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Types of Heavy Metal Bands

Author: William Jakes

There are many types of heavy metal styles that have come out of the original heavy metal movement.  It can sometimes be difficult to tell differences, but the most noticeable difference are in tempo, vocal style, instrumentation, lyrics, drumming style and guitar playing style.

What we now call Traditional Heavy Metal is usually a grouping of some of the original Metal bands that were around before the Metal genres split into many smaller sub-sets and styles.  Some examples of these groups include Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple.

Black Metal -

Originates from Speed metal, Thrash metal and hardcore punk in the early 1980’s.  Black metal has had much opposition from mainstream culture due to many of its bands having an anti-Christian worldview. Typical instruments include vocals, electric guitar, bass guitar and drums.

Death Metal -

Originates from Thrash metal and early Black metal in the mid-1980’s.  Uses heavily distorted guitars, blast-beat drumming, and deep growling vocals.  Inspired by groups such as Slayer, Celtic Frost and Kreator.

Doom Metal -

Originates from classic heavy metal, especially Black Sabbath albums of the early 1970’s. Uses slower tempos and a much heavier and “thicker” sound.  Lyrics tend to evoke a sense of dread, doom or despair.

Drone Metal -

Became more popular in the early 1990’s.  Drone metal melds Doom metal with the long duration tones of  drone music.

Folk Metal -

Developed in Europe in the mid 1990’s.  It fuses classic heavy metal with traditional folk music through the use of folk instruments.

Glam Metal -

Also known as “hair metal”, it arose in the late 1970’s and stayed popular through the 1980’s.  It combined the looks of glam rock with the power chord hard rock style of music.

Gothic Metal -

Combines heavy metal with gothic rock.  Originated in the early 1990’s from a mixture of death metal and doom metal.  Popular bands include Paradise Lost and Anathema.  Lyrics are brought out through gothic fiction and personal experiences.

Groove Metal -

Sometimes referred to post-thrash, originated in the early 1990’s from genre’s including thrash metal and hardcore punk.  A popular Grove Metal album would be Pantera’s  Cowboys from Hell.

Industrial Metal -

Draws from heavy metal and industrial music using sequencer lines, distorted vocals, sampling, and repeating metal guitar riffs.  Established in the late 1980’s, popular bands include Fear Factory, Ministry and Nine Inch Nails.

Metalcore -

Gets the name from a fusion of hardcore punk and heavy metal.  Metalcore is different from other punk metal bands because of the emphasis on slower and more intense breakdowns that are conducive to moshing.

Neo-Classical Metal -

Heavily influenced by classical music, Neo-classical metal is a very technical music performance that was established in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Nu-Metal -

Developed in the 1990’s, this music blends both hip-hop and  grunge with classic heavy metal.  Popular bands include Korn, Deftones and P.O.D.

Post-Metal -

Originated in the early 2000’s, post-metal is characterized by minimal vocals with distorted guitar and heavy atmospherics.  The group, Isis, is usually credited with originating and making popular post-metal music.

Power Metal -

Originating in the mid 1980’s, it is a mixture of classic metal with speed metal which adds in a symphonic element, usually through the use of keyboards.

Progressive Metal -

Established in the mid 1980’s, progressive metal is a mix of classic heavy metal with progressive rock.  Early bands mixed heavy metal from groups such as Metallica and Megadeath with progressive rock bands, namely Rush and King Crimson, who were already fusing some heavy metal into their music.

Sludge Metal -

Originating in the late 1980’s, sludge metal is a mix of both doom metal and hardcore punk.  It is aggressive with shouted vocals, contrasting tempos and heavy distortion.  It moves through slow paced songs that have brief hardcore tempos.

Speed Metal -

Established in the 1970’s and 80’s, speed metal is characterized by extremely fast and technically demanding song sets.  While still popular today, more prevalent is the toned down version of speed metal called thrash metal.  Motorhead and Judas Priest were two of the most influential bands of this genre.

Thrash Metal -

Originating in the early 1980’s, thrash metal descends from speed metal.  It is characterized by low-register guitar riffs and shredding style lead work.  The “Big Four” of thrash metal are Metallica, Slayer, Megadeath and Anthrax.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/types-of-heavy-metal-bands-1783365.html

About the Author

Find out about the Christian Heavy Metal genre, or Learn to Play Heavy Metal Guitar with your favorite groups at www.playheavymetalguitar.com. Learn in Hours, Not Days!

Rap Lyrics – Songs From the Street are Taking the Heat

Author: Merryl Lentz

Rap lyrics often get a bad rap—one that they don’t deserve. Forged in the gritty urban underground of the Bronx, New York in the 1970s, rap and its lyrics are part of the Hip-Hop phenomenon, this era’s dominant cultural movement. That movement has become global, vaulting over barriers of gender, race and economic status, and even melding with other musical styles. Rap’s distinctive lyrics, rhythms and expressive body motions have earned it recognition as an accepted, innovative art form.

Rap and its lyrics, which were initially dismissed as a passing fad and now churn like whitewater rapids through the mainstream, began at 1970s Bronx block parties. DJs at these parties separated the percussion section from funk and soul tunes, providing partygoers with strong dance rhythms. Mixing, sampling from other songs, and rhythms from scratching a phonograph needle against a record were added. So how did rap’s potent lyrics enter the picture?

Rappers, also know as MCs, (Master of Ceremonies) would introduce DJs, and keep audiences entertained between songs, with jokes and stories that would maintain listeners’ energy. These raps transformed into stylized lyrics delivered with flair, attitude and strong rhythms, accompanied by highly contagious beats. For people who weren’t fond of disco or its lyrics, but loved a dynamic tempo, rap provided a welcome, highly danceable alternative.

Just as there are many sub-genres of rock music and lyrics, there are many sub-genres of rap. And one of those sub-genres is aggressive gangsta-rap, which stirred up a cauldron of controversy over blunt lyrics about violence, sex and drugs. These rappers grew up on crime-riddled urban streets, had sometimes taken a few bullets themselves, and their lyrics reflected their tough backgrounds, often expressed in the profanity that had been part of their everyday life. Heavy metal took a lot of heat for lyrics about the same subjects, and both forms of music still have an abundance of fans.

Controversy aside, rap lyrics are often considered to be modern poetry. Poetry and rap have much in common, from clever twists of phrases to shrewd social commentary. Like poetry, rap lyrics have a structured meter, as well as complex rhyme formats. Both often use alliteration. And both utilize similes and metaphors—lyrics with clever, original similes and metaphors are viewed as the hallmark of an advanced rapper. Some of the best rappers are also able to easily fire off line after line of complex lyrics that would tie other performers’ tongues tighter than a tourniquet. And freestyling—adeptly improvising rap lyrics before a live audience—is possibly the toughest test of a rapper’s expertise.

Rap and its lyrics are now incredibly diversified. The female duo Salt-N-Pepa kicked open the door of rap’s male-dominated realm. Blondie’s “Rapture” was the first hit by a Caucasian band that featured rapping. Hard-rockers, Aerosmith, recorded a rap version of the lyrics of their hit, “Walk this Way,” with Run-D.M.C. Thrash metal has incorporated rap. There are now Spanish rappers, Asian rappers—rappers worldwide. Rap has been immortalized in the paintings of renowned artist, Justin Bua, and its lyrics have even popped up in TV commercials.

Rap and its lyrics have generated criticism and controversy, but it has also demonstrated an ability to powerfully connect with both heroes and underdogs worldwide, while still remaining true to its roots.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/rap-lyrics-songs-from-the-street-are-taking-the-heat-704173.html

About the Author

To find great rap lyrics check out Lyrics Bay and their newest lyrics from the rap phenomenon.

Pro Tools Ticks Timebase Explained

Author: Chris Bryant

Pro Tools software enables you to use one of two time bases for your tracks: Ticks or Samples. This article will explain the basic idea behind the Ticks time base tracks and how using it affects your tracks.

Ticks are the unit of measurement that Pro Tools uses to sub-divide bars and beats when you record MIDI data.Just as audio regions on sample based tracks are tied to sample locations, MIDI data and audio regions are tied to specific tick locations on tick-based tracks. 

Ticks Resolution vs. Musical Subdivision

When subdividing a bar of music using musical note values you would divide it into quarter notes, 8th notes, 16th notes, and any combination of the rhythmic note values that we use in music.

In Pro Tools, the software does not use the rhythmic value of notes to sub-divide a bar. Instead, it uses ticks.

Pro Tools exact tick resolution is 960 ticks per quarter note.

So, let's say you record a single MIDI note event somewhere in the first quarter note of a bar of music. That note event would be captured and located at one of the available 960 tick positions that Pro Tools has divided the quarter note into.

Relative vs. Absolute Positions

Unlike sample positions which are located at absolute points in time, each of the 960 tick locations are located relative to the particular bar and beat locations in the session.

For example, a MIDI event located exactly halfway between beat one and beat two of bar X - would be 480 ticks (half of 960) after the start of Bar X.   Now (and this is of utmost importance) if you changed the session tempo, the note event will still retain is relative position to the start of bar X. Not matter what the tempo - that note event will always be exactly 480 ticks away from the start of the bar X.

KEY POINT: MIDI events on Tick based tracks retain their relative position to other MIDI events, regardless of changes to the tempo.

If the tempo speeds up, the MIDI events are moved closer together and therefore, play faster and earlier in the session.
Decrease the tempo and the tick positions and the MIDI events on them will move away from each other while retaining their relative position. They'll play back slower.

Now you may be thinking - big deal. MIDI plays back slower if you slow down the tempo and speeds up if you increase the tempo. Don't MIDI tracks always behave that way? And in general the answer would be "yes". But this is where the time base of your tracks comes into play. Only MIDI tracks that are assigned to the ticks time base follow tempo changes. MIDI tracks that are set to samples time base do not follow the session tempo.

In Pro Tools you can set the time base of MIDI tracks to be either ticks (the default setting) or samples. This creates a number of new possibilities when you're working in your sessions. Particularly when you also consider that audio tracks can be set to either ticks or samples time base, too.

But for now just remember this: tick based events are relative to each other and that tick positions move with the session tempo.

Tips for learning more about Ticks time base.

Start experimenting with ticks time base in Pro Tools on your own, using the following tips.

Setting it up.

Start by creating a new Pro Tools session.
Create an Instrument or MIDI track and record some MIDI data on it. Preferably some note that you can hear playing back.
Then, record or import a few audio regions onto an audio track.

Make note of the session tempo. You'll need to reset it as you do the next steps.

Once you've got those steps completed, try the following.

Using the default time base settings for the audio track (samples time base) and MIDI or Instrument track (Ticks), start adjusting the tempo.

Notice that the MIDI events on the MIDI track change as you adjust the tempo. But the audio regions on the audio track do not. They stay in position.

Important: before proceeding, reset the session tempo to the starting tempo.

Next, change the time base of the audio track to Ticks and set the MIDI track to Samples time base.
Now play the session again and adjust the tempo.
Notice that the audio regions now move with the tempo and the MIDI note events do not.

Final words

For now I hope that will give you a basic understanding of the ticks time base and how setting your MIDI tracks to ticks or samples time base will change everything.

As usual, now that you know essentially how the ticks time base affects regions and MIDI events, you'll need to explore how putting it use can help you to create better music, more efficiently.. Keep at it!

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/pro-tools-ticks-timebase-explained-4776658.html

About the Author

Chris Bryant is a professional producer, pro audio consultant and educator based in Vancouver, BC.

To learn more about Pro Tools timebase and have access to over 200 Pro Tools tutorials, forum and instructor Q&A, sign up for Chris' online course of Pro Tools Tutorials now.

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