Born fromHard Rock evolution in the late 1960s, the Metal For decades he has gone through transformations, contamination and sound revolutions, going from niche phenomenon to global cultural movement. From Black Sabbath to the most contemporary bands, the genre has been able to reinvent itself several times: in this article we will explore its origins, the golden ages, the most important evolutions and its condition today.
In the 1960s the rock He was one of the most popular ever -and, in particular, he was starting to make his way into the music scene one of his subgenres, the hard rock, characterized by a more aggressive sound and carried out by bands such as Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin And Cream. Towards the end of the decade a group of boys from Birmingham, tired of the provincial life and enthusiasts with an esoteric imagination, began to create an even more dark version of the hard rock, with distorted guitars and texts that squeezed the eye to ‘occultism. These guys were the Black Sabbath Of Ozzy Osbourne, and their first album of the same name in 1970 is often considered as the First Heavy Metal album in history.
Obviously the newborn genre was still strongly influenced by everything that was fashionable at that time, such as rock and blues. For this reason, many other bands in the following decades followed the teaching of the Black Sabbath, integrating it with other influences of the time. THE Motorhead For example, they created a very quick and excited Heavy Metal, unknowingly anticipating the revolution punk that would come from there a few years.
In the 1980s metal music began to acquire more and more importance, especially thanks to British bands like Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Saxon And Judas Priest, who succeeded in the very difficult task of creating a solid metal but, at the same time, also digestible by wider audience. This wave, known as New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM), can be considered as the first great goal of the genre. Among other things, thanks to Judas Priest, the custom of wearing began to be born leather dresses And studs – a style of clothing that, although less widespread today, remains deeply rooted in the such stereotype.
If it is true that the English they managed to make the metal more popular, It is right to recognize the fact that it was the Americans to make him trend. Groups like Mötley Crüe, Van Halen, Poison And Guns N ‘Roses with their patinated Hair Metal (also known as Glam Metal) they made music extremely usable even by a vast audience, focusing on a showy and fashionable clothingsofter sounds, more catchy refrains, while maintaining a link in the texts with transgressive issues.
Parallel to all this, in the underground environments a series of metal subgenre extremely aggressive And dark, Especially in central-northern Europe and the USA. Thus were born the first experiments of Death Metal And Black metal, Two currents that, as the respective names suggest, focused on a gloomy aesthetic and on issues related to the death and the world of the occult. From a musical point of view, these genres were based on distorted, chaotic and seasoned rings by a singing style, often attributable to Growl or to Scream. Among the pioneers of these genres we find groups such as Celtic Frost, Venom, Posseed And Mercyful Fai.
It is therefore not surprising that between the 80s and 90s metal was targeted and labeled as Satanist, blasphemous And dangerous, being opposed by conservative groups and religious mold.
Among all these Underground bands, there were four who in a few years managed almost simultaneously to climb the music charts around the world: we are talking about Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth And Anthrax. These groups became the main spokespersons of Thrash metal, A subgenre born from the union between the Heavy Metal and the Death Metal and characterized by rapid percussion, frenetic rhythms, large solos of guitars and often engaged texts.
Contaminations between 90s and 2000
At the turn of the 90s and 2000 metal music began to fragment more and more, giving life in a few years to one boundless multitude of under genreseach characterized by a different style, theme and imaginary. Examples of this diversification are the Symphonic Metalwith its epic orchestrations; The Brutal death metalwith its hyper-crupting texts; Or the NU metal, which mixed metal and rap music. Here, the word “mix” perfectly tells this period, highlighting how many bands have started to draw from emerging genres to create new creative experiments. Pioneers in this genre were the Slipknotbut we cannot fail to mention too system of a Down, Linkin Park, Defones And Korn.
In the meantime, the popularity of the Norwegian Black Metalan extreme movement whose protagonists were often at the center of judicial events for crimes such as illegal possession of firearms, malicious fires and murders – As Varg Vikernes, aka Burzum, who served 15 years of prison from 1994 to 2009.
From 2000 onwards, as anticipated, Metal has further diversified. Some subgenres remained niche, while others have reached a wider audience. If the nu metal And his rap contamination began to set in the middle of the first decade of the two thousand, the same cannot be said of the metalcore, A genre that combines extreme metal and hardcore punk, giving life to an energetic and extremely rhythmic style. Among the main bands of this movement we can mention i Bring Me The HorizonThe Architects he is Killswitch Engage.
In those same years, however, the advance of the rap of pop On the international scene he has resized the metal, relegating it to many contexts to a marginal role and limiting the amount of metal artists capable of reaching the peaks of the rankings.
Fortunately in recent years, thanks to a greater possibility of getting in touch with people from every corner of the world, the genre is gaining new lifeblood. Bands like Sleep Token, Ghost, Bad Omens And Falling In Reverse They are increasingly popular and metal giants continue to fill stadiums and festivals all over the world.
Think that, even, for the first time in history, at Paris 2024 Olympics A metal band opened the event, allowing many people to approach a genre often labeled as “difficult” and “violent”. Below, the performance of the Gojira:
