(This was originally posted on boilercamp.us on 6/8/10. There's a month gap here, most of my posts in May were about auto racing news past.)
The other day, I was driving around with my good friend and former staff resident Matt Jackson (his blog can be found here), and we were having a discussion about metal as he went through the mix CD I have in my car. He is borrowing my guitar for the summer and making a valiant effort to learn how to play, and is seeing what I see in metal - the musicianship. Eventually the conversation shifted to the history of metal, of which I actually made a Word document and emailed it to him. The following is that same document. Bear with it, it is somewhat long (I struggled keeping it to two pages!), but very informative if you have a genuine interest on the subject.
Many metal fans have the debate as to who was the original metal band: Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath. For me, there is no debate, as they both put the first pieces in place to create metal as we know it today (see my blog for my rule of thumb definition of metal)
I start with Black Sabbath. Black Sabbath was responsible for the sound of metal, that gloomy, dark, heavy sound we know. Tony Iommi, guitarist of the band, was once a metal worker. An accident caused him to lose the fingertips of his fret hand, and wore rubber caps on them when he played, which added to the dark sound. In a review for one of their first shows, their sound was described as being "heavy metal-laden." The moniker of heavy metal stuck.
Here is their song Paranoid - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZyVZFJGX5g
Led Zeppelin was responsible for bringing the musicianship, flair, and poetic lyrics to metal. Most bands today have a very good mix of the musicianship and poetry Led Zeppelin was famous for, along with the dark, heavy sound Black Sabbath pioneered.
AC/DC kept metal alive and popularized during the late 70s and early 80s
Highway to Hell - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQIxn7s3ym8
Two more classic bands from the 70s and 80s metalheads have great dispute over as to who was better are Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. To me, there is no dispute, as the bands are two completely different bands and are impossible to compare.
Judas Priest: Breaking the Law - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L397TWLwrUU
Iron Maiden: Run to the Hills - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xR4TZsZOPU
Judas Priest were, eccentric, to say the least, and it opened the floodgates to hair metal in the early 80s. I will skip over the hair metal craze, I like to pretend it never happened. A band came around in the early to mid 80s by the name of Metallica to break the hair metal craze, and are the most influential metal band of all time.
After the release of their demo No Life 'Til Leather, guitarist Dave Mustaine was kicked out of the band after a fight with frontman James Hetfield. Mustaine went on to form Megadeth, another one of the most influential metal bands of all time. In my opinion, Megadeth is a better band than Metallica is, but they never met the fame Metallica gained.
Hangar 18 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tzWc3Xl4B0
Pantera, Anthrax, and Slayer round out the Big Five of 80s thrash metal. Unfortunately, Pantera is not around anymore. Their guitarist Dimebag Darrel was killed onstage in 2004 while playing for Damageplan, a band he started with his brother and former drummer of Pantera Vinnie Paul. Members of Pantera had serious issues with each other, and were never likely to come together again, anyway. The Big Five is now reduced to the Big Four. While Metallica and Megadeth inspired musicianship, Pantera created the "chainsaw" kind of sound most bands have today (mids scooped out), Anthrax brought a punk attitude to metal, and Slayer brought the brutality and disturbing images, all of which still run rampant in metal today.
Pantera: Cowboys from Hell - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_WZkCgeXWk
Anthrax: Madhouse - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGHsxMqpL0c
Slayer: Raining Blood - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgpzLUCY0rU
This rounds out the history of metal and brings us to current bands, of which I will mention some of my favorites (in no particular order):
Trivium is a group from Orlando, a four-piece with members who aren't much older than us. Their front man, Matthew Kiichi Heafy, is half Japanese, and a lot of their newer material is based in Japanese culture and mythology. They also have a lot of material based on Greek mythology.
Pull Harder on the Strings of your Martyr - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0dD59FYxJ4
Kirisute Gomen - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgnJSZQNKJM
Becoming the Dragon - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rSfGtLzshc
Protest the Hero is a group from Canada. Words cannot describe them. I just love them to death. Haha
Blindfolds Aside - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgB1HFZIh3c
Bloodmeat - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhMfz4HrcEA
Sequoia Throne - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWig9FwqWpk&feature=channel
The Black Dahlia Murder are a bunch or nerdy dudes from Michigan. Songs ranging from Castlevania themed to necrophilia. Very poetic though.
What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0d2LAgN-Q4
Deathmask Divine - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8sVXo82V3I
This is me keeping it really short, but certainly the highlights!
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