Metal and hard rock have been adapting and changing over the years. In my time, I was probably one of the first to be a Nirvana fan. Nirvana is one of the first to start the Seattle Grunge movement, when Nirvana was probably closer to being a punk rock band. However, Grunge was not totally punk rock because of bands like Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden (r.i.p. Chris Cornell). Ten, Pearl Jam's legendary 1st record, is about the furthest from punk rock possible. And likewise, Soundgarden was never a punk band either, but in this case they are rather Alternative Metal. Next, people stopped talking grunge. Metal went underground, but there were several Alternative Metal bands at this time; Rollins Band, Primus, Tool were among those better known. Alternative metal has some of my most favorite metal, and as metal was creeping out of nonexistence Metallica even joined the crowd with well written songs like Hero of the Day, which I have found to be among the most frustrating songs to cover. Also, I have to mention for people who are too metal for their own good: Death metal never changed a single note for the sake of popularity, except maybe Amorphis, and Cradle of Filth. But, I'm no longer a death metal fan. I don't like to be screamed at, and frankly it is just too punishing for my soul, but it was there for me during hard times and going to death metal shows was what many get from listening to the blues, which is the true root of metal. It, all blues combined to the heart of Black Sabbath where Ozzy essentially created metal genres with single songs. In fact, I think Nu Metal was essentially thought to have earned its name, but they proved themselves otherwise. The initial rejection of Nu Metal came because the inventor of death metal, Chuck Schuldiner, of the band Death who after inventing death metal worked on inventing critically acclaimed progressive death metal, including bands like Testament, Morbid Angel, and King Diamond (progressive dark metal) saw that musically these bands like Seether, Staind, Deftones and Limp Bizkit were inferior, and constructed by the record industry for profit only with no soul. However, I think we can say this inferior title though earned, might be made a mockery of, and I, myself too, fell for it, because I think the idea progressive metal is really a step away from the true roots of metal, like Black Sabbath, the Misfits, and Slayer, where Slayer is essentially like punk rock gone wild, rather than punk rock gone complex. There is another movement of metal that is happening now before our eyes and I think many are to scared of being thought anything but politically correct to admit. The movement is Female Led Metal/Hard Rock, and I think it has been mainly inspired Evanescence, but there may be others like Lita Ford, and Jennifer Batten. I think that Evanescence really was the one that paved the way. When people heard Evanescence, women suddenly realized, “I can do this to, and not only that but that they can try it is” I like Female Led because I prefer female singers. Whatever the case, female led metal used to be nonexistent, and now many female led bands are crawling to popularity. Some of the better female led bands are Nightwish, Within Temptation, and Epica.
