And Rock Begot Metal

Copperfox

Well-known member
There is a young woman to whom I have become as a grandfather. Not the first such case. I'm trying to get Benisse to assist her in joining the revival of TDL; if the young woman gets on forum, she will probably use the name Wood Nymph.

Wood Nymph is a major fan of metal music, and has educated me in this esoteric field of not-overly-dignified performing arts.

Black Sabbath, she says, was the first band to be called "metal." The adjective "heavy" was usually added in those early days, because using the word "metal" in isolation seemed a bit odd. She adds that KISS and Bon Jovi were also among the early heavy metal bands.

Early metal bands maintained some ties to the world of rock. This included keeping the long hair common to male rock stars of the Seventies and Eighties. As the metal genre diversified, that first generation came to be called "hair metal," distinguishing it from the new styles that followed.

All metal music shares a tendency to keep instrumentation basic, seldom expanding beyond guitar, bass and drums. (Bands may work WITH orchestras, as Metallica has done, but the instruments of the band itself are unchanged.)

Thrash metal is characterized by rapid tempos. Death metal, just the way it sounds, offers grim, dark songs. Metal bands who particularly want to mock and ridicule God and His children come under the category of black metal, having nothing to do with their skin color. There's also "power metal," but Wood Nymph isn't sure how that is defined.

This much will serve to prime the pump for mining the history of metal.
 
Last edited:
And now there's "symphonic metal." Somewhat like Lady Gaga covering swing-era tunes in a straight-faced manner, symphonic metal bands are bringing back what Wood Nymph would call melodic singing, instead of screeching.

A female singer named Madeleine Liliestam decided, for whatever reason, to delete the first three letters of her first name to make the name of her metal band. Mad-eleine has been a fashion model also; and she is SO fabulously beautiful that she could stand beside Gal Gadot and NOT look ugly by comparison.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JABrGF8zh4
 
I am totally ignorant regarding this genre. How cool to see your example of openess to learning and reaching out. (I hope Wood Nymph does join us too.)
 
Benisse, Wood Nymph has tried to PM you over on Facebook. She does wish to join here, but it's been so long since I joined, that I can't tell her how to start. You could e-mail me on this subject.

Meanwhile, I'll mention that, before the draconian lockdown cancelled everything, she and I got to see a cinematic documentary of the band Metallica performing with the San Francisco Orchestra. The metal band blended surprisingly well with classical musicians.
 
I listen to the radio a lot. Unfortunately, most stations don't play any metal music except hair metal, because hair metal still has one foot in rock and roll.

 
There is a fellow active on YouTube who calls himself "Shredmaster." Thoroughly educated in music theory and music history, he produces videos which speculate how great composers like Bach and Beethoven would have adapted heavy metal music.

I give no link for him, because he uses some very bad language. But his musical presentations ARE entertaining.
 
Because Wood Nymph is preoccupied with some real-world business, I'll post again:

Tribute bands, which operate in a smaller geographical area and have lower expenses, are managing to find venues where the big artists can't. One such band, emulating Black Sabbath, calls itself "Back Stabbath." Another Black Sabbath tribute group uses a subtler name: "Sweet Leaf," which is a reference to some of Black Sabbath's work.
 
I, Wood Nymph, am back!!

The actual PHRASE "heavy metal" first appeared in the 1968 song "Born To Be Wild" by the band Steppenwolf. The original phrase was "heavy metal thunder."
 
Wood Nymph regularly listens to disc-jockey programs: both to enjoy the music, and to note what artists the DJ's prefer to play. Here is a recently-heard song she recommends. It has what she calls symphonic-metal elements.

 
It is possible to attend a hundred metal-music shows and never see any instruments being played other than electric guitar, electric bass, and drums. For that matter, often only one regular guitar. Apart from "symphonic" metal, numerous artists go on for years without seeing a need to add other instruments to the band's regular toolbox.

It might seem as if they're being artistically lazy. But classical composers were not lazy because they repeatedly composed more piano sonatas. They composed more piano sonatas because they knew that there WERE MORE possible sonatas waiting to be written. Thus with heavy-metal composers of any quality. They do not see the minimal guitar-bass-drums combination as a same-old same-old which has been all used up; they believe that, as with piano sonatas, there still was more to be done.
 
Here's a piano cover of a metal song.

The performer, calling herself Gamazda, is not QUITE as gorgeous as Madeleine Liljestam, but she's close.


 
A few years before heavy-metal music emerged as a genre in its own right, the existing rock genre cultivated an increasing artistry. This included more colorful subject matter. and more diverse assortments of instruments. What developed was what we now call "prog-rock," as in being artistically progressive. One of the major factors in early prog-rock was the band King Crimson, a jazz-rock fusion group. This artistic expansion was destined to be adopted by the metal genre as well.

 
Now, almost every song genre can have memorable, sophisticated lyrics, and Peter Sinfield came through in that department for his onstage friends. But you need to hear King Crimson's instrumental work to appreciate their fusion expertise. This wordless composition is from their album "Islands."

 
I believed that Madeleine Liljestam's band counted as progressive metal, but Wood Nymph says they are more properly SYMPHONIC metal. No matter, I still have a crush on Madeleine Liljestam.

 
Allow me a digression as the year 2021 closes.

Technology can repair human mistakes in an artistic performance; but it may also poison creativity. Wood Nymph has confided to me that she HATES IT when singers depend on sound manipulation at the expense of real creative effort. She and I would like you to know that the metal musicians we like DON'T take the easy way out by relying on auto-tune.


 
Don't say that I'm too fascinated with Madeleine Liljestam. Why, the last time I shared a video of hers was LAST YEAR!

 
Back
Top