“Black” metal is not really to my taste, but friend of this blog and brother-in-law extraordinaire Josh sent me a link to this article on Norwegian black metallers Enslaved from, of all places, the New York Times.
The whole Scandanavian black metal scene has seen some pretty creepy stuff, actually. Church burnings, murder and suicide being the most notable, along with a lot of Satanic/pagan themes. In other words, black metal often is just what hysterical parents have often assumed all metal to be. (The Wikipedia article helpfully points out that black metal bands have criticized, for instance, Swedish death metal bands for their lack of “evilness.”) Here’s another article.
For what it’s worth, the Times article indicates that Enslaved has tried to transcend some of the cliches of black metal. Here’s a clip from their newest album:
“Gothenburg metal,” a.k.a. “melodic death metal,” takes its name from the scene originating in Gothenburg, Sweden in the 90s. Unlike traditional death metal, the Gothenburg style features “more melodic guitar riffs, melodic solos, and acoustic guitar work than death metal. It also contains more comprehensible lyrics as well as coherent singing along with traditional death growl vocals.” The Gothenburg style has been a big influence on the so-called New Wave of American Heavy Metal – bands like Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, Lamb of God, Unearth, etc.
Heavy metal is the Protestantism of music: it splits into ever-smaller sects, with their devotees often anathematizing all others. You have speed, thrash, death, grind, doom, sludge, glam, goth, stoner, symphonic, prog, metalcore, grindcore, deathcore, etc. ad infinitum forever and ever Amen.
But did you know there’s a sub-genre called mathcore? Mathcore, according to Wikipedia:
is usually filled with discordant, somewhat technical riffing, complex time signatures and song structures, and passionate, energetic vocals. Songs played by bands of this style tend to vary from mere seconds in length to over 15 minutes and rarely feature a conventional verse-chorus song structure.
Case in point:
Now, even I find this virtually unlistenable.
(Note: this post doesn’t replace our regularly scheduled Friday metal.)
A while back I posted a link to a video from this band along with a few other “Christian metal” acts. This past weekend we made a pilgrimage to Target in Alexandria – the first time we’d been there since moving in back in July, so lots of household items to stock up on – and I noticed they had AILD’s new album, An Ocean Between Us, pretty cheap so I picked it up. And I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. AILD is not a “Christian band” in the pejorative sense (they’re on Metal Blade records, after all) and this is good straight-up thrash metal with metalcore influences (or vice versa):
Okay, metal is a bit of a stretch, but there are definitely some metal inflections (along with funk, rap, reggae, etc.). More importantly, they’re just good.
If there’s any sub-genre of metal more disdained than hair metal it’s got to be late-90s “nu-metal” (also sometimes called – somewhat inaccurately – rap-metal). While generally quite terrible, there were some decent bands that came out of it. I have a soft spot for this band and actually own two of their albums (this review from the Village Voice helped to win me over).
In case you thought ATR was the only place on the web where Christianity and heavy metal fandom intersect, the blog Metal Sucks offers a “guilty pleasure” playlist of Christian metal. I’m not crazy about any of it, though the As I Lay Dying song is ok. And yes -Stryper does make the cut.
Hair metal has become synonymous with late-80s excess and VH1 ironic nostalgia specials. Many people consider the advent of grunge as something akin to divine providence due to its role in sweeping the radio clean of the scourge of hair (a.k.a. glam) metal.
Now, I’d be the last one to deny that there were some talentless overexposed glam bands. But there were also some genuinely talented bands that wrote some pretty good rock songs. (And, let’s not forget: grunge itself quickly become overexposed to the point of self-parody; it didn’t help that every record company was frantically signing second-, third-, and fourth-rate flannel-clad Nirvana and Pearl Jam sound-alikes.) Every genre of music has some original talent. Even the much reviled boy band and pop tart craze of the early 00’s produced some genuinely talented artists like Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera.
So, here’s a little sampling of some good glam metal:
First, Mötley Crüe, an early track, “Live Wire.” This is raw, punk-tinged rock played by guys who happen to look a lot like girs (except for the unfortunately homely Mick Mars). Also: Nikki Sixx gets set on fire in this video. Diagnosis? Awesome.
Poison, “Talk Dirty to Me” – I once saw an interview with Poison where they were asked about jumping on the hair metal bandwagon. Their response? “We built the wheels on that f—— wagon!” (Paraphrased from memory). But look: these guys just wrote some darn catchy songs, of which this is a premier example.
Skid Row – “Monkey Business.” These guys kind of straddled the line between hair metal and just plain metal. In fact, I once saw Sebastian Bach (post-SR) open for Anthrax and Pantera. On the other hand, they were not above a little power ballad action. But definitely a cut above many of their competitors.
Gn’R – “Sweet Child O’ Mine” – it’s debatable if they should even be considered glam metal – they definitely had glam influences, but also punk, blues, and straight-up rock. In some ways they were the death rattle of glam metal – overlapping with the grunge era. And they injected some much-needed sleaziness and meanness into a genre that had become too bubble gum (compare, e.g. Winger). Appetite for Destruction (released 20 years ago!!) still holds up. Will Chinese Democracy ever see the light of day? Axl only knows.
If you like lush, operatic European power metal with foxy female singers and videos that look like outtakes from Lord of the Rings, then this one’s for you:
A Thinking Reed 