THE COVER/TRIBUTE BANDS AND THE FUTURE OF HEAVY METAL

Heavy metal began as a genre with Black Sabbath back in 1970 (although
this could be argued, but we will keep it as a token) fifty-two years ago.
The giants of that time are now old men more than seventy (Ozzy and
Iommi are seventy-four years old!) and many others are near that age,
although many have died like Dio, Lemmy is among the most well-known.
I must define what I call classic heavy metal bands before I continue. For
me, they are the pioneers that formed most of the subgenres and they were
formed in the 70s and 80s, bands like (besides Black Sabbath), Iron
Maiden, ACDC, Manowar, Slayer, Accept, Judas Priest, Metallica,
Motorhead and of course Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin although the list
can be ten times bigger, according to one’s taste!

So, the classic heavy metal bands are nearing their end of performance
days, although they have reached the end of their songwriting days
years before… Of course, one could argue that there are newer bands
that were formed in the 90s and they are already been around for thirty
years or something, and are old enough and maybe classic enough to continue the
genre but I feel that they lack in essence and creation to be considered
as classic. Maybe I am just getting older and I can’t stand newer bands
and I feel attached to the bands I grew up with and their music is keener
in my ears.
Nonetheless, I feel that no matter how long the old bands can carry on,
their days are numbered and except for a few live concerts to relive our
joyful youths they cannot give anything more to us (which is not bad at all as we have countless old albums to hear for eternity!).
Maybe I am not alone in these thoughts because in the past decade (or
so, I am not an expert) there is a rise in cover bands that manage to give
the feeling of the good old bands offering many hours of excellent live
performances!
In this concept, I began to think of metal as a musical movement and that
originality is not so much coveted after all because heavy metal is a
simple music with three instruments and a voice and that could be
played in a finite combination of notes and riffs that has already been played
and all the new bands are only doing is just rearranging the old tunes.

So, in my mind came a vision that like classical music that grew and
flourished by a few music geniuses and the rest either performed the
same compositions over and over again, or tried different paths of the
same road so heavy metal must do in order to be reborn again.
Instead of trying to create something original why not admit that you
belong to a certain “school” and try to adapt older songs to your own
experiences and preferences. So instead of doing covers of the songs of
the band that you love, why not write a song that will greatly resemble
your favourite band but has also your own touch. Maybe you could write
a song that you wished your favourite would have written!

The movement of New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal showed that
younger bands whose members were not even born in the 80s or even
90s, but grew up listening to old-school music and they wanted to
imitate that sound and feeling, could make great music as we can check here.
I believe that in this way going back to the great bands that each one
loves and performing songs that might have been written by that band
by putting his own personal touch we can bring back the “good old
days.”
After all heavy metal is a people’s music, unsophisticated and simple,
and what we want is to be happy and have a nice time either in a live or
in our house/car listening to the music we love.
So, it is not a sin making music that feels and sounds like what we heard
as teenagers and feeling good and loving it.
Personally, I am a huge Manowar fun, I love the band and I have been
following them for more than thirty years, buying their albums going to
their concerts etc.
No matter how much I love them I must admit that their last albums,
mainly gods of war and lord of steel, feel a bit indifferent and besides a
few mediocre songs the rest I cannot hear them with pleasure. The same
is true with Manilla Road (a huge fun) but most of the albums after
courts of chaos have no appeal to me. The list can go on with Candlemass
(can’t hear anything after chapter six), Savatage, and Bathory. Warlord could
fall in this category as their last album (with a gap of almost thirty years from the last one) has many good elements although it could be compared to their two legendary albums.
Cirith Ungol is an exception to the rule (as in most things!) as despite
their hiatus for years their last album had many elements of the first
four classic albums and can be heard without the time gap being evident
(much).
I believe that no matter how technical or speedy a guitarist is, how fast a
drummer is, or how high or powerful a singer’s voice is, no matter how
modern the equipment are, if there is no feeling in the lyrics and music
then we have a nice orchestration but not a song that can live and be
heard and be sung forever. The quest to achieve originality and technicality
has no end but since heavy metal is meant to be enjoyed I would rather
prefer good old songs over and over again to new songs with no
appeal.
It is my conclusion therefore that heavy metal must look back to its
roots, the musician to search for songs that will speak to the heart of
their funs without the stress to produce new things just for the sake of
modernity. Especially new bands must abolish the taboo of “copying”
older bands but by playing over old tunes with new lyrics and
personalised themes maybe we can find back the good old metal we all
loved.
The above is my personal opinion which should be seen under the light
that I am no musician just an old fan who wants to enjoy himself with
the music he grew up with as a teenager and have never “matured” enough to
abandon…