METAL GAUNTLET

One of the major and most popular forms and styles of music is metal. It is so popular in some parts of the world that many people believe that it’s a way of life and it fulfils and completes them when they feel inadequate. This style of music can be traced to its origins in the late 70s and 80s along with its cousin ROCK. Influences to this style are many and some ironic such as Blues, Folk and operas. Many of the major scales in the guitar work have been adopted and imbibed from these styles. One of the founders of this kind of music has been BLACK SABBATH, a British band with an inclination towards the dark side of the human psyche. Along with bands like Judas Priest, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath created a huge impact on people who wanted something different, something raw and something aggressive. From then on, there was a rapid increase in the number of bands, styles and subspecies of metal.

The most popular subspecies were Black, Death, Goth and Heavy. The front runners in Death were Cradle of Filth, Corrosions of Conformity. Death metal was ruled by bands like Obituary, Cannibal Corpse, Venom etc. Heavy Metal bans were Pantara, Sepulture etc. Besides three subspecies there were many variants such as Doom, Melodic Death, Blackwave, Darkwave, Speed, Trash, New Wave of British and American metal, Metal Core, Viking, Operative, Symphonic, Industrial, Shock and many more.

One thing common to all these styles and variants was that they all exhibited an aggressive and rebellious attitude towards the normal man and his way of life. They showed their uniqueness by their music. Many of these outfits came under fire for their antics and views on sensitive issues like society, religion etc. They did not create their music to go commercial but to express their emotions on certain issues. Another important feature in metal music is that most of the metal outfits deal with emotions of man such as hate, pain, sorrow, misery, envy, greed etc. these bands create songs related to their past experiences and their feelings. Since they are commercial they hit right in the hearts of people who can relate their feelings to the songs. With the rise in the styles of music, there have been many new techniques invented and practiced to perfection with a flare of uniqueness.

Growling gutturals and screeching vocals, galloping bass, screaming guitars and thunderous drums are the main stays of metal. In a glance the combination of all the above may sound like noise to any layman. But people with ability to understand can appreciate and enjoy metal. Its like any drug, once you have tasted it you want more and more and are never stop loving it. It’s so addictive that it becomes a part of you. One last thing, people who don’t appreciate the beauty, superiority of this music and claim that they are music lovers, I can say only one thing ---- F*#Φ YOU.

Leper.