Raging Through the Decades: The Epic History of Heavy Metal
Gather around children. It’s time to get schooled. To know where we’re going, we must first know where we come from. Today we’re going to give you a brief history lesson on the origin and evolution of heavy metal.
Heavy metal has been tearing up ear drums and causing parents to clutch their pearls since the late 60s and early 70s. With its distorted guitars, pounding drums, and vocals that make you feel like you’re summoning demons, it’s the perfect soundtrack for anyone who wants to scare the living daylights out of their neighbors.
The 70’s
The history of heavy metal is a tale of rebellion, darkness, and a whole lot of hair. It all started with the pioneers Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple, who decided that music should be louder, harder, and darker. They gave birth to the sound that would eventually become synonymous with metal, a delightful noise.
The 80’s
As the 70s turned into the 80s, metal started to diversify. Thrash metal brought the speed and the aggression, with bands like Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth melting faces and taking names. Glam metal came along and gave us a chance to dress up like peacocks, with bands like Poison and Motley Crue showing us how to party like rockstars. And then there was death metal, which took things to a whole new level of insanity, with bands like Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel making sure we all got our daily dose of musical gore.
The 90’s
In the 90s, for better or worse, metal continued to evolve. Nu metal mixed heavy metal with rap and alternative rock, with bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit making us all wonder why, by today’s standards, we ever thought baggy pants were a good idea. Industrial metal brought us the joy of synthesizers and drum machines, with Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson showing us that you could be creepy and danceable all at the same time. And then there was black metal, which taught us that Satanism and corpse paint could be a real fashion statement, with bands like Mayhem and Emperor scaring the bejeezus out of non-head nodders.
Today
Today, metal is still going strong. We’ve got sub-genres like metalcore, djent, and post-metal, that sound like a cross between a blender and a jackhammer. Metalcore is all about screaming, breakdowns, and being mad at someone, with bands like Killswitch Engage and All That Remains telling us how to live our lives. Djent is all about complicated rhythms, extended-range guitars, and pretending you’re smarter than everyone else, with bands like Meshuggah and Periphery making sure we know they’re in a league of their own. And post-metal is all about being atmospheric, ethereal, and making you feel like you’re floating in space, with bands like Isis and Cult of Luna making us all want to close our eyes and drift away.
Author: Scream Headbang
About Scream
This article represents the author’s personal opinions and is not intended to be a comprehensive or definitive history of heavy metal.
