What makes heavy metal heavy?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MadAsAHatter
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Let’s start with, “What was the first heavy metal album?”
 
^I'd go with that :yes:

thegame said:
The question was, what makes heavy METAL heavy? I agree that non metal artists can evoke a 'heavy' feeling in their music but in a different way that doesn't necessarily come across as metal.
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For sure. The thread is about metal music that is heavy. Or, what makes it heavy. I spent some time thinking about this before I came and started reading but initial thought was like music in general - it is subjective. Everyone's definition might be slightly different.

It's like of like that other thread where someone said Van Halen was heavy metal. I don't consider them heavy metal but I could see why someone else might :dunno:
 
I like smoke and lightnin'
Heavy metal thunder
Racing with the wind
And the feeling that I'm under
 
thegame said:
The question was, what makes heavy METAL heavy? I agree that non metal artists can evoke a 'heavy' feeling in their music but in a different way that doesn't necessarily come across as metal.
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That is actually a good point. I don't want to pick on Nickelback for the 100th time but no matter how "heavy" their tones get, they never sound metal to me. They are rock or hard rock.

I'm sure there are other examples with other bands.
 
311splawndude said:
It's like of like that other thread where someone said Van Halen was heavy metal. I don't consider them heavy metal but I could see why someone else might :dunno:
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Yep, Van Halen is another example. Not metal to me either. Great White is another band that leans more rock than metal to me.
 
romanianreaper said:
Yep, Van Halen is another example. Not metal to me either. Great White is another band that leans more rock than metal to me.
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Yep. Just like Ratt and most of the other hair metal bands (as they were called). What about KISS?

But again, it is subjective IMO
 
These guys definitely help:

































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I think when it comes to music, most any emotion is evoked through tension and release. Whether the release is anger, happy, pretty or brutal, you need those moments of tension to pull at the emotion, to then let it snap back stronger and clearer.
 
311splawndude said:
Yep. Just like Ratt and most of the other hair metal bands (as they were called). What about KISS?

But again, it is subjective IMO
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KISS is rock but some metal moments Luke "Unholy", "War Machine", etc. Overall though, rock.

I'm trying to think of some bands with rock and metal records. I'm sure there are some. See Scorpions seem always metal to me, even early stuff.
 
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It's mostly silly clothes and lyrics for me. I kind of like it.
 
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IDK, but some of the metal today is sounding (and looking) very formulaic within a fixed set of parameters and dogmatic rules.

This happened in jazz IME back in the '80s, I showed up at a jazz gig with my Les Paul custom and you'd think I was the anti-christ. If you didn't have a pre-CBS Fender, JC-120 or Lab Series with a big-box hollowbody and play approved material to meet audience expectations: good luck!

FWIW, back in the '60s George Benson played a Les Paul with Brother Jack McDuff's band when he was 25; and I've seen jazz trios and quartets where the guitarist was using strats and other "non-jazz" guitars too. If Miles Davis appeared on the jazz scene today he'd be ignored.

Metal today is going the same way IMO. Formulaic, fixed set of parameters, rules that define it, etc. makes it boring. I'm sure Chuck Schuldiner wasn't thinking about the rules when he started Death.

IMO
 
rsm said:
IDK, but some of the metal today is sounding (and looking) very formulaic within a fixed set of parameters and dogmatic rules.

This happened in jazz IME back in the '80s, I showed up at a jazz gig with my Les Paul custom and you'd think I was the anti-christ. If you didn't have a pre-CBS Fender, JC-120 or Lab Series with a big-box hollowbody and play approved material to meet audience expectations: good luck!

FWIW, back in the '60s George Benson played a Les Paul with Brother Jack McDuff's band when he was 25; and I've seen jazz trios and quartets where the guitarist was using strats and other "non-jazz" guitars too. If Miles Davis appeared on the jazz scene today he'd be ignored.

Metal today is going the same way IMO. Formulaic, fixed set of parameters, rules that define it, etc. makes it boring. I'm sure Chuck Schuldiner wasn't thinking about the rules when he started Death.

IMO
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Kind of ironic coming from a genera that was about pushing limits and breaking rules.
 
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romanianreaper said:
KISS is rock but some metal moments Luke "Unholy", "War Machine", etc. Overall though, rock.

I'm trying to think of some bands with rock and metal records. I'm sure there are some. See Scorpions seem always metal to me, even early stuff.
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Please share the most metal Scorpions song for me.
 
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