This is moronic. Just because the larger genre of "metal" hit the mainstream, and is now saturated with crap does not mean it is dead. In my opinion nu-metal and all these new commerical watered down bands are just as bad as hair metal, black metal and all the rest.
Metal is always evolving. The correct answer is grindcore, yeap, we were looking for grindcore. Everything else is coming stale or stagnant. Death metal has been over saturated for years. Of course there are a few bands reinventing it, or pushing its limits - but for the mostpart it has stopped.
Then we come to grindcore. Bands like Nasum, Dillinger Escape Plan, Cephalic Carnage, Aborted, Gadget, Splitter, Genghis Tron, Rotten Sound and so on are still breaking boundaries and changing the face of the genre. Thats why I love grind - its progressive. Strains are coming up everywhere blending elements from hardcore, death, thrash, punk, jazz, blues, southern rock - hell some even use bloody electronics and breakbeats.
Metal isnt dead, though if you're only looking at the surface, at the mainstream - well then for you it is. Hahaha.
Oh and by the way, the likes of Kyuss, QOTSA and Monster Magnet are probably closer to rock or stoner metal. Kyuss are dead, Magnet have sucked for years and QOTSA are losing what they once had. Fuzzed out drug fvcked slow rockin tunes arent new to metal, and its not the future... I seem to remember a little band called Sabbath...?
As soon as Metal get's back to song writing the Metal world will be a better place.