Today metal has taken on new attributes, moving from the traditional guitar, bass, drum, singer combo to include new instruments and new sounds. Turntables, keyboards, sample machines, kazoos, tribal instruments, and even symphonies are making appearances in today's metal. It's almost as if anything that can make a sound can be featured on some band's album. So, why is metal so flexible now? Why is it that we can now enjoy bands like Candiria and Puya using jazz to support their riffs? Why is it that we can now listen to Cryptopsy's use of an aboriginal instrument in the middle of their chaotic death metal?

So music is getting heavier...is it necessarily a good thing?

At the same time the grunge movement was killing the popular Arena (Cock) Rock scene and bringing the common man into the spotlight. David Lee Roth and Bret Michaels were replaced by Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder, musical everymen in flannel and torn jeans. As Dave Mustaine had recently said, all the heroes were killed when the eventual end of the original Guns & Roses line-up collapsed under the weight of Axel Rose.

As grunge died down in the middle of the decade, and the underground movement of metal (with possibly the only exception of Pantera,) turned into a haven of Death and Black Metal (I'm not complaining or anything, but I digress) bands like The Deftones (Adrenaline,'95),and Korn (s/t,'94) began to emerge from California finding a middle ground between t

Some topics in this essay:
, Mode's Cure's, Candiria Puya, Soon Slayer, Rage Machine, Axel Rose, Cradle Filth, Adrenaline'95and Korn, Guitar World, Skinny Puppy, metal metal, metal it's, heavier bands, death metal, guitar world,