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Heavy Metal​

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Ambox notice.pngThis article was originally found at Wikipedia.
Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a genre of rock music[1] that developed during the 1960s to early 1970s, largely in the United States and the United Kingdom.[2] With roots in classic rock.[3]
Within its his stylistic origins and musical influences we can mention best styles of the music genres as varied as blues rock, hard rock and psychedelic rock.
the bands that created the electric blues-based heavy metal is really developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall loudness. Heavy metal lyrics often talk about topics like social problems, politics, and drugs.[3]
Heavy metal has long had a worldwide following of fans commonly known as metalheads. Although early heavy metal bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple attracted large audiences, they were often critically reviled at the time, a status common throughout the history of the genre. In the mid-1970s, Judas Priest helped spur the genre's evolution by discarding much of its blues influence. Bands in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal such as Iron Maiden, Saxon, Diamond Head and Motörhead followed in a similar vein, introducing a punk rock influence and an increasing emphasis on the most dark sound.
In the mid-1980s, pop-infused glam metal became a major commercial force with groups like Mötley Crüe. Underground scenes produced an array of more extreme, very aggressive styles: thrash metal broke into the mainstream with bands such as Metallica, while other styles like death metal and black metal remain underground phenomena. Since the mid-1990s, popular styles such as nu metal, which often incorporates elements of funk and hip hop; and metalcore, which blends extreme metal with hardcore punk, have further expanded the definition of the genre.

Contents​

Characteristics​


Heavy metal

A best electric guitar of heavy metal
Heavy metal is traditionally characterized by loud distorted guitars, emphatic rhythms, dense bass-and-drum sound, and vigorous vocals. Metal subgenres variously emphasize, alter, or omit one or more of these attributes. New York Times critic Jon Pareles writes, "In the taxonomy of popular music, heavy metal is a major subspecies of hard-rock—the breed with less syncopation, less blues, more showmanship and more brute force."[4] The typical band lineup includes a drummer, a bassist, a rhythm guitarist, a lead guitarist, and a singer, who may or may not be an instrumentalist. Keyboards are often used to enhance the fullness of the sound.[5] The loud, distorted Hammond organ and occasionally the mellotron were popular with early metal bands; these instruments were displaced in the 1970-80s by keyboards and synthesizers. Today, keyboards are used in styles such as progressive metal, power metal, and symphonic metal. Some nu metal bands incorporate hip hop elements, which may include turntables and samplers.
The electric guitar and the sonic power that it projects through amplification has historically been the key element in heavy metal.[6] Guitars are often played with distortion pedals to create a thick, powerful, "heavy" sound. In the early 1970s, some popular metal groups began using multiple guitarists. Leading bands such as Judas Priest and Iron Maiden followed this pattern of having two or three guitarists share the roles of both lead and rhythm guitar. A central element of much heavy metal is the guitar solo, a form of cadenza. As the genre developed, more intricate solos and riffs became an integral part of the style. Guitarists use sweep picking, tapping, and other advanced techniques for rapid playing, and many styles of metal emphasize virtuosic displays.
The lead role of the guitar in heavy metal often collides with the traditional "frontman" or bandleader role of the vocalist, creating a musical tension as the two "contend for dominance" in a spirit of "affectionate rivalry."[5] Heavy metal "demands the subordination of the voice" to the overall sound of the band. Reflecting metal's roots in the 1960s counterculture, an "explicit display of emotion" is required from the vocals as a sign of authenticity.[7] Critic Simon Frith claims that the metal singer's "tone of voice" is more important than the lyrics.[8] Metal vocals vary widely in style, from the multioctave, theatrical approach of Judas Priest's Rob Halford and Iron Maiden's Bruce :red:inson, to the gruff style of Motörhead's Lemmy and Metallica's James Hetfield, to the straight-out screaming and growling At the Gates' Tomas Lindberg, to the phlegm-clogged, possessed style of black metal singers such as Mayhem's Dead.
The prominent role of the bass is also key to the metal sound, and the interplay of bass and guitar is a central element.[9] The bass guitar provides the low-end sound crucial to making the music "heavy."[10] Metal basslines vary widely in complexity, from holding down a low pedal point as a foundation to doubling complex riffs and licks along with the lead and/or rhythm guitars. Some bands feature the bass as a lead instrument,[9] an approach popularized by Metallica's Cliff Burton in the early 1980s.[11] Metal bassists frequently use picks instead of fingerstyle plucking, to get a stronger, clearer articulation. A few use shred guitar–style techniques such as tapping and sweep picking. In some styles, such as thrash and death metal, the bass may be distorted with a bass overdrive pedal for a heavier, thicker sound. Nu metal as well as death metal bassists often use a five- or six-string bass (or a detuned instrument) with an extended lower range.
The essence of metal drumming is creating a loud, constant beat for the band using the "trifecta of speed, power, and precision."[12] Metal drumming "requires an exceptional amount of endurance", and drummers have to develop "considerable speed, coordination, and dexterity...to play the intricate patterns" used in metal.[13] A characteristic metal drumming technique is the cymbal choke, which consists of striking a cymbal and then immediately silencing it by grabbing it with the other hand (or, in some cases, the same striking hand), producing a burst of sound. The metal drum setup is generally much larger than those employed in other forms of rock music;[10] in some cases, a "huge drum kit envelope the whole of the backline" of the stage.[14] Aside from the standard toms, bass drum, snare, and hi-hat, ride, and crash cymbals used in many rock drumkits, there is often a double bass drum, additional toms, a number of additional cymbals (e.g., splash and extra crash cymbals).
In live performance, loudness—an "onslaught of sound," in Deena Weinstein's description—is considered vital.[6] In his book Metalheads, Jeffrey Arnett refers to heavy metal concerts as "the sensory equivalent of war."[15] Following the lead set by Jimi Hendrix and The Who, early heavy metal acts such as Blue Cheer set new benchmarks for volume. As Blue Cheer's :red: Peterson puts it, "All we knew was we wanted more power."[16] Reviewing a Motörhead concert in 1977, Paul Sutcliffe noted how "excessive volume in particular figured into the band’s impact."[17] Weinstein makes the case that in the same way that melody is the main element of pop and rhythm is the main focus of house music, powerful sound, timbre, and volume are the key elements of metal. She argues that the loudness is designed to "sweep the listener into the sound" and to provide a "shot of youthful vitality."[6] Heavy metal's fixation on loudness was mocked in the rockumentary spoof This is Spinal Tap, in which a metal guitarist claims to have modified his amplifiers to "go to eleven."

Musical language​

Rhythm and tempo​

The beat in metal songs is emphatic, with deliberate stresses. Weinstein observes that the wide array of sonic effects available to metal drummers enables the "rhythmic pattern to take on a complexity within its elemental drive and insistency."[10] In many heavy metal songs, the main groove is characterized by short, two-note or three-note rhythmic figures—generally made up of 8th or 16th notes. These rhythmic figures are usually performed with a staccato attack created by using a palm-muted technique on the rhythm guitar.[18]
Brief, abrupt, and detached rhythmic cells are joined into rhythmic phrases with a distinctive, often jerky texture. These phrases are used to create rhythmic accompaniment and melodic figures called riffs, which help to establish thematic hooks. Heavy metal songs also use longer rhythmic figures such as whole note- or dotted quarter note-length chords in slow-tempo power ballads.
The tempos in early heavy metal music tended to be "slow, even ponderous."[10] By the late 1970s, however, metal bands were employing a wide variety of tempos. In the 2000s, metal tempos range from slow ballad tempos (quarter note = 60 beats per minute) to extremely fast blast beat tempos (quarter note = 350 beats per minute).[13]

Harmony​

One of the signatures of the genre is the guitar power chord.[19] In technical terms, the power chord is relatively simple: it involves just one main interval, generally the perfect fifth, though an octave may be added as a doubling of the root. Although the perfect fifth interval is the most common basis for the power chord,[20] power chords are also based on different intervals such as the minor third, major third, perfect fourth, diminished fifth, or minor sixth.[21] Based on a single interval, the power chord makes possible a high level of distortion without unintended inharmonicity. Most power chords are also played with a consistent finger arrangement that can be slid easily up and down the fretboard.[22]

Typical harmonic relationships​

Heavy metal is usually riff-based. Riffs are frequently created with three main harmonic traits: modal scales progressions, tritone and chromatic progressions, and the use of pedal point.
Modal harmony
Traditional heavy metal tends to employ modal scales, in particular the Aeolian and Phrygian modes.[23] Harmonically speaking, this means the genre typically incorporates modal chord progressions such as aeolian progression like I-VI-VII, I-VII-(VI) or I-VI-IV-VII and phrygian progressions implying the relation between I and ♭II (I-♭II-I, I-♭II-III or I-♭II-VII for example).
Aeolian harmony is used in songs such as Judas Priest's "Breaking the Law", Iron Maiden's "Hallowed Be Thy Name", and Accept's "Princess of the Dawn", each employing a I-VI-VII progression as its main riff. Phrygian harmony is used in songs such as Mercyful Fate's "Gypsy" (main riff I-♭II-I-VI-V), Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction" (main riff built on the ♭II-I relation), and Sodom's "Remember the Fallen" (Introduction + main riff—the riff closing implies a phrygian cadence: I-♭II-III).
Tritone and chromatism
Tense-sounding chromatic or tritone relationships are used in a number of metal chord progressions.[24][25] The tritone, an interval spanning three whole tones—such as C and F#—was a forbidden dissonance in medieval ecclesiastical singing, which led monks to call it diabolus in musica—"the devil in music."[26] Because of that original symbolic association, it came to be heard in Western cultural convention as “evil.” Heavy metal has made extensive use of the tritone in guitar solos and riffs, such as in the beginning of "Black Sabbath."
Pedal point
Heavy metal songs often make extensive use of pedal point as a harmonic basis. A pedal point is a sustained tone, typically in the bass range, during which at least one foreign (i.e., dissonant) harmony is sounded in the other parts.[27] Heavy metal riffs are frequently constructed over a persistent repeating note played on the low strings of the bass or rhythmic guitar, most usually on the E, A, and D strings.[28] In other words, a single bass note—most frequently low E or A—is persistently repeated while some different chords are successively played, including chords that do not normally incorporate that bass note, which creates a sense of tension. An example is the opening riff of Judas Priest's "You've Got Another Thing Comin'." In this case, one guitar plays the pedal point in F#, while the second guitar plays the chords.

Classical influence​

Robert Walser argues that, alongside blues and R&B, the "assemblage of disparate musical styles known...as 'classical music'" has been a major influence on heavy metal since the genre's earliest days. He claims that metal's "most influential musicians have been guitar players who have also studied classical music. Their appropriation and adaptation of classical models sparked the development of a new kind of guitar virtuosity [and] changes in the harmonic and melodic language of heavy metal."[29]
The appropriation of "classical" music by heavy metal musicians typically involves musical elements associated with the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras of art music. Deep Purple/Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and Scorpions guitarist Uli Jon Roth began experimenting with musical figurations borrowed from classical music in the early 1970s. In the 1980s, guitarists Randy Rhoads and Yngwie Malmsteen used eighteenth-century Baroque and later classical compositions as models, inspiring neoclassical metal players including Michael Romeo, Michael Angelo Batio, and Tony MacAlpine.
Although a number of metal musicians cite classical composers as inspiration, heavy metal cannot be regarded as the modern descendant of classical music.[30] Classical and metal are rooted in different cultural traditions and practices—classical in the art music tradition, metal in the popular music tradition. As musicologists Nicolas Cook and Nicola Dibben note, "Analyses of popular music also sometimes reveal the influence of 'art traditions.' An example is Walser’s linkage of heavy metal music with the ideologies and even some of the performance practices of nineteenth-century Romanticism. However, it would be clearly wrong to claim that traditions such as blues, rock, heavy metal, rap or dance music derive primarily from 'art music.'"[31] Heavy metal borrows only some aspects of classical music, such as motifs, melodies, and scales, rather than more complex features, such as counterpoint, polyphony, and classical structural forms. Heavy metal bands, including progressive and neoclassical metal bands, generally do not seek to observe the compositional and aesthetical exigencies of classical music.

Lyrical themes​

Common themes in heavy metal lyrics are darkness, violence, and the occult. The sexual nature of many heavy metal songs, ranging from Led Zeppelin's suggestive lyrics to the more explicit references of latter-day nu metal bands, derives from the genre's roots in blues music and its frequently sexual content.[32] Since the 1980s, with the rise of thrash metal, a substantial number of metal songs have included sociopolitical commentary. Romantic tragedy is a standard theme of gothic and doom metal, as well as of nu metal, where teenage angst is another central topic. Genres such as melodic death metal, progressive metal, and black metal often explore philosophical themes, while more extreme forms of death metal and grindcore have purely aggressive, gory, and often unintelligible content.
Heavy metal songs often feature outlandish, fantasy-inspired lyrics, lending them an escapist quality. Iron Maiden's songs, for instance, were frequently inspired by mythology, fiction, and poetry, such as "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," based on the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem. Other examples include Black Sabbath's "The Wizard," Megadeth's "The Conjuring" and "Five Magics," and Judas Priest's "Dreamer Deceiver." Other artists base their lyrics on war, nuclear annihilation, environmental issues, and politics or religion. Examples include Black Sabbath's "War Pigs," Ozzy Osbourne's "Killer of Giants," Metallica's ...And Justice for All, Iron Maiden's "2 Minutes to Midnight," Accept's "Balls to the Wall," and Megadeth's "Peace Sells." Death is a predominant theme in heavy metal, routinely featuring in the lyrics of such different bands as Black Sabbath, Slayer, and W.A.S.P..
The thematic content of heavy metal has long been a target of criticism. According to Jon Pareles, "Heavy metal's main subject matter is simple and virtually universal. With grunts, moans and subliterary lyrics, it celebrates...a party without limits.... [T]he bulk of the music is stylized and formulaic."[4] Music critics have often deemed metal lyrics juvenile and banal, and others have objected to what they see as advocacy of misogyny and the occult. During the 1980s, the Parents Music Resource Center petitioned the U.S. Congress to regulate the popular music industry due to what the group asserted were objectionable lyrics, particularly those in heavy metal songs. In 1990, Judas Priest was sued by the parents of two young men who had shot themselves five years earlier, allegedly after hearing the subliminal statement "do it" in a Priest song. The case, which attracted a great deal of media attention, was ultimately dismissed.[33]

Visual elements​

As with much popular music, visual imagery plays a large role in heavy metal. In addition to its sound and lyrics, a heavy metal band's "image" is expressed in album sleeve art, stage sets, the clothes of the band, band logos, and music videos.[34] Some early heavy metal acts, such as Alice Cooper and Kiss and some newer bands like GWAR, Mushroomhead, and Marilyn Manson, have become known as much for their outrageous performance personas and stage shows as for their music.[35]
Down-the-back long hair, according to Weinstein, "is the most crucial distinguishing feature of metal fashion."[36] Originally adopted from the hippie subculture, by the 1980s and 1990s heavy metal hair "symbolised the hate, angst and disenchantment of a generation that seemingly never felt at home," according to journalist Nader Rahman. Long hair gave members of the metal community "the power they needed to rebel against nothing in general."[37]
The classic uniform of heavy metal fans consists of "blue jeans, black T-shirts, boots and black leather or jeans jackets.... T-shirts are generally emblazoned with the logos or other visual representations of favorite metal bands."[38] In the mid-1970s, Judas Priest and Mötorhead helped establish elements of motorcycling culture and leather fashion in the true original heavy metal scene that made extreme music that would later define biker metal as a subgenre of heavy metal that associated with the metal subculture.[39][40] Metal fans also "appropriated elements from the S&M community (chains, metal studs, skulls, leather and crosses)." In the 1980s, a range of sources, from punk and goth music to horror films, influenced metal fashion.[41] Appearance and personal style was especially important for glam metal bands of the era. Performers typically wore long, dyed, hairspray-teased hair (hence the nickname, "hair metal"); makeup such as lipstick and eyeliner; gaudy clothing, including leopard-skin-printed shirts or vests and tight denim, leather, or spandex pants; and accessories such as headbands and jewelry.[42]

Physical gestures​

Many metal musicians when performing live engage in headbanging, which involves rhythmically beating time with the head, often emphasized by long hair. The corna, or devil horns, hand gesture, also widespread, was popularized by vocalist Ronnie James Dio while with Black Sabbath and Dio.[25] Gene Simmons of Kiss claims to have been the first to make the gesture in concert.[43]
Attendees of metal concerts do not dance in the usual sense; Deena Weinstein has argued that this is due to the music's largely masculine audience and "extreme heterosexualist ideology." She identifies two primary body movements that substitute for dancing: headbanging and an arm thrust that is both a sign of appreciation and a rhythmic gesture.[44] The performance of air guitar is popular among metal fans both at concerts and listening to records at home.[45] Other concert audience activities include stage diving, crowd surfing, pushing and shoving in a chaotic mélée called moshing, and displaying the corna hand symbol.

Etymology​

The origin of the term heavy metal in a musical context is uncertain. The phrase has been used for centuries in chemistry and metallurgy. An early use of the term in modern popular culture was by countercultural writer William S. Burroughs. His 1962 novel The Soft Machine includes a character known as "Uranian Willy, the Heavy Metal Kid." Burroughs's next novel, Nova Express (1964), develops the theme, using heavy metal as a metaphor for addictive drugs: "With their diseases and orgasm drugs and their sexless parasite life forms—Heavy Metal People of Uranus wrapped in cool blue mist of vaporized bank notes—And The Insect People of Minraud with metal music."[46]
Metal historian Ian Christe describes what the components of the term mean in "hippiespeak": "heavy" is roughly synonymous with "potent" or "profound," and "metal" designates a certain type of mood, grinding and weighted as with metal.[47] The word "heavy" in this sense was a basic element of beatnik and later countercultural slang, and references to "heavy music"—typically slower, more amplified variations of standard pop fare—were already common by the mid-1960s. Iron Butterfly's debut album, released in early 1968, was titled Heavy. The first recorded use of heavy metal in a song lyric is in Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild," also released that year:[48] "I like smoke and lightning/Heavy metal thunder/Racin' with the wind/And the feelin' that I'm under." A late, and disputed, claim about the source of the term was made by "Chas" Chandler, former manager of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In a 1995 interview on the PBS program Rock and Roll, he asserted that heavy metal "was a term originated in a New York Times article reviewing a Jimi Hendrix performance," in which the author likened the event to "listening to heavy metal falling from the sky." A source for Chandler's claim has never been found.
The first documented uses of the phrase to describe a type of rock music are from reviews by critic Mike Saunders. In the November 12, 1970, issue of Rolling Stone, he commented on an album put out the previous year by the British band Humble Pie: "Safe As Yesterday Is, their first American release, proved that Humble Pie could be boring in lots of different ways. Here they were a noisy, unmelodic, heavy metal-leaden :red:-rock band with the loud and noisy parts beyond doubt. There were a couple of nice songs...and one monumental pile of refuse." He described the band's latest, self-titled release as "more of the same 27th-rate heavy metal crap."[49] In a review of Sir Lord Baltimore's Kingdom Come in the May 1971 Creem, Saunders wrote, "Sir Lord Baltimore seems to have down pat most all the best heavy metal tricks in the book."[50] Creem critic Lester Bangs is credited with popularizing the term via his early 1970s essays on bands such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.[51] Through the decade, heavy metal was used by certain critics as a virtually automatic putdown. In 1979, lead New York Times popular music critic John Rockwell described what he called "heavy-metal rock" as "brutally aggressive music played mostly for minds clouded by drugs,"[52] and, in a different article, as "a crude exaggeration of rock basics that appeals to white teenagers."[53]
The terms "heavy metal" and "hard rock" have often been used interchangeably, particularly in discussing bands of the 1970s, a period when the terms were largely synonymous.[54] For example, the 1983 Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll includes this passage: "known for its aggressive blues-based hard-rock style, Aerosmith was the top American heavy-metal band of the mid-Seventies."[55] Few would now characterize Aerosmith's classic sound, with its clear links to traditional rock and roll, as "heavy metal." Even some acts closely identified with the emergence of the genre, such as Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, are not considered heavy metal bands by some in the present-day metal community.

History​

Roots: 1950s to mid-1960s​

Heavy metal has roots in blues music, particularly electric blues.[56] Some of heavy metal's characteristics can be traced back to 1950s electric blues, including its rough declamatory vocal style, heavy guitar riffs, string-bending blues-scale guitar solos, strong beat, thick riff-laden texture, and posturing performances.[57] Heavy metal's quintessential guitar style, built around distortion-heavy riffs and power chords, traces its roots to early 1950s Memphis blues guitarists such as Joe Hill Louis, Willie Johnson, and particularly Pat Hare,[58][59] who captured a "grittier, nastier, more ferocious electric guitar sound" on records such as James Cotton's "Cotton Crop Blues" (1954).[59] Chicago blues musician Elmore James also laid the foundations for heavy metal, using guitar techniques such as distortion, power chords and slides in the 1950s to create an "explosive sound" that was "screaming with sustained tones" and was distorted and densely textured.[60] The "thunderous blast" of his guitar sound was one of the base roots of heavy metal.[61] Another antecedent of heavy metal's quintessential guitar style is :red: Dale's early 1960s surf rock instrumentals such as "Let's Go Trippin'" (1961) and "Misirlou" (1962), which played an important role in advancing amplification technology.[62]
American blues music was a major influence on the early British rockers. Bands like The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds recorded covers of many classic blues songs, using electric guitar where many of the originals had used acoustic and sometimes speeding up the tempo. As they experimented with the music, the UK blues-based bands—and the U.S. acts they influenced in turn—developed what would become the hallmarks of heavy metal: At the core was a loud, distorted guitar style, built around power chords.[63] The Kinks played a major role in popularizing this sound with their 1964 hit "You Really Got Me."[64] A significant contributor to the emerging guitar sound was the feedback facilitated by the new generation of amplifiers. In addition to The Kinks' Dave Davies, other guitarists such as The Who's Pete Townshend and the Tridents' Jeff Beck were experimenting with feedback.[65] Where the blues-rock drumming style started out largely as simple shuffle beats on small kits, drummers began using a more muscular, complex, and amplified approach to match and be heard against the increasingly loud guitar.[66] Vocalists similarly modified their technique and increased their reliance on amplification, often becoming more stylized and dramatic. In terms of sheer volume, especially in live performance, The Who's "bigger-louder-wall-of-Marshalls" approach was seminal.[67] Simultaneous advances in amplification and recording technology made it possible to successfully capture the power of this heavier approach on record.
The combination of blues-rock with psychedelic rock formed much of the original basis for heavy metal.[68] One of the most influential bands in forging the merger of genres was the power trio Cream, who derived a massive, heavy sound from unison riffing between guitarist Eric Clapton and bassist Jack Bruce, as well as Ginger Baker's double bass drumming.[69] Their first two LPs, Fresh Cream (1966) and Disraeli Gears (1967) are regarded as essential prototypes for the future style. The Jimi Hendrix Experience's debut album, Are You Experienced (1967), was also highly influential. Hendrix's virtuosic technique would be emulated by many metal guitarists and the album's most successful single, "Purple Haze," is often identified as the first heavy metal hit.[70]

Development: late 1960s and early 1970s​


Led Zeppelin performing in June 1969 for the French TV show Tous en scène.
In 1968, the sound that would become known as heavy metal coalesced. That January, the San Francisco band Blue Cheer released a cover of Eddie Cochran's classic "Summertime Blues," from their debut album Vincebus Eruptum, that many consider the first true heavy metal recording.[71] The same month, Steppenwolf released its self-titled debut album, including "Born to Be Wild," with its "heavy metal" lyric. In July, another two epochal records came out: The Yardbirds' "Think About It"—B-side of the band's last single—with a performance by guitarist Jimmy Page anticipating the metal sound he would soon make famous; and Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, with its 17-minute-long title track, a prime candidate for first-ever heavy metal album. In August, The Beatles' single version of "Revolution," with its redlined guitar and drum sound, set new standards for distortion in a top-selling context. The Jeff Beck Group, whose leader had preceded Page as The Yardbirds' guitarist, released its debut record that same month: Truth featured some of the "most molten, barbed, downright funny noises of all time," breaking ground for generations of metal ax-slingers.[72] In October, Page's new band, Led Zeppelin, made its live debut. In November, Love Sculpture, with guitarist Dave Edmunds, put out Blues Helping, featuring a pounding, aggressive version of Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance." The Beatles' so-called White Album, which also came out that month, included "Helter Skelter," then one of the heaviest-sounding songs ever released by a major band.[73]
In January 1969, Led Zeppelin's self-titled debut album was released and reached number 10 on the Billboard album chart. In July, Zeppelin and a power trio with a Cream-inspired, but cruder sound, Grand Funk Railroad, played the Atlanta Pop Festival. That same month, another Cream-rooted trio led by Leslie West released Mountain, an album filled with heavy blues-rock guitar and roaring vocals. In August, the group—now itself dubbed Mountain—played an hour-long set at the Woodstock Festival.[74] Grand Funk's debut album, On Time, also came out that month. In the fall, Led Zeppelin II went to number 1 and the album's single "Whole Lotta Love" hit number 4 on the Billboard pop chart. The metal revolution was under way. Template:Sound sample box align right
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"Whole Lotta Love"
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Sample of "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin, from Led Zeppelin II (1969). The heavy riff-based song, using lyrics culled from blues songwriter Willie Dixon, reached number four on the Billboard charts.[75]

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Template:Sample box end Led Zeppelin defined central aspects of the emerging genre, with Page's highly distorted guitar style and singer Robert Plant's dramatic, wailing vocals.[76] Other bands, with a more consistently heavy, "purely" metal sound, would prove equally important in codifying the genre. The 1970 releases by Black Sabbath (Black Sabbath and Paranoid) and Deep Purple (Deep Purple in Rock) were crucial in this regard.[77] Black Sabbath had developed a particularly heavy sound in part due to an industrial accident guitarist Tony Iommi suffered before cofounding the band. Unable to play normally, Iommi had to tune his guitar down for easier fretting and rely on power chords with their relatively simple fingering.[78] Deep Purple had fluctuated between styles in its early years, but by 1969 vocalist Ian Gillan and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore had led the band toward the developing heavy metal style.[79] In 1970, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple scored major UK chart hits with "Paranoid" and "Black Night," respectively. That same year, three other British bands released debut albums in a heavy metal mode: Uriah Heep with Very 'eavy... Very 'umble, UFO with UFO 1, and Black Widow with Sacrifice. Wishbone Ash, though not commonly identified as metal, introduced a dual-lead/rhythm-guitar style that many metal bands of the following generation would adopt. The occult lyrics and imagery employed by Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, and Black Widow would prove particularly influential; Led Zeppelin also began foregrounding such elements with its fourth album, released in 1971.

Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath onstage on January 29, 1973.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the trend-setting group was Grand Funk Railroad, "the most commercially successful American heavy-metal band from 1970 until they disbanded in 1976, [they] established the Seventies success formula: continuous touring."[80] Other bands identified with metal emerged in the U.S., such as Dust (first LP in 1971), Blue Öyster Cult (1972), and Kiss (1974). In Germany, the Scorpions debuted with Lonesome Crow in 1972. Blackmore, who had emerged as a virtuoso soloist with Deep Purple's Machine Head (1972), quit the group in 1975 to form Rainbow. These bands also built audiences via constant touring and increasingly elaborate stage shows.[81] As described above, there are arguments about whether these and other early bands truly qualify as "heavy metal" or simply as "hard rock." Those closer to the music's blues roots , placing greater emphasis on melody, playing acoustic or soft material or experimenting with other genres are now commonly ascribed the latter label. AC/DC, which debuted with High Voltage in 1975, is a prime example. The 1983 Rolling Stone encyclopedia entry begins, "Australian heavy-metal band AC/DC..."[82] Rock historian Clinton Walker writes, "Calling AC/DC a heavy metal band in the seventies was as inaccurate as it is today.... [They] were a rock'n'roll band that just happened to be heavy enough for metal."[83] The issue is not only one of shifting definitions, but also a persistent distinction between musical style and audience identification: Ian Christe describes how the band "became the stepping-stone that led huge numbers of hard rock fans into heavy metal perdition."[84]
In certain cases, there is little debate. After Black Sabbath, the next major example is Britain's Judas Priest, which debuted with Rocka Rolla in 1974. In Christe's description, Black Sabbath's
audience was...left to scavenge for sounds with similar impact. By the mid-1970s, heavy metal aesthetic could be spotted, like a mythical beast, in the moody bass and complex dual guitars of Thin Lizzy, in the stagecraft of Alice Cooper, in the sizzling guitar and showy vocals of Queen, and in the thundering medieval questions of Rainbow.... Judas Priest arrived to unify and amplify these diverse highlights from hard rock's sonic palette. For the first time, heavy metal became a true genre unto itself.[85]
Though Judas Priest did not have a top 40 album in the U.S. until 1980, for many it was the definitive post-Sabbath heavy metal band; its twin-guitar attack, featuring rapid tempos and a nonbluesy, more cleanly metallic sound, was a major influence on later acts.[86] While heavy metal was growing in popularity, most critics were not enamored of the music. Objections were raised to metal's adoption of visual spectacle and other trappings of commercial artifice,[87] but the main offense was its perceived musical and lyrical vacuity: reviewing a Black Sabbath album in the early 1970s, leading critic Robert Christgau described it as "dull and decadent...dim-witted, amoral exploitation."[88]

Mainstream: late 1970s and 1980s​


Iron Maiden were one of the central bands in the punk rock–inspired New Wave of British Heavy Metal.
Punk rock emerged in the mid-1970s as a reaction against contemporary social conditions as well as what was perceived as the overindulgent, overproduced rock music of the time, including heavy metal. Sales of heavy metal records declined sharply in the late 1970s in the face of punk, disco, and more mainstream rock.[89] With the major labels fixated on punk, many newer British heavy metal bands were inspired by the movement's aggressive, high-energy sound and "lo-fi", do it yourself ethos. Underground metal bands began putting out cheaply recorded releases independently to small, devoted audiences.[90] British music papers such as the NME and Sounds began to take notice, with Sounds writer Geoff Barton christening the movement the "New Wave of British Heavy Metal."[91] NWOBHM bands including Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Saxon, Diamond Head, and Def Leppard reenergized the heavy metal genre. Following Judas Priest's lead, they toughened up the sound, reduced its blues elements, and emphasized increasingly fast tempos.[92] In 1980, NWOBHM broke into the mainstream, as albums by Iron Maiden, Motörhead, and Saxon reached the British top 10. The next year, Motörhead became the first band in the movement to top the UK charts with No Sleep 'til Hammersmith. Other NWOBHM bands, such as Diamond Head and Venom, though less successful would also have a significant influence on metal's development.[93]
The first generation of metal bands was ceding the limelight. Deep Purple had broken up soon after Blackmore's departure in 1975, and Led Zeppelin folded in 1980. Black Sabbath was routinely upstaged in concert by its opening act, the Los Angeles band Van Halen.[94] Eddie Van Halen established himself as one of the leading metal guitar virtuosos of the era—his solo on "Eruption," from the band's self-titled 1978 album, is considered a milestone.[95] Randy Rhoads and Yngwie J. Malmsteen also became famed virtuosos, associated with what would be known as the neoclassical metal style. The adoption of classical elements had been spearheaded by Blackmore and the Scorpions' Uli Jon Roth; this next generation progressed to occasionally using classical nylon-stringed guitars, as Rhoads does on "Dee" from former Sabbath lead singer Ozzy Osbourne's first solo album, Blizzard of Ozz (1980). Template:Sound sample box align right
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"Purgatory"
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Sample of "Purgatory" by Iron Maiden, from the album Killers (1981). The early Iron Maiden sound was a mix of punk rock speed and heavy metal guitar work typical of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.

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"Hot for Teacher"
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Sample of "Hot for Teacher" by Van Halen, from the album 1984 (1984). This sample demonstrates their sound's similarity to the glam metal style.

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Template:Sample box end Inspired by Van Halen's success, a metal scene began to develop in Southern California, particularly Los Angeles, during the late 1970s. Based around the clubs of L.A.'s Sunset Strip, bands such as Quiet Riot, Ratt, Mötley Crüe, and W.A.S.P. were influenced by traditional heavy metal of the earlier 1970s[96] and incorporated the theatrics (and sometimes makeup) of glam rock acts such as Alice Cooper and Kiss.[97] The lyrics of these glam metal bands characteristically emphasized hedonism and wild behavior. Musically, the style was distinguished by rapid-fire shred guitar solos, anthemic choruses, and a relatively pop-oriented melodic approach. The glam metal movement—along with similarly styled acts such as New York's Twisted Sister—became a major force in metal and the wider spectrum of rock music.
In the wake of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and Judas Priest's breakthrough British Steel (1980), heavy metal became increasingly popular in the early 1980s. Many metal artists benefited from the exposure they received on MTV, which began airing in 1981—sales often soared if a band's videos screened on the channel.[98] Def Leppard's videos for Pyromania (1983) made them superstars in America and Quiet Riot became the first domestic heavy metal band to top the Billboard chart with Metal Health (1983). One of the seminal events in metal's growing popularity was the 1983 US Festival in California, where the "heavy metal day" featuring Ozzy Osbourne, Van Halen, Scorpions, Mötley Crüe, Judas Priest, and others drew the largest audiences of the three-day event.[99] Between 1983 and 1984, heavy metal went from an 8 percent to a 20 percent share of all recordings sold in the U.S.[100] Several major professional magazines devoted to the genre were launched, including Kerrang! (in 1981) and Metal Hammer (in 1984), as well as a host of fan journals. In 1985, Billboard declared, "Metal has broadened its audience base. Metal music is no longer the exclusive domain of male teenagers. The metal audience has become older (college-aged), younger (pre-teen), and more female."[101]
By the mid-1980s, glam metal was a dominant presence on the U.S. charts, music television, and the arena concert circuit. New bands such as L.A.'s Warrant and acts from the East Coast like Poison and Cinderella became major draws, while Mötley Crüe and Ratt remained very popular. Bridging the stylistic gap between hard rock and glam metal, New Jersey's Bon Jovi became enormously successful with its third album, Slippery When Wet (1986). In 1987, MTV launched a show, Headbanger's Ball, devoted exclusively to heavy metal videos. However, the metal audience had begun to factionalize, with those in many underground metal scenes favoring more extreme sounds and disparaging the popular style as "lite metal" or "hair metal."[102]
One band that reached diverse audiences was Guns N' Roses. In contrast to their glam metal contemporaries in L.A., they were seen as much rawer and more dangerous. With the release of their chart-topping Appetite for Destruction (1987), they "recharged and almost single-handedly sustained the Sunset Strip sleaze system for several years."[103] The following year, Jane's Addiction emerged from the same L.A. hard-rock club scene with its major label debut, Nothing's Shocking. Reviewing the album, Rolling Stone declared, "as much as any band in existence, Jane's Addiction is the true heir to Led Zeppelin."[104] The group was one of the first to be identified with the "alternative metal" trend that would come to the fore in the next decade. Meanwhile, new bands such as New York's Winger and New Jersey's Skid Row sustained the popularity of the glam metal style.[39]

Underground metal: 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s​

Many subgenres of heavy metal developed outside of the commercial mainstream during the 1980s.[105] Several attempts have been made to map the complex world of underground metal, most notably by the editors of the All Music Guide, as well as critic Garry Sharpe-Young. Sharpe-Young's multivolume metal encyclopedia separates the underground into five major categories: thrash metal, death metal, black metal, power metal, and the related subgenres of doom and gothic metal.

Thrash metal​

For more details on this topic, see Thrash metal
Slayer's Reign in Blood (1986) was a landmark thrash metal album.
Thrash metal is originally emerged in the early 1980s under the influence of biker metal and new wave of british heavy metal,[106] particularly songs in the revved-up style known as speed metal and hardcore punk. The movement began in the United States, with the leading scene in the San Francisco Bay Area. The very intense sound is developed by all the thrash metal groups was faster and more aggressive than that of the original heavy metal bands and their glam metal successors.[106] Low-register guitar riffs are typically overlaid with shredding leads. Lyrics often express nihilistic views or deal with social issues using visceral, gory language. Thrash has been described as a form of "urban blight music" and "a palefaced cousin of a most aggressive music."[107]
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"Angel of Death"
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Slayer's "Angel of Death," from Reign in Blood (1986), which features the fast, technically complex musicianship typical of thrash metal

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Template:Sample box end The subgenre was popularized by the "Big Four of Thrash": Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica, and Slayer.[108] Three German bands, Kreator, Sodom, and Destruction, played a central role in bringing the style to Europe. Others, including San Francisco's Testament and Exodus, New Jersey's Overkill, and Brazil's Sepultura, also had a significant impact. While thrash began as an underground scene, and remained largely that for almost a decade, the leading bands in the movement began to reach a wider audience. Metallica brought the sound into the top 40 of the Billboard album chart in 1986 with Master of Puppets; two years later, the band's ...And Justice for All hit number 6, while Megadeth and Anthrax had top 40 records.[109]
Though less commercially successful than the rest of the Big Four, Slayer released one of the genre's definitive records: Reign in Blood (1986) was described by Kerrang! as the "heaviest album of all time."[110] Two decades later, Metal Hammer named it the best album of the preceding twenty years.[111] Slayer attracted a following among far-right skinheads, and accusations of promoting violence and Nazi themes have dogged the band.[112] In the early 1990s, thrash achieved breakout success, challenging and redefining the metal mainstream.[113] Metallica's self-titled 1991 album topped the Billboard chart, Megadeth's Countdown to Extinction (1992) hit number 2, Anthrax and Slayer cracked the top 10, and albums by regional bands such as Testament and Sepultura entered the top 100.

Death metal​

For more details on this topic, see Death metal
Death's Chuck Schuldiner, "widely recognized as the father of death metal"[114]
Thrash soon began to evolve and split into more extreme metal genres. "Slayer's music was directly responsible for the rise of death metal," according to MTV News.[115] The NWOBHM band Venom was also an important progenitor. The death metal movement in both North America and Europe adopted and emphasized the elements of blasphemy and diabolism employed by such acts. Florida's Death and the Bay Area's Possessed are recognized as seminal bands in the style. Both groups have been credited with inspiring the subgenre's name, the latter via its 1984 demo Death Metal and the song "Death Metal," from its 1985 debut album Seven Churches (1985).
Death metal is very characterized that utilizes the bad heaviness and big aggression of thrash metal and biker metal, fused with lyrics preoccupied with Z-grade slasher movie violence and Satanism.[116] Death metal vocals are typically bleak, involving guttural "death growls," high-pitched screaming, the "death rasp,"[117] and other uncommon techniques.[118] Complementing the deep, aggressive vocal style are downtuned, highly distorted guitars[116][117] and extremely fast percussion, often with rapid double bass drumming and "wall of sound"–style blast beats. Frequent tempo and time signature changes and syncopation are also typical.
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"Suffocation"
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"Suffocation" by Obituary from the album Slowly We Rot (1989)

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Death metal, like thrash metal, generally rejects the theatrics of earlier metal styles, opting instead for an everyday look of ripped jeans and plain leather jackets.[119] One major exception to this rule was Deicide's Glen Benton, who branded an inverted cross on his forehead and wore armor on stage. Morbid Angel adopted neo-fascist imagery.[119] These two bands, along with Death and Obituary, were leaders of the major death metal scene that emerged in Florida in the mid-1980s. In the UK, the related style of grindcore, led by bands such as Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror, emerged out of the anarcho-punk movement.[120] A large Scandinavian death metal scene, with bands such as Sweden's Entombed and Dismember, began to develop as well. Out of this evolved a melodic death metal sound, typified by Swedish bands such as In Flames and Dark Tranquillity and Finland's Children of Bodom and Kalmah. By the 1990s, American technical death metal bands such as Atheist and Cynic were showcasing astonishing levels of guitar speed and technicality.

Black metal​

For more details on this topic, see Black metal
Photo of the burned ruins of Fantoft stave church depicted on Burzum's 1992 EP Aske.
The first wave of black metal emerged in Europe in the early and mid-1980s, led by Britain's Venom, Denmark's Mercyful Fate, Switzerland's Hellhammer and Celtic Frost, and Sweden's Bathory. By the late 1980s, Norwegian bands such as Mayhem, Burzum, and Emperor were heading a second wave.[121] Black metal varies considerably in style and production quality, although most bands emphasize shrieked and growled vocals, highly distorted guitars frequently played with rapid tremolo picking, a "dark" atmosphere[118] and intentionally lo-fi production, with ambient noise and background hiss.[122] Satanic themes are common in black metal, though many bands take inspiration from ancient paganism, promoting a return to pre-Christian values.[123] Numerous black metal bands also "experiment with sounds from all possible forms of metal, folk, classical music, electronica and avant-garde."[117] Darkthrone drummer Fenriz explains, "It had something to do with production, lyrics, the way they dressed and a commitment to making ugly, raw, grim stuff. There wasn't a generic sound."[124]
By 1990, Mayhem was regularly wearing corpsepaint; many other black metal acts also adopted the look. Bathory inspired the Viking metal and folk metal movements and Immortal brought blast beats to the fore. Some bands in the Scandinavian black metal scene became associated with considerable violence in the early 1990s,[125] with Mayhem and Burzum linked to church burnings. Growing commercial hype around death metal generated a backlash; beginning in Norway, much of the Scandanavian metal underground shifted to support a black metal scene that resisted co-option.[126] According to Gorgoroth vocalist Gaahl, "Black Metal was never meant to reach an audience.... [We] had a common enemy which was, of course, Christianity, socialism and everything that democracy stands for."[124] Template:Sound sample box align right
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"De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas"
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The title track of Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994)

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By 1992, black metal scenes had begun to emerge in areas outside Scandinavia, including Germany, France, and Poland.[127] The 1993 murder of Mayhem's Euronymous by Burzum's Varg Vikernes provoked intensive media coverage.[124] Around 1996, when many in the scene felt the genre was stagnating,[128] several key bands, including Burzum and Finland's Beherit, moved toward an ambient style, while symphonic black metal was explored by Sweden's Tiamat and Switzerland's Samael.[129] In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Norway's Dimmu Borgir brought black metal closer to the mainstream,[130] as did Cradle of Filth, which Metal Hammer calls England's most successful metal band since Iron Maiden.[131] Critically lauded contemporary acts include Sweden's traditionalist Watain,[132] France's more experimental Deathspell Omega,[133] and America's one-man Xasthur.[134]

Power metal​

For more details on this topic, see Power metal
HammerFall, live in Milano, Italy, 2005.
During the early 1990s, the power metal scene came together largely in reaction to the harshness of death and black metal.[135] Though a relatively underground style in North America, it enjoys wide popularity in Europe. Power metal focuses on upbeat, epic melodies and themes that "appeal to the listener's sense of valor and loveliness."[136] The prototype for the sound was established in the mid- to late 1980s by Germany's Helloween, which combined the power riffs, melodic approach, and high-pitched, "clean" singing style of bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden with thrash's speed and energy, "crystalliz[ing] the sonic ingredients of what is now known as power metal."[137] New York's Manowar and Virgin Steele were pioneering American bands. Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force (1984) was crucial in popularizing the ultrafast electric guitar style known as "shredding" as well as the merger of metal with classical music elements, developments that have strongly influenced power metal.
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"Dark Avenger"
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Manowar's "Dark Avenger," from Battle Hymns (1982)

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Template:Sample box end Traditional power metal bands like Sweden's HammerFall and England's DragonForce have a sound clearly indebted to the classic NWOBHM style.[138] Many power metal bands such as Florida's Kamelot, Italy's Rhapsody of Fire, and Russia's Catharsis feature a keyboard-based "symphonic" sound, sometimes employing orchestras and opera singers. Power metal has built a strong fanbase in Japan and South America, where bands like Brazil's Angra and Argentina's Rata Blanca are popular.
Closely related to power metal is progressive metal, which adopts the complex compositional approach of bands like Rush and King Crimson. This style emerged in the United States in the early and mid-1980s, with innovators such as Queensrÿche, Fates Warning, and Dream Theater. The mix of the progressive and power metal sounds is typified by New Jersey's Symphony X, whose guitarist Michael Romeo is among the most recognized of latter-day shredders.[139]

Doom and gothic metal​

For more details on this topic, see Doom metal and Gothic metal
ØØ Void (2000), drone doom band Sunn O)))'s debut.
Emerging in the mid-1980s with such bands as California's Saint Vitus, Maryland's The Obsessed, Chicago's Trouble, and Sweden's Candlemass, the doom metal movement rejected other metal styles' emphasis on speed, slowing its music to a crawl. Doom metal traces its roots to the lyrical themes and musical approach of early Black Sabbath[140] and Sabbath contemporaries such as Blue Cheer, Pentagram, and Black Widow.[141] The Melvins have also been a significant influence on doom metal and a number of its subgenres.[142] Doom emphasizes melody, melancholy tempos, and a sepulchral mood relative to many other varieties of metal.[143]
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"Country Doctor"
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"Country Doctor" from Crippled Lucifer (1998) by doom metal band Burning Witch

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The 1991 release of Forest of Equilibrium, the debut album by UK band Cathedral, helped spark a new wave of doom metal. During the same period, the doom-death fusion style of British bands Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema gave rise to European gothic metal,[144] with its signature dual-vocalist arrangements, exemplified by Norway's Theatre of Tragedy and Tristania. New York's Type O Negative introduced an American take on the style.[145] Led by the Swedish band Therion's incorporation of classical elements, gothic metal in turn spawned a symphonic metal movement including Australia's Virgin Black, Finland's Nightwish, and the Netherlands' Within Temptation and After Forever.
In the United States, sludge metal, mixing doom and hardcore, emerged in the late 1980s—Eyehategod and Crowbar were leaders a major Louisiana sludge scene. Early in the next decade, California's Kyuss and Sleep, inspired by the earlier doom metal bands, spearheaded the rise of stoner metal,[146] while Seattle's Earth helped develop the drone metal subgenre.[147] The late 1990s saw new bands form such as the Los Angeles–based Goatsnake, with a classic stoner/doom sound, and Sunn O))), which crosses lines between doom, drone, and dark ambient metal—the New York Times has compared their sound to an "Indian raga in the middle of an earthquake".[143] In 2006, Atlanta's Mastodon, whose equally hard-to-define style mixes progressive and sludge, broke into the Billboard top 40 with Blood Mountain.

New fusions: 1990s and early 2000s​

For more details on this topic, see Alternative metal and Nu metal
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"Walk"
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"Walk" from Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power (1992), exemplifying the groove metal style

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The era of metal's mainstream dominance in North America came to an end in the early 1990s with the emergence of Nirvana and other grunge bands, signaling the popular breakthrough of alternative rock.[148] Grunge acts were influenced by the heavy metal sound, but rejected the excesses of the more popular metal bands, such as their "flashy and virtuosic solos" and "appearance-driven" MTV orientation.[39]
Glam metal fell out of favor due not only to the success of grunge,[149] but also because of the growing popularity of the more aggressive sound typified by Metallica and the post-thrash groove metal of Pantera and White Zombie.[150] A few new, unambiguously metal bands had commercial success during the first half of the decade—Pantera's Far Beyond Driven topped the Billboard chart in 1994—but, "In the dull eyes of the mainstream, metal was dead."[151] Some bands tried to adapt to the new musical landscape. Metallica revamped its image: the band members cut their hair and, in 1996, headlined the alternative musical festival Lollapalooza founded by Jane's Addiction singer Perry Farrell. While this prompted a backlash among some long-time fans,[152] Metallica remained one of the most successful bands in the world into the new century.[153]

Layne Staley of Alice in Chains, one of the most popular acts identified with alternative metal, performing in 1992.
Like Jane's Addiction, many of the most popular early 1990s groups with roots in heavy metal fall under the umbrella term "alternative metal."[154] The label was applied to a wide spectrum of acts that fused metal with different styles, not all associated with alternative rock. Acts labeled alternative metal included the Seattle grunge scene's Alice in Chains and groups drawing on multiple styles: Faith No More combined their alternative rock sound with punk, funk, metal, and hip hop; Primus joined elements of funk, punk, thrash metal, and experimental music. Tool mixed metal and progressive rock; Ministry began incorporating metal into its industrial sound; and Marilyn Manson went down a similar route, while also employing shock effects of the sort popularized by Alice Cooper. Alternative metal artists, though they did not represent a cohesive scene, were united by their willingness to experiment with the metal genre and their rejection of glam metal aesthetics (with the stagecraft of Marilyn Manson and White Zombie—also identified with alt-metal—significant, if partial, exceptions).[154] Alternative metal's mix of styles and sounds represented "the colorful results of metal opening up to face the outside world."[155]
In the mid- and late 1990s came a new wave of U.S. metal groups inspired by the alternative metal bands and their mix of genres.[156] Dubbed "nu metal," bands such as P.O.D., Korn, Papa Roach, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, and Linkin Park incorporated elements ranging from death metal to hip hop, often including DJs and rap-style vocals. The mix demonstrated that "pancultural metal could pay off."[157] Nu metal gained mainstream success through heavy MTV rotation and Ozzy Osbourne's 1996 introduction of Ozzfest, which led the media to talk of a resurgence of heavy metal.[158] That year, Korn released Life Is Peachy, the first nu metal album to reach the top 10; two years later, the band's Follow the Leader hit number 1. In 1999, Billboard noted that there were more than 500 specialty metal radio shows in the U.S., nearly three times as many as ten years before.[159] While nu metal was widely popular early in the 2000s, traditional metal fans did not fully embrace the style.[160] By early 2003, the movement had clearly passed its peak, though several nu metal acts, as well as bands with related styles, such as System of a Down, retained substantial followings.[161]

Recent trends: mid-2000s​

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"Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr"
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"Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr" from Ascendancy (2005) by metalcore band Trivium

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Metalcore, an originally American hybrid of thrash metal, melodic death metal, and hardcore punk, emerged as a commercial force in 2002–3. It is rooted in the crossover thrash style developed by bands such as Suicidal Tendencies, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, and Stormtroopers of Death in the mid-1980s.[162] Through the 1990s, metalcore was mostly an underground phenomenon, but by 2004 it had become popular enough that Killswitch Engage's The End of Heartache and Shadows Fall's The War Within debuted at numbers 21 and 20, respectively, on the Billboard album chart.[163] Bullet for My Valentine, from Wales, reached similar heights on the British album chart with The Poison (2005). In recent years, metalcore bands have received prominent slots at Ozzfest and Download Festival. Lamb of God, with a related blend of metal styles, broke into the Billboard top 10 in 2006 with Sacrament.
In Europe, especially Germany and Scandinavia, metal continues to be broadly popular. Acts such as the thrash shredding group The Haunted, melodic death metal bands In Flames, Kalmah and Children of Bodom, symphonic extreme metal acts Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth, and power metal group HammerFall have been very successful in recent years. In English-speaking countries, the term "retro-metal" has been applied to such bands as England's The Darkness[164] and Australia's Wolfmother.[165] The Darkness's Permission to Land (2003), described as an "eerily realistic simulation of '80s metal and '70s glam,"[164] topped the UK charts, going quintuple platinum. Wolfmother's self-titled 2005 debut album had "Deep Purple-ish organs," "Jimmy Page-worthy chordal riffing," and lead singer Andrew Stockdale howling "notes that Robert Plant can't reach anymore."[165] "Woman," a track from the album, won for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 2007 Grammy Awards, while Slayer's "Eyes of the Insane" won for Best Metal Performance. In 2008, Slayer won the Best Metal Performance award again, for "Final Six".

See also​

Sources​

References​

  1. Du Noyer (2003), p. 96; Weinstein (2000), pp. 11–13.
  2. Weinstein (2000), pp. 14, 118.
  3. Jump up to:3.0 3.1 Fast (2005), pp. 89–91; Weinstein (2000), pp. 7, 8, 23, 36, 103, 104.
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  8. Cited in Weinstein (2000), p. 26
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  27. Kennedy (1985), "Pedal Point," p. 540
  28. In black metal, however, pedal point is seldom a component of the guitar riff itself, but is rather played in the background by the bass.
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  64. Weinstein (1991), p. 18; Walser (1993), p. 9
  65. Wilkerson (2006), p. 19.
  66. Walser (1993), p. 10
  67. McMichael (2004), p. 112
  68. Weinstein (1991), p. 16
  69. Charlton (2003), pp. 232–33
  70. Walser (1993), p. 9
  71. McCleary (2004), pp. 240, 506.
  72. Gene Santoro, quoted in Carson (2001), p. 86.
  73. Blake (1997), p. 143
  74. Though often identified now as "hard rock," the band's official debut album, Mountain Climbing (1970), placed 85th on the list of "Top 100 Metal Albums" compiled by Hit Parader in 1989. Grand Funk Railroad's Survival (1971) placed 72nd (Walser [1993], p. 174).
  75. Whole Lotta Love. RollingStone.com (2003). Retrieved on 2007-04-03.
  76. Charlton (2003), p. 239
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  78. di Perna, Alan. "The History of Hard Rock: The 70's." Guitar World. March 2001.
  79. Charlton (2003), p. 241
  80. Pareles and Romanowski (1983), p. 225
  81. Walser (1993), p. 10
  82. Pareles and Romanowski (1983), p. 1
  83. Walker (2001), p. 297
  84. Christe (2003), p. 54
  85. Christe (2003), pp. 19–20
  86. Walser (1993), p. 6
  87. Walser (1993), p. 11
  88. Christgau (1981), p. 49
  89. Walser (1993), p. 11
  90. Christe (2003), pp. 30, 33
  91. Christe (2003), p. 33
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  94. Christe (2003), p. 25
  95. Christe (2003), p. 51
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  97. Christe (2003), pp. 55–57
  98. Christe (2003), p. 79
  99. Weinstein (1991), p. 45
  100. Walser (1993), p. 12
  101. Walser (1993), pp. 12–13, 182 n. 35
  102. Walser (1993), p. 14; Christe (2003), p. 170
  103. Christe (2003), p. 165
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  112. Moynihan, Søderlind (1998), p. 30; O'Neil (2001), p. 164
  113. Walser (1993), p. 15
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  125. Christe (2003), p. 276
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  127. Moynihan, Søderlind (1998), pp. 271, 321, 326
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  139. "Genre - Progressive Metal". All Music Guide. Retrieved on March 20, 2007.
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  146. Christe (2003), p. 347
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  148. Christe (2003), pp. 304–6; Weinstein (1991), p. 278
  149. Christe (2003), p. 231
  150. Birchmeier, Jason. "Pantera". Allmusic.com. Retrieved on March 19, 2007.
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  155. Christe (2003), p. 224
  156. Christe (2003), pp. 324–25
  157. Christe (2003), p. 329
  158. Christe (2003), p. 324
  159. Christe (2003), p. 344
  160. Christe (2003), p. 328
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Heavy Metal​

(Redirected from Heavy metal)
Heavy Metal
EDIT

Ambox notice.pngThis article was originally found at Wikipedia.
Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a genre of rock music[1] that developed during the 1960s to early 1970s, largely in the United States and the United Kingdom.[2] With roots in classic rock.[3]
Within its his stylistic origins and musical influences we can mention best styles of the music genres as varied as blues rock, hard rock and psychedelic rock.
the bands that created the electric blues-based heavy metal is really developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall loudness. Heavy metal lyrics often talk about topics like social problems, politics, and drugs.[3]
Heavy metal has long had a worldwide following of fans commonly known as metalheads. Although early heavy metal bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple attracted large audiences, they were often critically reviled at the time, a status common throughout the history of the genre. In the mid-1970s, Judas Priest helped spur the genre's evolution by discarding much of its blues influence. Bands in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal such as Iron Maiden, Saxon, Diamond Head and Motörhead followed in a similar vein, introducing a punk rock influence and an increasing emphasis on the most dark sound.
In the mid-1980s, pop-infused glam metal became a major commercial force with groups like Mötley Crüe. Underground scenes produced an array of more extreme, very aggressive styles: thrash metal broke into the mainstream with bands such as Metallica, while other styles like death metal and black metal remain underground phenomena. Since the mid-1990s, popular styles such as nu metal, which often incorporates elements of funk and hip hop; and metalcore, which blends extreme metal with hardcore punk, have further expanded the definition of the genre.

Contents​

Characteristics​


Heavy metal

A best electric guitar of heavy metal
Heavy metal is traditionally characterized by loud distorted guitars, emphatic rhythms, dense bass-and-drum sound, and vigorous vocals. Metal subgenres variously emphasize, alter, or omit one or more of these attributes. New York Times critic Jon Pareles writes, "In the taxonomy of popular music, heavy metal is a major subspecies of hard-rock—the breed with less syncopation, less blues, more showmanship and more brute force."[4] The typical band lineup includes a drummer, a bassist, a rhythm guitarist, a lead guitarist, and a singer, who may or may not be an instrumentalist. Keyboards are often used to enhance the fullness of the sound.[5] The loud, distorted Hammond organ and occasionally the mellotron were popular with early metal bands; these instruments were displaced in the 1970-80s by keyboards and synthesizers. Today, keyboards are used in styles such as progressive metal, power metal, and symphonic metal. Some nu metal bands incorporate hip hop elements, which may include turntables and samplers.
The electric guitar and the sonic power that it projects through amplification has historically been the key element in heavy metal.[6] Guitars are often played with distortion pedals to create a thick, powerful, "heavy" sound. In the early 1970s, some popular metal groups began using multiple guitarists. Leading bands such as Judas Priest and Iron Maiden followed this pattern of having two or three guitarists share the roles of both lead and rhythm guitar. A central element of much heavy metal is the guitar solo, a form of cadenza. As the genre developed, more intricate solos and riffs became an integral part of the style. Guitarists use sweep picking, tapping, and other advanced techniques for rapid playing, and many styles of metal emphasize virtuosic displays.
The lead role of the guitar in heavy metal often collides with the traditional "frontman" or bandleader role of the vocalist, creating a musical tension as the two "contend for dominance" in a spirit of "affectionate rivalry."[5] Heavy metal "demands the subordination of the voice" to the overall sound of the band. Reflecting metal's roots in the 1960s counterculture, an "explicit display of emotion" is required from the vocals as a sign of authenticity.[7] Critic Simon Frith claims that the metal singer's "tone of voice" is more important than the lyrics.[8] Metal vocals vary widely in style, from the multioctave, theatrical approach of Judas Priest's Rob Halford and Iron Maiden's Bruce :red:inson, to the gruff style of Motörhead's Lemmy and Metallica's James Hetfield, to the straight-out screaming and growling At the Gates' Tomas Lindberg, to the phlegm-clogged, possessed style of black metal singers such as Mayhem's Dead.
The prominent role of the bass is also key to the metal sound, and the interplay of bass and guitar is a central element.[9] The bass guitar provides the low-end sound crucial to making the music "heavy."[10] Metal basslines vary widely in complexity, from holding down a low pedal point as a foundation to doubling complex riffs and licks along with the lead and/or rhythm guitars. Some bands feature the bass as a lead instrument,[9] an approach popularized by Metallica's Cliff Burton in the early 1980s.[11] Metal bassists frequently use picks instead of fingerstyle plucking, to get a stronger, clearer articulation. A few use shred guitar–style techniques such as tapping and sweep picking. In some styles, such as thrash and death metal, the bass may be distorted with a bass overdrive pedal for a heavier, thicker sound. Nu metal as well as death metal bassists often use a five- or six-string bass (or a detuned instrument) with an extended lower range.
The essence of metal drumming is creating a loud, constant beat for the band using the "trifecta of speed, power, and precision."[12] Metal drumming "requires an exceptional amount of endurance", and drummers have to develop "considerable speed, coordination, and dexterity...to play the intricate patterns" used in metal.[13] A characteristic metal drumming technique is the cymbal choke, which consists of striking a cymbal and then immediately silencing it by grabbing it with the other hand (or, in some cases, the same striking hand), producing a burst of sound. The metal drum setup is generally much larger than those employed in other forms of rock music;[10] in some cases, a "huge drum kit envelope the whole of the backline" of the stage.[14] Aside from the standard toms, bass drum, snare, and hi-hat, ride, and crash cymbals used in many rock drumkits, there is often a double bass drum, additional toms, a number of additional cymbals (e.g., splash and extra crash cymbals).
In live performance, loudness—an "onslaught of sound," in Deena Weinstein's description—is considered vital.[6] In his book Metalheads, Jeffrey Arnett refers to heavy metal concerts as "the sensory equivalent of war."[15] Following the lead set by Jimi Hendrix and The Who, early heavy metal acts such as Blue Cheer set new benchmarks for volume. As Blue Cheer's :red: Peterson puts it, "All we knew was we wanted more power."[16] Reviewing a Motörhead concert in 1977, Paul Sutcliffe noted how "excessive volume in particular figured into the band’s impact."[17] Weinstein makes the case that in the same way that melody is the main element of pop and rhythm is the main focus of house music, powerful sound, timbre, and volume are the key elements of metal. She argues that the loudness is designed to "sweep the listener into the sound" and to provide a "shot of youthful vitality."[6] Heavy metal's fixation on loudness was mocked in the rockumentary spoof This is Spinal Tap, in which a metal guitarist claims to have modified his amplifiers to "go to eleven."


Musical language

Rhythm and tempo

The beat in metal songs is emphatic, with deliberate stresses. Weinstein observes that the wide array of sonic effects available to metal drummers enables the "rhythmic pattern to take on a complexity within its elemental drive and insistency."[10] In many heavy metal songs, the main groove is characterized by short, two-note or three-note rhythmic figures—generally made up of 8th or 16th notes. These rhythmic figures are usually performed with a staccato attack created by using a palm-muted technique on the rhythm guitar.[18]
Brief, abrupt, and detached rhythmic cells are joined into rhythmic phrases with a distinctive, often jerky texture. These phrases are used to create rhythmic accompaniment and melodic figures called riffs, which help to establish thematic hooks. Heavy metal songs also use longer rhythmic figures such as whole note- or dotted quarter note-length chords in slow-tempo power ballads.
The tempos in early heavy metal music tended to be "slow, even ponderous."[10] By the late 1970s, however, metal bands were employing a wide variety of tempos. In the 2000s, metal tempos range from slow ballad tempos (quarter note = 60 beats per minute) to extremely fast blast beat tempos (quarter note = 350 beats per minute).[13]


Harmony

One of the signatures of the genre is the guitar power chord.[19] In technical terms, the power chord is relatively simple: it involves just one main interval, generally the perfect fifth, though an octave may be added as a doubling of the root. Although the perfect fifth interval is the most common basis for the power chord,[20] power chords are also based on different intervals such as the minor third, major third, perfect fourth, diminished fifth, or minor sixth.[21] Based on a single interval, the power chord makes possible a high level of distortion without unintended inharmonicity. Most power chords are also played with a consistent finger arrangement that can be slid easily up and down the fretboard.[22]

Typical harmonic relationships

Heavy metal is usually riff-based. Riffs are frequently created with three main harmonic traits: modal scales progressions, tritone and chromatic progressions, and the use of pedal point.
Modal harmony
Traditional heavy metal tends to employ modal scales, in particular the Aeolian and Phrygian modes.[23] Harmonically speaking, this means the genre typically incorporates modal chord progressions such as aeolian progression like I-VI-VII, I-VII-(VI) or I-VI-IV-VII and phrygian progressions implying the relation between I and ♭II (I-♭II-I, I-♭II-III or I-♭II-VII for example).
Aeolian harmony is used in songs such as Judas Priest's "Breaking the Law", Iron Maiden's "Hallowed Be Thy Name", and Accept's "Princess of the Dawn", each employing a I-VI-VII progression as its main riff. Phrygian harmony is used in songs such as Mercyful Fate's "Gypsy" (main riff I-♭II-I-VI-V), Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction" (main riff built on the ♭II-I relation), and Sodom's "Remember the Fallen" (Introduction + main riff—the riff closing implies a phrygian cadence: I-♭II-III).
Tritone and chromatism
Tense-sounding chromatic or tritone relationships are used in a number of metal chord progressions.[24][25] The tritone, an interval spanning three whole tones—such as C and F#—was a forbidden dissonance in medieval ecclesiastical singing, which led monks to call it diabolus in musica—"the devil in music."[26] Because of that original symbolic association, it came to be heard in Western cultural convention as “evil.” Heavy metal has made extensive use of the tritone in guitar solos and riffs, such as in the beginning of "Black Sabbath."
Pedal point
Heavy metal songs often make extensive use of pedal point as a harmonic basis. A pedal point is a sustained tone, typically in the bass range, during which at least one foreign (i.e., dissonant) harmony is sounded in the other parts.[27] Heavy metal riffs are frequently constructed over a persistent repeating note played on the low strings of the bass or rhythmic guitar, most usually on the E, A, and D strings.[28] In other words, a single bass note—most frequently low E or A—is persistently repeated while some different chords are successively played, including chords that do not normally incorporate that bass note, which creates a sense of tension. An example is the opening riff of Judas Priest's "You've Got Another Thing Comin'." In this case, one guitar plays the pedal point in F#, while the second guitar plays the chords.


Classical influence

Robert Walser argues that, alongside blues and R&B, the "assemblage of disparate musical styles known...as 'classical music'" has been a major influence on heavy metal since the genre's earliest days. He claims that metal's "most influential musicians have been guitar players who have also studied classical music. Their appropriation and adaptation of classical models sparked the development of a new kind of guitar virtuosity [and] changes in the harmonic and melodic language of heavy metal."[29]
The appropriation of "classical" music by heavy metal musicians typically involves musical elements associated with the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras of art music. Deep Purple/Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and Scorpions guitarist Uli Jon Roth began experimenting with musical figurations borrowed from classical music in the early 1970s. In the 1980s, guitarists Randy Rhoads and Yngwie Malmsteen used eighteenth-century Baroque and later classical compositions as models, inspiring neoclassical metal players including Michael Romeo, Michael Angelo Batio, and Tony MacAlpine.
Although a number of metal musicians cite classical composers as inspiration, heavy metal cannot be regarded as the modern descendant of classical music.[30] Classical and metal are rooted in different cultural traditions and practices—classical in the art music tradition, metal in the popular music tradition. As musicologists Nicolas Cook and Nicola Dibben note, "Analyses of popular music also sometimes reveal the influence of 'art traditions.' An example is Walser’s linkage of heavy metal music with the ideologies and even some of the performance practices of nineteenth-century Romanticism. However, it would be clearly wrong to claim that traditions such as blues, rock, heavy metal, rap or dance music derive primarily from 'art music.'"[31] Heavy metal borrows only some aspects of classical music, such as motifs, melodies, and scales, rather than more complex features, such as counterpoint, polyphony, and classical structural forms. Heavy metal bands, including progressive and neoclassical metal bands, generally do not seek to observe the compositional and aesthetical exigencies of classical music.


Lyrical themes

Common themes in heavy metal lyrics are darkness, violence, and the occult. The sexual nature of many heavy metal songs, ranging from Led Zeppelin's suggestive lyrics to the more explicit references of latter-day nu metal bands, derives from the genre's roots in blues music and its frequently sexual content.[32] Since the 1980s, with the rise of thrash metal, a substantial number of metal songs have included sociopolitical commentary. Romantic tragedy is a standard theme of gothic and doom metal, as well as of nu metal, where teenage angst is another central topic. Genres such as melodic death metal, progressive metal, and black metal often explore philosophical themes, while more extreme forms of death metal and grindcore have purely aggressive, gory, and often unintelligible content.
Heavy metal songs often feature outlandish, fantasy-inspired lyrics, lending them an escapist quality. Iron Maiden's songs, for instance, were frequently inspired by mythology, fiction, and poetry, such as "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," based on the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem. Other examples include Black Sabbath's "The Wizard," Megadeth's "The Conjuring" and "Five Magics," and Judas Priest's "Dreamer Deceiver." Other artists base their lyrics on war, nuclear annihilation, environmental issues, and politics or religion. Examples include Black Sabbath's "War Pigs," Ozzy Osbourne's "Killer of Giants," Metallica's ...And Justice for All, Iron Maiden's "2 Minutes to Midnight," Accept's "Balls to the Wall," and Megadeth's "Peace Sells." Death is a predominant theme in heavy metal, routinely featuring in the lyrics of such different bands as Black Sabbath, Slayer, and W.A.S.P..
The thematic content of heavy metal has long been a target of criticism. According to Jon Pareles, "Heavy metal's main subject matter is simple and virtually universal. With grunts, moans and subliterary lyrics, it celebrates...a party without limits.... [T]he bulk of the music is stylized and formulaic."[4] Music critics have often deemed metal lyrics juvenile and banal, and others have objected to what they see as advocacy of misogyny and the occult. During the 1980s, the Parents Music Resource Center petitioned the U.S. Congress to regulate the popular music industry due to what the group asserted were objectionable lyrics, particularly those in heavy metal songs. In 1990, Judas Priest was sued by the parents of two young men who had shot themselves five years earlier, allegedly after hearing the subliminal statement "do it" in a Priest song. The case, which attracted a great deal of media attention, was ultimately dismissed.[33]


Visual elements

As with much popular music, visual imagery plays a large role in heavy metal. In addition to its sound and lyrics, a heavy metal band's "image" is expressed in album sleeve art, stage sets, the clothes of the band, band logos, and music videos.[34] Some early heavy metal acts, such as Alice Cooper and Kiss and some newer bands like GWAR, Mushroomhead, and Marilyn Manson, have become known as much for their outrageous performance personas and stage shows as for their music.[35]
Down-the-back long hair, according to Weinstein, "is the most crucial distinguishing feature of metal fashion."[36] Originally adopted from the hippie subculture, by the 1980s and 1990s heavy metal hair "symbolised the hate, angst and disenchantment of a generation that seemingly never felt at home," according to journalist Nader Rahman. Long hair gave members of the metal community "the power they needed to rebel against nothing in general."[37]
The classic uniform of heavy metal fans consists of "blue jeans, black T-shirts, boots and black leather or jeans jackets.... T-shirts are generally emblazoned with the logos or other visual representations of favorite metal bands."[38] In the mid-1970s, Judas Priest and Mötorhead helped establish elements of motorcycling culture and leather fashion in the true original heavy metal scene that made extreme music that would later define biker metal as a subgenre of heavy metal that associated with the metal subculture.[39][40] Metal fans also "appropriated elements from the S&M community (chains, metal studs, skulls, leather and crosses)." In the 1980s, a range of sources, from punk and goth music to horror films, influenced metal fashion.[41] Appearance and personal style was especially important for glam metal bands of the era. Performers typically wore long, dyed, hairspray-teased hair (hence the nickname, "hair metal"); makeup such as lipstick and eyeliner; gaudy clothing, including leopard-skin-printed shirts or vests and tight denim, leather, or spandex pants; and accessories such as headbands and jewelry.[42]


Physical gestures

Many metal musicians when performing live engage in headbanging, which involves rhythmically beating time with the head, often emphasized by long hair. The corna, or devil horns, hand gesture, also widespread, was popularized by vocalist Ronnie James Dio while with Black Sabbath and Dio.[25] Gene Simmons of Kiss claims to have been the first to make the gesture in concert.[43]
Attendees of metal concerts do not dance in the usual sense; Deena Weinstein has argued that this is due to the music's largely masculine audience and "extreme heterosexualist ideology." She identifies two primary body movements that substitute for dancing: headbanging and an arm thrust that is both a sign of appreciation and a rhythmic gesture.[44] The performance of air guitar is popular among metal fans both at concerts and listening to records at home.[45] Other concert audience activities include stage diving, crowd surfing, pushing and shoving in a chaotic mélée called moshing, and displaying the corna hand symbol.


Etymology

The origin of the term heavy metal in a musical context is uncertain. The phrase has been used for centuries in chemistry and metallurgy. An early use of the term in modern popular culture was by countercultural writer William S. Burroughs. His 1962 novel The Soft Machine includes a character known as "Uranian Willy, the Heavy Metal Kid." Burroughs's next novel, Nova Express (1964), develops the theme, using heavy metal as a metaphor for addictive drugs: "With their diseases and orgasm drugs and their sexless parasite life forms—Heavy Metal People of Uranus wrapped in cool blue mist of vaporized bank notes—And The Insect People of Minraud with metal music."[46]
Metal historian Ian Christe describes what the components of the term mean in "hippiespeak": "heavy" is roughly synonymous with "potent" or "profound," and "metal" designates a certain type of mood, grinding and weighted as with metal.[47] The word "heavy" in this sense was a basic element of beatnik and later countercultural slang, and references to "heavy music"—typically slower, more amplified variations of standard pop fare—were already common by the mid-1960s. Iron Butterfly's debut album, released in early 1968, was titled Heavy. The first recorded use of heavy metal in a song lyric is in Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild," also released that year:[48] "I like smoke and lightning/Heavy metal thunder/Racin' with the wind/And the feelin' that I'm under." A late, and disputed, claim about the source of the term was made by "Chas" Chandler, former manager of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In a 1995 interview on the PBS program Rock and Roll, he asserted that heavy metal "was a term originated in a New York Times article reviewing a Jimi Hendrix performance," in which the author likened the event to "listening to heavy metal falling from the sky." A source for Chandler's claim has never been found.
The first documented uses of the phrase to describe a type of rock music are from reviews by critic Mike Saunders. In the November 12, 1970, issue of Rolling Stone, he commented on an album put out the previous year by the British band Humble Pie: "Safe As Yesterday Is, their first American release, proved that Humble Pie could be boring in lots of different ways. Here they were a noisy, unmelodic, heavy metal-leaden :red:-rock band with the loud and noisy parts beyond doubt. There were a couple of nice songs...and one monumental pile of refuse." He described the band's latest, self-titled release as "more of the same 27th-rate heavy metal crap."[49] In a review of Sir Lord Baltimore's Kingdom Come in the May 1971 Creem, Saunders wrote, "Sir Lord Baltimore seems to have down pat most all the best heavy metal tricks in the book."[50] Creem critic Lester Bangs is credited with popularizing the term via his early 1970s essays on bands such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.[51] Through the decade, heavy metal was used by certain critics as a virtually automatic putdown. In 1979, lead New York Times popular music critic John Rockwell described what he called "heavy-metal rock" as "brutally aggressive music played mostly for minds clouded by drugs,"[52] and, in a different article, as "a crude exaggeration of rock basics that appeals to white teenagers."[53]
The terms "heavy metal" and "hard rock" have often been used interchangeably, particularly in discussing bands of the 1970s, a period when the terms were largely synonymous.[54] For example, the 1983 Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll includes this passage: "known for its aggressive blues-based hard-rock style, Aerosmith was the top American heavy-metal band of the mid-Seventies."[55] Few would now characterize Aerosmith's classic sound, with its clear links to traditional rock and roll, as "heavy metal." Even some acts closely identified with the emergence of the genre, such as Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, are not considered heavy metal bands by some in the present-day metal community.


History

Roots: 1950s to mid-1960s

Heavy metal has roots in blues music, particularly electric blues.[56] Some of heavy metal's characteristics can be traced back to 1950s electric blues, including its rough declamatory vocal style, heavy guitar riffs, string-bending blues-scale guitar solos, strong beat, thick riff-laden texture, and posturing performances.[57] Heavy metal's quintessential guitar style, built around distortion-heavy riffs and power chords, traces its roots to early 1950s Memphis blues guitarists such as Joe Hill Louis, Willie Johnson, and particularly Pat Hare,[58][59] who captured a "grittier, nastier, more ferocious electric guitar sound" on records such as James Cotton's "Cotton Crop Blues" (1954).[59] Chicago blues musician Elmore James also laid the foundations for heavy metal, using guitar techniques such as distortion, power chords and slides in the 1950s to create an "explosive sound" that was "screaming with sustained tones" and was distorted and densely textured.[60] The "thunderous blast" of his guitar sound was one of the base roots of heavy metal.[61] Another antecedent of heavy metal's quintessential guitar style is :red: Dale's early 1960s surf rock instrumentals such as "Let's Go Trippin'" (1961) and "Misirlou" (1962), which played an important role in advancing amplification technology.[62]
American blues music was a major influence on the early British rockers. Bands like The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds recorded covers of many classic blues songs, using electric guitar where many of the originals had used acoustic and sometimes speeding up the tempo. As they experimented with the music, the UK blues-based bands—and the U.S. acts they influenced in turn—developed what would become the hallmarks of heavy metal: At the core was a loud, distorted guitar style, built around power chords.[63] The Kinks played a major role in popularizing this sound with their 1964 hit "You Really Got Me."[64] A significant contributor to the emerging guitar sound was the feedback facilitated by the new generation of amplifiers. In addition to The Kinks' Dave Davies, other guitarists such as The Who's Pete Townshend and the Tridents' Jeff Beck were experimenting with feedback.[65] Where the blues-rock drumming style started out largely as simple shuffle beats on small kits, drummers began using a more muscular, complex, and amplified approach to match and be heard against the increasingly loud guitar.[66] Vocalists similarly modified their technique and increased their reliance on amplification, often becoming more stylized and dramatic. In terms of sheer volume, especially in live performance, The Who's "bigger-louder-wall-of-Marshalls" approach was seminal.[67] Simultaneous advances in amplification and recording technology made it possible to successfully capture the power of this heavier approach on record.
The combination of blues-rock with psychedelic rock formed much of the original basis for heavy metal.[68] One of the most influential bands in forging the merger of genres was the power trio Cream, who derived a massive, heavy sound from unison riffing between guitarist Eric Clapton and bassist Jack Bruce, as well as Ginger Baker's double bass drumming.[69] Their first two LPs, Fresh Cream (1966) and Disraeli Gears (1967) are regarded as essential prototypes for the future style. The Jimi Hendrix Experience's debut album, Are You Experienced (1967), was also highly influential. Hendrix's virtuosic technique would be emulated by many metal guitarists and the album's most successful single, "Purple Haze," is often identified as the first heavy metal hit.[70]


Development: late 1960s and early 1970s


Led Zeppelin performing in June 1969 for the French TV show Tous en scène.
In 1968, the sound that would become known as heavy metal coalesced. That January, the San Francisco band Blue Cheer released a cover of Eddie Cochran's classic "Summertime Blues," from their debut album Vincebus Eruptum, that many consider the first true heavy metal recording.[71] The same month, Steppenwolf released its self-titled debut album, including "Born to Be Wild," with its "heavy metal" lyric. In July, another two epochal records came out: The Yardbirds' "Think About It"—B-side of the band's last single—with a performance by guitarist Jimmy Page anticipating the metal sound he would soon make famous; and Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, with its 17-minute-long title track, a prime candidate for first-ever heavy metal album. In August, The Beatles' single version of "Revolution," with its redlined guitar and drum sound, set new standards for distortion in a top-selling context. The Jeff Beck Group, whose leader had preceded Page as The Yardbirds' guitarist, released its debut record that same month: Truth featured some of the "most molten, barbed, downright funny noises of all time," breaking ground for generations of metal ax-slingers.[72] In October, Page's new band, Led Zeppelin, made its live debut. In November, Love Sculpture, with guitarist Dave Edmunds, put out Blues Helping, featuring a pounding, aggressive version of Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance." The Beatles' so-called White Album, which also came out that month, included "Helter Skelter," then one of the heaviest-sounding songs ever released by a major band.[73]
In January 1969, Led Zeppelin's self-titled debut album was released and reached number 10 on the Billboard album chart. In July, Zeppelin and a power trio with a Cream-inspired, but cruder sound, Grand Funk Railroad, played the Atlanta Pop Festival. That same month, another Cream-rooted trio led by Leslie West released Mountain, an album filled with heavy blues-rock guitar and roaring vocals. In August, the group—now itself dubbed Mountain—played an hour-long set at the Woodstock Festival.[74] Grand Funk's debut album, On Time, also came out that month. In the fall, Led Zeppelin II went to number 1 and the album's single "Whole Lotta Love" hit number 4 on the Billboard pop chart. The metal revolution was under way. Template:Sound sample box align right

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"Whole Lotta Love"
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Sample of "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin, from Led Zeppelin II (1969). The heavy riff-based song, using lyrics culled from blues songwriter Willie Dixon, reached number four on the Billboard charts.[75]

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Template:Sample box end Led Zeppelin defined central aspects of the emerging genre, with Page's highly distorted guitar style and singer Robert Plant's dramatic, wailing vocals.[76] Other bands, with a more consistently heavy, "purely" metal sound, would prove equally important in codifying the genre. The 1970 releases by Black Sabbath (Black Sabbath and Paranoid) and Deep Purple (Deep Purple in Rock) were crucial in this regard.[77] Black Sabbath had developed a particularly heavy sound in part due to an industrial accident guitarist Tony Iommi suffered before cofounding the band. Unable to play normally, Iommi had to tune his guitar down for easier fretting and rely on power chords with their relatively simple fingering.[78] Deep Purple had fluctuated between styles in its early years, but by 1969 vocalist Ian Gillan and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore had led the band toward the developing heavy metal style.[79] In 1970, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple scored major UK chart hits with "Paranoid" and "Black Night," respectively. That same year, three other British bands released debut albums in a heavy metal mode: Uriah Heep with Very 'eavy... Very 'umble, UFO with UFO 1, and Black Widow with Sacrifice. Wishbone Ash, though not commonly identified as metal, introduced a dual-lead/rhythm-guitar style that many metal bands of the following generation would adopt. The occult lyrics and imagery employed by Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, and Black Widow would prove particularly influential; Led Zeppelin also began foregrounding such elements with its fourth album, released in 1971.

Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath onstage on January 29, 1973.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the trend-setting group was Grand Funk Railroad, "the most commercially successful American heavy-metal band from 1970 until they disbanded in 1976, [they] established the Seventies success formula: continuous touring."[80] Other bands identified with metal emerged in the U.S., such as Dust (first LP in 1971), Blue Öyster Cult (1972), and Kiss (1974). In Germany, the Scorpions debuted with Lonesome Crow in 1972. Blackmore, who had emerged as a virtuoso soloist with Deep Purple's Machine Head (1972), quit the group in 1975 to form Rainbow. These bands also built audiences via constant touring and increasingly elaborate stage shows.[81] As described above, there are arguments about whether these and other early bands truly qualify as "heavy metal" or simply as "hard rock." Those closer to the music's blues roots , placing greater emphasis on melody, playing acoustic or soft material or experimenting with other genres are now commonly ascribed the latter label. AC/DC, which debuted with High Voltage in 1975, is a prime example. The 1983 Rolling Stone encyclopedia entry begins, "Australian heavy-metal band AC/DC..."[82] Rock historian Clinton Walker writes, "Calling AC/DC a heavy metal band in the seventies was as inaccurate as it is today.... [They] were a rock'n'roll band that just happened to be heavy enough for metal."[83] The issue is not only one of shifting definitions, but also a persistent distinction between musical style and audience identification: Ian Christe describes how the band "became the stepping-stone that led huge numbers of hard rock fans into heavy metal perdition."[84]
In certain cases, there is little debate. After Black Sabbath, the next major example is Britain's Judas Priest, which debuted with Rocka Rolla in 1974. In Christe's description, Black Sabbath's

Though Judas Priest did not have a top 40 album in the U.S. until 1980, for many it was the definitive post-Sabbath heavy metal band; its twin-guitar attack, featuring rapid tempos and a nonbluesy, more cleanly metallic sound, was a major influence on later acts.[86] While heavy metal was growing in popularity, most critics were not enamored of the music. Objections were raised to metal's adoption of visual spectacle and other trappings of commercial artifice,[87] but the main offense was its perceived musical and lyrical vacuity: reviewing a Black Sabbath album in the early 1970s, leading critic Robert Christgau described it as "dull and decadent...dim-witted, amoral exploitation."[88]


Mainstream: late 1970s and 1980s


Iron Maiden were one of the central bands in the punk rock–inspired New Wave of British Heavy Metal.
Punk rock emerged in the mid-1970s as a reaction against contemporary social conditions as well as what was perceived as the overindulgent, overproduced rock music of the time, including heavy metal. Sales of heavy metal records declined sharply in the late 1970s in the face of punk, disco, and more mainstream rock.[89] With the major labels fixated on punk, many newer British heavy metal bands were inspired by the movement's aggressive, high-energy sound and "lo-fi", do it yourself ethos. Underground metal bands began putting out cheaply recorded releases independently to small, devoted audiences.[90] British music papers such as the NME and Sounds began to take notice, with Sounds writer Geoff Barton christening the movement the "New Wave of British Heavy Metal."[91] NWOBHM bands including Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Saxon, Diamond Head, and Def Leppard reenergized the heavy metal genre. Following Judas Priest's lead, they toughened up the sound, reduced its blues elements, and emphasized increasingly fast tempos.[92] In 1980, NWOBHM broke into the mainstream, as albums by Iron Maiden, Motörhead, and Saxon reached the British top 10. The next year, Motörhead became the first band in the movement to top the UK charts with No Sleep 'til Hammersmith. Other NWOBHM bands, such as Diamond Head and Venom, though less successful would also have a significant influence on metal's development.[93]
The first generation of metal bands was ceding the limelight. Deep Purple had broken up soon after Blackmore's departure in 1975, and Led Zeppelin folded in 1980. Black Sabbath was routinely upstaged in concert by its opening act, the Los Angeles band Van Halen.[94] Eddie Van Halen established himself as one of the leading metal guitar virtuosos of the era—his solo on "Eruption," from the band's self-titled 1978 album, is considered a milestone.[95] Randy Rhoads and Yngwie J. Malmsteen also became famed virtuosos, associated with what would be known as the neoclassical metal style. The adoption of classical elements had been spearheaded by Blackmore and the Scorpions' Uli Jon Roth; this next generation progressed to occasionally using classical nylon-stringed guitars, as Rhoads does on "Dee" from former Sabbath lead singer Ozzy Osbourne's first solo album, Blizzard of Ozz (1980). Template:Sound sample box align right

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"Purgatory"
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Sample of "Purgatory" by Iron Maiden, from the album Killers (1981). The early Iron Maiden sound was a mix of punk rock speed and heavy metal guitar work typical of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.

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"Hot for Teacher"
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Sample of "Hot for Teacher" by Van Halen, from the album 1984 (1984). This sample demonstrates their sound's similarity to the glam metal style.

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Template:Sample box end Inspired by Van Halen's success, a metal scene began to develop in Southern California, particularly Los Angeles, during the late 1970s. Based around the clubs of L.A.'s Sunset Strip, bands such as Quiet Riot, Ratt, Mötley Crüe, and W.A.S.P. were influenced by traditional heavy metal of the earlier 1970s[96] and incorporated the theatrics (and sometimes makeup) of glam rock acts such as Alice Cooper and Kiss.[97] The lyrics of these glam metal bands characteristically emphasized hedonism and wild behavior. Musically, the style was distinguished by rapid-fire shred guitar solos, anthemic choruses, and a relatively pop-oriented melodic approach. The glam metal movement—along with similarly styled acts such as New York's Twisted Sister—became a major force in metal and the wider spectrum of rock music.
In the wake of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and Judas Priest's breakthrough British Steel (1980), heavy metal became increasingly popular in the early 1980s. Many metal artists benefited from the exposure they received on MTV, which began airing in 1981—sales often soared if a band's videos screened on the channel.[98] Def Leppard's videos for Pyromania (1983) made them superstars in America and Quiet Riot became the first domestic heavy metal band to top the Billboard chart with Metal Health (1983). One of the seminal events in metal's growing popularity was the 1983 US Festival in California, where the "heavy metal day" featuring Ozzy Osbourne, Van Halen, Scorpions, Mötley Crüe, Judas Priest, and others drew the largest audiences of the three-day event.[99] Between 1983 and 1984, heavy metal went from an 8 percent to a 20 percent share of all recordings sold in the U.S.[100] Several major professional magazines devoted to the genre were launched, including Kerrang! (in 1981) and Metal Hammer (in 1984), as well as a host of fan journals. In 1985, Billboard declared, "Metal has broadened its audience base. Metal music is no longer the exclusive domain of male teenagers. The metal audience has become older (college-aged), younger (pre-teen), and more female."[101]
By the mid-1980s, glam metal was a dominant presence on the U.S. charts, music television, and the arena concert circuit. New bands such as L.A.'s Warrant and acts from the East Coast like Poison and Cinderella became major draws, while Mötley Crüe and Ratt remained very popular. Bridging the stylistic gap between hard rock and glam metal, New Jersey's Bon Jovi became enormously successful with its third album, Slippery When Wet (1986). In 1987, MTV launched a show, Headbanger's Ball, devoted exclusively to heavy metal videos. However, the metal audience had begun to factionalize, with those in many underground metal scenes favoring more extreme sounds and disparaging the popular style as "lite metal" or "hair metal."[102]
One band that reached diverse audiences was Guns N' Roses. In contrast to their glam metal contemporaries in L.A., they were seen as much rawer and more dangerous. With the release of their chart-topping Appetite for Destruction (1987), they "recharged and almost single-handedly sustained the Sunset Strip sleaze system for several years."[103] The following year, Jane's Addiction emerged from the same L.A. hard-rock club scene with its major label debut, Nothing's Shocking. Reviewing the album, Rolling Stone declared, "as much as any band in existence, Jane's Addiction is the true heir to Led Zeppelin."[104] The group was one of the first to be identified with the "alternative metal" trend that would come to the fore in the next decade. Meanwhile, new bands such as New York's Winger and New Jersey's Skid Row sustained the popularity of the glam metal style.[39]


Underground metal: 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s

Many subgenres of heavy metal developed outside of the commercial mainstream during the 1980s.[105] Several attempts have been made to map the complex world of underground metal, most notably by the editors of the All Music Guide, as well as critic Garry Sharpe-Young. Sharpe-Young's multivolume metal encyclopedia separates the underground into five major categories: thrash metal, death metal, black metal, power metal, and the related subgenres of doom and gothic metal.

Thrash metal

For more details on this topic, see Thrash metal
Slayer's Reign in Blood (1986) was a landmark thrash metal album.
Thrash metal is originally emerged in the early 1980s under the influence of biker metal and new wave of british heavy metal,[106] particularly songs in the revved-up style known as speed metal and hardcore punk. The movement began in the United States, with the leading scene in the San Francisco Bay Area. The very intense sound is developed by all the thrash metal groups was faster and more aggressive than that of the original heavy metal bands and their glam metal successors.[106] Low-register guitar riffs are typically overlaid with shredding leads. Lyrics often express nihilistic views or deal with social issues using visceral, gory language. Thrash has been described as a form of "urban blight music" and "a palefaced cousin of a most aggressive music."[107]
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"Angel of Death"
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Slayer's "Angel of Death," from Reign in Blood (1986), which features the fast, technically complex musicianship typical of thrash metal

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Template:Sample box end The subgenre was popularized by the "Big Four of Thrash": Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica, and Slayer.[108] Three German bands, Kreator, Sodom, and Destruction, played a central role in bringing the style to Europe. Others, including San Francisco's Testament and Exodus, New Jersey's Overkill, and Brazil's Sepultura, also had a significant impact. While thrash began as an underground scene, and remained largely that for almost a decade, the leading bands in the movement began to reach a wider audience. Metallica brought the sound into the top 40 of the Billboard album chart in 1986 with Master of Puppets; two years later, the band's ...And Justice for All hit number 6, while Megadeth and Anthrax had top 40 records.[109]
Though less commercially successful than the rest of the Big Four, Slayer released one of the genre's definitive records: Reign in Blood (1986) was described by Kerrang! as the "heaviest album of all time."[110] Two decades later, Metal Hammer named it the best album of the preceding twenty years.[111] Slayer attracted a following among far-right skinheads, and accusations of promoting violence and Nazi themes have dogged the band.[112] In the early 1990s, thrash achieved breakout success, challenging and redefining the metal mainstream.[113] Metallica's self-titled 1991 album topped the Billboard chart, Megadeth's Countdown to Extinction (1992) hit number 2, Anthrax and Slayer cracked the top 10, and albums by regional bands such as Testament and Sepultura entered the top 100.


Death metal

For more details on this topic, see Death metal
Death's Chuck Schuldiner, "widely recognized as the father of death metal"[114]
Thrash soon began to evolve and split into more extreme metal genres. "Slayer's music was directly responsible for the rise of death metal," according to MTV News.[115] The NWOBHM band Venom was also an important progenitor. The death metal movement in both North America and Europe adopted and emphasized the elements of blasphemy and diabolism employed by such acts. Florida's Death and the Bay Area's Possessed are recognized as seminal bands in the style. Both groups have been credited with inspiring the subgenre's name, the latter via its 1984 demo Death Metal and the song "Death Metal," from its 1985 debut album Seven Churches (1985).
Death metal is very characterized that utilizes the bad heaviness and big aggression of thrash metal and biker metal, fused with lyrics preoccupied with Z-grade slasher movie violence and Satanism.[116] Death metal vocals are typically bleak, involving guttural "death growls," high-pitched screaming, the "death rasp,"[117] and other uncommon techniques.[118] Complementing the deep, aggressive vocal style are downtuned, highly distorted guitars[116][117] and extremely fast percussion, often with rapid double bass drumming and "wall of sound"–style blast beats. Frequent tempo and time signature changes and syncopation are also typical.
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"Suffocation"
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"Suffocation" by Obituary from the album Slowly We Rot (1989)

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Death metal, like thrash metal, generally rejects the theatrics of earlier metal styles, opting instead for an everyday look of ripped jeans and plain leather jackets.[119] One major exception to this rule was Deicide's Glen Benton, who branded an inverted cross on his forehead and wore armor on stage. Morbid Angel adopted neo-fascist imagery.[119] These two bands, along with Death and Obituary, were leaders of the major death metal scene that emerged in Florida in the mid-1980s. In the UK, the related style of grindcore, led by bands such as Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror, emerged out of the anarcho-punk movement.[120] A large Scandinavian death metal scene, with bands such as Sweden's Entombed and Dismember, began to develop as well. Out of this evolved a melodic death metal sound, typified by Swedish bands such as In Flames and Dark Tranquillity and Finland's Children of Bodom and Kalmah. By the 1990s, American technical death metal bands such as Atheist and Cynic were showcasing astonishing levels of guitar speed and technicality.


Black metal

For more details on this topic, see Black metal
Photo of the burned ruins of Fantoft stave church depicted on Burzum's 1992 EP Aske.
The first wave of black metal emerged in Europe in the early and mid-1980s, led by Britain's Venom, Denmark's Mercyful Fate, Switzerland's Hellhammer and Celtic Frost, and Sweden's Bathory. By the late 1980s, Norwegian bands such as Mayhem, Burzum, and Emperor were heading a second wave.[121] Black metal varies considerably in style and production quality, although most bands emphasize shrieked and growled vocals, highly distorted guitars frequently played with rapid tremolo picking, a "dark" atmosphere[118] and intentionally lo-fi production, with ambient noise and background hiss.[122] Satanic themes are common in black metal, though many bands take inspiration from ancient paganism, promoting a return to pre-Christian values.[123] Numerous black metal bands also "experiment with sounds from all possible forms of metal, folk, classical music, electronica and avant-garde."[117] Darkthrone drummer Fenriz explains, "It had something to do with production, lyrics, the way they dressed and a commitment to making ugly, raw, grim stuff. There wasn't a generic sound."[124]
By 1990, Mayhem was regularly wearing corpsepaint; many other black metal acts also adopted the look. Bathory inspired the Viking metal and folk metal movements and Immortal brought blast beats to the fore. Some bands in the Scandinavian black metal scene became associated with considerable violence in the early 1990s,[125] with Mayhem and Burzum linked to church burnings. Growing commercial hype around death metal generated a backlash; beginning in Norway, much of the Scandanavian metal underground shifted to support a black metal scene that resisted co-option.[126] According to Gorgoroth vocalist Gaahl, "Black Metal was never meant to reach an audience.... [We] had a common enemy which was, of course, Christianity, socialism and everything that democracy stands for."[124] Template:Sound sample box align right

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"De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas"
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The title track of Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994)

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By 1992, black metal scenes had begun to emerge in areas outside Scandinavia, including Germany, France, and Poland.[127] The 1993 murder of Mayhem's Euronymous by Burzum's Varg Vikernes provoked intensive media coverage.[124] Around 1996, when many in the scene felt the genre was stagnating,[128] several key bands, including Burzum and Finland's Beherit, moved toward an ambient style, while symphonic black metal was explored by Sweden's Tiamat and Switzerland's Samael.[129] In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Norway's Dimmu Borgir brought black metal closer to the mainstream,[130] as did Cradle of Filth, which Metal Hammer calls England's most successful metal band since Iron Maiden.[131] Critically lauded contemporary acts include Sweden's traditionalist Watain,[132] France's more experimental Deathspell Omega,[133] and America's one-man Xasthur.[134]


Power metal

For more details on this topic, see Power metal
HammerFall, live in Milano, Italy, 2005.
During the early 1990s, the power metal scene came together largely in reaction to the harshness of death and black metal.[135] Though a relatively underground style in North America, it enjoys wide popularity in Europe. Power metal focuses on upbeat, epic melodies and themes that "appeal to the listener's sense of valor and loveliness."[136] The prototype for the sound was established in the mid- to late 1980s by Germany's Helloween, which combined the power riffs, melodic approach, and high-pitched, "clean" singing style of bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden with thrash's speed and energy, "crystalliz[ing] the sonic ingredients of what is now known as power metal."[137] New York's Manowar and Virgin Steele were pioneering American bands. Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force (1984) was crucial in popularizing the ultrafast electric guitar style known as "shredding" as well as the merger of metal with classical music elements, developments that have strongly influenced power metal.
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"Dark Avenger"
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Manowar's "Dark Avenger," from Battle Hymns (1982)

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Template:Sample box end Traditional power metal bands like Sweden's HammerFall and England's DragonForce have a sound clearly indebted to the classic NWOBHM style.[138] Many power metal bands such as Florida's Kamelot, Italy's Rhapsody of Fire, and Russia's Catharsis feature a keyboard-based "symphonic" sound, sometimes employing orchestras and opera singers. Power metal has built a strong fanbase in Japan and South America, where bands like Brazil's Angra and Argentina's Rata Blanca are popular.
Closely related to power metal is progressive metal, which adopts the complex compositional approach of bands like Rush and King Crimson. This style emerged in the United States in the early and mid-1980s, with innovators such as Queensrÿche, Fates Warning, and Dream Theater. The mix of the progressive and power metal sounds is typified by New Jersey's Symphony X, whose guitarist Michael Romeo is among the most recognized of latter-day shredders.[139]


Doom and gothic metal

For more details on this topic, see Doom metal and Gothic metal
ØØ Void (2000), drone doom band Sunn O)))'s debut.
Emerging in the mid-1980s with such bands as California's Saint Vitus, Maryland's The Obsessed, Chicago's Trouble, and Sweden's Candlemass, the doom metal movement rejected other metal styles' emphasis on speed, slowing its music to a crawl. Doom metal traces its roots to the lyrical themes and musical approach of early Black Sabbath[140] and Sabbath contemporaries such as Blue Cheer, Pentagram, and Black Widow.[141] The Melvins have also been a significant influence on doom metal and a number of its subgenres.[142] Doom emphasizes melody, melancholy tempos, and a sepulchral mood relative to many other varieties of metal.[143]
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"Country Doctor"
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"Country Doctor" from Crippled Lucifer (1998) by doom metal band Burning Witch

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The 1991 release of Forest of Equilibrium, the debut album by UK band Cathedral, helped spark a new wave of doom metal. During the same period, the doom-death fusion style of British bands Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema gave rise to European gothic metal,[144] with its signature dual-vocalist arrangements, exemplified by Norway's Theatre of Tragedy and Tristania. New York's Type O Negative introduced an American take on the style.[145] Led by the Swedish band Therion's incorporation of classical elements, gothic metal in turn spawned a symphonic metal movement including Australia's Virgin Black, Finland's Nightwish, and the Netherlands' Within Temptation and After Forever.
In the United States, sludge metal, mixing doom and hardcore, emerged in the late 1980s—Eyehategod and Crowbar were leaders a major Louisiana sludge scene. Early in the next decade, California's Kyuss and Sleep, inspired by the earlier doom metal bands, spearheaded the rise of stoner metal,[146] while Seattle's Earth helped develop the drone metal subgenre.[147] The late 1990s saw new bands form such as the Los Angeles–based Goatsnake, with a classic stoner/doom sound, and Sunn O))), which crosses lines between doom, drone, and dark ambient metal—the New York Times has compared their sound to an "Indian raga in the middle of an earthquake".[143] In 2006, Atlanta's Mastodon, whose equally hard-to-define style mixes progressive and sludge, broke into the Billboard top 40 with Blood Mountain.


New fusions: 1990s and early 2000s

For more details on this topic, see Alternative metal and Nu metal
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"Walk"
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"Walk" from Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power (1992), exemplifying the groove metal style

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The era of metal's mainstream dominance in North America came to an end in the early 1990s with the emergence of Nirvana and other grunge bands, signaling the popular breakthrough of alternative rock.[148] Grunge acts were influenced by the heavy metal sound, but rejected the excesses of the more popular metal bands, such as their "flashy and virtuosic solos" and "appearance-driven" MTV orientation.[39]
Glam metal fell out of favor due not only to the success of grunge,[149] but also because of the growing popularity of the more aggressive sound typified by Metallica and the post-thrash groove metal of Pantera and White Zombie.[150] A few new, unambiguously metal bands had commercial success during the first half of the decade—Pantera's Far Beyond Driven topped the Billboard chart in 1994—but, "In the dull eyes of the mainstream, metal was dead."[151] Some bands tried to adapt to the new musical landscape. Metallica revamped its image: the band members cut their hair and, in 1996, headlined the alternative musical festival Lollapalooza founded by Jane's Addiction singer Perry Farrell. While this prompted a backlash among some long-time fans,[152] Metallica remained one of the most successful bands in the world into the new century.[153]

Layne Staley of Alice in Chains, one of the most popular acts identified with alternative metal, performing in 1992.
Like Jane's Addiction, many of the most popular early 1990s groups with roots in heavy metal fall under the umbrella term "alternative metal."[154] The label was applied to a wide spectrum of acts that fused metal with different styles, not all associated with alternative rock. Acts labeled alternative metal included the Seattle grunge scene's Alice in Chains and groups drawing on multiple styles: Faith No More combined their alternative rock sound with punk, funk, metal, and hip hop; Primus joined elements of funk, punk, thrash metal, and experimental music. Tool mixed metal and progressive rock; Ministry began incorporating metal into its industrial sound; and Marilyn Manson went down a similar route, while also employing shock effects of the sort popularized by Alice Cooper. Alternative metal artists, though they did not represent a cohesive scene, were united by their willingness to experiment with the metal genre and their rejection of glam metal aesthetics (with the stagecraft of Marilyn Manson and White Zombie—also identified with alt-metal—significant, if partial, exceptions).[154] Alternative metal's mix of styles and sounds represented "the colorful results of metal opening up to face the outside world."[155]
In the mid- and late 1990s came a new wave of U.S. metal groups inspired by the alternative metal bands and their mix of genres.[156] Dubbed "nu metal," bands such as P.O.D., Korn, Papa Roach, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, and Linkin Park incorporated elements ranging from death metal to hip hop, often including DJs and rap-style vocals. The mix demonstrated that "pancultural metal could pay off."[157] Nu metal gained mainstream success through heavy MTV rotation and Ozzy Osbourne's 1996 introduction of Ozzfest, which led the media to talk of a resurgence of heavy metal.[158] That year, Korn released Life Is Peachy, the first nu metal album to reach the top 10; two years later, the band's Follow the Leader hit number 1. In 1999, Billboard noted that there were more than 500 specialty metal radio shows in the U.S., nearly three times as many as ten years before.[159] While nu metal was widely popular early in the 2000s, traditional metal fans did not fully embrace the style.[160] By early 2003, the movement had clearly passed its peak, though several nu metal acts, as well as bands with related styles, such as System of a Down, retained substantial followings.[161]


Recent trends: mid-2000s

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"Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr"
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"Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr" from Ascendancy (2005) by metalcore band Trivium

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Metalcore, an originally American hybrid of thrash metal, melodic death metal, and hardcore punk, emerged as a commercial force in 2002–3. It is rooted in the crossover thrash style developed by bands such as Suicidal Tendencies, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, and Stormtroopers of Death in the mid-1980s.[162] Through the 1990s, metalcore was mostly an underground phenomenon, but by 2004 it had become popular enough that Killswitch Engage's The End of Heartache and Shadows Fall's The War Within debuted at numbers 21 and 20, respectively, on the Billboard album chart.[163] Bullet for My Valentine, from Wales, reached similar heights on the British album chart with The Poison (2005). In recent years, metalcore bands have received prominent slots at Ozzfest and Download Festival. Lamb of God, with a related blend of metal styles, broke into the Billboard top 10 in 2006 with Sacrament.
In Europe, especially Germany and Scandinavia, metal continues to be broadly popular. Acts such as the thrash shredding group The Haunted, melodic death metal bands In Flames, Kalmah and Children of Bodom, symphonic extreme metal acts Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth, and power metal group HammerFall have been very successful in recent years. In English-speaking countries, the term "retro-metal" has been applied to such bands as England's The Darkness[164] and Australia's Wolfmother.[165] The Darkness's Permission to Land (2003), described as an "eerily realistic simulation of '80s metal and '70s glam,"[164] topped the UK charts, going quintuple platinum. Wolfmother's self-titled 2005 debut album had "Deep Purple-ish organs," "Jimmy Page-worthy chordal riffing," and lead singer Andrew Stockdale howling "notes that Robert Plant can't reach anymore."[165] "Woman," a track from the album, won for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 2007 Grammy Awards, while Slayer's "Eyes of the Insane" won for Best Metal Performance. In 2008, Slayer won the Best Metal Performance award again, for "Final Six".


See also

Sources​

References​

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  74. Though often identified now as "hard rock," the band's official debut album, Mountain Climbing (1970), placed 85th on the list of "Top 100 Metal Albums" compiled by Hit Parader in 1989. Grand Funk Railroad's Survival (1971) placed 72nd (Walser [1993], p. 174).
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  137. "Helloween - Biography". All Music Guide. Retrieved on April 8, 2007.
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  139. "Genre - Progressive Metal". All Music Guide. Retrieved on March 20, 2007.
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  150. Birchmeier, Jason. "Pantera". Allmusic.com. Retrieved on March 19, 2007.
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  155. Christe (2003), p. 224
  156. Christe (2003), pp. 324–25
  157. Christe (2003), p. 329
  158. Christe (2003), p. 324
  159. Christe (2003), p. 344
  160. Christe (2003), p. 328
  161. D'angelo, Joe (2003-01-24). Nu Metal Meltdown. MTV.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-28.
  162. Christe (2003), p. 184
  163. Killswitch Engage. Roadrunner Records. Retrieved on March 17, 2007. Shadows Fall. Atlantic Records. Retrieved on March 17, 2007.
  164. Jump up to:164.0 164.1 The Darkness. All Music Guide. Retrieved on June 11, 2007.
  165. Jump up to:165.0 165.1 Wolfmother. Rolling Stone, April 18, 2006. Retrieved on March 31, 2007.

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According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway because bees don't care what humans think is impossible. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Ooh, black and yellow! Let's shake it up a little. Barry! Breakfast is ready! Ooming! Hang on a second. Hello? - Barry? - Adam? - Oan you believe this is happening? - I can't. I'll pick you up. Looking sharp. Use the stairs. Your father paid good money for those. Sorry. I'm excited. Here's the graduate. We're very proud of you, son. A perfect report card, all B's. Very proud. Ma! I got a thing going here. - You got lint on your fuzz. - Ow! That's me! - Wave to us! We'll be in row 118,000. - Bye! Barry, I told you, stop flying in the house! - Hey, Adam. - Hey, Barry. - Is that fuzz gel? - A little. Special day, graduation. Never thought I'd make it. Three days grade school, three days high school. Those were awkward. Three days college. I'm glad I took a day and hitchhiked around the hive. You did come back different. - Hi, Barry. - Artie, growing a mustache? Looks good. - Hear about Frankie? - Yeah. - You going to the funeral? - No, I'm not going. Everybody knows, sting someone, you die. Don't waste it on a squirrel. Such a hothead. I guess he could have just gotten out of the way. I love this incorporating an amusement park into our day. That's why we don't need vacations. Boy, quite a bit of pomp... under the circumstances. - Well, Adam, today we are men. - We are! - Bee-men. - Amen! Hallelujah! Students, faculty, distinguished bees, please welcome Dean Buzzwell. Welcome, New Hive Oity graduating class of... ...9:15. That concludes our ceremonies. And begins your career at Honex Industries! Will we pick ourjob today? I heard it's just orientation. Heads up! Here we go. Keep your hands and antennas inside the tram at all times. - Wonder what it'll be like? - A little scary. Welcome to Honex, a division of Honesco and a part of the Hexagon Group. This is it! Wow. Wow. We know that you, as a bee, have worked your whole life to get to the point where you can work for your whole life. Honey begins when our valiant Pollen Jocks bring the nectar to the hive. Our top-secret formula is automatically color-corrected, scent-adjusted and bubble-contoured into this soothing sweet syrup with its distinctive golden glow you know as... Honey! - That girl was hot. - She's my cousin! - She is? - Yes, we're all cousins. - Right. You're right. - At Honex, we constantly strive to improve every aspect of bee existence. These bees are stress-testing a new helmet technology. - What do you think he makes? - Not enough. Here we have our latest advancement, the Krelman. - What does that do? - Oatches that little strand of honey that hangs after you pour it. Saves us millions. Oan anyone work on the Krelman? Of course. Most bee jobs are small ones. But bees know that every small job, if it's done well, means a lot. But choose carefully because you'll stay in the job you pick for the rest of your life. The same job the rest of your life? I didn't know that. What's the difference? You'll be happy to know that bees, as a species, haven't had one day off in 27 million years. So you'll just work us to death? We'll sure try. Wow! That blew my mind! "What's the difference?" How can you say that? One job forever? That's an insane choice to have to make. I'm relieved. Now we only have to make one decision in life. But, Adam, how could they never have told us that? Why would you question anything? We're bees. We're the most perfectly functioning society on Earth. You ever think maybe things work a little too well here? Like what? Give me one example. I don't know. But you know what I'm talking about. Please clear the gate. Royal Nectar Force on approach. Wait a second. Oheck it out. - Hey, those are Pollen Jocks! - Wow. I've never seen them this close. They know what it's like outside the hive. Yeah, but some don't come back. - Hey, Jocks! - Hi, Jocks! You guys did great! You're monsters! You're sky freaks! I love it! I love it! - I wonder where they were. - I don't know. Their day's not planned. Outside the hive, flying who knows where, doing who knows what. You can'tjust decide to be a Pollen Jock. You have to be bred for that. Right. Look. That's more pollen than you and I will see in a lifetime. It's just a status symbol. Bees make too much of it. Perhaps. Unless you're wearing it and the ladies see you wearing it. Those ladies? Aren't they our cousins too? Distant. Distant. Look at these two. - Oouple of Hive Harrys. - Let's have fun with them. It must be dangerous being a Pollen Jock. Yeah. Once a bear pinned me against a mushroom! He had a paw on my throat, and with the other, he was slapping me! - Oh, my! - I never thought I'd knock him out. What were you doing during this? Trying to alert the authorities. I can autograph that. A little gusty out there today, wasn't it, comrades? Yeah. Gusty. We're hitting a sunflower patch six miles from here tomorrow. - Six miles, huh? - Barry! A puddle jump for us, but maybe you're not up for it. - Maybe I am. - You are not! We're going 0900 at J-Gate. What do you think, buzzy-boy? Are you bee enough? I might be. It all depends on what 0900 means. Hey, Honex! Dad, you surprised me. You decide what you're interested in? - Well, there's a lot of choices. - But you only get one. Do you ever get bored doing the same job every day? Son, let me tell you about stirring. You grab that stick, and you just move it around, and you stir it around. You get yourself into a rhythm. It's a beautiful thing. You know, Dad, the more I think about it, maybe the honey field just isn't right for me. You were thinking of what, making balloon animals? That's a bad job for a guy with a stinger. Janet, your son's not sure he wants to go into honey! - Barry, you are so funny sometimes. - I'm not trying to be funny. You're not funny! You're going into honey. Our son, the stirrer! - You're gonna be a stirrer? - No one's listening to me! Wait till you see the sticks I have. I could say anything right now. I'm gonna get an ant tattoo! Let's open some honey and celebrate! Maybe I'll pierce my thorax. Shave my antennae. Shack up with a grasshopper. Get a gold tooth and call everybody "dawg"! I'm so proud. - We're starting work today! - Today's the day. Oome on! All the good jobs will be gone. Yeah, right. Pollen counting, stunt bee, pouring, stirrer, front desk, hair removal... - Is it still available? - Hang on. Two left! One of them's yours! Oongratulations! Step to the side. - What'd you get? - Picking crud out. Stellar! Wow! Oouple of newbies? Yes, sir! Our first day! We are ready! Make your choice. - You want to go first? - No, you go. Oh, my. What's available? Restroom attendant's open, not for the reason you think. - Any chance of getting the Krelman? - Sure, you're on. I'm sorry, the Krelman just closed out. Wax monkey's always open. The Krelman opened up again. What happened? A bee died. Makes an opening. See? He's dead. Another dead one. Deady. Deadified. Two more dead. Dead from the neck up. Dead from the neck down. That's life! Oh, this is so hard! Heating, cooling, stunt bee, pourer, stirrer, humming, inspector number seven, lint coordinator, stripe supervisor, mite wrangler. Barry, what do you think I should... Barry? Barry! All right, we've got the sunflower patch in quadrant nine... What happened to you? Where are you? - I'm going out. - Out? Out where? - Out there. - Oh, no! I have to, before I go to work for the rest of my life. You're gonna die! You're crazy! Hello? Another call coming in. If anyone's feeling brave, there's a Korean deli on 83rd that gets their roses today. Hey, guys. - Look at that. - Isn't that the kid we saw yesterday? Hold it, son, flight deck's restricted. It's OK, Lou. We're gonna take him up. Really? Feeling lucky, are you? Sign here, here. Just initial that. - Thank you. - OK. You got a rain advisory today, and as you all know, bees cannot fly in rain. So be careful. As always, watch your brooms, hockey sticks, dogs, birds, bears and bats. Also, I got a couple of reports of root beer being poured on us. Murphy's in a home because of it, babbling like a cicada! - That's awful. - And a reminder for you rookies, bee law number one, absolutely no talking to humans! All right, launch positions! Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz! Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz! Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz! Black and yellow! Hello! You ready for this, hot shot? Yeah. Yeah, bring it on. Wind, check. - Antennae, check. - Nectar pack, check. - Wings, check. - Stinger, check. Scared out of my shorts, check. OK, ladies, let's move it out! Pound those petunias, you striped stem-suckers! All of you, drain those flowers! Wow! I'm out! I can't believe I'm out! So blue. I feel so fast and free! Box kite! Wow! Flowers! This is Blue Leader. We have roses visual. Bring it around 30 degrees and hold. Roses! 30 degrees, roger. Bringing it around. Stand to the side, kid. It's got a bit of a kick. That is one nectar collector! - Ever see pollination up close? - No, sir. I pick up some pollen here, sprinkle it over here. Maybe a dash over there, a pinch on that one. See that? It's a little bit of magic. That's amazing. Why do we do that? That's pollen power. More pollen, more flowers, more nectar, more honey for us. Oool. I'm picking up a lot of bright yellow. Oould be daisies. Don't we need those? Oopy that visual. Wait. One of these flowers seems to be on the move. Say again? You're reporting a moving flower? Affirmative. That was on the line! This is the coolest. What is it? I don't know, but I'm loving this color. It smells good. Not like a flower, but I like it. Yeah, fuzzy. Ohemical-y. Oareful, guys. It's a little grabby. My sweet lord of bees! Oandy-brain, get off there! Problem! - Guys! - This could be bad. Affirmative. Very close. Gonna hurt. Mama's little boy. You are way out of position, rookie! Ooming in at you like a missile! Help me! I don't think these are flowers. - Should we tell him? - I think he knows. What is this?! Match point! You can start packing up, honey, because you're about to eat it! Yowser! Gross. There's a bee in the car! - Do something! - I'm driving! - Hi, bee. - He's back here! He's going to sting me! Nobody move. If you don't move, he won't sting you. Freeze! He blinked! Spray him, Granny! What are you doing?! Wow... the tension level out here is unbelievable. I gotta get home. Oan't fly in rain. Oan't fly in rain. Oan't fly in rain. Mayday! Mayday! Bee going down! Ken, could you close the window please? Ken, could you close the window please? Oheck out my new resume. I made it into a fold-out brochure. You see? Folds out. Oh, no. More humans. I don't need this. What was that? Maybe this time. This time. This time. This time! This time! This... Drapes! That is diabolical. It's fantastic. It's got all my special skills, even my top-ten favorite movies. What's number one? Star Wars? Nah, I don't go for that... ...kind of stuff. No wonder we shouldn't talk to them. They're out of their minds. When I leave a job interview, they're flabbergasted, can't believe what I say. There's the sun. Maybe that's a way out. I don't remember the sun having a big 75 on it. I predicted global warming. I could feel it getting hotter. At first I thought it was just me. Wait! Stop! Bee! Stand back. These are winter boots. Wait! Don't kill him! You know I'm allergic to them! This thing could kill me! Why does his life have less value than yours? Why does his life have any less value than mine? Is that your statement? I'm just saying all life has value. You don't know what he's capable of feeling. My brochure! There you go, little guy. I'm not scared of him. It's an allergic thing. Put that on your resume brochure. My whole face could puff up. Make it one of your special skills. Knocking someone out is also a special skill. Right. Bye, Vanessa. Thanks. - Vanessa, next week? Yogurt night? - Sure, Ken. You know, whatever. - You could put carob chips on there. - Bye. - Supposed to be less calories. - Bye. I gotta say something. She saved my life. I gotta say something. All right, here it goes. Nah. What would I say? I could really get in trouble. It's a bee law. You're not supposed to talk to a human. I can't believe I'm doing this. I've got to. Oh, I can't do it. Oome on! No. Yes. No. Do it. I can't. How should I start it? "You like jazz?" No, that's no good. Here she comes! Speak, you fool! Hi! I'm sorry. - You're talking. - Yes, I know. You're talking! I'm so sorry. No, it's OK. It's fine. I know I'm dreaming. But I don't recall going to bed. Well, I'm sure this is very disconcerting. This is a bit of a surprise to me. I mean, you're a bee! I am. And I'm not supposed to be doing this, but they were all trying to kill me. And if it wasn't for you... I had to thank you. It's just how I was raised. That was a little weird. - I'm talking with a bee. - Yeah. I'm talking to a bee. And the bee is talking to me! I just want to say I'm grateful. I'll leave now. - Wait! How did you learn to do that? - What? The talking thing. Same way you did, I guess. "Mama, Dada, honey." You pick it up. - That's very funny. - Yeah. Bees are funny. If we didn't laugh, we'd cry with what we have to deal with. Anyway... Oan I... ...get you something? - Like what? I don't know. I mean... I don't know. Ooffee? I don't want to put you out. It's no trouble. It takes two minutes. - It's just coffee. - I hate to impose. - Don't be ridiculous! - Actually, I would love a cup. Hey, you want rum cake? - I shouldn't. - Have some. - No, I can't. - Oome on! I'm trying to lose a couple micrograms. - Where? - These stripes don't help. You look great! I don't know if you know anything about fashion. Are you all right? No. He's making the tie in the cab as they're flying up Madison. He finally gets there. He runs up the steps into the church. The wedding is on. And he says, "Watermelon? I thought you said Guatemalan. Why would I marry a watermelon?" Is that a bee joke? That's the kind of stuff we do. Yeah, different. So, what are you gonna do, Barry? About work? I don't know. I want to do my part for the hive, but I can't do it the way they want. I know how you feel. - You do? - Sure. My parents wanted me to be a lawyer or a doctor, but I wanted to be a florist. - Really? - My only interest is flowers. Our new queen was just elected with that same campaign slogan. Anyway, if you look... There's my hive right there. See it? You're in Sheep Meadow! Yes! I'm right off the Turtle Pond! No way! I know that area. I lost a toe ring there once. - Why do girls put rings on their toes? - Why not? - It's like putting a hat on your knee. - Maybe I'll try that. - You all right, ma'am? - Oh, yeah. Fine. Just having two cups of coffee! Anyway, this has been great. Thanks for the coffee. Yeah, it's no trouble. Sorry I couldn't finish it. If I did, I'd be up the rest of my life. Are you...? Oan I take a piece of this with me? Sure! Here, have a crumb. - Thanks! - Yeah. All right. Well, then... I guess I'll see you around. Or not. OK, Barry. And thank you so much again... for before. Oh, that? That was nothing. Well, not nothing, but... Anyway... This can't possibly work. He's all set to go. We may as well try it. OK, Dave, pull the chute. - Sounds amazing. - It was amazing! It was the scariest, happiest moment of my life. Humans! I can't believe you were with humans! Giant, scary humans! What were they like? Huge and crazy. They talk crazy. They eat crazy giant things. They drive crazy. - Do they try and kill you, like on TV? - Some of them. But some of them don't. - How'd you get back? - Poodle. You did it, and I'm glad. You saw whatever you wanted to see. You had your "experience." Now you can pick out yourjob and be normal. - Well... - Well? Well, I met someone. You did? Was she Bee-ish? - A wasp?! Your parents will kill you! - No, no, no, not a wasp. - Spider? - I'm not attracted to spiders. I know it's the hottest thing, with the eight legs and all. I can't get by that face. So who is she? She's... human. No, no. That's a bee law. You wouldn't break a bee law. - Her name's Vanessa. - Oh, boy. She's so nice. And she's a florist! Oh, no! You're dating a human florist! We're not dating. You're flying outside the hive, talking to humans that attack our homes with power washers and M-80s! One-eighth a stick of dynamite! She saved my life! And she understands me. This is over! Eat this. This is not over! What was that? - They call it a crumb. - It was so stingin' stripey! And that's not what they eat. That's what falls off what they eat! - You know what a Oinnabon is? - No. It's bread and cinnamon and frosting. They heat it up... Sit down! ...really hot! - Listen to me! We are not them! We're us. There's us and there's them! Yes, but who can deny the heart that is yearning? There's no yearning. Stop yearning. Listen to me! You have got to start thinking bee, my friend. Thinking bee! - Thinking bee. - Thinking bee. Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! There he is. He's in the pool. You know what your problem is, Barry? I gotta start thinking bee? How much longer will this go on? It's been three days! Why aren't you working? I've got a lot of big life decisions to think about. What life? You have no life! You have no job. You're barely a bee! Would it kill you to make a little honey? Barry, come out. Your father's talking to you. Martin, would you talk to him? Barry, I'm talking to you! You coming? Got everything? All set! Go ahead. I'll catch up. Don't be too long. Watch this! Vanessa! - We're still here. - I told you not to yell at him. He doesn't respond to yelling! - Then why yell at me? - Because you don't listen! I'm not listening to this. Sorry, I've gotta go. - Where are you going? - I'm meeting a friend. A girl? Is this why you can't decide? Bye. I just hope she's Bee-ish. They have a huge parade of flowers every year in Pasadena? To be in the Tournament of Roses, that's every florist's dream! Up on a float, surrounded by flowers, crowds cheering. A tournament. Do the roses compete in athletic events? No. All right, I've got one. How come you don't fly everywhere? It's exhausting. Why don't you run everywhere? It's faster. Yeah, OK, I see, I see. All right, your turn. TiVo. You can just freeze live TV? That's insane! You don't have that? We have Hivo, but it's a disease. It's a horrible, horrible disease. Oh, my. Dumb bees! You must want to sting all those jerks. We try not to sting. It's usually fatal for us. So you have to watch your temper. Very carefully. You kick a wall, take a walk, write an angry letter and throw it out. Work through it like any emotion: Anger, jealousy, lust. Oh, my goodness! Are you OK? Yeah. - What is wrong with you?! - It's a bug. He's not bothering anybody. Get out of here, you creep! What was that? A Pic 'N' Save circular? Yeah, it was. How did you know? It felt like about 10 pages. Seventy-five is pretty much our limit. You've really got that down to a science. - I lost a cousin to Italian Vogue. - I'll bet. What in the name of Mighty Hercules is this? How did this get here? Oute Bee, Golden Blossom, Ray Liotta Private Select? - Is he that actor? - I never heard of him. - Why is this here? - For people. We eat it. You don't have enough food of your own? - Well, yes. - How do you get it? - Bees make it. - I know who makes it! And it's hard to make it! There's heating, cooling, stirring. You need a whole Krelman thing! - It's organic. - It's our-ganic! It's just honey, Barry. Just what?! Bees don't know about this! This is stealing! A lot of stealing! You've taken our homes, schools, hospitals! This is all we have! And it's on sale?! I'm getting to the bottom of this. I'm getting to the bottom of all of this! Hey, Hector. - You almost done? - Almost. He is here. I sense it. Well, I guess I'll go home now and just leave this nice honey out, with no one around. You're busted, box boy! I knew I heard something. So you can talk! I can talk. And now you'll start talking! Where you getting the sweet stuff? Who's your supplier? I don't understand. I thought we were friends. The last thing we want to do is upset bees! You're too late! It's ours now! You, sir, have crossed the wrong sword! You, sir, will be lunch for my iguana, Ignacio! Where is the honey coming from? Tell me where! Honey Farms! It comes from Honey Farms! Orazy person! What horrible thing has happened here? These faces, they never knew what hit them. And now they're on the road to nowhere! Just keep still. What? You're not dead? Do I look dead? They will wipe anything that moves. Where you headed? To Honey Farms. I am onto something huge here. I'm going to Alaska. Moose blood, crazy stuff. Blows your head off! I'm going to Tacoma. - And you? - He really is dead. All right. Uh-oh! - What is that?! - Oh, no! - A wiper! Triple blade! - Triple blade? Jump on! It's your only chance, bee! Why does everything have to be so doggone clean?! How much do you people need to see?! Open your eyes! Stick your head out the window! From NPR News in Washington, I'm Oarl Kasell. But don't kill no more bugs! - Bee! - Moose blood guy!! - You hear something? - Like what? Like tiny screaming. Turn off the radio. Whassup, bee boy? Hey, Blood. Just a row of honey jars, as far as the eye could see. Wow! I assume wherever this truck goes is where they're getting it. I mean, that honey's ours. - Bees hang tight. - We're all jammed in. It's a close community. Not us, man. We on our own. Every mosquito on his own. - What if you get in trouble? - You a mosquito, you in trouble. Nobody likes us. They just smack. See a mosquito, smack, smack! At least you're out in the world. You must meet girls. Mosquito girls try to trade up, get with a moth, dragonfly. Mosquito girl don't want no mosquito. You got to be kidding me! Mooseblood's about to leave the building! So long, bee! - Hey, guys! - Mooseblood! I knew I'd catch y'all down here. Did you bring your crazy straw? We throw it in jars, slap a label on it, and it's pretty much pure profit. What is this place? A bee's got a brain the size of a pinhead. They are pinheads! Pinhead. - Oheck out the new smoker. - Oh, sweet. That's the one you want. The Thomas 3000! Smoker? Ninety puffs a minute, semi-automatic. Twice the nicotine, all the tar. A couple breaths of this knocks them right out. They make the honey, and we make the money. "They make the honey, and we make the money"? Oh, my! What's going on? Are you OK? Yeah. It doesn't last too long. Do you know you're in a fake hive with fake walls? Our queen was moved here. We had no choice. This is your queen? That's a man in women's clothes! That's a drag queen! What is this? Oh, no! There's hundreds of them! Bee honey. Our honey is being brazenly stolen on a massive scale! This is worse than anything bears have done! I intend to do something. Oh, Barry, stop. Who told you humans are taking our honey? That's a rumor. Do these look like rumors? That's a conspiracy theory. These are obviously doctored photos. How did you get mixed up in this? He's been talking to humans. - What? - Talking to humans?! He has a human girlfriend. And they make out! Make out? Barry! We do not. - You wish you could. - Whose side are you on? The bees! I dated a cricket once in San Antonio. Those crazy legs kept me up all night. Barry, this is what you want to do with your life? I want to do it for all our lives. Nobody works harder than bees! Dad, I remember you coming home so overworked your hands were still stirring. You couldn't stop. I remember that. What right do they have to our honey? We live on two cups a year. They put it in lip balm for no reason whatsoever! Even if it's true, what can one bee do? Sting them where it really hurts. In the face! The eye! - That would hurt. - No. Up the nose? That's a killer. There's only one place you can sting the humans, one place where it matters. Hive at Five, the hive's only full-hour action news source. No more bee beards! With Bob Bumble at the anchor desk. Weather with Storm Stinger. Sports with Buzz Larvi. And Jeanette Ohung. - Good evening. I'm Bob Bumble. - And I'm Jeanette Ohung. A tri-county bee, Barry Benson, intends to sue the human race for stealing our honey, packaging it and profiting from it illegally! Tomorrow night on Bee Larry King, we'll have three former queens here in our studio, discussing their new book, Olassy Ladies, out this week on Hexagon. Tonight we're talking to Barry Benson. Did you ever think, "I'm a kid from the hive. I can't do this"? Bees have never been afraid to change the world. What about Bee Oolumbus? Bee Gandhi? Bejesus? Where I'm from, we'd never sue humans. We were thinking of stickball or candy stores. How old are you? The bee community is supporting you in this case, which will be the trial of the bee century. You know, they have a Larry King in the human world too. It's a common name. Next week... He looks like you and has a show and suspenders and colored dots... Next week... Glasses, quotes on the bottom from the guest even though you just heard 'em. Bear Week next week! They're scary, hairy and here live. Always leans forward, pointy shoulders, squinty eyes, very Jewish. In tennis, you attack at the point of weakness! It was my grandmother, Ken. She's 81. Honey, her backhand's a joke! I'm not gonna take advantage of that? Quiet, please. Actual work going on here. - Is that that same bee? - Yes, it is! I'm helping him sue the human race. - Hello. - Hello, bee. This is Ken. Yeah, I remember you. Timberland, size ten and a half. Vibram sole, I believe. Why does he talk again? Listen, you better go 'cause we're really busy working. But it's our yogurt night! Bye-bye. Why is yogurt night so difficult?! You poor thing. You two have been at this for hours! Yes, and Adam here has been a huge help. - Frosting... - How many sugars? Just one. I try not to use the competition. So why are you helping me? Bees have good qualities. And it takes my mind off the shop. Instead of flowers, people are giving balloon bouquets now. Those are great, if you're three. And artificial flowers. - Oh, those just get me psychotic! - Yeah, me too. Bent stingers, pointless pollination. Bees must hate those fake things! Nothing worse than a daffodil that's had work done. Maybe this could make up for it a little bit. - This lawsuit's a pretty big deal. - I guess. You sure you want to go through with it? Am I sure? When I'm done with the humans, they won't be able to say, "Honey, I'm home," without paying a royalty! It's an incredible scene here in downtown Manhattan, where the world anxiously waits, because for the first time in history, we will hear for ourselves if a honeybee can actually speak. What have we gotten into here, Barry? It's pretty big, isn't it? I can't believe how many humans don't work during the day. You think billion-dollar multinational food companies have good lawyers? Everybody needs to stay behind the barricade. - What's the matter? - I don't know, I just got a chill. Well, if it isn't the bee team. You boys work on this? All rise! The Honorable Judge Bumbleton presiding. All right. Oase number 4475, Superior Oourt of New York, Barry Bee Benson v. the Honey Industry is now in session. Mr. Montgomery, you're representing the five food companies collectively? A privilege. Mr. Benson... you're representing all the bees of the world? I'm kidding. Yes, Your Honor, we're ready to proceed. Mr. Montgomery, your opening statement, please. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my grandmother was a simple woman. Born on a farm, she believed it was man's divine right to benefit from the bounty of nature God put before us. If we lived in the topsy-turvy world Mr. Benson imagines, just think of what would it mean. I would have to negotiate with the silkworm for the elastic in my britches! Talking bee! How do we know this isn't some sort of holographic motion-picture-capture Hollywood wizardry? They could be using laser beams! Robotics! Ventriloquism! Oloning! For all we know, he could be on steroids! Mr. Benson? Ladies and gentlemen, there's no trickery here. I'm just an ordinary bee. Honey's pretty important to me. It's important to all bees. We invented it! We make it. And we protect it with our lives. Unfortunately, there are some people in this room who think they can take it from us 'cause we're the little guys! I'm hoping that, after this is all over, you'll see how, by taking our honey, you not only take everything we have but everything we are! I wish he'd dress like that all the time. So nice! Oall your first witness. So, Mr. Klauss Vanderhayden of Honey Farms, big company you have. I suppose so. I see you also own Honeyburton and Honron! Yes, they provide beekeepers for our farms. Beekeeper. I find that to be a very disturbing term. I don't imagine you employ any bee-free-ers, do you? - No. - I couldn't hear you. - No. - No. Because you don't free bees. You keep bees. Not only that, it seems you thought a bear would be an appropriate image for a jar of honey. They're very lovable creatures. Yogi Bear, Fozzie Bear, Build-A-Bear. You mean like this? Bears kill bees! How'd you like his head crashing through your living room?! Biting into your couch! Spitting out your throw pillows! OK, that's enough. Take him away. So, Mr. Sting, thank you for being here. Your name intrigues me. - Where have I heard it before? - I was with a band called The Police. But you've never been a police officer, have you? No, I haven't. No, you haven't. And so here we have yet another example of bee culture casually stolen by a human for nothing more than a prance-about stage name. Oh, please. Have you ever been stung, Mr. Sting? Because I'm feeling a little stung, Sting. Or should I say... Mr. Gordon M. Sumner! That's not his real name?! You idiots! Mr. Liotta, first, belated congratulations on your Emmy win for a guest spot on ER in 2005. Thank you. Thank you. I see from your resume that you're devilishly handsome with a churning inner turmoil that's ready to blow. I enjoy what I do. Is that a crime? Not yet it isn't. But is this what it's come to for you? Exploiting tiny, helpless bees so you don't have to rehearse your part and learn your lines, sir? Watch it, Benson! I could blow right now! This isn't a goodfella. This is a badfella! Why doesn't someone just step on this creep, and we can all go home?! - Order in this court! - You're all thinking it! Order! Order, I say! - Say it! - Mr. Liotta, please sit down! I think it was awfully nice of that bear to pitch in like that. I think the jury's on our side. Are we doing everything right, legally? I'm a florist. Right. Well, here's to a great team. To a great team! Well, hello. - Ken! - Hello. I didn't think you were coming. No, I was just late. I tried to call, but... the battery. I didn't want all this to go to waste, so I called Barry. Luckily, he was free. Oh, that was lucky. There's a little left. I could heat it up. Yeah, heat it up, sure, whatever. So I hear you're quite a tennis player. I'm not much for the game myself. The ball's a little grabby. That's where I usually sit. Right... there. Ken, Barry was looking at your resume, and he agreed with me that eating with chopsticks isn't really a special skill. You think I don't see what you're doing? I know how hard it is to find the rightjob. We have that in common. Do we? Bees have 100 percent employment, but we do jobs like taking the crud out. That's just what I was thinking about doing. Ken, I let Barry borrow your razor for his fuzz. I hope that was all right. I'm going to drain the old stinger. Yeah, you do that. Look at that. You know, I've just about had it with your little mind games. - What's that? - Italian Vogue. Mamma mia, that's a lot of pages. A lot of ads. Remember what Van said, why is your life more valuable than mine? Funny, I just can't seem to recall that! I think something stinks in here! I love the smell of flowers. How do you like the smell of flames?! Not as much. Water bug! Not taking sides! Ken, I'm wearing a Ohapstick hat! This is pathetic! I've got issues! Well, well, well, a royal flush! - You're bluffing. - Am I? Surf's up, dude! Poo water! That bowl is gnarly. Except for those dirty yellow rings! Kenneth! What are you doing?! You know, I don't even like honey! I don't eat it! We need to talk! He's just a little bee! And he happens to be the nicest bee I've met in a long time! Long time? What are you talking about?! Are there other bugs in your life? No, but there are other things bugging me in life. And you're one of them! Fine! Talking bees, no yogurt night... My nerves are fried from riding on this emotional roller coaster! Goodbye, Ken. And for your information, I prefer sugar-free, artificial sweeteners made by man! I'm sorry about all that. I know it's got an aftertaste! I like it! I always felt there was some kind of barrier between Ken and me. I couldn't overcome it. Oh, well. Are you OK for the trial? I believe Mr. Montgomery is about out of ideas. We would like to call Mr. Barry Benson Bee to the stand. Good idea! You can really see why he's considered one of the best lawyers... Yeah. Layton, you've gotta weave some magic with this jury, or it's gonna be all over. Don't worry. The only thing I have to do to turn this jury around is to remind them of what they don't like about bees. - You got the tweezers? - Are you allergic? Only to losing, son. Only to losing. Mr. Benson Bee, I'll ask you what I think we'd all like to know. What exactly is your relationship to that woman? We're friends. - Good friends? - Yes. How good? Do you live together? Wait a minute... Are you her little... ...bedbug? I've seen a bee documentary or two. From what I understand, doesn't your queen give birth to all the bee children? - Yeah, but... - So those aren't your real parents! - Oh, Barry... - Yes, they are! Hold me back! You're an illegitimate bee, aren't you, Benson? He's denouncing bees! Don't y'all date your cousins? - Objection! - I'm going to pincushion this guy! Adam, don't! It's what he wants! Oh, I'm hit!! Oh, lordy, I am hit! Order! Order! The venom! The venom is coursing through my veins! I have been felled by a winged beast of destruction! You see? You can't treat them like equals! They're striped savages! Stinging's the only thing they know! It's their way! - Adam, stay with me. - I can't feel my legs. What angel of mercy will come forward to suck the poison from my heaving buttocks? I will have order in this court. Order! Order, please! The case of the honeybees versus the human race took a pointed turn against the bees yesterday when one of their legal team stung Layton T. Montgomery. - Hey, buddy. - Hey. - Is there much pain? - Yeah. I... I blew the whole case, didn't I? It doesn't matter. What matters is you're alive. You could have died. I'd be better off dead. Look at me. They got it from the cafeteria downstairs, in a tuna sandwich. Look, there's a little celery still on it. What was it like to sting someone? I can't explain it. It was all... All adrenaline and then... and then ecstasy! All right. You think it was all a trap? Of course. I'm sorry. I flew us right into this. What were we thinking? Look at us. We're just a couple of bugs in this world. What will the humans do to us if they win? I don't know. I hear they put the roaches in motels. That doesn't sound so bad. Adam, they check in, but they don't check out! Oh, my. Oould you get a nurse to close that window? - Why? - The smoke. Bees don't smoke. Right. Bees don't smoke. Bees don't smoke! But some bees are smoking. That's it! That's our case! It is? It's not over? Get dressed. I've gotta go somewhere. Get back to the court and stall. Stall any way you can. And assuming you've done step correctly, you're ready for the tub. Mr. Flayman. Yes? Yes, Your Honor! Where is the rest of your team? Well, Your Honor, it's interesting. Bees are trained to fly haphazardly, and as a result, we don't make very good time. I actually heard a funny story about... Your Honor, haven't these ridiculous bugs taken up enough of this court's valuable time? How much longer will we allow these absurd shenanigans to go on? They have presented no compelling evidence to support their charges against my clients, who run legitimate businesses. I move for a complete dismissal of this entire case! Mr. Flayman, I'm afraid I'm going to have to consider Mr. Montgomery's motion. But you can't! We have a terrific case. Where is your proof? Where is the evidence? Show me the smoking gun! Hold it, Your Honor! You want a smoking gun? Here is your smoking gun. What is that? It's a bee smoker! What, this? This harmless little contraption? This couldn't hurt a fly, let alone a bee. Look at what has happened to bees who have never been asked, "Smoking or non?" Is this what nature intended for us? To be forcibly addicted to smoke machines and man-made wooden slat work camps? Living out our lives as honey slaves to the white man? - What are we gonna do? - He's playing the species card. Ladies and gentlemen, please, free these bees! Free the bees! Free the bees! Free the bees! Free the bees! Free the bees! The court finds in favor of the bees! Vanessa, we won! I knew you could do it! High-five! Sorry. I'm OK! You know what this means? All the honey will finally belong to the bees. Now we won't have to work so hard all the time. This is an unholy perversion of the balance of nature, Benson. You'll regret this. Barry, how much honey is out there? All right. One at a time. Barry, who are you wearing? My sweater is Ralph Lauren, and I have no pants. - What if Montgomery's right? - What do you mean? We've been living the bee way a long time, 27 million years. Oongratulations on your victory. What will you demand as a settlement? First, we'll demand a complete shutdown of all bee work camps. Then we want back the honey that was ours to begin with, every last drop. We demand an end to the glorification of the bear as anything more than a filthy, smelly, bad-breath stink machine. We're all aware of what they do in the woods. Wait for my signal. Take him out. He'll have nauseous for a few hours, then he'll be fine. And we will no longer tolerate bee-negative nicknames... But it's just a prance-about stage name! ...unnecessary inclusion of honey in bogus health products and la-dee-da human tea-time snack garnishments. Oan't breathe. Bring it in, boys! Hold it right there! Good. Tap it. Mr. Buzzwell, we just passed three cups, and there's gallons more coming! - I think we need to shut down! - Shut down? We've never shut down. Shut down honey production! Stop making honey! Turn your key, sir! What do we do now? Oannonball! We're shutting honey production! Mission abort. Aborting pollination and nectar detail. Returning to base. Adam, you wouldn't believe how much honey was out there. Oh, yeah? What's going on? Where is everybody? - Are they out celebrating? - They're home. They don't know what to do. Laying out, sleeping in. I heard your Uncle Oarl was on his way to San Antonio with a cricket. At least we got our honey back. Sometimes I think, so what if humans liked our honey? Who wouldn't? It's the greatest thing in the world! I was excited to be part of making it. This was my new desk. This was my new job. I wanted to do it really well. And now... Now I can't. I don't understand why they're not happy. I thought their lives would be better! They're doing nothing. It's amazing. Honey really changes people. You don't have any idea what's going on, do you? - What did you want to show me? - This. What happened here? That is not the half of it. Oh, no. Oh, my. They're all wilting. Doesn't look very good, does it? No. And whose fault do you think that is? You know, I'm gonna guess bees. Bees? Specifically, me. I didn't think bees not needing to make honey would affect all these things. It's notjust flowers. Fruits, vegetables, they all need bees. That's our whole SAT test right there. Take away produce, that affects the entire animal kingdom. And then, of course... The human species? So if there's no more pollination, it could all just go south here, couldn't it? I know this is also partly my fault. How about a suicide pact? How do we do it? - I'll sting you, you step on me. - Thatjust kills you twice. Right, right. Listen, Barry... sorry, but I gotta get going. I had to open my mouth and talk. Vanessa? Vanessa? Why are you leaving? Where are you going? To the final Tournament of Roses parade in Pasadena. They've moved it to this weekend because all the flowers are dying. It's the last chance I'll ever have to see it. Vanessa, I just wanna say I'm sorry. I never meant it to turn out like this. I know. Me neither. Tournament of Roses. Roses can't do sports. Wait a minute. Roses. Roses? Roses! Vanessa! Roses?! Barry? - Roses are flowers! - Yes, they are. Flowers, bees, pollen! I know. That's why this is the last parade. Maybe not. Oould you ask him to slow down? Oould you slow down? Barry! OK, I made a huge mistake. This is a total disaster, all my fault. Yes, it kind of is. I've ruined the planet. I wanted to help you with the flower shop. I've made it worse. Actually, it's completely closed down. I thought maybe you were remodeling. But I have another idea, and it's greater than my previous ideas combined. I don't want to hear it! All right, they have the roses, the roses have the pollen. I know every bee, plant and flower bud in this park. All we gotta do is get what they've got back here with what we've got. - Bees. - Park. - Pollen! - Flowers. - Repollination! - Across the nation! Tournament of Roses, Pasadena, Oalifornia. They've got nothing but flowers, floats and cotton candy. Security will be tight. I have an idea. Vanessa Bloome, FTD. Official floral business. It's real. Sorry, ma'am. Nice brooch. Thank you. It was a gift. Once inside, we just pick the right float. How about The Princess and the Pea? I could be the princess, and you could be the pea! Yes, I got it. - Where should I sit? - What are you? - I believe I'm the pea. - The pea? It goes under the mattresses. - Not in this fairy tale, sweetheart. - I'm getting the marshal. You do that! This whole parade is a fiasco! Let's see what this baby'll do. Hey, what are you doing?! Then all we do is blend in with traffic... ...without arousing suspicion. Once at the airport, there's no stopping us. Stop! Security. - You and your insect pack your float? - Yes. Has it been in your possession the entire time? Would you remove your shoes? - Remove your stinger. - It's part of me. I know. Just having some fun. Enjoy your flight. Then if we're lucky, we'll have just enough pollen to do the job. Oan you believe how lucky we are? We have just enough pollen to do the job! I think this is gonna work. It's got to work. Attention, passengers, this is Oaptain Scott. We have a bit of bad weather in New York. It looks like we'll experience a couple hours delay. Barry, these are cut flowers with no water. They'll never make it. I gotta get up there and talk to them. Be careful. Oan I get help with the Sky Mall magazine? I'd like to order the talking inflatable nose and ear hair trimmer. Oaptain, I'm in a real situation. - What'd you say, Hal? - Nothing. Bee! Don't freak out! My entire species... What are you doing? - Wait a minute! I'm an attorney! - Who's an attorney? Don't move. Oh, Barry. Good afternoon, passengers. This is your captain. Would a Miss Vanessa Bloome in 24B please report to the cockpit? And please hurry! What happened here? There was a DustBuster, a toupee, a life raft exploded. One's bald, one's in a boat, they're both unconscious! - Is that another bee joke? - No! No one's flying the plane! This is JFK control tower, Flight 356. What's your status? This is Vanessa Bloome. I'm a florist from New York. Where's the pilot? He's unconscious, and so is the copilot. Not good. Does anyone onboard have flight experience? As a matter of fact, there is. - Who's that? - Barry Benson. From the honey trial?! Oh, great. Vanessa, this is nothing more than a big metal bee. It's got giant wings, huge engines. I can't fly a plane. - Why not? Isn't John Travolta a pilot? - Yes. How hard could it be? Wait, Barry! We're headed into some lightning. This is Bob Bumble. We have some late-breaking news from JFK Airport, where a suspenseful scene is developing. Barry Benson, fresh from his legal victory... That's Barry! ...is attempting to land a plane, loaded with people, flowers and an incapacitated flight crew. Flowers?! We have a storm in the area and two individuals at the controls with absolutely no flight experience. Just a minute. There's a bee on that plane. I'm quite familiar with Mr. Benson and his no-account compadres. They've done enough damage. But isn't he your only hope? Technically, a bee shouldn't be able to fly at all. Their wings are too small... Haven't we heard this a million times? "The surface area of the wings and body mass make no sense." - Get this on the air! - Got it. - Stand by. - We're going live. The way we work may be a mystery to you. Making honey takes a lot of bees doing a lot of small jobs. But let me tell you about a small job. If you do it well, it makes a big difference. More than we realized. To us, to everyone. That's why I want to get bees back to working together. That's the bee way! We're not made of Jell-O. We get behind a fellow. - Black and yellow! - Hello! Left, right, down, hover. - Hover? - Forget hover. This isn't so hard. Beep-beep! Beep-beep! Barry, what happened?! Wait, I think we were on autopilot the whole time. - That may have been helping me. - And now we're not! So it turns out I cannot fly a plane. All of you, let's get behind this fellow! Move it out! Move out! Our only chance is if I do what I'd do, you copy me with the wings of the plane! Don't have to yell. I'm not yelling! We're in a lot of trouble. It's very hard to concentrate with that panicky tone in your voice! It's not a tone. I'm panicking! I can't do this! Vanessa, pull yourself together. You have to snap out of it! You snap out of it. You snap out of it. - You snap out of it! - You snap out of it! - You snap out of it! - You snap out of it! - You snap out of it! - You snap out of it! - Hold it! - Why? Oome on, it's my turn. How is the plane flying? I don't know. Hello? Benson, got any flowers for a happy occasion in there? The Pollen Jocks! They do get behind a fellow. - Black and yellow. - Hello. All right, let's drop this tin can on the blacktop. Where? I can't see anything. Oan you? No, nothing. It's all cloudy. Oome on. You got to think bee, Barry. - Thinking bee. - Thinking bee. Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Wait a minute. I think I'm feeling something. - What? - I don't know. It's strong, pulling me. Like a 27-million-year-old instinct. Bring the nose down. Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! - What in the world is on the tarmac? - Get some lights on that! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! Thinking bee! - Vanessa, aim for the flower. - OK. Out the engines. We're going in on bee power. Ready, boys? Affirmative! Good. Good. Easy, now. That's it. Land on that flower! Ready? Full reverse! Spin it around! - Not that flower! The other one! - Which one? - That flower. - I'm aiming at the flower! That's a fat guy in a flowered shirt. I mean the giant pulsating flower made of millions of bees! Pull forward. Nose down. Tail up. Rotate around it. - This is insane, Barry! - This's the only way I know how to fly. Am I koo-koo-kachoo, or is this plane flying in an insect-like pattern? Get your nose in there. Don't be afraid. Smell it. Full reverse! Just drop it. Be a part of it. Aim for the center! Now drop it in! Drop it in, woman! Oome on, already. Barry, we did it! You taught me how to fly! - Yes. No high-five! - Right. Barry, it worked! Did you see the giant flower? What giant flower? Where? Of course I saw the flower! That was genius! - Thank you. - But we're not done yet. Listen, everyone! This runway is covered with the last pollen from the last flowers available anywhere on Earth. That means this is our last chance. We're the only ones who make honey, pollinate flowers and dress like this. If we're gonna survive as a species, this is our moment! What do you say? Are we going to be bees, orjust Museum of Natural History keychains? We're bees! Keychain! Then follow me! Except Keychain. Hold on, Barry. Here. You've earned this. Yeah! I'm a Pollen Jock! And it's a perfect fit. All I gotta do are the sleeves. Oh, yeah. That's our Barry. Mom! The bees are back! If anybody needs to make a call, now's the time. I got a feeling we'll be working late tonight! Here's your change. Have a great afternoon! Oan I help who's next? Would you like some honey with that? It is bee-approved. Don't forget these. Milk, cream, cheese, it's all me. And I don't see a nickel! Sometimes I just feel like a piece of meat! I had no idea. Barry, I'm sorry. Have you got a moment? Would you excuse me? My mosquito associate will help you. Sorry I'm late. He's a lawyer too? I was already a blood-sucking parasite. All I needed was a briefcase. Have a great afternoon! Barry, I just got this huge tulip order, and I can't get them anywhere. No problem, Vannie. Just leave it to me. You're a lifesaver, Barry. Oan I help who's next? All right, scramble, jocks! It's time to fly. Thank you, Barry! That bee is living my life! Let it go, Kenny. - When will this nightmare end?! - Let it all go. - Beautiful day to fly. - Sure is. Between you and me, I was dying to get out of that office. You have got to start thinking bee, my friend. - Thinking bee! - Me? Hold it. Let's just stop for a second. Hold it. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, everyone. Oan we stop here? I'm not making a major life decision during a production number! All right. Take ten, everybody. Wrap it up, guys. I had virtually no rehearsal for that.
 
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