HISTORY OF HEAVY METAL MUSIC

date: 2001
source: HardRadio.com
author: Marcelo Silveyra
editor: Robert Speirs (please inform me of any dead links)
title: History of Heavy Metal Music

Heavy metal is one of the most misunderstood genres of music in our day. Rather unfortunately, this is often a result of brazen ignorance about the subject brought about by certain sectors of the media, society, and listeners themselves. Instead of blindly backlashing against those responsible for the defamation of heavy metal, I decided to write a history of the music, in hope of providing yet another source of information for people who wish to learn about its development.

In no way is this a heavy metal band list or an attempt to include every detail, important or not, within the genre's history, yet I believe it is a fairly comprehensive guide. I have included bands that have been influential, prominent, representative, or successful throughout their careers, and in the process omitted several others that would prevent any conciseness. I have also made the attempt of remaining as objective as possible (although words like "well-deserved" will appear throughout the text), and therefore have also included bands that I do not enjoy listening to or whose general visual image I do not respect. After all, heavy metal is something of an acquired taste. With no further comments, I leave you to read my take on the history of heavy metal. I hope you will enjoy it and maybe learn a little from it (and with any luck, you will not find it boring at all).

When did heavy metal begin? It is hard to say. According to most metal annals, the first outbursts came from the Kinks with "You Really Got Me" and the Who with "My Generation" around 1964. As for the first heavy metal artist, that position arguably belongs to Alice Cooper, whose band was founded in 1965 under the name The Spiders (that means the Coop has been at it for thirty-six years). Heavy metal, however, was not to truly flourish until the year of 1967, and Alice Cooper was to become embedded in the collective mind of the world until 1971 with the classic "Love it to Death".

During 1967, the rock world was still absorbed by the Summer of Love, but it was about to witness one of its most important revolutions. Bands like Atomic Rooster, Black Sabbath, Black Widow, Bloodrock, Blue Cheer, Cactus, Cream, Deep Purple, Free, Golden Earring ( formed in 1965), Grand Funk Railroad, Humble Pie, Iron Butterfly, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Led Zeppelin, MC5, Mountain, Steppenwolf, Vanilla Fudge, and Uriah Heep came to being between 1966 and 1970, and struck the world with what both Iron Butterfly and Steppenwolf would first baptize "heavy metal"; the first via reviews of its heavy album, and the second because of the phrase "heavy metal thunder", found in the motorcycling classic "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf. A new type of music, which borrowed heavily from rock and roll and the blues, was gaining influence on the youth of those times, which was slowly growing tired of the stagnant Summer of Love scene.

From the new bands, it was Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience that were to be the first bands to give heavy metal a high commercial profile. The legendary guitarist Eric Clapton was part of the first; a band that remains a seminal power trio and heavy metal act that released such memorable songs as "Sunshine Of Your Love" and "White Room". During the course of four albums and two years, Cream became a prominently successful band that influenced the likes of Rush and Van Halen, and would later spawn the also legendary Blind Faith. Meanwhile, the Jimi Hendrix Experience was another musical trio, based around the guitar histrionics of the legendary Jimi Hendrix. Albums such as "Are You Experienced?" and "Electric Ladyland" drew thousands of ravenous fans, which feasted on the music provided by a band that is often mentioned along with the Doors and Janis Joplin as one of the world's all-time premiere rock units.

Several new bands, including Bad Company, ferocious Budgie, Foghat, bluesy Savoy Brown, and legendary UFO, were spawned by the increasing popularity of heavy, while other bands like Status Quo hardened their sound; but until 1973 the kings of heavy metal were undoubtedly Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. The three were bands with a technical prowess and a compositional inventiveness and passion unseen before, which coalesced into the hardest music existing during those times. Moreover, the era also marked the beginning of Satanic imagery and of spectacular, energetic live shows in heavy metal.

The satanic imagery came courtesy of two English bands: Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin's guitarist Jimmy Page (formerly of The Yardbirds, a band that was critical in influencing heavy metal with its psychedelic distortion and in spawning legendary guitar players Jimmy Page, Clapton, and Jeff Beck) had a strong personal fascination with the occult, while many of Black Sabbath's lyrics within their ample range of themes dealt with it as well. Black Sabbath, however, did not claim to be satanic, unlike many future metal bands; in fact, Ozzy Osbourne, vocalist of the band during those times, claims to have been scared off by fans wearing black robes and carrying candles with themselves.

As for the live shows, they were carried out by every band, most notably by Led Zeppelin's "rock till you drop" concerts that lasted about two hours and by Alice Cooper's colossal shows, known to feature boa constrictors, mutilated female mannequins, and Alice Cooper himself in a beheading spectacle. Bands moved onstage, introduced bigger-than-life special effects into their shows and recreated their music in front of fiery crowds of fans.

The first few years of heavy metal (the music being called classic metal at times because of its pioneering status) are considered by most as the best era of the genre ever. Without a doubt, it is quite a memorable segment of this music's history. It was back then that Led Zeppelin, unquestionably the most popular heavy metal band ever, created classics such as "Black Dog" and the Arabian "Kashmir"; but also had the brilliance of experimenting with forms of music such as reggae and folk. In fact, the latter was an essential part of the most widely known heavy metal song ever: "Stairway to Heaven". The masterfully created masterpiece was crafted by Jimmy Page and vocalist Robert Plant to perfection and even today remains a constant radio staple.

It was, however, until 1970 that Black Sabbath inaugurated what many consider the "true" spirit and essence of heavy metal. Gloomy, crunching, and foreboding, albums like Black Sabbath, "Master of Reality" and "Paranoid", demonstrated the wicked musical direction of guitarist Tony Iommi and band members Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward via classic songs like "Children of the Grave", "NIB" and "Paranoid". Bands such as Corrosion of Conformity, Metallica, and Nirvana were all influenced by the metal anthems provided by one of the genre's most memorable bands ever, and the face of modern music has hardly ever been the same since the Birmingham, England, act exploded unto the scene. Meanwhile, Deep Purple, after going through a progressive rock stint with vocalist Rod Evans and bassist Nick Simper, developed a solid slab of rock on its classic "Deep Purple in Rock", and would for a long time be heralded as a true innovator of music. In fact, Ritchie Blackmore's classical guitar training, along with Jon Lord's synthesizers and Ian Gillan's piercing shrieks, was crucial in the development of heavy metal as it is known today.

During the mid-1970s, six new bands were to enter the spotlight: Aerosmith, Blue Oyster Cult, ^*Judas Priest, Kiss, Queen and Thin Lizzy. Judas Priest would be responsible for popularizing the concept of two guitarists in a heavy metal band; Aerosmith for bringing back the blues, sex and drugs; Queen for introducing perhaps the greatest degree of experimentation within music and the renewal of majestic melodies and harmonies with a progressive rock edge; Thin Lizzy for breaking through with aesthetical and musical flash and style; Kiss for revolutionizing the art of live shows, at times presenting slightly macabre theatrics strongly reminiscent of Alice Cooper and Blue Oyster Cult. They disappeared into oblivion after a series of forgettable albums released in the 1980s, but during their halcyon days in the 1970s, they were an important part of the hard rock arena circuit, combining beautiful 1960s harmonies with searing guitars. (* Rob Halford, Tim Ripper Owens, Glenn Tipton, KK Downing, Violent Storm (KK Downing))

While a number of heavy metal bands cemented their reputation as rock giants for years to come, certain bands would begin taking another highly popular form of music, progressive rock, into a heavier direction. Bands like Genesis and Pink Floyd had remained most of the time outside the heavy metal realms, while others like Jethro Tull, King Crimson and Yes flirted with it more often on songs like "Aqualung", "Heart of the Sunrise", and "21st Century Schizoid Man", respectively. Characterized by complex song structures, odd time signature arrangements, and a highly technical and virtuous use of instruments, progressive metal would nevertheless not come truly into being until the creation of Rush. On its debut album, Rush, the band had not yet acquired a tendency for the progressive; but by the time of "Fly By Night" and the acquisition of drummer Neil Peart, the band had changed its approach and become more ambitious lyrically and musically, driving its progressive outings to their furthermost limits on albums like "Farewell to Kings" and "Hemispheres". Most other progressive bands throughout history, such as Asia, Emerson Lake and Palmer (ELP), Focus, IQ and Marillion, only flirted with metal through their years of existence.

Unfortunately, metal was to stagnate completely in the late 1970s. Aerosmith, Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzy, were digging their own graves due to their drug-consuming habits: Deep Purple faded out through its never-ending personnel changes, Kiss had lost its charm because of over-commercialization, and Led Zeppelin ended with the death of drummer John Bonham. Only Judas Priest and Queen remained almost intact during these times, and not only were the greatest bands dying slowly, but every new band was just ripping off the old glory; metal was on its dying bed. Only a few bands were still thriving among the ruins, among them AC/DC and Rush; the former taking over the world with its three-chord attack, guitarist Angus Young's lunatic careening on stage, and Bon Scott's hell-raising screams; the latter inspiring new generations of musicians with its progressive brand of music. Ted Nugent, formerly of the Amboy Dukes, also released hyperactive gems like "Cat Scratch Fever" and "Double Live Gonzo" to much acclaim during the last half of the 1970s and would be another of the few surviving musical groups. Blackmore's Rainbow was the last of the great rock giants to die or metamorphose by the end of the 1980s, after Ronnie James Dio left the band amidst a flurry of clashing egos which had earlier produced melodic epics on albums like "Rainbow Rising" and "Long Live Rock and Roll".

Then came metal's sister music, punk, to save the rock scene from an untimely demise. A slew of new bands that could barely play their instruments and protested against fascism, their governments, and basically everyday life, were to take the spotlight with their raucous stage antics and their three-chord songs imbued with righteous fury. Influenced by the first punk outings of Iggy Pop and the Stooges, the MC5, and the glittery New York Dolls during the 1960s and early 1970s, the Clash, the Damned, the Ramones, Sex Pistols managed by Malcolm McLaren, and Siouxsie and the Banshees; and relatively more obscure bands, such as Crass, Dead Boys, Exploited, Misfits, Pagans, Wendy O and the Plasmatics, UK Subs, and the gloomy Amebix, were to storm upon the world. Punk's greatest contributions to the punk/heavy metal scene were probably the widespread practice of slamdancing, the renaissance of energetic music, and the wide propagation of protests against the wrongdoings of society (an echo of Black Sabbath themes, included in songs such as "Children of the Grave" and "War Pigs").

Perhaps the three most important bands of punk were Iggy and the Stooges, Ramones, and Sex Pistols. The first was Iggy Pop's band. The band members were nothing short of amazing in their live shows, which were so energetic, that according to Iggy Pop himself, they would only last ten to fifteen minutes, consisting basically of Iggy's wild antics and screaming over a power trio's furious songs. Then was the Ramones, the New York band with songs that were amazingly reckless for their time and laid the foundations on which bands such as Nirvana and Red Hot Chili Peppers would grow. Finally was the greatest (in popularity) punk rock band of all times: Sex Pistols. Its origin was rather curious: An art project by Malcolm McLaren that sought to destroy everything that had come before in rock & roll. The band managed to create some good punk rock in the process, with everything from political protest ("God Save the Queen") to hooky songs ("Sub-Mission"). However, the band destroyed itself during its tour of the United States, with bassist Sid Vicious killing his girlfriend Nancy Spungen and then committing suicide while drugged; this turned Vicious into punk's infamous martyr and began the end for punk rock, which would remain underground for the most part until the 1990s.

While punk was taking over strongly among the youth, another raw and aggressive band would begin making an impact: Motorhead. Motorhead would signify the beginning of what is known today as thrash/speed/power metal, which would in turn originate death metal. The band's first release, "On Parole" (1976) would only hint at the power unleashed in later albums released during the late 1970s and early 1980s, such as "Ace of Spades", "Bomber", "No Sleep 'til Hammersmith", and "Overkill", which offered some truly pedal-to-the-metal songs. Furthermore, Motorhead surprisingly attracted not only the metal crowd, but also many fiery punk fans, therefore marking the beginning of a union that would eventually result in the creation of hardcore.

While punk was shaking the foundations of rock & roll, heavy metal came back with Accept, Judas Priest, Scorpions, and the short-lived new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM). The highly important British invasion brought with itself bands like the acclaimed Def Leppard, Diamond Head, Holocaust, Iron Maiden (Bruce Dickinson), Raven, Samson, Saxon, Sweet Savage, Tygers of Pan Tang, and Venom, and of which only Def Leppard and Iron Maiden were to survive (Saxon, meanwhile, would enjoy a short-lived fame). Judas Priest would popularize the leather, studs, and spikes apparel that would characterize metal for years to come; the veteran Scorpions would increase its string of brilliant releases, such as "Blackout", "Lovedrive", and "Virgin Killer", which featured the band's taste for both ballads and heavy songs; and Accept would demonstrate its solid musicianship and proto-power metal drive through classic albums like "Breaker" and "Restless and Wild".

Meanwhile, Iron Maiden brought back the mystic imagery of heavy metal while pounding out some of the heaviest riffs of its time in albums like "Killers", "Piece of Mind" and "Powerslave". The band was to remain the heaviest to rule the arena hard-rock circuit for years until the advent of Metallica, and while Iron Maiden pounded out harmonized and majestic guitar riffs backed by a thunderous bass (a combination commonly known as classic metal, not to be confused with the pioneering genre), Venom would truly begin the thrash metal genre with classic albums like "Black Metal" and "Welcome to Hell", in which it also laid the grounds for what would turn out to be black and metal later on. Originally a band meant as a tongue-in-cheek project named Oberon, Venom was to become the most intense band of its time and would inspire, along with Motorhead, Judas Priest's "Stained Class" and Riot's distinguishable and energetic musical outbursts, young bands such as Exodus, Metallica, Slayer, and Mantas (which would later become Death) to start making their own brand of fast, aggressive music.

The NWOBHM, however, was to be more than just a short-lived movement of exciting heavy metal revival in Britain. It became a revitalized hotbed of youthful exuberance, unbridled creativity, and a point of inspiration and reference for the way heavy metal was to evolve throughout much of the 1980s. With the driving riff-based metal of bands like Jaguar set up against the energy of Angel Witch, the timeless quality of Diamond Head, the originality of Legend, the quirkiness of Witchfynde, or the doom-laden crunch of Witchfinder General, it signified what heavy metal stood for, and guaranteed its continual evolution.

As in the past, the United States decided to bite back with a vengeance, which was embodied in the pop/glam metal explosion of the 1980s. Van Halen was already there since 1978 and had become an arena band, hitting the world hard with Eddie Van Halen's guitar wizardry and David Lee Roth's wild show antics. The prototypical Journey had sold millions of records since its inception in 1972 with its keyboard-oriented metal, and later on Angel and Foreigner would begin breaking through to the masses while Montrose released legendary music, but the real vengeance came in the early 1980s with Motley Crue and Ratt, two bands from Los Angeles that wrote relatively accessible songs big on hooks and strongly influenced by the likes of veterans Sweet and T-Rex. Not only that, but both bands also took the glam images from bands such as Alice Cooper, David Bowie, Kiss, the New York Dolls, and Gary Glitter. Taking them to the extreme, glam metal bands began wearing women's makeup, leather outfits, fishnets, headbands, spikes, and whatever they could basically get their hands on. Motley Crue, perhaps the most important pop metal band of the 1980s, began the LA metal explosion in 1983 with "Shout at the Devil", an album that was solely responsible for bringing heavy metal fully back into commercial circles; at the same time helping propel Ratt and the older Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot into stardom. "Round and Round", "We're Not Gonna Take It", and "Cum On Feel the Noize", respectively, broke each band over to mainstream audiences worldwide; a success that in turn paved the way for Bon Jovi.

Bon Jovi was the second most successful metal band ever, right after Def Leppard; selling millions upon millions of albums and releasing hit ballad after hit ballad. "Slippery When Wet" and New Jersey took the world by storm, as would Def Leppard's "Pyromania" and "Hysteria". These two bands perfectly learned how to take metal's harshness and mix it with pop's accessibility, therefore producing a perfect blend for the MTV-influenced youth of those days (although many would contend that Bon Jovi is not really metal). Meanwhile, Motley Crue and Ratt innovated their own music with every album and remained successes for a long time, reflecting the darker side of pop metal. However, these bands obscured others that had as much to offer. Groups such as Faster Pussycat, Kix, and LA Guns, despite their strong material, never truly obtained the success some felt they deserved, while bands like Kiss adapted to the ruling pop metal scene on songs like "Heaven's On Fire". Later on, the pop metal explosion would also obscure bands with harder or more classic styles, such as the acclaimed GUN, Junkyard, and Thunder; although others like the Cult and Jackyl did manage to surface.

However, pop metal eventually became too accessible and flashy and needed revitalizing. Whitesnake, which epitomized the common successful glam metal band, was already dying out despite its existence since the 1970s, and only the strongest and best bands were surviving: Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and Motley Crue. The scene needed a new type of band; a band that was not as polished and accessible, a band that came from the sleazy and edgy streets. Enter Guns & Roses.

Guns & Roses was what the pop metal scene needed. "Appetite for Destruction" was a searing, raw, and aggressive affair, featuring Slash's bluesy guitar licks and Axl Rose's hanging-on-to-dear-life vocals. Guns & Roses took the spotlight with its mix of Aerosmith, Hanoi Rocks, and Rolling Stones, and previous pop metal acts with songs like "Welcome to the Jungle", "Night Train", and "My Michelle", while showing its softer side on "Sweet Child O' Mine". With the band invading the media massively after what had seemed to be an initial failure, Guns & Roses had saved pop metal from commercial extinction and would eventually reign the scene along with Motley Crue, while Def Leppard and Bon Jovi enjoyed long breaks.

The coming of Guns & Roses, however, would not prevent new accessible bands from appearing. Poison with vocalist Bret Michaels and drummer Rikki Rockett, and Warrant were probably the best and most noticeable of these; although they were not something completely new, their songs were original and catchy, but their extreme use of makeup and glamorous clothing would incite critics everywhere to attack them as throwaway bands. White Lion was also an important pop metal offering; although some of the band's songs were rather trite, much of its material was also quite impressive; especially songs like "Lights & Thunder", "If My Mind is Evil", and "Leave Me Alone". Meanwhile, the bluesier Cinderella offered a string of honest and straightforward rock albums, and Tesla did likewise, shunning the glam image in the process. The far more experienced outfit Dokken was yet another historical feature of pop metal, displaying George Lynch's blazing fretwork and a heavier influence of technical musicianship (as well as the epitome of what would eventually become all of glam metal's cliches), while Europe with vocalistJoey Tempest blasted through the charts with the melodic masterpiece "The Final Countdown". Others like the Christian Stryper, the often criticized Great White and Winger, Bad English, Damn Yankees, Mr Big (including virtuosi: Paul Gilbert, guitar; Billy Sheehan, bass; Pat Torpey, drums), and Slaughter made up an important part of the scene. There was also the rather memorable Skid Row with vocalist Sebastian Bach, but its line-up would eventually venture into much heavier grounds, despite the heavy success of its debut album: Skid Row.

The pop metal scene would also be responsible for bringing about the most popular and widely known female heavy metal musicians ever, who continued with the advances of the Runaways and the new wave of British heavy metal Girlschool; the two bands most responsible for making rock a viable musical avenue for women. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts enticed admiration with the heartfelt "I Love Rock & Roll", while Lita Ford would air on the music media via her single "Kiss Me Deadly". The two ex-Runaways members eventually lost their popularity, but they, along with Warlock's Doro Pesch, were responsible for influencing the creation of young new female bands like the heavy and gloomy Drain STH, the alternative L7, the obscure Phantom Blue, and the velvety soft Vixen.

Meanwhile, a somewhat heavier and more classic approach to the genre was provided by several heavy metal legends during the 1980s. Black Sabbath, along with singer Ronnie James Dio, came back with "Heaven and Hell" and Mob Rules to much acclaim; both albums marking a stylistic change in which a more melodic approach was utilized. Meanwhile, Ozzy Osbourne, away from the Black Sabbath front, provided ardent fans with releases such as "Blizzard of Ozz" and "Diary of a Madman", which featured prodigious guitarist Randy Rhoads followed by Zakk Wylde, and along with Ronnie James Dio's later solo releases would keep his type of melodic metal alive through the 1980s. This was also because of efforts of newer melodic bands that stuck to heavy metal, such as Armored Saint, Cirith Ungol, the constantly evolving Savatage, and the "Kings of Metal" Manowar, each with its own style. Several of the 1970s' legendary bands would make comebacks throughout the 1980s with different degrees of success, but there was no synchronized revival of the pioneering metal of old, partly because many bands had lost either their originality or the passion that had characterized their early impact.

While pop metal ruled the airwaves, fans of bands like Motorhead and Venom panicked as they saw metal become a softer, more mainstream gender of music. They were relieved, however, by the rise of thrash/speed/power metal (the last label being separated sometimes because of its strong epic characteristic), spearheaded by Metallica. Metallica began combining multiple riffing, snarling vocals, and a wide use of double-pedals in drumming to produce music that was totally uncompromising and ferocious, therefore being shunned by MTV and commercial radio stations. Shortly after, bands like Mercyful Fate and the crunching Exodus (an important part of the blooming San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal scene) were increasing their presence to back up Metallica and bring the harder metal fans together again.

At this time, three other thrash metal bands took over along with Metallica: Anthrax, Megadeth, and Slayer. Megadeth, founded by ex-Metallica guitarist Dave Mustaine, created what would be later known as techno-thrash, characterized by numerous tempo changes and complex riffs, which backed Dave Mustaine's sharp snarl. Meanwhile, Anthrax produced hard-hitting riffs and began experimenting with rap, while Slayer made the heaviest riffs of its time and its members developed their obsession with Satanic imagery. Later on, Suicidal Tendencies would reach similar heights with releases such as "Lights... Camera...Revolution", which would incorporate punk, alternative, and rap influences into singer Mike Muir's extroverted ramblings, while Testament would enjoy commercial success through the mid-period of the 1980s with albums such as "Practice What You Preach" and what many consider to be the disappointing "Souls of Black". Also noteworthy is the fact that Testament was at one time considered part of the "Big Four" of the thrash metal scene, before Slayer took over its position with what is considered by many to be one of the crucial thrash metal albums of all time: 1986's "Reign in Blood".

The scene would have died out if it had not been for an underground network in which band demos and records were quickly exchanged and distributed throughout the world. Dark Angel, Exciter, Nuclear Assault, Overkill, Razor, and a number of other bands became known by the thrash scene underground and developed strong cult followings. Additionally, Germany was feeding the general enthusiasm with what was one of the most important thrash metal scenes apart from the one in the San Francisco Bay Area, placing acts such as Destruction, Kreator, Sodom, and Tankard, in the movement and injecting it with what at one time was labeled Teutonic thrash. Even then, however, thrash metal was still far from achieving the success it deserved and for which it strived.

Thrash metal finally hit paydirt when Metallica's masterpiece, "Master of Puppets", reached the gold mark (500,000 albums sold ) in 1986. This catapulted Anthrax, Megadeth, and Slayer into stardom as well, and began the rise of thrash metal in commercial circles. The answer to pop metal had arrived in the form of an uncompromisingly brutal form of music. However, just like with pop metal, many excellent bands never quite obtained the sales they deserved. Early Anvil, Flotsam & Jetsam, the solid and straightforward Sacred Reich, Wrathchild America, and the innovatively progressive and original Coroner and Mekong Delta, despite their powerful albums and originality, never reached enough exposure. Voivod, meanwhile, failed to obtain a well-deserved recognition after changing styles towards a more progressive thrash metal direction. Later on, the splendid Angel Rat featured a more accessible, mainstream sound that contrasted sharply against the brilliant Dimension Hatross and Nothingface; yet it failed to break the band through to the media.

Another trend that suddenly gained impressive influence during the late 1980s would be power metal. A style that took the speed and heaviness of speed metal and combined it with epic song overtones characteristic of classic metal, power metal would be primordially divided into two types, the first of them being the standard, or "American", style of power metal, played by bands like Metal Church, Savatage, Jag Panzer, and Manowar; and which despite its epic proportions inherited mainly from thrash metal and retained much of its harshness. Meanwhile, melodic, or "European" power metal was a style that concentrated mainly on the combination of speed and classic elements, with the occasional inclusion of progressive tendencies; an approach exploited by bands like Rage and Running Wild. Power metal would not, however, reach worldwide exposure until Helloween's "Keeper of the Seven Keys" albums reached combined sales of over one million records. Fronted by the astounding voice of Michael Kiske, Helloween became the epitome of power metal, producing some of the genre's most memorable harmonies and melodies at speeds only imagined by Iron Maiden. This in turn caused a sudden sensation around power metal, allowing for the eventual creation of new bands like Blind Guardian and Iced Earth, and impelling older bands, such as the proto-power metal Riot, to adapt to the style.

Thrash metal spawned yet another subgenre of metal that was to be the most extreme ever: death metal. Death's "Scream Bloody Gore", Hellhammer's "Apocalyptic Raids", and Possessed's "The Seven Churches" marked the beginning of a genre of music destined to never attain commercial success. Guitars became as heavy and downtuned as possible, tempo changes went from breakneck speeds to grindingly slow aggression, double pedaling almost became a rule for drummers, and vocalists switched from screaming to uttering guttural growls that were barely intelligible. Venom's "Welcome to Hell" had subtly predicted death metal's rise, and the new bands just reassured it. Acts such as the groundbreaking Celtic Frost continued death metal, but due to a new interest of metal bands in metalcore, death metal was losing ground.

Then came Obituary, Morbid Angel, and Sepultura to resurrect death metal. Obituary's brutal "Slowly We Rot", along with Sepultura's precise and exacting "Beneath the Remains", revived the long-dead interest of metal fans and again established death metal as a strong branch of metal, propelling the existence of a slew of new bands and resurgence of older bands, such as Cannibal Corpse, Fudge Tunnel, and Malevolent; as well as the progressive Believer, Atheist, Cynic, and Pestilence (the latter three forming the core of the so- called jazz-death metal scene). Furthermore, the subgenre strengthened itself in Sweden, where the brutal Entombed began a strong death metal tradition that featured slight hints of melody and bands such as Dismember, Edge of Sanity, Hypocrisy, and Pan-Thy-Monium. However, death metal also stagnated into boring repetition. Against the background of success for bands such as Deicide and Morbid Angel, along with the technically renewed approach of Death on Human, Individual Thought Patterns, and Symbolic, most new bands had nothing new to offer, but instead chose to rehash everything done before and therefore help begin carving death metal's tomb again.

During the last half of the 1980s, death metal would in turn churn out the most radical of its variations, grindcore, which would eventually become a separate musical identity in and of itself. Grindcore's most representative exponent is unquestionably Napalm Death, which virtually eliminated harmony and melody in albums such as "Harmony Corrupted", "Scum", and "Utopia Banished". The subgenre seems to be the absolute frontier of heavy metal, as it thrives on deconstructing music and as such is probably its most radical form ever, that is, if it can be called music. Due to its nature, grindcore is usually just glanced upon by bands such as Scorn, while bands that originally formed part of the scene, such as Carcass, Godflesh, Pitchshifer, and Treponem Pal, have all chosen to move towards less radical musical directions.

Meanwhile, during the early 1990s, bands such as Cemetery, Sentenced, Therion, and Tiamat, began moving away from their previous death metal sound in order to pursue diverse musical avenues, including progressive, doom, and classic metal. This in turn influenced other bands to create yet more diverse and musically complex death metal, which, along with the groundbreaking and NWOBHM-flavoured Carcass album "Heartwork", has been one of the main reasons behind the relatively recent new wave of Swedish death metal. A movement started by At the Gates, Dark Tranquility, and In Flames, it mixes the strength and vocals of death metal with a considerably melodic approach that draws from the likes of Iron Maiden. The general style is in fact described as what would have happened if Iron Maiden had played death metal instead, and has become all the rage in the death metal scene; a result of catchier songwriting, an excellent execution on behalf of the musicians, and its overall sense of melody.

On the other side of the coin is black metal, a branch of death metal that began as an underproduced and noisy type of music ("black" being a connotation of Satanic imagery) as far back as the first half of the 1980s with Bathory. Although bands such as Slayer and Venom are called "black metal" at times due to their Satanic imagery, it was until Bathory that black metal truly took shape, with high pitched growls and snarls, "blast-beat" drumming, extremely distorted but normally tuned guitars, an utter lack of melody and subtlety, and a nihilistically Satanic or pagan ideology being at the forefront of the subgenre. Soon after the first wave of black metal was starting to brew in the underground, with its most extreme and important exponents hailing from Norway and consisting of acts like Burzum, Darkthrone, and Immortal, and the savage and undeniably influential Mayhem. Although the Norwegian Inner Circle was plagued by an infamous and certainly not recommendable legacy of murders, incarcerations, and Church burnings, it was also the start of what was to be a rapidly expanding underground movement that was to take the fundamental elements such as savagery and corpse paint from its initiators.

It was thus that the second wave of black metal, which is still present today and has easily become the most popular, began a few years into the 1990s, with bands such as Dark Funeral, Emperor, Dimmu Borgir, Satyricon, and the English Cradle of Filth bringing in keyboards, a much greater sense of melody, and a host of new influences, such as Scandinavian folk music, into the mix. Although this second movement has left the wave of crimes of its predecessors in the past, the music remains savage, uncompromising, and with little commercial appeal, despite the expansion of borders that it is currently going through. Meanwhile, black metal legends Bathory and Samael have long since moved away from the cliches of the subgenre, the first always having been a highly unique and unorthodox black metal offering with a slower and much darker approach that in recent years has brought in an enormous electronic influence to its style; a transition that began on the innovative "Passage".

As death metal rose from thrash metal, and playing as fast as possible became the vogue for the heaviest bands, some musicians decided to take things slowly and revive doom metal, a branch of metal that had practically died with the end of Ozzy's stint in Black Sabbath. Witchfinder General, Trouble (leader of the white, or Christian, metal movement), and Saint Vitus were probably among the best bands since Black Sabbath to take a slow approach to metal, with heavy riffs and the occasional bluesy influence being a main part of their approach. Unfortunately, despite its innovative style and original twin guitar approach, the quasi-religious Trouble never quite obtained the recognition it deserved, and the rest of the scene did likewise.

Later on, more bands would continue with the advances of Angel Witch, and Witchfynde, and the dying scene of doom, and would eventually join the ranks and introduce a more operatic style in singing, as evidenced in the output of Candlemass after its legendary and innovative "Epicus Doomicus Metallicus". Pentagram was there too, along with others like the Obsessed and Dream Death (to later turn into Penance), but the doom metal movement was not to flourish until the coming of two bands composed of former members of death, thrash and punk bands: Paradise Lost, and, more importantly, Cathedral. Paradise Lost, on its Gothic album, incorporated haunting keyboards and guitar licks into its music while maintaining a death metal vocal influence and thus impelling the so- called "doomdeath" sound. Cathedral, meanwhile, seemed to revive a more modern Black Sabbath after its first doomdeath efforts, progressing from growling, death metal-like vocals to screeching eerie howls. With the moderate success of these two bands, a slew of new groups came to being, and doom metal was suddenly affected by several influences: orchestral movements, operatic vocals, death metal heaviness and singing, and female singers; but never losing the slow, eerie and emotional side of things. It was thus that the death-like Sorrow, Crematory, and Winter; the Sabbath-like Count Raven, Internal Void, Iron Man, and Sleep; the more orthodox Memento Mori and Solitude Aeturnus; the Louisiana scene Crowbar and Eyehategod; the evolving Anathema and My Dying Bride, and several others began to rise in the metal world.

More recently, doom metal has seen its efforts accompanied and influenced by a more atmospheric and gothic influence, in which haunting female vocals that alternate with male death metal growls have already become a standard. Theatre of Tragedy and Tristania have formed what is perhaps the measuring point for this newer approach, called doom metal by some but bearing characteristics that differentiate both styles. This, however, is far from being noticeable in just a couple of bands, as many newcomers have taken to the approach, while others, such as Mortal, The Third, and Tiamat, explore the use of acoustic guitars and wide atmospheres reminiscent of Pink Floyd, and Theatre of Tragedy switches gear into the exploration of electronic music intertwined with metal.

Meanwhile, back in the 1980s and out of the doom metal scene and the Misfits was Glenn Danzig, the man responsible for Danzig and Samhain. The second was much heavier than the punk music of the Misfits, yet it shared much of the aforementioned band's shock imagery. Shortly after the release of "November Coming Fire", Danzig disbanded Samhain and created Danzig. Its self-titled debut album consisted of a variety of feelings which ranged from haunting to melodic to powerful, all circling about the soulful persona of Glenn Danzig. The unique musical style, reminiscent at times of early Black Sabbath, along with its openly satanic image, lasted during four outstanding albums, only to change direction after the industrial metal revolution of the 1990s. Along with the aforementioned bands, King Diamond (then formerly Mercyful Fate), Loudness, would also help maintain a more traditional heavy metal sound alive throughout that decade. King Diamond moved progressively away from speed metal and gradually incorporated his grunts and high-pitched squeals increasingly into his music, while the Japanese Loudness released constantly powerful albums throughout the 1980s, such as "Thunder In the East" and "Soldier of Fortune". Others like GreenJelly, GWAR, and Haunted Garage, expanded on the shock rock approach by worrying more about costumes, stage shows and videos than about music, alienating censorship organizations along with bands like the controversial and infamous WASP.

As heavy metal began diversifying itself continuously, certain musicians would decide to relieve its characteristic vocals to a second plane, or to completely eliminate them. Among these were guitar virtuosos Joe Satriani, his student Steve Vai, and Yngwie Malmsteen. The first, often called "the guitarist's guitarist", created masterworks like "Surfing With the Alien" and "The Extremist"; the second has an illustrious career, having played with the likes of Frank Zappa and Whitesnake, and later working on his solo projects; and Malmsteen is recognized for his heavy and constant classical music influence and swift dexterity, while criticized because of his ego and extroverted persona. Meanwhile, others like bassist Stuart Hamm, Scorpions drummer Herman Rarebell, and guitarists Steve Morse, Richie Kotzen, and the sadly ALS-afflicted genius Jason Becker have slowly created a name for themselves by the release of solo albums and working with other bands and musicians, either temporarily or permanently. The prominence of instrumental variations of metal has gradually grown through the years; however, only few of its exponents have achieved wide commercial and media exposure.

Also during the heyday of thrash and pop metal, and while the genre's instrumental branch was bringing technique to the foreground, two bands became responsible for holding progressive metal's ground: Fates Warning and Queensryche.

With Rush approaching a softer sound during most of the 1980s, and progressive rock having lost much of its popularity during the late 1970s, progressive metal had lost most of its appeal. Queensryche failed to obtain commercial success with prodigious releases like "Rage of Order" and "The Warning", but the single "Eyes of a Stranger" propelled "Operation: Mindcrime" into gold status quickly and cemented the group's reputation. Empire would later obtain platinum (one million albums sold) sales via the heavy rotation of "Silent Lucidity", while Fates Warning maintained a low but strong profile on albums like "Awaken the Guardian" and "Perfect Symmetry". Other bands, such as Crimson Glory with its melodic progressive metal and King's X with its combinations of vocal harmonies with heavy riffs (later made heavier by the Galactic Cowboys) would also tread the path of musical complexity, therefore contributing to an important resurrection of progressive metal which culminated in the 1993 release of Rush's "Counterparts", featuring the band's return to a heavier direction.

While Fates Warning, Queensryche, and Rush were creating complex music backed by intellectual lyrics which ran the gamut from philosophy to science fiction and beyond, several young bands began what would eventually be known as hardcore; the marriage of heavy metal and punk rock. Hardcore music was somewhat comparable to punk rock in its simple approach and politically minded lyrics, while borrowing a considerable portion of heavy metal's crunch and arrangements. Washington DC and New York City provided the genre with a major portion of its band, among which was the Bad Brains, perhaps the most intense hardcore band ever; blending jazz, reggae, metal, punk, and reckless speed in order to produce bona-fide hardcore albums such as "I Against I" and "Rock for Light". Meanwhile, Los Angeles' Black Flag was setting the world on fire with its "I've heard it all before, don't wanna hear it again!" ethic, Henry Rollins' manic roars, and Greg Ginn's dissonant guitarwork, which made up the band's classic "Damaged". At the same time, the Dead Kennedys were to epitomize the righteous political stance of hardcore with "Jello Biafra" leading the way, while Minor Threat stood against all conformism on its exhilarating live shows. Others like Agnostic Front, Antidote, Circle Jerks, Cro-Mags, DOA, Gorilla Biscuits, Husker Du, Laughing Hyenas, Life of Agony, Murphy's Law, Reagan Youth, Sick of it All, War Zone, and Youth of Today, kept adding fuel to the fire throughout the genre's popularity, which provided yet another sharp contrast to the reigning pop metal scene.

As Bad Brains and Black Flag were continuously attracting the wariness of police departments all across the United States, several bands decided to take hardcore even further into heavy metal domains, thus creating metalcore, or crossover. Discharge had begun the turmoil on "Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing" in the early 1980s only to spearhead a movement that would have its brightest moments throughout the rest of the decade. Dirty Rotten Imbeciles (DRI) would release albums like "Crossover" and "Definition", while Corrosion of Conformity created "Animosity" and "Eye for an Eye", both bands attracting the attention of hardcore and heavy metal fans only to pave the way for Stormtroopers of Death (SOD). The ironically hilarious "Speak English or Die" is perhaps the album most representative of crossover yet. Featuring singer Billy Milano along with Anthrax and ex-Nuclear Assault members, SOD was arguably the greatest metalcore band of all times, and a reunion was highly requested for years until the band recently released its comeback "Bigger than the Devil". Crossover, however, has yet to reach the commercial heights it attained during the 1980s, while hardcore is still somewhat prominent through bands like Biohazard, Fugazi, Jesus Lizard, and Madball.

During the last half of the 1980s, yet another branch of heavy metal began to rise out from the underground into commercial circles. Industrial metal, its most important feature was the use of electronic instruments and sounds such as drum machines and synthesizers, had been around since the early 1980s with outfits like the innovative and legendary Killing Joke and Swans, but it evolved much quicker through the last half of the decade through the efforts of bands like Controlled Bleeding (which would later produce Skin Chamber), Cop Shoot Cop, Godflesh, the heavy and aggressive Kein Mehrheit für die Mitleid (KMFDM), and Skinny Puppy, all remaining often within a dark musical spectrum. The final breakthrough, however, came about with Al Jourgensen's Ministry, which after outstanding albums like "The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste" and "Twitch" came around full circle on "Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs". The previously released "Jesus Built My Hotrod" had earned considerable video rotation, and songs like "Just One Fix" helped maintain the initial momentum of industrial metal.

By then the end of the 1980s was rapidly approaching, and metal was again becoming a jaded form of music. Every new pop and thrash metal band sounded exactly the same, and of the old ones only a few remained. Guns & Roses and Motley Crue and still ruled the music world along with Metallica, in the absence of Bon Jovi and Def Leppard. The thrash world was quickly dying as bands were repeating everything done before, and Megadeth, Metallica, and Slayer, had all slowed down and softened up on their approach in different degrees, which in turn propelled their sales and sent Metallica's "Black" album into an unbelievably long stay on the charts. Death and doom metal had already revived, but speed and glam needed a saviour.

Pop metal did not get it, but thrash metal certainly did, courtesy of Pantera. Pantera (originally a glam metal band) practically revolutionized thrash metal by popularizing an approach that had first been exploited and created by the (unjustly) unrecognized Exhorder. Speed was not the main point anymore, it was what singer Phil Anselmo called the "power groove". Riffs became unusually heavy without the need of growling or the extremely low-tuned and distorted guitars of death metal, rhythms depended more on a heavy groove, and vocals became a mixture of snarls and sharp screams, which all revived thrash for the 1990s, but pop metal was to suffer another fate: death at the hands of alternative metal.

Alternative metal had its roots on Neil Young's "Crazy Horse", and even before with bands like the Ventures and the Velvet Underground, but the true innovators were Faith No More, Jane's Addiction, and Living Colour; Living Colour, an eccentric mixture of heavy metal, jazz, blues, rap, funk, hardcore, and a good dose of black culture; Jane's Addiction, a band that borrowed heavily from the 1970s, and developed its own unique sound with Perry Farrel's high-pitched squeals. As for Faith No More, its members mixed every existing type of music available to them and fused it with their second singer Mike Patton's bewildered screaming to create masterful albums, a style adopted and developed later by Scatterbrain, Mr Bungle (Patton's side project) and Mindfunk. These bands were quite successful before the alternative metal explosion that was to occur, and obscured other bands that were stirring up a commotion, such as the the hyperkinetic Fishbone, hardcore-influenced Sonic Youth, the Irish Therapy?, and Seattle's Melvins, Tad, and Mudhoney. Of course, there was alsoMother Love Bone, but the band never quite hit fame, despite its outstanding music.

Then Nirvana exploded upon the world with their song "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Its mixture of accessibly simple vocal melodies and punk angst quickly drew hordes of fans eager to listen to something new. Kurt Cobain's depressed lyrics attracted millions of Generation X teenagers who felt as if the old stars of glam metal had nothing to do with their lives; flash and sex just were not reality anymore, or so everyone thought. Until the death of Cobain in 1994, the members of Nirvana were MTV darlings and helped impulse the so-called Seattle scene, taking away the heavy metal scene from Los Angeles. The grunge wave was so overwhelming commercially that new alternative metal bands began springing out throughout the world, eventually oversaturating the scene. Few bands remained true to their original styles; the likes of the Black Crowes and the Four Horsemen reviving the bluesier rock of the 1960s; "Pride and Glory" displaying a Southern-influenced rock style; and the "Almighty", "Love/Hate", and the intensely political and pseudo-alternative "Warrior Soul" remaining true to a more straightforward heavy metal style.

After the wake of Nirvana, several bands quickly attained fame status. Soundgarden kept to its tried and true formula; Alice in Chains offered a dark, broody musical landscape; and Pearl Jam, perhaps the second most important band of the alternative scene, offered intricate guitar arrangements and melodies, along with Eddie Vedder's low growls and words from the heart on its masterful debut album "Ten". The alternative metal scene quickly grew as MTV gave such bands heavy video rotation and took them to stardom, while turning its back on all other forms of heavy metal after a couple of years and for no apparent reason. Later came bands like Stone Temple Pilots, which evolved from a poor man's Pearl Jam to a force of its own, Big Chief, Blind Melon, Candlebox, Dinosaur Jr, the unique My Sister's Machine, the acclaimed Saigon Kick, the punk-turned-alternative Soul Asylum, and Sponge, all with different degrees of success.

Meanwhile, progressive metal would enjoy yet another zenith among commercial circles. "Images and Words", a rather complex collection of progressive-minded music delivered by Dream Theatre, reached stellar sales and took progressive metal to grounds seldom tried before. Consisting of prodigious musicians, the band would also release albums such as "Awake" and "A Change of Seasons" to further broaden its musical horizon and appeal, and further establishing its reputation as one of progressive metal's most outstanding bands ever. Furthermore, in the wake of Dream Theatre's success, several new bands began experimenting further with the most technically apt branch of heavy metal developed previously by the likes of the insanely technical progressive thrash act Watchtower. Ayreon, Damn the Machine, the unbelievably original Pain of Salvation, Shadow Gallery, the ultra-complex Spastic Ink, Symphony X, and Threshold, are among these bright exponents of music, which continuously broaden musical frontiers. Along with these, other bands have created more whimsical approaches, like the progressive thrash metal composed by Anacrusis and the progressive combination of death metal and jazz harboured once by Atheist and Cynic.

While the hype around Seattle was continually growing, a unique musician named Trent Reznor, the brains behind Nine Inch Nails, took the spotlight increasingly as he revolutionized industrial metal through his angry, hateful lyrics. Impelled heavily by tracks like "Broken", "Closer", and "Head Like A Hole", alongside a memorable performance at the unmemorable second Woodstock Festival, Reznor achieved quite a household name through the years. Meanwhile, far away from the fickle support of MTV and the music media and embedded in the underground, a band called Fear Factory was meshing the mechanical sounds of industrial metal with the roughness of death metal and creating a bleak and intense vein of industrial metal that would later gain considerable momentum. Thus the seeds for the incoming waves of industrial-influenced artists were sown and would later prove to be quite influential.

Also amidst the reigning alternative scene, Primus and Ugly Kid Joe had quite important stints of brilliance. Primus, its lineup included Larry LaLonde, formerly a member of Possessed, was perhaps the most eccentric of the alternative metal roster. Les Claypool's nasal whines and often funky and catchy bass runs, coupled with Tim Alexander's manic rhythms, were sometimes called the "parallel universe" version of Rush. Musical excellence is still quite fluent within the unit, and the group's songs are quirky and extremely unique. Ugly Kid Joe, meanwhile, enjoyed two short flashes of fame, only to have its popularity fall afterwards like a bomb. On albums like "As Ugly as They Wanna Be" and "America's Least Wanted", the band's members provided the world with energetic funk metal outings. Additionally, previous to and during Ugly Kid Joe's efforts, the relatively unknown Kingofthehill, 24-7 Spyz, Infectious Grooves (derived from the Suicidal Tendencies line-up), and White Trash would constitute the underground backbone of the scene, while Mordred created interesting and groundbreaking mixtures of thrash and funk. Meanwhile, the funky pop metal of Extreme garnered the genre, which had begun its growth during the 1970s with bands like Deep Purple during David Coverdale's stint, considerable repute. The roadworthy veterans Red Hot Chili Peppers were also vital in the popularization of the trend, especially after their hit song "Under the Bridge" played on every radio station imaginable to mankind, and still enjoy a stellar status as, arguably, the strongest exponent of funk metal ever.

Perhaps the most important subgenre associated with metal to emerge from the debris that the wake of alternative metal had left behind, however, was stoner rock. Initially deprived of such a specific label, and later acquiring it due to obvious hallucinogenic references, stoner rock was led mainly by pioneers Monster Magnet and, more importantly, Kyuss. The style was enormously reminiscent of Sabbath and yet could not really be labeled doom, as it was in a groovier vein, despite elements like lower tunings, thick distortion, a penchant for extended mini-suites (a la Black Sabbath), and riffs that Tony Iommi himself could have conceived. Sadly, however, most of the genre's artists were to stay underground for much of the 1990s, with Kyuss being relegated to an extremely strong cult band status in which the act released gems such as Welcome to Sky Valley and ... and Circus Left Town before sadly calling it quits.

The problems by the middle of the 1990s, however, were way beyond the realms of stoner rock only, as alternative metal was dying out. Nirvana had ceased existing with the death of guitarist/vocalist Kurt Cobain, Pearl Jam had abstained from touring because of a legal feud with Ticketmaster, Alice In Chains gradually became less public as vocalist Layne Staley's drug addiction deepened, and, just like in the 1980s, bands started imitating tried and successful formulas. Only a couple of bands kept breaking new ground, such as the musically simple Helmet and the sometimes psychedelic Smashing Pumpkins. Relatively new punk bands like the Green Day, Offspring, and Rancid (which came out of the ska-punk Operation Ivy) had helped with the initial impulse of the Seattle scene, actually and mistakenly being called alternative by MTV, but their lack of musical fierceness when compared to older punk bands eventually contributed to their own downfall, excepting the Offspring. The hardcore Bad Religion, NOFX, and Social Distortion, the latest of punk bands to reach wide media exposure after several years of existence, seemed for a short moment to be making a small commotion, but nowadays the matter of true punk rock surviving in commercial circles for much longer is rather questionable, the scene being taken up by comparably weak and unoriginal outfits such as Blink 182.

Ever since the second half of the 1990s, heavy metal seems to constantly be on the verge of coming back, which reinstates the fact that the heavy metal/punk scene seems to fit quite comfortably into the historic theory of cycles. Initially, the reunion and comeback tours of acts such as Black Sabbath, Kiss, Motley Crue, Poison, Quiet Riot, Riot, and several other bands were responsible for leading to such a belief, but it only took a couple of years before it became apparent that most of these events were nothing but mere business, turmoil-ridden compromises, or flashes in the pan without true staying power. On the other hand, however, Europe has been leading a full-blown explosion of heavy metal for years now, and the United States has meanwhile opened itself slowly to some styles, although it is still far from being the metal hotbed it was in the 1980s.

Particularly surprising is the partial resurgence of heavy metal in the United States, as the bands that have been part of it are probably the heaviest and most shocking to ever reach wide media rotation, although certainly not the heaviest or most shocking ever in the whole spectrum of metal. One of the new tendencies began as rap metal, or rapcore; a combination that was experimented with by older groups such as Aerosmith, Anthrax, and Bad Brains; and played constantly by more obscure outfits like Clawfinger and Hard Corps, but that lately has been taking a harder turn. Somewhat pioneered by the controversial Ice-T-led Body Count along with the popular and politically active Rage Against the Machine, during the early 1990s, the movement would nevertheless truly hit it big when it turned into what is now called nu-metal. Pioneered without a doubt by Deftones, and Korn, and ridiculed by some who consider it not to be metal, the style owns many of its characteristics to Faith No More and that band's song "Jizzlobber". Jerky drumming, slap bass, downtuned guitars with dirty distortion, and "tortured" vocals that borrow much from rap have indeed become a commercially successful mixture as of late, and other bands such as Coal Chamber and Limp Bizkit and have been quick to exploit it. The scene, however, has recently been under severe attack from non-mainstream metal sources, with bands like Linkin Park standing accused of being the nu-metal equivalent of bands such as Nelson and Silverchair, and others like Papa Roach shamelessly ripping off Iron Maiden.

Although the United States has decidedly turned away from heavy metal during this decade, Europe and Japan have proven to be strong bulwarks for the music, and have allowed the power metal movement to grow impressively and accept new members as each year passes by. In addition to bands that have played the style and have gone unrecognized for what seems like ages (Helstar, for instance), a roster of new bands have incorporated themselves into the melodic metal mold. There are, for instance, power metal bands like the neoclassical Rhapsody or the progressive Angra that not only excel at playing their instruments but that also have taken a major cue from the style that Yngwie Malmsteen once became so reputed for ( although one is forced to wonder why these bands take the music of composers like Niccolo Paganini and Franz Schubertwhile claiming the authorship of such pieces), or others like the German Stratovarius and Finnish Sonata Arctica, which have in great part taken up the flag of power metal and carried it in a long crusade forward. Finally, there is the undeniably astounding power metal scene in Germany, which has produced bands like UP, Headhunter, and the Kai Hansen-led unit Gamma Ray, which, along with others like Kamelot and Labyrinth, have kept metal alive and well in many countries outside the United States.

What lies in the future of heavy metal? As any historian worth his own weight knows (and I not being one of them), history cannot and should not be predicted; although historic cycles may help with such evaluations, nothing assures that they are right. By now, the return of glam metal has proven to be nothing more than hype, alternative metal would be dead if it were not for Creed's unabashed ripping off of Pearl Jam, power metal keeps thriving in Europe and Japan, and Iron Maiden has come back in full force with "Brave New World". Moreover, The Gathering keeps releasing album after album of progressive and awe-inspiring atmospheric beauty, Neurosis is still exploring abrasive sonic territory, bands such as Tiamat and Opeth break the limits that were once set upon them, Therion delivers its unique mixture of metal and classical music, In Flames continues taking over the world, stoner rock seems to be making major waves, and Nevermore takes American power metal to levels of heaviness previously unthought of, honouring the tradition that some of its members had once established with Sanctuary. What is next? Pardon the naive and jaded cliche, but only time will tell.

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