European Heavy Metal Is Dying, American Scene Is Blooming

Am I the only metal music fan who's noticed what seems to be a drastic change within the modern heavy metal scene, particularly within the so called NWoTHM (New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal) movement? Time is seemingly just flying by as we speak. I'm turning 27 in some months from now and it does not feel all that long ago since I was 17.

Let's rewind back to cirka 2007-'09. The whole "retro metal" movement, which we all are very well aquainted with these days, was being bred in the womb of a long-time hatred for the then dominating metalcore scene. From my POV the first old school metal sub-genre that quickly arose was thrash metal. Bands on both sides of the Atlantic were the new saviours of metal. Bands like Evile, Lazarus A.D., Bonded By Blood, to name a few, were all blooming up seemingly out of nowhere only to completely go under the radar a few years later.

In 2010 I personally noted another change within the metal scene. It seemed as if thrash had made a large crack in the metalcore scene, as it was dying in a rapid pace as far as my eyes (and ears) could tell. But it wasn't only the metalcore scene that was now suffering; the thrash revival seemed to have run its course as well. New times were ahead and it was an era of a more slow-to-mid paced style of metal music.

Around 2010 I noticed this explosion in the Swedish metal scene. Suddenly a lot of classic-sounding heavy metal bands popped up everywhere. The most notable one, without a doubt, was the excellent Enforcer who had just dropped their "Diamonds" album that year. I remember being in school and having some computer class. I was listening to Spotify while being bored, just trying to check out some new music. I stumbled upon the cover art and was amazed of its retro design. I quickly pushed play and was completely blown away - it was the best shit I had heard in years.

Enforcer quickly became a well-known name within the sub-genre and gave lots of metal fans hope for the first time in a very, very long time. Other bands such as Steelwing, Katana and In Solitude, only to name a few Swedish bands, followed. Some other bands that had been around for a while got more recognized as well. Some other older bands such as Watain maintained a great relevance as the change happened.

2010-2013 were great years for European heavy metal in my opinion. Lots of bands popped up and a lot of them were pretty damn great as well. The Swedish scene in particular was suddenly a lot more fun, something it hadn't been since the early 90's death metal wave. But as those few years passed by, the scene seemed to become overfed with bands adapting to the retro styles. Bands such as In Solitude and Steelwing were already gone by 2015 and others such as the mighty Enforcer, while still putting out excellent music, just seemed to have had their hype gone quiet.

Meanwhile as the European scene seemed to be dying once more, the American scene has really been stepping up in the past few years. I am the first one to both praise and criticize the American metal scene throughout the past forty years. There are countless of great bands from all American countries, but the US (in particular) has also produced a lot of shitty metal as well as killed scenes (e.g. grunge killed all 80's metal). Where the European scene just seemed to be dying, the American scene all of a sudden started producing a lot of great stuff.

Something I've noticed about the American scene of today is its specific sub-genres. A lot of doom metal, hardcore and old school heavy metal seem to be the largest exports of good music in 2017. While I have a rather hard time thinking of any good European heavy metal in 2016, I can think of a lotta American stuff - Sumerlands, Eternal Champion, Cauldron, Spell, and the list goes on. There's also a strong hardcore-influenced death metal scene going on (sometimes coined "Entombedcore") which I enjoy a lot as well.

Say what you will about American and particularly US metal throughout time. They were largely responsible for hair metal, grunge, metalcore, nu metal - whatever trending metal style you can think of. I'm not necessarily saying that those styles were bad in any way, but they came, conquered, destroyed and ultimately got destroyed by one another. Today, however, the US actually seem to have a lot of diversity rather than just one particular dominating style, and I like that a lot.

European or Swedish pride, whatever, I can be honest and say our scene is (seemingly) dying on the operating table at the moment. The American scene is very healthy and well worth checking out for any metalhead in this day and age.

Some of my personal recs:

Sumerlands (US)
Eternal Champion (US)
Cauldron (Canada)
Spell (Canada)
Satan's Hallow (US)
Magic Circle (US)
Lucifer's Hammer (Chile)
Khemmis (US)
Natur (US)
Skull Fist (Canada)
Resurrection Kings (US)

Recommendation of the year: Sumerlands

So I wanted to do a little bit of a fan promotion right now. There's a relatively new band out there right now called Sumerlands featuring names such as vocalist Phil Swanson (Hour of 13, etc.) and musicion/producer Arthur Rizk (Eternal Champion, War Hungry, Power Trip, etc.). They come from Philly (Philadelphia), Pensylvania and they play some good old school-influenced American heavy metal.

If I were to describe their sound, I'd say they sound a lot like (80's) solo-era Ozzy Osbourne and also post-Ozzy Black Sabbath. Particularly the vocals are very reminiscent to that of Ozzy's, albeit a lot more cleaner and greater in vocal ranges. Phil Swanson simply sounds amazing! But then again, Ozzy and Sabbath are my very great musical idols, I love that kind of sound.

The guitar work is also very much in the same vein as Ozzy's solo stuff, particularly that of Randy Rhoads and maybe slightly more from Jake E. Lee. Influences of other bands such as Savatage, Queensrÿche and maybe even some Mercyful Fate are to be found here. But I think the band manage just fine to still make the music their own and with a unique touch to it.

Overall the sound is very organic as well as dynamic. The guitars are filled with details and a bit playful in their approach, kinda like Van Halen if you know what I mean? The drums are also very hard-hitting and provides a ferocious stampede throughout the album's run. They're also produced with a heavy 80's sound which I just love.

If you're a fan of Ozzy's "The Ultimate Sin" album and Sabbath's albums with Dio, Tony Martin and the others in between, then this will most likely appeal to you. Fans of other US heavy/power metal bands will likely also like this, as there are some influences of Manilla Road and the other bands which I mentioned before.

To give the album a try, simply use YouTube, Bandcamp or Spotify down below:

YouTube

Spotify

Bandcamp

To purchase the album you can go to Relapse Records or Bandcamp. I ordered the black vinyl edition from Relapse myself.

Sumerlands shop @ Relapse Records