Space Pirates Ltd.

The term “heavy metal� conjures of a number of images in the modern American mind: blazing guitar solos, high-pitched vocals, long hair, and obnoxious behavior. These components are neither the beginning nor the end of the heavy metal phenomenon. While not an American musical form originally, it was brought into the mainstream by American bands, and contains a loyal Stateside fanbase.

Although its origins are debatable, it is safe to say that heavy metal developed out of the psychedelic rock phase of the 1960’s. From this initial point, hard rock bands formed in what is now called the classic rock period of the 1970’s. The most important bands to influence the heavy metal movement are Led Zeppelin (who brought a powerful instrumentation), Black Sabbath (who brought dark lyrical themes and sustaining guitars), Blue Oyster Cult (who brought innovative soloing and the proverbial “heavy� guitar riffs), Van Halen (who brought guitar wizardry) and Deep Purple (who brought the speed element). These bands would in turn influence the so-called New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement, which included bands such as Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. American bands took this subgenre’s style to the next step, creating songs with aggressive riffs, vocals, and drumming. This first movement in American heavy metal was centered in San Francisco’s Bay Area, and would come to be known as thrash.

If there is any type of heavy metal that American is known for, it is thrash. The “Big Four� of American thrash consists of Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer. Metallica achieved the most mainstream popularity, partially due to their qualms with Napster in the late 1990’s. Thrash metal sounds exactly what its name implies: getting beaten up. Fast tempos characterize most thrash songs, though most thrash bands have slower songs (for example, “Fade to Black� by Metallica). Lyrical themes are greatly varied, depending on the band. Metallica and Megadeth have lots of songs written about war and societal issues, whereas Slayer tended to write songs about death and other grotesque things (Slayer is a big influence on death metal, to be discussed later). To complement the aggressive vocal style and themes, linear rhythms, usually in 4/4 time, are commonly used in thrash. As for melody, it all depends on the band. Slayer features dissonant melodies to complement their dark lyrics; however, this does not go for all thrash. Megadeth’s “Skin O’ My Teeth� features a consonant main riff, complemented by pentatonic soloing. Monophony, despite melodic ranges or scales, is a common aspect of thrash. Two guitarists playing the same riff bolsters the song’s aggressive nature. These guitar riffs are usually palm-muted, and played with down-strokes of the picking hand, created a staccato sound.

By the early 1990’s, however, thrash had lost its popularity, largely due to Seattle’s grunge rock scene. The next big scene in American heavy metal would be found in Florida: the death metal scene. Here, bands like Obituary and Death took a node from Slayer and wrote songs with titles like “Body Bag� and “Chopped in Half.� The aggressive singing style of thrash had now become a guttural roar. The majority of the Florida death metal’s melody found itself in the bass register, for it emphasized the bleak and evil nature of the lyrical themes. Death metal also popularized the use of double bass drumming. A simple double bass pattern would find the drummer playing sixteenth notes alternating each foot, while playing eighth notes on the hi-hat or ride cymbal, and then hitting the snare drum on the second and fourth quarter note of each measure. Death metal never attained the level of mainstream popularity that thrash had achieved, but this is probably due to societal standards of decency, which would prevent any such music from becoming popular in the mainstream. Nontheless, death metal found an underground following, which it still holds today.

Metalcore is “the next big thing� in American heavy metal. Combining the technicality of thrash, the riff styles of European-influenced melodic death metal (“melodeath�), and the singing style of hardcore punk, metalcore bands can be found on MTV as well as on major radio airplay. Homophony is a major characteristic of metalcore. Quite frequently, a rhythm guitarist will play the chord progression, while a lead guitarist will play a riff that is likely to be remembered by the listener. This adds to the catchy nature of metalcore, which in turn makes it more radio-friendly. Bands will frequently switch between screaming and “clean-singing� styles. Usually the verse will be sung in a normal voice, while the chorus/breakdown will feature a hardcore punk-style scream. This is a consistent feature amongst many metalcore bands, which is why many metal buffs don’t consider it to be true metal.

Heavy metal has lived in American society largely as a counterculture. While bubbly teenagers bounced to synth-pop hits of the 1980’s, angry “metalheads� sweated and moshed along to the sounds of thrash in the early 1980’s. Heavy metal did achieve mainstream popularity in the 1980’s, however, in the form of hair metal. Like metalcore, heavy metal cynics state that hair metal is not a true form of heavy metal. Like David Bowie did in the decade beforehand, hair metal featured cross-gender performances, in which band members often wore women’s clothing and had perfectly styled hair. Like most pop fads, however, this died out rather quickly.

Heavy metal, because of some of its subgenres, however, has held negative connotations in the minds of many people. People see heavy metal bands as devil worshippers, evil enthusiasts, and anti-societal outcasts. It is absolutely ridiculous to apply this sentiment to the entire metal community. The “evil� nature of heavy metal is mostly found in black metal. This is an offshoot of thrash, somewhat similar in style to death metal. However, instead of writing about death, black metal bands are usually openly anti-Christian and denounce Christianity in their lyrics. Some bands go so far as to take physical action, such as the attempted bombing churches by members of the Norwegian band Mayhem. Due to widespread news coverage, people tend to associate black metal behavior with that of all heavy metal. This is an unfortunate circumstance, as there are all different kinds of metal bands, even Christian metal bands (such as Living Sacrifice and Tourniquet).

In modern times, heavy metal is somewhat more accepted than it had been. This is largely due to heavy metal’s influence on a number of genres that are currently popular. Emo finds influences in heavy metal guitar work, particularly the palm-muted staccato riffs of thrash. A number of emo bands also use double bass, which was popularized by heavy metal bands. Heavy metal also is used for propagandistic matters as well. United States Army and Navy commercials used to feature the song “Keep Away� by Godsmack, a “nu-metal� band which was briefly popular in the late 1990’s. The heavy guitar work augments the images of soldiers running through fields or large ships firing large guns.

Heavy metal will continue to maintain its popularity, either underground or mainstream. It is undeniable that American and European metal scenes have symbiotic relationships. Metalcore wouldn’t have become popularized were it not for Swedish melodeath bands. Likewise, the thrash scene in Germany would not have come about were it not for Bay Area thrash bands like Metallica. Given certain factors, such as the fact that most melodeath and mainstream power metal bands in Europe sing in English, prove that heavy metal’s epicenter is centered in America and Great Britain. As mentioned before, heavy metal did not originate in America, but it was raised to an art form and perfected here.

There’s nothing else in all the world
That will bring it down
We will play our wildest step to all around
We need it as a liquid in our veins instead of blood

 

Heavy Metal is the law that keeps us all united free
A law that shatters earth and hell
Heavy Metal can’t be beaten by any dynasty
We’re all wizards fightin’ with our spell

-Helloween, “Heavy Metal (Is the Law)�

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 4th, 2006 at 1:35 pm and is filed under Pirate Brew Ha-Ha. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.