95-661: Agglutination Metal Festival was an Italian metal festival held annually in Basilicata , among the towns of Senise , Chiaromonte and Sant'Arcangelo ( Potenza ). Born in 1995 as an event to promote emerging groups, it was one of the first metal festivals in Italy and one of the most long-lived metal events in Europe. It has hosted bands such as Overkill , Cannibal Corpse , Venom , Mayhem , Stratovarius , Carcass , Exodus , Gamma Ray , Dark Tranquillity and Marduk . Among
190-558: A staccato attack created by using a palm-muted technique on the rhythm guitar. Brief, abrupt and detached rhythmic cells are joined into rhythmic phrases with a distinctive, often jerky texture. These phrases are used to create rhythmic accompaniment and melodic figures called riffs , which help to establish thematic hooks . Heavy metal songs also use longer rhythmic figures such as whole note - or dotted quarter note-length chords in slow-tempo power ballads . The tempos in early heavy metal music tended to be "slow, even ponderous". By
285-492: 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. Deep Purple 's Jon Lord played an overdriven Hammond organ . In 1970, John Paul Jones used a Moog synthesizer on Led Zeppelin III ; by the 1990s, synthesizers were used in "almost every subgenre of heavy metal". The electric guitar and
380-473: A heavy metal direction. A few commentators – mainly American – argue for other groups, including Iron Butterfly , Steppenwolf , Blue Cheer , or Vanilla Fudge , as the first to play heavy metal. In 1968, the sound that would become known as heavy metal began to coalesce. That January, San Francisco band Blue Cheer released a cover of Eddie Cochran 's classic " Summertime Blues " as a part of their debut album, Vincebus Eruptum , and many consider it to be
475-527: A heavy-metals blues sound". In January 1970, Lucian K. Truscott IV , reviewing Led Zeppelin II for the Village Voice , described the sound as "heavy" and made comparisons with Blue Cheer and Vanilla Fudge . Other early documented uses of the phrase are from reviews by critic Metal Mike Saunders . In the 12 November 1970 issue of Rolling Stone , he commented on an album put out the previous year by
570-428: A major influence on heavy metal since the genre's earliest days, and that metal's "most influential musicians have been guitar players who have also studied classical music. Their appropriation and adaptation of classical models sparked the development of a new kind of guitar virtuosity [and] changes in the harmonic and melodic language of heavy metal." In an article written for Grove Music Online , Walser stated that
665-491: 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 of heavy metal. 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
760-421: A more accessible alternative/groove metal approach for the remainder of their 1990s output, starting with and including Sound of White Noise (1993). This was continued by the releases of Sacred Reich 's Independent (1993), Overkill 's I Hear Black (1993), Coroner 's Grin (1993), Testament 's Low (1994), Forbidden 's Distortion (1994) and much of Annihilator 's 1990s output. In
855-671: A party without limits ... [T]he bulk of the music is stylized and formulaic." Music critics have often deemed metal lyrics juvenile and banal, and others have objected to what they see as advocacy of misogyny and the occult. During the 1980s, the Parents Music Resource Center petitioned the U.S. Congress to regulate the popular music industry due to what the group asserted were objectionable lyrics, particularly those in heavy metal songs. Andrew Cope stated that claims that heavy metal lyrics are misogynistic are "clearly misguided" as these critics have "overlook[ed]
950-510: A slower tempo, making use of bouncy, unconventional rhythms. Loudwire stated that "Unlike so many other styles of metal, groove metal is one that doesn't have rigid boundaries and incorporates industrial , death metal , nu-metal , hardcore and a lot more." Music journalist Gary Graff also noted the influence of hardcore punk as integral to groove metal. In their book Hellraisers: A Complete Visual History of Heavy Metal Mayhem , journalists Axl Rosenberg and Christopher Krovatin traced
1045-419: 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. The prominent role of the bass is also key to
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#17327726015681140-794: A trippy, distorted haze". During the late 1960s, many psychedelic singers, such as Arthur Brown , began to create outlandish, theatrical, and often macabre performances that influenced many metal acts. The American psychedelic rock band Coven , who opened for early heavy metal influencers such as Vanilla Fudge and the Yardbirds, portrayed themselves as practitioners of witchcraft or black magic , using dark – Satanic or occult – imagery in their lyrics, album art and live performances, which consisted of elaborate, theatrical " Satanic rites ". Coven's 1969 debut album, Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls , featured imagery of skulls, black masses , inverted crosses , and Satan worship, and both
1235-698: Is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and United States. With roots in blues rock , psychedelic rock and acid rock , heavy metal bands developed a thick, monumental sound characterized by distorted guitars, extended guitar solos , emphatic beats and loudness . In 1968, three of the genre's most famous pioneers – British bands Led Zeppelin , Black Sabbath and Deep Purple – were founded. Though they came to attract wide audiences, they were often derided by critics. Several American bands modified heavy metal into more accessible forms during
1330-506: 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." A 1977 review of a Motörhead concert noted how "excessive volume in particular figured into
1425-426: Is emphatic, with deliberate stresses. Weinstein observes that the wide array of sonic effects available to metal drummers enables the "rhythmic pattern to take on a complexity within its elemental drive and insistency". In many heavy metal songs, the main groove is characterized by short, two- or three-note rhythmic figures – generally made up of eighth or 16th notes . These rhythmic figures are usually performed with
1520-557: Is speculation as to who started the phenomenon. Attendees of metal concerts do not dance in the usual sense. It has been argued that this is due to the music's largely male audience and "extreme heterosexualist ideology". Two primary body movements used are headbanging and an arm thrust that is both a sign of appreciation and a rhythmic gesture. The performance of air guitar is popular among metal fans both at concerts and listening to records at home. According to Deena Weinstein , thrash metal concerts have two elements that are not part of
1615-485: Is traditionally characterized by loud distorted guitars, emphatic rhythms, dense bass-and-drum sound and vigorous vocals. Heavy metal subgenres variously emphasize, alter or omit one or more of these attributes. In a 1988 article, The New York Times critic Jon Pareles wrote, "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
1710-439: The 13th Floor Elevators epitomized the frenetic, heavier, darker, and more psychotic psychedelic rock sound known as acid rock, a sound characterized by droning guitar riffs, amplified feedback, and guitar distortion, while the 13th Floor Elevators' sound in particular featured yelping vocals and "occasionally demented" lyrics. Frank Hoffman noted that "[Psychedelic rock] was sometimes referred to as 'acid rock'. The latter label
1805-724: The Aeolian and Phrygian modes . Harmonically speaking, this means the genre typically incorporates modal chord progressions such as the Aeolian progressions I-♭VI-♭VII, I-♭VII-(♭VI), or I-♭VI-IV-♭VII and Phrygian progressions implying the relation between I and ♭II (I-♭II-I, I-♭II-III, or I-♭II-VII for example). Tense-sounding chromatic or tritone relationships are used in a number of metal chord progressions. In addition to using modal harmonic relationships, heavy metal also uses " pentatonic and blues-derived features". The tritone, an interval spanning three whole tones – such as C to F# –
1900-624: The Alternative Songs chart, and number 10 on the Mainstream Rock Songs chart. The song was played frequently on MTV and won the Best Metal/Hard Rock Video award at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards . Texas heavy metal band Pantera 's 1990 album Cowboys from Hell is often considered the album that codified and popularized groove metal. They continued releasing influential albums through
1995-620: The Bad Brains 's post-1987 music, particularly Quickness (1989), as helping to pioneer the genre. White Zombie , formed in 1985, playing music influenced by the noise rock of Honeymoon Killers , Swans and Pussy Galore , 1970s rock of Van Halen , Kiss and AC/DC , as well as Black Sabbath , the Cramps and gothic rock . Their early career was spent playing in the New York City noise rock scene, before being approached by
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#17327726015682090-458: The minor third , major third , perfect fourth , diminished fifth or minor sixth . Most power chords are also played with a consistent finger arrangement that can be slid easily up and down the fretboard . Heavy metal is usually based on riffs created with three main harmonic traits: modal scale progressions, tritone and chromatic progressions, and the use of pedal points . Traditional heavy metal tends to employ modal scales, in particular
2185-443: The perfect fifth , though an octave may be added as a doubling of the root . When power chords are played on the lower strings at high volumes and with distortion, additional low-frequency sounds are created, which add to the "weight of the sound" and create an effect of "overwhelming power". Although the perfect fifth interval is the most common basis for the power chord, power chords are also based on different intervals such as
2280-485: The "1980s brought on ... the widespread adaptation of chord progressions and virtuosic practices from 18th-century European models, especially Bach and Antonio Vivaldi , by influential guitarists such as Ritchie Blackmore , Marty Friedman , Jason Becker , Uli Jon Roth , Eddie Van Halen , Randy Rhoads and Yngwie Malmsteen ." Kurt Bachmann of Believer has stated that "if done correctly, metal and classical fit quite well together. Classical and metal are probably
2375-410: The "heavy crunch sound in heavy metal ... [is created by] palm muting " the strings with the picking hand and using distortion. Palm muting creates a tighter, more precise sound and it emphasizes the low end. 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
2470-434: The "holiest of heavy metal communions". The metal scene has been characterized as a "subculture of alienation" with its own code of authenticity. This code puts several demands on performers: they must appear both completely devoted to their music and loyal to the subculture that supports it; they must appear uninterested in mainstream appeal and radio hits; and they must never " sell out ". Deena Weinstein stated that for
2565-555: The "punch and grind" characteristic. Thrash metal guitar tone has scooped mid-frequencies and tightly compressed sound with multiple bass frequencies. Guitar solos are "an essential element of the heavy metal code ... that underscores the significance of the guitar" to the genre. Most heavy metal songs "feature at least one guitar solo", which is "a primary means through which the heavy metal performer expresses virtuosity". Some exceptions are nu metal and grindcore bands, which tend to omit guitar solos. With rhythm guitar parts,
2660-400: The 1970s: the raw, sleazy sound and shock rock of Alice Cooper and Kiss ; the blues-rooted rock of Aerosmith ; and the flashy guitar leads and party rock of Van Halen . During the mid-1970s, Judas Priest helped spur the genre's evolution by discarding much of its blues influence, while Motörhead introduced a punk rock sensibility and an increasing emphasis on speed. Beginning in
2755-510: The 1980s and 1990s, heavy metal hair "symbolised the hate, angst and disenchantment of a generation that seemingly never felt at home", according to journalist Nader Rahman. Long hair gave members of the metal community "the power they needed to rebel against nothing in general". The classic uniform of heavy metal fans consists of light-colored, ripped, frayed or torn blue jeans, black T-shirts, boots, and black leather or denim jackets. Deena Weinstein wrote, "T-shirts are generally emblazoned with
2850-605: The 1990s; the 1992 album Vulgar Display of Power featured an even heavier sound than its predecessor, while its follow-up Far Beyond Driven (1994) peaked at number 1 on the Billboard 200 , selling 186,000 copies its first week of release. Thrash pioneers Metallica 's Black Album (1991) included multiple groove metal tracks, including " Sad but True " and "The Struggle Within". Brazilian band Sepultura , previously established as having deathrash sound, released their fifth studio album Chaos A.D. in 1993, which saw
2945-516: The 2000s, a second wave of groove metal bands emerged, including Damageplan , Lamb of God , Chimaira and DevilDriver . Damageplan was founded with former Pantera members Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul Abbott . They released one album, New Found Power , in 2004. The band broke up in December 2004, after guitarist Dimebag Darrell was shot dead at a live performance. One of the most commercially successful groove metal groups during this time
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3040-466: The British band Humble Pie : " Safe as Yesterday Is , their first American release, proved that Humble Pie could be boring in lots of different ways. Here they were a noisy, unmelodic, heavy metal-leaden shit-rock band with the loud and noisy parts beyond doubt. There were a couple of nice songs ... and one monumental pile of refuse." He described the band's latest, self-titled release as "more of
3135-416: The British bands Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath , with American commentators tending to favour Led Zeppelin and British commentators tending to favour Black Sabbath, though many give equal credit to both. Deep Purple , the third band in what is sometimes considered the "unholy trinity" of heavy metal along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, fluctuated between many rock styles until late 1969 when they took
3230-702: The British record label Earache Records , in an "unsuccessful attempt to prosecute the label for obscenity". In some predominantly Muslim countries, heavy metal has been officially denounced as a threat to traditional values, and in countries such as Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon and Malaysia, there have been incidents of heavy metal musicians and fans being arrested and incarcerated. In 1997, the Egyptian police jailed many young metal fans, and they were accused of "devil worship" and blasphemy after police found metal recordings during searches of their homes. In 2013, Malaysia banned Lamb of God from performing in their country, on
3325-580: The Italian bands that performed at the Agglutination are Rhapsody of Fire , Bulldozer , Necrodeath , Stormlord , Labyrinth and Theatres des Vampires . Due to the containment measures against the COVID-19 pandemic , the festival was not scheduled in 2020 and 2021. The festival took place in 2022 and 2023 but was discontinued in 2024. Heavy metal music Heavy metal (or simply metal )
3420-634: The RIAA in July 1998. White Zombie's music videos were featured on Beavis and Butt-Head , helping to increase the band's sales. Their 1995 follow-up Astro Creep: 2000 peaked at number 6 on the Billboard 200 and sold 104,000 copies in its first week of release; it was certified double-platinum by the RIAA. White Zombie's song " More Human than Human " achieved mainstream success in 1995, peaking at number 53 on Billboard 's Radio Songs chart, number 7 on
3515-545: The album A Long Time Comin' by U.S. band Electric Flag : "Nobody who's been listening to Mike Bloomfield —either talking or playing—in the last few years could have expected this. This is the new soul music, the synthesis of white blues and heavy metal rock." In the 7 September 1968 edition of the Seattle Daily Times , reviewer Susan Schwartz wrote that the Jimi Hendrix Experience "has
3610-418: The album artwork and the band's live performances marked the first appearances in rock music of the sign of the horns , which would later become an important gesture in heavy metal culture. Coven's lyrical and thematic influences on heavy metal were quickly overshadowed by the darker and heavier sounds of Black Sabbath . Critics disagree over who can be thought of as the first heavy metal band. Most credit
3705-526: 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, has been called "one of the few American links between psychedelia and what soon became heavy metal," and the band has been cited as an early American heavy metal group. On their self-titled debut album, Vanilla Fudge created "loud, heavy, slowed-down arrangements" of contemporary hit songs, blowing these songs up to "epic proportions" and "bathing them in
3800-434: The audience for whom they're playing – engage in headbanging , which involves rhythmically beating time with the head, often emphasized by long hair. The il cornuto , or "devil horns", hand gesture was popularized by vocalist Ronnie James Dio during his time with the bands Black Sabbath and Dio . Although Gene Simmons of Kiss claims to have been the first to make the gesture on the 1977 Love Gun album cover, there
3895-545: The band slow their tempos and embrace the influence of New York hardcore acts like the Cro-Mags, Agnostic Front and Sick of It All . Sound of the Beast author Ian Christe credited Chaos A.D. with helping to developing groove metal and as being widely influential. Machine Head released their debut album Burn My Eyes in 1994. The album helped the band achieve underground success and sold over 145,000 copies. Follow
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3990-426: 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". Heavy metal performers tended to be almost exclusively male until at least
4085-572: The bass as a lead instrument, an approach popularized by Metallica 's Cliff Burton with his heavy emphasis on bass solos and use of chords while playing the bass in the early 1980s. Lemmy of Motörhead often played overdriven power chords in his bass lines. The essence of heavy metal drumming is creating a loud, constant beat for the band using the "trifecta of speed, power, and precision". Heavy metal drumming "requires an exceptional amount of endurance", and drummers have to develop "considerable speed, coordination, and dexterity ... to play
4180-466: 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
4275-429: The components of the term mean in " hippiespeak ": "heavy" is roughly synonymous with "potent" or "profound", and "metal" designates a certain type of mood, grinding and weighted as with metal. The word "heavy" in this sense was a basic element of beatnik and later countercultural hippie slang , and references to "heavy music" – typically slower, more amplified variations of standard pop fare – were already common by
4370-536: The emergence of an intense, exclusionary and strongly masculine subculture. While the metal fan base is largely young, white, male and blue-collar, the group is "tolerant of those outside its core demographic base who follow its codes of dress, appearance, and behavior". Identification with the subculture is strengthened not only by the group experience of concert-going and shared elements of fashion, but also by contributing to metal magazines and, more recently, websites. Attending live concerts in particular has been called
4465-651: The era. Bands like The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds developed blues rock by recording covers of classic blues songs, often speeding up the tempos . As they experimented with the music, the U.K. blues-based bands – and in turn the U.S. acts they influenced – developed what would become the hallmarks of heavy metal (in particular, the loud, distorted guitar sound). The Kinks played a major role in popularising this sound with their 1964 hit " You Really Got Me ". In addition to The Kinks' Dave Davies , other guitarists such as The Who 's Pete Townshend and The Yardbirds' Jeff Beck were experimenting with feedback. Where
4560-418: The fans themselves, the code promotes "opposition to established authority, and separateness from the rest of society". Musician and filmmaker Rob Zombie observed, "Most of the kids who come to my shows seem like really imaginative kids with a lot of creative energy they don't know what to do with" and that metal is "outsider music for outsiders. Nobody wants to be the weird kid; you just somehow end up being
4655-881: The first true heavy metal recording. The same month, Steppenwolf released their self-titled debut album , on which the track " Born to Be Wild " refers to "heavy metal thunder" in describing a motorcycle. In July, the Jeff Beck Group , whose leader had preceded Page as The Yardbirds' guitarist, released its debut record, Truth , which featured some of the "most molten, barbed, downright funny noises of all time", breaking ground for generations of metal ax-slingers. In September, Page's new band, Led Zeppelin , made its live debut in Denmark (but were billed as The New Yardbirds). The Beatles ' self-titled double album , released in November, included " Helter Skelter ", then one of
4750-411: The foundation of heavy metal and greatly influential in the transformation of acid rock into heavy metal. Groove metal Groove metal , sometimes also called neo-thrash or post-thrash , is a subgenre of heavy metal music that began in the early 1990s. The genre is primarily derived from thrash metal , but played in slower tempos, and making use of rhythmic guitar parts. It was pioneered in
4845-413: The general population. For many artists and bands, visual imagery plays a large role in heavy metal. In addition to its sound and lyrics, a heavy metal band's image is expressed in album cover art, logos, stage sets, clothing, design of instruments and music videos . Down-the-back long hair is the "most crucial distinguishing feature of metal fashion". Originally adopted from the hippie subculture, by
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#17327726015684940-517: The ground opening up and little dwarves coming out riding dragons! You know, like bad Dio records." Heavy metal's quintessential guitar style, which is built around distortion-heavy riffs and power chords, traces its roots to early 1950s Memphis blues guitarists such as Joe Hill Louis , Willie Johnson and particularly Pat Hare , who captured a "grittier, nastier, more ferocious electric guitar sound" on records such as James Cotton 's " Cotton Crop Blues " (1954). Other early influences include
5035-429: The grounds that the "band's lyrics could be interpreted as being religiously insensitive" and blasphemous. Some people consider heavy metal music to be a leading factor for mental health disorders, and that heavy metal fans are more likely to suffer poor mental health, but a study from 2009 suggests that this is not true and that fans of heavy metal music suffer from poor mental health at a similar or lower rate compared to
5130-413: The harmonic analysis done by metal players and teachers is "often very sophisticated". In the study of heavy metal chord structures, it has been concluded that "heavy metal music has proved to be far more complicated" than other music researchers had realized. Robert Walser stated that, alongside blues and R&B, the "assemblage of disparate musical styles known ... as ' classical music '" has been
5225-554: 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" and "I See You". Iron Butterfly 's 1968 song " In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida " is sometimes described as an example of the transition between acid rock and heavy metal or the turning point in which acid rock became "heavy metal", and both Iron Butterfly's 1968 album In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida and Blue Cheer's 1968 album Vincebus Eruptum have been described as laying
5320-403: The influence of 'art traditions.' An example is Walser's linkage of heavy metal music with the ideologies and even some of the performance practices of nineteenth-century Romanticism . However, it would be clearly wrong to claim that traditions such as blues, rock, heavy metal, rap or dance music derive primarily from "art music.'" According to David Hatch and Stephen Millward, Black Sabbath and
5415-545: The influence of groove metal and sludge metal into beatdown hardcore and metalcore . Metal Hammer cited them as a definitive groove metal act. The groove metal genre was a driving force in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal movement, which began in the 1990s. Additionally, it influenced the development and success of nu metal and metalcore , two of the most commercially successful subsequent metal genres. VH1 called groove metal "a musical purgatory that bridged
5510-605: The intricate patterns" used in heavy 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. Black metal, death metal and some "mainstream metal" bands "all depend upon double-kicks and blast beats ". In live performance, loudness – an "onslaught of sound", in sociologist Deena Weinstein 's description –
5605-423: The late 1950s instrumentals of Link Wray , particularly " Rumble " (1958); the early 1960s surf rock of Dick Dale , including " Let's Go Trippin' " (1961) and " Misirlou " (1962); and The Kingsmen 's version of " Louie Louie " (1963), which became a garage rock standard. However, the genre's direct lineage begins in the mid-1960s. American blues music was a major influence on the early British rockers of
5700-580: The late 1970s, bands in the new wave of British heavy metal such as Iron Maiden and Saxon followed in a similar vein. By the end of the decade, heavy metal fans became known as " metalheads " or " headbangers ". The lyrics of some metal genres became associated with aggression and machismo , an issue that has at times led to accusations of misogyny. During the 1980s, glam metal became popular with groups such as Bon Jovi , Mötley Crüe and Poison . Meanwhile, however, underground scenes produced an array of more aggressive styles: thrash metal broke into
5795-438: The late 1970s, however, metal bands were employing a wide variety of tempos, and as recently as the 2000s, metal tempos range from slow ballad tempos (quarter note = 60 beats per minute ) to extremely fast blast beat tempos (quarter note = 350 beats per minute). One of the signatures of the genre is the guitar power chord. In technical terms, the power chord is relatively simple: it involves just one main interval , generally
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#17327726015685890-541: The late 1980s by groups like Exhorder , Prong and the Bad Brains , and then popularized by the commercial success of Pantera , White Zombie , Machine Head and Sepultura . The genre went on to be influential in the development of the new wave of American heavy metal , nu metal and metalcore , and continued to gain traction in the 2000s with Lamb of God , DevilDriver and Five Finger Death Punch , and 2010s with Killer Be Killed and Bad Wolves . Groove metal makes use of elements of thrash metal , but plays them in
5985-471: The logos or other visual representations of favorite metal bands." In the 1980s, a range of sources – from punk rock and goth music to horror films – influenced metal fashion. Many metal performers of the 1970s and 1980s used radically shaped and brightly colored instruments to enhance their stage appearance. Fashion and personal style was especially important for glam metal bands of the era. Performers typically wore long, dyed, hairspray-teased hair (hence
6080-414: The mainstream with bands such as Metallica , Slayer , Megadeth and Anthrax , while other extreme subgenres such as death metal and black metal became – and remain – subcultural phenomena. Since the mid-1990s, popular styles have expanded the definition of the genre. These include groove metal and nu metal , the latter of which often incorporates elements of grunge and hip-hop . Heavy metal
6175-609: The members of the Cro-Mags and Biohazard to instead begin playing in the New York hardcore scene. The band began leaning into the nascent sound of groove metal on their second album Make Them Die Slowly (1989). The band achieved mainstream success in the mid-1990s, with La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Volume One (1992) peaking at number 2 on the Heatseekers Albums chart in 1993 and was certified double-platinum by
6270-432: The metal sound, and the interplay of bass and guitar is a central element. The bass provides the low-end sound crucial to making the music "heavy". The bass plays a "more important role in heavy metal than in any other genre of rock". 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 or rhythm guitars. Some bands feature
6365-491: The mid-1960s, such as in reference to Vanilla Fudge . Iron Butterfly 's debut album, which was released in early 1968, was titled Heavy . The first use of "heavy metal" in a song lyric is in reference to a motorcycle in the Steppenwolf song " Born to Be Wild ", also released that year: "I like smoke and lightning / Heavy metal thunder / Racin' with the wind / And the feelin' that I'm under". An early documented use of
6460-468: The mid-1980s, with some exceptions such as Girlschool . However, by the 2010s, women were making more of an impact, and PopMatters' Craig Hayes argues that metal "clearly empowers women". In the power metal and symphonic metal subgenres, there has been a sizable number of bands that have had women as the lead singers, such as Nightwish , Delain and Within Temptation . The rhythm in metal songs
6555-456: The mid-Seventies". "The term 'heavy metal' is self-defeating," remarked Kiss bassist Gene Simmons . "When I think of heavy metal, I've always thought of elves and evil dwarves and evil princes and princesses. A lot of the Maiden and Priest records were real metal records. I sure as hell don't think Metallica 's metal, or Guns N' Roses is metal, or Kiss is metal. It just doesn't deal with
6650-502: The more extreme side of the psychedelic rock genre, frequently containing a loud, improvised, and heavily distorted, guitar-centered sound. Acid rock has been described as psychedelic rock at its "rawest and most intense", emphasizing the heavier qualities associated with both the positive and negative extremes of the psychedelic experience rather than only the idyllic side of psychedelia. In contrast to more idyllic or whimsical pop psychedelic rock, American acid rock garage bands such as
6745-535: The nickname "hair metal"); makeup such as lipstick and eyeliner; gaudy clothing, including leopard-skin-printed shirts or vests and tight denim, leather or spandex pants; and accessories such as headbands and jewelry. Pioneered by the heavy metal act X Japan in the late 1980s, bands in the Japanese movement known as visual kei , which includes many non-metal groups, emphasize elaborate costumes, hair and makeup. When performing live, many metal musicians – as well as
6840-456: The numerous heavy metal bands that they inspired have concentrated lyrically "on dark and depressing subject matter to an extent hitherto unprecedented in any form of pop music." They take as an example Black Sabbath's second album, Paranoid (1970), which "included songs dealing with personal trauma—' Paranoid ' and ' Fairies Wear Boots ' (which described the unsavoury side effects of drug-taking)—as well as those confronting wider issues, such as
6935-580: The origins of groove metal to New Orleans' Exhorder and New York's Prong . Exhorder, formed in 1985, recorded their first demo in the summer of 1986, playing a style that was influenced hardcore punk and metal, as well as jazz , funk , blues and the music of Mardi Gras . The band were immediately influential in the New Orleans metal scene, with pioneering sludge metal bands Eyehategod , Soilent Green and Crowbar all playing some of their earliest live performances in support of them. Prong, on
7030-501: The other hand, originated from the New York hardcore scene, originally playing crossover thrash , before slowing their tempos and incorporating heavier percussion on their second album Beg to Differ (1990). VH1 described the band as having "existed outside of categorical restriction", by having a sound rooted in both punk and metal, while also experimenting with elements of industrial music . A number of writers have also noted
7125-431: The other metal genres: moshing and stage diving , which "were imported from the punk/hardcore subculture ". Weinstein states that moshing participants bump and jostle each other as they move in a circle in an area called the "pit" near the stage. Stage divers climb onto the stage with the band and then jump "back into the audience". It has been argued that heavy metal has outlasted many other rock genres largely due to
7220-430: The overwhelming evidence that suggests otherwise". Music critic Robert Christgau called metal "an expressive mode [that] it sometimes seems will be with us for as long as ordinary white boys fear girls, pity themselves, and are permitted to rage against a world they'll never beat". Heavy metal artists have had to defend their lyrics in front of the U.S. Senate and in court. In 1985, Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider
7315-727: The periodic table organizes elements of both light and heavy metals (e.g., uranium). An early use of the term in modern popular culture was by countercultural writer William S. Burroughs . His 1961 novel The Soft Machine includes a character known as "Uranian Willy, the Heavy Metal Kid". Burroughs' next novel, Nova Express (1964), develops the theme, using "heavy metal" as a metaphor for addictive drugs: "With their diseases and orgasm drugs and their sexless parasite life forms—Heavy Metal People of Uranus wrapped in cool blue mist of vaporized bank notes—And The Insect People of Minraud with metal music." Inspired by Burroughs' novels,
7410-592: The phrase in rock criticism appears in Sandy Pearlman's February 1967 Crawdaddy review of the Rolling Stones ' Got Live If You Want It (1966), albeit as a description of the sound rather than as a genre: "On this album the Stones go metal. Technology is in the saddle—as an ideal and as a method." Another appears in the 11 May 1968 issue of Rolling Stone , in which Barry Gifford wrote about
7505-473: The same 27th-rate heavy metal crap". In a review of Sir Lord Baltimore 's Kingdom Come in the May 1971 edition of Creem , Saunders wrote, "Sir Lord Baltimore seems to have down pat most all the best heavy metal tricks in the book." Creem critic Lester Bangs is credited with popularizing the term via his early 1970s essays on bands such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Through the decade, "heavy metal"
7600-499: The self-explanatory ' War Pigs ' and ' Hand of Doom .'" Deriving from the genre's roots in blues music, sex is another important topic – a thread running from Led Zeppelin's suggestive lyrics to the more explicit references of glam metal and nu metal bands. The thematic content of heavy metal has long been a target of criticism. According to Jon Pareles , "Heavy metal's main subject matter is simple and virtually universal. With grunts, moans and subliterary lyrics, it celebrates ...
7695-421: The sonic power that it projects through amplification has historically been the key element in heavy metal. The heavy metal guitar sound comes from a combined use of high volumes and heavy fuzz . For classic heavy metal guitar tone, guitarists maintain gain at moderate levels, without excessive preamp or pedal distortion, to retain open spaces and air in the music; the guitar amplifier is turned up loud to produce
7790-714: The term was used in the title of the 1967 album Featuring the Human Host and the Heavy Metal Kids by Hapshash and the Coloured Coat , which has been claimed to be its first use in the context of music. The phrase was later lifted by Sandy Pearlman , who used the term to describe the Byrds for their supposed "aluminium style of context and effect", particularly on their album The Notorious Byrd Brothers (1968). Metal historian Ian Christe describes what
7885-478: The terms "heavy metal" and "hard rock" have often been used interchangeably, particularly in discussing bands of the 1970s, a period when the terms were largely synonymous. For example, the 1983 edition of the Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll includes the following passage: "Known for its aggressive blues-based hard-rock style, Aerosmith was the top American heavy-metal band of
7980-434: The two genres that have the most in common when it comes to feel, texture, creativity." Although a number of metal musicians cite classical composers as inspiration, classical and metal are rooted in different cultural traditions and practices – classical in the art music tradition, metal in the popular music tradition. As musicologists Nicolas Cook and Nicola Dibben note: "Analyses of popular music also sometimes reveal
8075-475: The weird kid. It's kind of like that, but with metal you have all the weird kids in one place." Scholars of metal have noted the tendency of fans to classify and reject some performers (and some other fans) as " poseurs " "who pretended to be part of the subculture, but who were deemed to lack authenticity and sincerity". The origin of the term "heavy metal" in a musical context is uncertain. The phrase has been used for centuries in chemistry and metallurgy, where
8170-482: The widespread success of Pantera, White Zombie and Machine Head, the genre expanded with notable subsequent groups including Skinlab , Pissing Razors , Grip Inc. , Merauder , Pro-Pain , GZR , and Stuck Mojo . Additionally, several veteran thrash bands began to change their sound in favour of groove metal. Anthrax , who had recently replaced Joey Belladonna with John Bush as their singer, began stepping away from their previously established thrash metal formula to
8265-482: Was Five Finger Death Punch , who formed in 2005 and garnered extensive chart positions and album certifications of gold and platinum in the United States. Hellyeah formed in 2006 and featured Vinnie Paul of Pantera also saw commercial success. The 2010s saw the formation of Killer Be Killed and Bad Wolves . Malevolence 's third studio album Malicious Intent (2022), saw widespread success and included
8360-406: Was applied to a pounding, hard rock variant that evolved out of the mid-1960s garage-punk movement. ... When rock began turning back to softer, roots-oriented sounds in late 1968, acid-rock bands mutated into heavy metal acts." One of the most influential bands in forging the merger of psychedelic rock and acid rock with the blues rock genre was the British power trio Cream , who derived
8455-586: Was asked to defend his song " Under the Blade " at a U.S. Senate hearing. At the hearing, the PMRC alleged that the song was about sadomasochism and rape ; Snider stated that the song was about his bandmate's throat surgery. In 1986, Ozzy Osbourne was sued over the lyrics of his song " Suicide Solution ". A lawsuit against Osbourne was filed by the parents of John McCollum, a depressed teenager who committed suicide allegedly after listening to Osbourne's song. Osbourne
8550-493: Was considered extremely dissonant and unstable by medieval and Renaissance music theorists. It was nicknamed the diabolus in musica – "the devil in music". Heavy metal songs often make extensive use of pedal point as a harmonic basis. A pedal point is a sustained tone, typically in the bass range, during which at least one foreign (i.e., dissonant) harmony is sounded in the other parts. According to Robert Walser, heavy metal harmonic relationships are "often quite complex" and
8645-501: Was not found to be responsible for the teen's death. In 1990, Judas Priest was sued in American court by the parents of two young men who had shot themselves five years earlier, allegedly after hearing the subliminal statement "do it" in the band's cover of the song " Better by You, Better than Me ". While the case attracted a great deal of media attention, it was ultimately dismissed. In 1991, U.K. police seized death metal records from
8740-410: Was often used interchangeably with "heavy metal" and " hard rock ". "Acid rock" generally describes heavy, hard or raw psychedelic rock. Musicologist Steve Waksman stated that "the distinction between acid rock, hard rock, and heavy metal can at some point never be more than tenuous", while percussionist John Beck defined "acid rock" as synonymous with hard rock and heavy metal. Apart from "acid rock",
8835-419: Was one of the earliest terms used to describe this style of music and was applied to acts such as Sabbath and Bloodrock . Classic Rock magazine described the downer rock culture revolving around the use of Quaaludes and the drinking of wine. The term would later be replaced by "heavy metal". Earlier on, as "heavy metal" emerged partially from heavy psychedelic rock, also known as acid rock , "acid rock"
8930-435: Was seminal to the development of the later heavy metal sound. The combination of this loud and heavy blues rock with psychedelic rock and acid rock formed much of the original basis for heavy metal. The variant or subgenre of psychedelic rock often known as "acid rock" was particularly influential on heavy metal and its development; acid rock is often defined as a heavier, louder, or harder variant of psychedelic rock, or
9025-413: Was used by certain critics as a virtually automatic putdown. In 1979, lead New York Times popular music critic John Rockwell described what he called "heavy-metal rock" as "brutally aggressive music played mostly for minds clouded by drugs" and, in a different article, as "a crude exaggeration of rock basics that appeals to white teenagers". Coined by Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward , "downer rock"
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