While I’ve borne witness to many trends based on the oft-cited 20-year nostalgia cycle and even actively participated in some of them, I never really thought about what it would be like once the 20-year nostalgia cycle started reflecting the styles of my youth. As a newly minted 40-year-old, I came of age when nu-metal was all over MTV and At The Gates and In Flames were the biggest influences on metalcore. Now that I’m seeing nu-metal make a comeback and new bands making seriously exquisite melodic death metal and melodic death metal-inspired metalcore, I’ve got to say that it’s been both surreal and sentimental-inducing.
While nu-metal bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit were some of my gateway bands to darker and heavier bands, I quickly dismissed them once I became more acquainted with the metal underground. Never did I think that nu-metal, which was so reviled by metal critics and fans, would ever rear its head again 20 years later (all of my bets were on ska making its epic return to the mainstream). As a result of long since casting off the elitist, unholier-than-thou chains I wore as a teenager after being fully immersed in the metal underground, I can look back fondly and acknowledge that many of those nu-metal bands were very forward-thinking in their approaches to heavy music. I can’t say there are many nēo-nü-metal™ bands I enjoy, but there is a level at which I can appreciate it more now as a 40-year-old than I did then as a teenager.
I listened to a lot of In Flames and At The Gates for a time, but I never really listened to the metalcore acts of the early to mid-2000s that they inspired, like Darkest Hour, Unearth, or Killswitch Engage. But I have been immediately drawn to both newer melodic death metal bands like SEIN and Darkness Everywhere as well as metalcore like Dying Wish that emulate those styles, respectively. In my opinion, the newer crop of melodic death metal and metalcore bands aping the New Wave of Swedish Death Metal sound are not doing anything significantly different than similar bands were doing 20 years ago. Thus, it was odd at first when I felt such a pull toward newer bands who were mimicking that style, whereas I had little to no interest in the bands of that style 20 years ago.
What all of this tells me is how powerful nostalgia can be. While I’ve generally grown very weary of bands simply retreading the past, the nostalgia I experience from newer bands recalling styles from my formative days, even styles I didn’t particularly enjoy at that time, is a formidable enough tool that it affects my orientation toward entire subgenres. Not only that, but listening to newer bands playing those styles of yesteryear feels like I’m being wrapped in a warm blanket. It may be cliche, but it immediately transports me to simpler times. And when the world is on fire, that’s sometimes all I need.