The concept of heavy metal has many meanings. In addition, music critics interpret its origin in different ways. Therefore, in order to understand what it is, it is important to identify the boundaries of this genre.
Term
Many confuse rock and heavy metal. These are concepts of a different scale. Heavy is considered only a subgenre of rock music. If the groups of the 60s played in the spirit of The Beatles, then in the next decade, innovators accelerated the pace and added aggression to their songs.
Classic heavy metal appeared in the 70s. Today it is believed that the pioneer of the genre is the group Black Sabbath. Heavy metal bands focus on solos and guitar riffs. These are musical melodies (figures) played with the help of special equipment.
An important difference from rock music in general is the theme of the texts. Often they refer to history, mythology, wars, social problems, etc. Such songs have much more images and more often aggression or, on the contrary, sadness.
In Russia, heavy metal refers precisely to the music that appeared in the 70s and was brought to the ideal in the 80s. But in the Western press, the concept of heavy metal began to refer to the entire metal scene with new extreme genres that appeared in the 90s and zero. This is thrash metal, black metal, death metal and so on.
70s
The first real metal band is rightfully considered Black Sabbath. Four British released their debut self-titled album in 1970. The theme of the songs was a revelation for that time. Ozzy Ozborn did not sing about love or parties, as was customary in the then rock, but about witches, death, covens, etc. This mystical image has become popular in the genre. Today, the best heavy metal bands have successfully outplayed Black Sabbath songs.
The first Sabbath albums were mostly slow music. She had an afterlife and mild mood. Soon, this style was called doom metal ( doom translated from English as “fate” or “rock”).
The new wave of British heavy metal
This concept did not become a separate genre, but designated a phenomenon inherent in the late 70s and early 80s. Many British bands accelerated the pace of the game, added aggression, and so new music appeared.
The two most important groups that became the messengers of the new fashion are Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. It was an era when metal ended up in the mainstream. Many albums hit the charts of western radio stations.
An important feature of the new phenomenon was the attitude to vocals. Both vocalists of these two groups - Rob Helfod and Bruce Dickinson - sang in a new manner. It was a high tenor with a difference of a few octaves compared to the previous generally accepted manner.
Heavy metal bands began to pay a lot of attention to the image on the stage. Incendiary shows with thematic performances became the norm. For example, Rob introduced fashion to leather jackets and leather jackets, and on stage he appeared on horseback on a motorcycle. Bruce often dressed according to the plot of his songs. The legendary image of a British soldier during the Crimean War during the execution of the action movie The Trooper became legendary.
Heavy Metal in Russia
Of course, the fashion for new extreme music could not help but fall into the Soviet Union, even despite the Iron Curtain and artistic councils. The first groups appeared in the USSR at the dawn of perestroika.
The legendary group of this genre in Russia was Aria, which was formed in 1985 and at the same time released its debut album. Their stage image, lyrics and musical forms were largely adopted from Iron Maiden. The group today is often blamed for plagiarism. One way or another, they were the first of their kind and occupied their own niche.
There are other domestic rock bands that play metal and have achieved success. This happened, despite the popularity of stylistically different music in our country and the relative lack of demand for such a direction as Russian heavy metal. The groups representing this genre are "Epidemic", "Master", "Black Coffee" and others.
Some of them have contributed to the development of the phenomenon. In the early 2000s, the metal opera genre became popular. As a rule, this is a conceptual story with a single plot, set out on one album in musical form. Vocalists on this record play specific roles.
The first successful metal opera of domestic production was the album "Elven Manuscript" by the group "Epidemic". At the same time, many vocalists from other popular groups took part in the recording : Black Obelisk, Aria, etc. Thematically, the story gravitates towards fantasy. This image was largely adopted from the Blind Guardian. This German group spread the fantasy of metal fantasy in the 90s. The genre of the opera appeared thanks to the Avantasia project all from the same Germany.
Music gets harder
With their appearance, heavy metal bands were looking for new forms for their songs. The first offshoot from the classic genre was trash metal. Thrash metal was played even faster than the usual heavy. There is the so-called Big Four of the genre, thanks to which it became popular. These are Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax.
In the late 80s in the United States a new trend was born, which was called death metal, which means "deadly". The vocalists of such groups sang with a growl, that is, they began to growl on stage. The lyrics of some songs angered the public, because of which there were many high-profile lawsuits. One way or another, the genre has remained underground and today exists in these narrow frames.
In the early 90s, an even more extreme variety of metal appeared in Norway. She received the epithet black, that is, "black." Such heavy metal bands wrote songs about Satanism, often touched on the theme of nationalism, rejection of religion, etc. Varg Vikernes, who created the black metal project Burzum, became a famous figure. They started talking about him when he burned the church and went to jail. This genre is probably the most extreme and marginal in metal music.
New metal
Other performers, on the contrary, went to meet the mass listener. In America, at the beginning of the 21st century, new rock bands that used metal elements in their music gained popularity. Some combined it with rap or electronica. The performers of this echelon became the new mainstream, which hit the television and radio. It was the new heavy metal. Groups, the list of which was quite numerous, in particular Limp Bizkit, Korn, Papa Roach, etc., used recitative and samples - recorded pieces that were repeated using mixers and other equipment. Some composers used technologies used by DJs, etc. Electronics has become a popular phenomenon in metal.
Today, in the era of the Internet, the time of physical media is ending. The format that was common in the 80s and 90s as vinyl records or CDs is a thing of the past. Sales declined, many listeners download music from torrents. It touched and threw. As a rule, labels successfully sell only popular artists.