How TikTok Hijacked the Future of Music - Nik Nocturnal
In a Nutshell
TikTok has reshaped modern metal by prioritizing short, viral clips like breakdowns and extreme moments, reviving 2000s deathcore/metalcore tracks (e.g., Bring Me the Horizon's *Can You Feel My Heart*, Job for a Cowboy) while pushing bands to write "TikTok-first" songs that sacrifice full-song depth for instant hooks, leading to more memes than timeless bangers. Bands like Knocked Loose, Sleep Token, Bad Omens, and Architects succeed through extreme intensity, genre fluidity (deathcore to shoegaze/R&B), and consistent production, but face "industry plant" backlash amid engineered virality and label commodification. Nik Nocturnal shares his burnout recovery, advocacy for balanced creativity over drama-chasing content, and excitement for genreless innovation in metal's increasingly popular, self-aware scene.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
TikTok has a pretty big impact on shaping modern metal music because young kids growing up are on TikTok. Previously, music discovery was through radio, cassettes, or CDs from a brother. Then YouTube became a newer thing for discovering big bands. MySpace, YouTube, and Facebook followed. TikTok is the next generation of scrolling, doom scrolling, or finding cooking recipes, where users hear a sound and think it's cool.
Modern metal has good clip moments like breakdowns, ultra breakdowns, crazy vocal moments, guitar moments, or drum moments due to musicianship and unique attributes. Clipping the best part gives instant payoff versus listening to a whole song for a minute and a half until the breakdown. TikTok enforces hearing crazy noise, breakdowns, screaming, or goblin noises instantly, like watching a horror movie with only jump scares. This intrigues people and pushes metal to a bigger, normalized audience.
Look at the state of Can You Feel My Heart by Bring Me the Horizon. The album it came from was good, and it's one of the favorite songs on the album, but it shouldn't be 10 times better known than the next best-known Bring Me track just because the internet got hold of it and it's good for videos laid over the top.
Bands are thinking short-form first: these three segments of the track work, then seed a meme early. The industry is seeding this. Reference to a band possibly called Geese. When writing tracks, bands curate sound for the bit everyone will clip for TikTok. Some bands still write bangers.
Songwriting process has changed: no longer hanging in the garage until mom calls for dinner. Now everyone is on laptops, with one producer or AI. Capturing exciting live start-to-finish song moments with bandmates is less common. Songwriting is segmented; start at the breakdown or climactic moment and work backwards, like writing how the movie ends first.
Bands attuned after 10 years: seen others blow up from one crazier moment, noise, or vocal gymnastic. Knocked Loose succeeded through short-form by being the most extreme sound most people have heard. Their music is intense, well-paced, and naturally works for social media, which is supposed to be a window into something outside it, not made for it.
If you try to make it for social media, you mask that it wasn't made for it, or the song sucks with no replayability or timelessness. Focus shifts to creating a moment instead of a good song, leading to more songs but fewer long-lasting ones beyond memes.
Reference to Job for a Cowboy moment in With the Girl Screen from the Count Your Blessings era by Bring Me the Horizon. Kids today won't know it. Revival happening now. Unnecessary bass drop with proper electronic bass bin. Legendary 808 bass drops from that era shook teeth in cars with subwoofers.
Producers hit buttons for bass drops or reverse snares, everyone laughed. Deathcore didn't exist as a term then; metalcore wasn't fully defined. Post-hardcore like Fightstar. Bands like Under Oath mixed emo moments (Taking Back Sunday) with heavy aggressive stuff. Weird era without strict genres, more freedom.
Resurgence of 2000s traditional deathcore, e.g., Bring Me doing Count Your Blessings again. Many natural TikTok moments. Old tracks resurging like Ocean Spray cranberry juice video blowing up a 40-50 year old track, ABBA, old hip-hop, pop. But not much with metal's golden era 2004-2010: Bullet for My Valentine first EP, Trivium tracks beyond Tears Don't Fall.
2010s-2020s had cool metal but fewer hits. Doomsday by Architects was massive; Sam from Architects noted many ripped off the riff.
Mick Gordon's Doom soundtrack (10 years old) is a big influence on modern metal. Possibly mastered Bring Me's Post Human or worked on tracks. Jordan (likely Jordan Fish) adds complexity, wider sound, more electronic.
Architects example: on album 9 or 11, each linearly bigger, first number one after two decades. Rare consistency. Other consistent bands: Bring Me the Horizon, Sleep Token, Bad Omens, The Amity Affliction. Loathe dropped around 2020-2021 COVID era, like Deftones/Mishuga spice; numbers exploded later with timeless quality. Genre fusion: metal/shoegaze.
Genre fluidity not new (nu metal mixed hip-hop, mainstream with riffs). 2020s: deathcore breakdown to R&B/Deftones shoegaze chorus without feeling partitioned. Early Day to Remember felt fragmented (poppy vocals, heavy breakdowns, e.g., A Plot to Bomb the Panhandle with porn star in video). Modern is flowy.
Architects inverted: heavy verse to melodic chorus. Rise core era with electronic chunk chunk chunk like Enter Shikari. Fun intent mixing 2000s deathcore/metalcore with synths, EDM from mid-90s. Attack Attack, early Asking Alexandria: weird, fragmented, shoving breakdowns and electronics.
Bands improved blending over time. Better mastering, production. Mick Gordon example. Layering 75 synths, sound design now; synths on guitars ridiculous but true. Extreme death/technical death metal riff-first in drop C/E standard. Sybiosis with Josh Middleton (since 2006), riff master.
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What happened 1988-1991 to produce humans creating insane music 2006-2010? Attack Attack splintered: Under Oath still going strong decades later, good old and new catalog. Legacy bands embrace old catalog. New metal like Linkin Park, Korn. MGK releasing track with Limp Bizkit. Fun collabs.
Metal scene shuns collaborating outside genre; rare excitement like Spiritbox with Megan Thee Stallion—Venn diagrams don't intersect. Kids grow up with parents' 2000s/'90s pop/radio plus Suicide Silence or Acacia Strain.
Ran nightclubs in UK, Voodoo Saturdays in Newcastle: 1,800 kids weekly in 1,000 capacity venue, overflowing. Later became live music venue. Cleared mosh pit after Every Time I Die and Suicide Silence. Band members wanted to join club night with 500 waiting, but one recovering, hesitated. Crazy crossover between worlds. Dad age listening to what kids teach him like Sleep Token, he teaches them classics.
Modern metal bands like Sleep Token and Bad Omens appeal across generations. Younger kids discover them on TikTok, and parents enjoy them too due to accessible elements like strong choruses and singing, despite heavy breakdowns. Speaker's mom, who didn't grow up with metal, loves these parts. She once said when he was growing up and into metal, she couldn't sleep for a week, worried he'd be possessed—echoing satanic panic perceptions from earlier eras. Parents also got worried about that.
Early metal from the '80s and '90s sounds vastly different from today. Playing Boy Hits Car or Red then Sleep Token or Bad Omens shows lineage, but pre-2004 or 1986 versions don't connect as clearly. Music from teenage years locks in tastes—e.g., Taking Back Sunday's 2004-2006 albums are the greatest ever to speaker. Music evolves without changing core appeal.
Grew up with Alexisonfire and Bullet for My Valentine. Dallas Green's Happiness by Killswitch Engage (misspoken as Killowatt) is insanely good; self-titled and As Daylight Dies form a trilogy. Atmospheric elements were prescient. Dallas Green (City and Colour) was massive in Canada, breaking beyond metalheads; heard on radio. Many discover his Alexisonfire roots later.
Late '90s/2000s era special: went outside, had games and early internet without total capture. Distribution without consumption overload. New Season of the Witch track nostalgic; features Phil from While She Sleeps (previously Allay Dying), riffing evokes youth. Feels like being 19 at friend's house with beer hat, playing Guitar Hero—speaker's guitar intro.
Era defined by Guitar Hero, MTV, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, snowboarding games like Amped (introduced Static-X), Madden/NBA soundtracks with energetic alternative/metal/nu-metal/post-hardcore for energy. Limp Bizkit did Mission Impossible track.
Nu-metal dismissed as stupid, not 'real metal' like Metallica/Slayer. Scene kids uncool then, but music moved that way—everyone secretly listened despite fringe. Lamb of God/Megadeth lack melody.
Conversation with JT from ERRA: nostalgia or best music ever? Go-backs: Alexisonfire Watch Out!, self-titled, Crisis trilogy (like Lord of the Rings—locked in). Bullet for My Valentine The Poison embodies youth via aggressive riffs, emo British kids acting metal. Architects first EP (mathcore, different from now). Killswitch Engage As Daylight Dies. All That Remains Fall of Ideals. Trivium The Curse.
Uses Season of the Witch, Sleep Token, Bad Omens in tour vlogs/playlist. Recent vlog: Taking Back Sunday A Decade Under the Influence, The Used. Hard transition from modern production (Bad Omens/Sleep Token) to Dashboard Confessional.
Bring Me the Horizon redoing Count Your Blessings to redefine generation. 2000s deathcore revival: Reverend, Psycho Frame (modern take on Suicide Silence The Cleansing). Old school snares (Saint Anger-style, trash can sound), exploding 808s that clip/duck audio, breakdowns.
BMTH trajectory: deathcore → metalcore → alternative rock/metal → pop (Ammo) → nu-metal/post-human → emo → back to deathcore. Unique for band that big. Ollie (speaker friends 12 years); helped Jordan Fish with Ableton pre-Newcastle gig (~750 people, post-Jordan join, pre-O2 Academy). BMTH timeline: Count Your Blessings → Suicide Season (dubstep remixes, girl holding guts) → There Is a Hell....
Kept in touch; helped Matt with shoulder rehab during COVID via FaceTime. Brave in experimenting: low-fi releases with file names, MGK/Travis Barker collab. Trendsetters post-Sempiternal (2015, before That's the Spirit): production, 8503/8504 chord progressions (major but dark/frigid).
Originality is just undetected plagiarism.
Doesn't matter who did it first, but who did it best/popularized (Cody Rhodes on Hulk Hogan: power-up, finger point stolen but saturated). Architects Doomsday. Jordan Fish inspired by video games/cyberpunk. Nothing new; recreating nu-metal rap.
Bad Omens/Sleep Token: baddy-core or night drive vibes. Can't create new chord progressions/sequences—all done historically. Differentiators: specific sequence, key, BPM, groove.
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Vocals/lyrics as differentiators? Lyrics often generic melo: life sucks, alone, little hope. Stories retold. Limited words; clichés like 'undertow', 'call out'. Many elements (lyrics, vocals, cadence, groove, BPM, melodies) differentiate—even deathcore vs country version unrecognizable sonically despite conceptual similarity.
Copying debates: too many variables. Ed Sheeran: every hit on few chords. Little beef in metalcore—small scene, need sponsors/partners at festivals (Rockville, Download), can't piss off.
Scene big and small; works backend with labels/PR on releases/podcasts.
Hey, we got these releases coming up. Hey, do you want this person on your show to shoot the content? Everyone kind of knows everybody. If you're a dick, it's really obvious. Just don't be a dick to people and you'll usually be fine. Part of that is not copying and pasting someone's song session as it can be super obvious.
The other way is to make being a dick your brand, which is what Ronnie Radke does. A few people have done that successfully. To be consistent at it is exhausting. Ronnie is fascinating and is coming on the show soon. It's like being the heel in wrestling—the heel can have the belt, be the best in the world, but the job is to piss everyone off and give zero fucks.
A few bands during the MySpace/Warp Tour days tried to be the extreme band to piss people off—you were rock stars. Example: Video of Bring Me the Horizon at the Brit Awards where Ollie Sykes stood on Coldplay's Chris Martin's table and kicked his champagne off, creating huge beef. Never assumed Ollie Sykes and Chris Martin would have beef.
A lot of overlap despite segmentation: metal bands vs. pop artists share labels (metal ones smaller), PR, booking agents. Top 50 metal, country artists are metalheads who grew up listening to metal. Touring musicians are always scene kids. In Nashville, everyone is a metalhead—even country writers are hardcore dudes from the scene who love that music.
Cool to see because the music sounds different but technically proficient lineage allows success—if you can play good metal, you can play most other things as they're less complex, especially nowadays with modern metal focused on production and songwriting.
Subsets differ: death metal, tech death is riff-first, drummers at 500 BPM on double kicks. Creates extreme, brutal music without much production—no synth layers. Modern metal bands: record guitar, MIDI synth ready; producer adds it. Quad-tracked guitars standard. Drums: record raw, figure out later.
Story of Slipknot's new drummer bringing fresh breeze. Had Joey (legendary), then Jay for a time, then falling out (creative differences, usual PR). Fans move along. Then Elijah (from Vended? Wait, Sepulture? No, context suggests Vended or similar—badass drummer). People stoked, seen live videos—he's a beast. No music released with him yet.
2000s era music aggressive and primal: emo, metalcore, nu metal breakthrough bigger than others (Slipknot, Linkin Park, System of a Down). Kids now (age 10) say favorite song is Chop Suey—too young for lyrical context, crazy how they find it.
Watching live Slipknot video (8 months ago): New drummer built like a brick house. Extreme drumming is physical—guitarists can be skinny, strumming chords, but drummers can't unless backtracked. Imagine drumstick to the face from him. Some sequencing, pads at bottom. Most bands have laptop for set, drum pads.
Cool to have someone bringing new eyes to Slipknot (around 30 years: 1999 self-titled, Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. EP with first singer).
Killswitch Engage also old: Alive or Just Breathing 2002, The End of Heartache 2004, As Daylight Dies 2006. Consistent, timeless bangers.
Kanye West: if you make bangers you can keep on doing it.
Metal increasingly self-aware and ironic in positioning. Due to nostalgia in modern age, looking back excitedly. Back then metal random: Job for a Cowboy, MySpace days with song titles like "tell Jimmy to get the fuck out of the garage." Bands not thinking big, happy playing to few fans.
Modern embracing revisits that raw era, parodying self and industry evolution. Genre more fluid: Sleep Token has black metal part in pop song—cool, but needs good songwriting or gone after TikTok "that's interesting."
Sleep Token: The Summoning most played track, broke through.
Caramel catchy but not reaching The Summoning level. Why? Distribution, repeat listenability, new people, playlist rinsing?
Was around for Sleep Token underground: Reddit subreddits hyping small shows (50 people). Listened to The Offering (piano, pop mixed with meshuggah). Consistent bangers build catalog, happy underground fans. Momentum from The Offering, This Place Will Become Your Tomb. Alkaline had everything to explode but no "moment"—just grinding ELO slowly.
The Summoning: perfect storm—built-up hype, underground love, massive catalog, internet noticed.
Can be engineered? Make bangers first (don't suck, take seriously over trends/gimmicks). Engineer rest to a point with internet/social media.
Seen from sidelines as listener, industry understanding, content creator: accounts seeding rumors, clip farming. Labels use new Reddit accounts, pay random clip guys in Europe $20, army of Vietnamese repurposers.
Example: Geese band—Chaotic Good Projects (digital marketing) confirmed engineered campaigns. Wired article: Brooklyn indie rockers Geese exploded end 2025, late September release dominated top 10 lists. Backlash as industry plant. Co-founders on Billboard's On the Record podcast (SXSW episode) explained viral methods: networks of TikTok pages drop songs in video backgrounds, share live clips, burner accounts, fabricate interactions/ecosystems (trend simulation, narrative, UGC). Drives impressions, knows how to go viral with thousands of pages. Did for Geese and Cameron Winter (distribute clips, interviews).
Industry plant discourse inevitable. This gifies it—race to bottom, becomes minimum marketing.
Metal scene behind mainstream/content: burner accounts, clips not new (Twitch streamers viewbotting, Kick CEO said every big creator viewbots). Gamified due to monetization incentives.
President had large launch via Future History, Sleep Token pseudonymous mask vibe, bangers. Twitter calls them industry plant—guy from other big bands for long time.
Uses gaming references to explain concepts: opponent has max characters, gear, rolled an alt, knew exactly how to get all the gear—signals expertise. Geese's fourth album sparked 'industry plant' accusations. Is it that, or exceptionally good guerrilla marketing from the ground floor? Difference from classic campaigns like interesting flyers or fake $1 bills with band's QR code for redemption.
People feel uncertain and icky about undeserved success. Metal scene is tricky because fans are hardcore: support bands intensely, travel to local shows, buy merch and CDs despite streaming.
Metal fans invest personally in band's journey, buying merch and tickets—this is part of their life. Downside: if band shifts style, metalheads react loudest, feeling personally insulted. Less attachment for Megan Thee Stallion pivoting to acoustic country vs. Sleep Token doing so. She should do battycore—already kind of is; just add guitars.
Launched series 'How to Metal' with shorts breaking down band sounds in 30 seconds: BPM, intricacies—like metal Rick Beato (respect to Rick Beato). Grew up loving Under Oath; example: dissonant chords, pterodactyl screech—mix funny memes and musician knowledge. Ends with 8-second riff outlining style, avoiding direct copies.
Fans requested full versions; streamed full songs live in 2-3 hours, put on DSPs with YouTube rollout. Did this once a week alongside weekly releases—psychotic but fun; peaked YouTube era.
Took year break for burnout. Returned after self-care: outdoors, workouts, macros/micros, production, songwriting. Life: writing music, hanging with wife, feeding squirrels, park, Costco. Came back with Nocturnal track blending obscure references—dance, electronic, funk, folk like Volbeat, Gojira, Marilyn Manson.
11 years straight YouTube, never missed weekly upload. Mentally exhausting, no clocking out. Caught self distracting from music focus; trialed content but rejected reaction guy role—offers more than watching songs.
Channel always about sharing music: started with guitar covers as awkward post-high-school kid who didn't know how to talk.
Avoided old news cycles—metal has wins like Knocked Loose on Kimmel, Spiritbox at Grammys, but also cancellations and scandals. Doesn't want to absorb or discuss negativity like Ozzy's death (first metal song: Crazy Train). Feels obliged as community figure but adds no value beyond consolation.
Negative content performs better. Scene drama like Fontaines D.C. vs. Radkey. Every industry has tight ecosystems reporting on reporters reacting to videos—wants derivative content layers like financial crisis CDOs/CFDs: bundled gossip of gossip.
Content with legacy; proud of net positive impact despite screw-ups. At peace leaving forever, told wife: take break with mentality of permanent exit if needed. First real break taught priorities.
Hard-charging always-on lifestyle: decelerated attention, habits like waking to check Rock Sound. Wife does similar (musician, producer, ex-guitar covers). Felt like single-player career after 12 years solo-focused.
Saw wife writing alone while reacting to scene news—wanted to write music together instead.
Break enabled fun music writing together: funk beats, Brazilian funk, electronic, dance—no pressure, strobe lights for vibe, no cameras. Started at 17-18; brain not fully formed till 30. Finished shitty accounting degree—provided contrast appreciating content creation over 'normal' life.
Made 50 cents/year on AdSense initially due to cover claims; did lessons to figure it out. Manifested success delusionally: paying rent, collaborating with idols. Pressure to give more to avoid returning to accounting class polymeters.
No balance: days without sun despite working from home. Life = work/passion; self-worth tied solely to channel/songs/videos—poor performance = shitty person.
Break restored humanity, clarity: still loves breakdowns, breezes, exploding 808s, guitar—but needs balance. Lives for this, not just cycle.
Momentum carries you through without pausing to question if it's what you want. Nik Nocturnal is grateful for his channel and long-term supporters who remember his guitar covers from 10 years ago. He used to tell himself to tough it out unhealthily despite feeling privileged.
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Majority of bands and comedians experience creator burnout to some degree; few take full breaks from the band. Many YouTube creators step away. Ryan Trahan fired his team, now does 12-hour days with just his iPhone to avoid managing people.
Content creators burn out at higher rates than bands or comedians despite easier conditions: working from home, Uber Eats, gym access, no pants needed. Bands face touring, family separation, sleep deprivation, unpredictability. Comedians and DJs have road pressures and performance anxiety.
Creator burnout stems from slower, quieter digital feedback vs. immediate loud reinforcement for performers. Bands get screaming fans instantly; comedians get laughter. Creators get small emotes, likes, sub numbers—even a million subs or arena sellout (7-8k cap for Nik) feels smaller than live equivalent.
Creator lifestyle encourages isolation: no sun, solitary editing at 5 a.m., buying Doritos while others sleep. Missing life without tour's experiences/memories. Home comfort physically easier but lacks meaning from shared hardship and success with others (bandmates, crew).
It's not what you want, it's what you need. And sometimes what you need isn't always what you want.
Bands transitioning from bus to hotels often decline mentally; need camaraderie despite wanting privacy. Duos with separate buses despite touring together.
Top jobs for kids: YouTuber, influencer (vs. past doctor/astronaut). Early YouTubers like PewDiePie, Markiplier had fun, dumbass vibes.
PewDiePie pivoted to family life, vibing offline. Three fuck you stages:
- Fuck you money: No financial worries.
- Fuck you freedom: Ranch life, minimal laws (van life possible without money).
- Fuck you family: Family admiration trumps industry acclaim; dad pivot (PewDiePie example).
Filthy Frank quit perfectly, pivoted to Joji with uncancellable catalog. Residuals from old videos persist despite limited ads.
Diversify beyond one platform like YouTube; policies can demonetize edgy content, slashing income to 10-5%. Platforms owe no loyalty. Have Twitch streams, Patreon, signatures, affiliates.
Artists disgruntled with streaming (Spotify, Apple Music); Tidal better but unused. Streaming doesn't pay enough; contracts often recoup loans/advances first (e.g., $5M loan before revenue). Band with 50M streams made $20 due to label recoups (record, promo, video, merch, tour costs).
Bands now wiser on deals vs. past excitement over $200k advances without realizing recoupment. Artifact (2012 documentary by Jared Leto): 30 Seconds to Mars' $30M lawsuit vs. EMI during This Is War album. 360/720 deals take everything forever; Leto funded via acting (e.g., War Dogs).
Record deals warn upfront: binding for life, get legal advice. Artists more aware now; labels more accommodating/creative.
Nik worked with labels, signed bands, A&Rs as content creator. Industry viewed him as DIY outsider. Standard: owing 5 albums (10 years at 2-year cycles), locking in passion like corporate job.
Labels take musicians' passion and turn it into an engine. Some labels do this well and successfully. Many musicians, especially in the 2000s, lack business skills—they just want to play music, inspired by Nirvana and Metallica, without caring about business or bank accounts. They need a business person, label, or manager to handle things, but often get taken advantage of because that's how the industry works. Rare empathetic people might not exploit them fully, but label deals are long commitments—three albums could mean six years, changing a person dramatically. Are you even going to like this music in six years?
It's like a marriage to the label and bandmates. Bands see each other more than family, share habits, income, and losses, plus corporate oversight and management. Some musicians need this guidance, but 2000s deals were excessive commitments.
Everybody listens to some music, yet the industry is wild. Distribution has evolved: services like DistroKid, CD Baby allow uploading to Apple Music, Tidal, Spotify simultaneously, but require more hoops than podcasting.
Podcaster started with old-school RSS on Libsyn (like Rogan used), manually plugging into platforms like Acast (Garnan), Deezer, SoundCloud, and Africa-specific ones, checking link health for years. Moved to Megaphone (bought by Spotify), now plug-and-play like Squarespace.
Music distribution still involves checklists: title, artwork, date, record label (indies make up names like "Whatever the Fuck Records"), correct audio, explicit tags—5-10 things per release. Then add lyrics, etc. Becoming more automated, but historically required labels or distribution companies (likely needing to be signed).
Indie musicians love bypassing labels. Independent uploads show DistroKid numbers as labels, signaling new artists who figure it out, later getting signed. SoundCloud was big, especially for SoundCloud rap; less in metal but used by content musicians.
Spotify's Song DNA (on "Can You Feel My Heart") shows collaborators below lyrics: Ted Jensen (mastering), Dan Graziano (editor), Annie Skates (contractor), Matt Nichols (drums), Jordan Fish (composer, 3 roles, worked with 275 artists, 473 songs). It's a matrix/web exploring connections.
Previously, right-click credits were basic (performer, writer, producer), often glitched, missing co-producers, mixers, engineers despite metadata options. Sites like BMI are granular for publishing—legal requirement leaks anonymous artists' real names (e.g., Dark Danny becomes Daniel Robertson).
Positive: Scene becoming genreless, focusing on good songs, leading to higher quantity of quality music.
Negative: Metal more popular, now "cool," getting commodified with formulaic Octane core (radio-friendly active rock/alternative metal: Bad Wolves, Five Finger Death Punch, Bad Omens, Spiritbox, Slaughter to Prevail). Octane (rock radio) now has breakdowns, heavy parts, screaming, double kick, detuned guitars—previously just Nickelback, Creed, classic rock.
This brings industry incentives: labels create multiple bands copying successful styles for radio/money/fame. Copycat bands use same chorus, melody, slight lyric changes to avoid lawsuits, emulating Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory.
Yet, genrelessness spurs weird extremes: bands like Marauder, Disembodied Tyrant (deathcore with dubstep), Lorad, Whitechapel, Suicide Silence too extreme, so add other heavies. Throne (Buster also in Hum's Breath, BJA, super gentle thall genre: evolved from djent/sugar → Periphery rhythms, atmospheric, less mathy, more groove/extreme/accessible). Mar infuses dubstep, Beethoven—dumbfounding innovation from heaviness.
Anyone can release independently (no label needed, like podcasts), suggesting more weird/niched music. But mainstream (Madden game, Grammys, BAFTAs, radio) has high prestige—limited slots mean huge value vs. unlimited YouTube.
Independent is subversive but low prestige. Creates two splintering scenes; hope metal embraces underground.
Bands like Sleep Token (The Summoning), Spiritbox, Bad Omens face "sold out" hate post-blowup—metalheads claim ownership ("you're ours"), resent pop leans (e.g., Sleep Token's Arcadia: top 50 bangers + extreme moments). UK critic called album of the year the "worst thing he's ever heard."
Sleep Token are British (from UK), Canada should celebrate Grammy noms (Loathe, Bullet for My Valentine, Architects). Canada strong: City and Colour (Dallas Green from Hamilton? Actually Pittsburgh—roast incoming), Toronto metalheads lean prog/post-hardcore: Protest the Hero (favorite of all guitarists), Alexisonfire, Intervals, jazz djent (2010s), Polyphia (from scene, different sound now), Billy Talent.
I remember doing a media studies assignment at 16 or 17 in sixth form college to a Billy Talent song. I used to jam The River and Billy Talent II—non-stop bangers. Billy Talent has bangers and they're not well known in America, which is weird because they're a big band. Fallen Leaves is their edgier banger. The guitarist sounds like a death metal dude who wanted to play punk instead. That headphoto is hell of a. Back in middle school in the frozen north, going to Timmy's for lunch break.
Holy Water just released their album on Friday. They supported Architects—3/4 of a million views. They were second support after ERA. ERA did progressive metalcore space. The new album came out April 17th. Nightmares sounds like back in the 2000s. The guitarist grew up listening to Underworld Chasing Safety. It has shoegaze elements. Death Tones is sick.
Glad you've never heard of them—feels like headshot from across the map, no scope. Say Six does Thall and Bcore, Thall with R&B. Token-inspired modern metal. Many stupid genre names, all modern metal basically.
Marauder (M-I-R-A-R)—classical dubstep thaw. They take old school paintings for cover art. 50k monthly listeners. Two dudes, no vocals. Guitar makes that noise—nutty. Coolest moment in music in past 10 years around 1:30: electronic element, extreme. Two nerdy kids: Leo is French, Marius Swedish or Finnish/Norwegian/Scandinavian. Gets extra pump at the gym.
Boundaries mix 2000s nostalgic stuff with modern heavy edge. Easily Erased—melodic, has a chorus. Two singers: drummer clean singing, vocalist screaming. Ambience, melodic hardcore metalcore vibes, screaming, breakdowns. The scene continues to live on.
I think you rule. Love your stuff, glad you're back after your break. Check out @NickNocturnal on everything. In a week or two, starting studio streams: writing songs every day from start to finish with rave lights controlled by the songs. Entire banger every day live from certification. Release based on demand—demos on Patreon, full production and music video if requested (in room or swamp in Florida).
Doing it with my wife—she used to do content creation in Brazil (speaks Portuguese mainly, English well). She wants to make music, make beats, shorts, write. If something goes crazy, collaborate on stream. She's producing her own stuff.
When you left the metal scene, got eulogies from biggest guys in metal—like you died. They never talked to you while you were there. You're back and awesome. Let's do this again. Thank you for having me, love what you do. Goodbye everybody. If you enjoyed, YouTube knows—you'll like the next one even more.
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