Heavy Metal: Sub-Genres and Influence
Heavy metal began as a displaced youth’s answer to changing world dynamics that destabilized the blue-collar middle class. It spread through its power to express emotional distress over specific circumstances, and a wide range of cultures found a way to embrace and emulate its idiom. As an example, by the 1990s, heavy metal had reached the shores of Japan, and in the secluded media-ecosystem of the far-east, it found a purity driven by its artists. Hiroshi Arishima, a music critic in Japan described the scene as its own “Galapagos Island” of music evolution. Japan’s isolation from the worldwide exposure of the genre allowed the rise of groups that had never been popular in the United States or United Kingdom. Kei Kawano and Shushei Hosokawa write in their scholarship of the area that the notion holds true with the saying, “you may not have heard of them, but they are ‘big in Japan’”. (Metal, p247).
The approach for classicizing metal among Japanese fans comes from a stylistic beauty or style aesthetic described as yôshi-kibi. The authors of “Metal Rules the Globe” describe this as
“the power chord introduction, an intense riff, stable 4/4 meter, “lyrical” melodic line (preferably in a minor key, which is supposed to touch Japanese heartstrings), chord progressions based on predictable functional harmony, “weeping” guitar, a superb solo, a dramatic storyline (in the case of a concept album), adaptation of orchestral music, and other elements.” (Arishima, p247)
Singing in English is another key element to this classicized approach. Like Jazz, global perceptions of stylistic aesthetics for heavy metal requires that they be sung in English regardless of the native language. Even singing in very broken English lends itself better to the pure style requirements of the emergent Japanese commercial metal that grew out of the early 90s. Today, the scene has a much different story. Aldious, Baby Metal, and Band-Maid, three all-girl thrash bands that have developed in the past 10 years, along with a few others, have clearly bucked the Japanese adherence to a rigid heavy metal genre mold. You can check out more about these fascinating groups at Baku Magazine.
The 90s had another big sub-genre development for the world of heavy metal in the United States. Just about the time Japan was getting its teeth into the music, groups like Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, and Rammstien were branding a new style called industrial metal. This sound combined repeating guitar lines, sampling, synthesizers, sequence lines, and distorted vocals in an exciting and compelling way. Godflesh, considered a big influence on industrial metal and post-metal acts, released its first complete music in 1988 with the use of a drum machine. Their sound is defined by harsh machine beats, production-emphasis bass, distorted guitars, and vocals delivered in a low guttural fashion. Their music has been described as especially heavy and grim.
Other groups of the genre have made tremendous impact on pop culture, with several making large contributions to the film and media industries during the 90s. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails worked on the soundtracks for Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers, (1994) and David Lynch’s Lost Highway (1997) and Rob Zombie has directed three films. Other films including prominent contributions from industrial metal are Se7en, The Crow, and The Matrix. These acclaims, along with numerous Grammy successes highlighted the impact that industrial music had on the world of heavy metal during this period.
Heavy metal is no stranger to attacks from the conservative right, with groups like Judas Priest being cited as the reason for a pair of young men in Nevada committing suicide, to the blaming of Marilyn Manson lyrics for the Columbine High School shooting. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the shooters at Columbine, in fact preferred KMFDM and Rammstein. In response to the shootings, the band KMFDM put out the following public statement:
“First and foremost, KMFDM would like to express their deep and heartfelt sympathy for the parents, families and friends of the murdered and injured children in Littleton. We are sick and appalled, as is the rest of the nation, by what took place in Colorado yesterday. KMFDM are an art form – not a political party. From the beginning, our music has been a statement against war, oppression, fascism and violence against others. While some of the former band members are German as reported in the media, none of us condone any Nazi beliefs whatsoever.” (Powers, 1999)
Marilyn Manson, a former journalist, wrote in his own response to the accusations that his music was responsible for the tragedy, “I think that the National Rifle Association is far too powerful to take on, so most people choose Doom, The Basketball Diaries or yours truly.” He went on to describe his music as being a representation that “the devil we blame our atrocities on is really just each one of us.” These pioneers of industrial heavy metal are an amazing reflection of how the perceived evils that we suffer are often just a product of our own making.
The stylistic approach to a vast majority of heavy metal relies on the expression of dark, sinister, misunderstood troubles through the use of overbearing distortion, thunderous percussion, and intense vocal performance. Through industrial, thrash, black, and even nu and modern heavy metal sub-genres, this style continues to seek new ways of allowing us this introspection into our own mortality and involvement to the world we inhabit. Metal doesn’t make us do anything- it rather allows us to see where we have been, regardless of how scary the road we traveled became. Heavy metal isn’t about hate, its about recognizing hate. It isn’t about Satanic beliefs, its about recognizing hypocrisy. It isn’t about what side you’re on. It’s about what that side has done to you. Heavy metal looks you straight in the eye, grabs you by the throat, throws you into the pit, and tells your chest what a heart thump really feels like. Heavy metal is Chuck Norris on steroids, and it doesn’t have a safe word.
Music has a magic that allows you to release yourself into the fog. When you don’t have the words, music has the melody. Heavy metal brought us an impactful way to cope with the ever-growing confusion of navigating the complexities of human existence in the modern era. One of my favorite groups compliments this sentiment nicely. Let’s all spiral down as we close out this last segment of heavy metal. Here’s Tool, with Lateralus:
· Kei Kawano and Shuhei Hosokawa, “Thunder In The Far East”, The Heavy Metal Industry in 1990s Japan, (Durham & London 2011)
· WE WILL ROCK YOU: JAPANESE HEAVY METAL GIRL BANDS, Baku Magazine, JULY 30, 2018
· Ann Powers, “The Nation; The Stresses of Youth, The Strains of Its Music” The New York Times, April 25, 1999
· Marilyn Manson, “Columbine: Whose Fault Is It? - In the aftermath of the Colorado school shooting, Marilyn Manson speaks out” Rolling Stone, June 24th, 1999