Originally Posted by windsock

Sure but I don't think the point being made is that a band needs to be experimental or super creative to be good. Rather, if a band has a lack of originality at their core then what's causing them be enjoyable at any level below the surface? There's only so far you can go with a fun, fast song and an energetic performance. Especially when there's a hundred thousand more bands right in the line behind you with the exact same energy and have the exact "from the heart" sound as you do, and to top it off their songwriting is brutally similar to your own. What makes that thrash band, or the hundred thousand others, truly stand out at that point? I'm sorry but I can't help hearing the massive amounts of similarities and cliches in thousands of different bands, similarities and cliches that are infuriating when they get repeated ad nauseum. It's irritating just like it is with the thousands of same-sounding indie rock bands.

And this isn't to say the same doesn't go for doom metal. I'm not a fan of the scores of doom metal bands that thing stretching out four down-tuned chords over the course of 20 minutes counts as any sort of substantial music effort. There are bands that think they're going to be the next Electric Wizard or Skepticism and are infuriatingly boring as a result because they don't do anything to change the already-laid formula. This goes as well for the thousands of thrash bands who try to mimic Metallica or Slayer, and the thousands of indie rock bands trying to be Modest Mouse or Weezer, and so forth. Musical uncreativity is obnoxious no matter what genre you're apart of, it just depends on which genres have the least bands that do it.

That aside, I do think thrash peaked earlier than doom, even though it started over a decade later. Furthermore, I think doom has had more success in blending itself with other metal genres than thrash, blends that, as Blaro said, are still forging ahead creatively today. Though if we're really getting down to the numbers, my amount of listening toward new metal in general has dwindled significantly in the past year or two.