Portal:Heavy metal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

The Heavy Metal Portal

Slayer at the Fields of Rock, in 2007.

Heavy metal (often referred to simply as metal) is a genre of music that was developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and in the United States. With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, and emphatic beats. Allmusic states that "of all rock & roll's myriad forms, heavy metal is the most extreme in terms of volume, machismo, and theatricality."

Early heavy metal bands such as Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple attracted large audiences, though they were often critically reviled, a status common throughout the history of the genre. In the mid-1970s, Judas Priest helped spur the genre's evolution by discarding much of its blues influence; Motörhead introduced a punk rock sensibility and an increasing emphasis on speed. Bands in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal such as Iron Maiden followed in a similar vein. Before the end of the decade, heavy metal had attracted a worldwide following of fans known as "metalheads" or "headbangers."

In the 1980s, glam metal became a major commercial force with groups like Mötley Crüe and Poison to name a few, as well as many other bands, such as Cinderella, Europe and Britny Fox to name a few more. Underground scenes produced an array of more extreme, aggressive styles: thrash metal broke into the mainstream with bands such as Metallica, while other styles like death metal and black metal remain subcultural phenomena. Since the mid-1990s, popular styles such as nu metal, which often incorporates elements of funk and hip hop; and metalcore, which blends extreme metal with hardcore punk, have further expanded the definition of the genre.

Shred Guitar is closely related but takes the guitar to another level beyond this genre of music. Great gains in picking speed have been demonstrated in recent years from many musicians contributing their music via Youtube, mainly. This style of playing is at the frontline in new guitar trends.

Selected article

Slayer at The Fields of Rock festival.
Slayer is an American thrash metal band founded by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Slayer rose to fame as a leader of the American thrash metal movement with their 1986 release Reign in Blood, which has been called "the heaviest album of all time". The band is credited as one of the "Big Four" thrash metal bands, along with Megadeth, Metallica, and Anthrax. Slayer is known for its musical traits, involving fast tremolo picking, guitar solos, double bass drumming, and shouting vocals. The band's lyrics and album art, which cover topics such as serial killers, Satanism, religion and warfare, have generated album bans, delays, lawsuits and strong criticism from religious groups and the public.

Since their debut record in 1983, the band has released two live albums, one box set, two DVDs, two EPs, and ten albums, four of which have received gold certification in the USA. The band has received two Grammy nominations, winning one in 2007 for the song "Eyes of the Insane", and headlined music festivals worldwide, including Ozzfest, The Unholy Alliance and the Download Festival.

Selected picture

Pekka Kokko (Kalmah) rhythm guitar (crop).jpg
Credit: Sandra Devezeau ("stageshots")
Pekka Kokko of Kalmah performing at Dante's Highlight in Helsinki, Finland.

Categories

News

Did you know...

Major topics

Things you can do

Related WikiProjects

Metal WikiProject

Hookem hand.svg
Featured article FA  A-Class article A   GA  B-Class article B  C-Class article C  Start-Class article Start  Stub-Class article Stub  Featured list FL   List  Wikipedia Book Book  Category page Category  Disambiguation page Disambig   File   Portal   Project  Redirect page Redirect   Template   NA   ???  Total
28 0 138 193 320 2,425 5,959 42 242 52 347 2 17 2 1 111 552 12 3,819 14,262
More info on project....

Related portals

Associated Wikimedia

Heavy metal on Wikinews     Heavy metal on Wikiquote     Heavy metal on Wikibooks     Heavy metal on Wikisource     Heavy metal on Wiktionary     Heavy metal on Wikimedia Commons
News Quotations Manuals & Texts Texts Definitions Images & Media
link=Wikinews:Heavy metal
Wikiquote-logo.svg
Wikibooks-logo.svg
Wikisource-logo.svg
Wiktionary-logo-en-35px.png
Commons-logo.svg
Purge server cache