre of heavy metal kept changing, adapting, and in some cases improving, but most importantly growing. Different artists and fans began to derive music from different aspects of their lives, using music to channel their inner thoughts and feelings. This was even used politically; for example, the Black Sabbath released an anti-Vietnam War song entitled War Pigs in their second album. Metal. to some, was about fighting the norms of society and finding a community to fit in with if you had no one to call your own, especially in the 80’s when thrash metal became the predominant form of metal. This is because thrash was used by people to connect their own complicated lives to music. Tracks such as Fade to Black by Metallica or In My Darkest Hour by Megadeth were cathartic for those in times of sadness and pain. To witness the height of influence metal had in the world, one only needs to look at the Monsters of Rock show in Moscow right before the fall of the Soviet Union, with an attendance of 1.6 million to witness metal legends Metallica and Pantera, along with others. This size of popularity continued with a subgenre of nu-metal dominating the 90’s with bands such as Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Korn, and Slipknot.
However, after this pinnacle, there began a slight decline. Now these acts remained large, but new metal acts seemed to not receive the same amount of attention as their predecessors. With bands such as Mastodon and GOJIRA receiving their praises only from those who were already in the metal community, very few outside of the community developed a passion for metal between the 2000s and 2010s. Even legacy acts began to suffer in terms of where and how often they were playing. But within the last 5-8 years, metal seems to be reemerging. As we look to the present, what bands and reasons are contributing to this?
I believe there are three primary reasons for this seemingly random popularity spike. The first, which has been developing for many years, is a more “pop” approach in the way metal artists are marketing themselves. Mainstream metal is something that metal elitists, or those who feel that the genre is for a select few who “truly understand the point of metal,” are not fond of, but the music they seem to crucify is still metal nonetheless. Some fans may be happy their favorite artists are finally getting the recognition they deserve but may be mad that ticket prices could be higher or feel new metal fans do not “understand” or “respect” the music. People find this music for a reason, however; they enjoy it and connect with it, and that should be respected. In terms of “mainstream” metal, examples of bands that are the kings of this form of music are Ghost and Sleep Token. Both of these bands have pop elements while maintaining the downtuning (lowering the notes of the guitar to achieve a deeper sound), distortion (adding layers of different effects to give the guitar a thicker tone), and lyrics that are most generally associated with metal music. Ghost is the stronger of the two, which can be attributed to their almost ABBA-reminiscent earworms—a characteristic that Sleep Token has as well but not to the same degree. The pop infusion also makes songs TikTok and social media ready, as we saw with Ghost’s Mary On A Cross and its massive success on TikTok.
This segways into the second way metal has returned to the mainstream, which is the inverse of the first: the use of it in pop culture. The biggest example of this was the use of Master of Puppets by Metallica in season 4 of Stranger Things. This positioned Metallica to get more young listeners interested in their music. From Stranger Things, Metallica was able to jump into different forms of media, the next big one being the popular video game, Fortnite. The newest example was GOJIRA’s opening for the Paris 2024 Olympics. This opening performance helped popularize their music, doubling their streams. What change did the French band enact to accomplish this? Nothing themselves; their sound remained true to who they are, but they used a mainstream “access-port.” People who may have never heard of GOJIRA otherwise were able to experience their sound, bringing a band that has been around since the late 90s and early 2000s to the limelight of the world music stage, at least within the metal sphere. With this newfound recognition of both legacy acts and new bands, metal has seen a new tick in popularity from people who have not been previously involved in the metal community. More people have discovered the genre, and this popularity surge should be embraced by older fans. They should help new fans discover more artists like the ones they discovered the genre with, find songs by those same artists they would have never found otherwise, and be accepted within the metal community.
The final reason for this reemergence of metal music is the return of legends that attract many fans who may not have listened to metal since a band’s breakup. An example of this can be seen specifically with the Texas native band Pantera. After this band broke up, the two founding brothers, Dimebag Darrel and Vinnie Paul, moved to form a new band, but sadly, Darrel was killed by an obsessed fan, and Paul died years later from cardiomyopathy. When Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown reformed the band with Zakk Wylde and Charlie Bentante, who were both friends of the brothers, fans were rightfully angry and confused as to how they reunited a band without its founding members. However, they decided to perform a tribute act, which seemed to placate and then excite die-hard fans of the band. This facilitated the return of people who may have stepped away from the metal scene forever without Pantera and many other bands like them. Overall, metal seems to be on the rise again, with more legacy acts beginning to play larger venues that were not available to them previously. Bands that used to play in 2,000-person venues are now starting to play in 5,000-person to 10,000-person arenas. This rise brings both happiness and anger from the metal community, some angry that “posers” are now “invading” their way of life, and others that are just happy to have more people to share the music with. Ultimately, I see this as a positive, and I, while known for being elitist in the past, am excited to welcome people into the metal family with open arms. The metal community is full of diverse and interesting people, and it is a place that almost anyone can call their home. A lot of people find solace in this genre, and I feel that if others do too, no matter what type of metal they enjoy, they should be accepted without hesitation.