Are META tags dead?

No, they are not dead... The Title tag is very important. It is what shows in the SERPS, as well as the bookmarks and browser bar of the end user. A lot of my sites rank well based on the description meta tag. When I search for my keywords and see my site listed, a lot of the time it is pulling from the meta description. Another example. I had a site that was not doing well in the SERPS, so I changed it to a completely different theme. I forgot to change the meta tags, and a few weeks later, I started to get traffic on those old meta tag keywords. The meta tags are right at the top of your html and you should take advantage of every chance you get to put in a few extra keywords or phrases. The meta tags may not be as important as they once were, but they most certainly are not dead. It only takes a minute or two to fill them in.