(Andy Synn can’t resist the pull of the new album from Hadit, out now on I, Voidhanger)
I recently stumbled across some online… let’s call it “discourse”, to be polite… about how the Metal scene is dying (it isn’t, obviously) because no-one values innovation any more.
Digging deeper, the gist of the argument appeared to be that Metal fans hate anything new and that only the originators of any particular style have anything worthwhile to offer.
Now, glossing over the inherent contradiction in this (as well as the fact that it ignores the iterative nature of musical evolution) what really saddened me about this attitude – in addition to its shamelessly self-righteous nature – was that, despite pretending to be more “enlightened”, it basically ignores the central idea that art is, primarily, a means of expression and communication, through melody, tone, and rhythm, in favour of a view that seems to see music as little more than an extension of the capitalist growth machine, one which must always be “innovating” to provide fresh “product”… regardless of whether it actually has anything meaningful to say.
This doesn’t mean, of course, that bands shouldn’t grow and evolve, it’s just that it should only be done on their own terms and in their own time – as Hadit so clearly demonstrate on their recently-released second album.
