March 2010

March 13th, 2010, 10:11: metalmusicexpertGeneral

The Beginning of Thrash Metal

Thrash metal is another branch off the tree in metal music. Thrash metal is more fat riffs, drum beats and rage. Having fast guitars, lots of distortion and loud singing is included in this genre. "The Big Four" created the thrash metal genre and the structure for thrash metal. "The Big Four" include Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer, these are the pioneers of thrash metal. These four bands are the creators of thrash metal music which was created in the late 1970's to early 1980's.

At the late 1970's and early 1980's, there was a huge wave of British heavy metal music was circling. Expanding from punk rock and hardcore metal, thrash metal found its own style and technique. Putting together more complex and long guitar solos, adding some deep distortion, double rick bass drums and aggressive vocals is thrash metal.

Using complex and fast solos, long intros and pulling out long outros is common principle in thrash metal. Shredding was one technique these bands would use when playing complex quick speed solos. Shredding is a way to play notes quickly during your solos. Using techniques like hammer-ons and pull-offs. For the metal community and having these new styles being played was a great movement for the typical styles.

After the release of Slayer's "Haunting the Chapel", Anthrax's "Fistful of Metal", Overkill's "Self Titled" and Metallica's "Ride the Lighting" albums were released in 1984, broke open thrash metal. Each of these bands brought something different to the table of being the heaviest and fastest in thrash metal. This began a new world in the metal community and opened the doors as a recognizable metal genre.

Through a couple of decades and into the 90's there was a small change in the music and in the bands. With bands changing their style of thrash metal and new age bands coming in, there was a change in thrash metal. With band changing their style to more of a hard rock this changed fans perspective. Metallica's "Load" and "Reload" albums fit into this category. Not only did Metallica take a different route with their music, so did Megadeth. Megadeth's album "Countdown to Extinction" was a different style than their earlier releases.

Into to the year 2000 thrash metal has become very low in popularity. There are current bands that fit into this genre of metal music, Evile, Municipal Waste and Gama Bomb. Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax still release new albums and still tour around the world, just a little different than what they were in the 70's and 80's. Thrash metal will always be a recognizable metal genre because of what it changed in music. The fast riffs, solos and techniques used in thrash metal are being used today in all metal genres.
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March 8th, 2010, 14:25: metalmusicexpertGeneral

Folk Metal Community

Folk Metal has been around sense the 1990's. The earliest band that created this genre of music had to be Skyclad. They had an offshoot of heavy metal that included folkish instruments and folk singing. This genre of metal music has began to go mainstream and approach the marketing. More and more bands and styles are generating more folk metal. Europe is very popular with folk metal music bands, probably because of the style, history and inspiration that the region reflects. Romanticism and pagan beliefs are some of the more popular structures of folk metal music.

Like all other metal genres, there are always subgenres included. Some of the more popular ones that fall into folk metal are Oriental metal, Celtic metal and Viking metal. There is always the question who started folk metal. Most people say Cruachan started Celtic metal which was just the guitarist expressing interest in traditional black metal with a folk metal style. Primordial and Waylander help make the transition to folk metal.

Orphaned Land started making Arabic and Jewish style of folk music. This brought some media attention to the folk metal community in the early 90's. What they created at this time was later called Oriental metal, and through time has grew to incorporate many bands and styles all distinctively drawing inspiration from the Middle East.

In the early 1990's a Swedish band named Bathory started pioneering with flutes, clean vocals with some death metal growls into their music. This was the start of the genre Viking metal. Named after the infamous Hungarian countess, Bathory set the standard for all Viking metal to follow. Powerful ballads are combined with paganism and mythology in Viking metal. There are other bands that have taken this Viking metal style and put to death metal. Amon Amarth is one band that has death metal music with Viking themed lyrics. Bands are always trying to go beyond and above what the others are doing. Ensiferium is one of those bands and are probably considered to be at the top of the genre.

Masculinity and Nationalism are prideful in Folk metal. There are some Nationalism Socialism Black Metal bands that are not usually accepted by the fan base that hold a racist feature. This has had an impact on other bands to the point where they had to publicly denounce racism to the public.

Folk metal has really inspired a bunch of die-hard fans with many festivals dedicated to the genre. Notably Paganfest, Heathen Fest and Noctis Valkyries Metal Festival. As time goes on and the genre expands these tours and festivals have made their way from the cold northern lands from whence they came across the sea to the States.

Folk for the future has been known to be a 'passing fad', but not likely. For those that truly understand and appreciate the sometimes esoteric nature of the music, it will inevitably prove to have staying power, and with each generation of fans and musicians passed it will continue to venture into unknown realms with endless possibilities. Folk metal is for casual metal listeners that have monotony breakdowns and chugs to influence today's metal fans.
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