Epilogue

Abstract Recently, metal has gradually become less progressionist and more open to retrospection. Strict rules about who or what counts as metal are beginning to relax: there is now hyperfeminine metal; jazz and R&B inclusions have made it to the genre’s most prominent stages; metal songs about real-world politics and emotions and injustices are becoming increasingly common; and rap metal is experiencing a comeback. Many newer top metal bands are retrospective, incorporating sounds from previous decades as often as they pioneer new sonic realms. For some, these developments have been framed as harbingers of the genre’s death. But this chapter explains how it is instead heralding a new post-extreme metal paradigm: extreme metal still exists, but strict progressionist narratives like “leaving the blues behind” are themselves being left behind, as progression toward extremity is no longer the governing ideology of the genre.