Metal Reviews

Tell us how heavy metal is different (in purely musical terms) from related genres of music such as hard rock, jazz, classical, progressive rock, and punk. Tell us what makes heavy metal distinct.

If you want me to spell it out for you I will, as if I'm some kind of expert...

Metal is distinct from classical and jazz as because it's a form of rock music. Both classical and jazz have been around longer (in the case of classical, a lot longer) and require years of lessons and training for most people. I think of metal as a form of "folk" music because regular folks listen to it and can teach themselves to play it. In this respect, metal resembles punk more than any other form of rock, most obviously because of it's loud guitars and self-imposed "outsider" stance.

Metal and punk have influenced one another to such an extent that there's a word for it: "crossover". Both forms have been around since the late sixties and early seventies. Both seem to go on and on, spewing off sub genres and springing leaks into other scenes as they go along.

As much as punk rockers and metal heads have sneered across the aisle at one another over the years, the fact is that Metal musicians have listened to a lot of Punk, and Punk musicians have listened to a lot of Metal, now and always.

Tell us about the art of bass playing and how it is generally neglected in heavy metal.
What's criminally neglected in heavy metal isn't bass playing, it's lyrics, but anyway...

I was once talking with this guy who claimed to have assistant-engineered Metallica's And Justice For All. He summed up Metallica's philosophy toward the bass this way: "Turn it down to where you can't hear it and then turn it down some more". While probably a reaction to the death of Cliff Burton, this unfortunate attitude seemed to catch on in metal for a while (along with that horrid clicky bass drum sound).

Listen to Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Mercyful Fate or Venom's Black Metal. The bass has a huge, indispensable role in this music. Bass playing is all about bridging the gap between the drums and the guitars; being a solid rhythmic force while still bringing melodic information to the string section. Being able to do this while NOT overplaying is the mark of not only a good bass player, but a good musician.

Tell us why the keyboard is an instrument of heavy metal.

Have you ever heard of John Lord, Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, John Paul Jones, Jerry Lee Lewis or Beethoven?

Tell us about the ways and means of heavy metal drumming.

Did you know that there is an international conspiracy to rip off drummers? It's pretty unbelievable how shoddy most drum hardware is and how friggin' expensive it is. This shit breaks all the time, and drummers pay through the nose for it. We can put satellites in space but we can't make a reliable kick drum pedal?

Tell us how a heavy metal vocalist works best.

This totally depends on what style of Metal you're talking about, as the vocal style has such a huge role in defining it. You could put a Death Metal vocal over a Power Metal band and suddenly you're "Melodic Death Metal", or you could put a Black Metal vocal over a Death Metal Band and you're "Blackened Death Metal". You could put an Emo singer over a Melodic Death Metal band and now you're "Metalcore". See what I mean?

I like to mix metal vocals a little low, sort of in between the guitars so they don't dwarf the music and the band sounds nice and loud. Not everyone agrees with me on this. A lot of people like the vocals way up so they dominate the mix. This is how they mix pop music, all drums and vocals. It always shocks me to hear how many metal albums are mixed this way.

The human ear is psychoacoustically tuned to hear the human voice, so it's the first thing people hear without even realizing it. Vocals and drums are the most primordial and important instruments - the human voice and the heartbeat. In a metal mix, however, it's important for the guitars and drums to be loud.

Tell us why the guitar is the central and necessary focus for heavy metal. Discuss your views of guitar solos as well.

You mean electric guitar. The mechanics of playing a guitar and the way an electric guitar behaves when cranked to nosebleed volume have defined metal from the beginning. Metal is a product of these factors, not the other way around. Without the peculiarities of the electric guitar and the burgeoning amp technology that made them really loud and distorted there would be no such thing as metal.

Also, guitars are affordable, versatile and it's relatively easy to learn how to play one. Therefore, middle class and lower income kids can become guitar players without spending a fortune on a formal education. Electric guitars sound really angry and menacing when played with a lot of overdrive, and lower income kids generally feel very angry and menaced.

Guitar solos have gone from being an outstanding feature (Hendrix, Page), to an area of specialized innovation (Van Halen, Uli Roth), to a fetish (Steve Vai, Satriani) to a joke (Guy Man Dude, Shrapnel Records). Too often, guitar solos are used as a default arrangement tool that acts as filler and a chance for the guitarist to show off. There are lots of guitar harmonies and melodic passages in Hammer's and Ludicra's music, but very few straight-up solos. Once in a while there will be a solo, and it'll stand out because we don't hang leads all over every song.

Another factor that cannot be ignored is the "guitar hero", which was a huge part of metal culture throughout the seventies and early eighties. Blame this on marketing or blame it on the lust for glory of a few generations of impressionable young kids. You see the same thing today with rappers. Hero worship will always be used to exploit kids and separate them from their parent's money.

A bit strange point of view. Of course metal & punk are close genres, but the whole concept is breaking down, when we think about the 70's metal like Judas Priest, Rainbow, AC/DC which couldn't have been inspired by punk in any way...

I think of metal as a form of "folk" music because regular folks listen to it and can teach themselves to play it. In this respect, metal resembles punk more than any other form of rock, most obviously because of it's loud guitars and self-imposed "outsider" stance.

I think of punk as much more of a folk genre than metal. At least I mean the comparison is more universally compatible there. Metal has plenty of regular blue collar "folk" bands, but plenty of elitist ones as well, making it much harder to talk about in those terms.

Punk has tons of elitists. :|

None of those bands are metal. They're rock bands. Only Judas Priest ever touched upon metal, but they were mostly a rock band.

And where does punk come from? Rock.

I've always viewed those bands as being more rock than metal. I've always thought even Maiden had a good amount of rock there as well.

It's stupid to argue it, but that's what I think.

I've always viewed those bands as being more rock than metal. I've always thought even Maiden had a good amount of rock there as well.

It's stupid to argue it, but that's what I think.

Yeah, Rainbow, Scorpions and Iron Maiden have a rock edge in their sound, but they're still metal as fuck. Metal didn't just come out of nowhere in the beginning of the eighties.

I think metal is much closer to classical (and jazz to a lesser extend) than any other kind of music is. For me there's no other modern kind of music that gives such a freedom of expression and is so musically diverse than metal. And that's why according to me it's closer to the aforementioned two kinds of music.