LOCK HORNS RETURNS | Sam Dunn Announces LOCK HORNS REDUX
We have some exciting news to announce. You’ve been asking for it and we couldn’t be more excited to welcome back LOCK HORNS.
While this season won’t be livestreamed, we still want you to be part of the debate!
Our first episode is all about Modern Death Metal and establishing who the essential bands are keeping the death metal torch burning bright into the future.
Leave a comment below with your pick for a modern death metal band that needs to be on our list. Remember – this is Lock Horns – we don’t just want you to scream band names at us, we want well articulated and thoughtful arguments with the facts to back it up.
Let’s Lock Horns once again !
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@dereks7745
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
Bring back the "live" version of Lock Horns. It's not the same any other way.
@Danimal77
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
This was uploaded 2 months ago and still no Lock Horns?
@EXHUMEnCONSUME
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
If "Modern Death Metal" includes Tech Death, Necrophagist is ESSESNTIAL.
@Jason-qe2we
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
When the fuck is this going to happen?!
@MiniulekJr
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
Tomb mold.
@joshdeakin6895
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
I’d like to see the Stoner/Sludge list redone and also an essential albums list for both as well as atmos black!
@jackflorio6483
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
Gatecreeper
@Dedcalm1
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
How soon is soon?
@marcosbaldanza9872
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
The black dahlia murder. Blood incantation. Tomb mold.venom Prison. Ossuarium.gatecreeper. outer heaven. Dying fetus.
@ongdy7076
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
what defines modern death metal: tech death
essential bands: spawn of possession, necrophagist, obscura
years: 1998-present
@matthewwoodfin2165
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
ESSENTIAL ALBUMS EPISODES: NWOBHM, Thrash, Groove, Alternative
BAND CATALOG EPISODES: Ronnie James Dio (All His Bands), Motorhead, Anthrax, Opeth
RECORD LABEL EPISODES: Century Media, Metal Blade, Nuclear Blast, Roadrunner
DISCUSSION EPISODES: Online Access VS. Physical Format?, At What Point Should A Band Stop?
@Spechtologe
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
Sulphur Aeon might still be a bit unpopular but their last 2 albums, gateway to the antisphere and the sxythe of cosmic chaos are two absolute masterpieces of epic, atmospheric, sometimes even doomy, lovecraftian death metal. People have to stop sleeping on them! I would call them modern, because they weave everitgyng sow well together, just haven't heard that from another band yet
@maximus_crotchrocket907
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
nice
@ryancadwell1910
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
We have all kinds of modern death metal and re-emergence of OSDM. Modern death metal started in the late 90's. The Black Dahlia Murder are hugely influential. Tomb Mold, Necrophagist, and Obscura should be included. The Black Dahlia Murder too. Cattle Decap. Bloodbath, Amon Amarth, Exhumed, Revocation, Opeth, Archspire, Arsis, Psycroptic, Tribulation, Gorod, Gatecreeper, Rivers of Nihil, Black Crown Initiate.
@17wadelee
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
It's about freaking time…..
@backslabbath_for_real
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
It looks like the definition of “modern death metal” is very subjective. To me it’s bands that got started after the 90s boom. Bands like Tomb Mold, Dead Congregation and Cruciamentum. They are less technical in terms of production and more raw sounding. There’s also the other revival of early Entombed sounding bands like Gatecreeper to consider. Everything old is new again. There’s the other side to the argument too, the likes of Beyond Creation or Rivers of Nihil with a way more slick and technical sound – their SOUND is more modern, not just strictly chronologically speaking. Maybe modern Death Metal is more of an umbrella term that will soon be subjected to the same sub-genrefication as all metal :p
@AeonsAbyss
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
I’d like to see some debate on Old School Death Metal vs Modern Death Metal. Also what old school bands have been able to transition to modern. For example Nocturnus AD’s new release was not well received but the new Possessed was lauded as album of the year material … it has an old school vibe, but is modern enough to translate to today’s audiences.
@williammolinet6989
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
The beatles
@Malkav65
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
Cattle Decapitation should absolutely be talked about on this Lock Horns. There are many reasons, but I’ll focus on my personal favorite aspect of the band.
Travis Ryan has become the most exciting and creative vocalist in death metal. Listening to the vocals on a modern Decap album gives the impression you’re hearing a cavalcade of guest vocalists. But it’s all just him. And his “cleans” for lack of a better word sound like a gremlin being fed into a paper shredder.
That isn’t to mention his lyrics put a nice twist on death metal’s common theme of misanthropy by coming from an environmentalist standpoint.
@pong86r
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
This will be great! Not sure how to get some of my favorites to get brought up:
Revocation with their technical style and a band that seems like they genuinely enjoy what they do and do it better than most! It's rare to see David Davidson without a smile or smirk while he's killing a solo. And their style doesn't get bland or stale, each song sounds unique to the band. With Ash Pearson taking over drumming duties from Phil Dubois – the right uses of that damn galloping double-bass is the grooviest shit in the genre! I have 2 favorite drummers: Jord Samolesky from Propagandhi, and Ash Pearson
Rivers of Nihil for their mix of the brutal and serene. Where Owls Know My Name was a great introduction to the band, and going through their past catalog is amazing to hear how a band can elevate their sound to raise them above the typical death metal that is available and prove what is possible. I love these guys, not only their music (Soil & Seed!!!) But their stage presence too. Jake Dieffenbach is prepped for a massive following for the band and Adam Biggs' bass skills are wicked! I didn't realize how little the bass is used in death metal until this last summer slaughter tour.
@cratagus4602
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
To look froward in death metal we need to look backwards and realise bands that paved the way throught the turbulent 80's. Lets focus on soundscapes brought by HellHammer, Celtic Frost and Coroner. Olde school for sure but they build the wall of sound that we have grown to love. Today I would include Decapitated, Witches Vomit, Triptikon, Death, Demonical, Firespawn, and Entombed AD. Special mention to Bloodbath and Goatwhore . Two very different bands which share the same style of brutality.
I have been listening to the darkside of music since the early 80's her in Vancouver. I turn 50 this year, and I cant believe the passion and diversity of Todays metal music.
Big props to Banger and Sam for believing in Metal and its passionate fan base. Cheers from Vancouver…
@EduardoHenrique-vf4id
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
Modern is a tough term to define when we talk about a genre in the Metal. I will consider the old formed bands but that continuously improve their sound or the bands just formed back on 2000's.
I definitely include Decapitated as a highlight old band (before 2000's), maybe together with Septicflesh (coincidentally they shared the same drummer somewhere in the timeline).
Bloodbath is an exciting band, but i do not know if it fits the modern context due to the Old School element.
Bringing another elements into Death Metal I should cite Revocation and Insomnium , Fleshgod Apocalypse and Soilwork for the list, each one adding specific caracteristics into Death Metal.
@arturfonseca3596
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
I would like to see the discussion moving around when it became modern death what was new, the references, Bands, álbuns, the lyrics themes and id course the sound part, the guitars, the tunning, the drums, most influencial players on the sub-genre.
@kaidavidolsen7458
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
Modern Death Metal is a useless label. Death Metal has since its inception "split" into many sub-genres: Melodic, Tech, Swedish, Death Doom, Brutal, Progressive etc. And because of its inception point (80's with less genre boundaries) Death Metal enjoys a lot of freedom. To now define what is modern death metal is super hard, because death metal is not only "fractured" but also always has been evolving. For sub-genres and the the big genres, it is easier to define its start than with a term like "modern death metal". Recent sub-genres like Deathcore would qualify more as modern death metal then say great bands from already previous existing subgenres like progressive death metal etc.
A workaround for me personally is to only include bands that started releasing in the early 2000s till now.
And then you have lots of seminal bands of their respective sub-genre :
Brodequin for Brutal Death.
Ulcerate, Horrendous and Obscura for tech-death
Teitanblood, mitochondrion, and Bölzer for Black/Death
Pissgrave and Dead Congregation for being just pure evil DM
Hooded Menace and Coffins for Death-Doom
But wouldn't it be easier to just call it "Death Metal with Bands that started late 90s and released first record in the 2000s" than modern death metal? Or "Best Death Metal bands that started releasing in 2010s"?
Anyway good luck with the trench warfare in the comment section for the lock horns episode.
@brunowilliam7529
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
Modern Death metal for me are death metal bands founded in or after 1996 somewhat (sometimes a bit earlier) that fall into the death metal category and mostly have a sound that is clearly influenced by (sub-)genres of (death)-metal that were or are popular since that time period. I would argue that modern death metal is defined by other extreme metal genres surrounding it.
Popular death metal subgenres that are settled around and to a part in the modern death metal genre category or closely related are:
melodic death metal, brutal death metal, technical death metal, symphonic death metal, deathcore (yes, it IS related, more to this later in the text before you start hating on me).
Most bands of modern death metal are usually classified into one of these genres, because they usually lean into on of them more than into the others and/or have their origin in one of these.
I personally would argue that being in one of these subgenres of death metal doesn't automatically mean they are not also falling into modern death metal. It is really difficult to draw the line. For example psycroptic are very technical, but could also fall into modern death metal with strong tech death influences. Obscura on the other hand are clearly tech death for distinction purposes here.
Modern death metal has a huge range and a lot of variety, bands for me that fall into this category are: black dahlia murder, carnifex, cattle decapitation, whitechapel, septicflesh, aborted, decapitated, gojira, hate eternal, dying fetus, thy art is murder, amon amarth, arch enemy, behemoth…etc.
A specific problem to define modern death metal is deathcore. Early and middle era deathcore was easily dinstinguishable from death metal. But a lot of the bands from those deathcore waves changed their sound over the years and usually they did by incorporating more of their death metal roots into their newer sound. This can clearly be seen by comparing for example "whitechapel – this is exile" and their later work "whitechapel – our endless war". Another example would be carnifex. This can also be seen by increasing tours where originally deathcore bands tour with pure death metal bands which shows how much a lot of the bands from both sides grow closer to each other. For example look up the summer slaughter tour lineup every year.
This distinction problem continues with other subgenres of death metal, but are usually not that much of a deal because the borders are even more fluid and it sometimes is not really possible to draw a line. For example brutal death metal in my eyes is sometimes just a label that modern death metal bands get put on, because they are faster than more old school death metal bands. But this is a discussion for another time.
There is also a relevant group into modern death metal that achieves huge billboard sucess. For example arch enemy, behemoth, amon amarth and gojira. The interesting thing here is, even though they are definetly not as brutal as other bands of the modern death metal genre, they still usually have a distinguishable death metal sound, mixed with a more accessible side to them (but not bad i'm not judging here).
I could continue with other subgenres or groups in the huge modern death metal family, but i hope the argument i said before has become more clearly, why modern death metal is defined by subgenres surrounding it.
@heavymetalcripple
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
Why don't we just pretend that heavy metal is an actual person. We start out being born. We could call that The Golden Years when metal was born with bands like Sabbath, Judas Priest, Motörhead, Led Zeppelin etc then the 80s would be teenage years for a person when we had thrash metal, glam metal, Power metal etc. Then 90s to 2000's is the classy era of a person being more mature and refining our heavy metal tastes. Now if heavy metal was a person today they would be in their late 30s a bit picky with what bands they like and what category and sub genre they belong to. Pretty soon in the near future we will be crotchety and grumpy and have Get off my Lawn Metal!!!
@heavymetalcripple
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
When death metal was just starting in the 90s people who were not into heavy music would have heard the term death metal. Now it's part of the culture and other people who are into metal have you heard of it and even grandmothers know what it is. Modern death metal is he here with all the newer bands incorporating it in their sound.
@polarprison
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
Venom Prison are one of my faves in the present day. Savage death metal with hardcore influences, very talented vocals and musicianship and a strong image with some unique song themes within the genre. Samsara is a fucking sick album
@bassedchad6781
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
I'm inclined to separate death metal eras by decade. Early death metal 80's, classic death metal 90's, death metal fractured like how Sam described it in his make up interview when referred to classic black metal's decline in the late 90's and 00's like many other extreme metal genres. I would label the 2010's our current decade as modern death metal beginning with bands like Undergang who started releasing music and or formed in any year from 2009 onward. Labels play a bigger part in modern death metal such as dark descent, f.d.a rekots, tankcrimes, transcending obscurity, blood harvest, head split and maggot stomp, these bands have a much more sluggish and primal sound like the band previously mentioned undergang similar to modern finnish bands like corpsessed and gorephilia. Bands originating from the U.S. like blood incantation and skeletal remains have faster and more chaotic riffs and solos
@nu-metalfan2654
December 30, 2025 at 11:02 am
Glad to see Lock Horns coming back. Yes I know as my profile name says I'm a Nu-Metal fan. But even though I don't listen, get or like traditional Metal or Extreme Metal music, I do have respect for it and I like to research different Metal subgenres. So I have a lot of respect for Metal, unlike Punk, which I have no respect for whatsoever.
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