Heavy metal music

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Heavy metal
Stylistic origins:	Psychedelic rock Blues-rock Hard rock
Cultural origins:	Late 1960s United Kingdom and United States
Typical instruments:	Guitar - Bass - Drums
Mainstream popularity:	Worldwide, mainly in the 1980s.
Subgenres
Avant-garde metal - Black metal - Classic metal - Death metal - Doom metal - Folk metal - Glam metal - Gothic metal - Groove metal - Power metal - Progressive metal - Speed metal - Thrash metal - Viking Metal
Fusion genres
Alternative metal - Christian metal - Funk metal - Grindcore - Industrial metal - Metalcore - Nu metal - Rapcore - Symphonic metal
Regional scenes
Gothenburg - Britain - Bay Area
Other topics
Fashion - History - Bands - Umlaut - Blast beat

Heavy metal (sometimes referred to simply as metal) is a genre of rock music that developed between 1968 and 1974.^[1] With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, heavy, guitar-and-drums-centered sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion and fast guitar solos. Allmusic declares, "Of all rock & roll's myriad forms, heavy metal is the most extreme in terms of volume, machismo, and theatricality."^[2]

Heavy metal has long had a worldwide following of fans known as "metalheads" or "headbangers". Although early heavy metal bands such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath attracted large audiences, they were critically reviled at the time, a status common throughout the history of the genre. As the original wave of heavy metal bands began to wane, the late 1970s brought the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, which stripped away much of the music's blues influence and fused it with a punk rock sensibility.

Heavy metal became broadly popular during the 1980s, when many now-widespread subgenres first evolved. Variations more aggressive and extreme than metal music of the past were mostly restricted to an underground audience; others, including glam metal and, to a lesser extent, thrash metal went on to mainstream commercial success. In recent years, new styles such as nu metal have further expanded the definition of the genre.

Contents 1 Characteristics 1.1 Musical language 1.1.1 Rhythm and groove 1.1.2 Chords 1.1.3 Typical harmonic relationships 1.2 Classical influence 1.3 Themes 1.4 Heavy metal movements 2 Origin of the term heavy metal 3 History 3.1 Origins and early popularity (1960s and early 1970s) 3.2 Mainstream dominance (late 1970s and 1980s) 3.3 Underground metal (1980s, 1990s, and 2000s) 3.3.1 Thrash metal 3.3.2 Death metal 3.3.3 Black metal 3.3.4 Power metal 3.3.5 Doom metal 3.4 Alternative metal (1990s and 2000s) 3.5 Recent trends (mid-2000s) 4 See also 5 Sources 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Characteristics

Heavy metal is typically characterized by a guitar-and-drum-dominated sound, strong rhythms and classical, bluesy or symphonic styles. However, heavy metal sub-genres contain their own stylistic variations that often omit or alter many of these characteristics. The most commonly used line-up for a metal band is a drummer, a bassist, a rhythm guitarist, a lead guitarist, and a singer —who may or may not be an instrumentalist. Keyboards were popular with early metal bands —especially the organ and occasionally the mellotron— though their use is less usual in recent years. Today they are used by some styles —prog metal, and later black metal— and shunned by others, though as different subgenres develop they have begun to become more popular.

Heavy metal songs rely largely on strong, purely instrumental components.^[3] The guitar and the sonic power that it projects through amplification is the key element in heavy metal music.^[4] Guitars are often played through distortion pedals to create a more powerful and "heavy'" sound. A key aspect of much heavy metal is the guitar solo. As the genre developed, more intricate solos and riffs became an integral part of heavy metal music. Guitarists use sweep-picking, tapping and other advanced techniques for rapid playing, and many sub-genres place virtuosity over simplicity. As technology developed, new ways of altering the guitar's sound were adopted. In the early part of the 1970s, bands with two lead guitarists began to emerge. Many bands, such as Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, would follow this pattern of having two guitarists share the role of both lead and rhythm guitar.

The role of the guitar in heavy metal often collides against that of the vocalist, crafting a musical tension. Both guitar and vocals have equal importance in heavy metal.^[5] Metal vocals vary widely in style. Vocalists' abilities and styles range from the multi-octave theatrical vocals of Judas Priest's Rob Halford and Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson, to the intentionally gruff vocals of Metallica's James Hetfield and Lemmy from Motörhead.

The bass serves an important role in most metal. Unlike standard rock, the bass is always present; it is the low end sound of the bass that makes the music "heavy."^[6] In addition to this, the bass is usually heavily distorted and is accompanied by a variety of effects pedals. The bassists in metal bands often use picks instead of their fingers to get a much more heavy and rough sound. It is also not uncommon to hear Bass solos far more often, particularly in the first few bars of a song. The drum setup is generally much larger than with other forms of rock music.^[7] Aside from the standard toms, bass drum, snare, hi hat, ride and crash, they may have as many as a dozen toms and many cymbals, as well as other instruments such as a cowbell.

In terms of the live sound, volume is often considered as vital.^[8] Following the lead set by Jimi Hendrix and The Who —who once held the distinction of "The World's Loudest Band" in the Guinness Book Of World Records— early heavy metal bands set new benchmarks for volume during shows. Tony Iommi, guitarist in heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, is just one of the early heavy metal musicians to suffer considerable hearing loss due to their live volume. Detroit rocker Ted Nugent and guitarist Pete Townshend of The Who are both now nearly deaf. Heavy metal's volume fixation was mocked in the rockumentary spoof This Is Spinal Tap by guitarist "Nigel Tufnel", who revealed that his Marshall amplifiers had been modified to "go up to eleven."^[9]

[edit] Musical language

[edit] Rhythm and groove

A specific rhythmic groove based on dynamic patterns frequently in staccato, thanks to palm muting. The rhythmic patterns often —though not always— use short binary or tertiary equal rhythmic figures; generally the 8th or 16th notes.^[10] In metaphorical terms, this means that heavy metal is often characterized by the use of dynamic and off-handed rhythmic patterns thanks to the adjunction of small rhythmic abrupt cells. Heavy metal often employs large and long rhythmic figures, most particularly in slow tempo songs such as ballads.

[edit] Chords

One of the signatures of the genre is the frequent use of power chords by the guitarist.^[11] The power is considered as a "chord" comprising one main interval;^[12] generally the perfect fifth, though an octave may be added as a doubling of the root. Sometimes some other types of power chords are used:^[13] often the traditional perfect fifth is replaced by a further interval such as the fourth, the minor third/-major third, the diminished fifth and the minor sixth.

[edit] Typical harmonic relationships

Heavy metal is usually riff-based. Riffs are frequently created with 3 main harmonic traits: modal scales progressions, tritone and chromatic progressions, and the use of pedal point.

Modal harmony

Traditional heavy metal tends to make a common use of modal scales, in particular the Aeolian and Phrygian modes.^[14] Harmonically speaking this means the genre typically incorporates characteristic modal chords progessions such as: I-VI –VII, I VII-(VI) or I-VI –IV- VII, or sometimes I- minor V-I. Examples include Judas Priest- Breaking the Law (main riff: I- VI-VII), Iron Maiden - Hallowed be thy Name (main rhythmic pattern: I- VI-VII), Accept- Princess of the Dawn (main riff: I- VI-VII).

Tritone and chromatism

However one of the most frequent harmonic trademark of many heavy metal subgenre is the use of tense harmony; such as chromatic or tritone relationships.^[15] Several music experts and musicians have noted of the role of the tritone in heavy metal,^[16] a dissonant interval consisting of a root note and an augmented fourth. C and F sharp. This interval was banned from medieval singing because of its dissonant nature, which led monks to call it Diabolus in Musica —"the devil in music". Because of that original symbolic association, it was slowly assimilated in western cultural conventions as “evil”. Today the interval tends to suggest an "oppressive", "scary," or "evil" sound. Heavy metal has made extensive use of Diabolus in Musica because of these connotative qualities, and it is frequently used in guitar solos and riffs, for example at the beginning of Black Sabbath's eponymous song.

Pedal point

Heavy metal often makes extensive use of pedal point as a harmonic basis. A pedal point is a sustained tone, typically in the lower tones during which at least one foreign, i.e. dissonant, harmony is sounded in the other parts ^[17]. Heavy metal riffs are frequently constructed over a persistent repeating note played on the low strings of the bass or rhythmic guitar, most usually on the E, A and D strings.^[18] In other words, a same bass note —most frequently low E or A — is persistently repeated while some differents chords are successively played, including chords that normally wouldn't include that bass note in their constitution. An example is the opening riff on Judas priest "You gotta another thing coming". In this case one guitar plays the pedal point in F#, while the second guitar plays the chords.

Other scales

Beside the modal scales, heavy metal bands often incorporate other scales in their solos. The harmonic minor scale is the typical classical minor scale and many classical influenced guitarists such has Ritchie Blackmore, Yngwie Malmsteen or Uli Jon Roth^[19] tend to make an extensive use of it. Despite the fact Heavy metal tends to drop the typical bluesy harmonic flavour (I- IV-I –V- IV),some heavy metal guitarists may use the pentatonic and the blues scales in melodic licks over modal chord progressions. Notable examples include Tony Iommi,^[20] Ritchie Blackmoore,^[21] KK Downing,^[22] Glenn Tipton,^[23] and Wolf Hoffmann.^[24]

[edit] Classical influence

The appropriation of "classical" music by heavy metal typically includes the influence of Baroque, Romantic, and Modernist composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Niccolò Paganini, Richard Wagner, Ludwig van Beethoven, Bela Bartok and Igor Stravinsky. And the ever evocative tritone was already exploited by Romantic composers like Liszt, and most specifically by modern classical composers —such as Bartok, Stravinsky or Schoenberg— who used it especially for its anguishing and dark connotative qualities. Deep Purple/Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore had been experimenting with musical figurations borrowed from classical music since the early 1970s. Following Ritchie Blackmore, Randy Rhoads and Uli Jon Roth, the "classical" influence in metal guitar during the 1980s looked to the early eighteenth century for its model of speed and technique; notably, classically inspired guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, whose technical prowess inspired a myriad of neo-classical metal players including Michael Romeo, Michael Angelo Batio and Tony MacAlpine. However, while many heavy metal musicians have cited classical composers as inspiration, heavy metal—both aesthetically and socially—has little in common with classical music, historical or contemporary.^[25]

Many specialists and critics have observed that heavy metal musicians often focus on and borrow superficial aspects of classical music, including motives, melodies, and scales. However, heavy metal bands, including neo classical and progressive metal bands, generally do not try to exploit the compositional depth and complexity of classical music. Players who cite Bach as an influence seldom make use of the complex counterpoint, which is central to the composers work. Furthermore, the extensive use of power chords in heavy metal —implying countless consecutive fifths— goes against one of the main principles of classical music. The use of consecutive fifths and octaves is a violation of an important rule of harmony and classical aesthetic. ^[26]

[edit] Themes

Common themes in heavy metal lyrics are sex, violence, fantasy, and the occult. Bands including Led Zeppelin and the glam metal bands of the 1980s often had an explicitly sexual nature to their music. Through the late 1970s and early 1980s, pioneering heavy metal bands often included outlandish and fantasy-inspired lyrics, lending them an escapist quality. Iron Maiden wrote songs inspired by mythology, fiction and poetry, such as in "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" which is based on the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem of the same name. Other examples include Black Sabbath's "Fairies Wear Boots" and "The Wizard", Megadeth's "The Conjuring" and "Five Magics," and Judas Priest's "Dreamer Deceiver." Other artists base their lyrics on war, nuclear annihilation, environmental issues, and political or religious propaganda. Examples include Black Sabbath's "War Pigs", Ozzy Osbourne's "Killer of Giants", Metallica's ...And Justice for All, Iron Maiden's" 2 Minutes to Midnight", Accept's "Balls to the Wall" and Rage Against the Machine's entire catalog. Death is a predominant theme in heavy metal, and features in the lyrical content of artists such as Black Sabbath, Metallica, and W.A.S.P.. Themes of darkness, evil, power and apocalypse are language components for addressing the reality of human existence, and heavy metal developed as a reaction to the "peace and love" hippie culture of the 1960s.

As with much popular music, visual imagery plays a large role in heavy metal. Album covers and stage shows are as much a part of the presentation of the material as the music itself. A heavy metal band's "image" is associated with the thematic content of their lyrics, and is expressed in album sleeve art, stage sets, and the clothes of the band, as well as the sound of the music.

The thematic content of heavy metal has long been a target of criticism. Music critics have often deemed metal lyrics and imagery banal, and others have objected to what they see as the advocacy of misogyny and the occult. For instance, during the 1980s the Parents Music Resource Center petitioned the United States Congress to help regulate the music industry due to objectionable lyrics, particularly those in heavy metal songs.

[edit] Heavy metal movements

There are certain body movements that are widely performed at heavy metal concerts, including headbanging, moshing, and various hand gestures such as the infamous devil horns, which was brought to popularity by vocalist Ronnie James Dio during his time with Black Sabbath and his solo band Dio^[16] (although Gene Simmons claims to have used this first).^[27]Stage diving, air guitar, and crowd surfing are also practiced, though air guitar practices are less popular today.

[edit] Origin of the term heavy metal

The origin of the term heavy metal in relation to a form of music is uncertain. The phrase had been used for centuries in chemistry and metallurgy and is listed as such in the Oxford English Dictionary. An early use of the term in modern popular culture was by counter-culture writer William S. Burroughs. In the 1962 novel, The Soft Machine, he introduces the character "Uranian Willy, the Heavy Metal Kid". His next novel in 1964, Nova Express, develops this theme further, with heavy metal being a metaphor for addictive drugs: "With their diseases and orgasm drugs and their sexless parasite life forms — Heavy Metal People of Uranus wrapped in cool blue mist of vaporized bank notes — And the Insect People of Minraud with metal music."^[28]

Metal historian Ian Christe notes the meanings of the individual components of the term in "hippiespeak": "heavy" meaning anything with a potent mood, and "metal" designating what that mood would be, grinding and weighted as with metal.^[29] The word "heavy" (meaning serious or profound) had entered beatnik/counterculture slang some time earlier and references to "heavy music"—typically slower, more amplified variations of standard pop fare—were already common; indeed, Iron Butterfly first started playing Los Angeles in 1967, their name explained on an album cover, "Iron- symbolic of something heavy as in sound, Butterfly- light, appealing and versatile...an object that can be used freely in the imagination". Iron Butterfly's 1968 debut album was entitled Heavy. The first recorded use of heavy metal in a song lyric is the phrase "heavy metal thunder" in the 1968 Steppenwolf song "Born To Be Wild":^[30] "I like smoke and lightning/Heavy metal thunder/Racin' with the wind/And the feelin' that I'm under." A late, but disputed, hypothesis about the origin of the genre was brought forth by "Chas" Chandler, who was a manager of the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1969, in an interview on the PBS TV program "Rock and Roll" in 1995. He states that "...it [heavy metal] was a term originated in a New York Times article reviewing a Jimi Hendrix performance," and claims the author described the Jimi Hendrix Experience "...like listening to heavy metal falling from the sky." The precise source of this claim, however, has not been found and its accuracy is disputed.

The first documented usage of the term to describe a musical style is in a May 1971 Creem review of Sir Lord Baltimore's Kingdom Come: "Sir Lord Baltimore seems to have down pat most all the best heavy metal tricks in the book".^[31] Creem critic Lester Bangs is credited with popularizing the term in the early 1970s in describing bands such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.^[32] "Heavy metal" may have been used as a jibe initially by a number of music critics but was quickly adopted by its adherents.

The terms "heavy metal" and "hard rock" are often used interchangeably, in particular when discussing bands from the 1970s, a period when the terms were largely synonymous.^[33] Many of the early acts identified with the metal genre are not considered heavy metal bands by the present-day metal community. For example, Ian Christe, in Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal (2003), labels bands whose sound was more similar to traditional rock music as "hard rock" or "proto-metal", while naming Black Sabbath and Judas Priest as the true progenitors of the genre.^[34]

[edit] History

[edit] Origins and early popularity (1960s and early 1970s)

American blues music was a major influence on the early British rockers. Bands like The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds recorded covers of many classic blues songs, using electric guitar where many of the originals had used acoustic and sometimes speeding up the tempo. As they experimented with the music, the UK blues-based bands—and the U.S. acts they influenced in turn—developed what would become the hallmarks of heavy metal: At the core was a virtuosic guitar style, loud, distorted, often dissonant.^[35] Where the blues-rock drumming style started out largely as simple shuffle beats on small kits, drummers began using a more muscular, complex, and amplified approach to match and be heard against the increasingly loud guitar sounds.^[36] Vocalists similarly modified their technique and increased their reliance on amplification, often becoming more stylized and dramatic. Simultaneous advances in amplification and recording technology made it possible to successfully capture the power of this heavier approach on record.

The combination of blues-rock and psychedelic rock largely resulted in the creation of heavy metal.^[37] One of the most influential bands in forging that merger was the power trio Cream, who derived a massive, heavy sound from unison riffing between guitarist Eric Clapton and bassist Jack Bruce, as well as Ginger Baker's double bass drumming.^[38] Their first two LPs, Fresh Cream (1966) and Disraeli Gears (1967)—along with the Jimi Hendrix Experience's Are You Experienced (1967)—are regarded as essential prototypes for the future style. In 1968, the sound that would become known as heavy metal began to coalesce. Many scholars and fans point to Blue Cheer's cover of Eddie Cochran's classic "Summertime Blues," released in January 1968, as the first true heavy metal song.^[39] In July, three epochal records came out: Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild," with its seminal "heavy metal" lyric; The Yardbirds' "Think About It"—B-side of the band's last single—with a performance by guitarist Jimmy Page anticipating the metal sound he would soon make famous; and Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, with its 17-minute-long title track, a prime candidate for first-ever heavy metal album. In August, The Beatles' single version of "Revolution," with its redlined guitar and drum sound, set new standards for distortion in a top-selling context. The Jeff Beck Group, whose leader had preceded Page as The Yardbirds' guitarist, released its debut record that same month: Truth is another candidate for first heavy metal album.^[40] In October, Page's new band, Led Zeppelin, made its live debut. In November, Love Sculpture, with guitarist Dave Edmunds, put out Blues Helping, featuring a pounding, aggressive version of Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance." The Beatles' so-called White Album, which also came out that month, included "Helter Skelter," one of the heaviest-sounding songs ever released by a major band.^[41] In January 1969, Led Zeppelin's first LP appeared and reached number 10 on the Billboard album chart. In October, Led Zeppelin II went to number 1. The metal revolution was under way.

Led Zeppelin defined central aspects of the emerging genre, with Page's highly distorted guitar style and singer Robert Plant's dramatic, wailing vocals.^[42] Other bands, with a more consistently heavy, "purely" metal sound, would prove equally important in codifying the genre. The 1970 releases by Black Sabbath (Black Sabbath and Paranoid) and Deep Purple (Deep Purple in Rock) were crucial in this regard.^[43] Black Sabbath had developed a particularly heavy sound in part due to an industrial accident guitarist Tony Iommi suffered before cofounding the band. Unable to play normally, Iommi had to tune his guitar down for easier fretting and rely on power chords with their relatively simple fingering.^[44] Deep Purple had fluctuated between styles in its early years, but by 1969 vocalist Ian Gillan and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore had led the band toward the developing heavy metal style.^[45] In 1970, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple scored major UK chart hits with "Paranoid" and "Black Night," respectively. That same year, two other British bands released debut albums in a heavy metal mode: Uriah Heep with Very 'eavy... Very 'umble and UFO with UFO 1. The occult lyrics and imagery employed by Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep would prove particularly influential; Led Zeppelin also began foregrounding such elements with its fourth album, released in 1971.

Other heavy metal bands emerged, such as Blue Öyster Cult (first LP in 1972), Scorpions (1972), Kiss (1974), and Rainbow (1975), whose constant touring and increasingly elaborate stage shows became closely identified with the genre.^[46] As with Led Zeppelin and even Deep Purple, there are arguments about whether these and other early bands truly qualify as "heavy metal" or simply as "hard rock." In certain cases, there is little argument. Though Judas Priest—which debuted with Rocka Rolla in 1974—did not have a top 40 album in the U.S. until 1980, for many it was the definitive 1970s heavy metal band and a major influence on later acts.^[47] While heavy metal was becoming increasingly popular, most critics were not enamored of the music, objecting to its reliance on visual spectacle and what they perceived as commercial artifice.^[48]

[edit] Mainstream dominance (late 1970s and 1980s)

Punk rock emerged in the mid-1970s as a reaction against social conditions in contemporary society as well as the overindulgent music of the decade, including heavy metal. Facing disinterest from major labels fixated on punk, while still energized by the punk sound and its do-it-yourself ethos, many newer British heavy metal bands put out releases independently to small, devoted audiences.^[50] British music papers such as the NME and Sounds began to take notice of these bands, with Sounds writer Geoff Barton christening the movement the "New Wave of British Heavy Metal."^[51] NWOBHM bands including Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Saxon, Diamond Head, and Def Leppard reenergized the heavy metal genre by toughening up the sound, reducing the blues influence, and emphasizing the punk influenced tempos.^[52] By the 1980s some bands like Iron Maiden and Def Leppard became internationally successful while other bands like Diamond Head and Venom, while not successful, became influential on subsequent bands.^[53]

By comparison, the previous generation of metal bands were seen as out of date. Led Zeppelin was out of the limelight for much of the late seventies, Deep Purple had broken up in 1975, and Black Sabbath was routinely upstaged in concert by its opening act, the Los Angeles band Van Halen.^[54] Guitar virtuosity was brought to the forefront of the genre by Eddie Van Halen, and many consider his 1978 solo "Eruption" (Van Halen, 1978) a milestone.^[55] Ritchie Blackmore, formerly of Deep Purple, Randy Rhoads, and Yngwie Malmsteen went on to further virtuoso guitar work; in some cases, classical nylon-stringed guitars were played at concerts and albums, including Rhoades' "Dee" on Blizzard of Ozz. Classical icons such as Liona Boyd became associated with the heavy metal stars in a newly diverse guitar fraternity where conservative and aggressive guitarists could come together to "trade licks."

Heavy metal's success blossomed in the wake of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with a rash of successful early 1980s releases. Following Van Halen's lead, a metal scene began to develop in Los Angeles during the late 1970s. The first wave of glam metal included the likes of Mötley Crüe, Ratt, W.A.S.P., Dokken and Twisted Sister. Early glam metal groups were influenced by the original heavy metal bands such as Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin^{[56][57][58][59][60]},^[61] incorporating guitar solos into the majority of their songs. Bands such as Mötley Crüe and W.A.S.P. expanded on the foundations laid by Alice Cooper and Kiss in regards to stage show, often venturing into shock rock territory. At times the likes of Dio, Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest^[62] experimented with glam metal stylings in their music.

Heavy metal's popularity continued to grow as the decade ventured on, and several professional and amateur magazines devoted primarily to the genre emerged, including Kerrang! and Metal Hammer. Billboard noted "Metal has broadened its audience base. Metal music is no longer the exclusive domain of male teenagers. the metal audience had widened, gathering older (college-aged), younger (pre-teen), and more female."^[63]

[edit] Underground metal (1980s, 1990s, and 2000s)

Many subgenres of heavy metal developed during the 1980s.^[64] Several attempts have been made to map the complex world of underground metal, most notably by the editors of the online All Music Guide, as well as critic Garry Sharpe-Young. Sharpe-Young's multi-volume metal encyclopedias separate the underground into five major categories: thrash metal, death metal, black metal, power metal, and, lastly, the related sub-genres of doom and gothic metal.

[edit] Thrash metal

For more details on this topic, see Thrash metal

In a move away from metal's hard rock roots, a genre that took influences from hardcore punk emerged in the 1980s — thrash metal.^[65] The genre's sound was more aggressive, louder and faster than the original metal bands or their glam metal contemporaries, while the guitar work was often more technically complex.^[65] Peter Steel of Type O Negative described thrash as a form of "urban blight music", and a palefaced cousin of rap.^[66]

The subgenre was popularized by the Big Four Of Thrash; Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica, and Slayer;^[67] while bands such as San Francisco's Testament and Exodus, New Jersey's Overkill and Brazil's Sepultura also made an impact. With the exception of Metallica, whose albums consistently sold in the millions^[68] and appeared on the Billboard charts during the 1980s,^[69] thrash was more underground in terms of sales and media coverage, compared to more popular subgenres. Yet by the start of the 1990s thrash had broken into the mainstream, with major releases like Metallica's 1991 album Metallica selling millions of copies worldwide, while lesser-known thrash bands including Exodus and Testament achieved various levels of success.^[70]

[edit] Death metal

For more details on this topic, see Death metal

In the early and mid-1990s, thrash began to evolve and split into more extreme metal genres such as death metal and black metal. Death metal has its origins in bands such as Slayer and Venom, and incorporated those band's use of blasphemy and diabolism. The term is thought to have originated from Possessed's song "Death Metal", from their Seven Churches album. Death metal utilized the speed and aggression of both Thrash and Hardcore, and fused it with lyrics preoccupied with X-grade slasher movie violence and Satanism.^[72] Death metal generally rejected the theatrics of previous subgenres, and opted instead for an everyday look of ripped jeans and plain leather jackets.^[73] Exceptions to this rule included Deicide's Glen Benton, who branded an inverted cross on his forehead, and wore armor on stage, and Morbid Angel, who adopted neo-fascist imagery.^[73]

Many death metal bands would eventually showcase levels of speed and technicality that were previously unheard of, and while skilled guitar work remained valued, death metal featured a more prominent role from versatile, fast drummers. Death metal vocals are typically bleak^[74] and involve guttural growling, high-pitched screaming, and other such atonal vocalizations that are usually not found in other genres of music. Complimenting the deep, aggressive vocal style are downtuned, highly distorted guitars,^[72] as well as extremely fast percussion, which often make use of rapid double bass drumming and syncopation. Frequent tempo and time signature changes are typical. The rising popularity of death metal lead to many of the thrash bands falling from favour. Some adapted, including Slayer, who incorporated a Nazi eagle into their logo and wrote songs about Josef Mengele. The result was a following from far right skinheads, and accusations of Nazi sympathizing and racism that have dogged the band since.^[75] In the UK, the sound of death metal was fused with the politics of anarcho-punk bands such as Crass and Subhumans, and gave birth to the grindcore subgenre, including bands such as Extreme Noise Terror, Napalm Death, and Electro Hippies.^[76]

[edit] Black metal

For more details on this topic, see Black metal

Black metal emerged in Scandinavia in the late 1980s, and remains mainly restricted to the metal underground. Satanic and pagan themes are common in the genre. Black metal can vary considerably in its production quality and style, although most bands make use of shrieked and growled vocals, highly distorted guitars and emphasize a "dark" atmosphere.^[74]

Presaged by Venom, Hellhammer, and Bathory, black metal largely began with Norway's Mayhem.^[77] Eventually the Scandinavian black metal scene produced a rumored inner circle of bands that would become associated with considerable violence in the early 90s.^[78] By 1990, Mayhem had begun to wear corpsepaint during concerts and band photo shoots. According to Mayhem drummer Metalion: "Death metal bands would play shows wearing jogging suits and [we] were totally against that".^[79] By 1991, the rush by record labels to sign death metal bands created a backlash, and the underground rushed to support bands that would act against the co-option and dilution of their scenes.^[80] Mayhem and Burzum became mired in accusations of church burning and Satanism.

A power struggle between Mayhem's Euronymous and Burzum's Varg Vikernes lead to the murder of the former by the latter, and resulted in worldwide attention for the scene.^[81] By the end of the 1990s black metal bands had emerged outside of Scandinavia, with British band Cradle of Filth selling half a million records in Europe,^[82] although whether they are a black metal band has long been debated.^[83]

[edit] Power metal

For more details on this topic, see Power metal

During the 1990s power metal developed as a reaction to the harshness of death and black metal.^[84] Largely a European phenomenon, power metal focuses on upbeat and epic themes and melodies that "appeal to the listener's sense of valor and loveliness."^[85] Power metal usually involves high pitched "clean singing" similar to that of NWOBHM vocalists, such as Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, as opposed to death grunts. Traditional power metal bands including Manowar and Hammerfall have a sound close to classic heavy metal, while more recent power metal bands such as Rhapsody of Fire, Kamelot and Symphony X often have a strong keyboard based symphonic influence, sometimes using orchestra and opera singers. Power metal has gained a strong fanbase in Japan and South America, where bands like Brazil's Angra or Argentina's Rata Blanca are popular.

Closely related to power metal is progressive metal, a fusion of the progressive stylings of bands like Rush, King Crimson and heavy metal. This style began in the 1980s, with innovators such as Fates Warning, Queensrÿche, and Dream Theater enjoying commercial success and devoted followings in subsequent years.The shredding of the electric guitar is also a characteristic of power metal musicians like Michael Romeo and Yngwie J. Malmsteen are some of the most recognized of the power metal shredders.^[86]

[edit] Doom metal

For more details on this topic, see Doom metal

At a time when thrash ruled the metal underground, a new genre known as doom metal took an opposite approach. Beginning in the 1980s with such bands as Saint Vitus and The Obsessed, doom metal rejected the emphasis on speed, slowing its music to a crawl. Doom metal traces its roots back to early Black Sabbath albums, and incorporates lyrical themes and musical approaches indebted to Sabbath^[87] and Sabbath contemporaries such as Blue Cheer, Pentagram, and Black Widow.^[88] Doom metal emphasizes melody, melancholy tempos, and a dark mood in comparison to most other metal subgenres.^[89]

In the early 1990s, the doom-death fusion style of bands such as Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema gave rise to gothic metal, with its signature dual-vocalist arrangements, exemplified by Theatre of Tragedy and Tristania. Led by Therion's incorporation of classical elements, gothic metal in turn spawned the symphonic metal movement.

Meanwhile, Sleep, inspired by the earlier doom metal bands, spearheaded the rise of stoner metal,^[90], and Seattle's Earth helped develop the drone metal subgenre.^[91] The late 1990s saw the emergence of new bands such as the doom metal Goatsnake and Sunn 0))), which crosses lines between doom, drone, and dark ambient metal—the New York Times has compared their sound to an "Indian raga in the middle of an earthquake".^[89]

[edit] Alternative metal (1990s and 2000s)

For more details on this topic, see Alternative metal and Nu metal

The era of metal dominating the mainstream came to an end with the emergence of Nirvana and other grunge bands that signaled the popular breakthrough of alternative rock.^[92][93] Grunge bands were influenced partly by heavy metal but rejected the excesses of the more popular metal bands. Already weakened by the popularity of Metallica, glam metal fell out of popular favor in the early 1990s thanks to the success of grunge.^[94] Also notable was the success of Pantera, whose groove metal was equally responsible for the demise of 1980s metal, according to some critics.^[95] Older metal records continued to sell during the 1990s, and a few newer bands like Pantera had commercial success during the period, yet "In the dull eyes of the mainstream, metal was dead."^[96] Some bands tried to adapt to the new musical landscape. Metallica revamped its image by cutting its hair and headlining the alternative musical festival Lollapalooza in 1996. Metallica had by the late 1990s become one of the most successful bands in the world,^[97] yet a backlash emerged among many longterm metal fans.^[98]

With these breakthroughs, alternative metal became the most popular form of metal during the 1990s.^[99] A fusion of heavy metal and alternative rock, alternative metal included a wide spectrum of acts, including the grunge-based band Alice in Chains, the goth-influenced Jane's Addiction, the noise rock-infused White Zombie, and groups influenced by a wide variety of other alternative genres. Faith No More infused their alternative rock with punk, funk, hip hop and metal, Danzig continued Glenn Danzig's progression from punk, through deathrock (with Samhain) and into metal, Ministry began incorporating metal into their industrial music, and Primus combined elements of funk, punk, thrash metal and experimental music. Alternative metal artists did not represent a cohesive scene, but they were united by their willingness to experiment with the metal genre and their rejection of glam metal's attitude.^[99] Alternative metal's mix of styles and sounds represented "the colorful results of metal opening up to face the outside world."^[100]

By the late 1990 a new wave of metal bands emerged that were inspired by the alternative metal bands and their mix of genres.^[101] Dubbed nu metal, prominent bands like Korn, Papa Roach, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Slipknot and P.O.D. incorporated elements ranging from hip-hop to death metal, proving "pancultural metal could pay off."^[102] Nu metal gained mainstream success through heavy MTV rotation and the 1996 formation of Ozzy Osbourne's Ozzfest metal music festival, which led the media to talk of a resurgence of heavy metal.^[103] Nevertheless, traditional metal fans were slow to embrace nu metal.^[104] In spite of its initial popularity, by 2003 the nu metal movement started to wane with more distinctive acts like System of a Down managing to maintain their success.^[105]

[edit] Recent trends (mid-2000s)

Several reunions have sparked new interest in the classic metal style. The reunions of Black Sabbath, in 1997, Iron Maiden, in 1999, and Judas Priest, in 2003, with their respective original vocalists have turned younger audiences onto older bands. Many groups, reuniting only for a one-off tour or gig, decide to stick together after experiencing commercial and critical success again. In Europe, especially in Germany and Scandinavia, metal continues to be one of the most popular genres, with dedicated fans supporting already established acts and propelling newer ones like Edguy and Hammerfall to superstar status on a regular basis. This commitment is evidenced by the open-air festivals held around the continent from late spring to summer, including several week-long events featuring dozens of bands and audiences of up to fifty thousand people. Some of the best known metal-oriented festivals are Wacken Open Air, Summer Breeze Festival, Bang Your Head!!!, Metalcamp, Gods of Metal, Inferno Festival, Rockwave, and Keep It True.

Metalcore—a hybrid of thrash metal, melodic death metal, and hardcore punk—emerged as a commercial force in 2002–3. It is rooted in the "crossover" thrash style that bands such as Suicidal Tendencies and Nuclear Assault developed in the mid-1980s. Up until the late 1990s metalcore had largely been an underground sub genre, but by 2004 it had become so popular that groups like Killswitch Engage^[106] and Shadows Fall^[107] debuted albums in the top 20 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart and got prominent slots at major music festivals, including Ozzfest, Reading Festival, and Download Festival.

A recent trend in the early to mid-2000s was a traditonal heavy metal revival spearheaded by bands such as Wolfmother, Roadstar and The Answer. These bands sometimes dubbed as "retro-metal"^[108] have garnered significant attention in terms of music press (especially from Revolver, Guitar World and Classic Rock) as well as chart success stretching from Australia to the United Kingdom.

[edit] See also

• Heavy metal fashion
• Heavy metal umlaut
• List of heavy metal bands
• Timeline of heavy metal

[edit] Sources

• Blake, Andrew (1997). The Land Without Music: Music, Culture and Society in Twentieth-century Britain. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-4299-2.
• Charlton, Katherine (2003). Rock Music Styles: A History. McGraw Hill. ISBN 0-07-249555-3
• Christe, Ian (2003). Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-380-81127-8.
• Du Noyer,Paul (Editor), (2003). "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music". Flame Tree Publishing Co Ltd. ISBN 1-9040-4170-1.
• Moynihan, Michael; Søderlind Dirik (1998). Lords of Chaos (2nd ed.) Feral House. ISBN 0-922915-94-6.
• Walser, Robert (1993). Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0-8195-6260-2.
• Weinstein, Deena (1991). Heavy Metal: A Cultural Sociology. Lexington. ISBN 0-669-21837-5. Revised edition: (2000) Heavy Metal: The Music and its Culture. Da Capo. ISBN 0-306-80970-2.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• All Music Guide entry for heavy metal

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