A Brief History of Metal
The following is a whirlwind tour through forty years of heavy metal. Disclaimer: By no means is this a complete history. Therefore, don't email me complaining that I omitted your favorite band, or subgenre, or that I am an idiot. Trust me: I don't care. Rather, consider it a starting point; a primer for the uninitiated. For maximum retention, make sure you click on the links (ie. the year headings and bold text) to hear/see the many audio/video samples.
1970 - What is this that stands before me?
The Birth of Heavy Metal
 Black Sabbath (1970) |
Every story has to begin somewhere. Our story begins in England’s West Midlands, Birmingham to be exact, in the late 1960s. What happens when you have a generation come of age in depressed industrial town during an era of lost innocence? What happens, of course, is Black Sabbath. The quartet forged a sound that recalled the clamor of the steel mills that dominated their hometown. In the process, they unleashed a sonic revolution. Black Sabbath succeeded in synthesizing early rock ‘n roll, hard-edged blues and the “Devil’s Interval” with a nightmare and a long line of patrons at a movie theater to see a horror film starring Boris Karloff (incidentally titled Black Sabbath). Black Sabbath forged an entirely new and unique musical path, marked by Tony Iommi’s brooding guitar riffs, Geezer Butler’s intelligent lyrics and thundering bass, Bill Ward’s pounding drums, and Ozzy Osbourne’s, well, Ozzy. Sonically, the music was starkly dark and ominous, especially when juxtaposed to the “flower power” pop music of contemporary acts. Lyrically, Sabbath often addressed socially taboo subjects ranging from political corruption to recreational drug use to social ostracization. Nevertheless, the compositions and performances were minimalistic in form and execution. Yet, what they lacked in complexity, Black Sabbath compensated for in terms of power and intensity. For these reasons, my money is with Sabbath as the first proper heavy metal band.
1972 – It’s gonna break the speed of sound…
The Speed Kings Get Serious
 Deep Purple (Mk. II) |
Meanwhile, something was brewing in Hertford, just north of London. A quintet by the name of Deep Purple was experimenting with many of the same influences as their countrymen to the northwest. However, unlike the amateurish, workmanlike nature of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple featured a collection of professional musicians, each highly skilled and coveted for their instrumental prowess. What ensued was a hard-driving, turbo-charged, highly musical form of prototypical heavy metal, fueled by Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar pyrotechnics and Ian Gillian’s soaring vocals. The songs were equally as intense as Sabbath’s, only more complex with numerous flourishes of instrumental virtuosity. Ultimately, Deep Purple helped establish and define heavy metal as a genre while simultaneously challenging its limits and conventions. Now, if someone could only do something about the silly early-1970s clothes…
1978 – There’s many who tried to prove that they’re faster…
Hellbent for Leather
 Judas Priest (1978) |
With the musical foundation laid by Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, it was only a matter of time before someone synthesized heavy metal into a complete and proper ethos. Enter Judas Priest. Like Black Sabbath before them, Judas Priest hailed from Birmingham and sounded every bit the part. Yet, Priest incorporated many of the elements pioneered by Deep Purple. The quintet successfully combined the darkness and intensity of Sabbath with the musicality and complexity of Purple. Featuring the twin-guitar attack of Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing as well as the unworldly vocal ability of Rob Halford, Judas Priest ushered heavy metal into uncharted territory. Capitalizing on their unique talents, Priest ushered in an era of heavy metal that was at once highly rhythmic and melodic that interchanged between breakneck and more reserved tempos (sometimes within one song). However, the lasting legacy of Judas Priest was the introduction of the indelible image of heavy metal: leather and studs. Co-opted from London’s Soho gay club scene, Rob Halford (who is an openly gay man) incorporated the fashion into Priest’s stage show in the late 1970s. No one could anticipate at the time that the look would become synonymous with heavy metal. Nevertheless, heavy metal now had a look that matched the power and intensity of its sound.
1982 – Run to the hills, run for your life…
The New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM)
 Iron Maiden (1985) |
With the dawn of the 1980s came the birth of heavy metal’s second generation. Still centered primarily in England, this collection of bands earned the moniker the “New Wave of British Heavy Metal,” a play on the name bestowed to the “new wave” sensation in the pop charts. Vanguard acts like Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Saxon, and Diamond Head developed a distinctly new brand of heavy metal. Although heavily inspired by the founding heavy metal bands, the music of these new acts effectively eliminated influence of the blues, instead incorporating elements of late 1970s British punk. The result was a faster and aggressively bombastic sound. Lyrical, the NWOBHM bands ventured into new territory. Songs explored the realms of fantasy and mythology, yet also maintained the social ire of their predecessors. Building on this creative exploration, the NWOBHM bands, especially Iron Maiden, embarked on creating elaborate, theatrical stage shows that thematically complimented their music. These newly explored elements resonated with fans beyond England. Resultantly, heavy metal experienced rapidly growing acceptance and popularity in mainland Europe, North America and South America by the mid 1980s.
1986 – Come crawling faster…obey your master…
Thrash: The Anti-Hair Metal
 Poison (1987) |
Heavy metal experienced different interpretations as it began to disseminate globally. Nowhere was this more evident than the west coast of North America, especially Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Seattle/Vancouver. In Los Angeles, many bands developed a streamlined approach with a neutral, simplified sound and a focus on theatrics and showmanship. Bands like Poison, Mötley Crüe and RATT led the movement affectionately (or derisively, depending on perspective) known as “Hair Metal.” For Hair Bands, the spectacle was the product. Metal’s most commercially successful incarnation, hair metal sold good times through simple songs with lyrics about fast cars and partying.
 Metallica (1986) |
Moving north, other bands embarked on a path diametrically opposed to the hair movement. Drawing inspiration from the original metal bands and the increased intensity of the NWOBHM acts, a new subgenre of metal coalesced: Thrash Metal. Led by Bay Area acts Metallica, Exodus, and Testament (as well as Megadeth and Slayer in LA), Seattle’s Metal Church and Vancouver’s Annihilator, the thrash bands viewed the NWOBHM as an open challenge that culminated in a heavy metal arms race: harder, faster, louder. Thrash was the most extreme incarnation of heavy metal to date. Musically more rhythmic than melodic, its primary concern was complex riff played at breakneck speed, pioneered by Metallica’s James Hetfield, Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine, and Slayer’s Kerry King. The thrash bands challenged the norm and openly expressed their vitriol and discontent through socially conscious and politically critical lyrics. By the end of the 1980s, heavy metal was becoming schizophrenic, developing in two converging directions with each pushing conventions to extremes.
1990 – A new level of power and confidence…
Post-Thrash and Extreme Metal
 Pantera (CFH) |
Heavy metal had reached a crossroads by the early 1990s. The novelty of hair metal vanished as quickly as it burst onto the scene. Thrash remained too extreme for mainstream audiences. Some thrash bands, most notably Metallica and Megadeth, successfully experimented with a streamlined and commercially palatable direction. This move was a reaction to the rapidly growing popularity of Grunge (more on that in a minute). While some thrash bands turned to the limelight, others embraced the unbridled freedom of the underground. One act in particular, Dallas-based Pantera, enjoyed commercial success by exploring an evolved thrash-hardcore hybrid. Pantera championed many of the same conventions of thrash metal, only driven by extremes. The aggressively melodic guitar work of “Dimebag” Darrel Abbot combined with the sledgehammer vocals of Phil Anselmo created a no-nonsense, riff-driven sound that represented the natural progression in the metal arms race. Ironically, Pantera was pedestrian by comparison to the spectrum of bands exploring Extreme Metal. This broad subgenre represented the traditional conventions of metal taken to every conceivable extreme: severely detuned guitars, guttural vocals, unimaginably fast tempos, and radically taboo lyrical content. Extreme metal (which included Black and Death metal) attracted limited, but intensely dedicated, audiences that wanted to explore the possibilities beholden in metal. A simplified or streamlined approach did not satisfy such listeners and would only revisit the past. No compromise: take it or leave it. The masses opted to leave it.
1992 – Down in a hole and I don’t know if I can be saved…
Grunge and Days in Purgatory
 Alice in Chains (1992) |
The remaining audience not alienated by metal’s extreme diversion followed the exodus created by the Grunge movement in the early to mid-1990s. The emergence of Grunge truly signaled the death knell for hair metal. Led by Seattle’s Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains, Grunge picked up where hair metal left off: a simplified musical approach. However, the comparison ended there. Gone were the theatrics and upbeat lyrical subjects, replaced with a stripped-down, progression-driven approach coupled with lyrics obsessed with disenfranchisement and angst. Coinciding with the global recession of 1990-1993, Grunge resonated with the masses preaching a message of resigned despair. Speaking of resignation, the early to mid-1990s saw much turmoil for some of metal’s most successful acts. In 1992, Rob Halford abruptly left Judas Priest, which entered an extended period of dormancy. Likewise, 1993 saw Bruce Dickinson quit Iron Maiden, which carried on with increased irrelevancy. The aforementioned mainstream turns by Metallica and Megadeth continued into the mid-1990s with similarly veined follow-up releases to their commercial breakthroughs. With the original metal bands long since defunct (or enduring a non-stop carousel of lineup changes), heavy metal’s future was not bright. For all intents and purposes, as a mainstream commodity, heavy metal was dead. Thankfully, there’s always the underground…
2000 – Sell me the infection…
Resurrection, Revolution, and Rebirth
 In Flames (2000) |
During most of the 1990s, heavy metal languished in obscurity while Grunge and Alternative Rock dominated the modern rock charts. Ironically, heavy metal’s waning mainstream popularity was actually a blessing in disguise. Although the masses abandoned heavy metal in droves, the die-hard fans remained as loyal as ever, eagerly anticipating the next evolution of the genre. Luckily, metal bands enjoyed an increased freedom to pursue new and unconventional directions, owing to their absolution from the expectations and obligations inherent in big-time record contracts. Left to its own devices, many original and avant-garde interpretations (often the synthesis of multiple subgenres) exploded on to the scene: Symphonic, Folk, Melodic Death (aka Gothenberg-style), Progressive Death, Technical Death…well, you get the idea. In testimony to metal’s increased global diffusion, the Nordic Countries of Northern Europe was the epicenter of this creative surge. Led by Sweden’s In Flames, Opeth and Therion, Finland’s Nightwish and Children of Bodom, and Norway’s Dimmu Borgir, these acts pushed the conceptual boundaries of heavy metal to new extremes. The collective success of these underground acts reaffirmed heavy metal’s enduring appeal, driven by the loyalty of its rabid fan base. Perhaps, this success influenced the reunions of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and even Black Sabbath, who all reconvened their classic lineups at various points during the 2000s. Nevertheless, heavy metal sustained itself as a phenomenon despite virtually no mainstream support.
Epilogue
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So, there you have it. Four decades later, heavy metal thrives as a highly diverse, ever-evolving musical genre. That variety and growth are crucial to heavy metal’s enduring appeal. After all, in 1986 when Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine defiantly declared, “If there’s a new way, I’d be the first in line,” he meant it. Often mistaken for punk or hard rock, heavy metal can be a tricky subject open to much debate: to paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart, heavy metal is hard to define, but I know it when I hear it. While there are many nuanced and technical differences between the ever-expanding subgenres of metal, in the end, it’s all heavy metal. Based on the first forty years of heavy metal’s history, thankfully it shows no sign of slowing down of slowing down any time soon.
Harder. Faster. Louder. Forever.
Jeffrey Pearlin
December 2011