Progressive Metal

There is a saying in the art world, “less is more”. But if we were to think about this logically that can’t be true. How can less be more? Surely, more is more! This ideology of “more is more” is the cornerstone to Progressive music. Progressive music, or Prog as it is known, is usually identified as long songs with complex orchestrations and multiple time changes. But put simply it is complex music. Unlike art or psychedelic music which prides itself on the strange and trippy sound, Progressive tries to do more. This process results in longer more complex songs. Many an artist have gone in the progressive direction later in their careers, because they try to expand and push the boundaries of their own music. They did this by adding more to the arrangements, lengths, and the “meat” of the music. It can be identified with complex instrumentation, soaring vocals, and concepts that spanned from daring to the outlandish.

But to get a full picture of this music we have to look at its beginning in Progressive Rock or “Prog Rock” for short. Prog Rock can be seen as an extension jazz music, with the free forming experimental sound. Bands like Yes, Genesis and King Crimson added different twists and turns in their music that weren’t being used in music. They were trying to see how far they could go as musicians. These time changes made the music more complex. Just like any type of art form, music evolves over time incorporating different aspects of different mediums into the music.

After the foundation of Prog Rock was made by incorporating classical and jazz influence into the newfound genre, the next step was to add hard rock music. Rush was able to do this with great success. They combined Prog with the rock influences of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. Rush was able to push the envelope and fused complex melodies with rock. These desires lead to heavier music and the founding of what would become Progressive Metal. Rush musically structured their music into almost a narrative. This style is what helped create the epic songs in their catalog like “The Necromancer” on their album Caress of Steel. Even later in their career, they decided to be progressive in a way that was not thought of being progressive. They went with shorter songs. Rush also added a progressive twist by having an individual concept for each song without compromising the complex arrangements of the music. Again, more is more.

 The next step was adding heavy metal to Prog Rock. This pushed the genre into a more heavy direction. Queensrÿche (pronounced Queens-Reich) used the influences of heavy metal bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden to give them their metal foundation. The influences of King Crimson, Yes, and Genesis drove them to be more progressive. This fusion gave their sound a more aggressiveness Prog Rock sound. This sound evolved into what is known today as Progressive Metal. Much like their early sound, they grew as a band with the continual addition of progressive influences in their music.

One of the identities of Prog, although not exclusive to it, is the concept album. That is taking a story or theme and spreading it out through an entire album. One of the most notable concept albums is Queensrÿche’s “Operation Mindcrime”.

After the advent of Progressive Metal with Queensrÿche, many other bands have followed in their wake like Dream Theater. With each continued iteration of Progressive Metal, it has gone heavier and more complex with adding different aspects into the music. One such aspect is making the whole sound into rhythm. In other words, making the entire band sound the same, even the vocals. This is done by making every instrument basically into a percussive instrument, which makes the vocals mostly screaming.

Even bands that weren’t first considered progressive seem to have gone in that direction. For example, Iron Maiden had a longer song “Phantom of the Opera” on their first album. Even though most of Iron Maiden’s music has been comprised of shorter songs like “2 Minutes to Midnight”, this song and many others that have since followed are longer and known as the “Maiden Epic”. But since the turn of the century they have been steadily increasing the length of each album, from “Brave New World” to the most recent “Book of Souls”. This has to do with the increasing length of time on each song, and with the increased length comes more instrumentation within the song.

In conclusion, Progressive Metal showcases the music, shows how talented the musicians are, and how technical the music is as a whole. This can be described as the ever growing art form of Progressive Metal and Progressive Music in general.

Thrash Metal

Thrash Metal is a combination of New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) and Punk, making the music faster and more aggressive. Thrash was the antithesis to Glam Metal. Instead of makeup and hairspray to make them “presentable”, Thrash Metal bands wore jeans and t-shirts. They didn’t care what they looked or smelled like and they played how they felt. This movement can be attributed to Metallica as the torchbearers of this music. But without the other bands within this genre and their fans, they wouldn’t have been pushed to better themselves and their music. The movement started in LA within the Glam Metal scene. But soon they realized they weren’t getting any traction in the gloss infested venues, and moved to San Francisco. On the east coast in New York and New Jersey, there was Anthrax, Overkill, Nuclear Assault and many other bands. Even in Canada thrash Metal thrived with bands like Annihilator. Europe even had its big three of Thrash, with Kreator, Sodom, and Destruction. But the breeding grounds for this music was in the San Francisco Bay area. With bands like, Testament, Exodus, and Death Angel. But four bands rose to prominence in this genre, Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer, and Metallica, the Big 4 of Thrash.

The subjects in Thrash Metal songs are more akin to that of punk than of traditional metal. Talking about politics, atrocities committed by humans in the past, and the dystopian future. Each band also had different styles. Of the big 4, Anthrax was considered the silliest of the bunch. Their mascot was the “NOT Man” which comes from their song “I’m the man”. This song was one of the first fusions of rap and Metal. But just because of ascetics and attitudes doesn’t mean they can’t talk about serious subjects. In their song “Indians”, the subject is about the crimes committed to the Native Americans in the past by the immigrants, like the Trail of Tears. While subject matter is important for gaining exposure, what set Anthrax apart was the range of vocals of their lead singer Joey Belladonna.

Megadeth is the most technical out of the group. They have been called “a jazz band playing metal”. Megadeth has always been a group of great musicians playing metal that is more impressive than anyone’s solos. Dave Mustaine, the bands founder, vocalist and guitarist, started with Metallica. Before Metallica recorded their first record, Mustaine was suddenly and brutally ousted from the group. This fueled his anger and passion to be better than his former band. He formed Megadeth. Now the bands have reconciled. Megadeth was more political with their lyrics than any other band in the Big 4. Their three big hits are “Peace Sells… Buy Who’s Buying?”, “Symphony of Destruction” which is about the dangerous amount of power in the hands of the ruling class, and “Holy Wars… The Punishment Due”, which is about wars like the ones in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Then we have our favorite guilty pleasure SLAYER! Although, they should change their name to “Fucking Slayer” because that’s all you hear at a show from the fans. These guys walk the edge of being Thrash or Extreme Metal. Slayer is the odd one because of the intensity of the music and lyrics. The subjects are for example about a famous evil Nazi doctor who had done experiments on prisoners in WWII, such as sowing together two people and making them Siamese twins. This stems from the influences of wars and the atrocities committed, and horror movies and novels. Slayer’s music is not for everyone.

Although I have talked about three of the big 4, I haven’t talked about is Metallica. They are one of the most successful Metal bands in the world. Anyone who knows metal that is worth their salt, knows about Metallica. Metallica is comprised of music fans who hated the music scene around them. They decide to make their own music that they wanted to hear. This desire is what gave birth to Thrash Metal. They were miles ahead of every other band in the scene, and got majorly successful with their ingenuity. But there is one problem that many fans have with the band, which was their fifth self-titled album. Fans felt that they sold out, as in going too commercial. But they still play their old material, and still fill stadiums around the world.

Thrash Metal is one of my favorite sub-genres of metal. With my personal favorite band in this genre being Megadeth and Anthrax as a close second. 

Glam Metal

Glam Metal is a music sub-genre that emphasizes poufy hair, makeup, and overall glamour excess. They originally targeted the female audience with their looks and the male audience with the music. But it evolved to gain a more broad audience, with the ever changing looks and music of these bands. One such evolution was the power ballad. This type of song starts off slow and continues to gather speed, up until the climax of the song. Essentially the power ballad can be attributed to two songs, “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin and “Love Hurts” a cover by Nazareth.

Glam Metal started in the early 80’s on the Sunset Strip in LA. It became the most commercially successful subgenre of metal. In general, the Metal genre is considered outsider music. It is generally not found in the mainstream of American music. Much like many other subgenres, Glam had scenes on both the east coast and west coast, usually New York and California respectively. The east coast had bands like Twisted Sister and Bon Jovi. The west coast had bands like Mötley Crüe, Poison, and Quiet Riot, to name a few. Their music was influenced by bands like Van Halen and Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, and The New York Dolls. While the genre wasn’t necessarily defined by their music, their visual influences were.

With most metal bands, the live show is where they flourished. Their shows included videos, smoke, pyrotechnics, and all mannerisms of special effects on stage. But what ultimately gave this genre the commercial success was Music Television. MTV a brand new medium where the visual side of music could be shown internationally. These bands jumped at the chance to be on TV and launched their careers. Because these bands cared of what they looked like, they were very popular with the female audience. The first band of this genre to break it big was Quiet Riot. They were the first metal band to have their album, Metal Health, go to #1 on the charts.

Around the 90’s when the music scene was shifting, many of these bands either endured, took a break, or disbanded entirely. The bands that have endured or have reformed are now mostly thriving on their past material. Since the turn of the century, some of these bands have recorded new songs and put out new records. Most are just performing as nostalgia acts.

There is a big discussion on the name of this genre, and that is either Glam or Hair Metal. I don’t like the name hair metal because it gives the connotation that it’s only about the persons’ hair or appearance that they have. Where glam gives the genre a broader definition to classify the music. Although it has been said that GLAM stands for “Gay L A Metal”, that doesn’t really fit because all of the bands were targeting the female audience. But then again, that name came from the animosity between the other metal subgenre that came around the same time with similar influences, Thrash Metal.

In the end, I believe Glam Metal music is pop dressed as metal. It does have its merits and deserves a spot within the heavy metal genre. I believe that it’s a great starting point for those who want to check out metal music. But ultimately, this is only one part of Metal music. 

New Wave Of British Heavy Metal

This musical genre, New Wave of British Heavy Metal, started in the late 1970’s, was the answer to the punk rock movement. Its origin began right before punk emerged. This new wave took what the bands that came before them Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, UFO, Yes, etc. and evolved it into a faster more aggressive direction. But with the advent of punk music, this movement was delayed. With the rise of the Sex Pistols and The Damned among others, they had to bide their time waiting for them be noticed and get a record deal. But in 1980, Iron Maiden jump started the movement with their self-titled debut album “Iron Maiden”. This release sparked the beginning of the movement now known as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal or NWOBHM for short.

The bands with in this genre include the likes of: Iron Maiden, Saxon, Def Leppard, Motörhead, Judas Priest, and Diamond Head. While there are more bands that can be identified in this genre, the bands Def Leppard, Motörhead, and Judas Priest are the most controversial when it comes to whether they are a part of the genre. Leppard came around the same time as the others bands but had a different sound. They incorporated more melody into their music, and because of their song “Hello America” on their debut album, they were thought of as “sell outs” by their contemporaries. Motörhead and Judas Priest both debuted before the movement started, 1975 and 1970 respectively. Due to their influence and the rejuvenation of metal due to NWOBHM, both have released landmark records during this time. Motörhead brought into being speed metal and are the forefathers of the double bass drum. Judas priest is known for the S&M, leather and studs look to metal and made it look cool. As well as the duel guitar attack of guitarists K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton.

While I have stated that NWOBHM is the antithesis of Punk music, none is more true about the attire and live performance experience. Punks dressed with short or spiky hair, usually leather jackets, but otherwise a kind of DIY off the street look. Metalheads, on the other hand, had denim and leather, with patches of their favorite bands on their denim vests. In the live show, punk music had moshing. Metal on the other hand had the headbang.

This genre was instrumental in the look and sound of all future metal bands, and would go on to influence Thrash Metal, Power Metal, and Black Metal. The culture and music of these bands are still celebrated today.