Evolution of Heavy Metal: From Roots to Modern Complexity

Fast shredding guitars solos, high pitched screaming vocal, rumbling bass tones with a very fast tempo, that is what heavy metal is all about. A genre of music developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and the United States. With blues and rock as its roots, heavy metal is the ultimate hard music combination. The first bands to grace the heavy metal stage were more of 70’s hard rock band such as, Led Zeppelin and Blue Cheer.

But something else happened in the 1980’s, harder and faster band stormed onto the scene. Bands like Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden were the heaviest bands out there.

And they were popular, very popular. But it wasn’t just the bands; it was also about those who listened to them, the fans. Everywhere you looked kids were growing their hair long, flashing the “devil horns” sign, and playing air guitar. But not everyone loved it. Critics thought it was unsophisticated music for unsophisticated people.

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One news article writer went as far as calling it sick, repulsive, horrible, and dangerous. Even religious groups launched their own crusade against heavy metal. They feared it was a vessel for the devil and had created a satanic epidemic among teenagers.

To top all of that, the fans of heavy metal were considered lowlifes, dead-end kids, and the bane of society. Who was the first heavy metal band? This question has been asked for decades but there were no straight answers. Everyone has his or her own different opinions on who was the first heavy metal band.

But the bands that were the first heavy bands were from 1966-1971, and the most notable bands were: Cream, Blue Cheer, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, and Black Sabbath. But generally when people from around the globe were asked the question of who was the first heavy metal band, they would choose according to whom they liked.

Overall people would say that Black Sabbath was the first because they were also the first to have a scary/eerie vibe in their songs. Heavy metal songs sounded very evil. But what made that evil sound? In the old days, the blues scale has the flat 5th, which was also called “The Tritone” and that was also called “The Devil’s Note”. The sound sounded very disturbing and gave the audience a very dark feel to the song. Black Sabbath used the Tritone in most of their songs and people who didn’t understand took that as a meaning of them trying to worship the devil. Read a history of tattoos and piercings

The backbone of heavy metal is the electric guitar. You can't have metal without at least one guitarist, and many bands have two or more. Certain genres have some quiet and mellow parts, but most metal is loud, intense, fast and aggressive. The vocal styles in heavy metal range from melodic singing to aggressive singing to unintelligible screaming, depending on the genre. Lyrically most of the bands talk about hatred, racism, and problems going on in the world. They write that way either because of it’s something they’re feeling or they just want to get attention.

At the beginning there was just traditional heavy metal. Shortly after it evolved and splintered into many different styles and subgenres. This site has a series of articles on many of the genres that will give you a more in-depth look at that particular type of metal. As time has gone on, there are literally hundreds of subgenres, but these are some of the main genres of heavy metal: Black Metal, Characterized by high-pitched raspy vocals and pagan/satanic lyrical imagery. Symphonic black metal is a subgenre that uses keyboards and is more melodic.

These bands were very controversial. Then there’s Death Metal, which is an extreme form of the genre that uses distorted guitars, and a growling vocal style sometimes described as "cookie monster" vocals. Grindcore is a genre influenced by thrash metal and death metal. It takes its name from the sound of the atonal guitar riffs combined with blast beats from the bass drum. The vocals are similar to death metal. There are also those mainstream heavy metal bands, bands such as Motley Crue, Poison, and Kiss, they’re called Hair Metal bands. This genre is very melodic and mass appeal.

Some of the most commercially successful and critically despised bands came from this genre. They wore a lot of makeup and had huge teased hair, thus the name. They received a lot of radio airplay and chart success in the late '80s and early '90s until grunge rock destroyed it. Evolution between these genres can sometimes turn into sub genres. The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal bands such as Iron Maiden influenced band of he genre that is now called Trash Metal. The great thing about heavy metal is that it is continually changing, evolving and improving. Just when you thought it couldn't get any more extreme, something new comes along.

Whether you prefer the melody and complexity of power metal or the aggression and intensity of death metal, it's all part of this widely encompassing genre called heavy metal. The people who listen to this type of music look like they listen to metal. Their clothing identifies them right away. People would always judge them from there, because people think that it makes them look like uneducated people. tattoos, the color “black”, studs, leather are all components of heavy metal clothing. But then again these fans aren’t just wearing those clothes for the look, they enjoy the music and understand it deeply.

But critics who do not like the music has made protests on how dangerous some of the lyrics are. What they do not notice is that they are actually misunderstanding what the band is trying to say in the lyrics. In 1984, front man of the hair metal band Twisted Sister was targeted for using dangerous lyrics that affected young kids who listened to the music. Their front man, Dee Snider had to go to court and face the wife of Al Gore, Tipper Gore. She represented the parents association and she felt that the lyrics and style of Twisted Sister along with other band were just wrong.

Many metal musicians when performing live engage in headbanging , which involves rhythmically beating time with the head, often emphasized by long hair. The corna, or devil horns, hand gesture, also widespread, was popularized by vocalist Ronnie James Dio while with Black Sabbath and Dio. The band of today are much more complex, with years of evolution more genres and sub-genres grew wider among the world. The traditional heavy metal bands are always still there, but the more modern ones have just overpowered it.

Modern bands have used the techniques of older bands and kind of made their own version of it, either faster, harder, or slower, its sort of like their own take on that old song. The fan base is also very wide. Every year and in almost every country, a heavy metal festival is held. Sometimes in countries with large amounts of fans have festivals every season. Today more people have accepted this music, with barely any critics. For example, a modern Metalcore band Bullet for My Valentine of Wales broke into the top 5 in both the U. S. and British charts. In 2008. This shows that even this type of music can go mainstream.

Resources:

-Metal: A Headbangers Journey (Movie)

-http://heavymetal.about.com/

-http://www.fastnbulbous.com/metal.htm

-Global Metal (Movie)

-http://www.nolifetilmetal.com/metalorigins.html

-http://www.metalhistory.com/