The sonic attribute that makes heavy metal music stand out from other genres is the ability and the intensity to drive that intensity beyond what might be considered within the realm of comfort. A metal song is a vehicle of psychological exorcism, and the sounds crafted around them are intended to reflect this regardless of the actual material Brattico et al., (2013). Since there are so many subgenres to metal, it is not easy to touch on the qualities of technicity (doom vs. tech-death), vocal style, drumming styles (deathcore vs. sludge), and guitars such as Author & Punisher, botanist and Apocalyptica, or preferred musical scale like chon. This variation in distribution is so diverse that an inane number of subgenres occurs as a byproduct. That represents the imagination of humankind, which increases the number of ways that one can express the sense of seeing the dark.
Most metal uses a complex song structure that includes highly skilled musicians. Lyrical material with a concentration on the themes of darkness, fantasy, or feeling. Not much of this kind of “love” songs. The complicated lyric is unveiled in tracks like One-Metallica, Prisoner-Iron Maiden, and War Pigs-Black Sabbath from 3 separate sub-genres. The other aspect of heavy metals is the possibility that intensely violent riffs are distorted Brattico et al., (2013). There are many forms of music with extremely distorted riffs. One should remember punk rock. However, it is the brutal guitar riffs that render the distinctions between punk rock and hard rock. It does not matter much if it is blues, classic, or hard rock. However, metal chords and other chords of the guitar remain.
Most metal riffs are made of small scales and power chords. For instance, the Dio- Holy Diver song riff is an example because everyone has heard the song and knows the riff more or less. However, the riff people hear is strong, which makes the listener hear it more clearly Redies, (2015). One can also hear the guitar through the brutal low pitch than other rock styles, which makes it to be a well established aesthetic. Besides, the genre is also not only brutal but also tend to be very noisy. The riff in this song is fast, deformed, loud, and noisy, making it more effective. The opening riff of Back in Black, for instance, is AC/DC Black in black. Yeah, punk rock is not. It is deep, but there is no metal riff but a rock that’s heavy. Cause it is really slow, as an individual is able to see. In the selection/strumming, it has longer gaps than metal riffs (comparatively). The palm muting is another trend most metal riffs imitate. That brutally makes the music. However, many metal guitar players will create metal riffs with no palm muffled.
In the heavy metal genre, there is also a powerful vocal. Metal vocals provide solid vocals relative to other rock genres. Well, certain metal styles like symphonic metal, power metal, and progressive metal do not have a soft voice for all metal genres Redies, (2015). However, the voices in heavy metal are still forceful, violent. Besides, also shouting functionality which always has well-established beats that enhance the powerful vocals in the song lyrics. Before the advent of metal, early hard rock singers used to yell too. The metal was highly screamed, later with a strong mid-pitch voice. These two changed the metal voice dramatically. For the first time, Ian Gillan from Deep Purple produced high-pitch shouts. So he developed a new style of voice, followed later by most metal singers. For example, in the mid-pitch in the late 1970s, Ronnie James Dio began singing in a powerful voice. That again showed the metal singer another new direction.
In the 1980s, Bruce Dickinson sang a strong voice in the mid-pitch, followed by Ronnie James Dio and Ian Gillan’s high-pitch screams. This made the metal vocals famous and affected all the metal singers (after the mid-80s) Redies, (2015). Technical guitar solos are also present in connection with the heavy metal genre. There are plenty of metal songs with no solos. However, more technically, metal solos are played. It can be called shredding as well. There are some heavy metal’s features. There is much more, although most of the heavy metal songs are popular.
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