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Old 05-29-2011, 01:41 PM   #1 (permalink)
Unknown Soldier
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Default The Groove Metal Thread

Thrash metal has its own threads on here but groove metal tends to get less attention. Groove metal for those of you that don`t know, is basically an offshoot of thrash metal, but performed at a slower pace than thrash and usually played at mid-pace with a focus on both heaviness and groovy syncopation, band for band groove metal is probably heavier than thrash. Of all the different genres that make up metal, this has to be my favourite.

Groove metal takes an important place in modern metal, as it virtually carried the metal flag throughout much of the 90`s and bridged the gap between thrash metal in the early 90`s and Nu-Metal in the late 90`s, it basically kept metal in the commercial spotlight for much of the 90`s. This was important, as metal in this period had already lost a lot of its fans to grunge, post- grunge or other alternative types of music at the heavier end of the spectrum.

The Bad Brains were often described as giving the genre its attitude, but it was Pantera with the album "Cowboys from Hell" that virtually defined the genre, even though fans of Exhorder may dispute this! Whilst Pantera carried the genre throughout the 90`s with a string of classic albums, other bands were equally important for its development such as Prong and Fear Factory. Also bands like Machine Head provided it with power and energy, White Zombie provided it with humour and Sepultura mixed it with Brazilian tribal rhythms and took into the realms of oblivion with the albums "Chaos AD" and "Roots".

Throughout the 00`s groove metal has come in to its own again, largely thanks to Lamb of God again imo one of the best metal bands of the last 10 years and other bands such as Chimaira, Byzantine, Cavalera Conspiracy and Throwdown are all representative of the genre. There are also other not so good bands such as DevilDriver and Five Finger Death punch out there as well and other groups such as French metal outfit Gojira, who have fused it into their own progressive and death metal sound and given us groove French style based around environmental themes.

Last edited by Unknown Soldier; 06-02-2011 at 01:49 PM.
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