HEAVY METAL, the beginning of the savagery

Hi there,

Today, I’m gonna start with a question for you. What comes to your mind when you hear heavy metal?

Noises? Screams? The Devil?

A lot stereotyped, never equaled, heavy metal has been there in force for more than 50 years!

Let’s dive together inside what is the beginning of extreme music!

DISCLAIMER: This post is based on some of my knowledge and is backed up and supplemented by research done before its writing. You can find the sources at the bottom of the page.

Note: Bands/ artists I quote in the posts, I only mention them to give you an idea of the sounds you find in the different genres. But I want to be clear that over time it has become more and more complicated to do it with style blends and so on.
In addition, my goal is not to categorize artists, but to present them to you so that you discover the different possibilities that there are in rock and metal. And even make you enjoy those genres.

What is Heavy Metal ?

Heavy metal is a kind of rock that appeared in England in the late 1960s. The origin of the term is uncertain. What we know is that it appeared for the first time in music, in the song titled Born to Be Wild by Steppenwolf.

Hard rock and Heavy metal : what’s the difference ?

It should be noted that the term heavy metal can be confusing, as it can have different meanings depending on the context.

1/ it can be used as a synonym for hard rock.

2/ the term refers to traditional heavy metal: a more radical aesthetic trend that, during the 1970s and 1980s, distinguished itself from hard rock by moving away from blues roots.

3/ in a more general sense, heavy metal or metal means all the kinds of music that derive from heavy metal (from point 2) and hard rock.

We’ll take a closer look at point n°2 if you don’t mind.

The boundary between hard rock and heavy metal is thin but really present. Heavy metal is distinguished by a set of specific codes and rules that we will see below.

Heavy Metal : the essentials elements

The sound

Or rather its intensity! You have to play strong, very strong, and brag about it!

According to the motto of the time, « Loudness equals greatness ». From there, the question of the loudest group becomes crucial. Competition is tough: between Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, The Rolling Stones, Mötörhead, Manowar, My Bloody Valentine or KISS (a majority of hard rock/heavy metal bands), all of them gave concerts that far exceeded 120 decibels.

Caricature The Rolling Stones — Deep Purple’

Moreover, Tony Iommi (guitarist of Black Sabbath) is one example among many musicians who suffered from hearing problems related to the extreme volume of their own concerts. Ted Nugent and Pete Townshend (guitarist of the Who) are almost deaf because of this.

On the other hand, many artists like Edward Van Halen (guitarist of Van Halen) or Joey DeMaio (bassist and leader of Manowar) use earplugs to protect themselves.

Caricature Edward Van Halen, heavy metal

The staging

Artists of the genre restore a sacred dimension to concerts. The lighting, the sets, and even the costumes are designed to give the image that the group wants to send back to the public.

The “uniform” of the heavy metal musician is composed of:

A leather jacket,
Necklaces and bracelets,
Ultra-tight pants in jeans or Spandex.

Instruments

Guitar and drums are now dominant in music.

The drum becomes a real pillar of time. It now marks it equally with each time. As for the guitar, it becomes a symbol of virtuosity and power.

The bass, on the other hand, is usually used to double the bass of the guitar. In addition to his role as a lining, bassists sometimes add ornamental notes or passing notes to enrich their lines.
Then, some play bass chords so that it becomes a substitute for the rhythmic guitar (example: Lemmy Kilmister).

Groups formation

In hard rock, most of the time, the lineup consists of a keyboard quintet or quartet.

In heavy metal, the guitar quintet becomes the norm, even if there are still keyboard quintets.

This lineup, combined with extreme volumes and the generalization of distortion, will quickly become “the norm”.

Musical influences

Here again, we discover that they differ between the two genres:

Hard rock has its roots in blues;
Heavy metal, on the other hand, goes more towards baroque/ classical music while keeping blues elements.

For some artists, it is related to a sensitivity to the music of Bach or Vivaldi (for example Van Halen or Randy Rhoads).

They appropriate the techniques of writing, virtuosity, and vocabulary of classical music. They also borrow certain social values, such as:

The glorification of technical dexterity,
Value of work,
The suffering caused by this total devotion to his instrument.

But in a general case, we can say that the spread of baroque codes is explained by accompanying practices. This one is so solid that lead guitarists are free to develop their virtuosity.

Note: the harmonies of heavy metal are generally colder and darker than those of hard rock.

Edward Van Halen

He will influence and guide several generations of guitarists towards new horizons. Eruption has transformed the history of the guitar. He recorded a solo of 1’42 sec using all the techniques of the guitarists of his time:

Bends (pull up one or more strings to increase their tension, this has the effect of slightly raising the height of the sound),
Glissando (sliding the fingers along the guitar neck to go through as many notes as possible between two notes),
Tremolo (either with a whammy bar or with the fingers, you «shake» the sound),
Hammer on (play the notes by moving the fingers on the neck without touching the strings with the hand above the microphones),
Pull off (same principle as the hammer on, but the pull off is made from high notes to low notes, while it is the opposite for the hammer on),
etc.

But above all, he popularizes tapping, which he uses throughout the last part of the solo. Tapping consists of tapping a string, with the hand near the microphones, rather than scratching or pinching it.

To facilitate this technique, he reduced the tension of his strings by lowering the standard 1/2 tone tuning down. This practice will be a huge success in the later evolution of metal.

Lyrics

The lyricists of heavy metal also develop their particularities:

On the one hand, they talk about everyday life, girls, alcohol, rock and sex.
On the other side, we find heroic fantasy, horror or themes linked to the Middle Ages.

If a band were to represent this genre, it would be Judas Priest!

Heavy metal = machismo ?

The answer is yes AND no.

Yes, heavy metal was a macho genre in the beginning. With their lyrics and their attitudes on stage, it has inherited the nickname of cock rock.

Indeed, their clothes keep them too hot because of their movements and the heat of the spots makes them sweat a lot. Hair stuck to the face, flowing and bare torsos accentuate their masculinity. Associated with leathers, heavy symbolism between the neck of the guitar and the penis, and tight pants, it becomes the obvious expression of male sexuality.

However, with the rise of the genre in the 1980s, the situation is changing! More people have access to this music – including women. And they don’t just sit and listen! They first invade hard rock and spread in heavy metal as well as in the more extreme styles that will appear later.

Heart, Vixen, Runaway, Pat Benatar, Lita Ford, Joan Jett, Rock Godess, Girlschool and so many others pave the way for women in hard rock and heavy metal.

Caricature Vixen, heavy metal — Joan Jett’

On this day, we can mention Maria Brink, Sharon Den Adel, Amy Lee, Simone Simons, Cristina Scabbia, Lzzy Hale, Taylor Momsen among so many other artists belonging to heavy metal (and subgenres of it).

Caricature Maria Brink, heavy metal — Simone Simons’

Caricature Sharon Den Adel, heavy metal — Simone Simons’

We can say that things have evolved today. Though we can still find bands corresponding to the description above, they usually do it for the purpose of stereotyping thoroughly bands of those years.

But, like many things, mentalities struggle to change! Still, some people on this planet consider, today, that women cannot do hard rock and metal as well as men.

So machismo is still present nowadays, but it’s less than at the beginning.

The different generations of heavy metal

The genre can be categorized into 3 generations:

1st generation of heavy metal :

In the groups of this first wave, we can mention:

Black Sabbath, Deep Purple et Led Zeppelin

Caricature Black Sabbath — Black Sabbath ‘

Caricature Deep Purple, heavy metal — Black Sabbath ‘

2e generation of heavy metal :

Hard rock and heavy bands such as:

Queen, AC/DC, Rush, Motörheard, Blue Öyster Cult, ZZ Top, Nazareth or Aerosmith

Caricature AC/DC, heavy metal — Motörhead’

Caricature Blue Oÿster Cult, heavy metal — Motörhead’

At the same time, the first explodes:

Conflicts within Deep Purple led to the arrival of Rainbow, the Ian Gillian Band and Whitesnake;
Led Zeppelin is weakened by Jimmy Page’s addiction to heroin and John Bonham’s addiction to alcohol;
Black Sabbath, equally shaken by alcohol and drugs, separates from Ozzy Osbourne.

The New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) :

In 1979, a new wave of British heavy metal appeared, the leader of it was none other than the band Iron Maiden.

Other groups from all over England are helping to feed it: Venom, Def Leppard, Saxon, Diamond Head, , Samson, Tygers of Pan Tang or Girlschool.

All were revealed and promoted in the magazine Sounds, which in May 1979 grouped them under the name New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM). Most come out of the shadows thanks to this and sign with majors.

Then comes a wave of releases of the first albums of this kind that we add to those of the bands of the previous generation. In those years, we can see that heavy metal is one of the most profitable rock genres. We can also see that, sometimes, the most popular heavy metal bands are those that also orient themselves towards pop music like Def Leppard, ZZ Top, or Whitesnake.

Heavy metal will obviously evolve over the years and give birth to many other genres, including a darker and noisier majority that we will soon see.

In the meantime, you can listen to the playlist dedicated to this article just below, and feel free to share if you liked it or if you think it could interest someone you know.