Extreme metal

Extreme metal is an umbrella term, somewhat loosely defined, for a number of related heavy metal subgenres that have developed since the 1980s. Though the term does not refer to any specific style or sound, it most commonly refers to music associated with thrash metal, black metal, death metal, and doom metal.
Though not well-known to mainstream music fans, extreme metal has influenced an array of musical performers inside and outside of heavy metal, and thrives in various devoted subcultures.

Definitions
"Extreme" can be meant to describe any of the following traits: music (whether it's intended to be faster, more aggressive, abrasive or "heavier" than other metal styles), lyrics (dealing with darker, more sensational topics and themes), vocals (which often use guttural, harsh or abrasive singing), or appearance and stage demeanor (using corpse paint, Satanic or occult imagery). The "extreme" label is most commonly applied to bands whose music is extreme; for example, few would consider Kiss or Alice Cooper to be extreme metal, though they could be considered to employ "extreme" elements in their appearance and stage demeanor for their time.

According to ethnographer Keith Kahn-Harris, the defining characteristics of extreme metal can all be regarded as clearly transgressive: the "extreme" traits noted above are all intended to violate or transgress given cultural, artistic, social or aesthetic boundaries.

Given the vagueness of existing definitions and considering the limitations such definitions have, there are many artists for whom the usage of the term "extreme metal" is a subject of debate. However, Kahn-Harris also notes that many musicians and fans see such debates over style and genre as useless and unnecessary, or at least as given undue attention.

Characteristics

Structure

Though songs in traditional heavy metal may be louder, harsher or more abrasive than rock music in general, the underlying elements of melody, harmony and rhythm are generally similar to those in rock and pop music. Conventional melodies – one of the key elements of popular music – are often of limited importance in extreme metal, if not absent entirely, although chord progressions are still present and important. Extreme metal songs rarely have the central focus of a melodic "pop hook," and when present, melodic elements more typically provide an instrumental backdrop rather than a central focus.Vocals
One of the more apparent characteristics of extreme metal is the vocals. Extreme metal singing includes various extended techniques; from harsh, guttural death growls (characteristic of death metal) to high-pitched shrieking (characteristic of black metal). Thrash metal vocalists commonly employ a harsh or shouted vocal style. Extreme metal vocalists can use one or more techniques, and some bands have multiple singers.

Tempo

Extreme metal is also characterized by its unusual tempo, which may range from very fast-paced –thrash, death and black metal can occasionally approach the extraordinary range of 300 beats per minute–to the extremely slow, as in funeral doom and drone doom. Drummers often utilize double-kick, double bass and blast beats, though not all make use of these techniques. Kahn-Harris notes that many extreme metal drummers take great pride in creating and playing drum patterns that are complex and demanding.

Guitars

Guitars in extreme metal are commonly distorted to create a thick or abrasive tone. Guitars are frequently tuned below the standard E: thrash metal and black metal guitarists usually tune a half or a whole-step down, while death metal and doom metal often tune even lower. Seven-string guitars (rather than the more common six-string guitars) are not unusual in extreme metal, particularly in death and doom metal. Kahn-Harris notes that extreme metal tends to defy the "riff-guitar solo" paradigm of heavy metal: Guitar solos are often of less importance in extreme metal than in other metal styles, and the chord progressions (or "riffs") in extreme metal are often unusual, complex and demanding.

History

Below is a basic summary explaining how the three primary extreme metal genres evolved:

• Heavy metal (late 1960s)
   
• New Wave of British Heavy Metal (late 1970s)
   
• Speed metal (early 1980s)
   
• Thrash metal (early 1980s)
  
  
• Black metal, Death metal (mid-late 1980s)
  

Origins (1970s)

Heavy metal music was developed in the late 1960s as a louder, more emphatic form of blues-rock. Heavy metal pioneers like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple all had strong roots in blues-roc, and although heavy metal was harder and louder than its predecessor, it retained a strong blues feel. A noted precursor to extreme metal, Budgie, "was among the heaviest metal of its day".
However, by the late 1970s, some heavy metal musicians were drifting away from the genre's blues roots. The most notable development was the so-called "New Wave of British Heavy Metal" (NWOBHM), which included groups like Iron Maiden, Saxon and Motörhead. These bands toned down the blues elements of earlier acts, increased the tempo, and adopted a harsher, tougher sound inspired by punk rock.

Early development (early 1980s)

The NWOBHM group Venom are widely considered one of the more important groups in the creation of extreme metal. Though critics have often characterized Venom's musicianship as mediocre or worse,the band was nonetheless influential. Their songs were among the fastest of their era, with harsh vocals and blatantly Satanic imagery. Their albums Welcome to Hell (1981) and Black Metal (1982) are regarded as foundational influences on extreme metal. Venom's members also adopted stage names intended to help create a menacing and mysterious persona. Though the practice is not universal, many extreme metal musicians have similarly adopted stage names, especially in black metal.

The early 1980s saw the development of speed metal and thrash metal, two distinct but nonetheless closely related styles that both drew influence from punk rock (particularly the emphasis on very fast tempos, 2/4 or implied 2/4 time, and brief songs found in hardcore punk). The "big four" of thrash metal (the American groups Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica) proved that extreme metal was a commercially viable force.

Diversification (mid 1980s–present)

According to Kahn-Harris, the mid-to-late 1980s saw vital new developments: death metal and grindcore. Both genres are partly distinguished by their use of blast beats, down-tuned electric guitars and growled vocals. At the beginning of the 1990s, the Norwegian black metal scene emerged, which helped to define black metal as a distinct genre.

Extreme metal earned an unprecedented level of international mainstream attention in the early and mid-1990s. Pioneering record label Earache Records, for example, signed a distribution deal with major label Columbia Records. However, much of the attention towards extreme metal was negative and focused on arsons on Christian churches and murders associated with the early Norwegian black metal scene.



Thanks To: Wikipedia.org
undestroyer.blogspot.com

Deathcore

Deathcore is an amalgamation of two musical styles: metalcore and death metal.

Characteristics
Deathcore is heavily influenced by modern death metal in its speed, heaviness, and approach to chromatic, heavily palm muted riffing and dissonance. Traditional growls, and screaming are prevalent, and sometimes metalcore yelling or shouting vocals are included. Much of deathcore features breakdowns and melodic riffs common in metalcore.

History

Though an early hybrid of death metal and crossover thrash was practiced by Michigan's Repulsion, New York death metal veterans Suffocation and Maryland's Dying Fetus were among the first death metal groups to make the breakdown a staple in their music. Additionally, the straight edge hardcore group Earth Crisis borrowed a great deal from death metal, as did Converge and Hatebreed. Before the rise of deathcore, bands such as Abscess and Unseen Terror used the term to describe hardcore punk/death metal hybrids. Germany's Blood also released a 1986 demo entitled Deathcore, while another German group, formed in 1987 and related to Blood, used "Deathcore" as a band name.

Deathcore seems to have most prominence within the southwestern United States, especially Arizona and California (most notably the Coachella Valley), which are home to many notable bands and various festivals.

Band	Country	Formed
The Acacia Strain	USA	2001
A Different Breed of Killer	USA	2006
The Agonist	Canada	2004
The Agony Scene	USA	2001
All Shall Perish	USA	2002
Animosity	USA	2000
Arsonists Get All the Girls	USA	2005
As Blood Runs Black	USA	2004
Asesino	USA	2002
The Black Dahlia Murder	USA	2000
Born of Osiris	USA	2007
Bring Me the Horizon	UK	2004
Burning Skies	UK	2002
Caliban	Germany	1997
Carnifex	USA	2005
The Concubine	USA	2003
Cryptopsy	Canada	1988
Dance Club Massacre	USA	2004
Dead Man in Reno	USA	2003
Despised Icon	Canada	2002
Elysia	USA	2003
Emmure	USA	2003
Eternal Lord	UK	2005
Frontside	Poland	1993
Glass Casket	USA	2001
God Forbid	USA	1997
Heaven Shall Burn	Germany	1997
Job for a Cowboy	USA	2002
Killwhitneydead	USA	2001
Knights of the Abyss	USA	2005
Malefice	UK	2003
Maroon	Germany	1998
Mendeed	UK	2000
Molotov Solution	USA	2004
Mortal Treason	USA	2001
My Bitter End	USA	2002
Nights Like These	USA	2003
Oceano	USA	2006
The Red Chord	USA	1999
The Red Death‎	USA	2002
The Red Shore	Australia	2004
Rose Funeral	USA	2005
Salt the Wound	USA	2001
See You Next Tuesday	USA	2005
Shot Down Sun	USA	2001
Suicide Silence	USA	2002
Through the Eyes of the Dead	USA	2002
Whitechapel	USA	2006
Winds of Plague	USA	2002

Thanks To: Wikipedia.org
undestroyer.blogspot.com

Metalcore

Metalcore is a fusion genre incorporating elements of hardcore punk and extreme metal. The name is a portmanteau of hardcore punk and heavy metal. The term took on its current meaning in the mid-1990s, describing bands like Earth Crisis, Deadguy and Integrity. The earliest of these groups, Integrity, began performing in 1988. Metalcore is distinguished from other punk metal fusions by its emphasis on breakdowns: slower, intense passages conducive to moshing.

History
Precursors (1977–1984)
Main article: Hardcore punk
Black Flag and Bad Brains, among the originators of hardcore, admired and emulated Black Sabbath. British street punk groups such as Discharge and The Exploited also took inspiration from heavy metal. The Misfits put out the Earth A.D. album, becoming a crucial influence on thrash. Nonetheless, punk and metal cultures and music remained separate through the first half of the 1980s.

Crossover thrash (1984–1988)
Main article: Crossover thrash
Cross-pollination between metal and hardcore eventually birthed the crossover thrash scene, which gestated at a Berkeley club called Ruthie's, in 1984. The term "metalcore" was originally used to refer to these crossover groups. Hardcore punk groups Corrosion of Conformity, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles and Suicidal Tendencies played alongside thrash metal groups like Metallica and Slayer. This scene influenced the skinhead wing of New York hardcore, which also began in 1984, and included groups such as Cro-Mags, Murphy's Law, Agnostic Front and Warzone. The Cro-Mags were among the most influential of these bands, drawing equally from Bad Brains, Motörhead, and Black Sabbath. Cro-Mags also embraced straight edge and, surprisingly enough, Krishna consciousness. Other New York straight edge groups included Gorilla Biscuits, Crumbsuckers, and Youth of Today, who inaugurated the youth crew style. 1985 saw the development of the hardcore breakdown, an amalgamation of Bad Brains' reggae and metal backgrounds, which encouraged moshing. Agnostic Front's 1986 album Cause for Alarm, a collaboration with Peter Steele, was a watershed in the intertwining of hardcore and metal.

Metallic hardcore (1989–2000)
Between 1989 and 1995, a new wave of hardcore bands emerged. These included Integrity, Earth Crisis, Converge, Shai Hulud,Starkweather, Judge, Bloodlet, Strife, Rorschach, Cave In, Vision of Disorder Hatebreed, and Candiria. Integrity drew influence primarily from the Japanese hardcore terrorism of G.I.S.M. and the metal of Slayer, with more subtle elements of Septic Death, Samhain, Motörhead, and Joy Division. And Earth Crisis, Converge, and Hatebreed borrowed from death metal. Shai Hulud's Hearts Once Nourished with Hope and Compassion and Earth Crisis's 1995 album Destroy the Machines was particularly influential. In guitarist Scott Crouse's words,
“It was a very mixed reaction. I'm often quoted as saying that Earth Crisis was the first hardcore band with a metal sound. Of course we weren't the first, but I think we definitely took it to another level. We heard a lot of, 'These guys are trying to be Pantera,' which we all took as a great compliment."
Biohazard, Coalesce, and Overcast were also important early metalcore groups. These groups are sometimes referred to as "metallic hardcore".

Melodic metalcore (1997–present)
In the late 1990s, a third wave of metalcore groups appeared, who placed significantly greater emphasis on melody.The First metalcore band to have such elements was Zao then later on such bands as Unearth, Bullet for My Valentine, Killswitch Engage, Trivium (early), Shadows Fall, All That Remains, Underoath and Atreyu emerged and are now the most commercially successful practitioners of metalcore.

Other notable metalcore bands include Haste the Day, Darkest Hour, Caliban, Bleeding Through, August Burns Red, Demon Hunter, It Dies Today, The Devil Wears Prada , and The Autumn Offering. These groups took major influence, cues, and writing styles from melodic death metal bands, particularly In Flames and At the Gates. Melodic metalcore frequently makes use of clean vocals, and is significantly less dissonant than other metalcore. Some of these groups, such as Shadows Fall, have voiced an affection for '80s glam metal. Melodic metalcore groups have been described as "embrac[ing] '80s metal clichés", such as "inordinate amounts of smoke machines, rippin' solos, [and] three bass drums".

In the mid-2000s, Metalcore emerged as a commercial force, with several independent metal labels, including Century Media and Metal Blade, signing metalcore bands. By 2004, melodic metalcore had become popular enough that Killswitch Engage's The End of Heartache, and Shadows Fall's The War Within debuted at numbers 21 and 20, respectively, on the Billboard album chart. All That Remains' single "Two Weeks" peaked at number nine at the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the U.S. The song peaked on the Modern Rock Tracks chart at number 38. Welsh metalcore band Bullet for My Valentine's second album, Scream Aim Fire, went straight to #4 on the Billboard 200. Underoath's fifth album Define the Great Line, released in 2006, peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200 charts, selling 98,000 copies in its first week. Hatebreed, God Forbid, and As I Lay Dying have also charted. Underoath's most recent album Lost in the Sound of Separation has reached #8 on the Billboard 200 and has sold 56,000 copies in its first week of sales in the U.S. alone. Killswitch Engage's self-titled fifth album has reached #7 on the Billboard 200.


Thanks To: Wikipedia.org
undestroyer.blogspot.com

Nu metal

Nu metal is a genre of music that blends heavy metal elements with other styles, such as hip hop and grunge.

Origins
The term "nu metal" was first used for a review of a mid-October 1995 Coal Chamber concert in Spin magazine in the form "new metal". The considerations on "nu metal" vs. "new metal" are present at the end of the "Get Thrashed" movie.

Like the bands of its antecedent, funk metal, many nu metal bands came from California (such as Korn, Deftones and P.O.D.).

Nu metal initially began with Korn's demo-tape, Neidermeyer's Mind, released in 1993. Korn's signature sound came from an attempt to emulate chords used by Mr. Bungle's guitar player Trey Spruance, which they referred to as "the moveable Bungle chord". They have also cited Mike Patton's other band Faith No More in Kerrang!'s The Greatest Videos of All Time in 2006, saying that Korn was influenced by them because they did something unusual with a metal band. Nu metal bands also often state more conventional metal acts as an influence, particularly Black Sabbath.

Korn use 7-string guitars over traditional 6-string guitars. Steve Vai had originally introduced them onto the market for technical guitar players. Munky, the guitarist from Korn, was not a technical player so he decided to take the 7-string guitar in a different direction.

Producer Ross Robinson was labelled by some as "The Godfather of nu metal" due to his producing of successful nu metal albums, such as Korn's first album.

Mainstream popularity
Nu metal's mainstream popularity came in 1998 with the success of Korn's third album Follow the Leader, which sold 9 million copies worldwide. The following year many bands began receiving airplay and were in heavy rotation on MTV. Bands whose albums became hits that year included Coal Chamber, Limp Bizkit and Staind.

Many of the bands that formed the first wave of nu metal came out of the Los Angeles scene, many playing the same venues and all knowing of each other. That scene included Static-X, Coal Chamber, and Spineshank. There were other bands from outside of L.A, such as Des Moines's Slipknot, Atlanta's Sevendust, Jacksonville's Limp Bizkit, Chicago's Disturbed, Phoenix's Soulfly and Lawrence, Massachusetts' Godsmack.

Another contribution to nu metal's popularity was festival tours such as Family Values Tour, Lollapalooza and Ozzfest. The 30th anniversary of Woodstock also featured nu metal bands.

Through the turn of the century, more bands broke out like Linkin Park whose debut album "Hybrid Theory" became a platinum hit and Papa Roach whose major label debut Infest also became a platinum hit. Other bands like P.O.D. and Disturbed also had mainstream success. By 2001, nu metal reached its peak as record labels signed many nu metal bands. Though new bands were breaking out, established bands who helped start the genre had successful hit albums like Staind's Break the Cycle, P.O.D.'s Satellite, Slipknot's Iowa.

By 2002, signs that nu metal's mainstream popularity was dying down were apparent. Korn's long awaited fifth album Untouchables, Linkin Park's "Meteora" and Papa Roach's third album Lovehatetragedy did not sell as well as their previous albums. Nu metal bands became less played on rock radio stations and MTV began focusing on pop punk and emo bands. Since then, some bands have changed their sound to hard rock, alternative rock or alternative metal.

Musical traits
Nu metal bands often feature aggressive vocals ranging from melodic singing, guttural screaming, and shouting from various forms of metal, hardcore punk, and like funk metal; rapping is sometimes used.

Korn's Jonathan Davis, Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington, Chevelle's Pete Loeffler, Slipknot's Corey Taylor, Taproot's Stephen Richards, Disturbed's David Draiman and Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst have all cited Maynard James Keenan's signature style as their main influence, with Durst also calling the band Tool both his biggest musical influence and favorite band. Mike Patton of Faith No More is also credited for vocally influencing nu metal.

Nu metal bass parts are often reminiscent of hip hop or funk grooves, and in some songs, slap bass technique is used. The bass in nu metal is occasionally the driving force behind the music. Many nu metal bassists use 5-string over 4-string bass guitars.

Many nu metal bands feature a DJ for additional rhythmic instrumentation (such as music sampling, scratching and electronic backgrounds). Examples of nu metal DJs include Frank Delgado of Deftones, Sid Wilson of Slipknot, Mr. Hahn of Linkin Park, and DJ Lethal of Limp Bizkit.




Thanks To: Wikipedia.org
undestroyer.blogspot.com

Death metal

Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes.

Building from the musical structure of thrash metal, death metal emerged during the mid 1980s. It was mainly inspired by thrash metal acts like Slayer,Kreator and Celtic Frost. Along with the band Death and its frontman Chuck Schuldiner (who is often referred to as "the father of death metal"), bands like Possessed and Morbid Angel are often considered pioneers of the genre. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, death metal gained more media attention as popular record labels like Earache and Roadrunner began to sign death metal bands at a rapid rate. Since then, death metal has diversified, spawning a rich variety of subgenres.

Characteristics
Instrumentation
The setup most frequently used within the death metal genre is two guitarists, a bass player, a vocalist and a drummer almost universally using two bass drums or a double bass drum pedal. Although this is the standard setup, bands have been known to occasionally incorporate other instruments such as electronic keyboards.

The genre is often identified by fast, highly distorted and downtuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking. The percussion is usually fast and dynamic; blast beats, double bass and exceedingly fast drum patterns frequently add to the ferocity of the genre.

Death metal is known for its abrupt tempo, key, and time signature changes, as well as fast and complex guitar and drumwork. Death metal may include chromatic chord progressions and a varied song structure, rarely employing the standard verse-chorus arrangement. These compositions tend to emphasize an ongoing development of themes and motifs.

Vocals and lyrics
Death metal vocals are often guttural roars, grunts, snarls, and low gurgles colloquially called death grunts or death growls. The style is sometimes referred to as Cookie Monster vocals, tongue-in-cheek, because of the similarity with the popular Sesame Street character of the same name. Although often criticized, death growls serve the aesthetic purpose of matching death metal's violent or bleak lyrical content.

The lyrical themes of death metal often invoke slasher film-stylized violence, but may also extend to topics like Satanism, anti-religion, Occultism, mysticism, philosophy and social commentary. However, few death metal musicians actively practice occultism, mysticism, or Satanism. Although violence may be explored in various other genres as well, death metal elaborates on the details of extreme acts, including mutilation, dissection, torture, rape and necrophilia. Sociologist Keith Kahn-Harris commented this apparent glamorization of violence may be attributed to a "fascination" with the human body that all people share to some degree, a fascination which mixes desire and disgust. Heavy metal author Gavin Baddeley also stated there does seem to be a connection between "how acquainted one is with their own mortality" and "how much they crave images of death and violence" via the media. Additionally, contributing artists to the genre often defend death metal as little more than an extreme form of art and entertainment, similar to horror films in the motion picture industry. This rationalization has brought such musicians under fire from activists internationally, who claim that this is often lost on a large number of adolescents, who are left with the glamorization of such violence without social context or awareness of why such imagery is stimulating.

According to Alex Webster, bassist of Cannibal Corpse, "The gory lyrics are probably not, as much as people say, [what's keeping us] from being mainstream. Like, 'Death metal would never go into the mainstream because the lyrics are too gory?' I think it's really the music, because violent entertainment is totally mainstream.

Origin of the term
There are several theories how the term "death metal" originated. One theory is the name originates from an early pioneer of the genre, Death. A Florida journalist explained to his readers Death play their own kind of metal: "Death's Metal". Others contest Death is not the origin, but the harsh vocals and morbid lyrical content generally inspired the genre. Another possible origin is a fanzine called Death Metal, started by Thomas Fischer and Martin Ain of Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. The name was later given to the 1984 compilation Death Metal released by Noise Records. The term might also have originated from other recordings. Possessed's 1984 demo is called Death Metal, and a song with the same name is featured on their 1985 debut album Seven Churches. A demo released by Death in 1983 is called Death by Metal.

Early history (before 1991)
Emergence
British heavy metal band Venom crystallized the elements of what later became known as thrash metal, death metal and black metal, with their 1981 album Welcome to Hell. Their dark, blistering sound, harsh vocals, and macabre, proudly Satanic imagery proved a major inspiration for extreme metal bands. Another highly influential band, Slayer, formed in 1981. Although the band was a thrash metal act, Slayer's music was more violent than their thrash contemporaries Metallica, Megadeth and Exodus. Their breakneck speed and instrumental prowess combined with lyrics about death, violence, war and Satanism won Slayer a rabid cult following. According to Allmusic, Slayer's third album Reign in Blood "inspired the entire death metal genre". and had a big impact on the genre leaders.
Possessed, a band that formed in the San Francisco Bay Area during 1983, was attributed by Allmusic.com as having a Slayer influence on their 1985 album, Seven Churches. Although Possessed's brand of metal resembled Slayer's fast and Satanic thrash metal style, they are often cited as the "first" death metal band. This is largely because of the grunted vocals which set the stage for death metal's breakaway from thrash metal. The 1984 demo Death Metal and 1985 album Seven Churches are regarded as their most influential material.

Not long after the dawn of Possessed, a second influential metal band was formed in Florida: Death. Death, originally called Mantas, was formed during 1983 by Chuck Schuldiner, Kam Lee, and Rick Rozz. In 1984 they released their first demo entitled Death by Metal, followed by several more. The tapes circulated through the tape trader world, quickly establishing the band's name. With Death guitarist Schuldiner adopting vocal duties, the band made a major impact on the scene. Fast, dark minor-key riffs and fierce solos were complemented with fast drumming, creating a style that would catch on in tape trading circles.[45][46] Subsequently, Schuldiner has been "widely recognized as the Father of Death Metal".

Along with Possessed and Death, other pioneers of death metal in the United States include Autopsy, Necrophagia, Master, Morbid Angel, Massacre, Atheist, Obituary and Cannibal Corpse.

An early death metal album, Season of the Dead, was released by Necrophagia in 1987. That same year saw the release of Death's Scream Bloody Gore, which some writers consider the genre's first "proper" release.

Growing popularity
By 1989, many bands had been signed by eager record labels wanting to cash in on the subgenre, including Florida's Obituary, Morbid Angel and Deicide. This collective of death metal bands hailing from Florida are often labeled as "Florida death metal". Death metal spread to Sweden in the mid 1980s, and flourished in the latter part of the decade, with pioneers such as Nihilist, Entombed, Carnage, Dismember and Unleashed. In the early 1990s, the rise of typically melodic "Gothenburg metal" was recognized, with bands such as Dark Tranquillity, At the Gates, and In Flames.
Following the original death metal innovators, new subgenres began by the end of the decade. British band Napalm Death became increasingly associated with death metal, in particular, on 1990's Harmony Corruption. This album displays aggressive and fairly technical guitar riffing, complex rhythmics, a sophisticated growling vocal delivery by Mark "Barney" Greenway, and thoughtful lyrics, leading to the creation of the "deathgrind" subgenre. Other bands contributing significantly to this early movement include Britain's Bolt Thrower and Carcass, and New York's Suffocation.

To close the circle, Death released their fourth album Human in 1991, an example of modern death metal. Death's founder Schuldiner helped push the boundaries of uncompromising speed and technical virtuosity, mixing technical and intricate rhythm guitar work with complex arrangements and emotive guitar solos. Other examples are Carcass's Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious, Suffocation's Effigy of the Forgotten and Entombed's Clandestine from 1991. At this point, all the above characteristics are present: abrupt tempo and count changes, on occasion extremely fast drumming, morbid lyrics and growling vocal delivery.

Earache Records, Relativity Records and Roadrunner Records became the genre's most important labels, with Earache releasing albums by Carcass, Napalm Death, Morbid Angel, and Entombed, and Roadrunner releasing albums by Obituary, and Pestilence. Although these labels had not been death metal labels, initially, they became the genre's flagship labels in the beginning of the 1990s. In addition to these, other labels formed as well, such as Nuclear Blast, Century Media Records, and Peaceville. Many of these labels would go on to achieve successes in other genres of metal throughout the 1990s.

In September 1990, Death's manager Eric Greif held one of the first North American death metal festivals, Day of Death, in Milwaukee suburb Waukesha, Wisconsin, and featured 26 bands including Autopsy, Hellwitch, Obliveon, Revenant, Viogression, Immolation, Atheist, and Cynic.

Later history (1991 onward)
Death metal's popularity achieved its peak between the 1992–93 era, with some bands such as Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse and Obituary enjoying mild commercial successes. However, the genre as a whole never broke in to the mainstream. The genre's mounting popularity may have been partly responsible for a strong rivalry between Norwegian black metal and Swedish death metal scenes. Fenriz of Darkthrone has noted that Norwegian black metal musicians were "fed up with the whole death metal scene" at the time. Death metal diversified in the 1990s, spawning a rich variety of subgenres.

Subgenres
It should be noted that cited examples are not necessarily exclusive to one particular style. Many bands can easily be placed in two or more of the following categories, and a band's specific categorization is often a source of contention due to personal opinion and interpretation.

* Melodic death metal: Scandinavian death metal could be considered the forerunner of "melodic death metal". Melodic death metal, sometimes referred to as "melodeath", is heavy metal music mixed with some death metal elements, such as growled vocals and the liberal use of blastbeats. Songs are typically based around Iron Maiden-esque guitar harmonies and melodies with typically higher-pitched growls, as opposed to traditional death metal's brutal riffs and much lower death grunts. Carcass is sometimes credited with releasing the first melodic death metal album with 1993's Heartwork, although Swedish bands In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, and At the Gates are usually mentioned as the main pioneers of the genre and of the Gothenburg metal sound.

* Technical death metal: Technical death metal and 'progressive death metal' are related terms that refer to bands distinguished by the complexity of their music. Common traits are dynamic song structures, uncommon time signatures, atypical rhythms and unusual harmonies and melodies. Bands described as technical death metal or progressive death metal usually fuse common death metal aesthetics with elements of progressive rock, jazz or classical music. While the term technical death metal is sometimes used to describe bands that focus on speed and extremity as well as complexity, the line between progressive and technical death metal is thin. "Tech death" and "prog death", for short, are terms commonly applied to such bands as Cryptopsy, Edge of Sanity, Opeth, Origin and Sadist. Cynic, Atheist, Pestilence and Gorguts are examples of bands noted for creating jazz-influenced death metal. Necrophagist and Spawn of Possession are known for a classical music influenced death metal style. Death metal pioneers Death also refined their style in a more progressive direction in their final years.

* Death/doom: Death/doom is a style that combines the slow tempos and melancholic atmosphere of doom metal with the deep growling vocals and double-kick drumming of death metal. The style emerged during the late 1980s and gained a certain amount of popularity during the 1990s. It was pioneered by bands such as Autopsy, Winter, Asphyx, Disembowelment, Paradise Lost, and My Dying Bride.
* Blackened death metal: is a subgenre of death metal that incorporates black metal elements. These bands also often tend to adopt some of the thematic characteristics of that genre as well: evil, Satanism, and occultism are all common topics and images. The style was influenced by bands such as Sarcófago, Blasphemy, Beherit and Impaled Nazarene. In the mid 1990s it was developed further by bands such as Belphegor, Behemoth, Akercocke, Zyklon and Sacramentum.

* Goregrind and deathgrind: This style mixes the intensity, speed, and brevity of grindcore with the complexity of death metal. It differs from death metal in that guitar solos are often a rarity, shrieked vocals are more prominent as the main vocal style (though death growls are still utilized and some deathgrind bands make more use of the latter vocal style), and songs are generally shorter in length, usually between one and three minutes. The style differs from grindcore in the more technical approach and less evident hardcore punk influence and aesthetics. Some notable examples of deathgrind are Brujeria, Cattle Decapitation, Cephalic Carnage, Soilent Green, Pig Destroyer, Circle of Dead Children and Rotten Sound.

* Deathcore: With the rise in popularity of metalcore, some of its traits have been incorporated into death metal. Bands such as Suicide Silence, Salt the Wound and early music from Job for a Cowboy combine metalcore with death metal influences. Characteristics of death metal, such as fast drumming (including blast beats), down-tuned guitars, tremolo picking and partially growled vocals, are combined with screamed vocals, melodic riffs and breakdowns.

Other fusions and subgenres
There are other heavy metal music subgenres that have come from fusions between death metal and other non-metal genres, such as the fusion of death metal and jazz. Atheist and Cynic are two examples. The former of went as far as to include jazz-style drum solos on albums, and the latter incorporated elements of jazz fusion. Nile have also incorporated Egyptian music and Middle Eastern themes into their work, while Alchemist have incorporated psychedelia along with Aboriginal music. Some groups, such as Nightfall and Eternal Tears of Sorrow, have incorporated keyboards and symphonic elements, creating a fusion of symphonic metal and death metal, sometimes referred to as symphonic death metal.



Thanks To: Wikipedia.org
undestroyer.blogspot.com

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock. They created fast, hard-edged music, typically with short songs, stripped-down instrumentation, and often political, anti-establishment lyrics. Punk embraces a DIY (do it yourself) ethic, with many bands self-producing their recordings and distributing them through informal channels.

By late 1976, bands such as the Ramones, in New York City, and the Sex Pistols and The Clash, in London, were recognized as the vanguard of a new musical movement. The following year saw punk rock spreading around the world. Punk quickly, though briefly, became a major cultural phenomenon in the United Kingdom. For the most part, punk took root in local scenes that tended to reject association with the mainstream. An associated punk subculture emerged, expressing youthful rebellion and characterized by distinctive styles of clothing and adornment and a variety of anti-authoritarian ideologies.

By the beginning of the 1980s, faster, more aggressive styles such as hardcore and Oi! had become the predominant mode of punk rock. Musicians identifying with or inspired by punk also pursued a broad range of other variations, giving rise to post-punk and the alternative rock movement. By the turn of the century, pop punk had been adopted by the mainstream, with bands such as Green Day and The Offspring bringing the genre widespread popularity.

Characteristics
Philosophy
The first wave of punk rock aimed to be aggressively modern, distancing itself from the bombast and sentimentality of early 1970s rock. According to Ramones drummer Tommy Ramone, "In its initial form, a lot of [1960s] stuff was innovative and exciting. Unfortunately, what happens is that people who could not hold a candle to the likes of Hendrix started noodling away. Soon you had endless solos that went nowhere. By 1973, I knew that what was needed was some pure, stripped down, no bullshit rock 'n' roll."John Holmstrom, founding editor of Punk magazine, recalls feeling "punk rock had to come along because the rock scene had become so tame that [acts] like Billy Joel and Simon and Garfunkel were being called rock and roll, when to me and other fans, rock and roll meant this wild and rebellious music."In critic Robert Christgau's description, "It was also a subculture that scornfully rejected the political idealism and Californian flower-power silliness of hippie myth."Patti Smith, in contrast, suggests in the documentary 25 Years of Punk that the hippies and the punk rockers were linked by a common anti-establishment mentality.

Throughout punk rock history, technical accessibility and a DIY spirit have been prized. In the early days of punk rock, this ethic stood in marked contrast to what those in the scene regarded as the ostentatious musical effects and technological demands of many mainstream rock bands. Musical virtuosity was often looked on with suspicion. According to Holmstrom, punk rock was "rock and roll by people who didn't have very much skills as musicians but still felt the need to express themselves through music".In December 1976, the English fanzine Sideburns published a now-famous illustration of three chords, captioned "This is a chord, this is another, this is a third. Now form a band."The title of a 1980 single by New York punk band The Stimulators, "Loud Fast Rules!", inscribed a catchphrase for punk's basic musical approach.

Some of British punk rock's leading figures made a show of rejecting not only contemporary mainstream rock and the broader culture it was associated with, but their own most celebrated predecessors: "No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones in 1977", declared The Clash song "1977". The previous year, when the punk rock revolution began in Great Britain, was to be both a musical and a cultural "Year Zero". Even as nostalgia was discarded, many in the scene adopted a nihilistic attitude summed up by the Sex Pistols slogan "No Future"; in the later words of one observer, amid the unemployment and social unrest in 1977, "punk's nihilistic swagger was the most thrilling thing in England."While "self-imposed alienation" was common among "drunk punks" and "gutter punks", there was always a tension between their nihilistic outlook and the "radical leftist utopianism" of bands such as Crass, who found positive, liberating meaning in the movement. As a Clash associate describes singer Joe Strummer's outlook, "Punk rock is meant to be our freedom. We're meant to be able to do what we want to do.

The issue of authenticity is important in the punk subculture—the pejorative term "poseur" is applied to those who associate with punk and adopt its stylistic attributes but are deemed not to share or understand the underlying values and philosophy. Scholar Daniel S. Traber argues that "attaining authenticity in the punk identity can be difficult"; as the punk scene matured, he observes, eventually "[e]veryone got called a poseur".

Musical and lyrical elements
Punk rock bands often emulate the bare musical structures and arrangements of 1960s garage rock. Typical punk rock instrumentation includes one or two electric guitars, an electric bass, and a drum kit, along with vocals. Punk rock songs tend to be shorter than those of other popular genres—on the Ramones' debut album, for instance, half of the fourteen tracks are under two minutes long. Most early punk rock songs retained a traditional rock 'n' roll verse-chorus form and 4/4 time signature. However, punk rock bands in the movement's second wave and afterward have often broken from this format. In critic Steven Blush's description, "The Sex Pistols were still rock'n'roll...like the craziest version of Chuck Berry. Hardcore was a radical departure from that. It wasn't verse-chorus rock. It dispelled any notion of what songwriting is supposed to be. It's its own form.

Punk rock vocals sometimes sound nasal, and lyrics are often shouted instead of sung in a conventional sense, particularly in hardcore styles. The vocal approach is characterized by a lack of variety; shifts in pitch, volume, or intonational style are relatively infrequent—the Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten constituting a significant exception. Complicated guitar solos are considered self-indulgent and unnecessary, although basic guitar breaks are common.Guitar parts tend to include highly distorted power chords or barre chords, creating a characteristic sound described by Christgau as a "buzzsaw drone".Some punk rock bands take a surf rock approach with a lighter, twangier guitar tone. Others, such as Robert Quine, lead guitarist of The Voidoids, have employed a wild, "gonzo" attack, a style that stretches back through The Velvet Underground to the 1950s recordings of Ike Turner. Bass guitar lines are often uncomplicated; the quintessential approach is a relentless, repetitive "forced rhythm", although some punk rock bass players—such as Mike Watt of The Minutemen and Firehose—emphasize more technical bass lines. Bassists often use a pick due to the rapid succession of notes, which makes fingerpicking impractical. Drums typically sound heavy and dry, and often have a minimal set-up. Compared to other forms of rock, syncopation is much less the rule. Hardcore drumming tends to be especially fast. Production tends to be minimalistic, with tracks sometimes laid down on home tape recorders or simple four-track portastudios. The typical objective is to have the recording sound unmanipulated and "real", reflecting the commitment and "authenticity" of a live performance. Punk recordings thus often have a lo-fi quality, with the sound left relatively unpolished in the mastering process; recordings may contain dialogue between band members, false starts, and background noise.

Punk rock lyrics are typically frank and confrontational; compared to the lyrics of other popular music genres, they frequently comment on social and political issues. Trend-setting songs such as The Clash's "Career Opportunities" and Chelsea's "Right to Work" deal with unemployment and the grim realities of urban life. Especially in early British punk, a central goal was to outrage and shock the mainstream. The Sex Pistols classics "Anarchy in the U.K." and "God Save the Queen" openly disparage the British political system and social mores. There is also a characteristic strain of anti-sentimental depictions of relationships and sex, exemplified by "Love Comes in Spurts", written by Richard Hell and recorded by him with The Voidoids. Anomie, variously expressed in the poetic terms of Hell's "Blank Generation" and the bluntness of the Ramones' "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue", is a common theme. Identifying punk with such topics aligns with the view expressed by V. Vale, founder of San Francisco fanzine Search and Destroy: "Punk was a total cultural revolt. It was a hardcore confrontation with the black side of history and culture, right-wing imagery, sexual taboos, a delving into it that had never been done before by any generation in such a thorough way."However, many punk rock lyrics deal in more traditional rock 'n' roll themes of courtship, heartbreak, and hanging out; the approach ranges from the deadpan, aggressive simplicity of Ramones standards such as "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend"to the more unambiguously sincere style of many later pop punk groups.

Visual and other elements
The classic punk rock look among male U.S. musicians harkens back to the T-shirt, motorcycle jacket, and jeans ensemble favored by American greasers of the 1950s associated with the rockabilly scene and by British rockers of the 1960s. The cover of the Ramones' 1976 debut album, featuring a shot of the band by Punk photographer Roberta Bayley, set forth the basic elements of a style that was soon widely emulated by rock musicians both punk and nonpunk. Richard Hell's more androgynous, ragamuffin look—and reputed invention of the safety-pin aesthetic—was a major influence on Sex Pistols impresario Malcolm McLaren and, in turn, British punk style. McLaren's partner, fashion designer, Vivienne Westwood, credits Johnny Rotten as the first British punk to rip his shirt, and Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious as the first to use safety pins. Early female punk musicians displayed styles ranging from Siouxsie Sioux's bondage gear to Patti Smith's "straight-from-the-gutter androgyny". The former proved much more influential on female fan styles. Over time, tattoos, piercings, and metal-studded and -spiked accessories became increasingly common elements of punk fashion among both musicians and fans, a "style of adornment calculated to disturb and outrage".The typical male punk haircut was originally short and choppy; the Mohawk later emerged as a characteristic style. Those in hardcore scenes often adopt a skinhead look.
The characteristic stage performance style of male punk musicians does not deviate significantly from the macho postures classically associated with rock music. Female punk musicians broke more clearly from earlier styles. Scholar John Strohm suggests that they did so by creating personas of a type conventionally seen as masculine: "They adopted a tough, unladylike pose that borrowed more from the macho swagger of sixties garage bands than from the calculated bad-girl image of bands like The Runaways."Scholar Dave Laing describes how bassist Gaye Advert adopted fashion elements associated with male musicians only to generate a stage persona readily consumed as "sexy". Laing focuses on more innovative and challenging performance styles, seen in the various erotically destabilizing approaches of Siouxsie Sioux, The Slits' Ari Up, and X-Ray Spex's Poly Styrene.

The lack of emphatic syncopation led punk dance to "deviant" forms. The characteristic style was originally the pogo. Sid Vicious, before he became the Sex Pistols' bassist, is credited with initiating the pogo in Britain as an attendee at one of their concerts. Moshing is typical at hardcore shows. The lack of conventional dance rhythms was a central factor in limiting punk's mainstream commercial impact.

Breaking down the distance between performer and audience is central to the punk ethic. Fan participation at concerts is thus important; during the movement's first heyday, it was often provoked in an adversarial manner—apparently perverse, but appropriately "punk". First-wave British punk bands such as the Pistols and The Damned insulted and otherwise goaded the audience into intense reactions. Laing has identified three primary forms of audience physical response to goading: can throwing, stage invasion, and spitting or "gobbing". In the hardcore realm, stage invasion is often a prelude to stage diving. In addition to the numerous fans who have started or joined punk bands, audience members also become important participants via the scene's many amateur periodicals—in England, according to Laing, punk "was the first musical genre to spawn fanzines in any significant numbers".

Origin of the term punk
Prior to the mid-1970s, punk, a centuries-old word of obscure etymology, was commonly used to describe "a young male hustler, a gangster, a hoodlum, or a ruffian". As Legs McNeil explains, "On TV, if you watched cop shows, Kojak, Baretta, when the cops finally catch the mass murderer, they'd say, 'you dirty Punk.' It was what your teachers would call you. It meant that you were the lowest."The first known use of the phrase punk rock appeared in the Chicago Tribune on March 22, 1970, attributed to Ed Sanders, cofounder of New York's anarcho-prankster band The Fugs. Sanders was quoted describing a solo album of his as "punk rock—redneck sentimentality". In the December 1970 issue of Creem, Lester Bangs, mocking more mainstream rock musicians, ironically referred to Iggy Pop as "that Stooge punk". Suicide's Alan Vega credits this usage with inspiring his duo to bill its gigs as a "punk mass" for the next couple of years.

Dave Marsh was the first music critic to employ the term punk rock: in the May 1971 issue of Creem, he described ? and the Mysterians, one of the most popular 1960s garage rock acts, as giving a "landmark exposition of punk rock". In June 1972, the fanzine Flash included a "Punk Top Ten" of 1960s albums. That year, Lenny Kaye used the term in the liner notes of the anthology album Nuggets to refer to 1960s garage bands such as The Standells, The Sonics, and The Seeds. The fanzine Bomp! also used punk in this sense. In February 1973, Terry Atkinson of the Los Angeles Times, reviewing the debut album by a hard rock band, Aerosmith, declared that it "achieves all that punk-rock bands strive for but most miss."Three months later, Billy Altman launched the short-lived punk magazine.

In May 1974, Los Angeles Times critic Robert Hilburn reviewed the second New York Dolls album, Too Much Too Soon. "I told ya the New York Dolls were the real thing", he wrote. "And now, we've got the album to prove it.... It is, in fact, perhaps the best example of raw, thumb-your-nose-at-the-world, punk rock since the Rolling Stones' 'Exile on Main Street.'"Bassist Jeff Jensen of Boston's Real Kids reports of a show that year, "A reviewer for one of the free entertainment magazines of the time caught the act and gave us a great review, calling us a 'punk band.' ... [W]e all sort of looked at each other and said, 'What's punk?

By 1975, punk was being used to describe acts as diverse as the Patti Smith Group—with lead guitarist Lenny Kaye—the Bay City Rollers, and Bruce Springsteen. As the scene at New York's CBGB club attracted notice, a name was sought for the developing sound. Club owner Hilly Kristal called the movement "street rock"; John Holmstrom credits Aquarian magazine with using punk "to describe what was going on at CBGBs". Holmstrom, McNeil, and Ged Dunn's magazine Punk, which debuted at the end of 1975, was crucial in codifying the term."It was pretty obvious that the word was getting very popular", Holmstrom later remarked. "We figured we'd take the name before anyone else claimed it. We wanted to get rid of the bullshit, strip it down to rock 'n' roll. We wanted the fun and liveliness back.


Thanks To: Wikipedia.org
undestroyer.blogspot.com

Hardcore

Hardcore

Hardcore is a generic term used to describe something more extreme than the usual version.

Some common usage:
* Music hardcore - some types of music (not related to each other).
o Hardcore punk is a subgenre of punk rock, sometimes considered to be associated with heavy metal music
o Hardcore techno is a subgenre of techno that is closely linked with the style Gabba, and including the Happy hardcore
o Hardcore hip hop is a subgenre of hip hop lyrics typical confrontational and loud rhythms.

Thanks To: Wikipedia.org
undestroyer.blogspot.com

Heavy metal

Heavy metal (often referred to simply as metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and the United States. With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall loudness. Heavy metal lyrics and performance styles are generally associated with masculinity and machismo.

The first heavy metal bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple attracted large audiences, though they were often critically reviled, a status common throughout the history of the genre. In the mid-1970s Judas Priest helped spur the genre's evolution by discarding much of its blues influence; Motörhead introduced a punk rock sensibility and an increasing emphasis on speed. Bands in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal such as Iron Maiden followed in a similar vein. Before the end of the decade, heavy metal had attracted a worldwide following of fans known as "metalheads" or "headbangers".

In the 1980s, glam metal became a major commercial force with groups like Mötley Crüe. Underground scenes produced an array of more extreme, aggressive styles: thrash metal broke into the mainstream with bands such as Metallica, while other styles like death metal and black metal remain subcultural phenomena. Since the mid-1990s, popular styles such as nu metal, which often incorporates elements of funk and hip hop; and metalcore, which blends extreme metal with hardcore punk, have further expanded the definition of the genre.

Characteristics
Heavy metal is traditionally characterized by loud distorted guitars, emphatic rhythms, dense bass-and-drum sound, and vigorous vocals. Metal subgenres variously emphasize, alter, or omit one or more of these attributes. New York Times critic Jon Pareles writes, "In the taxonomy of popular music, heavy metal is a major subspecies of hard-rock—the breed with less syncopation, less blues, more showmanship and more brute force."The typical band lineup includes a drummer, a bassist, a rhythm guitarist, a lead guitarist, and a singer, who may or may not be an instrumentalist. Keyboard instruments are sometimes used to enhance the fullness of the sound.

The electric guitar and the sonic power that it projects through amplification has historically been the key element in heavy metal. The lead role of the guitar in heavy metal often collides with the traditional "frontman" or bandleader role of the vocalist, creating a musical tension as the two "contend for dominance" in a spirit of "affectionate rivalry". Heavy metal "demands the subordination of the voice" to the overall sound of the band. Reflecting metal's roots in the 1960s counterculture, an "explicit display of emotion" is required from the vocals as a sign of authenticity. Critic Simon Frith claims that the metal singer's "tone of voice" is more important than the lyrics. Metal vocals vary widely in style, from the multioctave, theatrical approach of Judas Priest's Rob Halford and Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson, to the gruff style of Motörhead's Lemmy and Metallica's James Hetfield, to the growling of many death metal performers.

The prominent role of the bass is also key to the metal sound, and the interplay of bass and guitar is a central element. The bass guitar provides the low-end sound crucial to making the music "heavy". Metal basslines vary widely in complexity, from holding down a low pedal point as a foundation to doubling complex riffs and licks along with the lead and/or rhythm guitars. Some bands feature the bass as a lead instrument, an approach popularized by Metallica's Cliff Burton in the early 1980s.

The essence of metal drumming is creating a loud, constant beat for the band using the "trifecta of speed, power, and precision". Metal drumming "requires an exceptional amount of endurance", and drummers have to develop "considerable speed, coordination, and dexterity...to play the intricate patterns" used in metal. A characteristic metal drumming technique is the cymbal choke, which consists of striking a cymbal and then immediately silencing it by grabbing it with the other hand (or, in some cases, the same striking hand), producing a burst of sound. The metal drum setup is generally much larger than those employed in other forms of rock music.

In live performance, loudness—an "onslaught of sound," in sociologist Deena Weinstein's description—is considered vital. In his book Metalheads, psychologist Jeffrey Arnett refers to heavy metal concerts as "the sensory equivalent of war." Following the lead set by Jimi Hendrix, Cream and The Who, early heavy metal acts such as Blue Cheer set new benchmarks for volume. As Blue Cheer's Dick Peterson put it, "All we knew was we wanted more power."[14] A 1977 review of a Motörhead concert noted how "excessive volume in particular figured into the band’s impact."Weinstein makes the case that in the same way that melody is the main element of pop and rhythm is the main focus of house music, powerful sound, timbre, and volume are the key elements of metal. She argues that the loudness is designed to "sweep the listener into the sound" and to provide a "shot of youthful vitality.

History
Antecedents: mid-1960s
While heavy metal's quintessential guitar style, built around distortion-heavy riffs and power chords, traces its roots to the late 1950s instrumentals of American Link Wray, the genre's direct lineage begins in the mid-1960s. American blues music was a major influence on the early British rockers of the era. Bands like The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds developed blues-rock by recording covers of many classic blues songs, often speeding up the tempos. As they experimented with the music, the UK blues-based bands—and the U.S. acts they influenced in turn—developed what would become the hallmarks of heavy metal, in particular, the loud, distorted guitar sound. The Kinks played a major role in popularizing this sound with their 1964 hit "You Really Got Me." A significant contributor to the emerging guitar sound was the feedback facilitated by the new generation of amplifiers.

In addition to The Kinks' Dave Davies, other guitarists such as The Who's Pete Townshend and the Tridents' Jeff Beck were experimenting with feedback.[64] Where the blues-rock drumming style started out largely as simple shuffle beats on small kits, drummers began using a more muscular, complex, and amplified approach to match and be heard against the increasingly loud guitar. Vocalists similarly modified their technique and increased their reliance on amplification, often becoming more stylized and dramatic. In terms of sheer volume, especially in live performance, The Who's "bigger-louder-wall-of-Marshalls" approach was seminal. Simultaneous advances in amplification and recording technology made it possible to successfully capture the power of this heavier approach on record.

The combination of blues-rock with psychedelic rock formed much of the original basis for heavy metal. One of the most influential bands in forging the merger of genres was the British power trio Cream, who derived a massive, heavy sound from unison riffing between guitarist Eric Clapton and bassist Jack Bruce, as well as Ginger Baker's double bass drumming. Their first two LPs, Fresh Cream (1966) and Disraeli Gears (1967), are regarded as essential prototypes for the future style. The Jimi Hendrix Experience's debut album, Are You Experienced (1967), was also highly influential. Hendrix's virtuosic technique would be emulated by many metal guitarists and the album's most successful single, "Purple Haze," is identified by some as the first heavy metal hit. Vanilla Fudge, whose first album also came out in 1967, have been called "one of the few American links between psychedelia and what soon became heavy metal.

Origins: late 1960s and early 1970s
In 1968, the sound that would become known as heavy metal began to coalesce. That January, the San Francisco band Blue Cheer released a cover of Eddie Cochran's classic "Summertime Blues," from their debut album Vincebus Eruptum, that many consider the first true heavy metal recording. The same month, Steppenwolf released its self-titled debut album, including "Born to Be Wild," which refers to "heavy metal" in the lyrics. In July, another two epochal records came out: The Yardbirds' "Think About It"—B-side of the band's last single—with a performance by guitarist Jimmy Page anticipating the metal sound he would soon make famous; and Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, with its 17-minute-long title track, a prime candidate for first-ever heavy metal album. In August, The Beatles' single version of "Revolution," with its redlined guitar and drum sound, set new standards for distortion in a top-selling context.

The Jeff Beck Group, whose leader had preceded Page as The Yardbirds' guitarist, released its debut record that same month: Truth featured some of the "most molten, barbed, downright funny noises of all time," breaking ground for generations of metal ax-slingers. In October, Page's new band, Led Zeppelin, made its live debut. The Beatles' so-called White Album, which also came out that month, included "Helter Skelter," then one of the heaviest-sounding songs ever released by a major band. The Pretty Things' rock opera S.F. Sorrow, released in December, featured "proto heavy metal" songs such as "Old Man Going.

In January 1969, Led Zeppelin's self-titled debut album was released and reached number 10 on the Billboard album chart. In July, Zeppelin and a power trio with a Cream-inspired, but cruder sound, Grand Funk Railroad, played the Atlanta Pop Festival. That same month, another Cream-rooted trio led by Leslie West released Mountain, an album filled with heavy blues-rock guitar and roaring vocals. In August, the group—now itself dubbed Mountain—played an hour-long set at the Woodstock Festival. Grand Funk's debut album, On Time, also came out that month. In the fall, Led Zeppelin II went to number 1 and the album's single "Whole Lotta Love" hit number 4 on the Billboard pop chart. The metal revolution was under way.
Led Zeppelin defined central aspects of the emerging genre, with Page's highly distorted guitar style and singer Robert Plant's dramatic, wailing vocals. Other bands, with a more consistently heavy, "purely" metal sound, would prove equally important in codifying the genre. The 1970 releases by Black Sabbath (Black Sabbath and Paranoid) and Deep Purple (In Rock) were crucial in this regard. Black Sabbath had developed a particularly heavy sound in part due to an industrial accident guitarist Tony Iommi suffered before cofounding the band. Unable to play normally, Iommi had to tune his guitar down for easier fretting and rely on power chords with their relatively simple fingering. Deep Purple had fluctuated between styles in its early years, but by 1969 vocalist Ian Gillan and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore had led the band toward the developing heavy metal style. In 1970, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple scored major UK chart hits with "Paranoid" and "Black Night," respectively. That same year, two other British bands released debut albums in a heavy metal mode: Uriah Heep with Very 'eavy... Very 'umble and UFO with UFO 1. Budgie brought the new metal sound into a power trio context. The occult lyrics and imagery employed by Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep would prove particularly influential; Led Zeppelin also began foregrounding such elements with its fourth album, released in 1971.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the trend-setting group was Grand Funk Railroad, "the most commercially successful American heavy-metal band from 1970 until they disbanded in 1976, [they] established the Seventies success formula: continuous touring." Other bands identified with metal emerged in the U.S., such as Dust (first LP in 1971), Blue Öyster Cult (1972), and Kiss (1974). In Germany, the Scorpions debuted with Lonesome Crow in 1972. Blackmore, who had emerged as a virtuoso soloist with Deep Purple's Machine Head (1972), quit the group in 1975 to form Rainbow. These bands also built audiences via constant touring and increasingly elaborate stage shows. As described above, there are arguments about whether these and other early bands truly qualify as "heavy metal" or simply as "hard rock." Those closer to the music's blues roots or placing greater emphasis on melody are now commonly ascribed the latter label. AC/DC, which debuted with High Voltage in 1976, is a prime example. The 1983 Rolling Stone encyclopedia entry begins, "Australian heavy-metal band AC/DC..." Rock historian Clinton Walker writes, "Calling AC/DC a heavy metal band in the seventies was as inaccurate as it is today.... [They] were a rock 'n' roll band that just happened to be heavy enough for metal." The issue is not only one of shifting definitions, but also a persistent distinction between musical style and audience identification: Ian Christe describes how the band "became the stepping-stone that led huge numbers of hard rock fans into heavy metal perdition.
In certain cases, there is little debate. After Black Sabbath, the next major example is Britain's Judas Priest, which debuted with Rocka Rolla in 1974. In Christe's description, Black Sabbath's

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

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


Thanks To : Wikipedia.org
undestroyer.blogspot.com

Thrash metal

Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized by its fast tempo and aggression. Thrash metal songs typically use fast, percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work. Thrash metal lyrics often deal with social issues using direct and denunciatory language, an approach which partially overlaps with the hardcore genre. The "Big Four" bands of thrash metal are Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica, and Slayer,[ who simultaneously created and popularized the genre in the early 1980s.

The origins of thrash metal are generally traced to the late 1970s and early 1980s, when a number of bands began incorporating the sound of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, creating a new genre and developing into a separate movement from punk rock and hardcore. This genre is more aggressive compared to its relative, speed metal, and can be seen in part to be a reaction to the lighter, more widely acceptable sounds and themes of glam metal.

Musical traits
Thrash metal generally features fast tempos, low-register, complex guitar riffs, high-register guitar solos, double bass drumming, and aggressive vocals.

Most thrash guitar solos are played at high speed, as they are usually characterized by shredding, and use techniques such as sweep picking, legato phrasing, alternate picking, string skipping, and two-hand tapping. Thrash lead guitarists are often influenced by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement.

Thrash guitar riffs often use chromatic scales and emphasize the tritone and diminished intervals, instead of using conventional single scale based riffing. For example, the main riff of Metallica's "Master of Puppets" is a chromatic descent, followed by a chromatic ascent based on the tritone. Rhythm guitar playing is characterized by extensive palm muting and down picking to give the riffs a chugging sound, along with extensive use of the pedal point technique (creating what can be considered a distinctive, 'thrashy' sound).

Speed, pacing, and time-changes also define thrash metal. Thrash tends to have an accelerating feel which may be due in large part to its aggressive drumming style. For example, thrash drummers often use two bass drums, or a double-bass pedal, in order to create a relentless, driving beat. Cymbal stops/chokes are often used to transition from one riff to another or to precede an acceleration in tempo.

To keep up with the other instruments, many thrash bassists use a pick. However, some prominent thrash metal bassists have used their fingers, such as Frank Bello, Greg Christian, Steve DiGiorgio, Robert Trujillo and the late Cliff Burton. Several bassists use a distorted bass tone, an approach popularized by Burton and Motörhead's Lemmy.

Lyrical themes in thrash metal include isolation, alienation, corruption, injustice, addiction, suicide, murder, warfare, and other maladies that afflict the individual and society. Humor and irony can occasionally be found, but they are limited, and are the exception rather than the rule.

History

Origins
NWOBHM bands directly influenced the development of early thrash. The early work of artists such as Diamond Head, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Venom, Motörhead, Tygers of Pan Tang, Raven, and Angel Witch, among others, introduced the fast-paced instrumentation that became essential aspects of thrash.

Featured on Judas Priest's British Steel, "Rapid Fire", has been noted as a "proto-thrash" song.

In 1981, a Southern California band by the name of Leather Charm wrote a song entitled "Hit the Lights". Leather Charm soon disbanded and the band's primary songwriter, vocalist/rhythm guitarist James Hetfield met drummer Lars Ulrich through a classified ad. Together, James and Lars formed Metallica, the first of the "Big Four" thrash bands, with lead guitarist Dave Mustaine, who would later form Megadeth, another of the "Big Four" originators of thrash, and bassist Ron McGovney. Metallica later relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area. McGovney was replaced with Cliff Burton, and Mustaine was later replaced with Kirk Hammett. The band released "Hit the Lights" on their first studio album, Kill 'Em All, in July 25, 1983.

Another "Big Four" thrash band formed in Southern California in 1981, when guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King met while auditioning for the same band and subsequently decided to form a band of their own. Hanneman and King recruited vocalist/bassist Tom Araya, a former respiratory therapist, and drummer Dave Lombardo, a pizza delivery driver, and Slayer was formed. Slayer was discovered by Metal Blade Records executive Brian Slagel while performing Iron Maiden's "Phantom of the Opera" at a show, and were promptly signed to the label. In December 1983, less than six months after the release of Kill 'Em All, Slayer put out their debut album, Show No Mercy.

The European thrash scene that began in early 1982 was almost exclusively influenced by the most aggressive music both Germany and England were producing at that time[citation needed]. British bands such as Tank, Raven and Venom, along with German metal exports Accept, motivated musicians from central Europe to start bands of their own, eventually producing German thrash exports such as Sodom, Kreator and Destruction.

In the early 80s Canada produced influential speed metal bands like Toronto's Anvil and Ottawa's Exciter whose insistence upon fast playing and aggressiveness is considered a main influence to proper thrash metal [citation needed]. Bands such as Montreal's Voivod were one of the first bands to combine progressive rock influences with speed metal.


Thanks To: Wikipedia.org
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