Ways Metal Could Develop in the Future

It makes me wonder just how metal will continue to develop over the next decade and beyond. What new sound fusions either haven't been explored at all or are currently very obscure. What bands that already exist might one may be considered precursors to a new genre? Who's doing something unique now? How to you feel about the way metal has change since the turn of millennium? 

I thought this might be an interesting thing to discuss as we come close to the end of the 2010s.

Is that really the kind of development the average metalhead wants? 

But with that said there are always going to be traditionalists. There will always be something for everyone. And I like to think that innovation will never stop. And also that while EM squeals about things not being metal we'll proudly be cataloguing it all as part of the genre's history. 

Hail Spirit Noir - now there's one hell of a band with a special sound that not many are doing. 

Clean vocal black metal. 

I know, it really goes against the idea of what black metal is about. But black metal has long moved on from what bands like Mayhem and Burzum created in the original Norwegian scene. Particularly in melodic and (especially) atmospheric black metal acts, clean vocals are being used more and more extensively. 

And it actually works. 

A few examples of black metal acts that have used extensive black metal vocals already are Myrkur, Midnight Odyssey and Winterhorde. Myrkur is the most invested in the approach, featuring very minimal use of growls across two records. 

Purists won't want to hear it (though probably don't bat an eye at Ulver) amd as its not actually anything new I can't truthfully say I foresee this developing significantly further in the 2020s, but you never know. It's something that's been put into the limelight a bit because of Myrkur and I for one would be interested in the results. 

Funnily enough I just moved an album tagged as 'drill and bass' on RYM out of AGM that had metal secondaries. 

First time I've heard of that genre. 

It's f'kin' horrible!

What metal band has used big beat? Never heard of any doing that, but I'd love to hear it.

The problem is that many metal bands these days that are willing to mix different sounds only use critic-approved genres like free/avant-garde jazz, shoegaze, math rock, post-rock, etc. The current metal scene seems full of either this pretentious closed-minded attitude or desperate to please critics, and I think that's why I don't listen to much new metal these days, mainly just bands I already know I like.