While the hype around Seattle was continually growing, a unique musician named Trent Reznor, the brains behind Nine Inch Nails, took the spotlight increasingly as he revolutionized industrial metal through his angry, hateful lyrics. Impelled heavily by tracks like "Head Like A Hole," "Broken," and "Closer," alongside a memorable performance at the unmemorable second Woodstock Festival, Reznor achieved quite a household name through the years. Meanwhile, far away from the fickle support of MTV and the music media and embedded in the underground, a band called Fear Factory was meshing the mechanical sounds of industrial metal with the roughness of death metal and creating a bleak and intense vein of industrial metal that would later gain considerable momentum. Thus the seeds for the incoming waves of industrial-influenced artists were sown and would later prove to be quite influential.
Also amidst the reigning alternative scene, Primus and Ugly Kid Joe had quite important stints of brilliance. Primus, which's lineup included Larry LaLonde, formerly a member of Possessed, was perhaps the most eccentric of the alternative metal roster. Les Claypool's nasal whines and often funky and catchy bass runs, coupled with Tim Alexander's manic rhythms, were sometimes called the "parallel universe" version of Rush. Musical excellence is still quite fluent within the unit, and the group's songs are quirky and extremely unique. Ugly Kid Joe, meanwhile, enjoyed two short flashes of fame, only to have its popularity fall afterwards like a bomb. On albums like As Ugly as They Wanna Be and America's Least Wanted, the band's members provided the world with energetic funk metal outings. Additionally, previous to and during Ugly Kid Joe's efforts, the relatively unknown Kingofthehill, 24-7 Spyz, Infectious Grooves (derived from the Suicidal Tendencies line-up), and White Trash would constitute the underground backbone of the scene, while Mordred created interesting and groundbreaking mixtures of thrash and funk. Meanwhile, the funky pop metal of Extreme garnered the genre, which had begun its growth during the Seventies with bands like Deep Purple during David Coverdale's stint, considerable repute. The roadworthy veterans Red Hot Chili Peppers were also vital in the popularization of the trend, especially after their hit song "Under the Bridge" played on every radio station imaginable to mankind, and still enjoy a stellar status as, arguably, the strongest exponent of funk metal ever.
Perhaps the most important subgenre associated with metal to emerge from the debris that the wake of alternative metal had left behind, however, was stoner rock. Initially deprived of such a specific label, and later acquiring it due to obvious hallucinogenic references, stoner rock was led mainly by pioneers Monster Magnet and, more importantly, Kyuss. The style was enormously reminiscent of Sabbath and yet could not really be labeled doom, as it was in a groovier vein, despite elements like lower tunings, thick distortion, a penchant for extended mini-suites (a la Black Sabbath), and riffs that Tony Iommi himself could have come up with. Sadly, however, most of the genre's artists were to stay underground for much of the Nineties, with Kyuss being relegated to an extremely strong cult band status in which the act released gems such as Welcome to Sky Valley and ...And the Circus Left Town before sadly calling it quits.
The problems by the middle of the Nineties, however, were way beyond the realms of stoner rock only, as alternative metal was dying out. Nirvana had ceased existing with the death of guitarist/vocalist Kurt Cobain, Pearl Jam had abstained from touring because of a legal feud with Ticketmaster, Alice In Chains gradually became less public as vocalist Layne Staley's drug addiction deepened, and, just like in the Eighties, bands started imitating tried and successful formulas. Only a couple of bands kept breaking new ground, such as the musically simple Helmet and the sometimes psychedelic Smashing Pumpkins. Relatively new punk bands like the Offspring, Green Day, and Rancid (which came out of the ska-punk Operation Ivy) had helped with the initial impulse of the Seattle scene, actually and mistakenly being called alternative by MTV, but their lack of musical fierceness when compared to older punk bands eventually contributed to their own downfall, excepting the Offspring. The hardcore Bad Religion, Social Distortion, and NOFX, the latest of punk bands to reach wide media exposure after several years of existence, seemed for a short moment to be making a small commotion, but nowadays the matter of true punk rock surviving in commercial circles for much longer is rather questionable, the scene being taken up by comparably weak and unoriginal outfits such as Blink 182.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Part_9
By then the end of the Eighties was rapidly approaching, and metal was again becoming a jaded form of music. Every new pop and thrash metal band sounded exactly the same, and of the old ones only a few remained. Motley Crue and Guns n' Roses still ruled the music world along with Metallica, in the absence of Def Leppard and Bon Jovi. The thrash world was quickly dying as bands were repeating everything done before, and Slayer, Megadeth, and Metallica had all slowed down and softened up on their approach in different degrees, which in turn propelled their sales and sent Metallica's "Black" album into an unbelievably long stay on the charts. Death and doom metal had already revived, but speed and glam needed a savior.
Pop metal didn't get it, but thrash metal certainly did, courtesy of Pantera. Pantera (originally a glam metal band) practically revolutionized thrash metal by popularizing an approach that had first been exploited and created by the (unjustly) unrecognized Exhorder. Speed wasn't the main point anymore, it was what singer Phil Anselmo called the "power groove." Riffs became unusually heavy without the need of growling or the extremely low-tuned and distorted guitars of death metal, rhythms depended more on a heavy groove, and vocals became a mixture of snarls and sharp screams, which all revived thrash for the Nineties. But pop metal was to suffer another fate: death at the hands of alternative metal.
Alternative metal had its roots on Neil Young's Crazy Horse, and even before with bands like the Ventures and the Velvet Underground, but the true innovators were Living Colour, Jane's Addiction, and Faith No More; the first an eccentric mixture of heavy metal, jazz, blues, rap, funk, hardcore, and a good dose of black culture; the second a band that borrowed heavily from the Seventies and developed its own unique sound with Perry Farrel's high-pitched squeals. As for Faith No More, its members mixed every existing type of music available to them and fused it with their second singer Mike Patton's bewildered screaming to create masterful albums, a style adopted and developed later by Scatterbrain, Mr.Bungle (Patton's side project) and Mindfunk. These bands were quite successful before the alternative metal explosion that was to occur, and obscured other bands that were stirring up a commotion, such as the hardcore-influenced Sonic Youth, the hyperkinetic Fishbone, the Irish Therapy?, and Seattle's Melvins, Tad, and Mudhoney. Of course, there was also Mother Love Bone, but the band never quite hit fame, despite its outstanding music.
Then Nirvana exploded upon the world with their song "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Its mixture of accessibly simple vocal melodies and punk angst quickly drew hordes of fans eager to listen to something new. Kurt Cobain's depressed lyrics attracted millions of Generation X teenagers who felt as if the old stars of glam metal had nothing to do with their lives; flash and sex just weren't reality anymore, or so everyone thought. Until the death of Cobain in 1994, the members of Nirvana were MTV darlings and helped impulse the so-called Seattle scene, taking away the heavy metal scene from Los Angeles. The grunge wave was so overwhelming commercially that new alternative metal bands began springing out throughout the world, eventually oversaturating the scene. Few bands remained true to their original styles; the likes of the Black Crowes and the Four Horsemen reviving the bluesier rock of the Sixties; Pride & Glory displaying a Southern-influenced rock style; and Love/Hate, the Almighty, and the intensely political and pseudo-alternative Warrior Soul remaining true to a more straightforward heavy metal style.
After the wake of Nirvana, several bands quickly attained fame status. Soundgarden kept to its tried and true formula; Alice In Chains offered a dark, broody musical landscape; and Pearl Jam, perhaps the second most important band of the alternative scene, offered intricate guitar arrangements and melodies, along with Eddie Vedder's low growls and words from the heart on its masterful debut album Ten. The alternative metal scene quickly grew as MTV gave such bands heavy video rotation and took them to stardom, while turning its back on all other forms of heavy metal after a couple of years and for no apparent reason. Later came bands like Stone Temple Pilots, which evolved from a poor man's Pearl Jam to a force of its own, the punk-turned-alternative Soul Asylum, the unique My Sister's Machine, the acclaimed Saigon Kick, Blind Melon, Big Chief, Candlebox, Dinosaur Jr., Moist, and Sponge, all with different degrees of success.
Meanwhile, progressive metal would enjoy yet another zenith among commercial circles. Images and Words, a rather complex collection of progressive-minded music delivered by Dream Theater, reached stellar sales and took progressive metal to grounds seldom tried before. Consisting of prodigious musicians, the band would also release albums such as Awake and A Change of Seasons to further broaden its musical horizon and appeal, and further establishing its reputation as one of progressive metal's most outstanding bands ever. Furthermore, in the wake of Dream Theater's success, several new bands began experimenting further with the most technically apt branch of heavy metal developed previously by the likes of the insanely technical progressive thrash act Watchtower. Threshold, Shadow Gallery, Damn the Machine, Ayreon, Symphony X, the ultra-complex Spastic Ink, and the unbelievably original Pain of Salvation are among these bright exponents of music, which continuously broaden musical frontiers. Along with these, other bands have created more whimsical approaches, like the progressive thrash metal composed by Anacrusis and the progressive combination of death metal and jazz harbored once by Atheist and Cynic.
Pop metal didn't get it, but thrash metal certainly did, courtesy of Pantera. Pantera (originally a glam metal band) practically revolutionized thrash metal by popularizing an approach that had first been exploited and created by the (unjustly) unrecognized Exhorder. Speed wasn't the main point anymore, it was what singer Phil Anselmo called the "power groove." Riffs became unusually heavy without the need of growling or the extremely low-tuned and distorted guitars of death metal, rhythms depended more on a heavy groove, and vocals became a mixture of snarls and sharp screams, which all revived thrash for the Nineties. But pop metal was to suffer another fate: death at the hands of alternative metal.
Alternative metal had its roots on Neil Young's Crazy Horse, and even before with bands like the Ventures and the Velvet Underground, but the true innovators were Living Colour, Jane's Addiction, and Faith No More; the first an eccentric mixture of heavy metal, jazz, blues, rap, funk, hardcore, and a good dose of black culture; the second a band that borrowed heavily from the Seventies and developed its own unique sound with Perry Farrel's high-pitched squeals. As for Faith No More, its members mixed every existing type of music available to them and fused it with their second singer Mike Patton's bewildered screaming to create masterful albums, a style adopted and developed later by Scatterbrain, Mr.Bungle (Patton's side project) and Mindfunk. These bands were quite successful before the alternative metal explosion that was to occur, and obscured other bands that were stirring up a commotion, such as the hardcore-influenced Sonic Youth, the hyperkinetic Fishbone, the Irish Therapy?, and Seattle's Melvins, Tad, and Mudhoney. Of course, there was also Mother Love Bone, but the band never quite hit fame, despite its outstanding music.
Then Nirvana exploded upon the world with their song "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Its mixture of accessibly simple vocal melodies and punk angst quickly drew hordes of fans eager to listen to something new. Kurt Cobain's depressed lyrics attracted millions of Generation X teenagers who felt as if the old stars of glam metal had nothing to do with their lives; flash and sex just weren't reality anymore, or so everyone thought. Until the death of Cobain in 1994, the members of Nirvana were MTV darlings and helped impulse the so-called Seattle scene, taking away the heavy metal scene from Los Angeles. The grunge wave was so overwhelming commercially that new alternative metal bands began springing out throughout the world, eventually oversaturating the scene. Few bands remained true to their original styles; the likes of the Black Crowes and the Four Horsemen reviving the bluesier rock of the Sixties; Pride & Glory displaying a Southern-influenced rock style; and Love/Hate, the Almighty, and the intensely political and pseudo-alternative Warrior Soul remaining true to a more straightforward heavy metal style.
After the wake of Nirvana, several bands quickly attained fame status. Soundgarden kept to its tried and true formula; Alice In Chains offered a dark, broody musical landscape; and Pearl Jam, perhaps the second most important band of the alternative scene, offered intricate guitar arrangements and melodies, along with Eddie Vedder's low growls and words from the heart on its masterful debut album Ten. The alternative metal scene quickly grew as MTV gave such bands heavy video rotation and took them to stardom, while turning its back on all other forms of heavy metal after a couple of years and for no apparent reason. Later came bands like Stone Temple Pilots, which evolved from a poor man's Pearl Jam to a force of its own, the punk-turned-alternative Soul Asylum, the unique My Sister's Machine, the acclaimed Saigon Kick, Blind Melon, Big Chief, Candlebox, Dinosaur Jr., Moist, and Sponge, all with different degrees of success.
Meanwhile, progressive metal would enjoy yet another zenith among commercial circles. Images and Words, a rather complex collection of progressive-minded music delivered by Dream Theater, reached stellar sales and took progressive metal to grounds seldom tried before. Consisting of prodigious musicians, the band would also release albums such as Awake and A Change of Seasons to further broaden its musical horizon and appeal, and further establishing its reputation as one of progressive metal's most outstanding bands ever. Furthermore, in the wake of Dream Theater's success, several new bands began experimenting further with the most technically apt branch of heavy metal developed previously by the likes of the insanely technical progressive thrash act Watchtower. Threshold, Shadow Gallery, Damn the Machine, Ayreon, Symphony X, the ultra-complex Spastic Ink, and the unbelievably original Pain of Salvation are among these bright exponents of music, which continuously broaden musical frontiers. Along with these, other bands have created more whimsical approaches, like the progressive thrash metal composed by Anacrusis and the progressive combination of death metal and jazz harbored once by Atheist and Cynic.
Part_8
While Queensryche, Fates Warning, and Rush were creating complex music backed by intellectual lyrics which ran the gamut from philosophy to science fiction and beyond, several young bands began what would eventually be known as hardcore; the marriage of heavy metal and punk rock. Hardcore music was somewhat comparable to punk rock in its simple approach and politically minded lyrics, while borrowing a considerable portion of heavy metal's crunch and arrangements. Washington DC and New York City provided the genre with a major portion of its band, among which was the Bad Brains, perhaps the most intense hardcore band ever; blending jazz, reggae, metal, punk, and reckless speed in order to produce bona-fide hardcore albums such as I Against I and Rock For Light. Meanwhile, Los Angeles' Black Flag was setting the world on fire with its "I've heard it all before, don't wanna hear it again!" ethic, Henry Rollins' manic roars, and Greg Ginn's dissonant guitarwork, which made up the band's classic Damaged. At the same time, the Dead Kennedys were to epitomize the righteous political stance of hardcore with Jello Biafra leading the way, while Minor Threat stood against all conformism on its exhilarating live shows. Others like Circle Jerks, D.O.A., Husker Du, Murphy's Law, Reagan Youth, Antidote, Agnostic Front, War Zone, Gorilla Biscuits, the Cro-Mags, Youth of Today, Sick Of It All, Laughing Hyenas, and Life of Agony kept adding fuel to the fire throughout the genre's explosion, which provided yet another sharp contrast to the reigning pop metal scene.
As Black Flag and the Bad Brains were continuously attracting the wariness of police departments all across the United States, several bands decided to take hardcore even further into heavy metal domains, thus creating metalcore, or crossover. Discharge had begun the turmoil on Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing in the early Eighties only to spearhead a movement that would have its brightest moments throughout the rest of the decade. D.R.I. (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles) would release albums like Crossover and Definition, while Corrosion of Conformity created Eye For an Eye and Animosity, both bands attracting the attention of hardcore and heavy metal fans only to pave the way for S.O.D (Stormtroopers of Death). The ironically hilarious Speak English Or Die is perhaps the album most representative of crossover yet. Featuring singer Billy Milano along with Anthrax and ex-Nuclear Assault members, S.O.D. was arguably the greatest metalcore band of all times, and a reunion was highly requested for years until the band recently released its comeback Bigger than the Devil. Crossover, however, has yet to reach the commercial heights it attained during the Eighties, while hardcore is still somewhat prominent through bands like Fugazi, the Jesus Lizard, Madball, and Biohazard.
During the last half of the Eighties, yet another branch of heavy metal began to rise out from the underground into commercial circles. Industrial metal, which's most important feature was the use of electronic instruments and sounds such as drum machines and synthesizers, had been around since the early Eighties with outfits like the innovative and legendary the Swans and Killing Joke. But it evolved much quicker through the last half of the decade through the efforts of bands like Skinny Puppy, Controlled Bleeding (which would later produce Skin Chamber), the heavy and aggressive KMFDM (Kein Mehrheit fie Mitleid), Cop Shoot Cop, and Godflesh, all remaining often within a dark musical spectrum. The final breakthrough, however, came about with Al Jourgensen's Ministry, which after outstanding albums like Twitch and The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste came around full circle on Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs. The previously released "Jesus Built My Hotrod" had earned considerable video rotation, and songs like "Just One Fix" helped maintain the initial momentum of industrial metal.
As Black Flag and the Bad Brains were continuously attracting the wariness of police departments all across the United States, several bands decided to take hardcore even further into heavy metal domains, thus creating metalcore, or crossover. Discharge had begun the turmoil on Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing in the early Eighties only to spearhead a movement that would have its brightest moments throughout the rest of the decade. D.R.I. (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles) would release albums like Crossover and Definition, while Corrosion of Conformity created Eye For an Eye and Animosity, both bands attracting the attention of hardcore and heavy metal fans only to pave the way for S.O.D (Stormtroopers of Death). The ironically hilarious Speak English Or Die is perhaps the album most representative of crossover yet. Featuring singer Billy Milano along with Anthrax and ex-Nuclear Assault members, S.O.D. was arguably the greatest metalcore band of all times, and a reunion was highly requested for years until the band recently released its comeback Bigger than the Devil. Crossover, however, has yet to reach the commercial heights it attained during the Eighties, while hardcore is still somewhat prominent through bands like Fugazi, the Jesus Lizard, Madball, and Biohazard.
During the last half of the Eighties, yet another branch of heavy metal began to rise out from the underground into commercial circles. Industrial metal, which's most important feature was the use of electronic instruments and sounds such as drum machines and synthesizers, had been around since the early Eighties with outfits like the innovative and legendary the Swans and Killing Joke. But it evolved much quicker through the last half of the decade through the efforts of bands like Skinny Puppy, Controlled Bleeding (which would later produce Skin Chamber), the heavy and aggressive KMFDM (Kein Mehrheit fie Mitleid), Cop Shoot Cop, and Godflesh, all remaining often within a dark musical spectrum. The final breakthrough, however, came about with Al Jourgensen's Ministry, which after outstanding albums like Twitch and The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste came around full circle on Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs. The previously released "Jesus Built My Hotrod" had earned considerable video rotation, and songs like "Just One Fix" helped maintain the initial momentum of industrial metal.
Part_7
As heavy metal began diversifying itself continuously, certain musicians would decide to relieve its characteristic vocals to a second plane, or to completely eliminate them. Among these were guitar virtuosos Joe Satriani, his student Steve Vai, and Yngwie Malmsteen. The first, often called "the guitarist's guitarist," created masterworks like Surfing With the Alien and The Extremist; the second has an illustrious career, having played with the likes of Frank Zappa and Whitesnake, and later working on his solo projects; and Malmsteen is recognized for his heavy and constant classical music influence and swift dexterity, while criticized because of his ego and extroverted persona. Meanwhile, others like bassist Stu Hamm, Scorpions drummer Herman Rarebell, and guitarists Steve Morse, Richie Kotzen, and the sadly ALS-afflicted genius Jason Becker have slowly created a name for themselves by the release of solo albums and working with other bands and musicians, either temporary or permanently. The prominence of instrumental variations of metal has gradually grown through the years; however, only few of its exponents have achieved wide commercial and media exposure.
Also during the heyday of thrash and pop metal, and while the genre's instrumental branch was bringing technique to the foreground, two bands became responsible for holding progressive metal's ground: Queensr and Fates Warning.
With Rush approaching a softer sound during most of the Eighties, and progressive rock having lost much of its popularity during the late Seventies, progressive metal had lost most of its appeal. Queensryche failed to obtain commercial success with prodigious releases like The Warning and Rage for Order, but the single "Eyes Of a Stranger" propelled Operation: Mindcrime into gold status quickly and cemented the group's reputation. Empire would later obtain platinum (1,000,000 albums sold) sales through the heavy rotation of "Silent Lucidity," while Fates Warning maintained a low but strong profile on albums like Awaken the Guardian and Perfect Symmetry. Other bands, such as Crimson Glory with its melodic progressive metal and King's X with its combinations of vocal harmonies with heavy riffs (later made heavier by the Galactic Cowboys) would also tread the path of musical complexity, therefore contributing to an important resurrection of progressive metal which culminated in the 1993 release of Rush's Counterparts, featuring the band's return to a heavier direction.
Also during the heyday of thrash and pop metal, and while the genre's instrumental branch was bringing technique to the foreground, two bands became responsible for holding progressive metal's ground: Queensr and Fates Warning.
With Rush approaching a softer sound during most of the Eighties, and progressive rock having lost much of its popularity during the late Seventies, progressive metal had lost most of its appeal. Queensryche failed to obtain commercial success with prodigious releases like The Warning and Rage for Order, but the single "Eyes Of a Stranger" propelled Operation: Mindcrime into gold status quickly and cemented the group's reputation. Empire would later obtain platinum (1,000,000 albums sold) sales through the heavy rotation of "Silent Lucidity," while Fates Warning maintained a low but strong profile on albums like Awaken the Guardian and Perfect Symmetry. Other bands, such as Crimson Glory with its melodic progressive metal and King's X with its combinations of vocal harmonies with heavy riffs (later made heavier by the Galactic Cowboys) would also tread the path of musical complexity, therefore contributing to an important resurrection of progressive metal which culminated in the 1993 release of Rush's Counterparts, featuring the band's return to a heavier direction.
Part_6
As death metal rose from thrash metal, and playing as fast as possible became the vogue for the heaviest bands, some musicians decided to take things slowly and revive doom metal, a branch of metal that had practically died with the end of Ozzy's stint in Black Sabbath. Witchfinder General, Trouble (leader of the white, or Christian, metal movement), and Saint Vitus were probably among the best bands since Black Sabbath to take a slow approach to metal, with heavy riffs and the occasional bluesy influence being a main part of their approach. Unfortunately, despite its innovative style and original twin guitar approach, the quasi-religious Trouble never quite obtained the recognition it deserved, and the rest of the scene did likewise.
Later on, more bands would continue with the advances of Witchfynde, Angel Witch, and the dying scene of doom, and would eventually join the ranks and introduce a more operatic style in singing, as evidenced in the output of Candlemass after its legendary and innovative Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. Pentagram was there too, along with others like the Obsessed and Dream Death (to later turn into Penance), but the doom metal movement was not to flourish until the coming of two bands composed of former members of death, thrash and punk bands: Paradise Lost, and, more importantly, Cathedral. Paradise Lost, on its Gothic album, incorporated haunting keyboards and guitar licks into its music while maintaining a death metal vocal influence and thus impelling the so-called "doomdeath" sound. Cathedral, meanwhile, seemed to revive a more modern Black Sabbath after its first doomdeath efforts, progressing from growling, death metal-like vocals to screeching eerie howls. With the moderate success of these two bands, a slew of new groups came to being, and doom metal was suddenly affected by several influences: orchestral movements, operatic vocals, death metal heaviness and singing, and female singers; but never losing the slow, eerie and emotional side of things. It was thus that the death-like Sorrow, Crematory, and Winter; the Sabbath-like Count Raven, Sleep, Internal Void, and Iron Man; the more orthodox Solitude Aeturnus and Memento Mori; the Louisiana scene Eyehategod and Crowbar; the evolving My Dying Bride and Anathema, and several others began to rise in the metal world.
More recently, doom metal has seen its efforts accompanied and influenced by a more gothic and atmospheric influence, in which haunting female vocals that alternate with male death metal growls have already become a standard. Theatre of Tragedy and Tristania have formed what is perhaps the measuring point for this newer approach, called doom metal by some but bearing characteristics that differentiate both styles. This, however, is far from being noticeable in just a couple of bands, as many newcomers have taken to the approach, while others, such as Tiamat and The 3rd and the Mortal, explore the use of acoustic guitars and wide atmospheres reminiscent of Pink Floyd, and Theatre of Tragedy switches gear into the exploration of electronic music intertwined with metal.
Meanwhile, back in the Eighties and out of the doom metal scene and the Misfits was Glenn Danzig, the man responsible for Samhain and Danzig. The first was much heavier than the punk music of the Misfits, yet it shared much of the aforementioned band's shock imagery. Shortly after the release of November Coming Fire, Danzig disbanded Samhain and created Danzig, which's self-titled debut album consisted of a variety of feelings which ranged from haunting to melodic to powerful, all circling about the soulful persona of Glenn Danzig. The unique musical style, reminiscent at times of early Black Sabbath, along with its openly Satanic image, lasted during four outstanding albums, only to change direction after the industrial metal revolution of the Nineties. Along with the aforementioned bands, Loudness and King Diamond, then formerly of Mercyful Fate, would also help maintain a more traditional heavy metal sound alive throughout that decade. King Diamond moved progressively away from speed metal and gradually incorporated his grunts and high-pitched squeals increasingly into his music, while the Japanese Loudness released constantly powerful albums throughout the Eighties, such as Thunder In the East and Soldier of Fortune. Others like GWAR, Haunted Garage, and Green Jelly expanded on the shock rock approach by worrying more about costumes, stage shows and videos than about music, alienating censorship organizations along with bands like the controversial and infamous W.A.S.P.
Later on, more bands would continue with the advances of Witchfynde, Angel Witch, and the dying scene of doom, and would eventually join the ranks and introduce a more operatic style in singing, as evidenced in the output of Candlemass after its legendary and innovative Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. Pentagram was there too, along with others like the Obsessed and Dream Death (to later turn into Penance), but the doom metal movement was not to flourish until the coming of two bands composed of former members of death, thrash and punk bands: Paradise Lost, and, more importantly, Cathedral. Paradise Lost, on its Gothic album, incorporated haunting keyboards and guitar licks into its music while maintaining a death metal vocal influence and thus impelling the so-called "doomdeath" sound. Cathedral, meanwhile, seemed to revive a more modern Black Sabbath after its first doomdeath efforts, progressing from growling, death metal-like vocals to screeching eerie howls. With the moderate success of these two bands, a slew of new groups came to being, and doom metal was suddenly affected by several influences: orchestral movements, operatic vocals, death metal heaviness and singing, and female singers; but never losing the slow, eerie and emotional side of things. It was thus that the death-like Sorrow, Crematory, and Winter; the Sabbath-like Count Raven, Sleep, Internal Void, and Iron Man; the more orthodox Solitude Aeturnus and Memento Mori; the Louisiana scene Eyehategod and Crowbar; the evolving My Dying Bride and Anathema, and several others began to rise in the metal world.
More recently, doom metal has seen its efforts accompanied and influenced by a more gothic and atmospheric influence, in which haunting female vocals that alternate with male death metal growls have already become a standard. Theatre of Tragedy and Tristania have formed what is perhaps the measuring point for this newer approach, called doom metal by some but bearing characteristics that differentiate both styles. This, however, is far from being noticeable in just a couple of bands, as many newcomers have taken to the approach, while others, such as Tiamat and The 3rd and the Mortal, explore the use of acoustic guitars and wide atmospheres reminiscent of Pink Floyd, and Theatre of Tragedy switches gear into the exploration of electronic music intertwined with metal.
Meanwhile, back in the Eighties and out of the doom metal scene and the Misfits was Glenn Danzig, the man responsible for Samhain and Danzig. The first was much heavier than the punk music of the Misfits, yet it shared much of the aforementioned band's shock imagery. Shortly after the release of November Coming Fire, Danzig disbanded Samhain and created Danzig, which's self-titled debut album consisted of a variety of feelings which ranged from haunting to melodic to powerful, all circling about the soulful persona of Glenn Danzig. The unique musical style, reminiscent at times of early Black Sabbath, along with its openly Satanic image, lasted during four outstanding albums, only to change direction after the industrial metal revolution of the Nineties. Along with the aforementioned bands, Loudness and King Diamond, then formerly of Mercyful Fate, would also help maintain a more traditional heavy metal sound alive throughout that decade. King Diamond moved progressively away from speed metal and gradually incorporated his grunts and high-pitched squeals increasingly into his music, while the Japanese Loudness released constantly powerful albums throughout the Eighties, such as Thunder In the East and Soldier of Fortune. Others like GWAR, Haunted Garage, and Green Jelly expanded on the shock rock approach by worrying more about costumes, stage shows and videos than about music, alienating censorship organizations along with bands like the controversial and infamous W.A.S.P.
Part_5
Thrash metal spawned yet another subgenre of metal that was to be the most extreme ever: death metal. Hellhammer's Apocalyptic Raids, Death's Scream Bloody Gore, and Possessed's The Seven Churches marked the beginning of a gender of music destined to never attain commercial success. Guitars became as heavy and downtuned as possible, tempo changes went from breakneck speeds to grindingly slow aggression, double pedaling almost became a rule for drummers, and vocalists switched from screaming to uttering guttural growls that were barely intelligible. Venom's Welcome to Hell had subtly predicted death metal's rise, and the new bands just reassured it. Acts such as the groundbreaking Celtic Frost continued death metal, but due to a new interest of metal bands in metalcore, death metal was losing ground.
Then came Sepultura, Obituary and Morbid Angel to resurrect death metal. Sepultura's precise and exacting Beneath the Remains, along with Obituary's brutal Slowly We Rot, revived the long-dead interest of metal fans and again established death metal as a strong branch of metal, propelling the existence of a slew of new bands and resurgence of old ones, such as Malevolent Creation, Cannibal Corpse, and Fudge Tunnel; as well as the progressive Believer, Pestilence, Atheist, and Cynic (the latter three forming the core of the so-called jazz-death metal scene). Furthermore, the subgenre strengthened itself in Sweden, where the brutal Entombed began a strong death metal tradition that featured slight hints of melody and bands such as Dismember, Edge of Sanity, Pan-Thy-Monium, and Hypocrisy. However, death metal also stagnated into boring repetition. Against the background of success for bands such as Morbid Angel and Deicide, along with the technically renewed approach of Death on Human, Individual Thought Patterns, and Symbolic, most new bands had nothing new to offer, but instead chose to rehash everything done before and therefore help begin carving death metal's tomb again.
During the last half of the Eighties, death metal would in turn churn out the most radical of its variations, grindcore, which would eventually become a separate musical identity in and of itself. Grindcore's most representative exponent is unquestionably Napalm Death, which virtually eliminated harmony and melody in albums such as Scum, Harmony Corrupted, and Utopia Banished. The subgenre seems to be the absolute frontier of heavy metal, as it thrives on deconstructing music and as such is probably its most radical form ever, that is, if it can be called music. Because of its nature, grindcore is usually just glanced upon by bands such as Scorn, while bands that originally formed part of the scene, such as Carcass, Godflesh, Treponem Pal, and Pitchshifter, have all chosen to move towards less radical musical directions.
Meanwhile, during the early Nineties, bands such as Tiamat, Therion, Sentenced, and Cemetary began moving away from their previous death metal sound in order to pursue diverse musical avenues, including progressive, doom, and classic metal. This in turn influenced other bands to create yet more diverse and musically complex death metal, which, along with the groundbreaking and NWOBHM-flavored Carcass album Heartwork, has been one of the main reasons behind the relatively recent New Wave of Swedish Death Metal. A movement started by At the Gates, Dark Tranquility, and In Flames, it mixes the strength and vocals of death metal with a considerably melodic approach that draws from the likes of Iron Maiden. The general style is in fact described as what would have happened if Iron Maiden had played death metal instead, and has become all the rage in the death metal scene; a result of catchier songwriting, an excellent execution on behalf of the musicians, and its overall sense of melody.
On the other side of the coin is black metal, a branch of death metal that began as an underproduced and noisy type of music ("black" being a connotation of Satanic imagery) as far back as the first half of the Eighties with Bathory. Although bands such as Slayer and Venom are called "black metal" at times due to their Satanic imagery, it was until Bathory that black metal truly took shape, with high pitched growls and snarls, "blast-beat" drumming, extremely distorted but normally tuned guitars, an utter lack of melody and subtlety, and a nihilistically Satanic or pagan ideology being at the forefront of the subgenre. Soon after the first wave of black metal was starting to brew in the underground, with its most extreme and important exponents hailing from Norway and consisting of acts like Immortal, Darkthrone, Burzum, and the savage and undeniably influential Mayhem. Although the Norwegian Inner Circle was plagued by an infamous and certainly not recommendable legacy of murders, incarcerations, and Church burnings, it was also the start of what was to be a rapidly expanding underground movement that was to take the fundamental elements such as savagery and corpse paint from its initiators.
It was thus that the second wave of black metal, which is still present today and has easily become the most popular, began a few years into the Nineties, with bands such as Satyricon, Dark Funeral, Emperor, Dimmu Borgir, and the English Cradle of Filth bringing in keyboards, a much greater sense of melody, and a host of new influences, such as Scandinavian folk music, into the mix. And although this second movement has left the wave of crimes of its predecessors in the past, the music remains savage, uncompromising, and with little commercial appeal, despite the expansion of borders that it is currently going through. Meanwhile, black metal legends Samael and Bathory have long since moved away from the cliche's of the subgenre, the first always having been a highly unique and unorthodox black metal offering with a slower and much darker approach that in recent years has brought in an enormous electronic influence to its style; a transition that began on the innovative Passage.
Then came Sepultura, Obituary and Morbid Angel to resurrect death metal. Sepultura's precise and exacting Beneath the Remains, along with Obituary's brutal Slowly We Rot, revived the long-dead interest of metal fans and again established death metal as a strong branch of metal, propelling the existence of a slew of new bands and resurgence of old ones, such as Malevolent Creation, Cannibal Corpse, and Fudge Tunnel; as well as the progressive Believer, Pestilence, Atheist, and Cynic (the latter three forming the core of the so-called jazz-death metal scene). Furthermore, the subgenre strengthened itself in Sweden, where the brutal Entombed began a strong death metal tradition that featured slight hints of melody and bands such as Dismember, Edge of Sanity, Pan-Thy-Monium, and Hypocrisy. However, death metal also stagnated into boring repetition. Against the background of success for bands such as Morbid Angel and Deicide, along with the technically renewed approach of Death on Human, Individual Thought Patterns, and Symbolic, most new bands had nothing new to offer, but instead chose to rehash everything done before and therefore help begin carving death metal's tomb again.
During the last half of the Eighties, death metal would in turn churn out the most radical of its variations, grindcore, which would eventually become a separate musical identity in and of itself. Grindcore's most representative exponent is unquestionably Napalm Death, which virtually eliminated harmony and melody in albums such as Scum, Harmony Corrupted, and Utopia Banished. The subgenre seems to be the absolute frontier of heavy metal, as it thrives on deconstructing music and as such is probably its most radical form ever, that is, if it can be called music. Because of its nature, grindcore is usually just glanced upon by bands such as Scorn, while bands that originally formed part of the scene, such as Carcass, Godflesh, Treponem Pal, and Pitchshifter, have all chosen to move towards less radical musical directions.
Meanwhile, during the early Nineties, bands such as Tiamat, Therion, Sentenced, and Cemetary began moving away from their previous death metal sound in order to pursue diverse musical avenues, including progressive, doom, and classic metal. This in turn influenced other bands to create yet more diverse and musically complex death metal, which, along with the groundbreaking and NWOBHM-flavored Carcass album Heartwork, has been one of the main reasons behind the relatively recent New Wave of Swedish Death Metal. A movement started by At the Gates, Dark Tranquility, and In Flames, it mixes the strength and vocals of death metal with a considerably melodic approach that draws from the likes of Iron Maiden. The general style is in fact described as what would have happened if Iron Maiden had played death metal instead, and has become all the rage in the death metal scene; a result of catchier songwriting, an excellent execution on behalf of the musicians, and its overall sense of melody.
On the other side of the coin is black metal, a branch of death metal that began as an underproduced and noisy type of music ("black" being a connotation of Satanic imagery) as far back as the first half of the Eighties with Bathory. Although bands such as Slayer and Venom are called "black metal" at times due to their Satanic imagery, it was until Bathory that black metal truly took shape, with high pitched growls and snarls, "blast-beat" drumming, extremely distorted but normally tuned guitars, an utter lack of melody and subtlety, and a nihilistically Satanic or pagan ideology being at the forefront of the subgenre. Soon after the first wave of black metal was starting to brew in the underground, with its most extreme and important exponents hailing from Norway and consisting of acts like Immortal, Darkthrone, Burzum, and the savage and undeniably influential Mayhem. Although the Norwegian Inner Circle was plagued by an infamous and certainly not recommendable legacy of murders, incarcerations, and Church burnings, it was also the start of what was to be a rapidly expanding underground movement that was to take the fundamental elements such as savagery and corpse paint from its initiators.
It was thus that the second wave of black metal, which is still present today and has easily become the most popular, began a few years into the Nineties, with bands such as Satyricon, Dark Funeral, Emperor, Dimmu Borgir, and the English Cradle of Filth bringing in keyboards, a much greater sense of melody, and a host of new influences, such as Scandinavian folk music, into the mix. And although this second movement has left the wave of crimes of its predecessors in the past, the music remains savage, uncompromising, and with little commercial appeal, despite the expansion of borders that it is currently going through. Meanwhile, black metal legends Samael and Bathory have long since moved away from the cliche's of the subgenre, the first always having been a highly unique and unorthodox black metal offering with a slower and much darker approach that in recent years has brought in an enormous electronic influence to its style; a transition that began on the innovative Passage.
Part_4
While pop metal ruled the airwaves, fans of bands like Motorhead and Venom panicked as they saw metal become a softer, more mainstream gender of music. They were relieved, however, by the rise of thrash/speed/power metal (the last label being separated sometimes because of its strong epic characteristic), spearheaded by Metallica. Metallica began combining multiple riffing, snarling vocals, and a wide use of double-pedals in drumming to produce music that was totally uncompromising and ferocious, therefore being shunned by MTV and commercial radio stations. Shortly after, bands like Mercyful Fate and the crunching Exodus (an important part of the blooming San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal scene) were increasing their presence to back up Metallica and bring the harder metal fans together again.
At this time, three other thrash metal bands took over along with Metallica: Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer. Megadeth, founded by ex-Metallica guitarist Dave Mustaine, created what would be later known as techno-thrash, characterized by numerous tempo changes and complex riffs, which backed Mustaine's sharp snarl. Meanwhile, Anthrax produced hard-hitting riffs and began experimenting with rap, while Slayer made the heaviest riffs of its time and its members developed their obsession with Satanic imagery. Later on, Suicidal Tendencies would reach similar heights with releases such as Lights... Camera...Revolution, which would incorporate punk, alternative, and rap influences into singer Mike Muir's extroverted ramblings, while Testament would enjoy commercial success through the mid-period of the 80's with albums such as Practice What You Preach and what many consider to be the disappointing Souls of Black. Also noteworthy is the fact that Testament was at one time considered part of the "Big Four" of the thrash metal scene, before Slayer took over its position with what is considered by many to be one of the crucial thrash metal albums of all time: 1986's Reign In Blood.
The scene would have died out if it hadn't been for an underground network in which band demos and records were quickly exchanged and distributed throughout the world. Exciter, Overkill, Nuclear Assault, Dark Angel, Razor, and a number of other bands became known by the thrash scene underground and developed strong cult followings. Additionally, Germany was feeding the general enthusiasm with what was one of the most important thrash metal scenes apart from the one in the San Francisco Bay Area, placing acts such as Destruction, Kreator, Tankard, and Sodom in the movement and injecting it with what at one time was labeled Teutonic thrash. Even then, however, thrash metal was still far from achieving the success it deserved and strived for.
Thrash metal finally hit paydirt when Metallica's masterpiece, Master of Puppets, reached the gold mark (500,000 albums sold) in 1986. This catapulted Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth into stardom as well, and began the rise of thrash metal in commercial circles. The answer to pop metal had arrived in the form of an uncompromisingly brutal form of music. However, just like with pop metal, many excellent bands never quite obtained the sales they deserved. Flotsam & Jetsam, Wrathchild America, the solid and straightforward Sacred Reich, early Anvil, and the innovatively progressive and original Coroner and Mekong Delta, despite their powerful albums and originality, never reached enough exposure. Voivod, meanwhile, failed to obtain a well-deserved recognition after changing styles towards a more progressive thrash metal direction. Later on, the splendid Angel Rat featured a more accessible, mainstream sound that contrasted sharply against the brilliant Dimension Hatross and Nothingface; yet it failed to break the band through to the media.
Another trend that suddenly gained impressive influence during the late Eighties would be power metal. A style that took the speed and heaviness of speed metal and combined it with epic song overtones characteristic of classic metal, power metal would be primordially divided into two types, the first of them being the standard, or "American," style of power metal, played by bands like Metal Church, Savatage, Jag Panzer, and Manowar; and which despite its epic proportions inherited mainly from thrash metal and retained much of its harshness. Meanwhile, melodic, or "European" power metal was a style that concentrated mainly on the combination of speed and classic elements, with the occasional inclusion of progressive tendencies; an approach exploited by bands like Running Wild and the unique Rage. Power metal would not, however, reach worldwide exposure until Helloween's Keeper of the Seven Keys albums reached combined sales of over one million records. Fronted by the astounding voice of Michael Kiske, Helloween became the epitome of power metal, producing some of the genre's most memorable harmonies and melodies at speeds only imagined by Iron Maiden. This in turn caused a sudden sensation around power metal, allowing for the eventual creation of new bands like Blind Guardian and Iced Earth, and impelling older bands, such as the proto-power metal Riot, to adapt to the style.
At this time, three other thrash metal bands took over along with Metallica: Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer. Megadeth, founded by ex-Metallica guitarist Dave Mustaine, created what would be later known as techno-thrash, characterized by numerous tempo changes and complex riffs, which backed Mustaine's sharp snarl. Meanwhile, Anthrax produced hard-hitting riffs and began experimenting with rap, while Slayer made the heaviest riffs of its time and its members developed their obsession with Satanic imagery. Later on, Suicidal Tendencies would reach similar heights with releases such as Lights... Camera...Revolution, which would incorporate punk, alternative, and rap influences into singer Mike Muir's extroverted ramblings, while Testament would enjoy commercial success through the mid-period of the 80's with albums such as Practice What You Preach and what many consider to be the disappointing Souls of Black. Also noteworthy is the fact that Testament was at one time considered part of the "Big Four" of the thrash metal scene, before Slayer took over its position with what is considered by many to be one of the crucial thrash metal albums of all time: 1986's Reign In Blood.
The scene would have died out if it hadn't been for an underground network in which band demos and records were quickly exchanged and distributed throughout the world. Exciter, Overkill, Nuclear Assault, Dark Angel, Razor, and a number of other bands became known by the thrash scene underground and developed strong cult followings. Additionally, Germany was feeding the general enthusiasm with what was one of the most important thrash metal scenes apart from the one in the San Francisco Bay Area, placing acts such as Destruction, Kreator, Tankard, and Sodom in the movement and injecting it with what at one time was labeled Teutonic thrash. Even then, however, thrash metal was still far from achieving the success it deserved and strived for.
Thrash metal finally hit paydirt when Metallica's masterpiece, Master of Puppets, reached the gold mark (500,000 albums sold) in 1986. This catapulted Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth into stardom as well, and began the rise of thrash metal in commercial circles. The answer to pop metal had arrived in the form of an uncompromisingly brutal form of music. However, just like with pop metal, many excellent bands never quite obtained the sales they deserved. Flotsam & Jetsam, Wrathchild America, the solid and straightforward Sacred Reich, early Anvil, and the innovatively progressive and original Coroner and Mekong Delta, despite their powerful albums and originality, never reached enough exposure. Voivod, meanwhile, failed to obtain a well-deserved recognition after changing styles towards a more progressive thrash metal direction. Later on, the splendid Angel Rat featured a more accessible, mainstream sound that contrasted sharply against the brilliant Dimension Hatross and Nothingface; yet it failed to break the band through to the media.
Another trend that suddenly gained impressive influence during the late Eighties would be power metal. A style that took the speed and heaviness of speed metal and combined it with epic song overtones characteristic of classic metal, power metal would be primordially divided into two types, the first of them being the standard, or "American," style of power metal, played by bands like Metal Church, Savatage, Jag Panzer, and Manowar; and which despite its epic proportions inherited mainly from thrash metal and retained much of its harshness. Meanwhile, melodic, or "European" power metal was a style that concentrated mainly on the combination of speed and classic elements, with the occasional inclusion of progressive tendencies; an approach exploited by bands like Running Wild and the unique Rage. Power metal would not, however, reach worldwide exposure until Helloween's Keeper of the Seven Keys albums reached combined sales of over one million records. Fronted by the astounding voice of Michael Kiske, Helloween became the epitome of power metal, producing some of the genre's most memorable harmonies and melodies at speeds only imagined by Iron Maiden. This in turn caused a sudden sensation around power metal, allowing for the eventual creation of new bands like Blind Guardian and Iced Earth, and impelling older bands, such as the proto-power metal Riot, to adapt to the style.
Part_3
While punk was shaking the foundations of rock n' roll, heavy metal came back with Judas Priest, the Scorpions, Accept, and the short-lived New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM). The highly important British invasion brought with itself bands like the acclaimed Diamond Head, Def Leppard, Holocaust, Iron Maiden, Saxon, Samson, Tygers of Pan Tang, Venom, Raven, and Sweet Savage, of which only Iron Maiden, Saxon and Def Leppard were to survive. Judas Priest would popularize the leather, studs, and spikes apparel that would characterize metal for years to come; the veteran Scorpions would increase its string of brilliant releases, such as Virgin Killer, Lovedrive, and Blackout, which featured the band's taste for both ballads and heavy songs; and Accept would demonstrate its solid musicianship and proto-power metal drive through classic albums like Breaker and Restless and Wild.
Meanwhile, Iron Maiden brought back the mystic imagery of heavy metal while pounding out some of the heaviest riffs of its time in albums like Killers, Piece of Mind and Powerslave. The band was to remain the heaviest to rule the arena hard-rock circuit for years until the advent of Metallica. And while Maiden pounded out harmonized and majestic guitar riffs backed by a thunderous bass (a combination commonly known as classic metal, not to be confused with the pioneering genre), Venom would truly begin the thrash metal genre with classic albums like Welcome to Hell and Black Metal, in which it also laid the grounds for what would turn out to be death and black metal later on. Originally a band meant as a tongue-in-cheek project named Oberon, Venom was to become the most intense band of its time and would inspire, along with Motorhead, Judas Priest's Stained Class and Riot's distinguishable and energetic musical outbursts, young bands such as Metallica, Exodus, Slayer, and Mantas (which would later become Death) to start making their own brand of fast, aggressive music.
The NWOBHM, however, was to be more than just a short-lived movement of exciting heavy metal revival in Great Britain. It became a revitalized hotbed of youthful exuberance, unbridled creativity, and a point of inspiration and reference for the way heavy metal was to evolve throughout much of the Eighties. With the driving riff-based metal of bands like Jaguar set up against the quirkiness of Witchfynde, the originality of Legend, the timeless quality of Diamond Head, the energy of Angel Witch, or the doom-laden crunch of Witchfinder General, it signified what heavy metal stood for, and guaranteed its continual evolution.
As in the past, the United States decided to bite back with a vengeance, which was embodied in the pop/glam metal explosion of the 80's. Van Halen was already there since 1978 and had become an arena band, hitting the world hard with Eddie Van Halen's guitar wizardry and David Lee Roth's wild show antics. The prototypical Journey had sold millions of records since its inception in 1972 with its keyboard-oriented metal, and later on Angel and Foreigner would begin breaking through to the masses while Montrose released legendary music. But the real vengeance came in the early Eighties with Motley Crue and Ratt, two bands from Los Angeles that wrote relatively accessible songs big on hooks and strongly influenced by the likes of veterans Sweet and T-Rex. Not only that, but both bands also took the glam images from bands such as Alice Cooper, David Bowie, the New York Dolls, Kiss, and Gary Glitter. Taking them to the extreme, glam metal bands began wearing women's makeup, leather outfits, fishnets, headbands, spikes, and whatever they could basically get their hands on. Motley Crue, perhaps the most important pop metal band of the 80's, began the LA metal explosion in 1983 with Shout At the Devil, an album that was solely responsible for bringing heavy metal fully back into commercial circles; at the same time helping propel Ratt and the older Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot into stardom. "Round and Round," "We're Not Gonna Take It," and "Cum On Feel the Noize," respectively, broke each band over to mainstream audiences worldwide; a success that in turn paved the way for Bon Jovi.
Bon Jovi was the second most successful metal band ever, right after Def Leppard; selling millions upon millions of albums and releasing hit ballad after hit ballad. Slippery When Wet and New Jersey took the world by storm, as would Def Leppard's Pyromania and Hysteria. These two bands perfectly learned how to take metal's harshness and mix it with pop's accessibility, therefore producing a perfect blend for the MTV-influenced youth of those days (although many would contend that Bon Jovi isn't really metal). Meanwhile, Motley Crue and Ratt innovated their own music with every album and remained successes for a long time, reflecting the darker side of pop metal. However, these bands obscured others that had as much to offer. Groups such as Kix, Faster Pussycat, and LA Guns, despite their strong material, never truly obtained the success some felt they deserved, while bands like Kiss adapted to the ruling pop metal scene on songs like "Heaven's On Fire." Later on, the pop metal explosion would also obscure bands with harder or more classic styles, such as the acclaimed Thunder, G.U.N., and Junkyard; although others like the Cult and Jackyl did manage to surface.
However, pop metal eventually became too accessible and flashy and needed revitalizing. Whitesnake, which epitomized the common successful glam metal band, was already dying out despite its existence since the Seventies, and only the strongest and best bands were surviving: Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and Motley Crue. The scene needed a new type of band; a band that was not as polished and accessible, a band that came from the sleazy and edgy streets. Enter Guns n' Roses.
Guns n' Roses was what the pop metal scene needed. Appetite for Destruction was a searing, raw, and aggressive affair, featuring Slash's bluesy guitar licks and Axl Rose's hanging-on-to-dear-life vocals. Guns n' Roses took the spotlight with its mix of the Hanoi Rocks, the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, and previous pop metal acts with songs like "Welcome to the Jungle," "Night Train," and "My Michelle," while showing its softer side on "Sweet Child O' Mine." With the band invading the media massively after what had seemed to be an initial failure, Guns n' Roses had saved pop metal from commercial extinction and would eventually reign the scene along with Motley Crue, while Def Leppard and Bon Jovi enjoyed long breaks.
The coming of Guns n' Roses, however, would not prevent new accessible bands from appearing. Poison and Warrant were probably the best and most noticeable of these; although they weren't something completely new, their songs were original and catchy, but their extreme use of makeup and glamorous clothing would incite critics everywhere to attack them as throwaway bands. White Lion was also an important pop metal offering; although some of the band's songs were rather trite, much of its material was also quite impressive; especially songs like "Lights and Thunder," "If My Mind Is Evil," and "Leave Me Alone." Meanwhile, the bluesier Cinderella offered a string of honest and straightforward rock albums, and Tesla did likewise, shunning the glam image in the process. The far more experienced outfit Dokken was yet another historical feature of pop metal, displaying George Lynch's blazing fretwork and a heavier influence of technical musicianship (as well as the epitome of what would eventually become all of glam metal's cliche's), while Europe blasted through the charts with the melodic masterpiece "The Final Countdown." Others like the Christian Stryper, the often criticized Winger and Great White, Mr. Big, Bad English, Damn Yankees, and Slaughter made up an important part of the scene. There was also the rather memorable Skid Row, but its line-up would eventually venture into much heavier grounds, despite the heavy success of its debut album: Skid Row.
The pop metal scene would also be responsible for bringing about the most popular and widely known female heavy metal musicians ever, who continued with the advances of the Runaways and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal Girlschool; the two bands most responsible for making rock a viable musical avenue for women. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts enticed admiration with the heartfelt "I Love Rock n' Roll," while Lita Ford would air on the music media through her single "Kiss Me Deadly." The two ex-Runaways members eventually lost their popularity, but they, along with Warlock's Doro Pesch, were responsible for influencing the creation of young new female bands like the velvety soft Vixen, the alternative L7, the obscure Phantom Blue, and the heavy and gloomy Drain S.T.H.
Meanwhile, a somewhat heavier and more classic approach to the genre was provided by several heavy metal legends during the Eighties. Black Sabbath, along with singer Ronnie James Dio, came back with Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules to much acclaim; both albums marking a stylistic change in which a more melodic approach was utilized. Meanwhile, Ozzy Osbourne, away from the Black Sabbath front, provided ardent fans with releases such as Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman, which featured prodigious guitarist Randy Rhoads and along with Dio's later solo releases would keep his type of melodic metal alive through the Eighties. This was also due to efforts of newer melodic bands that stuck to heavy metal, such as the constantly evolving Savatage, the "Kings of Metal" Manowar, Cirith Ungol, and Armored Saint, each with its own style. Several of the Seventies' legendary bands would make comebacks throughout the Eighties with different degrees of success, but there was no synchronized revival of the pioneering metal of old, partly because many bands had lost either their originality or the passion that had characterized their early impact.
Meanwhile, Iron Maiden brought back the mystic imagery of heavy metal while pounding out some of the heaviest riffs of its time in albums like Killers, Piece of Mind and Powerslave. The band was to remain the heaviest to rule the arena hard-rock circuit for years until the advent of Metallica. And while Maiden pounded out harmonized and majestic guitar riffs backed by a thunderous bass (a combination commonly known as classic metal, not to be confused with the pioneering genre), Venom would truly begin the thrash metal genre with classic albums like Welcome to Hell and Black Metal, in which it also laid the grounds for what would turn out to be death and black metal later on. Originally a band meant as a tongue-in-cheek project named Oberon, Venom was to become the most intense band of its time and would inspire, along with Motorhead, Judas Priest's Stained Class and Riot's distinguishable and energetic musical outbursts, young bands such as Metallica, Exodus, Slayer, and Mantas (which would later become Death) to start making their own brand of fast, aggressive music.
The NWOBHM, however, was to be more than just a short-lived movement of exciting heavy metal revival in Great Britain. It became a revitalized hotbed of youthful exuberance, unbridled creativity, and a point of inspiration and reference for the way heavy metal was to evolve throughout much of the Eighties. With the driving riff-based metal of bands like Jaguar set up against the quirkiness of Witchfynde, the originality of Legend, the timeless quality of Diamond Head, the energy of Angel Witch, or the doom-laden crunch of Witchfinder General, it signified what heavy metal stood for, and guaranteed its continual evolution.
As in the past, the United States decided to bite back with a vengeance, which was embodied in the pop/glam metal explosion of the 80's. Van Halen was already there since 1978 and had become an arena band, hitting the world hard with Eddie Van Halen's guitar wizardry and David Lee Roth's wild show antics. The prototypical Journey had sold millions of records since its inception in 1972 with its keyboard-oriented metal, and later on Angel and Foreigner would begin breaking through to the masses while Montrose released legendary music. But the real vengeance came in the early Eighties with Motley Crue and Ratt, two bands from Los Angeles that wrote relatively accessible songs big on hooks and strongly influenced by the likes of veterans Sweet and T-Rex. Not only that, but both bands also took the glam images from bands such as Alice Cooper, David Bowie, the New York Dolls, Kiss, and Gary Glitter. Taking them to the extreme, glam metal bands began wearing women's makeup, leather outfits, fishnets, headbands, spikes, and whatever they could basically get their hands on. Motley Crue, perhaps the most important pop metal band of the 80's, began the LA metal explosion in 1983 with Shout At the Devil, an album that was solely responsible for bringing heavy metal fully back into commercial circles; at the same time helping propel Ratt and the older Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot into stardom. "Round and Round," "We're Not Gonna Take It," and "Cum On Feel the Noize," respectively, broke each band over to mainstream audiences worldwide; a success that in turn paved the way for Bon Jovi.
Bon Jovi was the second most successful metal band ever, right after Def Leppard; selling millions upon millions of albums and releasing hit ballad after hit ballad. Slippery When Wet and New Jersey took the world by storm, as would Def Leppard's Pyromania and Hysteria. These two bands perfectly learned how to take metal's harshness and mix it with pop's accessibility, therefore producing a perfect blend for the MTV-influenced youth of those days (although many would contend that Bon Jovi isn't really metal). Meanwhile, Motley Crue and Ratt innovated their own music with every album and remained successes for a long time, reflecting the darker side of pop metal. However, these bands obscured others that had as much to offer. Groups such as Kix, Faster Pussycat, and LA Guns, despite their strong material, never truly obtained the success some felt they deserved, while bands like Kiss adapted to the ruling pop metal scene on songs like "Heaven's On Fire." Later on, the pop metal explosion would also obscure bands with harder or more classic styles, such as the acclaimed Thunder, G.U.N., and Junkyard; although others like the Cult and Jackyl did manage to surface.
However, pop metal eventually became too accessible and flashy and needed revitalizing. Whitesnake, which epitomized the common successful glam metal band, was already dying out despite its existence since the Seventies, and only the strongest and best bands were surviving: Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and Motley Crue. The scene needed a new type of band; a band that was not as polished and accessible, a band that came from the sleazy and edgy streets. Enter Guns n' Roses.
Guns n' Roses was what the pop metal scene needed. Appetite for Destruction was a searing, raw, and aggressive affair, featuring Slash's bluesy guitar licks and Axl Rose's hanging-on-to-dear-life vocals. Guns n' Roses took the spotlight with its mix of the Hanoi Rocks, the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, and previous pop metal acts with songs like "Welcome to the Jungle," "Night Train," and "My Michelle," while showing its softer side on "Sweet Child O' Mine." With the band invading the media massively after what had seemed to be an initial failure, Guns n' Roses had saved pop metal from commercial extinction and would eventually reign the scene along with Motley Crue, while Def Leppard and Bon Jovi enjoyed long breaks.
The coming of Guns n' Roses, however, would not prevent new accessible bands from appearing. Poison and Warrant were probably the best and most noticeable of these; although they weren't something completely new, their songs were original and catchy, but their extreme use of makeup and glamorous clothing would incite critics everywhere to attack them as throwaway bands. White Lion was also an important pop metal offering; although some of the band's songs were rather trite, much of its material was also quite impressive; especially songs like "Lights and Thunder," "If My Mind Is Evil," and "Leave Me Alone." Meanwhile, the bluesier Cinderella offered a string of honest and straightforward rock albums, and Tesla did likewise, shunning the glam image in the process. The far more experienced outfit Dokken was yet another historical feature of pop metal, displaying George Lynch's blazing fretwork and a heavier influence of technical musicianship (as well as the epitome of what would eventually become all of glam metal's cliche's), while Europe blasted through the charts with the melodic masterpiece "The Final Countdown." Others like the Christian Stryper, the often criticized Winger and Great White, Mr. Big, Bad English, Damn Yankees, and Slaughter made up an important part of the scene. There was also the rather memorable Skid Row, but its line-up would eventually venture into much heavier grounds, despite the heavy success of its debut album: Skid Row.
The pop metal scene would also be responsible for bringing about the most popular and widely known female heavy metal musicians ever, who continued with the advances of the Runaways and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal Girlschool; the two bands most responsible for making rock a viable musical avenue for women. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts enticed admiration with the heartfelt "I Love Rock n' Roll," while Lita Ford would air on the music media through her single "Kiss Me Deadly." The two ex-Runaways members eventually lost their popularity, but they, along with Warlock's Doro Pesch, were responsible for influencing the creation of young new female bands like the velvety soft Vixen, the alternative L7, the obscure Phantom Blue, and the heavy and gloomy Drain S.T.H.
Meanwhile, a somewhat heavier and more classic approach to the genre was provided by several heavy metal legends during the Eighties. Black Sabbath, along with singer Ronnie James Dio, came back with Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules to much acclaim; both albums marking a stylistic change in which a more melodic approach was utilized. Meanwhile, Ozzy Osbourne, away from the Black Sabbath front, provided ardent fans with releases such as Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman, which featured prodigious guitarist Randy Rhoads and along with Dio's later solo releases would keep his type of melodic metal alive through the Eighties. This was also due to efforts of newer melodic bands that stuck to heavy metal, such as the constantly evolving Savatage, the "Kings of Metal" Manowar, Cirith Ungol, and Armored Saint, each with its own style. Several of the Seventies' legendary bands would make comebacks throughout the Eighties with different degrees of success, but there was no synchronized revival of the pioneering metal of old, partly because many bands had lost either their originality or the passion that had characterized their early impact.
Part_2
Then came metal's sister music, punk, to save the rock scene from an untimely demise. A slew of new bands that could barely play their instruments and protested about fascism, their governments, and basically everyday life, were to take the spotlight with their raucous stage antics and their three-chord songs imbued with righteous fury. Influenced by the first punk outings of Iggy and the Stooges, the MC5, and the glittery New York Dolls during the 60's and early 70's, the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, the Clash, the Damned, Siouxsie and the Banshees; and relatively more obscure bands, such as Pagans, the Dead Boys, the UK Subs, the Misfits, Crass, the Exploited, the gloomy Amebix, and the Plasmatics were to storm upon the world. Punk's greatest contributions to the punk/heavy metal scene were probably the widespread practice of slamdancing, the renaissance of energetic music, and the wide propagation of protests against the wrongdoings of society (an echo of Black Sabbath themes, included in songs such as "Children of the Grave" and "War Pigs").
Perhaps the three most important bands of punk were Iggy and the Stooges, the Ramones, and the Sex Pistols. The first was Iggy Pop's band. The band members were nothing short of amazing in their live shows, which were so energetic, that according to Iggy Pop himself, they would only last ten to fifteen minutes, consisting basically of Iggy's wild antics and screaming over a power trio's furious songs. Then was the Ramones, the New York band with songs that were amazingly reckless for their time and laid the foundations on which bands such as The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana would grow. Finally was the greatest (in popularity) punk rock band of all times: The Sex Pistols. Its origin was rather curious: An art project by Malcom McClaren that sought to destroy everything that had come before in rock n' roll. The band managed to create some good punk rock in the process, with everything from political protest ("God Save the Queen") to hooky songs ("Sub-Mission"). However, the band destroyed itself during its American tour, with bassist Sid Vicious killing his girlfriend Nancy Spunge and then committing suicide while drugged; this turned Vicious into punk's infamous martyr and began the end for punk rock, which would remain underground for the most part until the Nineties.
While punk was taking over strongly among the youth, another raw and aggressive band would begin making an impact: Motorhead. Motorhead would signify the beginning of what is known today as thrash/speed/power metal, which would in turn originate death metal. The band's first release, On Parole (1976) would only hint at the power unleashed in later albums released during the late 70's and early 80's, such as Overkill, Bomber, Ace of Spades, and No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith, which offered some truly pedal-to-the-metal songs. Furthermore, Motorhead surprisingly attracted not only the metal crowd, but also many fiery punk fans, therefore marking the beginning of a union that would eventually result in the creation of hardcore.
Perhaps the three most important bands of punk were Iggy and the Stooges, the Ramones, and the Sex Pistols. The first was Iggy Pop's band. The band members were nothing short of amazing in their live shows, which were so energetic, that according to Iggy Pop himself, they would only last ten to fifteen minutes, consisting basically of Iggy's wild antics and screaming over a power trio's furious songs. Then was the Ramones, the New York band with songs that were amazingly reckless for their time and laid the foundations on which bands such as The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana would grow. Finally was the greatest (in popularity) punk rock band of all times: The Sex Pistols. Its origin was rather curious: An art project by Malcom McClaren that sought to destroy everything that had come before in rock n' roll. The band managed to create some good punk rock in the process, with everything from political protest ("God Save the Queen") to hooky songs ("Sub-Mission"). However, the band destroyed itself during its American tour, with bassist Sid Vicious killing his girlfriend Nancy Spunge and then committing suicide while drugged; this turned Vicious into punk's infamous martyr and began the end for punk rock, which would remain underground for the most part until the Nineties.
While punk was taking over strongly among the youth, another raw and aggressive band would begin making an impact: Motorhead. Motorhead would signify the beginning of what is known today as thrash/speed/power metal, which would in turn originate death metal. The band's first release, On Parole (1976) would only hint at the power unleashed in later albums released during the late 70's and early 80's, such as Overkill, Bomber, Ace of Spades, and No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith, which offered some truly pedal-to-the-metal songs. Furthermore, Motorhead surprisingly attracted not only the metal crowd, but also many fiery punk fans, therefore marking the beginning of a union that would eventually result in the creation of hardcore.
Part _1
When did heavy metal begin? It's hard to say. According to most metal annals, the first outbursts came from the Kinks with "You Really Got Me" and the Who with "My Generation" around 1964. As for the first heavy metal artist, that position arguably belongs to Alice Cooper, whose band was founded in 1965 under the name The Spiders. Heavy metal, however, was not to truly flourish until the year of 1967, and Alice Cooper was to become embedded in the collective mind of the world until 1971 with the classic Love It To Death. During 1967, the rock world was still absorbed by the Summer of Love, but it was about to witness one of its most important revolutions. Bands like Golden Earring (formed in 1965), Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Led Zeppelin, Vanilla Fudge, Iron Butterfly, Steppenwolf, Blue Cheer, Deep Purple, Grand Funk Railroad, Free, Uriah Heep, Mountain, Humble Pie, Bloodrock, MC5, Black Widow, Atomic Rooster, Cactus, and Black Sabbath came to being between 1966 and 1970, and struck the world with what both Iron Butterfly and Steppenwolf would first baptize "heavy metal;" the first through reviews of its Heavy album and the second due to the phrase "heavy metal thunder," found in the motorcycling classic "Born to Be Wild." A new type of music, which borrowed heavily from rock and roll and the blues, was gaining influence on the youth of those times, which was slowly getting tired of the stagnant Summer of Love scene. Out of the explosion of new bands, it was Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience that were to be the first bands to give heavy metal a high commercial profile. The legendary guitarist Eric Clapton was part of the first; a band that remains a seminal power trio and heavy metal act that released such memorable songs as "Sunshine Of Your Love" and "White Room." During the course of four albums and two years, Cream became a prominently successful band that influenced the likes of Rush and Van Halen, and would later spawn the also legendary Blind Faith. Meanwhile, the Jimi Hendrix Experience was another musical trio, based around the guitar histrionics of the legendary Jimi Hendrix. Albums such as Are You Experienced? and Electric Ladyland drew thousands of ravenous fans, which feasted on the music provided by a band that is often mentioned along with Janis Joplin and the Doors as one of the world's all-time premiere rock units.
Several new bands, including the bluesy Savoy Brown, Foghat, and Bad Company, the ferocious Budgie, and the legendary UFO, were spawned by the growing heavy metal explosion, while others like Status Quo hardened their sound; but until 1973 the kings of heavy metal were undoubtedly Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath. The three were bands with a technical prowess and a compositional inventiveness and passion unseen before, which coalesced into the hardest music existing during those times. Moreover, the era also marked the beginning of Satanic imagery and of spectacular, energetic live shows in heavy metal. The Satanic imagery came courtesy of two English bands: Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin's guitarist Jimmy Page (formerly of The Yardbirds, a band that was critical in influencing heavy metal with its psychedelic distortion and in spawning legendary guitar players Page, Clapton, and Jeff Beck) had a strong personal fascination with the occult, while many of Sabbath's lyrics within their ample range of themes dealt with it as well. The Sabs, however, did not claim to be Satanic, unlike many future metal bands; in fact, Ozzy Osbourne, vocalist of the band during those times, claims to have been scared off by fans wearing black robes and carrying candles with themselves. As for the live shows, they were carried out by every band, most notably by Led Zeppelin's "rock till you drop" concerts that lasted about two hours and by Alice Cooper's colossal shows, known to feature boa constrictors, mutilated female mannequins, and Alice Cooper himself in a beheading spectacle. Bands moved onstage, introduced bigger-than-life special effects into their shows and recreated their music in front of fiery crowds of fans.
The first few years of heavy metal (the music being called classic metal at times because of its pioneering status) are considered by most as the best era of the genre ever. Without a doubt, it is quite a memorable segment of this music's history. It was back then that Led Zeppelin, unquestionably the most popular heavy metal band ever, created classics such as "Black Dog" and the Arabian "Kashmir;" but also had the brilliance of experimenting with forms of music such as reggae and folk. In fact, the latter was an essential part of the most widely known heavy metal song ever: "Stairway to Heaven." The masterfully created masterpiece was crafted by Page and vocalist Robert Plant to perfection and even today remains a constant radio staple. It was, however, until 1970 that Black Sabbath inaugurated what many consider the "true" spirit and essence of heavy metal. Gloomy, crunching, and foreboding, albums like Black Sabbath, Paranoid, and Master of Reality demonstrated the wicked musical direction of guitarist Tony Iommi and band members Ozzy Osbourne, Bill Ward, and Geezer Butler through classic songs like "N.I.B.," "Paranoid," and "Children of the Grave." Bands such as Corrosion of Conformity, Metallica, and Nirvana were all influenced by the metal anthems provided by one of the genre's most memorable bands ever, and the face of modern music has hardly ever been the same since the Birmingham act exploded unto the scene. Meanwhile, Deep Purple, after going through a progressive rock stint with vocalist Rod Evans and bassist Nick Simper, developed a solid slab of rock on its classic Deep Purple In Rock, and would for a long time be heralded as a true innovator of music. In fact, Ritchie Blackmore's classical guitar training, along with Jon Lord's synthesizers and Ian Gillan's piercing shrieks, was crucial in the development of heavy metal as it is known today. During the mid-Seventies, six new bands were to also walk into the spotlight: the Blue Oyster Cult, Thin Lizzy, Judas Priest, Queen, Aerosmith, and Kiss. Judas Priest would be responsible for popularizing the concept of two guitarists in a heavy metal band; Aerosmith for bringing back the blues, sex, and drugs; Thin Lizzy for breaking through with aesthetical and musical flash and style; Queen for introducing perhaps the greatest degree of experimentation within music and the renewal of majestic melodies and harmonies with a progressive rock edge; and Kiss for revolutionizing the art of live shows, at times presenting slightly macabre theatrics strongly reminiscent of Alice Cooper's. And the Blue Oyster Cult? They disappeared into oblivion after a series of forgettable albums released in the 80's. But during their halcyon days in the 70's, they were an important part of the hard rock arena circuit, combining beautiful 60's harmonies with searing guitars.
While a number of heavy metal bands cemented their reputation as rock giants for years to come, certain bands would begin taking another highly popular form of music, progressive rock, into a heavier direction. Bands like Pink Floyd and Genesis had remained most of the time outside the heavy metal realms, while others like Jethro Tull, Yes, and King Crimson flirted with it more often on songs like "Aqualung," "Heart of the Sunrise," and "21st Century Schizoid Man," respectively. Characterized by complex song structures, odd time signature arrangements, and a highly technical and virtuous use of instruments, progressive metal would nevertheless not come truly into being until the creation of Rush. On its debut album, Rush, the band had not yet acquired a tendency for the progressive; but by the time of Fly By Night and the acquisition of drummer Neil Peart, the band had changed its approach and become more ambitious lyrically and musically, driving its progressive outings to their furthermost limits on albums like A Farewell to Kings and Hemispheres. Most other progressive bands throughout history, such as Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Focus, Asia, IQ, and Marillion, only flirted with metal through their years of existence. Unfortunately, metal was to stagnate completely in the late Seventies. Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy, and Black Sabbath were digging their own graves due to their drug-consuming habits, Kiss had lost its charm because of over-commercialization, Deep Purple faded out through its never-ending personnel changes, and Led Zeppelin ended with the death of drummer John Bonham; only Judas Priest and Queen remained almost intact during these times. And not only were the greatest bands dying slowly, but every new band was just ripping off the old glory; metal was on its dying bed. Only a few bands were still thriving among the ruins, among them AC/DC and Rush; the former taking over the world with its three-chord attack, guitarist Angus Young's lunatic careening on stage, and Bon Scott's hell-raising screams; the latter inspiring new generations of musicians with its progressive brand of music. Ted Nugent, formerly of the Amboy Dukes, also released hyperactive gems like Cat Scratch Fever and Double Live Gonzo to much acclaim during the last half of the Seventies, and would be another of the few surviving musical groups. Blackmore's Rainbow was the last of the great rock giants to die or metamorphose by the end of the Eighties, after Ronnie James Dio left the band amidst a flurry of clashing egos which had earlier produced melodic epics on albums like Rainbow Rising and Long Live Rock n' Roll.
Several new bands, including the bluesy Savoy Brown, Foghat, and Bad Company, the ferocious Budgie, and the legendary UFO, were spawned by the growing heavy metal explosion, while others like Status Quo hardened their sound; but until 1973 the kings of heavy metal were undoubtedly Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath. The three were bands with a technical prowess and a compositional inventiveness and passion unseen before, which coalesced into the hardest music existing during those times. Moreover, the era also marked the beginning of Satanic imagery and of spectacular, energetic live shows in heavy metal. The Satanic imagery came courtesy of two English bands: Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin's guitarist Jimmy Page (formerly of The Yardbirds, a band that was critical in influencing heavy metal with its psychedelic distortion and in spawning legendary guitar players Page, Clapton, and Jeff Beck) had a strong personal fascination with the occult, while many of Sabbath's lyrics within their ample range of themes dealt with it as well. The Sabs, however, did not claim to be Satanic, unlike many future metal bands; in fact, Ozzy Osbourne, vocalist of the band during those times, claims to have been scared off by fans wearing black robes and carrying candles with themselves. As for the live shows, they were carried out by every band, most notably by Led Zeppelin's "rock till you drop" concerts that lasted about two hours and by Alice Cooper's colossal shows, known to feature boa constrictors, mutilated female mannequins, and Alice Cooper himself in a beheading spectacle. Bands moved onstage, introduced bigger-than-life special effects into their shows and recreated their music in front of fiery crowds of fans.
The first few years of heavy metal (the music being called classic metal at times because of its pioneering status) are considered by most as the best era of the genre ever. Without a doubt, it is quite a memorable segment of this music's history. It was back then that Led Zeppelin, unquestionably the most popular heavy metal band ever, created classics such as "Black Dog" and the Arabian "Kashmir;" but also had the brilliance of experimenting with forms of music such as reggae and folk. In fact, the latter was an essential part of the most widely known heavy metal song ever: "Stairway to Heaven." The masterfully created masterpiece was crafted by Page and vocalist Robert Plant to perfection and even today remains a constant radio staple. It was, however, until 1970 that Black Sabbath inaugurated what many consider the "true" spirit and essence of heavy metal. Gloomy, crunching, and foreboding, albums like Black Sabbath, Paranoid, and Master of Reality demonstrated the wicked musical direction of guitarist Tony Iommi and band members Ozzy Osbourne, Bill Ward, and Geezer Butler through classic songs like "N.I.B.," "Paranoid," and "Children of the Grave." Bands such as Corrosion of Conformity, Metallica, and Nirvana were all influenced by the metal anthems provided by one of the genre's most memorable bands ever, and the face of modern music has hardly ever been the same since the Birmingham act exploded unto the scene. Meanwhile, Deep Purple, after going through a progressive rock stint with vocalist Rod Evans and bassist Nick Simper, developed a solid slab of rock on its classic Deep Purple In Rock, and would for a long time be heralded as a true innovator of music. In fact, Ritchie Blackmore's classical guitar training, along with Jon Lord's synthesizers and Ian Gillan's piercing shrieks, was crucial in the development of heavy metal as it is known today. During the mid-Seventies, six new bands were to also walk into the spotlight: the Blue Oyster Cult, Thin Lizzy, Judas Priest, Queen, Aerosmith, and Kiss. Judas Priest would be responsible for popularizing the concept of two guitarists in a heavy metal band; Aerosmith for bringing back the blues, sex, and drugs; Thin Lizzy for breaking through with aesthetical and musical flash and style; Queen for introducing perhaps the greatest degree of experimentation within music and the renewal of majestic melodies and harmonies with a progressive rock edge; and Kiss for revolutionizing the art of live shows, at times presenting slightly macabre theatrics strongly reminiscent of Alice Cooper's. And the Blue Oyster Cult? They disappeared into oblivion after a series of forgettable albums released in the 80's. But during their halcyon days in the 70's, they were an important part of the hard rock arena circuit, combining beautiful 60's harmonies with searing guitars.
While a number of heavy metal bands cemented their reputation as rock giants for years to come, certain bands would begin taking another highly popular form of music, progressive rock, into a heavier direction. Bands like Pink Floyd and Genesis had remained most of the time outside the heavy metal realms, while others like Jethro Tull, Yes, and King Crimson flirted with it more often on songs like "Aqualung," "Heart of the Sunrise," and "21st Century Schizoid Man," respectively. Characterized by complex song structures, odd time signature arrangements, and a highly technical and virtuous use of instruments, progressive metal would nevertheless not come truly into being until the creation of Rush. On its debut album, Rush, the band had not yet acquired a tendency for the progressive; but by the time of Fly By Night and the acquisition of drummer Neil Peart, the band had changed its approach and become more ambitious lyrically and musically, driving its progressive outings to their furthermost limits on albums like A Farewell to Kings and Hemispheres. Most other progressive bands throughout history, such as Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Focus, Asia, IQ, and Marillion, only flirted with metal through their years of existence. Unfortunately, metal was to stagnate completely in the late Seventies. Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy, and Black Sabbath were digging their own graves due to their drug-consuming habits, Kiss had lost its charm because of over-commercialization, Deep Purple faded out through its never-ending personnel changes, and Led Zeppelin ended with the death of drummer John Bonham; only Judas Priest and Queen remained almost intact during these times. And not only were the greatest bands dying slowly, but every new band was just ripping off the old glory; metal was on its dying bed. Only a few bands were still thriving among the ruins, among them AC/DC and Rush; the former taking over the world with its three-chord attack, guitarist Angus Young's lunatic careening on stage, and Bon Scott's hell-raising screams; the latter inspiring new generations of musicians with its progressive brand of music. Ted Nugent, formerly of the Amboy Dukes, also released hyperactive gems like Cat Scratch Fever and Double Live Gonzo to much acclaim during the last half of the Seventies, and would be another of the few surviving musical groups. Blackmore's Rainbow was the last of the great rock giants to die or metamorphose by the end of the Eighties, after Ronnie James Dio left the band amidst a flurry of clashing egos which had earlier produced melodic epics on albums like Rainbow Rising and Long Live Rock n' Roll.
Prologue
Heavy metal is one of the most misunderstood genres of music in our day. Rather unfortunately, this is often a result of brazen ignorance about the subject, brought about by certain sectors of the media, society, and listeners themselves. Instead of blindly backlashing against those responsible for the defamation of heavy metal, I decided to write a history of the aforementioned music, in hopes of providing yet another source of information for those who wish to learn about its development.
In no way is this a heavy metal band list or an attempt to include every detail, important or not, within the genre's history, but I believe it is a fairly comprehensive guide. I have included bands that have been influential, prominent, representative, or successful throughout their careers, and in the process omitted several others that would prevent any conciseness. I have also made the attempt of remaining as objective as possible (although words like "well-deserved" will appear throughout the text), and therefore have also included bands that I do not enjoy listening to or whose general visual image I do not respect. After all, heavy metal is something of an acquired taste. With no further comments, I leave you to read my take on the history of heavy metal. I hope you will enjoy it and maybe learn a little from it (and with any luck, you won't find it boring at all).
In no way is this a heavy metal band list or an attempt to include every detail, important or not, within the genre's history, but I believe it is a fairly comprehensive guide. I have included bands that have been influential, prominent, representative, or successful throughout their careers, and in the process omitted several others that would prevent any conciseness. I have also made the attempt of remaining as objective as possible (although words like "well-deserved" will appear throughout the text), and therefore have also included bands that I do not enjoy listening to or whose general visual image I do not respect. After all, heavy metal is something of an acquired taste. With no further comments, I leave you to read my take on the history of heavy metal. I hope you will enjoy it and maybe learn a little from it (and with any luck, you won't find it boring at all).
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