...The past chapters of Heavy Metal ...
Metal is not a dead kind of music as the media want to present it, or either a satanic cult as the religious "leaders" fear. Actually metal is a "drug" that doesn't kill you, only (and that with the passing of time) reduces your hearing!
But what is heavy metal and its sub-categories?
Well, that's a hard inquiry to answer . If you take it by the family tree kind of thinking, metal is the grandchild of blues, and kid of the rock 'n' roll of the 60's . In my opinion bands like Cream, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, set for the first time their amps "into orbit" around the planet, by playing very fast what they had heard and learned till then The Beatles and Jimmy Hendrix and his Experience.
In the mid 70's numerous bands did the same, and hard rock was born just like that, out of the blue. Thin Lizzy, T-Rex , Jethro Tull, Hawkwind, Queen are some of these names, accompanied by Uriah Heep, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, Blue Oyster Cult and many more. Also from the beginning of the decade various art rock (or progressive as I we call them now) acts had risen on the stages, Pink Floyd and Genesis were the most influential . The end of the 70's finds most of the gigantic hard rock stars at their personal decadence. Whitesnake, UFO, Kiss, Scorpions, Nektar, AC/DC, Eloy, Aerosmith had "tasted a slice from the pie" but the music industry had found new goldmines.
Sex Pistols and The Clash were two of the many punk rock acts, destined to feed the later New Wave of Heavy Metal (at least that occurred in Great Britain). In the U.S.A Ramones were an equal act.
1980 was a glorious year, the New Wave of Heavy Metal came to this world. Black Sabbath, who by now had as lead vocalist the ex Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio in the place of Ozzy Osbourne, released "Heaven and Hell" a milestone record joined by the new boys Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Judas Priest, Saxon, Venom and many others. Iron Maiden made a great choice in 1982 in the name of Bruce Dickinson as their singer. In Europe names like Accept, Running Wild, Helloween (all 3 from Germany) and Mercyful Fate from Denmark, started to record and continued for many years. In America Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Testament and lots of new guys in the west cost created Thrash Metal, in the mould of Venom and Motorhead, In the east Savatage, Virgin Steele, Overkill, Manowar, Queensryche, Crimson Glory preferred a more power/speed metal approach. Guns and Roses continued the rock legacy of the past. The end of the decade hides names like Kreator, Destruction, Sodom (the German thrash answer to the Americans), Angel Dust, Exciter, Death, Annihilator and hundreds of others.
The 90's found many metal bands changing their sound under the new "fashion", grunge. Yet Bands as Cradle of Filth, Rage, Dream Theater, Iced Earth, Dimmu Borgir, Nevermore, Stratovarius continue to work . It's worthless to refer names , because there are so many...
And the tale goes on and on and on...
The ''E~Mortal'' One