For a long period of time, punk rock and heavy metal were at each other's throats. The simple, DIY aesthetic of punk clashed with metal's grandiose sensibilities and polished sound, yet both genres filled the niche of aggressive, loud, and fast music being played for the disenchanted youth. Thus, the genres often shared an overlap in influence, despite the divide between fanbases. Early punk rock bands such as Ramones, Sex Pistols, Misfits, The Damned, and The Clash helped create a style of music that could both be understood, written, and played by those with minimal knowledge of music theory. The very short and fast songs very rarely meandered from a simple three or four power chords, focusing far more on raw emotion and delivery than musical intricacy.
Disclaimer: This entry will contain a lot of subgenres.
Hardcore punk, often just referred to as hardcore, is a term given to punk rock that excels in its extremity. Where the punk bands played fast, the hardcore bands played faster. Where the punk bands were heavy, the hardcore bands were heavier. Every aspect of the punk framework was emphasized, anywhere from anti-establishment lyrical themes, speed and aggression, and the DIY aspect. Bands like The Germs, The Middle Class, Black Flag, and Bad Brains started this wave off with a bang, releasing a great deal of keystone albums right off the bat. Soon after this initial handful of bands, the first wave of hardcore took off. Other bands throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s such as Circle Jerks, Minor Threat, horror punk legends Misfits, Adolescents, Dead Kennedys, and countless others would bring hardcore to the center of underground music. Post-hardcore (which will be discussed in much more detail in a later entry) began to take shape towards the end of the 1980s, with bands like NoMeansNo, Hüsker Dü, and Fugazi taking the reigns. Hardcore was full of life, energy, and ideas.
Recommended 1st wave hardcore listening:
1. Germs - (GI) (1979)
2. Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (1980)
3. Black Flag - Damaged (1981)
4. Bad Brains - Bad Brains (1982)
5. Misfits - Walk Among Us (1982)
One of the first noticeable differentiations within the hardcore scene appeared on the cusp of the 1980s. As hardcore had only caught on in the last two years or so of the 1970s, it was still very much a fledgling genre. Crust punk, however, took its formula to another level. Crust punk (sometimes known as crustcore or stenchcore) embodies everything that the grimy underground scene of punk music was at the time. It formed around the anarcho-punk movement of the 1970s, combining visceral imagery and a raw, sludgy tone to that of the preexisting hardcore sound. As a result, bands like Discharge, Amebix, and G.I.S.M. (also part of the Japanese hardcore scene) forefronted a new subgenre. Crust punk still goes strong even into the new millennium, with bands like His Hero is Gone, Tragedy, and Fall of Efrafa continuing to innovate within the style. One key aspect of crust was how suspiciously metal-influenced it sounded, with some bands like Discharge playing a style of crust punk known as D-beat, influenced heavily by early speed metal bands like Motörhead. And this is certainly not where the crossover stopped.
Recommended crust punk listening:
1. Discharge - Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing (1982)
2. G.I.S.M. - Detestation (1983)
3. Amebix - Arise! (1985)
4. His Hero is Gone - Monuments to Thieves (1997)
5. Tragedy - Vengeance (2002)
As the '80s progressed, so did both metal and hardcore. Hardcore had amassed a gigantic underground following and had broken off into a few distinct subgenres. Metal had exploded both underground and in the mainstream with thrash metal and glam metal, respectively. The turning point by which both genres decided to put aside their differences and fuse was with a little thing called thrashcore. Thrashcore is not a very widespread style of music, and was only played by a few key bands such as D.R.I., Septic Death, and Charles Bronson. However, its influence will reign true as metal and hardcore continue to fuse further down the road. At the same time as this genre coming to fruition, a special wave of music originating in New York comes to be; aptly referred to as New York hardcore, known colloquially as NYHC. This scene, though not being incredibly sonically different from the initial hardcore wave, was integral to the development of the genre as a whole: countless new and exciting bands got their start from being active in this scene, such as Agnostic Front, Madball, Sick of It All, Judge, Gorilla Biscuits (also a key figure in another upcoming subgenre), and Cro-Mags. An additional aside: crossover thrash (a style which will be discussed further) developed directly alongside the NYHC movement, with bands such as Ludichrist, Leeway, and Crumbsuckers.
Recommended NYHC and thrashcore listening:
1. D.R.I. - Dealing With It! (1985)
2. Cro-Mags - The Age of Quarrel (1986)
3. Judge - Bringin' It Down (1989)
4. Sick of It All - Scratch the Surface (1994)
5. Madball - Demonstrating My Style (1996)
Melodic hardcore developed in the mid-1980s, and placed emphasis on much more melodic vocal styles and musicianship than before, allowing for more subtlety and introspection in the already-allotted hardcore blueprint. Melodic hardcore bands would introduce more artistic elements to their sound, similarly to the aforementioned post-hardcore, and were always open to musical experimentation and progression. As a result, melodic hardcore has gone through many different phases since its inception. Initially, it had close ties to the NYHC movement (Gorilla Biscuits), but then became more of a skate punk thing in the 1990s (Pennywise), before seeing a revival in conjunction with modern metalcore (Stick to Your Guns, Counterparts). Melodic hardcore's founding bands included Dag Nasty (very influential on emocore), Descendents (very influential on pop punk), and Bad Religion, all of whom have released incredibly important and influential albums to the scene.
Recommended melodic hardcore listening:
1. Dag Nasty - Can I Say (1986)
2. Bad Religion - No Control (1989)
3. Gorilla Biscuits - Start Today (1989)
4. Leatherface - Mush (1991)
5. Modern Life is War - Witness (2005)
Around the same time as melodic hardcore developed, creating a more accessible and less aggressive offshoot of the sound, noisecore came along and did the exact opposite. Noisecore is, to put it bluntly, one of the most abrasive and chaotic forms of music to ever exist. Setting the precedent for grindcore, noisecore songs are mostly short, compressed bursts of noise, accompanied with harsh vocals and blast beats. The metal influence at this point is uncanny, with styles such as death metal and black metal developing around the same time. Lyrical content is either tongue-in-cheek gross-out humor, or scathing political commentary, but it will regardlessly be delivered in a way that is near-indecipherable. The genre (for obvious reasons) has never entered the mainstream, not even in the overall hardcore scene, and thus noteworthy releases are made with large gaps between years, but the avant-garde genre still thrives (particularly in the Japanese scene) and continues to pull itself through the years.
Recommended noisecore listening:
1. Confuse - Indignation (1984)
2. The Gerogerigegege - Instruments Disorder (1994)
3. Melt-Banana - "Charlie" (1998)
4. Today is the Day - Sadness Will Prevail (2002)
5. The Locust - Plague Landscapes (2003)
Some of the most notable fusions of metal and hardcore developed from 1983-1990. The three most discussed examples are crossover thrash, grindcore, and metalcore. All of these styles have been mentioned somewhere prior in this entry, and each will be given more analysis in future entries, so I will keep this brief and save my recommendations for when those come out. But for now, I will give IMDb-style summaries of each:
1. Crossover thrash combines hardcore and thrash metal, and is characterized by heavy thrash riffs, vocal styles, thematic elements, and even guitar solos. (S.O.D., Suicidal Tendencies, etc.)
2. Grindcore is a style of music that developed from the UK's crust punk scene, resulting in an incredibly fast, dirty-sounding and powerful genre that revolutionized the "microsong" concept seen so often in extreme music. (Napalm Death, Repulsion, etc.)
3. Metalcore is another fusion genre, characterized by more usage of breakdowns (when the song slows its tempo and induces chronic headbanging) and dissonance in its musicianship. (Integrity, Earth Crisis, etc.)
As the 1980s draw to a close, the west coast United States gets word of grindcore, and a substyle of hardcore dubbed powerviolence begins development. Having the structure and intensity of grindcore, but often interjecting slow, sludgy riffs midway through the runtime (or as an outro), powerviolence quickly caught on, with waves of bands such as Infest, Spazz, and eventually Nails and Magrudergrind carrying the torch. As post-hardcore (and its spinoff emocore) evolves into emo and screamo, the initial wave of screamo bands started to take notes from this powerviolence style, creating the portmanteau of emoviolence. Bands from this scene include Orchid, pageninetynine, and Jerome's Dream.
Recommended powerviolence listening:
1. No Comment - Downsided (1992)
2. Spazz - Crush Kill Destroy (1999)
3. Orchid - Chaos is Me (1999)
4. Infest - No Man's Slave (2002)
5. Nails - Unsilent Death (2010)
Each of the subgenres initially developed in the 1980s continue to thrive in their own circles throughout the 1990s, but it is actually those that combined with metal that created some of the most significant output. Metalcore produced the subgenre of mathcore, which has had consistently inventive and creative releases since its inception. Grindcore reigns supreme with more and more influence from death metal, as seen in bands such as Brutal Truth and the great Napalm Death. Crust punk, melodic hardcore, and post-hardcore are all reaching their heyday. Despite all the subgenre success, classic hardcore punk finds itself taking the backseat to other styles of alternative music, such as pop punk, emo, and grunge. Though there are certainly significant albums being released in this time, such as Poison Idea's Feel the Darkness, hardcore seems to have faded in comparison to the genres it created.
Recommended '90s hardcore:
1. Poison Idea - Feel the Darkness (1990)
2. Bad Religion - Against the Grain (1990)
3. Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come (1998)
4. Botch - We Are the Romans (1999)
5. Catharsis - Passion (1999)
The most recent development in hardcore subgenres was introduced in the early '90s. The idea is called beatdown hardcore, commonly referred to as simply beatdown, or if you're checking Wikipedia it could be called heavy hardcore (a name I personally find to be redundant). Beatdown took metalcore's idea of the breakdown and turned it up to eleven. Much of hardcore's recent "tough guy" demeanor and imagery owes itself to this style, as its aggression and boastful lyrical content often reflect a sense of overconfidence and "violent inspiration," something on which prior punk styles tended to be more neutral. Much of beatdown's sound is a result of the first wave of NYHC, with bands like Madball and Hatebreed starting the (mad)ball rolling on the sound. The style has seen a recent revitalization with Terror, Rise of the Northstar, and Knocked Loose.
Recommended beatdown listening:
1. Madball - Set It Off (1994)
2. Hatebreed - Satisfaction is the Death of Desire (1997)
3. Terror - One With the Underdogs (2004)
4. Rise of the Northstar - Welcame (2014)
5. Knocked Loose - Laugh Tracks (2016)
Hardcore in the new century is almost completely overrun by its subgenres. In the 2000s, much of the output was either mathcore (Converge, The Dillinger Escape Plan) or grindcore (Pig Destroyer, Discordance Axis). The 2010s continued the trend, focusing heavily on mostly metalcore. As bands in that genre stray further from the initial hardcore sound, metalcore becomes a beast of its own to discuss. Grindcore and powerviolence are being kept fresh by bands like Nails, Cattle Decapitation, and Wormrot. Hardcore and black metal have even joined in the case of Kvelertak. Despite all of the attention given to the subgenres, hardcore fans have shed light on a variety of more classic-sounding bands, such as Have Heart, American Nightmare, Outbreak, Ceremony, and Righteous Jams.
Recommended '00s and '10s hardcore listening:
1. Pig Destroyer - Prowler in the Yard (2001)
2. Converge - Jane Doe (2001)
3. Cursed - Two (2005)
4. Kvelertak - Kvelertak (2010)
5. Terror - Keepers of the Faith (2010)
Hardcore punk remains one of the most versatile and influential styles of music, not only in the extreme music community, but in rock as a whole. Whether it's an old Dead Kennedys record or the newest Otoboke Beaver (seriously, Japanese hardcore is great; do research on that genre if you're interested, because I omitted that substyle from this entry for the sake of brevity) album, hardcore will always have a solidified place in the history of music. Rock, punk, and metal all rely on the existence of hardcore, and thus it holds an insane amount of worth in the bigger musical discussion.
[Side note: Hope you enjoyed this incredibly long entry! Hardcore has a LOT of history, but I wanted to keep my overall blog about metal, so I didn't want to split this up into multiple entries. Next week's will be very much shorter, and open up more room for any sort of possible discussion. Thanks for checking this out!]
Friday, June 28, 2019
Friday, June 21, 2019
Doom Metal
Doom metal is a style of metal music that intends to wash its listener in an atmosphere of impending doom. Where some genres of metal focus on speed, virtuosity, or violence, doom metal prefers to plod along at a more dismal pace, placing emphasis on the spaces between notes rather than the notes themselves. Doom metal sounds thick, dense, and foreboding, and lyrical themes tend to revel in, as RateYourMusic puts it, "despair, tension and dread."
In 1970, a British band by the name of Black Sabbath released their eponymous debut album. As I have made clear in my previous entries, this album was monumentally important in terms of kickstarting the metal genre. While shaping hard rock into the new form of heavy metal, it also inadvertently paved the way for the traditional doom metal movement. Where Black Sabbath set the foundation, many bands picked up the torch. However, instead of speeding up the metal sound like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden did, they opted to keep it at the same slow tempos that Sabbath had put into place. Bands like Pagan Altar, Trouble, Saint Vitus, Pentagram, Bang, Witchfinder General, and the mighty Candlemass all made huge developments in continuing the traditional sound throughout the '70s and '80s.
Recommended traditional doom metal listening:
1. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath (1970)
2. Saint Vitus - Saint Vitus (1984)
3. Trouble - Psalm 9 (1984)
4. Pentagram - Pentagram (1985)
5. Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus (1986)
In the 1980s, doom metal continued on its merry way. The traditional style was seeing much success in its own circles, particularly in Candlemass, who inspired a wave of bands with more operatic vocal approaches to sometimes dub themselves "epic doom metal." However once the late-80s and early-90s hit, another wave of new ideas materialized in the form of death doom metal. As the name implies, death doom metal consists of the fusion of death metal (a style that was manifesting heavily in both Florida and Sweden around this time) and doom metal. This incorporated faster tempos (though not far beyond mid-paced) and harsh, growled vocals. Lyrical concepts stayed in the bleak, despair-ridden facet though, and thus a subgenre was born. It was spearheaded by "The Peaceville Three," which was a nickname given to three United Kingdom-based bands that all started this style out of Peaceville Records: Paradise Lost, Anathema, and My Dying Bride. Other bands like Katatonia, Saturnus, and Swallow the Sun soon appeared, all taking after this new sound.
Recommended death doom metal listening:
1. Paradise Lost - Gothic (1991)
2. My Dying Bride - Turn Loose the Swans (1993)
3. Anathema - The Silent Enigma (1995)
4. Katatonia - Brave Murder Day (1996)
5. Saturnus - Paradise Belongs to You (1997)
Once the 1990s were in full swing, doom metal began to branch itself out into newer territories. Subgenres that took a liking to slower or midtempo riffs, as well as massive amounts of psychedelic-sounding fuzz and distortion, began to overlap with the doom metal sound, resulting in three distinct fusion waves: stoner metal, drone metal, and sludge metal. Though all of these genres hold their own in the grand scheme of things, it is undeniable that doom metal influences and combines with these genres quite often. Each genre places emphasis on harsh sound, depressive lyricism, slow tempos, and other traits that define doom metal, and thus fit right into place like pieces of a puzzle. In the stoner doom corner, bands like Cathedral, Sleep, and Electric Wizard carry the torch. Sludge doom consists more of bands such as YOB and Ufomammut. Drone doom lies more in experimental groups such as Melvins, Sunn O))), and Jesu.
Recommended doom fusion listening:
1. Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain (1992)
2. Melvins - Lysol (1992)
3. Electric Wizard - Come My Fanatics... (1997)
4. Ufomammut - Snailking (2004)
5. YOB - The Unreal Never Lived (2005)
Another wave of doom metal that took the stage in the late-1990s was funeral doom metal. As the name would suggest, funeral doom took the "slow" factor of doom metal and turned it up to eleven. Funeral doom metal songs move at a glacial pace, slowly creeping along and unfurling like a Lovecraftian horror lurches through the cosmos. It is often as introspective and philosophical as it is depressive and suffocating in nature. These bands and the music they create thrive on creating a vast, cold atmosphere; utilizing reverb and delay to provide a spacey and distant sound. Bands like Thergothon, Skepticism, and Esoteric deliver this dirge-like style, and have influenced wave after wave of others in the genre.
Recommended funeral doom metal listening:
1. Thergothon - Stream from the Heavens (1994)
2. Skepticism - Lead and Aether (1997)
3. Esoteric - The Pernicious Enigma (1997)
4. Evoken - Quietus (2001)
5. Shape of Despair - Angels of Distress (2001)
As the new millennium turned around, doom metal had established unique and devoted cult followings in all of its facets. Regardless of the genre's lack of popularity at all in the mainstream, bands continued to innovate and progress. Electric Wizard released their monumental magnum opus Dopethrone, as did Sleep with Dopesmoker, both playing heavily into the marijuana-fueled mindspace of the stoner metal genre. Notable releases also came from Celtic Frost, a proto-extreme metal band never afraid to push the envelope and venture into uncharted territory, as well as the elusive and atmospheric Warning. Even traditional doom metal found itself in a bit of a revival with bands such as Reverend Bizarre and Hour of 13.
Recommended '00s doom metal listening:
1. Electric Wizard - Dopethrone (2000)
2. My Dying Bride - The Dreadful Hours (2001)
3. Sleep - Dopesmoker (2003)
4. Celtic Frost - Monotheist (2006)
5. Warning - Watching from a Distance (2006)
The 2010s has also witnessed a surge in doom metal innovation. With Ghost coming into popularity, elements of doom metal are being reintroduced to modern rock radio. Ever since Black Sabbath, doom metal has been deemed too inaccessible for mainstream consumption, but through Ghost's unique blend of psychedelia and classic hard rock, many have been introduced to the wonderful world of metal history. Many breakthrough bands are coming out of each of the subgenres: death doom has produced The Ruins of Beverast, funeral doom has given us Bell Witch, and sludge-influenced doom like Subrosa and Sumac are gaining more and more attention each day. Traditional doom metal and heavy psych are being brought back with bands like Uncle Acid or Graveyard. Even Sleep made a huge comeback with their 2018 album The Sciences.
Recommended '10s doom metal listening:
1. Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats - Blood Lust (2011)
2. Subrosa - More Constant Than the Gods (2013)
3. Triptykon - Melana Chasmata (2014)
4. Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper (2017)
5. Sleep - The Sciences (2018)
Doom metal remains, to this day, a prevailing example of a simple idea with many executions. It's not rocket science to figure out that much of metal revels in cynical pessimism, as most bands tend to create music based around many negative subjects. But in doom metal, negativity is not just the driving force behind the music, but behind the entire idea. To stare straight into the empty void and not find purely hopeless emptiness, but rather inspiration, is at the very least admirable. Doom metal's massive prevalence in metal culture from its very beginnings just proves the longevity of such an idea: that our purest sadness and emptiness can be shaped into something widely influential and ever-growing.
In 1970, a British band by the name of Black Sabbath released their eponymous debut album. As I have made clear in my previous entries, this album was monumentally important in terms of kickstarting the metal genre. While shaping hard rock into the new form of heavy metal, it also inadvertently paved the way for the traditional doom metal movement. Where Black Sabbath set the foundation, many bands picked up the torch. However, instead of speeding up the metal sound like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden did, they opted to keep it at the same slow tempos that Sabbath had put into place. Bands like Pagan Altar, Trouble, Saint Vitus, Pentagram, Bang, Witchfinder General, and the mighty Candlemass all made huge developments in continuing the traditional sound throughout the '70s and '80s.
Recommended traditional doom metal listening:
1. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath (1970)
2. Saint Vitus - Saint Vitus (1984)
3. Trouble - Psalm 9 (1984)
4. Pentagram - Pentagram (1985)
5. Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus (1986)
In the 1980s, doom metal continued on its merry way. The traditional style was seeing much success in its own circles, particularly in Candlemass, who inspired a wave of bands with more operatic vocal approaches to sometimes dub themselves "epic doom metal." However once the late-80s and early-90s hit, another wave of new ideas materialized in the form of death doom metal. As the name implies, death doom metal consists of the fusion of death metal (a style that was manifesting heavily in both Florida and Sweden around this time) and doom metal. This incorporated faster tempos (though not far beyond mid-paced) and harsh, growled vocals. Lyrical concepts stayed in the bleak, despair-ridden facet though, and thus a subgenre was born. It was spearheaded by "The Peaceville Three," which was a nickname given to three United Kingdom-based bands that all started this style out of Peaceville Records: Paradise Lost, Anathema, and My Dying Bride. Other bands like Katatonia, Saturnus, and Swallow the Sun soon appeared, all taking after this new sound.
Recommended death doom metal listening:
1. Paradise Lost - Gothic (1991)
2. My Dying Bride - Turn Loose the Swans (1993)
3. Anathema - The Silent Enigma (1995)
4. Katatonia - Brave Murder Day (1996)
5. Saturnus - Paradise Belongs to You (1997)
Once the 1990s were in full swing, doom metal began to branch itself out into newer territories. Subgenres that took a liking to slower or midtempo riffs, as well as massive amounts of psychedelic-sounding fuzz and distortion, began to overlap with the doom metal sound, resulting in three distinct fusion waves: stoner metal, drone metal, and sludge metal. Though all of these genres hold their own in the grand scheme of things, it is undeniable that doom metal influences and combines with these genres quite often. Each genre places emphasis on harsh sound, depressive lyricism, slow tempos, and other traits that define doom metal, and thus fit right into place like pieces of a puzzle. In the stoner doom corner, bands like Cathedral, Sleep, and Electric Wizard carry the torch. Sludge doom consists more of bands such as YOB and Ufomammut. Drone doom lies more in experimental groups such as Melvins, Sunn O))), and Jesu.
Recommended doom fusion listening:
1. Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain (1992)
2. Melvins - Lysol (1992)
3. Electric Wizard - Come My Fanatics... (1997)
4. Ufomammut - Snailking (2004)
5. YOB - The Unreal Never Lived (2005)
Another wave of doom metal that took the stage in the late-1990s was funeral doom metal. As the name would suggest, funeral doom took the "slow" factor of doom metal and turned it up to eleven. Funeral doom metal songs move at a glacial pace, slowly creeping along and unfurling like a Lovecraftian horror lurches through the cosmos. It is often as introspective and philosophical as it is depressive and suffocating in nature. These bands and the music they create thrive on creating a vast, cold atmosphere; utilizing reverb and delay to provide a spacey and distant sound. Bands like Thergothon, Skepticism, and Esoteric deliver this dirge-like style, and have influenced wave after wave of others in the genre.
Recommended funeral doom metal listening:
1. Thergothon - Stream from the Heavens (1994)
2. Skepticism - Lead and Aether (1997)
3. Esoteric - The Pernicious Enigma (1997)
4. Evoken - Quietus (2001)
5. Shape of Despair - Angels of Distress (2001)
As the new millennium turned around, doom metal had established unique and devoted cult followings in all of its facets. Regardless of the genre's lack of popularity at all in the mainstream, bands continued to innovate and progress. Electric Wizard released their monumental magnum opus Dopethrone, as did Sleep with Dopesmoker, both playing heavily into the marijuana-fueled mindspace of the stoner metal genre. Notable releases also came from Celtic Frost, a proto-extreme metal band never afraid to push the envelope and venture into uncharted territory, as well as the elusive and atmospheric Warning. Even traditional doom metal found itself in a bit of a revival with bands such as Reverend Bizarre and Hour of 13.
Recommended '00s doom metal listening:
1. Electric Wizard - Dopethrone (2000)
2. My Dying Bride - The Dreadful Hours (2001)
3. Sleep - Dopesmoker (2003)
4. Celtic Frost - Monotheist (2006)
5. Warning - Watching from a Distance (2006)
The 2010s has also witnessed a surge in doom metal innovation. With Ghost coming into popularity, elements of doom metal are being reintroduced to modern rock radio. Ever since Black Sabbath, doom metal has been deemed too inaccessible for mainstream consumption, but through Ghost's unique blend of psychedelia and classic hard rock, many have been introduced to the wonderful world of metal history. Many breakthrough bands are coming out of each of the subgenres: death doom has produced The Ruins of Beverast, funeral doom has given us Bell Witch, and sludge-influenced doom like Subrosa and Sumac are gaining more and more attention each day. Traditional doom metal and heavy psych are being brought back with bands like Uncle Acid or Graveyard. Even Sleep made a huge comeback with their 2018 album The Sciences.
Recommended '10s doom metal listening:
1. Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats - Blood Lust (2011)
2. Subrosa - More Constant Than the Gods (2013)
3. Triptykon - Melana Chasmata (2014)
4. Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper (2017)
5. Sleep - The Sciences (2018)
Doom metal remains, to this day, a prevailing example of a simple idea with many executions. It's not rocket science to figure out that much of metal revels in cynical pessimism, as most bands tend to create music based around many negative subjects. But in doom metal, negativity is not just the driving force behind the music, but behind the entire idea. To stare straight into the empty void and not find purely hopeless emptiness, but rather inspiration, is at the very least admirable. Doom metal's massive prevalence in metal culture from its very beginnings just proves the longevity of such an idea: that our purest sadness and emptiness can be shaped into something widely influential and ever-growing.
Friday, June 14, 2019
Heavy Metal
Heavy metal, in its purest form, is referring to what now may be cited as "classic" or "traditional metal," and rightfully so. Since its inception, metal music has branched out into facets so far removed from its beginnings, that its plethora of subgenres are much more necessary than one would think. Try comparing Black Sabbath to Ingested: both bands are undeniably metal, but that's essentially where the resemblance stops. This is due to the sheer openness to creativity for which metal provides a blueprint; a style of music based solely around what the musicians feel, rather than what they play.
Jumping right in, as I discussed in my entry on hard rock, Black Sabbath arguably "invented" metal music with the release of their self-titled record in 1970. Tony Iommi centers the very first riff on the album (on the titular track) around a slow, plodding tritone. This signifies to the listener that what they are about to experience is dark, brooding, ominous, and certainly unorthodox or the time. Combined with Bill Ward's powerful drumming, Geezer Butler's massive bass tone, and Ozzy Osbourne's unmistakable funeral croon, Iommi's playing style had solidified itself at the forefront of a musical movement that would remain headstrong for the next four decades ahead.
Another key spearheading figure of '70s metal was Judas Priest. This band, hailing from the United Kingdom as well, created heavy metal fashion. Black leather donning metal studs, biker imagery, dark sunglasses, and a tough-guy attitude all came to fruition with this band. While producing some of the most iconic looks of the metal genre, they were cranking out music that was equally as iconic. Priest solidified the power chord riffage that we all know and love from this genre, effectively removing the blues from hard rock, setting the metal sound in stone. Many bands around that same time would soon follow with this sound and/or look, such as Motörhead, Rainbow, Budgie, and Scorpions.
Recommended '70s heavy metal listening:
1. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath & Paranoid (1970)
2. Budgie - Never Turn Your Back on a Friend (1973)
3. Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny (1976)
4. Rainbow - Rising (1976)
5. Motörhead - Overkill (1979)
As the 1970s bridged into the 1980s, a reaction was occurring. As many of the works by classic hard rock bands such as Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin begun to plateau, metal needed something new to pick itself up. This influence came both from punk rock and Western classical music. The sheer ferocity and speed of punk combined with the eloquence and harmony from classical music fit perfectly into the grandiosity of metal music. Thus, the new wave of British heavy metal, NWOBHM for short, was formed. Though many key metal figures (Sabbath, Priest, Motörhead) had all been British anyway, it wasn't until bands like Quartz, Diamond Head, Angel Witch, and Samson came onto the scene where fast, melody-driven metal would arrive.
One band stood out amongst the crowd of others in the NWOBHM movement: Iron Maiden. Known to some as "the Beatles of metal," Iron Maiden took the sound that Sabbath and Priest had laid out for them, and injected it with the most (unironically) epic aspects possible. Lyrics about literature and mythology, multifaceted songs with lengths surpassing the ten-minute mark, and double (sometimes even triple) layered harmonies to fill out the sonic space they were given... Iron Maiden truly pushed the envelope and created a style of metal that became incredibly influential.
As the NWOBHM scene progressed, bands started to switch up the formula. Bands like Diamond Head and Saxon were wildly influential on the thrash metal scene. Pagan Altar and Witchfinder General spearheaded the genre of doom metal. Def Leppard and Girlschool would inject pop melodies into their metal, with Def Leppard eventually going full glam metal. Venom would prove to be one of the sole influencers of extreme metal. Others still, like Grim Reaper, Tygers of Pan Tang, and Satan would carve out the niche for power metal and progressive metal. Alas, despite how wildly influential and diverse the NWOBHM scene was, it didn't last very long into the 1980s, becoming one of the more ephemeral points in metal's history.
Recommended NWOBHM listening:
1. Diamond Head - Lightning to the Nations (1980)
2. Saxon - Strong Arm of the Law (1980)
3. Angel Witch - Angel Witch (1980)
4. Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast (1982)
5. Satan - Court in the Act (1983)
The 1980s saw an explosion in the popularity of heavy metal. With Black Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne going solo and the introduction of glam metal and MTV, metal began to become more of a household terminology. Many '70s metal bands like Iron Maiden, Motörhead, and Judas Priest continued to release albums to critical acclaim. Rainbow frontman Ronnie James Dio would go on to not only replace Osbourne in Black Sabbath, but to also form the band Dio, which becomes wildly influential on power metal. New bands like Mercyful Fate and Accept lay groundwork for future metal genres like black metal and speed metal, respectively.
Recommended '80s heavy metal listening:
1. Motörhead - Ace of Spades (1980)
2. Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance (1982)
3. Dio - Holy Diver (1983)
4. Iron Maiden - Powerslave (1984)
5. Mercyful Fate - Don't Break the Oath (1984)
Much of the heavy metal in the 1990s was directly involved in the U.S. power metal scene with bands like Iced Earth, Savatage, and Virgin Steele. Many of the '70s and '80s metal bands had since exhausted their glory (with events such as vocalist Bruce Dickinson leaving Iron Maiden), leaving an empty niche for other bands to fill their spots. Ex-glam bands like W.A.S.P. would show their chops with a more grounded, mature sound. Others, like the giants of thrash metal Metallica and Megadeth, would go on to write wildly successful and influential albums in this simplified style. Metallica's self-titled record would eventually become the highest-grossing metal album of all time, establishing many of the most recognizable songs in the entire genre.
Recommended '90s heavy metal listening:
1. Judas Priest - Painkiller (1990)
2. Metallica - Metallica (1991)
3. Megadeth - Countdown to Extinction (1992)
4. W.A.S.P. - The Crimson Idol (1992)
5. Bruce Dickinson - The Chemical Wedding (1998)
The 21st century established many comebacks from classic artists. Iron Maiden releases The Book of Souls, Judas Priest Firepower, and Black Sabbath even released 13 before calling it quits. Even artists like Pagan Altar, Satan, and Accept released fairly high quality comeback albums in the 2000s and 2010s. Though the genre's popularity is waning due to the rising influence of other metal subgenres, new blood is still being breathed into this style. In the 2000s, notable new artists were Slough Feg, Nevermore, and Grand Magus. The 2010s brought bands like Chapel of Disease, Hell, Battle Beast, Tribulation, and the ever-popular Ghost to the forefront.
Recommended '00s and '10s heavy metal listening:
1. Iron Maiden - Brave New World (2000)
2. Nevermore - Dead Heart in a Dead World (2000)
3. Slough Feg - Traveller (2003)
4. Ghost - Meliora (2015)
5. Judas Priest - Firepower (2018)
Though heavy metal in itself has found itself in the shadow of the subsequent subgenres it had created, it nevertheless remains a vital part of rock music. Whether it's reflecting on the metal giants of the prior decades or looking to the underground for more new artists, traditional heavy metal will always be a relevant, driving force in music culture. Stay tuned every week for new genre discussions!
Jumping right in, as I discussed in my entry on hard rock, Black Sabbath arguably "invented" metal music with the release of their self-titled record in 1970. Tony Iommi centers the very first riff on the album (on the titular track) around a slow, plodding tritone. This signifies to the listener that what they are about to experience is dark, brooding, ominous, and certainly unorthodox or the time. Combined with Bill Ward's powerful drumming, Geezer Butler's massive bass tone, and Ozzy Osbourne's unmistakable funeral croon, Iommi's playing style had solidified itself at the forefront of a musical movement that would remain headstrong for the next four decades ahead.
Another key spearheading figure of '70s metal was Judas Priest. This band, hailing from the United Kingdom as well, created heavy metal fashion. Black leather donning metal studs, biker imagery, dark sunglasses, and a tough-guy attitude all came to fruition with this band. While producing some of the most iconic looks of the metal genre, they were cranking out music that was equally as iconic. Priest solidified the power chord riffage that we all know and love from this genre, effectively removing the blues from hard rock, setting the metal sound in stone. Many bands around that same time would soon follow with this sound and/or look, such as Motörhead, Rainbow, Budgie, and Scorpions.
Recommended '70s heavy metal listening:
1. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath & Paranoid (1970)
2. Budgie - Never Turn Your Back on a Friend (1973)
3. Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny (1976)
4. Rainbow - Rising (1976)
5. Motörhead - Overkill (1979)
As the 1970s bridged into the 1980s, a reaction was occurring. As many of the works by classic hard rock bands such as Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin begun to plateau, metal needed something new to pick itself up. This influence came both from punk rock and Western classical music. The sheer ferocity and speed of punk combined with the eloquence and harmony from classical music fit perfectly into the grandiosity of metal music. Thus, the new wave of British heavy metal, NWOBHM for short, was formed. Though many key metal figures (Sabbath, Priest, Motörhead) had all been British anyway, it wasn't until bands like Quartz, Diamond Head, Angel Witch, and Samson came onto the scene where fast, melody-driven metal would arrive.
One band stood out amongst the crowd of others in the NWOBHM movement: Iron Maiden. Known to some as "the Beatles of metal," Iron Maiden took the sound that Sabbath and Priest had laid out for them, and injected it with the most (unironically) epic aspects possible. Lyrics about literature and mythology, multifaceted songs with lengths surpassing the ten-minute mark, and double (sometimes even triple) layered harmonies to fill out the sonic space they were given... Iron Maiden truly pushed the envelope and created a style of metal that became incredibly influential.
As the NWOBHM scene progressed, bands started to switch up the formula. Bands like Diamond Head and Saxon were wildly influential on the thrash metal scene. Pagan Altar and Witchfinder General spearheaded the genre of doom metal. Def Leppard and Girlschool would inject pop melodies into their metal, with Def Leppard eventually going full glam metal. Venom would prove to be one of the sole influencers of extreme metal. Others still, like Grim Reaper, Tygers of Pan Tang, and Satan would carve out the niche for power metal and progressive metal. Alas, despite how wildly influential and diverse the NWOBHM scene was, it didn't last very long into the 1980s, becoming one of the more ephemeral points in metal's history.
Recommended NWOBHM listening:
1. Diamond Head - Lightning to the Nations (1980)
2. Saxon - Strong Arm of the Law (1980)
3. Angel Witch - Angel Witch (1980)
4. Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast (1982)
5. Satan - Court in the Act (1983)
The 1980s saw an explosion in the popularity of heavy metal. With Black Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne going solo and the introduction of glam metal and MTV, metal began to become more of a household terminology. Many '70s metal bands like Iron Maiden, Motörhead, and Judas Priest continued to release albums to critical acclaim. Rainbow frontman Ronnie James Dio would go on to not only replace Osbourne in Black Sabbath, but to also form the band Dio, which becomes wildly influential on power metal. New bands like Mercyful Fate and Accept lay groundwork for future metal genres like black metal and speed metal, respectively.
Recommended '80s heavy metal listening:
1. Motörhead - Ace of Spades (1980)
2. Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance (1982)
3. Dio - Holy Diver (1983)
4. Iron Maiden - Powerslave (1984)
5. Mercyful Fate - Don't Break the Oath (1984)
Much of the heavy metal in the 1990s was directly involved in the U.S. power metal scene with bands like Iced Earth, Savatage, and Virgin Steele. Many of the '70s and '80s metal bands had since exhausted their glory (with events such as vocalist Bruce Dickinson leaving Iron Maiden), leaving an empty niche for other bands to fill their spots. Ex-glam bands like W.A.S.P. would show their chops with a more grounded, mature sound. Others, like the giants of thrash metal Metallica and Megadeth, would go on to write wildly successful and influential albums in this simplified style. Metallica's self-titled record would eventually become the highest-grossing metal album of all time, establishing many of the most recognizable songs in the entire genre.
Recommended '90s heavy metal listening:
1. Judas Priest - Painkiller (1990)
2. Metallica - Metallica (1991)
3. Megadeth - Countdown to Extinction (1992)
4. W.A.S.P. - The Crimson Idol (1992)
5. Bruce Dickinson - The Chemical Wedding (1998)
The 21st century established many comebacks from classic artists. Iron Maiden releases The Book of Souls, Judas Priest Firepower, and Black Sabbath even released 13 before calling it quits. Even artists like Pagan Altar, Satan, and Accept released fairly high quality comeback albums in the 2000s and 2010s. Though the genre's popularity is waning due to the rising influence of other metal subgenres, new blood is still being breathed into this style. In the 2000s, notable new artists were Slough Feg, Nevermore, and Grand Magus. The 2010s brought bands like Chapel of Disease, Hell, Battle Beast, Tribulation, and the ever-popular Ghost to the forefront.
Recommended '00s and '10s heavy metal listening:
1. Iron Maiden - Brave New World (2000)
2. Nevermore - Dead Heart in a Dead World (2000)
3. Slough Feg - Traveller (2003)
4. Ghost - Meliora (2015)
5. Judas Priest - Firepower (2018)
Though heavy metal in itself has found itself in the shadow of the subsequent subgenres it had created, it nevertheless remains a vital part of rock music. Whether it's reflecting on the metal giants of the prior decades or looking to the underground for more new artists, traditional heavy metal will always be a relevant, driving force in music culture. Stay tuned every week for new genre discussions!
Friday, June 7, 2019
Hard Rock
Hard rock is notorious for often being cited as having started the entire metal genre. Though not a style of metal on its own, it undoubtedly developed many key characteristics that metal would subsequently base itself on: harshly distorted guitars, gruff lead vocalists, flair for theatrics and machismo, and an elevated sense of honesty, relatability, and an iconic identity.
Formed in the mid- to late-1960s, riding on the cusp of other genres such as blues rock (ie, the Rolling Stones), garage rock (ie, the Stooges), and psychedelic rock (ie, the Doors), hard rock began its progress into becoming a genre unto its own with the introduction of a single name: Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix's guitar playing exemplified everything that the rock scene needed at the time: blazing solos and heavy-hitting rhythms. Riding the high of the acid-fueled psych movement of the early '60s, artists like Hendrix, as well as Cream, Blue Cheer, and Vanilla Fudge pioneered a style known as heavy psych. Placing major emphasis on fuzzy, crunchy guitar and bass sounds, and drenching their music in layers of reverb and distortion, heavy psych paved the way for the hard rock that we know and love today.
Recommended heavy psych listening:
1. Blue Cheer - Vincebus Eruptum (1968)
2. Grand Funk - Grand Funk (1969)
3. T2 - It'll All Work Out in Boomland (1970
4. Captain Beyond - Captain Beyond (1972)
5. Buffalo - Volcanic Rock (1973)
A key band that found themselves taking the heavy psych formula and running with it was Steppenwolf, a quintet that came out swinging with their hit single "Born to Be Wild." This song in particular marks one of the first occasions where the term "heavy metal" was used in the context of music. After the appearance of Steppenwolf, hard rock truly began to take its form. Other bands would soon follow in their wake, turning their amps up to 11 and infusing a newfound sense of energy and bombast to the blues rock formula, such as Deep Purple, Iron Butterfly, Jeff Beck, and a little-known band called Led Zeppelin.
Recommended '60s hard rock listening:
1. Steppenwolf - Steppenwolf (1968)
2. Jeff Beck - Truth (1968)
3. Gun - Gun (1968)
4. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin & Led Zeppelin II (1969)
5. Deep Purple - Deep Purple (1969)
As the '60s became the '70s, the golden age of hard rock flourished. Some of the biggest and most recognizable artists in all of rock history made their mark in this decade: Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Blue Öyster Cult, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Bad Company, Thin Lizzy, Boston, UFO, AC/DC, Queen, Rush... the list goes on. All of these artists took influence from the blues and psychedelic movements, but added that extra kick of grit that fans found so memorable. Some artists like Alice Cooper and Kiss showcased a more glam rock-inspired sound. Others like Rush and UFO pioneered a fusion between hard rock and progressive rock. Bands like Boston and Blue Öyster Cult started what would later be called AOR, or arena rock. Others still stuck with the classic "4-chords and a backbeat" formula, such as AC/DC and Aerosmith. Needless to say, the genre was thriving in the mainstream.
However, in the context of metal history, one band surpassed all the others in terms of sheer scope of influence, a band that's vision would prevail for the next five decades: Black Sabbath. Having released their first two albums (Black Sabbath and Paranoid) in 1970, their dark, evil atmosphere painted a picture that rock listeners had never heard before. From the very first notes on the title track "Black Sabbath" based on the tritone (known colloquially to musicians as the devil's interval), it was apparent that something truly innovative and timeless had begun.
Recommended '70s hard rock listening:
1. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath & Paranoid (1970)
2. The Who - Who's Next (1971)
3. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III (1971)
4. Deep Purple - Machine Head (1972)
5. Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak (1976)
Hard rock in the 1980s upped its naturally bombastic nature, and subsequently shifted itself into a spectacle that was equally visual as it was aural. Arena rock was in full throttle, and as a result, many pop-infused bands such as Journey, REO Speedwagon, and Styx took rock radio by storm. Similarly, Black Sabbath's legacy continued and heavy metal became a major interest to the disenchanted youths. Thanks to this, other bands started fusing metal and hard rock, with bands such as Motörhead, Scorpions, Riot, and Ozzy Osbourne's solo material popularizing that style even further. AC/DC, with the unfortunate passing of Bon Scott, found a comfortable replacement (and massive success) with Brian Johnson. But most importantly for this era, bands like Van Halen and Guns 'n' Roses spearheaded the next movement of hard rock.
Recommended '80s hard rock listening:
1. AC/DC - Back in Black (1980)
2. Motörhead - Ace of Spades (1980)
3. Rush - Moving Pictures (1981)
4. Scorpions - Love at First Sting (1984)
5. Guns 'n' Roses - Appetite for Destruction (1987)
When folks think about rock music from the 1980s, visions of fellas in makeup, neon spandex pants, and gigantic perms will undoubtedly come to mind. This is largely due to the rise of glam metal. Though ephemeral in nature, becoming obsolete after the '80s ended, its influence was absolutely massive. Bands exploded onto the scene, practically overnight. Artists like Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot initially showed up, combining the theatrics of glam rock artists Kiss and Alice Cooper with the heavy metal of Judas Priest and Black Sabbath. Soon after, Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, Cinderella, Ratt, Poison, W.A.S.P., Skid Row, White Lion, Dokken, Great White, and many others found incredible mainstream success. In combining catchy pop hooks with raw heavy metal sounds, glam metal skyrocketed in popularity over the duration of the decade.
Recommended glam metal listening:
1. Def Leppard - Pyromania (1983)
2 Mötley Crüe - Shout at the Devil (1983)
3. Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry (1984)
4. W.A.S.P. - W.A.S.P. (1984)
5. Cinderella - Long Cold Winter (1988)
In the 1990s, attention shifted away from explosive live performances in favor of more stripped-back, angst-ridden music in the form of alternative rock and grunge. As a result, hard rock fell out of the public eye. Some grunge artists, such as Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots, took influence from the hard rock of prior decades, but infused it with the new, dirty-sounding musicianship that the '90s listening public craved. Other hard rock artists stayed more in the underground, such as the Wildhearts, the Tea Party, and King's X.
Recommended '90s hard rock listening:
1. Danzig - Danzig II: Lucifuge (1990)
2. Pearl Jam - Ten (1991)
3. Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears (1991)
4. King's X - Dogman (1994)
5. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple (1994)
Another form of hard rock that took form in the '90s was called stoner rock, also commonly known as desert rock. This movement was, in some ways, a throwback to hard rock's origins. Stoner rock bands took major influence from blues and psychedelic rock, just as their forefathers did. Stoner rock places major emphasis on bouncy, midtempo songs that are often bass-centric. Though not nearly as popular in the public eye as glam metal or even classic hard rock, stoner rock has nevertheless accumulated a cult following and established many successful artists in its own regard, such as Kyuss, Monster Magnet, Orange Goblin, Fu Manchu, and Queens of the Stone Age. Kyuss would also spearhead the subsequent movement of stoner metal bands, which will be discussed later.
Recommended stoner rock listening:
1. Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley (1994)
2. Monster Magnet - Dopes to Infinity (1995)
3. Fu Manchu - Eatin' Dust (1999)
4. Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf (2002)
5. Clutch - Blast Tyrant (2004)
Hard rock in the 2000s took a backseat to other, more developed styles of rock. Older bands would often attempt comeback albums, but very rarely regained their creative success. A few bands such as Clutch, the Protomen, and Witchcraft took some influence from their predecessors, but only gained traction in circles that would already seek out this style of music. Post-grunge had taken hard rock's niche on rock radio, with (arguably terrible) bands like Creed, Puddle of Mudd, and Buckcherry filling its spot. It seemed that hard rock was doomed to fall out of relevancy, until the 2010s rolled around. With this new decade, nostalgia for the golden age of '70s hard rock ran rampant. Revival artists were galore, with the rising of Ghost, Greta Van Fleet, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, Graveyard, Black Pistol Fire, Cleopatrick, and Rival Sons. Many post-grunge artists have also used this decade to shift towards a more grounded and focused hard rock style, such as Shinedown, Foo Fighters, and Alter Bridge. Even glam metal has seen a small resurgence with bands like Steel Panther.
Recommended '00s and '10s hard rock listening:
1. The Protomen - Act II: The Father of Death (2009)
2. Graveyard - Hisingen Blues (2011)
3. Rival Sons - Head Down (2012)
4. Alter Bridge - Fortress (2013)
5. Ghost - Meliora (2015)
Being the oldest genre in the history of metal, this is likely going to be the longest entry in this entire series. Most of the more niche genres will probably only be a fraction of the length of this entry. That stands as a testament to the longevity and scope of hard rock's influence over the entirety of metal history. Most of these artists, especially those from the '70s and '80s, are heralded as what is now considered "classic rock." There is certainly a reason that these artists and their innovations have gone down in music history. Stay tuned for weekly updates on more genres from metal's timeline!
Formed in the mid- to late-1960s, riding on the cusp of other genres such as blues rock (ie, the Rolling Stones), garage rock (ie, the Stooges), and psychedelic rock (ie, the Doors), hard rock began its progress into becoming a genre unto its own with the introduction of a single name: Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix's guitar playing exemplified everything that the rock scene needed at the time: blazing solos and heavy-hitting rhythms. Riding the high of the acid-fueled psych movement of the early '60s, artists like Hendrix, as well as Cream, Blue Cheer, and Vanilla Fudge pioneered a style known as heavy psych. Placing major emphasis on fuzzy, crunchy guitar and bass sounds, and drenching their music in layers of reverb and distortion, heavy psych paved the way for the hard rock that we know and love today.
Recommended heavy psych listening:
1. Blue Cheer - Vincebus Eruptum (1968)
2. Grand Funk - Grand Funk (1969)
3. T2 - It'll All Work Out in Boomland (1970
4. Captain Beyond - Captain Beyond (1972)
5. Buffalo - Volcanic Rock (1973)
A key band that found themselves taking the heavy psych formula and running with it was Steppenwolf, a quintet that came out swinging with their hit single "Born to Be Wild." This song in particular marks one of the first occasions where the term "heavy metal" was used in the context of music. After the appearance of Steppenwolf, hard rock truly began to take its form. Other bands would soon follow in their wake, turning their amps up to 11 and infusing a newfound sense of energy and bombast to the blues rock formula, such as Deep Purple, Iron Butterfly, Jeff Beck, and a little-known band called Led Zeppelin.
Recommended '60s hard rock listening:
1. Steppenwolf - Steppenwolf (1968)
2. Jeff Beck - Truth (1968)
3. Gun - Gun (1968)
4. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin & Led Zeppelin II (1969)
5. Deep Purple - Deep Purple (1969)
As the '60s became the '70s, the golden age of hard rock flourished. Some of the biggest and most recognizable artists in all of rock history made their mark in this decade: Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Blue Öyster Cult, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Bad Company, Thin Lizzy, Boston, UFO, AC/DC, Queen, Rush... the list goes on. All of these artists took influence from the blues and psychedelic movements, but added that extra kick of grit that fans found so memorable. Some artists like Alice Cooper and Kiss showcased a more glam rock-inspired sound. Others like Rush and UFO pioneered a fusion between hard rock and progressive rock. Bands like Boston and Blue Öyster Cult started what would later be called AOR, or arena rock. Others still stuck with the classic "4-chords and a backbeat" formula, such as AC/DC and Aerosmith. Needless to say, the genre was thriving in the mainstream.
However, in the context of metal history, one band surpassed all the others in terms of sheer scope of influence, a band that's vision would prevail for the next five decades: Black Sabbath. Having released their first two albums (Black Sabbath and Paranoid) in 1970, their dark, evil atmosphere painted a picture that rock listeners had never heard before. From the very first notes on the title track "Black Sabbath" based on the tritone (known colloquially to musicians as the devil's interval), it was apparent that something truly innovative and timeless had begun.
Recommended '70s hard rock listening:
1. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath & Paranoid (1970)
2. The Who - Who's Next (1971)
3. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III (1971)
4. Deep Purple - Machine Head (1972)
5. Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak (1976)
Hard rock in the 1980s upped its naturally bombastic nature, and subsequently shifted itself into a spectacle that was equally visual as it was aural. Arena rock was in full throttle, and as a result, many pop-infused bands such as Journey, REO Speedwagon, and Styx took rock radio by storm. Similarly, Black Sabbath's legacy continued and heavy metal became a major interest to the disenchanted youths. Thanks to this, other bands started fusing metal and hard rock, with bands such as Motörhead, Scorpions, Riot, and Ozzy Osbourne's solo material popularizing that style even further. AC/DC, with the unfortunate passing of Bon Scott, found a comfortable replacement (and massive success) with Brian Johnson. But most importantly for this era, bands like Van Halen and Guns 'n' Roses spearheaded the next movement of hard rock.
Recommended '80s hard rock listening:
1. AC/DC - Back in Black (1980)
2. Motörhead - Ace of Spades (1980)
3. Rush - Moving Pictures (1981)
4. Scorpions - Love at First Sting (1984)
5. Guns 'n' Roses - Appetite for Destruction (1987)
When folks think about rock music from the 1980s, visions of fellas in makeup, neon spandex pants, and gigantic perms will undoubtedly come to mind. This is largely due to the rise of glam metal. Though ephemeral in nature, becoming obsolete after the '80s ended, its influence was absolutely massive. Bands exploded onto the scene, practically overnight. Artists like Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot initially showed up, combining the theatrics of glam rock artists Kiss and Alice Cooper with the heavy metal of Judas Priest and Black Sabbath. Soon after, Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, Cinderella, Ratt, Poison, W.A.S.P., Skid Row, White Lion, Dokken, Great White, and many others found incredible mainstream success. In combining catchy pop hooks with raw heavy metal sounds, glam metal skyrocketed in popularity over the duration of the decade.
Recommended glam metal listening:
1. Def Leppard - Pyromania (1983)
2 Mötley Crüe - Shout at the Devil (1983)
3. Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry (1984)
4. W.A.S.P. - W.A.S.P. (1984)
5. Cinderella - Long Cold Winter (1988)
In the 1990s, attention shifted away from explosive live performances in favor of more stripped-back, angst-ridden music in the form of alternative rock and grunge. As a result, hard rock fell out of the public eye. Some grunge artists, such as Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots, took influence from the hard rock of prior decades, but infused it with the new, dirty-sounding musicianship that the '90s listening public craved. Other hard rock artists stayed more in the underground, such as the Wildhearts, the Tea Party, and King's X.
Recommended '90s hard rock listening:
1. Danzig - Danzig II: Lucifuge (1990)
2. Pearl Jam - Ten (1991)
3. Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears (1991)
4. King's X - Dogman (1994)
5. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple (1994)
Another form of hard rock that took form in the '90s was called stoner rock, also commonly known as desert rock. This movement was, in some ways, a throwback to hard rock's origins. Stoner rock bands took major influence from blues and psychedelic rock, just as their forefathers did. Stoner rock places major emphasis on bouncy, midtempo songs that are often bass-centric. Though not nearly as popular in the public eye as glam metal or even classic hard rock, stoner rock has nevertheless accumulated a cult following and established many successful artists in its own regard, such as Kyuss, Monster Magnet, Orange Goblin, Fu Manchu, and Queens of the Stone Age. Kyuss would also spearhead the subsequent movement of stoner metal bands, which will be discussed later.
Recommended stoner rock listening:
1. Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley (1994)
2. Monster Magnet - Dopes to Infinity (1995)
3. Fu Manchu - Eatin' Dust (1999)
4. Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf (2002)
5. Clutch - Blast Tyrant (2004)
Hard rock in the 2000s took a backseat to other, more developed styles of rock. Older bands would often attempt comeback albums, but very rarely regained their creative success. A few bands such as Clutch, the Protomen, and Witchcraft took some influence from their predecessors, but only gained traction in circles that would already seek out this style of music. Post-grunge had taken hard rock's niche on rock radio, with (arguably terrible) bands like Creed, Puddle of Mudd, and Buckcherry filling its spot. It seemed that hard rock was doomed to fall out of relevancy, until the 2010s rolled around. With this new decade, nostalgia for the golden age of '70s hard rock ran rampant. Revival artists were galore, with the rising of Ghost, Greta Van Fleet, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, Graveyard, Black Pistol Fire, Cleopatrick, and Rival Sons. Many post-grunge artists have also used this decade to shift towards a more grounded and focused hard rock style, such as Shinedown, Foo Fighters, and Alter Bridge. Even glam metal has seen a small resurgence with bands like Steel Panther.
Recommended '00s and '10s hard rock listening:
1. The Protomen - Act II: The Father of Death (2009)
2. Graveyard - Hisingen Blues (2011)
3. Rival Sons - Head Down (2012)
4. Alter Bridge - Fortress (2013)
5. Ghost - Meliora (2015)
Being the oldest genre in the history of metal, this is likely going to be the longest entry in this entire series. Most of the more niche genres will probably only be a fraction of the length of this entry. That stands as a testament to the longevity and scope of hard rock's influence over the entirety of metal history. Most of these artists, especially those from the '70s and '80s, are heralded as what is now considered "classic rock." There is certainly a reason that these artists and their innovations have gone down in music history. Stay tuned for weekly updates on more genres from metal's timeline!
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