Heavy Metal Bands example essay topic

Rock Later styles of heavy rock music in the 1990's, such as grunge (the typical example being Seattle's Nirvana), show influences of heavy metal but are typically not labelled sub-genres of heavy metal, as opposed to thrash metal and hair metal. The general absence of virtuosic guitar solos is perhaps one reason grunge bands haven't been considered heavy metal bands. Another key artist during this time was Megadeth, which combined the relentless, speedy thrash metal riffs with the fancy guitar soloing of speed metal ala Judas Priest. Norwegian Black Metal Since the late '80's, the Norwegian scene has been characterized by paganism, violence, and some of the best heavy metal ever recorded. The scene was largely influenced by a trio of non-Norwegian bands in the 80's - Venom, Celtic Frost, and Bathory. England's Venom is widely considered to be the first black metal band, and their campy satanic posturing was a huge influence on Europe's extreme metal scenes.

Their second album, 'Black Metal', gave the new genre its name. the band that had the most direct influence on Norway's extreme metal scene was a one-man studio project from Sweden called Bathory. Bathory's album 'Under the Sign: The Sign of the Black Mark' pretty much defines the typical black metal sound - loud, fast, and poorly recorded. However, the Viking Trilogy, consisting of the albums 'Blood, Fire, Death', 'Hammerheart', and 'The Twilight of the Gods', is what really kicked off the explosion of Scandinavian metal. The early 90's saw the Norwegian metal scene rise in prominence on the world stage as bands constantly tried to 'out-evil' one another. Three main bands emerged - Mayhem, Burzum, and Emperor.

(Especially Emperor, IMHO) Mayhem became the musical leader of the scene, while Varg Viernes of Burzum became the center point of the Black Metal 'movement', for lack of a better word. Emperor, meanwhile, garnered the most critical acclaim. Varg (aka 'Count Grishnakh') was responsible for starting a wave of church-burnings and and eventually murdered Mayhem guitarist Euronymous. Emperor has probably had the most lasting influence on the scene, as the sound that they created has been the blueprint for many bands such as Norwegian metal superstars Dimmu Borgir, as well asa large number of non-Norwegian bands. DIMMU BORGIR Dimmu Borgir is a melodic black metal band hailing from Norway.

Shag rath, Silenoz and Tjodalv initiated the band in 1993. Shortly after, Brynjard Tristan joined to play bass, and Sti an Aar stad joined for keyboard duties. Dimmu Borgir was born. They are a band which success is measured with such bands as Emperor, Kreator and Cradle of Filth. I will without a doubt say that Dimmu Borgir is the best black metal band in the world today (webmaster's comment). Haunting keyboard melodies, aggressive guitar work, destructive drums, grim / raw vocals and a touch of melodic / operatic vocals characterize Dimmu Borgir's sound.

They are musically inspired by 80's black metal and heavy metal. Classic composers, like Wagner and Dvorak, also inspire them. In Flames Founded in the early 1990's, In Flames originally began as an influential Melodic Death Metal band, but eventually evolved into an Alternative structure and genre on the albums Reroute To Remain and Soundtrack To Your Escape. In flames is one of the best-known and highly praised bands in the New Wave of Swedish Death Metal movement. After leaving Ceremonial Oath in the late '80's to form In Flames, founding member and guitarist Jesper Strom blad saw this project as a way of expressing his song writing creativity rather than being stuck in the background. With his added influences of Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and his own touch of aggressive metal acts that overwhelmed home country of Sweden, Wrong Again Records took notice and released In Flame's 1993 debut Lunar Strain.

In the tradition of many other Swedish metal acts, In Flames also had a revolving line up that changed year after year, not that this was going to stop them from releasing their next two records Subterranean (1994) and The Trooper (1995) before signing to Nuclear Blast Records in 1996. After putting out The Jester Race album later on that year followed by 1997's Wh oracle, In Flame's line up was finally settled with Bjorn Ge lotte (drums), Anders Fri den (vocals), Peter Iw ers (bass) and David Svensson (drums). To celebrate, the band released their sixth album Colony in 1999. C layman followed in the same vein the next year, and the band even managed to keep the same lineup for this release. The live Tokyo Showdown appeared to promote their tour in 2001. Death metal is a form of heavy metal music which emerged in the United States (especially Florida), Europe (especially Britain and Sweden) and Canada in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

Black metal is often closely related. Death metal has, like most subgenre's of heavy metal, proven notoriously difficult to define. Some fans and musicians have a firm concept of the genre, its categories and subcategories. Others consider such categorization limiting or useless. There is often crossover from one metal genre to another, and the influence of non-metal genres is not uncommon. Death metal is usually identified by extreme brutality, intensity and speed.

The vocals, (guttural roars) or 'growls', as they " re often called, are rough and often incomprehensible and they usually communicate macabre subject matter. The focus on mortality likely inspired the naming of this genre as 'Death' metal. Death Metal is known for very abrupt tempo and count / time signature changes, and extremely fast and complex double bass drum work. Most bands of this genre use de tuned guitars (usually utilizing two), which play both rhythm and lead guitar parts, a de tuned bass guitar, a double bass drum set, and a vocalist.

Some bands add incidental synthesizers for effect. During the 1990's, death metal grew in many directions, spawning a rich variety of subgenre's, including the following: o 'Symphonic' or 'melodic' death metal, where harmonies and melodies are much more present in the guitar work. This subgenre is mostly associated with Sweden, especially in Gothenburg, as well as Norway and Finland (see Scandinavian death metal). o 'Technical' death metal is a narrow, but influential subgenre where musical complexity and skill is the main focus. It is represented by bands like Gorgets, Cynic, Atheist, Theory in Practice and eventually the originators of death metal themselves, Death. o 'Brutal Death Metal' developed by combining certain aspects of the song structures of grind core with death metal.

Brutal Death Metal is associated with bands like Suffocation, Cryptopsy. o Doom death which is a slowed down, melancholic subgenre, inspired by classic Doom Metal created by the likes of Disembowelment, My Dying Bride, Anathema, and Paradise Lost. Grindcore is considered by some to be an even more extreme variant of death metal. However, many fans of grind core and music historians would place it in a genre by itself, since the genre historically developed in parallel to death metal (both developed in the 1980's, Death Metal from thrash metal and grind core from hardcore punk), each influencing the development of the other, but with early grind core having a much more obvious hardcore punk and peace punk influence. There are also other heavy metal subgenre's that have come from fusions between death metal and other genres. Heavy Metal Sub-Genres There are 32 subgenre's of heavy metal (within these 32 genres of metal there are numerous of other sub-genres): Ao Alternative metal o Australian Warmetalo Avenged Sevenfold Bo Black metal o Brutal death metal Co Celtic metal Christian metal Circus metal Peter Criss Do Death metal Doom metal Eo Epic metal Extreme metal Fo Funk metal Go Goth metal Gwar Ho Hair metal Heavy metal music Heavy metal umlaut o Heshe rNo New Wave of British Heavy Metal Nu metal Oo Opera metal Oo Oriental metal Po Power metal Progressive metal Ro Rap metal RapcoreSo Stoner metal Symphonic black metal To Thrash metal Troll metal Vo Varg VikernesWo War metal Heavy metal dance style so Air guitar An air guitar is an imaginary musical instrument that can be played anywhere at any time, as it doesn't make a sound and is very light to carry around. It is usually played as an accompaniment to background music that includes heavy metal guitars.

(There is actually an world championship in this "sport") o Headbanging; is a type of dance which involves violently shaking your head in time with music, most commonly heavy metal music. It is most visually effective when the person headbanging has long hair. o Moshing; also known as slam dancing is a type of dance which involves jumping around or pushing others to loud heavy metal or punk music. It is very popular amongst young rock and metal fans, especially heavy and nu metal fans. o Crowd surfing Crowd surfing describes the process whereby a person is passed from person to person, transferring the person from one part of the concert venue to another, above everyone's heads, with everyone's hands supporting the person's weight. o Stage diving Stage diving is the act of getting onto the stage at a concert while a band is playing -- usually heavy metal or punk rock -- and then diving into the crowd below, hoping they will catch you. If they catch you, you can then attempt to crowd surf: people remain supine while being passed from person to person by the audience. Nicknames for heavy metal fan so Headbanger (or just 'banger) o Metalhead o Me taller o Rivet head.