Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a form of music characterised by aggressive, driving rhythms and highly amplified distorted guitars, generally with grandiose lyrics and virtuosic instrumentation.

Characteristics

Heavy metal is characterised by virtuosic instrumentation, especially a guitar, dark themes and lyrics, aggressive, uptempo rhythms and classical or symphonic styles.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Cover versions of classic rock songs would become a standard part of many metal bands' repertoire. Notable is Mötley Crüe's version of "Helter Skelter" which very strongly brings to the fore the heavy metal undertones implied in the Beatles song.

Related Topics:
Cover version - Beatles

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Instrumentation

The most commonly used line-up for metal is a drummer, bass guitarist, rhythm guitarist, lead guitarist (in many metal bands a single guitarist handles both guitars, for example Sodom, Decapitated, Black Sabbath; see also power trio or both guitarists sharing the lead and rhythm parts, for example Slayer, Megadeth), singer (who is sometimes also one of the instrumentalists), and occasionally a keyboard player. Additional instruments can be a wide range including violin, harpsichord, saxophone, and flute.

Related Topics:
Drummer - Bass guitar - Rhythm guitar - Lead guitar - Sodom - Decapitated - Black Sabbath - Power trio - Slayer - Megadeth - Keyboard

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Guitar playing is very important in heavy metal. Distorted amplification of the guitars, with effects and electronic processing, is used to thicken the sound as well as downtuning the guitars. Originally the result is simple and powerful, although some of the original heavy metallers joked that their simplified sound was more the result of limited ability than of innovation. Later styles developed more complicated and technical approach to metal.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Heavy metal singers have wide variety in sounds among them, from mid-range clean vocals, to high-pitched wails, to deep growls. The black and death metal scene tends to use distorted and guttural death grunts (exemplified by the Florida band Death). Generally, it is hard to understand what the singer is "singing". Often, the text is considered to be too crude to be sung clearly (such as in Cannibal Corpse), but there are some bands (such as Bolt Thrower) that will have more traditional lyrics obscured by the style of the singing.

Related Topics:
Death grunt - Death - Cannibal Corpse - Bolt Thrower

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Intricate solos and riffs are a big part of heavy metal music. Guitarists use sweep-picking, tapping and similar techniques for rapid playing. Heavy metal is not limited, however, to the standard outfit of guitars and drums. The Finnish cello trio Apocalyptica has created its own version of heavy metal, difficult to categorise but leaning towards the darker side.

Related Topics:
Riff - Sweep-picking - Tapping - Apocalyptica

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The American band Grand Funk Railroad was one of the early proto-heavy metal bands (along with The Who, for example) that set new benchmarks for sound volume during shows. The volume of the music was seen as a factor equal in importance to its other qualities. Though this influence is often denigrated as pointless extravagance, it has proven enormously influential, and still dominates many people's perceptions of the genre. Motörhead and Manowar are more recent examples of bands that pride themselves on keeping the volume very high (see Manowar's 1984 song "All Men Play On Ten"). This behaviour was mocked in the rockumentary spoof This Is Sp%C4%B1n%CC%88al Tap by guitarist "Nigel Tufnel", who revealed that his Marshall amplifiers had been modified to "go to eleven."

Related Topics:
Grand Funk Railroad - The Who - Motörhead - Manowar - Rockumentary - This Is Sp%C4%B1n%CC%88al Tap - Nigel Tufnel - Marshall amplifiers

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Themes

Heavy metal, as an art form, is more than just music; it is as much visual as it is audible. Album covers and stage shows are almost as important to the presentation of the material as the music itself. Thus, through heavy metal, many artists collaborate to produce a menu of experiences in each piece, offering a wider range of experiences to the audience. In this respect, heavy metal becomes perhaps more of a diverse art form than any single form dominated by one method of expression. Whereas a painting is experienced visually, a symphony experienced audibly, a heavy metal band's "image" and the common theme that binds all their music is expressed in the artwork on the album, the set of the stage, the tone of the lyrics, in addition to the sound of the music.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Rock historians tend to find that the influence of Western pop music gives heavy metal its escape-from-reality fantasy side, as an escape from reality through outlandish and fantastic lyrics, while African-American blues gives heavy metal its naked reality side, focusing on loss, depression and loneliness.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

If the audio, and thematic components of heavy metal are predominantly blues-influenced reality, then the visual component is predominantly pop-influenced fantasy. The themes of darkness, evil, power, and apocalypse are fantastic language components for addressing the reality of life's problems. Further, in reaction to the "peace and love" hippie culture of the 1960s, heavy metal developed as a counterculture, where light is supplanted by darkness, and the happy ending of pop is replaced by the naked reality that things do not always work out in this world. Whilst fans claim that the medium of darkness is not the message, critics have accused the genre of glorifying the negative aspects of reality.

Related Topics:
Hippie - Counterculture

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Heavy metal themes are typically more grave than the generally airy pop from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, focusing on war, nuclear annihilation, environmental issues, political and religious propaganda. Black Sabbath's "War Pigs", Ozzy Osbourne's "Killer of Giants" and Metallica's "...And Justice for All" are examples of serious contributions to the discussion of the state of affairs. The commentary on reality sometimes tends to become over-simplified because the fantastic poetic vocabulary of heavy metal deals primarily with very clear dichotomies of light and dark, hope and despair, good and evil, which do not make much room for complex shades of grey.

Related Topics:
Black Sabbath - Ozzy Osbourne - Metallica

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some might differentiate by observing that pure heavy metal does not generally sing about love, while many hair metal songs are focused on love. In some respects, one might argue that the hair metal scene of the 1980s was the logical endpoint of the glitter or glam rock movement of the 1970s; the visual similarities between the two, with the make-up and fanciful costumes, makes the argument more compelling. Glitter rock, however, was lyrically focused on sexual ambiguity, free expression and individuality, while hair metal was unambiguously macho and heterosexual, with little room for diversity of political or social opinions. Ultimately, "pure" heavy metal would position itself at the periphery of pop culture, never quite at centre, and metal denizens contend that the move towards the centre was a commercialism that compromised both the artistic integrity of the form and the opportunity for messages to be taken seriously.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Classical influence

The appropriation of classical music by heavy metal typically includes the influence of Bach and Paganini rather than Mozart or Franz Liszt. Though Deep Purple/Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore had been experimenting with musical figurations borrowed from classical music since the early 1970s, Edward Van Halen's solo cadenza "Eruption" (released on Van Halen's first album in 1978) marks an important moment in the development of virtuosity in metal. Following Van Halen, the "classical" influence in metal guitar during the 1980s actually looked to the early eigtheenth century for its model of speed and technique. Indeed, the late Baroque era of western art music was also frequently interpreted through a gothic lens. For example, "Mr. Crowley," (1981) by Ozzy Osbourne and guitarist Randy Rhoads, uses both a pipe organ and Baroque-inspired guitar solos to create a particular mood for Osbourne's lyrics on the legendary occultist Aleister Crowley. Like many other metal guitarists in the 1980s, Rhoads quite earnestly took up the "learned" study of musical theory and helped to solidify the minor industry of guitar pedagogy magazines (such as Guitar for the Practicing Musician) that grew up during the decade. In most instances, however, metal musicians who borrowed the technique and rhetoric of art music were not attempting to be classical musicians. (An exception can arguably be found in Yngwie Malmsteen, though many argue that his music relies more on virtuosity and the use of classical-sounding elements such as the harmonic minor scale to appear classical without actually being classical).

Related Topics:
Bach - Paganini - Mozart - Franz Liszt - Deep Purple - Rainbow - Ritchie Blackmore - Edward Van Halen's - Van Halen's - Baroque era - Gothic - Ozzy Osbourne - Randy Rhoads - Pipe organ - Baroque - Aleister Crowley - Musical theory - Yngwie Malmsteen

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Encarta encyclopedia claims that "when a text was associated with the music, Bach could write musical equivalents of verbal ideas". Progressive rock bands such as Emerson, Lake, and Palmer and Yes had already explored this relationship before heavy metal evolved. As heavy metal uses apocalyptic themes and images of power and darkness, the ability to translate verbal ideas into musical ideas that successfully convey the ideas of the words is critical to heavy metal authenticity and credibility. An excellent example of this is the theme album Powerslave, by Iron Maiden. The cover is of a dramatic Egyptian pyramid scene, and many of the songs on the album have subject matter that requires a sound suggestive of life and death, including a song entitled "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", based on the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. However, the 1977 Rush album A Farewell to Kings features the twelve-minute "Xanadu," also inspired by Coleridge and predating the Iron Maiden composition by several years. Bassist Steve Harris (musician) has also cited progressive rock bands such as Rush and Yes as influences on his own considerable talents.

Related Topics:
Encarta - Progressive rock - Emerson, Lake, and Palmer - Yes - Powerslave - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Rush - A Farewell to Kings - Iron Maiden - Steve Harris (musician)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~