The Many Faces of Metal

When Black Sabbath's eponymous debut album first made its way into the light of day and record store shelves in 1970, something potent and radically different from most concurrent music being made was brought into the world. As different and groundbreaking as it was at the time, the genre of heavy metal that was birthed in that year has only continued to evolve, distinguish, divide and redefine itself in a plethora of manners and manifestations since then.

At the same time that the sound, appearance and core values of metal set themselves up in different camps, the genre itself generally followed the only trend common to all other music and art in general in the past few decades: that of globalization. The perhaps unexpected, but undeniably intriguing result has been that the music, which traditionally has been western in style, sound, and lyrical content, has been opened to reinterpretation from cultures from around the world.

In addition to this globalization of metal, the zeitgeist of the western world (that is, North America and Europe for the most part) where most metal is still being made, has undergone rapid change since 1970, and metal has also evolved to reflect this in almost every way. The social, religious, and political underpinnings of modern metal differs greatly from those who immediately followed in the footsteps of Black Sabbath.

This blog will largely focus on the unique and often esoteric contributions that musicians and non-musicians alike from radically different backgrounds and perspectives have made towards the teeming mass of lyrical self-contradictions and unadulterated ear-splitting sonic power that is, and always will be, metal. Topics will include the timeline of the female experience in metal (systematically dispersing the long-held impression that metal is analogous to a treehouse built by boys wherein females are not allowed to enter), the modern Chinese black metal phenomenon, folk metal from all over Europe, the rise of South American metal, the Japanese introduction of visual kei, metal's hard line division between elitists and mainstream advocates, the use of unconventional instruments such as the saxophone or the cello in metal, the curious and noticeable lack of black people participating in a musical movement that owes its existence to the blues, and much more.

So if learning about metal has been something that was on your agenda, stay tuned.