HEAVY METAL & PUNK HARDCORE - PART ONE
According to most metal annals, the first outbursts came from the Kinks
with 'You Really Got Me' and the Who with 'My Generation'
around 1964. As for the first heavy metal artist, that position arguably
belongs to Alice Cooper, whose band
was founded in 1965 under the name The Spiders (that means the Coop
has been at it for 33 years!). However, HEAVY METAL was not to truly
flourish until the year of 1967 and Alice Cooper was to become embedded
in the collective mind of the world until 1971 with the classic Love
It To Death. During 1967, the rock world was still absorbed by the Summer
of Love, but it was about to witness one of its most important revolutions;
bands like Vanilla Fudge, Iron Butterfly, Steppenwolf,
Grand Funk Railroad, Uriah Heep, Black Widow and Atomic
Rooster came to being between 1966 and 1970, and struck the world with
what Steppenwolf would call in one of its songs 'heavy metal thunder"
(the first time the term was ever used; originally used to describe the
sound of a motorcycle).
A new type of music, which borrowed heavily from rock and roll, was gaining
influence on the youth of those times, which was already getting tired of
the stagnant Summer of Love scene. Cream and the Jimi Hendrix
Experience were the first bands to give (hard)
rock a high commercial profile. Several new bands were spawned by the
growing heavy metal explosion, while others like Status Quo hardened
their sound; but until 1973 the kings of heavy metal were undoubtedly Led
Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Black
Sabbath. During the mid-Seventies, six new bands were to also walk into
the spotlight: the Blue Oyster Cult, Thin Lizzy, Judas
Priest, Queen, Aerosmith, and Kiss. While a number
of heavy metal bands cemented their reputation as rock giants for years
to come, certain bands would begin taking another highly popular form of
music, Progressive Rock, into a
heavier direction. Unfortunately, metal was to stagnate completely in the
late Seventies. Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy, and Black Sabbath were digging their
own tombs because of their drug-consuming habits, Kiss had lost its charm
because of over-commercialization and Led Zeppelin ended with the death
of drummer John Bonham; only Judas Priest and Queen remained almost intact
during these times. And not only were the greatest bands dying slowly, but
every new band was just ripping off the old glory; metal was on its dying
bed. Only a few bands were still thriving among the ruins, among them AC/DC
and Rush.
Then came metal's brother music, PUNK , to save the rock scene
from an untimely demise. A slew of new bands that could barely play their
instruments and protested about fascism, their governments, and basically
everyday life, were to take the spotlight with their raucous stage antics
and their three-chord songs imbued with righteous fury. Influenced by
the first punk outings of Iggy and the Stooges, the MC5,
and the glittery New York Dolls during the 60's and early 70's,
the Sex Pistols, the Ramones,
the Clash, the Damned, Siouxsie and the Banshees;
and relatively more obscure bands, such as Pagans, the Dead
Boys, the UK Subs, the Misfits, Crass, the Exploited
and the Plasmatics were to storm upon the world. Punk's greatest
contributions to the punk/heavy metal scene were probably the wide
use of slamdancing, the renaissance of energetic music, and the
wide propagation of protests against the wrongdoings of society. Perhaps
the three most important bands of punk were Iggy and the Stooges, the
Ramones, and the Sex Pistols.
While punk was taking over strongly among the youth, another raw and aggressive
band would begin making an impact: Motorhead. Motorhead would signify
the beginning of what is known today as thrash/speed/power metal,
and which would later originate death metal. While punk was shaking
the foundations of rock n' roll, heavy metal came back with Scorpions,
Accept, and the short-lived New Wave of British Heavy Metal
(NWOBHM). The highly important British invasion brought with itself
bands like the acclaimed Diamond Head, Def Leppard, Iron
Maiden, Saxon, Samson, Venom,
Raven, and Sweet Savage, of which only Iron Maiden and Def
Leppard were to survive. Meanwhile, Iron Maiden brought back the mystic
imagery of heavy metal while pounding out some of the heaviest riffs of
their time. They were to remain the heaviest band to rule the arena hard-rock
circuit for years until the advent of Metallica. While Maiden pounded
out harmonized and majestic guitar riffs backed by a thunderous, Venom would
truly begin the thrash metal genre with classic albums in which they
also flirted occasionally with what would turn out to be death and black
metal later on.
As in the past, the United States decided to bite back with a vengeance,
which was embodied in the pop/glam metal explosion of the 80's.
Van Halen was already there since 1978 and had become an arena
band. The prototypical Journey had sold millions of records since
its inception in 1972 with its keyboard-oriented metal, and later Angel
and Foreigner would begin breaking through to the masses while
Montrose released legendary music. But the real vengeance came
in the early Eighties with Motley Crue and Ratt. Both bands
also took the glam images from bands such as Alice Cooper, New York Dolls,
Kiss, and Gary Glitter. Bon Jovi was the second most successful
metal band ever, right after Def Leppard. These two bands perfectly learned
how to take metal's harshness and mix it with pop's accessibility, therefore
producing a perfect blend for the MTV-influenced youth of those
days. Guns n' Roses was what the pop metal scene needed. They took
the spotlight immediately with their mix of the Hanoi Rocks, the
Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, and the previous pop metal bands. Partly due
to efforts of newer melodic bands that stuck to heavy metal, such as the
constantly evolving Savatage, the 'Kings of Metal' Manowar,
each with its own style. Several of the Seventies' legendary bands would
make comebacks throughout the Eighties with different degrees of success,
but there was no synchronized revival of the pioneering metal of old,
partly because many bands had lost either their originality or the passion
that had characterized their early impact. While pop metal ruled the airwaves,
fans of bands like Motorhead and Venom panicked as they saw metal become
a softer, more mainstream gender of music.
They were relieved, however, by the rise of thrash/speed/power metal
(the last label being separated sometimes because of its strong epic
song stylings), spearheaded by Metallica. Metallica began combining
multiple riffing, snarling vocals, and a wide use of double-pedals in
drumming to produce music which was totally uncompromising and ferocious,
therefore being shunned by MTV and commercial radio stations. At this
time, three other thrash metal bands took over along with Metallica: Megadeth,
Anthrax, and Slayer (considered by some a death metal
band). The scene would have died out if it hadn't been for an underground
network in which band demos and records were quickly exchanged and distributed
throughout the world. Exciter, Overkill, Nuclear Assault,
Dark Angel, Destroyer, and a number of other bands became
known by the thrash scene underground and developed strong cult followings.
However, thrash metal had not yet acquired the influence it deserved.
Speed metal finally hit paydirt when Metallica's masterpiece, Master
of Puppets, reached the gold mark (500,000 albums sold) in 1986. This
catapulted Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth into stardom as well, and began
the rise of thrash metal in commercial circles. The answer to pop metal
had arrived in the form of an uncompromisingly brutal form of heavy metal.
Another trend that suddenly gained impressive influence during the late
eighties would be power metal. A style that took the speed and heaviness
of speed metal and combined it with epic song stylings caracteristic of
classic metal, power metal would be divided into two types. The standard,
or 'American' style of power metal was played by bands like Metal
Church, Savatage, and Manowar; and despite its epic
proportion it inherited mainly from speed metal. Meanwhile, melodic, or
'Euopean' power metal was a style that concentrated mainly on the
combination of speed and classic elements, with the occasional inclusion
of progressive tendencies.
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TO PART TWO
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