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THE CURIOSITY GUIDE TO HEAVY METAL MUSIC AND CULTURE LACEY ARTEMIS The Art and Culture of Heavy Metal Music aka “I had no idea there was so much more to metal than horns and headbanging!” \m/ When you ask most people what kind of music they like, they will often say "anything but country, rap, or metal". Sometimes it's just the first two, but there's no denying that metal isn't very popular either. When I say "metal" I generally mean "music that is heavier than Rock 'n' Roll". Often quite a bit more so. This is obviously subjective (and based on my personal discretion), so not everyone will agree. Depending on when you were born, your definition of what “counts” as heavy or metal can even vary wildly. There's also the issue that older bands won't be as literally 'heavy' on a sonic level, compared to current bands, whether because of production techniques or equipment available at the time, or just modern bands down-tuning several steps. Most people are generally either "born liking it" or might grow into it later. I kind of fell into it by accident, and figured out that there were elements I naturally liked, and elements I didn't. Many people say that "metal is an acquired taste" and "if it wasn't for the vocals I could enjoy it, but I don't want a guy screaming in my ear". I tend to agree. The Curiosity Guide to Heavy Metal Music and Culture (www.curosityguides.com) While I am a "metalhead", I mostly enjoy more melodic music. I don't like music super heavy all the time, and I certainly don't like it super light all the time. I found my niche in the under- serviced pocket between Progressive Metal and Doom Metal. Some of my favourite bands include: ISIS, Textures, The Ocean, Anup Sastry, Opeth (pre-Heritage) , Mudvayne, and Chevelle. I've made a point to try and find more heavy music without those harsh vocals, and with more melody, so with any luck, my in between preferences will help you find some new bands/songs that you can add to your collection. I will confess that all recommendations in this book are based on my personal music library, so if anything seems inexplicably omitted, it's probably because I'm not familiar with it. The book breaks down as follows: Part 1: The Sound Style(s) Part 2: The Visual Style(s) Part 3: The Culture (including covers and parodies) Part 4: Recommendations The Curiosity Guide to Heavy Metal Music and Culture (www.curosityguides.com) Table of Contents The Sound(s) Pg 05 The Style(s) Pg 11 The Culture Pg 17 Parodies and Mashups Pg 20 Cover Songs Pg 29 Metal Humour in the Age of the Meme Pg 32 Recommendations (Part 1 - more general) Pg 39 Recommendations (Part 2 - more nitty gritty) Pg 44 The Curiosity Guide to Heavy Metal Music and Culture (www.curosityguides.com) Part 1: The Sound So if you’re not familiar with metal, I’m going to have to define some terms. I’m mainly going to be focusing on a couple of styles (my favourites) but it might help the uninitiated to see a more comprehensive map: An incomplete map of metal and it’s various subgenres. Metal has cross-pollinated with virtually every main genre of music in one way or another. The Curiosity Guide to Heavy Metal Music and Culture (www.curosityguides.com) The Three Overarching Categories I Funnel My Metal Into Melodic Metal - Tends to be more moderate to fast tempo, punchy, not overly technical, heavy with deep groove, but still melodic. This subgenre is typically the closest that metal gets to being "pop", or radio-friendly. Incorporates sub-genres like Death Metal, Thrash Metal, Power Metal, and more mainstream metal. For reference points, here are some well-known metal bands and how they fit: Metallica is considered "Thrash" metal. Slayer is considered "Death" Metal. Judas Priest could be called "Power" Metal. Post Metal - Tends to be slow to moderate tempo, with a focus on sonic depth. Often instrumental or sparse vocals, usually more simplistic instrumentation. This category incorporates genres like "Doom" and "Stoner" metal. Black Sabbath would be Doom/Stoner metal. Progressive Metal - Often more up tempo, more technical, but still melodic and heavy (ie not noodley). Non-standard time signatures, instruments with extra strings. Prog, Djent, Industrial, etc. Rush is proggy, but prog can get way heavier than Rush! Nine Inch Nails could be called loosely "industrial metal", though more accurately industrial rock/hard rock. These are the 3 main categories that I slot music into for my own purposes. Despite being a "metalhead" there are a lot of popular metal bands/genres that I don't personally care for, and so they won't really be represented in this book. The Curiosity Guide to Heavy Metal Music and Culture (www.curosityguides.com) Here’s an example of modern Post Metal, from the band Pelican. Despite liking metal (which most people associate with dissonant, chaotic noise), melody is really important to me. I like melody, and I really like melodic heaviness. What do I mean by that? For example, Chevelle is a band I highly regard for achieving this balance (particularly on their first few albums). They downtune their instruments a few steps lower (despite lead vocalist Pete Loeffler’s higher pitched singing), which is not uncommon for modern metal bands (either downtuning or using 7 or 8 string guitars). They also use what I’ve learned is called a “scoop” EQ, meaning bass and treble kept in and mids “scooped out”. This makes it really punchy and clear (to my ears at least), compared to a lot of typical production which to me feels weakened by mid range muddiness. With Chevelle, the guitars snarl and you can feel the palm mutes. The Curiosity Guide to Heavy Metal Music and Culture (www.curosityguides.com) Here is an example with everything — guitar snarl, deep bass, melody, and heaviness: Some purists think it’s wrong to down-tune. There’s a refrain of “if you can’t be heavy in standard tuning, then you suck at being heavy”, but I don’t agree. For one thing, singers all have different ranges and some singers can sing better in keys like A or B. So tuning down to one of these makes sense, and if you like heavy music too, it’s just a bonus. You’re certainly not going to tune UP. Of course some bands do down-tune just to be heavier without needing it for their singer, but that’s not every band. I’ll talk about some more examples of melodic heaviness, but first here’s some additional background. The Curiosity Guide to Heavy Metal Music and Culture (www.curosityguides.com) There’s this subgenre called “Djent” (pronounced "Jent" with a hard J ). It kind of started as a random made up label that stuck. But those who like it and follow the Progressive Metal world will know what you’re talking about. For a bit of a history lesson: “How Meshuggah invented Djent, and Periphery perfected it”. Djent is right up my alley. Technical, but not overly noodley/weedily, heavy but still melodic, and with clean, tight, punchy production. Often played on 7 or 8 string guitars, so good low end too. If you want to get an idea of the sound, here’s one of my favourites: The Curiosity Guide to Heavy Metal Music and Culture (www.curosityguides.com) Let’s look at one more example, perhaps the epitome. Meshuggah, a band who have changed their style over time from more muddy Thrash Metal roots to their current heavy Djent sound that often slows down to hit you extra hard. Pay attention to the first 2 minutes particularly: Admittedly even I am not a big fan of the vocals with Meshuggah. I can only imagine what they’d sound like with good clean singing. Speaking of which, much like there is a contingent of diehard “Djent” fans, there is also a diehard contingent of “harsh vox” fans, and there is even a website (called “No Clean Singing”) for these fans. You won’t find me on that site, but I want to acknowledge it exists, you know, for the purists. The Curiosity Guide to Heavy Metal Music and Culture (www.curosityguides.com) Part 2: The Style(s) What do you think when you think of a “metalhead”? My relationship to music has changed over the years. When I was younger, I was definitely listening to music much more than I do now. Here is me from a past life: I first got into music originally around 1996/1997 and have joked that to me, that’s basically the cut off point for music I tended to be able to enjoy easily. Anything recorded in ‘95 or since. Anything before that was generally either too slow tempo wise or the production was too rough (even if it was high quality for the time). I kind of missed out on the grunge trend, and I always felt Nirvana was overrated anyway. My entry into music (and beginning to develop my own tastes) was alternative rock and hard rock, bands like Finger Eleven, I Mother Earth, Our Lady Peace (the late 90s Canadian Alt-Rock Trifecta). The funny thing is, when I heard actual honest-to-goodness heavy metal for the first time, I didn’t like it. Mainly because of the vocals, which is the same reason most non-fans don’t like it.