Rolling Stone published a piece today (Dec. 21) titled Why Mainstream Rock Music Sucked in 2018. The article breaks down the genre's current state, claiming that it's a shell of its former self and roasting multiple bands in the process. It refers to Five Finger Death Punch members as "professional ‘roid ragers," Greta Van Fleet as "expert forgeries" and Bad Wolves as "overproduced schlock," among others. Read two brief excerpts below.

The year’s biggest hits included overproduced schlock like Imagine Dragons and Bad Wolves, expert forgeries like Greta Van Fleet and whole lot of music, quizzically, from last year. That’s right, multiple songs from 2017 comprise 2018’s biggest singles.

 

Nu-metal stalwarts Godsmack are forever pissed off and hating the world on their Number One, “Bulletproof.” Badflower ruminate on suicide and want to haunt everyone on “Ghost.” And the professional ‘roid ragers in Five Finger Death Punch want to death-punch everyone who’s ever shit-talked them.

It's no secret that rock music is currently less commercially viable than other sectors of music, such as hip-hop. But what those on the outside don't see is the dedicated, passionate community that still holds rock and metal bands up. We see it every day in the comments on Loudwire's social outlets. If millions of people engage with our content when rock music supposedly "sucked" the whole last year, imagine what will happen when it gains commercial momentum again.

You can read Rolling Stone's piece in full here, and see why 2019 is going to be rock and metal's biggest year in a long time below.

2019’s Most Anticipated Hard Rock + Metal Albums

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