heavy metal

• Dark Elucidation – A collection of discographies sorted by band, country of origin, and genre.
• Dark Legions Archive – Reviews of bands in all metal genres, a metal radio show, MP3 samples and historical and cultural analysis of the metal movement.
• Darkest Plague – Features news updates, album reviews, latest releases, tours, and merchandising information on popular metal bands.
• Darksoul7.com – Interviews, reviews, MP3 downloads, news, free email, message board and chat. Covers North America.
• The Dead of the Night – A listing of females in extreme music, information about «Ruffage,» the author’s radio program, and a description of the metal scene in Delaware.
• Decibel Obsessed Metal Cult – Underground black, death, thrash, doom and speed metal news, reviews, interviews, message board, pictures and links.
• Degradation Trip – Fansite with news, biographies, pictures, and reviews for bands on the Roadrunner record label.
• Encyclopaedia Metallum – Extensive database of information about bands such as discography, lyrics, and album reviews submitted by users.
• The Gauntlet – News, biographies, MP3s, videos, lyrics, tablatures, buddy icons, message boards, and merchandise.
• German Metal – Featuring a list of bands, news, mailing list, forums, chat, and an online store.
• Gravemusic – Includes original photos from live performances, news, vintage flyers, wallpaper, album reviews and audio samples.
• The Great Heavy Metal Poll – Poll page featuring categories such as Best Band, Best Album, Best Musicians, and Best Genre. Votes are sent through e-mail, requiring browser support.
• HardVideo – Streaming music video site.
• Headliners Team – Headliners is a metal portal with news, reviews, interviews, MP3, new releases, and a forum with an emphasis on Turkish, Bulgarian, and German metal.
• Heavy Metal Ball – Pictures, links, reviews and interviews.
• Japsounds – Interviews with Japanese heavy metal, hard rock and noise artists.
• Kickin It in Kent – Dedicated to metal bands in Kent, Ohio, featuring news, profiles, and MP3s.
• Kreate Network – Features information on selected bands such as Incubus, Korn, Staind, Machinehead, and Pantera.
• Mega Hard Rock Site – Features various information on selected bands such as Slipknot, System of a Down, Limp Bizkit, and The Deftones.
• Mega Metal Music – Descriptions of over 100 metal bands from the 1970s to the present. Includes biographies, discographies, pictures and album covers. Also features For Sale/Wanted lists, and metal trivia.
• Mega’s Metal Asylum – Includes links, webrings and awards.
• Melodic Rock – Offers news, reviews, interviews, playlists, tourdates, and concert reviews about German metal.
• Metal Empire – CD and live reviews, news, lyrics, tablature, forum and links.
• Metal Exiles – Reviews, interviews, news, radio, message board, and links.
• Metal Flakes – News, reviews, interviews, chat, message board, photos, newsletter, and surveys.
• The Metal Guide – Extensive database of Australian metal bands including contact details and links to official sites.
• Metal Headquarters – News, audio, video, pictures and chat.
• Metal Injection TV – Weekly streaming TV show, wallpapers, news and links.
• Metal Lives Here – News, videos, MP3s, reviews, tour dates, release dates, lyrics, pictures and links.
• Metal Madness – Offers news, merchandise, and biographical information for an extensive list of bands.
• Metal Massacre – News, interviews, chats, polls, and tablatures.
• Metal Mayhem – Offers a detailed description of several metal sub-genres, complete with suggested albums, MP3s, reviews, and news updates.
• Metal Planet – Features heavy metal news updates.

• Metal Tornado – Greek site with a lot of reviews, live reports, downloads and lots of other cool stuff
• The Metal Vault – Extreme metal reviews, interviews, heavy metal articles, e-cards, heavy metal links, heavy metal contest
• Metal Zone Prod.666 – Underground metal magazine. Interviews, video and information on the printed version.
• Metalfury – Progressive, power, thrash, speed and traditional metal ezine. News, tour dates, CD and concert reviews, photo gallery and links.
• MetalJet – Exploration of the metal world, history, genre examples, links, Seattle music scene, and features.
• Metallian.com – Features news, reviews, and interviews. Includes a metal encyclopedia.
• Metalliville – Rock and metal webzine featuring the latest CD reviews. Featuring interviews, live reviews and links.
• Metalpedia – Heavy metal encyclopedia and webzine featuring interviews, reviews, discographies and more
• Metaluk – UK ezine with news, reviews, interviews, tour dates, forum and audio.
• Mk Magazine – Chicago based magazine, with news, reviews, interviews, features, subscription information and links.
• Music Extreme – Dedicated to all forms of extreme music: black metal, death metal, grindcore, power metal, experimental, avantgarde, noise, gothic metal and more. Reviews, news, new releases and interviews.
• Music Incider – Music Incider has reviews, interviews, photos, and news.
• Necrometal – Features reviews,interviews, forums,chatrooms, net label, and musician related articles.
• Negura – Romanian webzine. Reviews, interviews, ideology and links.
• Nihilistic Holocaust – Extreme metal reviews and interviews.
• Nocturnal Horde – Frequently updated reviews and interviews, together with features and links. Hosting of official band forums as well as a general forum for discussions.

• KRZR – The Wild Hare – A radio station in Sacramento that plays Heavy Metal rock music.
• Maddog Rock Radio – Online station featuring unsigned and indie metal artists.
• Megawatt Mayhem – Metal show on Niagara’s 103.7 FM on Saturday nights. Listen online with Shoutcast.
• Metal Net Radio – Hard rock and metal internet radio. Also includes hosts, shows, CD ratings and links.
• Metallurgy – Weekly internet broadcast of 2 hour heavy metal radio show.
• NEUF Radio – Heavy metal and hard rock from the 80s to now.
• Nothing Universe – Real Audio samples from bands like Glassjaw, (hed)pe, Meshuggah, Six Feet Under, Vision Of Disorder.
• PenguinRadio: Metal – Directory of heavy metal internet radio broadcasts.
• The Psycholopedia of Rock – Weekly rock/metal show hosted by Zed on TotalRock.com radio.
• RTDS- Radio That Doesn’t Suck – Radio station, news, forum and staff listing.
• Rusty Metal Radio – Streaming radio station dedicated to hair metal, power metal, and other 1980s classics.
• The Sinister Plan – Extreme music and opinion radio, playing grindcore, death, doom, stoner, industrial and dark ambient music. See site for broadcast schedule.

Heavy Metal is a genre of music that emerged as a defined musical style in the 1970s, having its roots in hard rock bands which between 1967 and 1974 took blues and rock to create a hybrid with a thick, heavy, guitar-and-drums-centered sound, characterised by the use of highly amplified distortion. Out of heavy metal various subgenres later evolved, many of which are referred to simply as «metal», some being very far from the traditional conception of the genre. As a result, «heavy metal» now has two distinct meanings: either the genre as a whole or traditional heavy metal in the 1970s style, as exemplified by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Blue Cheer, Steppenwolf and others.

Heavy metal had its peak popularity in the 1980s, during which many of the now existing subgenres first evolved. Although not as commercially successful as it was then, heavy metal still has a large world-wide following of fans known by terms such as metalheads, headbangers, and moshers.

Heavy metal is typically characterized by standard types of instrumentation, especially a guitar, dark themes and lyrics, thick, uptempo rhythms and classical or symphonic styles. However, heavy metal subgenres have their own stylistic variations on the original form that often omit many of these characteristics.

According to Allmusic.com, «Of all rock & roll’s myriad forms, heavy metal is the most extreme in terms of volume, machismo, and theatricality. There are numerous stylistic variations on heavy metal’s core sound, but they’re all tied together by a reliance on loud, distorted guitars (usually playing repeated riffs) and simple, pounding rhythms.»

The most commonly used line-up for metal is a drummer, a bassist, a rhythm guitarist, a lead guitarist (in early metal bands a single guitarist often sufficed — see power trio), and a singer (who is sometimes also one of the instrumentalists). Keyboards are used in some styles of heavy metal and shunned by others, although it´s becoming increasingly popular. Guitar playing is central to heavy metal. Distorted amplification of the guitars, with effects, electronic processing and overdubbing, is used to thicken or amplify the sound. The result is simple, although some of the original heavy metallers joked that their simplified sound was more the result of limited ability than of innovation. Later, intricate solos and riffs became a big part of heavy metal music. Guitarists use sweep-picking, tapping and similar techniques for rapid playing, and many subgenres are now praising virtuosity over simplicity.

Heavy metal vocalists have wide variety in sounds among them, from mid-range clean vocals (Bruce Dickinson), to guttural growls (Anders Fridén), to high-pitched wails (Rob Halford, to even just talking (Alice Cooper).

The American band Grand Funk Railroad was one of the early heavy metal bands (along with The Who, for example) that set new benchmarks for sound volume during shows. The volume of the music was seen as a factor equal in importance to its other qualities. Though this influence is often denigrated as pointless extravagance, it has proven enormously influential, and still dominates many people’s perceptions of the genre. Motörhead and Manowar are more recent examples of bands that pride themselves on keeping the volume very high (see Manowar’s 1984 song «All Men Play On Ten»). This behavior was mocked in the rockumentary spoof This Is Spinal Tap by guitarist «Nigel Tufnel», who revealed that his Marshall amplifiers had been modified to «go to eleven.»

Heavy metal, as an art form, is more than just music—it is as much visual as it is audible. Album covers and stage shows are almost as important to the presentation of the material as the music itself, although they seldom exceed the actual music in priority. Thus, through heavy metal, many artists collaborate to produce a menu of experiences in each piece—offering a wider range of experiences to the audience. In this respect, heavy metal becomes perhaps more of a diverse art form than any single form dominated by one method of expression. Whereas a painting is experienced visually, a symphony experienced audibly, a heavy metal band’s «image» and the common theme that binds all their music is expressed in the artwork on the album, the set of the stage, the tone of the lyrics, in addition to the sound of the music.

Rock historians tend to find that the influence of Western pop music gives heavy metal its escape-from-reality fantasy side, as an escape from reality through outlandish and fantastic lyrics—while African American blues gives heavy metal its naked reality side, focusing on loss, depression and loneliness. Heavy metal has a relationship with spiritual issues in both symbol and music theory, as heavy metal chords and harmonies emphasize the use of open fifths—drawing ironic parallels to harmony changes in Christian Sacred Harp singing.

If the audio and thematic components of heavy metal are predominantly blues-influenced reality, then the visual component is predominantly pop-influenced fantasy. The themes of darkness, evil, power and apocalypse are fantastic language components for addressing the reality of life’s problems. In reaction to the «peace and love» hippie culture of the 1960s, heavy metal developed as a counterculture, where light is supplanted by darkness and the happy ending of pop is replaced by the naked reality that things do not always work out in this world. Whilst fans claim that the medium of darkness is not the message, critics have accused the genre of glorifying the negative aspects of reality.

Metallica’s debut album Kill ’em AllHeavy metal themes are typically more grave than the generally airy pop from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s—focusing on war, nuclear annihilation, environmental issues, political, and religious propaganda. Black Sabbath’s «War Pigs,» Ozzy Osbourne’s «Killer of Giants,»Metallica’s «…And Justice for All,» and Iron Maiden’s «Two Minutes to Midnight» are examples of serious contributions to the discussion of the state of affairs. The commentary on reality sometimes tends to become over-simplified because the fantastic poetic vocabulary of heavy metal deals primarily with very clear dichotomies of light and dark, hope and despair, good and evil, which do not make much room for complex shades of grey. One exception to this are certain power metal bands, whose lyrical and musical tones are often bombastic and optimistic. Many power metal fans and bands, most notably Manowar, believe metal should be inspiring and upbeat music.

Ozzy Osbourne — The Blizzard of OzzThe appropriation of classical music by heavy metal typically includes the influence of Bach and Paganini, rather than Mozart or Franz Liszt. Though Deep Purple/Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore had been experimenting with musical figurations borrowed from classical music since the early 1970s, Edward Van Halen’s solo cadenza «Eruption» (released on Van Halen’s first album in 1978) marks an important moment in the development of virtuosity in metal. Following Van Halen, the «classical» influence in metal guitar during the 1980s actually looked to the early eigtheenth century for its model of speed and technique. Indeed, the late Baroque era of Western art music was also frequently interpreted through a gothic lens. For example, «Mr. Crowley,» (1981) by Ozzy Osbourne and guitarist Randy Rhoads, uses both a pipe organ-like synthesizer and Baroque-inspired guitar solos to create a particular mood for Osbourne’s lyrics on the legendary occultist Aleister Crowley. Like many other metal guitarists in the 1980s, Rhoads quite earnestly took up the «learned» study of musical theory and helped to solidify the minor industry of guitar pedagogy magazines (such as Guitar for the Practicing Musician) that grew up during the decade. In most instances, however, metal musicians who borrowed the technique and rhetoric of art music were not attempting to be classical musicians. (An exception can arguably be found in Yngwie Malmsteen, though many argue that his music relies more on virtuosity and the use of classical-sounding elements such as the harmonic minor scale to appear classical without actually being classical).

Iron Maiden — PowerslaveThe Encarta encyclopedia claims that «when a text was associated with the music, Bach could write musical equivalents of verbal ideas,» Progressive rock bands such as Emerson, Lake, and Palmer and Yes had already explored this relationship before heavy metal evolved. As heavy metal uses apocalyptic themes and images of power and darkness, the ability to translate verbal ideas into musical ideas that successfully convey the ideas of the words is critical to heavy metal authenticity and credibility. An excellent example of this is the theme album, Powerslave, by Iron Maiden. The cover is of a dramatic Egyptian pyramid scene and many of the songs on the album have subject matter that requires a sound suggestive of life and death, including a song entitled «The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,» based on the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. However, the 1977 Rush album A Farewell to Kings features the twelve-minute «Xanadu,» also inspired by Coleridge and predating the Iron Maiden composition by several years. Bassist Steve Harris has also cited progressive rock bands such as Rush and Yes as influences on his own considerable talents.

The term «heavy metal»

Cover from Led Zeppelin. The album greatly influenced many heavy metal musiciansThe origin of the term heavy metal in relation to a form of music is uncertain. The term had been used for centuries in chemistry and metallurgy and is listed as such in the Oxford English Dictionary. An early use of the term in modern popular culture was by counter-culture writer William S. Burroughs. In his 1962 novel, The Soft Machine, he introduces the character «Uranian Willy, the Heavy Metal Kid». His next novel in 1964, Nova Express, develops this theme further, heavy metal being a metaphor for addictive drugs.

«With their diseases and orgasm drugs and their sexless parasite life forms — Heavy Metal People of Uranus wrapped in cool blue mist of vaporized bank notes — And the Insect People of Minraud with metal music»

Burroughs, William S, (1964). Nova Express. New York: Grove Press. p. 112
Given the publication dates of these works it is unlikely that Burroughs had any intent to relate the term to rock music; however, Burroughs’ writing may have influenced later usage of the term.

The first use of the term «heavy metal» in a song lyric is the words «heavy metal thunder» in the 1968 Steppenwolf song «Born to be Wild» (Walser 1993, p. 8):

«I like smoke and lightning
Heavy metal thunder
Racin’ with the wind
And the feelin’ that I’m under»

The book, «The History of Heavy Metal,» states the name as a take from «hippiespeak,» heavy meaning anything with a potent mood, and metal, more specifically designating what the mood would be, grinding and weighted as metal. The word «heavy» (meaning serious or profound) had entered beatnik/counterculture slang some time earlier and references to «heavy music»—typically slower, more amplified variations of standard pop fare—were already common; indeed, Iron Butterfly first started playing Los Angeles in 1967, their name explained on an album cover, «Iron- symbolic of something heavy as in sound, Butterfly- light, appealing and versatile…an object that can be used freely in the imagination» Iron Butterfly’s 1968 debut album was entitled Heavy. The fact that Led Zeppelin (whose moniker came partly in reference to Keith Moon’s jest that they would «go down like a lead balloon») incorporated a heavy metal into its name may have sealed the usage of the term.

In the late 1960s, Birmingham, England was still a centre of industry and (given the many rock bands that evolved in and around the city, such as Led Zeppelin, The Move, and Black Sabbath), some people suggest that the term Heavy Metal may have some relation to such activity. Biographies of The Move have claimed that the sound came from their ‘heavy’ guitar riffs that were popular amongst the ‘metal midlands’.

Sandy Pearlman, original producer, manager and songwriter for Blue Öyster Cult, claims to have been the first person to apply the term «heavy metal» to rock music in 1970.

A widespread but disputed hypothesis about the origin of the genre was brought forth by «Chas» Chandler, who was a manager of the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1969, in an interview on the PBS TV programme «Rock and Roll» in 1995. He states that «…it [heavy metal] was a term originated in a New York Times article reviewing a Jimi Hendrix performance,» and claims the author described the Jimi Hendrix Experience «…like listening to heavy metal falling from the sky.» The precise source of this claim, however, has not been found and its accuracy is disputed.

The first well-documented usage of the term «heavy metal» referring to a style of music, appears to be the May 1971 issue of Creem, in a review of Sir Lord Baltimore’s Kingdom Come. In this review we are told that «Sir Lord Baltimore seems to have down pat most all the best heavy metal tricks in the book». Creem critics David Marsh and Lester Bangs would subsequently use the term frequently in their writings, often in negative connotations in regards to bands such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.

Regardless of its origin, heavy metal may have been used as a jibe initially but was quickly adopted by its adherents. Other, already-established bands, such as Deep Purple, who had origins in pop or progressive rock, immediately took on the heavy metal mantle, adding distortion and additional amplification in a more aggressive approach.

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