Metal Music Challenges the Mind by Claire Brown

Metal Music that challenges the mind and hardens the heart. Nu metal, sometimes referred to as agro metal or aluminum, is a relatively new music genre that some consider to be a subgenre of heavy metal music. As a result, fans and music journalists needed to differentiate between the more traditional heavy metal music and this "new breed" of bands who were using samples, DJs, raps and drum machines in a way that made their music distinct. To be more specific, the typical formula of nu metal music involves aggressive distorted guitar; hip-hop influenced vocals (rapping); hip-hop beats usually generated by a DJ or drummer; and angst-ridden lyrics.

Bands

In the 1990s, many bands began to mix rapping and other new techniques with traditional heavy metal guitar and drum sounds. Even the Deftones, who are often cited as being one of the original nu metal bands, have tried to distance themselves from the genre since they felt that nu metal performers were "uninspired" and "derivative". But chances are that being from Norway they're well aware of the black metal scene and dig a lot of the same stuff about it that we do, the perhaps unintentional avant-gardism's of bands like Abruptum for instance, and figured it was time to delve into it fully themselves. And on the other, of "metal" bands that cater to an audience that normally wouldn't want a goddamn thing to do with it, pushed by the kind of writers/promoters that feel they need to sugarcoat and even apologetically account for what makes metal...metal. The bands who play heavy-metal music usually have one or two guitars, a bass guitar and drums. In some bands, electronic keyboards, organs, or other instruments are used.

Songs

Heavy metal songs are loud and heavy-sounding, and have strong rhythms that are repeated. Many glam metal songs were about sex, illegal drug use, and drinking alcohol. Other important styles of metal are: power metal or melodic metal, a style whose music often is about fiction and epics like Lord of the Rings, and gothic metal, which has sad songs about abstract subjects like pain, life, death, faith and religion. The basic themes of many of the successful heavy metal songs are extreme rebellion, violence, substance abuse, sexual promiscuity, perversion, and Satanism (Stuessy, 1985). Unlike adults, who find references to sex, violence, drugs, and Satan, adolescents tended to interpret the lyrics of their favorite songs as being about love, politics, growing up, friendship, and other rather benign subjects.

Death metal and black metal music are strange-sounding, and the lyrics (words) talk about sad things, such as death, suffering and pain, but hearing what words are said, is often hard because of the speed and all the other instruments. Two other styles of heavy metal music, "death metal" and "black metal" played very angry, fast music. Heavy metal bands from the United States made heavy metal music popular in the late 1970s. Heavy metal music was mostly based on the sounds of the electric guitar.