The metal world is not just about music and albums. A lot of facts influenced the development of music and in this part of the tribute we are going to remember the most important of them year by year. Get into the chrono-machine and the retrospection back in time has began. Observe…
2000:
The first year of the new millennium was really interesting for the metal world. It was the year when Iron Maiden released “Brave New World”, the first album with Bruce Dickinson on vocals after his return, while Nevermore released the album that proved to be classic called “Dead Heart In A Dead World”. We also had the return of Rob Halford in heavy metal with ”Resurrection”. The prodigal son was back. On the other hand, the contradiction between Metallica and Napster was definitely the worst moment of 2000.
2001:
While a lot of great albums were being released, we had phenomenal releases like Tool’s “Lateralus” and Kreator’s “Violent Recolution”, 2001 was marked by one of the saddest moments in the entire heavy metal history: Chuck’s Shuldiner’s unfair death. A great musician and an even greater person was lost. At the same time, Jason Newsted left from Metallica to be replaced later from a guy called Robert Trujillo.
2002:
The legendary Dave Lombardo returns to torture the drum kit of Slayer. At first it was supposed to be occasional, but turned out to be permanent. Dave Mustaine had an accident which lead to an operation, with result his little absence from music. We also had the loss of the charismatic Layne Staley of Alice In Chains due to heroin overdose.
2003:
Metallica’s “St.Anger” caused a storm of reactions and Rob Halford returned to Judas Priest. Deaths don’t stop, and this time Paul Baloff of Exodus and Guy Speranza of Riot will leave us for good. Pantera will officially split up.
2004:
Only pain and sorrow is what is left of this year. The mighty Quorthon, founder and soul of Bathory left for the halls of Valhalla and the weight of the world is much less since then. Also, Johnny Ramone from The Ramones lost his battle with cancer and… the most lovable personality of metal scene: Dimebag Darrell of Pantera was shot on stage while performing with Damageplan in Colombus, Ohio.
2005:
Tarja Turunen is fired from Nightwish due to personal differences, with everyone mumbling the last five years the possibility of her return. Dennis D’Amour of Voivod, mostly known as Piggy, dies from cancer making music in general much more poor.
2006:
A Finish band called Lordi take place in Eurovision and wins the competition. Slayer release “Christ Illusion” and Celtic Frost the “Monotheist”. Tool released ”10.000 Days” and Igor Cavalera is officially out from Sepultura.
2007:
Heaven and Hell is the new band created by Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice. They release a collection featuring three new songs and they tour all over the world. Tim Owens is fired from Iced Earth and Anneke Van Giersbergen leaves The Gathering. Also, Nightwish and Candlemass release the first albums with their new singers, Annete Olzon and Robert Lowe.
2008:
Metallica release ”Death Magnetic” which got mainly positive reactions from the press, while Guns ‘n’ Roses confuse the fans and the press with ”Chinese Democracy”. Celtic Frost officially split up and Gus Chambers, singer of Grip Inc, dies at the age of 52.
2009:
Gus G. is officially the new guitar player of Ozzy Osbourne and this is the biggest moment individually for a Greek musician. Unfortunately, losses never stop and it was Midnight of Crimson Glory and Miika Tenkula of Sentenced that left us for a supposed to be better place.
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We thought that it would be more than interesting the opinion of the real protagonists of metal music about the 00’s decade. In this part of the tribute, some really great musicians from the entire metal music spectrum are going to leave a comment about the 00’s. Here you are!
“Honestly, I am not really into new bands or anything new that blew me away this decade. A lot of my influences and a lot of the things that I enjoy come back from the ’80s or the early ’90s. What I’ve noticed in metal music is a recycle of what was old to become new again. Like the resurgence of thrash music. I haven’t heard a good thrash band this year, a lot of people tell me there are a couple of good bands but I haven’t heard a new Exodus, or a new early Anthrax.”
“There are a lot of bands and a lot of different styles in music. I think in the early and later 90’s, for me, there’s a lot of black metal stuff that was really good and I think we’ve seen, that in the 00 decade a lot of those bands stepped up and did their best releases. Bands like Dimmu Borgir, Old Man’s Child and stuff like that. That’s my opinion, I like stuff like that. ”
“00’s was a really good decade definitely. There are so many great albums. It’s really hard to remember. Porucpine Tree’s “Fear Of A Blank Planet” is a really good album of the 00’s, all the Porcupine’s stuff was really good on this decade. Riverside made great albums as well during the 00’s and I’m really happy with the last Slayer album which I think is the best one since “Seasons In The Abyss”. This decade, or better the half of this decade was really important for Amorphis as well. “Eclipse” in our career which was released in 2005 is one of our recordings that really impressed me as a listener. It’s a very remarkable album for Amorphis.”
“Maybe it was over-productive, but it certainly gave us lots of good bands and releases. First of all, the great comeback of Iron Maiden and then Judas Priest! The Scandinavian scene blossomed and gave many great bands in all styles of Metal (goth, pop, black, melodic, power, thrash, etc.). The biggest highlight of the decade for me personally was that some Greek dude joined Ozzy’s band! Hahaha. I can’t think of my favorite album of the 00’s. Probably it’s not one but several, so I can’t really say.”
“Well we saw lots of new trends coming into metal this decade, and a lot of bands tried to imitate already successful bands, see metalcore and emo, and you will understand what I mean. I feel that this decade had a lot of crap and not glorious bands and releases like the 80`s, and less cool new bands. Also the music changed so much with the myspace and the internet and we saw million bands coming along bringing less quality in music in general. Highlight I would say when Iron Maiden came back with the classic line up in 2000, and also when At The gates reformed to make the farewell shows. My favorite release was Testament The Formation Of Damnation.”
“More productive than ever…more productive than any decade in Metal history but less effective than ever! There is an explosion in the scene. Internet has helped to know bands from all around the world and i think that I can call zero’s the decade of democracy in Metal. But where the fuck is the soul? How long has it taken you to listen something that can make you shudder? How long has it take you to listen something that can really talk to your soul? Many years, and do you know why? Globalization has hit our scene into zero’s and made things sound cool but faceless. But I am optimistic. Especially the last years of this decade people slowly and shyly wake up, putting their own spot against this order that want everything to sound the same. Zero’s generally were good but 10th’s will be better even if I am stucked in 80’s and early 90’s!”
“I think especially the year 2000 was really good for metal. Nevermore released “Dead Heart In A Dead World”, a fantastic album and The Haunted released “Made Me Do It”, which was also absolutely amazing. One of my favourites is Spiritual Beggars’ “On Fire”.”
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As we promised, we would give the first 3 albums of 00’s “top 50” as a gifts to three lucky people that took place in our competition since early December. The winners are:
Dennis Anthimiadis – wins Opeth’s “Black Water Park”
Harris Livardas – wins Machine Head’s “The Blackening”
Stella Georgiadou – wins Mastodon’s “Leviathan”.
The gifts are kindly offered by Nephilim Music Stores.