Heavy metal
Stylistic origins:	Psychedelic rock Blues-rock Hard rock
Cultural origins:	Late 1960s United Kingdom and United States
Typical instruments:	Electric guitar - Bass - Drums - Keyboards (occasional)
Mainstream popularity:	Worldwide, peaking in the 1980s.
Subgenres
Avant-garde metal - Black metal - Classic metal - Dark metal - Death metal - Doom metal - Glam metal - Gothic metal - Groove metal - NWOBHM - Post-metal - Power metal - Speed metal - Stoner metal - Symphonic metal - Thrash metal - Viking metal
Fusion genres
Alternative metal - Christian metal - Folk metal - Funk metal - Grindcore - Industrial metal - Metalcore - Neo-classical metal - Nu metal - Progressive metal - Punk metal - Rapcore
Regional scenes
Gothenburg - Bay Area
Other topics
Fashion - History - Bands - Umlaut - Blast beat - Subgenres - Extreme Metal

Heavy metal (sometimes referred to simply as metal) is a genre of rock music^[1] that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s.^[2] 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. The All Music Guide states that "of all rock & roll's myriad forms, heavy metal is the most extreme in terms of volume, machismo, and theatricality."^[3]

Heavy metal has long had a worldwide following of fans known as "metalheads" or "headbangers". Although early heavy metal bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple attracted large audiences, they were often critically reviled at the time, a status common throughout the history of the genre. In the mid-1970s, Judas Priest helped spur the genre's evolution by discarding much of its blues influence; the New Wave of British Heavy Metal followed in a similar vein, fusing the music with a punk rock sensibility and an increasing emphasis on speed.

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, styles such as nu metal have further expanded the definition of the genre.

Characteristics

Heavy metal is traditionally characterized by loud distorted guitars, emphatic rhythms, dense bass-and-drum sound, and vigorous vocals. Metal subgenres variously emphasize, alter, or omit one or more of these tropes. The typical band lineup includes a drummer, a bassist, a rhythm guitarist, a lead guitarist, and a singer, who may or may not be an instrumentalist. Acoustic keyboards were popular with early metal bands—especially the organ and occasionally the mellotron—but they are now uncommon. Electronic keyboards are often featured today by bands in a variety of styles, including progressive metal, power metal, and symphonic metal.

The electric guitar and the sonic power that it projects through amplification is historically the key element in heavy metal.^[4] Guitars are often played with distortion pedals through heavily overdriven tube amplifiers to create a thick, powerful, "heavy'" sound. In the early 1970s, some popular metal groups began cofeaturing two guitarists. Leading bands such as Judas Priest and Iron Maiden followed this pattern of having two or three guitarists share the roles of both lead and rhythm guitar. A central element of much heavy metal is the guitar solo, a form of cadenza. As the genre developed, more intricate solos and riffs became an integral part of the style. Guitarists use sweep-picking, tapping, and other advanced techniques for rapid playing, and many subgenres emphasize virtuosic displays.

The lead role of the guitar in heavy metal often collides with the traditional "frontman" or bandleader role of the vocalist, creating a musical tension. Metal vocals vary widely in style, from the multioctave, theatrical manner of Judas Priest's Rob Halford and Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson, to the intentionally gruff approach of Motörhead's Lemmy and Metallica's James Hetfield, to the straight-out screaming and growling of Lamb of God's Randy Blythe and At the Gates' Tomas Lindberg, to the phlegm-clogged, possessed style of black metal singers such as Mayhem's Dead. The bass guitar plays an important role in most metal bands, providing the low-end sound crucial to making the music "heavy."^[5] In addition, the bass is often distorted and modified by a variety of effects pedals. Metal bassists frequently use picks instead of their fingers to get a stronger articulation. The drum setup is generally much larger than with other forms of rock music.^[6] Aside from the standard toms, bass drum, snare, and hi-hat, ride, and crash cymbals, there is often a double bass drum, additional toms and cymbals (e.g., "splash" cymbals), and other instruments such as a cowbell.

In terms of live sound, volume is considered vital.^[7] Following the lead set by Jimi Hendrix and The Who—which once held the distinction of "World's Loudest Band" in the Guinness Book Of World Records—early heavy metal bands set new benchmarks for volume. Dick Peterson of Blue Cheer says, "We had a place in forming that heavy-metal sound. Although I'm not saying we knew what we were doing, 'cause we didn't. All we knew was we wanted more power."^[8] Tony Iommi, guitarist for the pioneering Black Sabbath, is among the numerous heavy metal musicians to suffer substantial hearing loss due to the volume of their live performances. Heavy metal's volume fixation was mocked in the rockumentary spoof This Is Spinal Tap in which guitarist "Nigel Tufnel" reveals that his Marshall amplifiers have been modified to "go to eleven."

Musical language

Rhythm and groove

The heavy metal main groove is characterized by short, two-note or three-note rhythmic figures—generally made up of 8th or 16th notes—in staccato thanks to palm-muted technique on the rhythm guitar.^[9] Heavy metal thus often involves the use of dynamic and off-handed rhythmic patterns thanks to the adjunction of brief, abrupt rhythmic cells. However, heavy metal may also employ long rhythmic figures such as the whole note that let the chords ring, particularly in slow-tempo songs such as ballads, or to add ambience and texture with one guitarist letting a chord ring while another plays faster passages. '''

Chords

One of the signatures of the genre is the guitar power chord.^[10] In technical terms, the power chord is relatively simple: it involves just one main interval, generally the perfect fifth, though an octave may be added as a doubling of the root. Other types of power chords are also used: often the traditional perfect fifth is replaced by a different interval such as the fourth, the minor third/-major third, the diminished fifth, and the minor sixth.^[11] The power chord makes possible a high level of distortion without unintended dissonance. Various power chords can also be played with a consistent finger arrangement that slides easily up and down the fretboard.^[12]

Typical harmonic relationships

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

Modal harmony Traditional heavy metal tends to employ modal scales, in particular the Aeolian and Phrygian modes.^[13] Harmonically speaking, this means the genre typically incorporates modal chord progressions such as aeolian progression like I-VI-VII, I-VII-(VI) or I-VI-IV-VII and phrygian progressions implying the relation between I and ♭II (I-♭II-I, I-♭II-III or I-♭II-VII for example).

Examples of aeolian harmony include Judas Priest's "Breaking the Law", Iron Maiden's "Hallowed Be Thy Name", and Accept's "Princess of the Dawn", each employing a I-VI-VII progression as its main riff.

Examples of phrygian harmony include, Mercyful Fate's "Gypsy" (main riff I-♭II-I-VI-V), Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction" (main riff built on the ♭II-I relation) and Sodom's "Remember the Fallen" (Introduction + main riff - the riff closing implies a phrygian cadence: I-♭II-III)

Tritone and chromatism A trademark of many heavy metal subgenres is the use of tense harmony, such as chromatic or tritone relationships.^[14][15] The tritone, an interval spanning three whole tones—such as C and F#—is one of the fundamental expressions of dissonance in Western music. The tritone was banned from medieval ecclesiastical singing because of its dissonant quality, which led monks to call it diabolus in musica—"the devil in music."^[16] Because of that original symbolic association, it came to be heard in Western cultural convention as “evil.” Today the interval continues to suggest an "oppressive," "scary," or "evil" sound. Heavy metal has made extensive use of diabolus in musica because of these connotative qualities; it is frequently used in guitar solos and riffs, for example at the beginning of "Black Sabbath," the lead song on the band's debut album.

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 bass range, 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 single bass note—most frequently low E or A—is persistently repeated while some different chords are successively played, including chords that don't normally incorporate that bass note. An example is the opening riff of Judas Priest's "You've Got Another Thing Comin'." In this case, one guitar plays the pedal point in F#, while the second guitar plays the chords.

Classical influence

The appropriation of "classical" music by heavy metal typically involves musical elements associated with Baroque, Romantic, and Modernist composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Niccolò Paganini, Richard Wagner, Ludwig van Beethoven, Béla Bartók, and Igor Stravinsky. The tritone, for instance, was already exploited for its dark, anguished connotations by Romantics like Franz Liszt and 20th century classical composers such as Bartók, Stravinsky, and Arnold Schoenberg. Deep Purple/Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore began experimenting with musical figurations borrowed from classical music in the early 1970s. In the 1980s, guitarists Randy Rhoads and Uli Jon Roth looked to the early 18th century for models of speed and technique. Yngwie Malmsteen, drawing from similar roots, has inspired myriad neoclassical metal players including Michael Romeo, Michael Angelo Batio, and Tony MacAlpine.

Despite the fact that many metal musicians have cited classical composers as inspiration, heavy metal is hardly the modern descendant of classical music.^[19] As many critics and analysts have observed, heavy metal musicians focus on and borrow only superficial aspects of classical music, such as motifs, melodies, and scales. Heavy metal bands, including progressive and neoclassical metal bands, generally do not try to observe the basic compositional and aesthetical exigencies of classical music. Classical music is erudite music, whereas heavy metal is popular music.^[20] Players who cite Bach as an influence, for example, seldom make use of the complex counterpoint that is central to the composer's work. Moreover, the extensive use of power chords in heavy metal, implying countless consecutive fifths and octaves, violates rules of harmony at the heart of the classical aesthetic.^[21]

Themes

Common themes in heavy metal lyrics are sex, violence, fantasy, and the occult. The sexual nature of many heavy metal lyrics, ranging from Led Zeppelin's to those of latter-day nu metal bands, derives from the genre's roots in blues music.^[22] Heavy metal songs often feature outlandish, fantasy-inspired lyrics, lending them an escapist quality. Iron Maiden's songs, for instance, were frequently inspired by mythology, fiction, and poetry, such as "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," based on the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem. Other examples include Black Sabbath's "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 politics or religion. 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 Megadeth's "Peace Sells." Death is a predominant theme in heavy metal, routinely featuring in the lyrics of such different bands as Black Sabbath, Slayer, and W.A.S.P.

As with much popular music, visual imagery plays a large role in heavy metal. A heavy metal band's "image" is associated with the thematic content of their lyrics, and is expressed in album sleeve art, stage sets, the clothes of the band, and even band logos, as well as the sound of the music.^[23]

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 advocacy of misogyny and the occult. During the 1980s, the Parents Music Resource Center petitioned the U.S. Congress to regulate the popular music industry due to objectionable lyrics, particularly those in heavy metal songs.

Physical gestures

Certain body movements are widely performed at heavy metal concerts, including headbanging, moshing, and various hand gestures such as the infamous devil horns, popularized by vocalist Ronnie James Dio while with Black Sabbath and Dio.^[15] Gene Simmons of Kiss claims to have been the first to make the gesture in concert.^[24] Stage diving, air guitar, and crowd surfing are also practiced.

Origin of the term heavy metal

The origin of the term heavy metal in a musical context is uncertain. The phrase has been used for centuries in chemistry and metallurgy, as shown by citations in the Oxford English Dictionary. An early use of the term in modern popular culture was by countercultural writer William S. Burroughs. His 1962 novel The Soft Machine includes a character known as "Uranian Willy, the Heavy Metal Kid." Burroughs's next novel, Nova Express (1964), develops the theme, using heavy metal as 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."^[25]

Metal historian Ian Christe describes what the components of the term mean in "hippiespeak": "heavy" is roughly synonymous with "potent" or "profound," and "metal" designates a certain type of mood, grinding and weighted as with metal.^[26] The word "heavy" in this sense was a basic element of beatnik and later countercultural slang, and references to "heavy music"—typically slower, more amplified variations of standard pop fare—were already common by the mid-1960s. Iron Butterfly's debut album, released in early 1968, was titled Heavy. The first recorded use of heavy metal in a song lyric is in Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild," also released that year:^[27] "I like smoke and lightning/Heavy metal thunder/Racin' with the wind/And the feelin' that I'm under." A late, and disputed, claim about the source of the term was made by "Chas" Chandler, former manager of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In a 1995 interview on the PBS program Rock and Roll, he asserted that heavy metal "was a term originated in a New York Times article reviewing a Jimi Hendrix performance," in which the author likened the event to "listening to heavy metal falling from the sky." A source for Chandler's claim has never been found.

The first documented use of the term to describe a musical style is in a May 1971 Creem review by Mike Saunders 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."^[28] Creem critic Lester Bangs is credited with popularizing the term via his early 1970s essays on bands such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.^[29] "Heavy metal" may have initially been used as a jibe by a number of music critics, but it was quickly adopted by fans of the style.

The terms "heavy metal" and "hard rock" have often been used interchangeably, particularly in discussing bands of the 1970s, a period when the terms were largely synonymous.^[30] For example, according to an entry in the 1983 Rolling Stone encyclopedia, "known for its aggressive blues-based hard-rock style, Aerosmith was the top American heavy-metal band of the mid-Seventies."^[31] Few would now characterize Aerosmith's classic sound, with its clear links to traditional rock and roll, as "heavy metal." Even some acts closely identified with the emergence of the genre, such as Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, are not considered heavy metal bands by some in the present-day metal community.

History

Pre-history (mid-1960s)

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 loud, distorted guitar style, built around power chords.^[32] The Kinks played a major role in popularizing this sound with their 1964 hit "You Really Got Me."^[33] A significant contributor to the emerging guitar sound was the feedback facilitated by the new generation of amplifiers. In addition to The Kinks' Dave Davies, other guitarists such as The Who's Pete Townshend and the Tridents' Jeff Beck were experimenting with feedback.^[34] 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.^[35] Vocalists similarly modified their technique and increased their reliance on amplification, often becoming more stylized and dramatic. In terms of sheer volume, especially in live performance, The Who's "bigger-louder-wall-of-Marshalls" approach was seminal.^[36] 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 with psychedelic rock formed much of the original basis for heavy metal.^[37] One of the most influential bands in forging the merger of genres 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) are regarded as essential prototypes for the future style. The Jimi Hendrix Experience's debut album, Are You Experienced (1967), was also highly influential. Hendrix's virtuosic technique would be emulated by many metal guitarists and the album's most successful single, "Purple Haze," is identified by some as the first heavy metal hit.^[39]

Origins and early popularity (late 1960s and early 1970s)

In 1968, the sound that would become known as heavy metal began to coalesce. That January, the San Francisco band Blue Cheer released a cover of Eddie Cochran's classic "Summertime Blues" that many consider the first true heavy metal recording.^[40] The same month, Steppenwolf released its self-titled debut album, including "Born to Be Wild," with its "heavy metal" lyric. In July, another two epochal records came out: 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 featured some of the "most molten, barbed, downright funny noises of all time," breaking ground for generations of metal ax-slingers.^[41] 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.^[42] In January 1969, Led Zeppelin's self-titled debut album was released and reached number 10 on the Billboard album chart. In July, Zeppelin and a power trio with a Cream-inspired, but cruder sound, Grand Funk Railroad, played the Atlanta Pop Festival. The following month, another Cream-rooted group, Mountain, played an hour-long set at the Woodstock Festival.^[43] In the fall, Led Zeppelin II went to number 1 and the album's single "Whole Lotta Love" hit number 4 on the Billboard pop chart. 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.^[45] 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.^[46] 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.^[47] 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.^[48] In 1970, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple scored major UK chart hits with "Paranoid" and "Black Night," respectively. That same year, three other British bands released debut albums in a heavy metal mode: Uriah Heep with Very 'eavy... Very 'umble, UFO with UFO 1, and Black Widow with Sacrifice. Wishbone Ash, though not commonly identified as metal, introduced a dual-lead/rhythm-guitar style that many metal bands of the following generation would adopt. The occult lyrics and imagery employed by Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, and Black Widow would prove particularly influential; Led Zeppelin also began foregrounding such elements with its fourth album, released in 1971. On the other side of the Atlantic, the trend-setting group was Grand Funk Railroad, "the most commercially successful American heavy-metal band from 1970 until they disbanded in 1976, [they] established the Seventies success formula: continuous touring."^[49] Other bands identified with metal emerged in the U.S., such as Dust (first LP in 1971), Blue Öyster Cult (1972), and Kiss (1974). In Germany, the Scorpions debuted with Lonesome Crow in 1972. Blackmore, who had emerged as a virtuoso soloist with Deep Purple's Machine Head (1972), quit the group in 1975 to form Rainbow. These bands also built audiences via constant touring and increasingly elaborate stage shows.^[50] As described above, there are arguments about whether these and other early bands truly qualify as "heavy metal" or simply as "hard rock." Those closer to the music's blues roots or placing greater emphasis on melody are now commonly ascribed the latter label. AC/DC, which debuted with High Voltage in 1975, is a prime example. The 1983 Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll entry begins "Australian heavy-metal band AC/DC..."^[51] Rock historian Clinton Walker writes, "Calling AC/DC a heavy metal band in the seventies was as inaccurate as it is today.... [They] were a rock'n'roll band that just happened to be heavy enough for metal."^[52] The issue is not only one of shifting definitions, but also a persistent distinction between musical style and audience identification: Ian Christe describes how the band "became the stepping-stone that led huge numbers of hard rock fans into heavy metal perdition."^[53]

In certain cases, there is little debate. After Black Sabbath, the next major example is Britain's Judas Priest, which debuted with Rocka Rolla in 1974. In Christe's description, Black Sabbath's

audience was...left to scavenge for sounds with similar impact. By the mid-1970s, heavy metal aesthetic could be spotted, like a mythical beast, in the moody bass and complex dual guitars of Thin Lizzy, in the stagecraft of Alice Cooper, in the sizzling guitar and showy vocals of Queen, and in the thundering medieval questions of Rainbow.... Judas Priest arrived to unify and amplify these diverse highlights from hard rock's sonic palette. For the first time, heavy metal became a true genre unto itself.^[54]

Though Judas Priest did not have a top 40 album in the U.S. until 1980, for many it was the definitive post-Sabbath heavy metal band; its twin-guitar attack, featuring rapid tempos and a nonbluesy, more cleanly metallic sound, was a major influence on later acts.^[55] While heavy metal was growing in popularity, most critics were not enamored of the music. Objections were raised to metal's adoption of visual spectacle and other trappings of commercial artifice,^[56] but the main offense was its perceived musical and lyrical vacuity: reviewing a Black Sabbath album in the early 1970s, leading critic Robert Christgau described it as "dull and decadent...dim-witted, amoral exploitation."^[57]

Mainstream dominance (late 1970s and 1980s)

Punk rock emerged in the mid-1970s as a reaction against contemporary social conditions as well as the overindulgent rock music of the time, including heavy metal. Sales of heavy metal records declined sharply in the late 1970s in the face of punk, disco, and more mainstream rock.^[58] With the major labels fixated on punk, many newer British heavy metal bands were inspired by the movement's high-energy sound and do-it-yourself ethos, putting out releases independently to small, devoted audiences.^[59] British music papers such as the NME and Sounds began to take notice, with Sounds writer Geoff Barton christening the movement the "New Wave of British Heavy Metal."^[60] NWOBHM bands including Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Saxon, Diamond Head, and Def Leppard reenergized the heavy metal genre. Following Judas Priest's lead, they toughened up the sound, reduced its blues elements, and emphasized increasingly fast tempos.^[61] In 1980, NWOBHM broke into the mainstream, as albums by Iron Maiden, Motörhead, and Saxon reached the British top 10. The next year, Motörhead became the first band in the movement to top the UK charts with No Sleep 'til Hammersmith. Other NWOBHM bands, such as Diamond Head and Venom, though less successful would also have a significant influence on metal's development.^[62]

The first generation of metal bands was ceding the limelight. Deep Purple had broken up soon after Blackmore's departure in 1975, and Led Zeppelin folded in 1980. Black Sabbath was routinely upstaged in concert by its opening act, the Los Angeles band Van Halen.^[63] Eddie Van Halen established himself as one of the leading metal guitar virtuosos of the era—his solo on "Eruption," from the band's self-titled 1978 album, is considered a milestone.^[64] Randy Rhoads and Yngwie J. Malmsteen also became famed virtuosos, associated with what would be known as the neoclassical metal style. The adoption of classical elements had been spearheaded by Blackmore and the Scorpions' Uli Jon Roth; this next generation progressed to occasionally using classical nylon-stringed guitars, as Rhoads does on "Dee" from former Sabbath lead singer Ozzy Osbourne's first solo album, Blizzard of Ozz (1980). Inspired by Van Halen's success, a metal scene began to develop in Southern California, particularly Los Angeles, during the late 1970s. Based around the clubs of L.A.'s Sunset Strip, bands such as Quiet Riot, Ratt, Mötley Crüe, and W.A.S.P. were influenced by traditional heavy metal of the earlier 1970s^[65] and incorporated the theatrics (and sometimes makeup) of glam rock acts such as Alice Cooper and Kiss.^[66] These glam metal bands—along with similarly styled acts such as New York's Twisted Sister—became a major force in metal and the wider spectrum of rock music.

In the wake of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and Judas Priest's breakthrough British Steel (1980), heavy metal became increasingly popular in the early 1980s. Many metal artists benefited from the exposure they received on MTV, which began airing in 1981—sales often soared if a band's videos screened on the channel.^[67] Def Leppard's videos for Pyromania (1983) made them superstars in America and Quiet Riot became the first domestic heavy metal band to top the Billboard chart with Metal Health (1983). One of the seminal events in metal's growing popularity was the 1983 US Festival in California, where the "heavy metal day" featuring Ozzy Osbourne, Van Halen, Scorpions, Mötley Crüe, Judas Priest, and others drew the largest audiences of the three-day event.^[68] Between 1983 and 1984, heavy metal went from an 8 percent to a 20 percent share of all recordings sold in the U.S.^[69] Several major professional magazines devoted to the genre were launched, including Kerrang! (in 1981) and Metal Hammer (in 1984), as well as a host of fan journals. In 1985, Billboard declared, "Metal has broadened its audience base. Metal music is no longer the exclusive domain of male teenagers. The metal audience has become older (college-aged), younger (pre-teen), and more female."^[70]

By the mid-1980s, glam metal was a dominant presence on the U.S. charts, music television, and the arena concert circuit. New bands including Poison and New Jersey's Bon Jovi became major draws, while Mötley Crüe and Ratt remained consistently successful. In 1987, MTV launched a show, Headbanger's Ball, devoted exclusively to heavy metal videos. However, the metal audience had begun to factionalize, with those in many underground metal scenes favoring more extreme sounds and disparaging the popular style as "lite metal" or "hair metal."^[71] One band that reached diverse audiences was Guns N' Roses. In contrast to their glam metal contemporaries in L.A., they were seen as much rawer and more dangerous. With the release of their chart-topping Appetite for Destruction (1987), they "recharged and almost single-handedly sustained the Sunset Strip sleaze system for several years."^[72] The following year, Jane's Addiction emerged from the same L.A. hard-rock club scene with its major label debut, Nothing's Shocking. Reviewing the album, Rolling Stone declared, "as much as any band in existence, Jane's Addiction is the true heir to Led Zeppelin."^[73] The group was one of the first to be identified with the "alternative metal" trend that would come to the fore in the next decade.

Underground metal (1980s, 1990s, and 2000s)

Many subgenres of heavy metal developed outside of the commercial mainstream during the 1980s.^[74] Several attempts have been made to map the complex world of underground metal, most notably by the editors of Allmusic, as well as critic Garry Sharpe-Young. Sharpe-Young's multivolume metal encyclopedia separates the underground into five major categories: thrash metal, death metal, black metal, power metal, and the related subgenres of doom and gothic metal.

Thrash metal

For more details on this topic, see Thrash metal

Thrash metal emerged in the early 1980s under the influence of hardcore punk and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal,^[75] particularly songs in the revved-up style known as speed metal. The movement began in the United States, with the leading scene in the San Francisco Bay Area. The sound developed by thrash groups was faster and more aggressive than that of the original metal bands and their glam metal successors.^[75] Peter Steel of Type O Negative described thrash as a form of "urban blight music" and a palefaced cousin of rap.^[76]

The subgenre was popularized by the "Big Four of Thrash": Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica, and Slayer.^[77] Three German bands, Kreator, Sodom, and Destruction, played a central role in bringing the style to Europe. Others, including San Francisco's Testament and Exodus, New Jersey's Overkill, and Brazil's Sepultura, also had a significant impact. While thrash began as an underground scene, and remained largely for that for almost a decade, the leading bands in the movement began to reach a wider audience. Metallica brought the sound into the top 40 of the Billboard album chart in 1986 with Master of Puppets; two years later, the band's ...And Justice for All hit number 6, while Megadeth and Anthrax had top 40 records.^[78]

Though less commercially successful than the rest of the Big Four, Slayer released one of the genre's definitive records: Reign in Blood (1986) was described by Kerrang! as the "heaviest album of all time."^[79] Two decades later, Metal Hammer named it the best album of the preceding twenty years.^[80] Slayer attracted a following among far-right skinheads, and accusations of promoting violence and Nazi themes have dogged the band.^[81] In the early 1990s, thrash achieved breakout success, challenging and redefining the metal mainstream.^[82] Metallica's self-titled 1991 album topped the Billboard chart, Megadeth's Countdown to Extinction (1992) hit number 2, Anthrax and Slayer cracked the top 10, and albums by regional bands such as Testament and Sepultura entered the top 100.

Death metal

For more details on this topic, see Death metal

Thrash soon began to evolve and split into more extreme metal genres. According to Allmusic, Slayer's Reign in Blood "almost single-handedly inspired the entire death metal genre (at least on the American side of the Atlantic)."^[84] The NWOBHM band Venom was also an important progenitor. The death metal movement in both North America and Europe adopted and emphasized the elements of blasphemy and diabolism employed by such acts. The term is thought to have originated with the song "Death Metal," from Seven Churches (1985), the debut album by Bay Area band Possessed. Death metal utilized the speed and aggression of both thrash and hardcore, fused with lyrics preoccupied with Z-grade slasher movie violence and Satanism.^[85] Death metal vocals are typically bleak, involving guttural "death grunts," high-pitched screaming, and other uncommon techniques.^[86] Complimenting the deep, aggressive vocal style are downtuned, highly distorted guitars^[85] and extremely fast percussion, often with rapid double bass drumming, blast beats, and syncopation. Frequent tempo and time signature changes are typical.

Death metal, like thrash metal, generally rejected the theatrics of earlier metal styles, opting instead for an everyday look of ripped jeans and plain leather jackets.^[87] One major exception to this rule was Deicide's Glen Benton, who branded an inverted cross on his forehead and wore armor on stage. Morbid Angel adopted neo-fascist imagery.^[87] These two bands, along with Death and Obituary, were leaders of the major death metal scene that emerged in Florida in the mid-1980s. In the UK, the related style of grindcore, led by bands such as Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror, emerged out of the anarcho-punk movement.^[88] A large Scandinavian death metal scene, with bands such as Sweden's Entombed and Dismember, began to develop as well. Out of this evolved a melodic death metal sound, typified by Swedish bands such as In Flames and Dark Tranquillity and Finland's Kalmah and Norther. By the 1990s, American technical death metal bands such as Atheist and Cynic were showcasing astonishing levels of guitar speed and technicality.

Black metal

For more details on this topic, see Black metal

The first wave of black metal emerged in Europe in the early and mid-1980s, led by Britain's Venom, Switzerland's Hellhammer and Celtic Frost, and Sweden's Bathory. By the late 1980s, Norwegian bands such as Mayhem, Burzum, and Emperor were heading a second wave.^[89] Black metal varies considerably in style and production quality, although most bands emphasize shrieked and growled vocals, highly distorted guitars, and a "dark" atmosphere.^[86] Darkthrone drummer Fenriz explains, "It had something to do with production, lyrics, the way they dressed and a commitment to making ugly, raw, grim stuff. There wasn't a generic sound."^[90] Satanic themes are common in black metal, though many bands take inspiration from ancient paganism, promoting a return to pre-Christian values.^[91] By 1990, Mayhem was regularly wearing corpsepaint; many other black metal acts also adopted the look.

Even as Bathory inspired the Viking metal and folk metal movements and Immortal brought blast beats to the fore, other bands in the Scandinavian black metal scene became associated with considerable violence in the early 1990s.^[92] Mayhem and Burzum soon became mired in accusations of church burning and Satanism. Growing commercial hype around death metal generated a backlash; beginning in Norway, much of the Scandanavian metal underground shifted to support a black metal scene that resisted co-option and dilution.^[93] According to Gorgoroth vocalist Gaahl, "Black Metal was never meant to reach an audience.... [We] had a common enemy which was, of course, Christianity, socialism and everything that democracy stands for."^[90]

By 1992, black metal scenes had begun to emerge in areas outside Scandinavia, including Germany, France, and Poland.^[94] The 1993 murder of Mayhem's Euronymous by Burzum's Varg Vikernes provoked intensive media coverage.^[90] Around 1996, when many in the scene felt the genre was stagnating,^[95] several key bands, including Burzum and Finland's Beherit, moved toward an ambient style, while symphonic black metal was explored by Sweden's Tiamat and Switzerland's Samael.^[96] In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Norway's Dimmu Borgir brought black metal closer to the mainstream,^[97] as did Cradle of Filth, claimed by some as England's most successful metal band since Iron Maiden.^[98] Critically lauded contemporary acts include Sweden's traditionalist Watain,^[99] France's more experimental Deathspell Omega,^[100] and America's one-man Xasthur.^[101]

Power metal

For more details on this topic, see Power metal

During the early 1990s, the power metal scene came together largely in reaction to the harshness of death and black metal.^[102] Though a relatively underground style in North America, it enjoys wide popularity in Europe. Power metal focuses on upbeat, epic melodies and themes that "appeal to the listener's sense of valor and loveliness."^[103] The prototype for the sound was established in the mid- to late 1980s by Germany's Helloween, which combined the power riffs, melodic approach, and high-pitched, "clean" singing style of bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden with thrash's speed and energy, "crystalliz[ing] the sonic ingredients of what is now known as power metal."^[104] New York's Manowar and Virgin Steele were pioneering American bands. Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force (1984) was crucial in popularizing the ultrafast electric guitar style known as "shredding" as well as the merger of metal with classical music elements, developments that have strongly influenced power metal.

Traditional power metal bands like Sweden's HammerFall and England's DragonForce have a sound relatively close to classic heavy metal. Many power metal bands such as Florida's Kamelot, Italy's Rhapsody of Fire, and Russia's Catharsis feature a keyboard-based "symphonic" sound, sometimes employing orchestras and opera singers. Power metal has built a strong fanbase in Japan and South America, where bands like Brazil's Angra and Argentina's Rata Blanca are popular.

Closely related to power metal is progressive metal, which adopts the complex compositional approach of bands like Rush and King Crimson. This style emerged in the United States in the early and mid-1980s, with innovators such as Queensrÿche, Fates Warning, and Dream Theater. In 1990, Queensrÿche released the triple-platinum Empire. The mix of the progressive and power metal sounds is typified by New Jersey's Symphony X, whose guitarist Michael Romeo is among the most recognized of latter-day shredders.^[105]

Doom and gothic metal

For more details on this topic, see Doom metal and Gothic metal

Emerging in the mid-1980s with such bands as California's Saint Vitus, Maryland's The Obsessed, Chicago's Trouble, and Sweden's Candlemass, the doom metal movement rejected other metal styles' 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^[106] and Sabbath contemporaries such as Blue Cheer, Pentagram, and Black Widow.^[107] The Melvins have also been a significant influence on doom metal and a number of its subgenres.^[108] Doom emphasizes melody, melancholy tempos, and a sepulchral mood relative to many other varieties of metal.^[109]

The 1991 release of Forest of Equilibrium, the debut album by UK band Cathedral, helped spark a new wave of doom metal. During the same period, the doom-death fusion style of British bands Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema gave rise to European gothic metal, with its signature dual-vocalist arrangements, exemplified by Norway's Theatre of Tragedy and Tristania. New York's Type O Negative introduced an American take on the style. Led by the Swedish band Therion's incorporation of classical elements, gothic metal in turn spawned a symphonic metal movement including Australia's Virgin Black, Finland's Nightwish, and the Netherlands' Within Temptation and After Forever.

In the United States, sludge metal, mixing doom and hardcore, emerged in the late 1980s—Eyehategod and Crowbar were leaders in a major Louisiana sludge scene. Early in the next decade, California's Kyuss and Sleep, inspired by the earlier doom metal bands, spearheaded the rise of stoner metal,^[110] while Seattle's Earth helped develop the drone metal subgenre.^[111] The late 1990s saw the emergence of new bands such as the Los Angeles–based Goatsnake, with a classic stoner/doom sound, and Sunn O))), 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".^[109] In 2006, Atlanta's Mastodon, whose equally hard-to-define style mixes progressive and sludge, broke into the Billboard top 40 with Blood Mountain.

The alternative era and nu metal (1990s and 2000s)

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

The era of metal's mainstream dominance in North America came to an end in the early 1990s with the emergence of Nirvana and other grunge bands, signaling the popular breakthrough of alternative rock.^[112] Grunge bands were influenced by the heavy metal sound, but rejected the excesses of the more popular metal bands. Glam metal fell out of favor thanks not only to the success of grunge,^[113] but also because of the growing popularity of the more aggressive sound typified by Metallica and the post-thrash groove metal of Pantera.^[114] A few new, unambiguously metal bands had commercial success during the first half of the decade—Pantera's Far Beyond Driven topped the Billboard chart in 1994—but, "In the dull eyes of the mainstream, metal was dead."^[115] Some bands tried to adapt to the new musical landscape. Metallica revamped its image: the band members cut their hair and, in 1996, headlined the alternative musical festival Lollapalooza founded by Jane's Addiction singer Perry Farrell. While this prompted a backlash among some long-time fans,^[116] Metallica remained one of the most successful bands in the world into the new century.^[117] Like Jane's Addiction, many of the most popular early 1990s groups with roots in heavy metal fall under the umbrella term "alternative metal."^[118] The label was applied to a wide spectrum of acts that fused metal with different styles, not all associated with alternative rock. Acts labeled alternative metal included the Seattle grunge scene's Alice in Chains, the noise rock-infused White Zombie, and groups drawing on multiple styles: Faith No More combined their alternative rock sound with punk, funk, metal, and hip-hop; Primus joined elements of funk, punk, thrash metal, and experimental music. Tool mixed metal and progressive rock; Ministry began incorporating metal into its industrial sound; and Marilyn Manson went down a similar route, while also employing shock effects of the sort popularized by Alice Cooper. Alternative metal artists, though they did not represent a cohesive scene, were united by their willingness to experiment with the metal genre and their rejection of glam metal aesthetics (with White Zombie's and Marilyn Manson's stagecraft representing significant, if partial, exceptions).<ref name="alternativemetal" /> Alternative metal's mix of styles and sounds represented "the colorful results of metal opening up to face the outside world."^[119]

In the mid- and late 1990s came a new wave of U.S. metal groups inspired by the alternative metal bands and their mix of genres.^[120] Dubbed "nu metal," bands such as P.O.D., Korn, Papa Roach, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, and Linkin Park incorporated elements ranging from hip-hop to death metal, proving "pancultural metal could pay off."^[121] Nu metal gained mainstream success through heavy MTV rotation and Ozzy Osbourne's 1996 introduction of Ozzfest, which led the media to talk of a resurgence of heavy metal.^[122] That year, Korn released Life Is Peachy, the first nu metal album to reach the top 10; two years later, the band's Follow the Leader hit number 1. In 1999, Billboard noted that there were more than 500 specialty metal radio shows in the U.S., nearly three times as many as ten years before.^[123] While nu metal was widely popular early in the 2000s, traditional metal fans did not fully embrace the style.^[124] By 2005, the nu metal movement was waning, though P.O.D. and Korn, as well as some bands with related styles, such as System of a Down, remained successful.^[125]

Recent trends (mid-2000s)

Metalcore, an originally American 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 developed by bands such as Suicidal Tendencies, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, and Stormtroopers of Death in the mid-1980s.^[126] Through the 1990s, metalcore was mostly an underground phenomenon, but by 2004 it had become popular enough that Killswitch Engage's The End of Heartache and Shadows Fall's The War Within debuted at numbers 21 and 20, respectively, on the Billboard album chart.^[127][128] Bullet for My Valentine, from Wales, reached similar heights on the British album chart with The Poison (2005). Lamb of God broke into the Billboard top 10 with Sacrament (2006). In recent years, metalcore bands have received prominent slots at Ozzfest and Download Festival.

In Europe, especially Germany and Scandinavia, metal continues to be broadly popular. Acts such as the thrash shredding group The Haunted, melodic death metal band In Flames, and power metal group HammerFall have been very successful in recent years. In English-speaking countries, the term "retro-metal" was applied in the early and mid-2000s to such bands as England's The Darkness^[129] and Australia's Wolfmother.^[130] The Darkness's Permission to Land (2003), described as an "eerily realistic simulation of '80s metal and '70s glam,"^[129] topped the UK charts, going quintuple platinum. Wolfmother's self-titled 2005 debut album, with "Deep Purple-ish organs," "Jimmy Page-worthy chordal riffing," and lead singer Andrew Stockdale howling "notes that Robert Plant can't reach anymore,"^[130] also sold well and was widely praised by critics.

See also

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

Sources

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• Carson, Annette (2001). Jeff Beck: Crazy Fingers. Backbeat Books. ISBN 0-87930-632-7
• 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
• Christgau, Robert (1981). "Master of Reality (1971) [review]," in Christgau's Record Guide. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 0-89919-026-X
• Cook, Nicholas, and Nicola Dibben (2001). "Musicological Approaches to Emotion," in Music and Emotion. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-1926-3188-8
• Du Noyer, Paul (ed.) (2003). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music. Flame Tree. ISBN 1-9040-4170-1
• Kennedy, Michael (1985). The Oxford Dictionary of Music. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-1931-1333-3
• McCleary, John Bassett (2004). The Hippie Dictionary: A Cultural Encyclopedia of the 1960s and 1970s. Ten Speed Press. ISBN 1-58008-547-4
• McMichael, Joe (2004). The Who Concert File. Omnibus Press. ISBN 1-84449-009-2
• Moynihan, Michael, and Dirik Søderlind (1998). Lords of Chaos (2nd ed.). Feral House. ISBN 0-922915-94-6
• O'Neil, Robert M. (2001). The First Amendment and Civil Liability. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-34033-0
• Pareles, Jon, and Patricia Romanowski (eds.) (1983). The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll. Rolling Stone Press/Summit Books. ISBN 0-671-44071-3
• Sadie, Stanley (1980). "Consecutive Fifth, Consecutive Octaves," in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1st ed.). MacMillan. ISBN 0-333-23111-2
• Schonbrun, Marc (2006). The Everything Guitar Chords Book. Adams Media. ISBN 1-59337-529-8
• 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
• Wilkerson, Mark Ian (2006). Amazing Journey: The Life of Pete Townshend (Louisville: Bad News Press). ISBN 1-4116-7700-5

References

External links

• All Music Guide entry for heavy metal.

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