A Brief History of Heavy Metal Music

A Brief History of Heavy Metal Music

Whether you love it or hate it, there’s no denying that heavy metal is a truly unique genre of music. Join us as we explore the history of this controversial art form, from its early beginnings to its current state.

Origins of Heavy Metal

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Metal is characterized by heavy, distorted guitars, emphatic rhythms, and aggressive vocals. The first heavy metal bands such as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin created a blueprint for metal that would be followed by later bands.

Hard rock and blues rock

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, hard rock bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple became extremely popular, thanks in part to the heavy metal sound they introduced. Hard rock is a subgenre of rock music that features distorted guitars, pounding drums and powerful vocal melodies. Hard rock songs are often about topics such as sex, drugs and violence.

In the mid-1970s, a new style of music called punk rock emerged. Punk rock bands such as the Sex Pistols and the Ramones were known for their aggressive sound and rebellious lyrics. Punk rock is a subgenre of rock music that is characterized by short, fast-paced songs with personal lyrics.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a new type of hard rock called heavy metal became popular. Heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden and Metallica are known for their fast guitars, thunderous drums and dark lyrics. Heavy metal songs often deal with topics such as death, violence and warfare.

Psychedelic rock

Psychedelic rock, often shortened to psyrock or simply psy, is a style of rock music that emerged in the mid-1960s. Psychedelic rock was inspired by the experience of psychedelic drugs and sought to replicate their effects on the mind. The genre often used distorted guitars, feedback, and unconventional song structures. Psychedelic rock reached its peak in popularity in the late 1960s with bands such as Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, and The Grateful Dead.

The early 1970s saw a continued interest in psychedelic rock, with bands such as Black Sabbath and Deep Purple creating a heavier sound that would be known as hard rock. Hard rock would later evolve into heavy metal, a genre characterized by electric guitars, bass guitar, and drums played at high volumes with distorted sounds. Heavy metal is often associated with themes of darkness and aggression.

While psychedelic rock and heavy metal share some common elements, they are distinct genres. Psychedelic rock is more experimental and exploratory in nature, while heavymetal is more focused on creating a specific sound and atmosphere.

Development of Heavy Metal

The first heavy metal band is generally considered to be Black Sabbath, who released their self-titled debut album in early 1970. However, the term “heavy metal” wasn’t coined until later that year, when it was used in a review of Sir Lord Baltimore’s Kingdom Come. From there, the genre grew and evolved, giving birth to subgenres like thrash metal, death metal, and black metal.

Early metal bands

The first heavy metal bands such as Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple attracted large audiences, though they were often derided by critics. This hostile reception from the music press and general public made it difficult for these bands to achieve commercial success or even to tour in support of their records. In the 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

The New Wave of British Heavy Metal

The New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) was a musical movement that started in the late 1970s, in the United Kingdom, and achieved international attention by the early 1980s. Alison Coleman of Melody Maker coined the term in May 1978 to describe the emergence of new heavy metal bands in the mid-1970s. The DIY ethic of the new metal bands led to them producing their own albums, which were independently distributed to carefully selected outlets; including supermarkets and mail order companies.

Initially, these albums were sold through mail order companies such as Les Adams’ Heavy Metal Express and Charles Farrel’s Schoolkids’ Records. The first band to achieve major commercial success from the NWOBHM was Iron Maiden, who signed with EMI Records in 1979. They released their self-titled debut album in 1980, which reached number four in the UK Albums Chart. Motörhead also signed a recording contract with Bronze Records in 1979 and released their self-titled debut album that year; it peaked at number 24 in the UK Albums Chart.Saxon followed suit by signing with Carrere Records and releasing their debut album, Wheels of Steel, later that year; it peaked at number five on the UK Albums Chart.

American thrash metal

American thrash metal is an aggressive subgenre of heavy metal music developed in the early 1980s by guitarists Eric Boucher and Kerry King in California. Inspired by British bands like Motorhead, Venom and Diamond Head, as well as American band like Metallica, Exodus and Raven, American thrash metal bands began to gain popularity in the early 1980s. The earliest American thrash metal bands were Exodus, Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax. These four bands are often credited with helping to pioneer the genre.

American thrash metal was at its peak in the late 1980s and early 1990s. By this time, many of the original pioneers had either disbanded or switched to other genres. However, a new generation of American thrash metal bands emerged in the mid-1990s, led by groups like Korn, Limp Bizkit and Slipknot. These bands brought a new level of popularity to the genre and helped to keep it relevant in the 21st century.

The Evolution of Heavy Metal

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Metal is characterized by its aggressive, driving sound and its emphasis on extreme volume levels. In the early days of metal, the genre was often associated with rebelliousness, violence, and a general rejection of mainstream society.

Death metal

Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes. conference in Tampa, Florida in December 1991, at which they gave “the first annual death metal lecture.” In May 1992 the New York Times ran an article about Death Metal called “The Sound of Young Guns N’ Roses” by Jon Pareles. He stated in the article: “Death metal is the accelerated evolution of Thrash Metal…faster and more furious than even Metallica’s recent work”.

The genre’s roots can be traced back to the late 1970s and early 1980s, when a number of bands such as Venom, Budgie, Mercyful Fate and Witchfynde released a series of influential proto-metal and early heavy metal albums. These bands mixed elements of horror movie soundtracks with fast-paced riffs and high-pitched screamin vocals. In 1983 pioneering outfit Slayer released their debut album Show No Mercy which helped codify the sound of death metal.

In 1984 another major breakthrough came in the form of Possessed’s Seven Churches release; ATMF’s Death Strike single featuring Chuck Schuldiner on guitar and Hitler on drums also deserves a mention here. Deathstrike would eventually morph into Schuldiner’s groundbreaking new outfit Death who would lay down the foundations for what we now know asdeath metal with their 1986 debut Scream Bloody Gore (widely considered to be the first true death metal album). Many bands followed in their footsteps throughout the late ’80s including Obituary, Deicide, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Carcass and Autopsy.

In the early ’90s death metal experienced something of a creative renaissance with a new wave of bands pushing the boundaries of extreme music even further. Immolation, Gorguts, Dismember and Edge Of Sanity released some truly game-changing albums while newer outfits like Gorefest, Entombed and Brutal Truth were also making waves. In 1992Earache Records’ Grindcrusher compilation brought many of these bands to a wider audience and helped fuel an explosion in popularity for death metal which continues to this day.

Black metal

Originating in the late 1970s and early 1980s, black metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music. Characterized by fast tempos, shrieking vocals, and highly distorted guitars, black metal seeks to evoke a sense of unease or repulsion. The genre often incorporatesrapes and satanic or occult imagery and lyrics, which contribute to its dark atmosphere.

Black metal emerged as a reaction to the perceived excesses of the mainstream heavy metal scene. Bands such as Venom, Bathory, and Mercyful Fate were some of the earliest groups to be associated with black metal, with Venom’s “Black Metal” serving as the movement’s anthem. In the early 1990s, Norwegian bands such as Mayhem, Emperor, and Burzum popularized the Norwegian black metal sound, which emphasized blast beats , harsh vocals , and minimalist song structures. This wave of Norwegian black metal would come to be known as the second wave of black metal.

By the late 1990s and early 2000s, a number of black metal bands had begun to experiment with more melodic elements , leading to the development of styles such as atmospheric black metal and symphonic black metal. These new styles blended black metal with other genres such as classical music and folk music , respectively. Today, black metal remains a thriving underground genre with a global fanbase.

Doom metal

Doom metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that emerged as a recognized musical style in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Heavy, slow, and downtuned guitars, played in a “crushing” or “chugging” style, characterized doom metal. While some bands adopted an abrasive, distorted sound (made possible by the development of guitar amplifier feedback controls), other groups employed clean tones similar to those used in jazz or early blues. Lyrics were frequently inspired by horror fiction (The Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter, The Call of Cthulhu), political conspiracy (The Watcher), nuclear war (Deathblow), and astronomy (Electric Wizard’s “Dopethrone”).

Doom metal is heaviness incarnate. Slower than sludge and more devilish than death metal, the tempo can creep along at a snail’s pace or pick up to a groove-laden walk. The riffs are mostly meaty and chunky with detuned guitars creating an ominous sense of foreboding or a wall of sound meant to pummel the listener into submission. Lyrics are often dark, focusing on humanity’s mortality, despair, and fear with some occult elements mixed in for good measure.

Heavy Metal Today

Metalcore

Metalcore is a subgenre of heavy metal music that combines elements of both extreme metal and hardcore punk. It is typically characterized by heavy guitar riffs, breakdowns, and screaming vocals.

While the genre first emerged in the early 1990s with bands such as Earth Crisis and Judge, it did not reach mainstream popularity until the early 2000s with bands such as As I Lay Dying and Killswitch Engage. Since then, metalcore has remained one of the most popular genres in heavy metal music.

Today, there are a wide variety of metalcore subgenres, each with its own unique sound and style. Some of the most popular subgenres include melodic metalcore, mathcore, post-hardcore, and progressive metalcore. Regardless of its subgenre, metalcore continues to be one of the most exciting and heavier genres in all of heavy metal music.

Nu metal

Nu metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that combines elements of traditional metal with influences from other genres, such as hip hop, alternative rock, funk, and grunge. Nu metal bands have been widely perceived as having an image that is “cooler” and more “hip” than the traditional metal scene.

The genre first achieved mainstream success in the late 1990s with bands such as Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Slipknot, all of which sold millions of records and achieved widespread acclaim. By the early 2000s, however, nu metal’s popularity was on the decline; many nu metal bands had broken up or were on hiatus, and some fans had grown tired of the genre’s constant down-tuned guitars and pervasive angry attitude.

Despite nu metal’s decline in popularity, a number of successful bands continued to release albums throughout the early 2000s; these include Papa Roach, Linkin Park, Disturbed, Godsmack, Staind, Mudvayne, Three Days Grace, and Breaking Benjamin. In recent years there has been a slight resurgence in interest in the genre; several newer bands such as Asking Alexandria and Issues have found success by blending nu metal with other styles such as hardcore punk and electronic dance music.

Extreme metal

In the early 1990s, a new subgenre of heavy metal began to emerge. Bands such as Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer had brought metal to new heights of commercial success in the 1980s with their brand of thrash metal, but a new breed of bands were taking things even further. Groups such as Death, Carcass and Obituary were writing songs that were faster, heavier and more aggressive than anything that had come before. This new style of metal was known as extreme metal.

While thrash metal had connections to the punk world, extreme metal was its own beast entirely. The music was too fast and too aggressive to be punk, and it had little in common with the hard rock that had originally spawned heavy metal. Extreme metal was dark, violent and uncompromising, and it quickly found a passionate audience among metal fans who were looking for something even heavier than thrash.

In the early 21st century, extreme metal is more popular than ever before. Thanks to the Internet, bands from all over the world are able to connect with each other and share their music with fans from all corners of the globe. If you’re looking for some truly heavy music, extreme metal is definitely worth checking out.