A form of Hard Rock that began with Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Purple Haze in the late 1960s and early 70s. Metal is considered the Biggest of the three main forms of Hard Rock, followed by Punk then Grunge. Heavy Metal is composed of big, aggresive sounds produced primarily by electric guitars, bass guitars, and drums. THe vocals are generally very guttural (hoarse and deep voice sounds) or high pithced and shrieking. Metal has almost countless sub-genres including, but not limited to, Hair/Glam Metal, Speed Metal, Thrash, Classic Metal, Nu Metal, Gothic Metal, Black MEtal, Folk Metal, Progressive, and many more.
Some of the greatest Heavy MEtal Bands include Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Iron MAiden, AC/DC, Anthrax, Metallica, KISS, Motley Crue, and Alice Cooper
by northendwhitetrash January 21, 2007
I'm also going to delve into this "definition" i suggest that people who know nothing about metal but make accusations anyway look up lyrics to Iron Maiden.
"Can you sing about something else besides Satan?" Try every non-number of the beast iron maiden song.
"Can you sing at all?" Yes. Listen to journeyman. listen to silent lucidity
"Can you not be such goth fucktards?"
Jeans and leather aren't goth
"Can you focus more on music and maybe write some non-retarded lyrics and maybe get someone who can actually sing to sing them?" Pop music is the one that normally has shitty lyrics. Steve harris has a history major, and he writes songs pertaining his knowledge
"Can you make it a little more normal and a little less like goth vampire shit?"
The classic metal clothing is jeans and a t-shirt, or leather. or anything with a "i don't care what you think of me attitude"
"Can you make it a little more closer to rock & roll?" We could, but don't want to
"Can you go five seconds without mentioning Satan?" Hallowed be thy Name, For the Greater Good of God, etc. there's plenty
"^And why the fuck do you do that anyways in the first place?" Shock value
"Do you even know the difference between something that sounds like shit and noise and mud vs. something that actually sounds good?" Silent Lucidity is amazing. Listen to it and tell me i'm wrong. (And It's Queensryche, so it's metal)
"Can you sing about something else besides Satan?" Try every non-number of the beast iron maiden song.
"Can you sing at all?" Yes. Listen to journeyman. listen to silent lucidity
"Can you not be such goth fucktards?"
Jeans and leather aren't goth
"Can you focus more on music and maybe write some non-retarded lyrics and maybe get someone who can actually sing to sing them?" Pop music is the one that normally has shitty lyrics. Steve harris has a history major, and he writes songs pertaining his knowledge
"Can you make it a little more normal and a little less like goth vampire shit?"
The classic metal clothing is jeans and a t-shirt, or leather. or anything with a "i don't care what you think of me attitude"
"Can you make it a little more closer to rock & roll?" We could, but don't want to
"Can you go five seconds without mentioning Satan?" Hallowed be thy Name, For the Greater Good of God, etc. there's plenty
"^And why the fuck do you do that anyways in the first place?" Shock value
"Do you even know the difference between something that sounds like shit and noise and mud vs. something that actually sounds good?" Silent Lucidity is amazing. Listen to it and tell me i'm wrong. (And It's Queensryche, so it's metal)
by Noob Salad41 August 27, 2008
An excellent animated movie based on the Magazine. The original far outshines it's sequel, Heavy Metal 2000.
by jianna April 26, 2004
by yeah July 14, 2003
I really can't blame anyone for hating metal when they get their exposure from headbanger's ball. Understand that true metalheads don't call most of that shit metal. Most of it's there just to sell an image. Most real metal is way underground. You really have to look around to find the good stuff since it's an extreme artform that most people can't appreciate. Chances are that the mall won't carry any good metal except for bay thrash (basically just metallica and megadeth, and even there you have to know what you're looking for.) Instead of giving you a rundown of all the awesome metal bands out there, I'll give you some reasons to be intrigued.
1.True metal is based around a philosophy that one should take action to remake the world as one sees fit. The best example the the phenomenon of black metal. At its beginnings, it was not so much a music genre as an underground social movement, that centered around several bands in Norway such as Mayhem and Burzum. The satanic imagery was used not so much as a litteral reference to Satan as a symbol of the counteraction to Christian culture. The goal of these bands was litterally to rid Norway of Christianity and return it to its pagan roots. People connected with the band did indeed burn churches, but it was not for shock value, it was what they believed in.
2.Much true metal is more technically involved than any other music except for classical and real jazz. Obviously the drums and guitars and very fast, but also death metal is strenuous for the left hand because of the number of diffent notes being played and the unusual orders they come in. Black metal is very layered and harmonic and requires a good understanding of scales and modes. Usually the keyboard parts are very complex. The drumming is also complex, and not just fast, especially with math metal, which is often very syncopated and some bands such as Meshuggah use polymetrics to create an extrordinarily disjointed sound which is difficult for almost anyone to follow. Also the melodic singing is more demanding than most types of music, and even the growling vocals and more difficult to do convincingly than you might imagine.
3.There is more diversity in metal than most genres, everything from the soaring symphonic arrangements of bands like Nightwish and Sonata Arctica to sheer noise and aggression to the barely controlled chaos of the Dillinger Escape Plan to the folk awesomeness of Finntroll and everything in between.
In short, true metal is not about pretense like most of the modrock and fashioncore popular today. Yes, there are some shitty metal bands out there, but if you can find the ones that are there because they believe in themselves and have real talent, you may really start to appreciate them.
1.True metal is based around a philosophy that one should take action to remake the world as one sees fit. The best example the the phenomenon of black metal. At its beginnings, it was not so much a music genre as an underground social movement, that centered around several bands in Norway such as Mayhem and Burzum. The satanic imagery was used not so much as a litteral reference to Satan as a symbol of the counteraction to Christian culture. The goal of these bands was litterally to rid Norway of Christianity and return it to its pagan roots. People connected with the band did indeed burn churches, but it was not for shock value, it was what they believed in.
2.Much true metal is more technically involved than any other music except for classical and real jazz. Obviously the drums and guitars and very fast, but also death metal is strenuous for the left hand because of the number of diffent notes being played and the unusual orders they come in. Black metal is very layered and harmonic and requires a good understanding of scales and modes. Usually the keyboard parts are very complex. The drumming is also complex, and not just fast, especially with math metal, which is often very syncopated and some bands such as Meshuggah use polymetrics to create an extrordinarily disjointed sound which is difficult for almost anyone to follow. Also the melodic singing is more demanding than most types of music, and even the growling vocals and more difficult to do convincingly than you might imagine.
3.There is more diversity in metal than most genres, everything from the soaring symphonic arrangements of bands like Nightwish and Sonata Arctica to sheer noise and aggression to the barely controlled chaos of the Dillinger Escape Plan to the folk awesomeness of Finntroll and everything in between.
In short, true metal is not about pretense like most of the modrock and fashioncore popular today. Yes, there are some shitty metal bands out there, but if you can find the ones that are there because they believe in themselves and have real talent, you may really start to appreciate them.
by Salient Alien July 8, 2005
A form of music that came about in the late 70's and reached its peak of success in the early 80's. It was the first form of "metal" music and it has roots in 70's hard rock. contrary to popular belief the term has nothing to do with newer metal genres as these genres should be referred to as simply "metal". The metal genres most similar to heavy metal are "speed metal" and "power metal". There are some heavy metal bands that started out as hard rock bands such as Judas Priest and Riot. These bands are sometimes referred to as "proto-metal".
by heavy metal machine September 11, 2009
Heavy Metal is a great Genre. It all started in the 60s where The Kinks "You really got me" showed a perfect example of a metal riff, And steppenwolf said the perfect name for the genre in the lyrics "Heavy Metal Thunder" in the song Born to be wild (though the word thunder never made it)It was created by the legendary greats Black Sabbath in 1970. When Tony lost his fingers tips he thought he would never play again but when you replace them with plastic covers he made monster riffs never imagined to be loved forever. Heavy Metal is characterize with Rock n Roll, BluesRock, Hard Rock, and Psychedelic rock. BANds like Judas Priest, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Iced Earth, Blind Guardian, Dream Theater are really perfect examples of true heavy metal.
In the late 70s, Metal was losing populartiy cause of such "music" such as Punk which ran in the UK, and Disco, whci ran in the US. Punk was just banging motes and making all these noices, disco would just piss you off but it died out easily (waiting for hip hop to do the same). But in 1980, Metal was brought back to live and it's rescuer's were none other than 5 men with one name, Judas Priest.
In the late 70s, Metal was losing populartiy cause of such "music" such as Punk which ran in the UK, and Disco, whci ran in the US. Punk was just banging motes and making all these noices, disco would just piss you off but it died out easily (waiting for hip hop to do the same). But in 1980, Metal was brought back to live and it's rescuer's were none other than 5 men with one name, Judas Priest.
Heavy Metal
Judas Priest
Metallica
AC/DC (Mostly rock)
Led Zeppelin
Alice Cooper
Iron Maiden
Slayer
Arch Enemy
Judas Priest
Metallica
AC/DC (Mostly rock)
Led Zeppelin
Alice Cooper
Iron Maiden
Slayer
Arch Enemy
by Alan Massacre April 14, 2008