Best Metal Band of the Past 20 Years

[lateralus88]

Disturbed are the greatest metal band of the last twenty years.


There, argue about that for a while. Jesus.

They have referred themselves as the "gods of metal" on stage before, if I remember correctly. They are null and void.

[73109]

Really??? I mean, I dig them and shit but calling themselves the gods of metal is going over board...way over board.

[ehra]

There's nothing to argue about. That's an absolute fact.

I agree entirely.

Too much sarcasm green, I can't tell if you're playing along with Gadough's comment or if you're using the green to show your disapproval at his use of sarcasm when saying they're the best.

Too many layers!

[Sigz]

Wasn't that just the name of the tour?

[ehra]

Wasn't that just the name of the tour?

During shows I think the singer likes to make comments like "bow to your gods in metal." Or some crap.

[Sigz]

 

[lateralus88]

And that folks is the reason I lost every shred of respect for the band. And they were never all that good in my book to begin with.

[Sigz]

I never cared for them. Not that they're bad, they're just insanely bland.

[73109]

Yeah, they are. I mean, they have enough good songs to see them perform a good set (as I did) but I listened to 2 songs off the new album and I'm not going to try any further. It has even gotten to me, Mr. I love the chugga chugga, how extremely bland they have become.

[Bombardana]

Dream Theater were only particularly influential to the carbon-copy bands. Most (better) prog metal bands took influence from the entire prog scene, and music beyond. Dream Theater aren't even THAT progressive by todays standards.

That's like saying Metallica were only influential to their carbon-copy bands, when they were influential to bands like Dream Theater, too.

It isn't because these are distinctly different bands in distinctly different situations. It's not equivalent. It still applies that bands that only draw influence from one band will end up being carbon-copies.

[Perpetual Change]

I never said any band ONLY drew influence from DT.

[Bombardana]

No, but you were talking about Dream Theater being influential beyond what they are, and you point to the bands that more or less try to copy Dream Theater as examples of that influence. The better prog metal bands draw upon the entire prog scene, and Dream Theater are just one small piece of that regardless of what some people might say.

[Seventh Son]

Dream Theater's influence sure is serious business huh

It derailed the entire topic.

Linkin Park because it sold more. Even though you might not call it metal, to my knowledge nu metal is a subgenre of metal.

I win.

No it isn't.

*Goes into a huge rant over how nu-metal is a subgenre of hard rock, and not metal while raging the whole time*

[Sigz]

nu-metal is a subgenre of hard rock, and not metal

[ehra]

JRPGs aren't a subgenre of RPGs, they're a subgenre of Microsoft Excel.

[Seventh Son]

JRPGs aren't a subgenre of RPGs, they're a subgenre of Microsoft Excel.

JRPG's actually play like an RPG. Nu-metal does not sound like metal. Bad analogy.

[ehra]

It wasn't meant to be a strong analogy.

[skydivingninja]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nu_metal

Nu metal (or nü metal[4] or aggro-metal[5][6]) is a subgenre [7] of heavy metal.

[orcus116]

AGGRO-METAL!!!!!

 

[MetalManiac666]

lol

[ThroughHerEyesDude6]

AGGRO-METAL!!!!!

 

MATH METAL!!!
 ^2+(3x-3y)>(y-x)^3

[bosk1]

A few points:

1.  The topic is "best metal band of the past 20 years."  I think pretty much any kind of metal will do, so quit whining about whether whatever subgenre you happen to have singled out is "true" metal.
2.  Who cares whether DT influenced a particular band?  They've influenced tons, to one degree or another, but it's not like the vast majority of bands that exist today wouldn't be around if not for DT.  Both sides of this argument need to get over yourselves.
3.  Symphony X aren't really "progressive metal."  They never really have been.  Yeah, there are elements of that here and there, but they are pretty much the poster children for symphonic metal.  Yngwie took neo-classical-influenced metal to the extreme and put it on steriods in the '80s.  SX, led by Romeo, took what Yngwie did and put it on steroids in the '90s, added in some nasty Pantera-esque guitar tone and extreme time signatures, and there you have it.
4.  Speaking of symphonic metal, this subgenre really took off in the '90s, although a lot of people seem not to have discovered it until the '00s, myself included. 
5.  I had never listened to Meshuggah prior to clicking one of the YouTube links in this thread.  I started enjoying it.  Then dude started "singing" and I realized I haven't missed out on anything.
6.  I had never listened to Mastodon prior to clicking one of the YouTube links in this thread.  I started REALLY enjoying it.  Then dude started "singing" and I realized I haven't missed out on anything.

[skydivingninja]

Yeah Mastodon doesn't really have good vocalists.  Actually, Brann Dailor, the drummer, is probably the best vocalist out of the bunch.  He sings the clean verses in "Oblivion."  Crack the Skye in general has some of their best vocals, though, like I said, none of them are really vocalists at all.  Agree with Meshuggah though.  Not a big fan of their vocals.  Or most of the music.

[Marvellous G]

It's frustrating how many of these bands there are that are musically fantastic but offputting vocally in some way. Agalloch and Opeth say hi as well. I stick by my vote for Tool for best metal band of the last 20 years though, their career so far is nearly flawless.

[Sigz]

I love Mastodon's, Opeth's, and Agalloch's vocals. Meshuggah is just there.

[Marvellous G]

I do love Opeth's now, but they were offputting initially. I'm sure I'll get used to Agalloch's, but with Mastodon the music isn't compelling enough to make me want to get past them.

[skydivingninja]

I love Mastodon's vocals now, especially Brent and Brann's.  Troy is all right.

[Gadough]

Wasn't that just the name of the tour?

During shows I think the singer likes to make comments like "bow to your gods in metal." Or some crap.

I'd like to see video footage of this, because I find this damn near impossible to believe.

[orcus116]

I've heard that Disturbed is pretty huge in Europe for some reason. Bands like Nevermore open for them over there.

[ehra]

Wasn't that just the name of the tour?

During shows I think the singer likes to make comments like "bow to your gods in metal." Or some crap.

I'd like to see video footage of this, because I find this damn near impossible to believe.

No idea, I've never seen them. Going by what other people here have claimed.

[Zook]

I might be completely making this up but I think Draiman did say something ridonkulous like that because I remember me and my brother looking at each other like after he said something. I'll have to confirm this. Either way, if they want to be gods of metal, they better stop making Ten Thousand Fists over and over again.

[Bombardana]

3.  Symphony X aren't really "progressive metal."  They never really have been.  Yeah, there are elements of that here and there, but they are pretty much the poster children for symphonic metal.  Yngwie took neo-classical-influenced metal to the extreme and put it on steriods in the '80s.  SX, led by Romeo, took what Yngwie did and put it on steroids in the '90s, added in some nasty Pantera-esque guitar tone and extreme time signatures, and there you have it.

I disagree with this point. Symphonic metal as it exists in its purest form is not at all like Symphony X. SX have taken elements of symphonic metal, power metal, neo-classical, and progressive metal as you said (although this in a greater ammount than you give them credit for), but they cannot be categorised as any one of these genres, and especially not as "the poster child" of any of them. tl;dr: lolno.

[Adami]

I agree Symph X is not symphonic metal. They have times where the keys are playing some strings, but that's it. Hardly symphonic.

I'd call them Neo Classical Metal.

[bosk1]

I meant power metal.  Sorry.

But I'm not necessarily trying to pigeonhole them into a specific subgenre either.  That's overly artificial, not to mention pointless.  But calling them progressive metal just seems odd to me when neither the band nor the majority of their fans would even for a moment consider them progressive metal.  Yeah, they have some progressive elements in their music, have long songs, and use plenty of odd time signatures, but at least to me, their sound doesn't really fit what I think of when I think of progressive metal.  Not at all.  And look at the lyrical content as well.  I mean, since when has any real progressive metal band wrote lyrics about monsters and mythology and...wait, what was I arguing again?

[Jarlaxle]

Dream Theater