Modern Metal
Clever music?
Tuning
Downtuned – Evolution of instruments (8 String Guitar/6 String Bass for lower tuning)
Drop Tunings – Drop D/C, regular guitar tuning with low “E” string lowered a tone
Experimental Open Tunings – Strapping Young Lad (open C Tuning)
Complicated structure / rhythm / time signatures
Songs made up of many different riffs in different tempos, maybe as many as fifteen riffs per song
Complicated polyrhythms and fast rhythms with many changes
Many times there are odd time signatures
Key / Use of modes / Harmony
Minor keys
Modes such as phrygian used frequently
Minor 3rd Harmony popularised by Iron Maiden has evolved to more dissonant harmony in todays metal
Virtuoso
High level of technical proficiency needed
Fast Tempos of songs
Time changes – Changing tempo within a song
Complicated riff structures
High levels of competition
Thousands of bands competing for commercial success
Much smaller commercial recognition for metal than other genres, thus a lot tougher to get noticed and therefore more talent needed to write better songs
Worlds best musicians
Within the genre some of the worlds best musicians reside
Vocalists – Ronnie James Dio, Mark Hunter
Guitarists – Rusty Cooley, James Murphy
Bassists – Steve Di Georgio, Steve Harris
Drummers – Tim Yeung, Chris Adler
Feeling/Emotion
All compositions original
Written by musicians from scratch
Lyrics convey emotion
Usually written around a theme such as hate, war, historical events etc.
Or to display a particular feeling / emotion /event in a persons life
Political views – Displayed by bands such as System Of A Down
Mood created
Different types of modern metal create different moods (for the listener)
Lyrical Content
Dimmu Borgir – The Serpentine Offering
Reconcile not with the fear of the snake, but embrace it as your own, inject its venom into your veins, and replant the seed that gives growth, still shrounded in mystery, until you arise above perception, a veil of ignorance is in motion, continuing
Live
Live performance is a critical factor for metal
Atmosphere created by the volume / stage set up / performance by musicians
Intensity of performance relates to the music
Activity of musicians on stage – Head banging / Running around on stage
Energetic and fast paced – Movement of musicians ties in with the music
Technical ability
Playing v.s performing – Playing complicated instrument parts becomes even harder whilst having to focus on putting on a show aswell
Brings a new level to music
Live presentation brings deeper meaning to the lyrical content of the music
Crowd reaction adds to the music – stage diving / moshing (type of dance commonly found at metal gigs)
Recommended Albums
Meshuggah – Obzen
Ion Dissonance – Breathing Is Irrelevant
Killwhitney Dead – Nothing Less Nothing More
Happy Hardcore
Form of dance music
“Cheesier” version of hardcore dance music
Evolved from rave music
Very similar to dutch genre “gabber”
Very Fast Tempo
Fast tempo with very little variation between songs – Usually around 200bpm
Male/Female Vocal Hooks
Short and usually pitch shifted to a higher register / sped up from original recording
Samples
Songs usually made up of repeated samples – either taken from other songs / copyright free samples or made by computer
Piano/Synth Riffs
Main melody is carried by piano or synthesizer – cheesy “space” like sounding piano lines
Standard 4/4 time signature
Mainly always straight 4/4 time – Very little (if any) deviation from this
Talent/Skill/New Thinking
Sampling
Remixed versions of other songs – Very often DJs take original songs and speed them up and add extra drum beats / different vocal lines
Including samples not created by DJ
Generic sound
All songs sound the same – Even songs by different DJs
No new thinking – i.e. taking current ideas to new levels
Drum beats
Most songs contain the same beat – Very fast and straightforward
Bass drum on every beat – Heavy thumping repetitive pattern
Home recordings
Due to the increasingly popular idea of home recordings, basically anyone can create a decent sounding song in this style, with minimum experience and money.
Increases the amount of songs being made and lowers the overall quality of general material available
Instrumentation
Vocals
Male / Female vocal samples – short (usually one line) repeated unimaginative phrases
Sentimental meaning – Such as topics on love
Piano / synthesizer
Main melodic source – Often played through midi keyboards and sound is altered using computer software
Simple phrases with simple rhythm
Uncreative
Unimaginative song writing – Imitation of many ideas present in current songs. Reprocessing of current ideas
Drum Machine
Drum beats created by drum machine / samples – quite rigid and un-natural in sound
Computers
Computer instruments – Such as computer simulations of real instruments such as violin / trumpet
What goes into the music?
No feeling
All work done on computer
Straightforward simple repeated patterns – no thought process or originality
Separated from the music
No direct “hands on” creation of the music – no creation of music on actual instruments or time taken to master / learn how to play the actual instrument itself
Low level of technicality
A high level of musicianship is not needed as music is uncomplicated
Drag and drop computer selections take away the need for creative arrangements
DJ Ravine Youtube Video
Artists Of Interest (Or lack of)
DJ Rankin
Scooter
DJ Cammy
metal and happy hardcore are pretty much the same apart from the length the hair an amount of guitars/soapdodgers, yeooo!
Metallers and Happy Hardcore goers only thing they are soapdodgers!
If you want to see a real group of shit kickers go to a drum circle!
Dam Hippies!