A Short History of Heavy Metal
(as told by some guy on the internet)
This is a response piece to an episode of the JHS Pedals Vlog about heavy metal bands and guitar gear. Check out the video at the link below. In the video, Josh of JHS talks to some modern metal musicians in an effort to learn more about the history of the genre.
https://youtu.be/oqn9HlzRBYM
There’s so many different flavors of metal that are all so important. The best way to look at it (in my opinion) is in 'eras' based on time period and location.
Iron Maiden and Judas Priest are my go to 'gateway' metal bands. Get a copy of Maiden's "Powerslave" and "Screaming for Vengeance" by Priest. If you dig it, work your way backwards through their catalogs from there. Early Priest is super 70s psychedelic hippy, while pre-Bruce Dickinson Maiden has much more of a punk vibe. Both are fantastic. Great way to start with the "New Wave of British Heavy Metal" era. You can't ignore Black Sabbath either, but I think that doesn't even need to be said. Just listen to it.
Then you get into the early thrash metal records which grew out of those British records. Listen to the first two records by Metallica and Megadeth. Slayer is hugely important as well. I suggest their first live record, "Live Undead". Their first two studio records are great, but the live record captures the energy and vibe of early thrash out of LA and San Francisco. The third records from these bands really steps things up. At this point the genre has had time to be established. The songwriting is more refined and mature. These musicians were unexperienced children basically. By the time their third/forth records were written, they had all improved and matured. Metallica's "Master of Puppets" and Slayer's "Reign in Blood" are significantly different than their previous records. Don't forget Anthrax either. The New York scene at the time shouldn't be ignored.
Pantera is HUGELY important to modern metal. That group of miscreants revitalized metal in the 90s after grunge (more specifically, record company greed) demolished the thrash scene. They showed up playing thrash style riffs with a groove, something the previous bands didn't have. The songs on "Cowboys from Hell" and "Vulgar Display of Power" swing pretty hardcore. You'll find yourself locking into the groove, more like a classic rock record than a pure thrash record. Phil's vocals are particually important, as modern metal "dirty" singers are basically doing what Phil did. Other bands were doing that beforehand of course, like Chuck Schindler of Death, but Pantera had the commercial appeal which brought that style of vocal to the masses. Without Pantera, metal as it exists today would be VERY different.
I can keep going with different eras and styles of metal throughout time. The early death/black metal scene, moving forward to the second wave of American metal with metalcore bands like Killswitch Engage, Shadow’s Fall, and Lamb of God (not really a metalcore band per se, but they came up in the same scene and time period), progressive metal (King Crimson the most underapprediated band ever). The most important records of that time period would be "Alive or Just Breathing" by Killswitch and "Ashes of the Wake" by Lamb of God. Plenty of other great stuff from there.
I skipped over the hair metal stuff, or "butt rock" as my group of musician friends used to call it. That's important too, but it's a different subject entirely that shouldn't be ignored.
That's a good place to start. I can go on for hours on this subject. Haven't even started talking about the guitar gear synonymous with this music yet! There's a long and storied history to heavy metal which can't be covered in one piece. Didn't touch on the guitar centric shred metal kinda stuff of the 80s either, like Cacophony (Jason Becker and Marty Friedman), Shawn Lane, Racer X (Paul Gilbert and Bruce Bouillet), ect..
TL;DR - Listen to the first two records from the "Big 4", Maiden and Priest, Vulgar Display of Power by Pantera, Alive or Just Breathing by Killswitch Engage, and Ashes of the Wake by Lamb of God. That’s a good selection of seminal records from each of the eras/genres of metal I covered above. If you like crazy instrumental guitar shred, check out Cacophony and Racer X. Everyone should listen to more King Crimson and King’s X because they are the shit.
