In 1958, science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon made a remark on the general state of the SF genre that would live on through the years as an axiom applicable to all human endeavours. The remark will be infamously known as “Sturgeon’s Revelation” or, more familiarly, “Sturgeon’s Law”:
The first reference I can find in his oeuve appears in the March 1958 issue of Venture Science Fiction, where he wrote:
“I repeat Sturgeon’s Revelation, which was wrung out of me after twenty years of wearying defense of science fiction against attacks of people who used the worst examples of the field for ammunition, and whose conclusion was that ninety percent of sf is crud.
“The Revelation: Ninety percent of everything is crud.
“Corallary 1: The existence of immense quantities of trash in science fiction is admitted and if is regrettable; but it is no more unnatural than the existence of trash anywhere.
“Corallary 2: The best science fiction is as good as the best fiction in any field.”
Sturgeon’s Law is applicable to all fields of human creation, including metal music and its different subgenres.
- NWOBHM: for every cool band arising from the genre such as Angelwitch, Diamond Head, Pagan Altar and the like, there were hundreds of bands mixing mostly early 60s rock with some half-assed, early-Judas Priest rip-off attempt. Mediocre acts such as Tygers of Pan Tang, Praying Mantis, Mythra, Def Leppard and the like were the norm back when the movement exploded in popularity.
- Speed Metal: there was only one Metallica, one Kreator, one Sodom, and many, many Kublai Khans, Evil Deads, Xentrixes, D.A.M.s and Atrophies pouring out uninspired, pussified drivel to bores us to death.
- Death Metal: story repeats itself here. For every masterpiece of the subgenre such as “Like an Ever Flowing Stream”, there was either a lot of wannabe brutal crap or randomly pasted bad speed metal riffs with death growls on top that drowned the genre into irrelevance.
- Black Metal: oh shit, where do we begin here? Let’s just say that the genre was at its most brilliant creative phase when only a handful of bands scattered on different parts of the world such as Norway, Greece, Switzerland, the US and certain south american localities made the most powerful and influential works of the genre. Now, it takes only a small game of “I know one who knows another” to easily link you to any of the thousand wannabe garage black metal bands expecting to be the next legend in the subgenre. And where are the exceptional works of our time? Eeehhh…
Most of the mediocre stuff that plagued each of the metal genres from speed metal downwards have thankfully dissapeared with the years, but some were revived by the shouts of the hipsters demanding 4 LP “die hard” collector versions of the reissues. We can thank them for that.
But don’t despair. As in Sci-Fi, the metal genre may have way too much fat on it, but that doesn’t mean that it’s dying. Rather, the current downfall of the genre is caused by our excessive tolerance of run-of-the-mill music with no intent, passion and spirit on it. That brings us to another point: the fact that metal needs to be fresh again in order to pursue new creative heights. A genre of art, whether it is science fiction or metal music, is defined by the quality of the few acts that can pull the task off, not by the total number of bands.
What should we support, then: the crud, or the good?
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As a humble attempt to bring some ideas to the table in order to 
Celtic Frost’s members well documented obsession with history, legend and esoteric themes gave them an approach towards creating music that was more about describing a mood around which certain lyrics, as mini-narrations, enhanced the atmosphere presented. And, like Kraftwerk, each album differed from each other in the concepts it portrayed and the adjustment of style towards that goal, from the primitive, rapid bursting of anger in “Morbid Tales”, to the mythical and barbarian otherwordly scenery of “To Mega Therion” , to the hedonist, self-punishing operatic drama of “Into the Pandemonium” (some detractors might even say that this album is punishing on its own merit, but I think that, while not perfect, it is a respectable effort).
One of the things we need to do in order to keep furthering the craft of metal is to leave behind our obsession with style and instead worry of taking each album we pursue as a fresh chance to start over. Otherwise, musicians easily lose ideas as they quickly run out of them if those are constructed around a single theme. We can learn from the aforementioned acts and demand more of our craft and of ourselves in order to reach a brilliant future for the genre.
). Burzum’s as follows: “Det Som Engang Var”, “Hvis Lyset Tar Oss” and “Filosofem”. Notice that these aren’t “best ofs”, but a selection to further the comprehension of what has been said here. 
Once the initial downslope of metal, following the black explosion of the early 90s, spawned genericism by the ton in the form of symphonic pseudo-black metal, wimpy brutal death metal for high school jocks and related abominations, foreboding the birth of metalcore, the devoted bangers of the old guard, along with a new crop of underground warriors high on old acts from the 80s in the heavy, speed and thrash subgenres of metal reacted by attempting to bring the old school sound back. This new movement, brought with the best of intentions, would eventually become a trend of it own. You know what they say about Hell and good intentions leading to it. I can’t think of any better example on our favorite music genre than this one.
Still, guitar solo expertise cannot be easily disposed of. There are exceptions but, for the most part, metal has technical competence and skill deeply implanted into its DNA. So do certain rock, jazz and classical. Now, the choice for us is that virtuosism can be used either as an end (masturbatory fiddling with a simple rock’n roll background) or as a means towards a greater expression of an idea or emotion (classical, baroque guitar music and other examples).