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RE: Excellent picado speed exercise
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srshea
Posts: 833
Joined: Oct. 29 2006
From: Olympia, WA in the Great Pacific Northwest
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 RE: Excellent picado speed exercise (in reply to Ron.M)
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Alright, Ron. Don't ever say I didn’t doing anything for ya. Here’s a scattered, bare bones take that skims over all the nuances that people can’t agree upon. And my own knowledge is more U.S. focused, so bear in mind that there’s some different labeling between American stuff and British/Euro stuff. And to make things much more confusing, many bands might start out in one sub-genre and then evolve into something else! Don’t hold me to any of this, and if some punter clocks you in an argument started with any of the info I offer here, don’t come cryin’ to me:
NWOBM= New Wave of British Metal. This is a good reference point to start out with, as pretty much everything that comes later is an evolution out of this movement.
Late seventies. After the early “metal” pioneers (Sabbath, Deep Purple, etc.) petered out, you got your Saxon, Judas Priest (compare their earlier bluesy hard rock sound to the later, driving Breakin' the Law style stuff to get an idea of the change that this new genre introduced.) , Iron Maiden , etc.). Kinda fast, influenced by the energy of punk. Lot’s of t-shirts and jeans, denim jackets, spiky belts. More of a tough working class aesthetic, with music to match. Motorhead, etc.
Speed Metal and Thrash Metal are roughly synonymous. Early eighties, stripped down, punk influenced stuff. NWOBM influenced, but even more stripped down and spare, and, obviously, fast. Early Metallica, Slayer, Megadeath (those are the big three, though I’m a Hirax man , myself). The SF Bay Area was the epicenter for much of this.
Shred Metal, I dunno, not my thing. This would be more slick, classically trained guys with yellow and pink guitars playing fast scales. Much different aesthetic. More of a focus on instrumental music, with none of the tough guy shouting/singing about dire subject matter than you’ll find in most other metal.
Death Metal is a big one, with endless offshoot variations. Oh boy, more of a mid to late eighties thing. Bay area stuff, a lot of stuff in Florida, of all places. Morbid Angel, Possessed, Death. A lot of mixed tempos, slower stuff with breaks in to super fast stuff. Over the top growling vocals like the Cookie Monster. A lot of it became really technical, with fancy instrumental breaks, crazy time signatures. Songs about morbid stuff, decapitations, chewing on some dude’s arm, etc.
Grindcore would be a largely British offshoot of death metal, centered around Earache records. Super fast, indecipherable, guttural singing, drums that sound like machinegun fire. Lot’s of punk/hardcore influence. Napalm Death, Carcass, etc. Songs based on autopsy reports, etc.
“Crossover” came about in the mid 80s when a lot of hardcore bands “sold out” and “went metal” (See: D.R.I.). This has since become a genre in itself.
Doom Metal: slowed down in a back-to-Sabbath way, with death metal style vocals. Monotonous, pounding, dour, dire, etc.
Black Metal: this term was earlier used to describe early eighties brit bands like Venom and Hellhammer, but later resurfaced in the early 90s in Scandinavia, mostly Norway. These are the guys with their faces painted white who burned down stave churches, killed each other etc. There’s some variation in sounds and styles, and a mix of ideological approaches, but here’s some random thoughts: Super, super fast. Shrieking, witchy vocals rather than deep growly vocals ala death metal. A lot of melancholy droning melodies played over super fast repetitive drumming. Much if this stuff was recorded in a deliberately crude, primitive, anti-commercial way. In response to other forms of metal getting cleaned up and sanitized these guys went in the opposite direction in an over the top way. Though there are other strains that lean towards a more grandiose, symphonic approach, evocative of Teutonic nights upon their mighty steeds. A mish mash of pagan Nordic-roots racist nationalism, misanthropy, fatalism. Aside from the killings and reprehensible and deeply stupid church burnings, much of this is comical in that these are all a bunch of middle class kids from one of the wealthiest counties on earth, with not much to legitimately complain about, yet this is the poutiest, most woeful genre of music extant. Emperor, Mayhem, Burzum are the big acts. I’m partial to Darkthrone myself, particularly their lo-fi masterpiece Transylvanian Hunger. Even though it started as a very specific and short lived regional thing, black metal has actually kept going and sprouted off in a lot of surprising ways. The aesthetic and the pessimistic ideology took root in a lot downtrodden countries in eastern Europe. The musical and, to a lesser extent, visual aesthetic (sans the racism) has become kind of a big deal in the U.S. in recent years. We’ve got a band here in town called Wolves in the Throne Room who have an increasingly growing international following.
So, that’s my off the top of the head attempt at a scratch on the surface. All of these genres have been revived and tweaked in various scenes at various times, blended in a million complex variations, Goregrind, Deathgrind, Melodic Fill in the Blank Metal, and on and on.
Added later: Oh, and I should point out that I'm NOT a true afficionado of this stuff, just a casual fan of a small number of the bands mentioned. So this is very much a layman's opinion. Take it for what it's worth....
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Date Apr. 17 2010 14:27:57
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Ron.M
Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland
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RE: Excellent picado speed exercise (in reply to srshea)
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Wow!
Thanks for that mini-guide, srshea!
I recognize several of the names of the bands you mentioned, but never (knowingly) heard any of their stuff....was just too OTT for me.
So "Shred" is the middle-class end of Metal playing then... Interesting.
Anyway, it sounds like there was a lot of enthusiasm and energy going around then, which I like, compared to today's bland over-produced, sterile garbage.
As far as Electric playing goes, I must say I was never into Clapton, but liked guys like Carlos Santana, Mark Knopfler, Brian May...
Guys with a bit of clever musicality as well as technique.
Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood get a good "sound" together too, in a kind of basic "Moraito" way...
Probably the Electric guitarists who knocked me out the most EVER, were three guitarists from Lynyrd Skynyrd when I saw them live in concert in Glasgow.
I'd never seen Electric guitar played in that style before..
Each one would improvise on a riff until they were done, then another player would pick it up and take the lead. All very fast and with outstanding technique.
Phenomenal players!
cheers,
Ron
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Date Apr. 18 2010 3:02:18
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srshea
Posts: 833
Joined: Oct. 29 2006
From: Olympia, WA in the Great Pacific Northwest
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RE: Excellent picado speed exercise (in reply to Ron.M)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Ron.M
never (knowingly) heard any of their stuff....was just too OTT for me.
Yup, that’s kinda the point. Pretty much all the stuff mentioned here falls under the umbrella term “extreme metal”, which denotes a deliberate attempt to push things as far as possible in a certain direction and make it totally unpalatable to a general audience. So the point is to be insanely fast, or punishingly heavy or whatever. A lot of the black metal guys would boast about how terrible their records sounded. “Our new record sounds absolutely awful. It’s our best yet!”
quote:
Anyway, it sounds like there was a lot of enthusiasm and energy going around then, which I like, compared to today's bland over-produced, sterile garbage.
I woke up early this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I was thinking more on all this stuff and all the corrections and additions that I could make (which I will spare you). I was reminded of how many of these kinds of bands are still around, thirty plus years on. Underground metal has maybe the most fanatical level of devotion amongst it’s most committed participants, in the audience and on the stage. So many of those bands are still around in one form or another, still grinding it out year after year to modestly sized but earnestly devoted and loyal, knowledgeable crowds. It’s a true lifestyle, and these guys are lifers in the truest sense. It’s all a little bit like……….flamenco!
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Date Apr. 18 2010 10:51:47
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