(sometimes referred
to simply as metal)
is a genre of music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock,
the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, heavy,
guitar-and-drums-centered sound,
characterized by highly amplified distortion and fast guitar solos.
The All Music Guide states that "of all rock & roll's myriad
forms,
heavy metal is the most extreme in terms of volume, machismo, and
theatricality."
Heavy metal has long had a worldwide following of fans known as
"metalheads" or "headbangers".
Although early heavy metal bands such as
Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple attracted large audiences,
they were often critically reviled at the time, 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; the New Wave of British
Heavy Metal followed
in a similar vein, fusing the music with a punk rock sensibility
and an increasing emphasis on speed.
Heavy metal became broadly popular during the 1980s,
when many now-widespread subgenres first evolved.
Variations more aggressive and extreme than metal music of the past
were mostly restricted to an underground audience; others,
including glam metal and, to a lesser extent,
thrash metal went on to mainstream commercial success.
In recent years, styles such as nu metal have further expanded the
definition of the genre.
Recent
Metal Music Trends
(mid-2000s)
Metalcore, an originally American hybrid of thrash
metal, melodic death metal, and hardcore punk,
emerged as a commercial force in 2002–3.
It is rooted in the crossover thrash style developed by bands such as
Suicidal Tendencies, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, and Stormtroopers of Death
in the mid-1980s.
Through the 1990s, metalcore was mostly an underground phenomenon,
but by 2004 it 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.
Lamb of God broke into the US top 10 with Sacrament and Trivium
did the same in the UK with The Crusade (both 2006).
The success of these bands has led to the tongue in cheek moniker,
the New Wave of American Heavy Metal.
In recent years, metalcore bands have received prominent slots at Ozzfest
and Download Festival.
The term Mathcore has been used to decribe bands such as the USA's The
Dillinger Escape Plan,
who combined shouted/screamed vocals, hardcore-influenced guitaring with
complex,
technical, jazz-influenced time signatures and styles.
Sweden's Meshuggah have taken a similar approach, exploring the limits
of polymetric grooves.
In Europe, especially Germany and Scandinavia, metal continues to be broadly
popular.
Acts such as the thrash shredding group The Haunted,
melodic death metal band In Flames,
and power metal group HammerFall have been very successful in recent years.
In English-speaking countries, the term "retro-metal" was applied
in the early and mid-2000s
to such bands as England's The Darkness and Australia's Wolfmother.
The Darkness's Permission to Land (2003),
described as an "eerily realistic simulation of '80s metal and '70s
glam,"
topped the UK charts, going quintuple platinum.
Wolfmother's self-titled 2005 debut album, with "Deep Purple-ish
organs,"
"Jimmy Page-worthy chordal riffing,"
and lead singer Andrew Stockdale howling
"notes that Robert Plant can't reach anymore,"
also sold well and was widely praised by critics.
Heavy
Metal Subgenres
Black metal, Death
metal, Doom metal
Folk metal, Glam metal, Gothic metal, Groove metal
Industrial metal, Metalcore
Neo-classical Metal
Nu metal, Power
metal. Progressive metal
Speed metal, Symphonic metal, Thrash metal
Cross-genre References
Alternative metal,
Grunge, Avant-garde metal,
Blackened death metal,
Christian metal, Classic metal, Dark metal
Epic Metal (War Metal)
Extreme metal,
NWOBHM, Post-metal
Rapcore,Stoner metal, Viking metal
For Information
on ALL these Metal genres
Please Click
The MetalHead Below.
Poster's
and Art Prints, T-shirt Galleries
Updated
Featuring Books, CD's, and DVD's
T-Shirt
Galleries
Poster
Galleries
Women's
T's
Provocative
Posters
Shakti's
Previews
Lovers
Market
You
can support
60s & Further
by shopping at
AllPosters.com
