Ben: You said the key words, "in my opinion". I'm sorry for attacking you and getting touchy, but it is sorta dumb to make claims about a genre you're not or no longer familiar with, no? Do I not have a point there? It'd be like me saying "EBM is dead." I don't listen to EBM so I really would have no leg to stand on in making such a claim.
As for the whole "I thought they were going for dissonance" deal, not to this extent. Deathspell Omega can be dissonant almost to the point of being atonal. They combine this with melodicism in, well, a way that I frankly cannot put into words, a way that I have not heard done not just in metal, but music as a whole. As for ColdWorld, in depressive black metal, and extreme metal in general, basically any metal (excepting hair metal, but thats not really relevant) that's from 1980 onward, its alws been a throwup between minor, pentatonic, and phrygian. Major scales were generally considered "too happy/hopefu"; so having a depressive black metal band alternate between minor and major scales is unheard of.
So how can a genre be dead when its growing, expanding, breaking down the (frankly, quite thick) walls separating it from the other genres, and music as a whole? Simple answer, it can't. Metal's thriving. It may be turning 44 this year but its stronger and more lively than it has ever been.
Van: Proving my point bout being obtuse for the sake of being obtuse.
No, I'm using guidelines that can be applied to genres as a whole. x genre is dead because it is no longer culturally relevant. Yes, these things are my opinions but what you're saying is opinion as well. Also, you do not need to be an expert in a subject to be able to speak about it. You don't have some certification to prove that you're better than everybody else and using any kind of sources to prove that the things you are saying are facts. So instead of just dismissing my arguments as "dumb" why don't you actually argue against them. When you get frustrated and upset about people not agreeing with you, you don't represent your position well.
In addition to this, adding a new element to an existing thing over and over isn't innovation. That's just adding on to the existing whole. None of these things have brought the genre back to the forefront in terms of cultural relevancy, something you consistently don't address. When we look at culture from the mid to late 80's we'll talk about metal culture and metal music's influence on music as a whole. We're not going to say metal music in 2013 is driving the course of music.