Mountain King Music: The Best of Heavy Metal

Mountain King Music is the premier destination for the best in heavy metal music. From classic metal to the latest in metalcore, we have the tunes that will get your head banging.

Introduction

Mountain King Music: The Best of Heavy Metal is the perfect way to get acquainted with the best that this genre has to offer. This album features some of the most influential and iconic bands in heavy metal history, including Metallica, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, and Black Sabbath. If you’re a fan of metal, or just looking to expand your musical horizons, this is the album for you.

The Origins of Heavy Metal

The first stirrings of what would become heavy metal began in the late 1960s with bands like Cream, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Jimi Hendrix Experience. These bands started to turn away from the peace and love vibes of the Woodstock era and instead embrace a more hard-edged sound. This new sound was heavily influenced by blues music, but it was also louder and more aggressive than anything that had come before. This new style soon came to be known as heavy metal.

In the 1970s, bands like Led Zeppelin, Queen, and Kiss took heavy metal to new heights of popularity. These bands were able to appeal to a wide range of fans with their catchy melodies and powerful musicianship. Heavy metal continued to grow in popularity throughout the 1980s with the rise of bands like Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth. These bands brought a new level of complexity and aggression to the genre that helped metal become one of the most popular forms of music in the world.

Today, heavy metal is as popular as ever with new bands continuing to emerge and find success. If you’re a fan of hard-hitting music with plenty of attitude, then heavy metal is sure to have something for you!

The Pioneers of Heavy Metal

Heavy 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. The genre’s lyrics and performance styles are sometimes associated with aggression and machismo.

Early heavy metal acts such as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin are often credited with laying the foundation for the development of subsequent subgenres such as hard rock and glam metal. Though they did not use the term “heavy metal” at the time to describe their music, these bands are often cited as major influences on later acts.

The New Wave of British Heavy Metal

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM) emerged. The genre developed as a reaction in part to the decline of early heavy metal bands such as Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. These “old school” bands had begun to adopt a more commercialized, pop-oriented sound that many metal fans felt had lost touch with the genre’s roots. The NWOBHM is often credited with reviving interest in traditional heavy metal and promoting its mainstream acceptance.

The NWOBHM was spearheaded by several adolescenct-oriented bands, such as Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Judas Priest and Diamond Head, which achieved mainstream success in the 1980s. Others, like Saxon and Tank, were underground cult favorites. The NWOBHM is also associated with a second wave of more aggressive thrash metal bands that emerged in the mid-1980s, including Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax.

The American Heavy Metal Scene

While most people associate heavy metal music with UK bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, the US has always had a thriving heavy metal scene. In the 1980s, bands like Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax helped put American heavy metal on the map. These days, there are dozens of American metal bands that are making a name for themselves both domestically and internationally.

Some of the most popular American metal bands currently include Avenged Sevenfold, Lamb of God, Mastodon, and Slayer. These bands have all helped to keep the metal genre alive and well in the 21st century. If you’re a fan of metal music, then you definitely need to check out some of these American bands!

The New Wave of American Heavy Metal

The New Wave of American Heavy Metal (commonly abbreviated as NWOAHM) is a movement in the late 1990s and early 2000s within heavy metal music that brought the genre back to its roots by combining influences from earlier bands with a more contemporary sound. The New Wave of American Heavy Metal was spearheaded by bands such as Disturbed, Metallica, Godsmack, and Creed. This new wave of heavy metal was a direct response to the popularity of Nu metal, which had taken over the mainstream in the late 1990s.

The Power Metal Movement

The Power Metal Movement was a subgenre of heavy metal that began in the late 1970s and reached the height of its popularity in the 1980s. Power metal is characterized by its fast tempo, high-pitched vocals, and melodic guitars. Bands such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Manowar were some of the most popular power metal bands of the 1980s. Power metal went out of fashion in the early 1990s, but has seen a resurgence in recent years with bands such as Dragonforce and Rhapsody of Fire.

The Symphonic Metal Movement

The development of symphonic metal can be traced back to the early 1990s, when a number of power metal and gothic metal bands began to experiment with incorporating classical instrumentation and elements of symphonic music into their sound. This new style of metal quickly began to gain popularity, and by the mid-1990s there was a full-fledged symphonic metal scene developing in Europe, with bands like Nightwish, Therion, and Within Temptation leading the charge.

This new wave of symphonic metal would go on to achieve mainstream success in the 2000s, with bands like Nightwish and Epica becoming international stars. The 2010s have seen the genre continue to grow in popularity, with new bands like Fleshgod Apocalypse, Powerwolf, and Leaves’ Eyes bringing a fresh take on the sound.

If you’re a fan of metal music with an epic, symphonic edge, then you’re sure to enjoy the best of what the genre has to offer!

The Gothic Metal Movement

In the early 1990s, a new wave of metal bands began to emerge who would come to be known as gothic metal. These bands began to move away from the traditional heavy metal sound and instead incorporated elements of gothic rock into their music. This new sound was typified by the use of female vocals, clean guitars, and keyboard-heavy atmospheres.

Gothic metal bands such as Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema began to gain popularity in the metal underground scene, and by the mid-1990s, gothic metal had become its own distinct genre. These bands would go on to inspire other genres such as dark wave and symphonic black metal.

The Death Metal Movement

The Death Metal Movement was a genre of music that started in the early 1980s. It is characterized by its aggressive sound, featuring heavily distorted guitars and thunderous drumming. The lyrics often deal with dark subjects such as death, violence, and the occult.

The movement was started by a few bands from the United States and England, such as Venom, Slayer, and Metallica. These bands would go on to influence many other bands in the genre, including death metal pioneer Cannibal Corpse.

In the 1990s, death metal peaked in popularity with bands such as Morbid Angel and Death achieving mainstream success. However, by the end of the decade, the genre had become less popular and many death metal bands broke up or changed their sound.

Despite this, death metal has remained an underground genre with a small but dedicated following. There are still many active death metal bands today, such as Nile and Behemoth.

The Black Metal Movement

The black metal movement began in the early 1990s as a reaction to the happy, mainstream sound of much of heavy metal music at the time. Black metal bands instead created a dark, ominous sound that was often inspired by Scandinavian folklore and mythology. This new sound was characterized by fast, distorted guitars, growling vocals, and blast beat drums. Many black metal bands also incorporated elements of other genres, such as punk and classical music.

As the black metal scene grew in popularity, some bands began to espouse nihilistic and satanic beliefs. This led to a number of high-profile murders and suicides committed by black metal musicians, as well as a number of church burnings. These events helped to further cement the image of black metal as a dark and dangerous genre of music.

Today, black metal is one of the most popular subgenres of heavy metal music. While many bands still embrace the dark image of the genre, others have moved away from its more extreme elements. Regardless, black metal remains one of the mostheavy and punishing sounds in all of heavy metal.

The Extreme Metal Movement

In the 1980s, a new movement emerged in heavy metal music: extreme metal. This style of metal is characterized by its aggressive sound and lyrics, as well as its fast tempo.Some of the most popular extreme metal bands include Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer. These bands have influenced many other metal bands that have come after them.

The Nu Metal Movement

Nu metal (also known as nü-metal and aggro-metal) is a subgenre of heavy metal music that combines elements of traditional metal with hip hop, alternative rock, funk, and industrial metal. It first emerged in the early 1990s with bands such as KoRn, Limp Bizkit, and Deftones gaining popularity in the mainstream music scene.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, nu metal became one of the most commercially successful genres of heavy metal music, selling millions of records and giving rise to a number of chart-topping hits. However, by the mid-2000s, nu metal’s popularity had begun to wane; today, it remains a niche genre with a small but dedicated fan base.

The Women in Metal

Women have been a vital part of metal music since the genre’s inception, whether as frontwomen of influential bands, pioneers in their field, or simply as powerful forces to be reckoned with. In recent years, metal has seen a surge in female-fronted bands, many of whom are carrying on the tradition of excellence set forth by their predecessors. Here are just a few of the most important women in metal music.

Lita Ford is one of the most well-known and respected women in metal. A founding member of the all-female band The Runaways, she later went on to have a successful solo career with hits like “Kiss Me Deadly” and “Close My Eyes Forever,” a duet with Ozzy Osbourne. She has been an inspiration to many female guitarists and continues to perform and record today.

Doro Pesch is another legendary figure in women’s metal. The German singer got her start in the ’80s with the band Warlock, and has since had a long and successful solo career. She is known for her powerful voice and energetic stage presence, and has remained a Metal Queen for over three decades.

Hanna Widerstedt is the third woman on our list. She is a Swedish singer and songwriter who fronted the symphonic metal band Nightwish from 1996 to 2001. During her time with the band, they released two successful albums: Oceanborn and Wishmaster. She has since gone on to have a successful solo career.

These are just a few of the many talented women who have made their mark on metal music. There are too many to list them all here, but rest assured that they are all force to be reckoned with!

The Men in Metal

Mountain King Music: The Best of Heavy Metal is an album released in 1992 by PolyGram. It features some of the biggest names in the genre, including Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax and Iron Maiden. The album was released on CD and cassette, and was later reissued on vinyl in 2016.

The Legacy of Heavy Metal

The term “heavy metal” was first used in the late 1960s to describe hard rock bands such as Cream and Jimi Hendrix. soon, the term was being used to describe a new breed of bands that were heavier and more aggressive than their predecessors. These bands would go on to define the sound of heavy metal and influence generations of metalheads to come.

Some of the most influential heavy metal bands of all time include Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer. These bands defined what it meant to be heavy metal and created a sound that would be imitated (and sometimes parodied) for years to come.

While the sound of heavy metal has evolved over the years, the core elements remain the same: thundering guitars, pounding drums, and lyrics that deal with dark subject matter. If you’re looking to explore the legacy of heavy metal, these are some of the best bands to start with.