20 SLAYER BANDS: The Metal Oversaturation Problem

It’s always a good feeling to know that metal bands will continue to emerge and thrive. Really, it is! It’s not just the fresh faces, but fresh sounds! Even fresh merch ideas! Take an artist called Treemen - who years ago gave out ‘tree seeds’ with every EP sold. Can you imagine if you bought it and didn’t know about the seeds thing? And then you just watch them fall out in slow motion like opening a back of chips upside down. Quite a spectacle.

The creativity of smaller bands is unmatched! Whether merch, or music, smaller bands whom I’ve discovered over the years as a music critic have so many ways to stand out and leave an impression on listeners.

… which is what makes this trend problematic.

You see, for every awesome band or artist making ripping and gnarly tunes that are truly theirs, I’ve noticed that there are at least 15 others in the same genre without that creative trait. This is especially true in Thrash Metal. For every Invicta, there are 20 other Slayer knock-offs outta “we’re totally a so-cal thrash band”, Oregon. Do you know how many thrash metal bands I’ve heard who are basically recreating South of Heaven and puting it to print to sell?

… Take whatever number you’re thinking of and double it.

To be fair, it’s not just Thrash with the problem, so put down the pitchforks and head back to the dive bar guys. Every genre has this problem. Thrash metal is arguably the most egregious offenders, but a lot of Death Metal bands are just Cannibal Corpse knock-offs. Lots of metalcore bands are ripping off Killswitch Engage and Spiritbox. Black metal is just a blob of frog screeches for Beelzebub. MDM are file sharing their riffs at this point. Even Symphonic metal bands can’t break out of the “must have an operatic female singer in the front” trend. I guess, if Nightwish, Epica and Evanesence did it, surely it’s the norm?

And don’t think I’m leaving out most ‘grind’ sub-genres for not having this problem. They do, but also; how many variations can you actually get with brown noise set to blast beats and raw animal kingdom b-roll audio?

… That’s not rhetorical, I’m literally asking you.

But okay, maybe you don’t care. Maybe this is the rantings of one man in his mid-20s ranting about wanting things to change. Afterall, if the music kicks ass, what change it? Because of two things: …

Oversaturation of the genre
Economics

Now I’m sure you’re racing for the X button or trying to swipe out of this article as fast as possible, but let me explain what I’m talking about…

You see, albums and music cost money—money to record, market, produce physical copies, but also money to own a copy as the listener. Even in the era of streaming, where the monetary cost may seem negligible, there's still the cost of time. And time, as they say, is money.

So, whenever I’m listening to an album that is falling into this trap, I usually find myself asking, “Why would I want to listen again or buy this album by band X when band Y did this album better two decades ago?”

… It’s not because I’m cheap. It’s because in the current economy, I – as the listener want to get my money’s worth.

Oversaturation poses another issue. If you can’t differentiate yourself from the rest in your genre, you’re going to have a hard time breaking through. Which is the goal is to go somewhere with this, then that’s a big deal. Same deal as the money issue, why bother with a band that is just a watered down version of this other band I heard first? As a listener, I can’t justify that. If enough bands are doing this, then it waters down the worth of the genre as a whole, and blends you in with the crowd of copy-cats.

So what can be done? As a listener, you deserve better and should demand better from your favourite artists, even at the local level. As musicians, trying new things might be your best bet. You can have your main influences, but try listening to more than one band from more than one style. You’d be surprised how much you can innovate if you’re writing thrash metal while listening to jazz and video game OSTs. If that’s not trv kvlt enough, maybe try experimenting with unique theatrics on stage or unique merch offerings? Maybe try writing better lyrics? That last one might not help as much, but if I hear another metalcore band rhyme “Fire” with “Desire”, I’ll shit a brick out a 3rd story window. You’re not the Backstreet Boys, you’re the Sideroad Kids at best.

If all else fails, invest in a lesson course to learn new skills and spark fresh ideas. By incorporating any combination of these strategies, we can inject new life into the metal scene. With any luck, we’ll have more tree seeds in our albums to be excited for.

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