More hallucinated subgenres (there are only two), (guest entry)

Words by P.B.

Elsewhere in this blog, it has been said that there are four metal subgenres — heavy, speed (incorrectly called “thrash”), death, and black.  However, in the article where this was first put forth, little justification was given as to why there were this many subgenres, and what the lines dividing them were.  Indeed, with some analysis, it seems to be impossible to draw lines between some of these.  As such, I make the counterclaim that this overestimates the number of metal subgenres, and that there are only actually two metal subgenres — “pre-underground” (the combination of “heavy” and “speed”) and “underground” (the combination of death and black).

Listening to the two songs above will make it immediately clear that there can be no musical division made between death metal and black metal.  Un-muted tremolo picked melodies?  Present in both.  Palm muted stomps?  Present in both.  Similar tempos.  Similar drum beats.  Emphasis on similar instruments, with each taking the same roles in the song.  Even similar vocal styles.

In a private conversation, Shelley objected to the above proof, stating “Well, I think most people with half a brain know that the genres were applied retroactively to 80s extreme metal, in part based on the bands they ended up influencing most.”  The most immediate problem with this argument is that it clearly violates his “four subgenres” structure by adding a fifth, namely “80s extreme metal”, unless one is willing to file them under speed metal, a place where they seem to belong far less than either black or death metal.  But, even if our host was willing to allow for a fifth subgenre, there are other problems.

But everyone knows USBM doesn’t count!

Oh my.  The same musical elements, assembled in the same way, towards the same ends keep appearing.  

And even those who would define a genre by the presence or absence of incredibly niche elements don’t have legs to stand on.  Those who think that the vocals being high or low pitched define it are utterly ruined when introduced to Beherit and Asphyx.  The tuning of the guitars can’t be a defining factor when most of the original Florida bands are taken into account — they usually tuned to standard.  Claims that technicality or lack thereof are what defines the boundary are laughable in the face of Averse Sefira, Abigor, and Sacramentum on one side and Obituary and Cianide on the other.  Those who think that black metal can’t be rhythm-focused and percussive must not have encountered Samael, Ildjarn, Beherit, or Darkthrone’s “Panzerfaust”.  Taking a suggestion from our host’s review of my last album, repetition of riffs doesn’t seem to cover it either, given the number of 8x and 16x repeats in Browning-era Morbid Angel.  The origin of the distinction in modern times seems to be born entirely out of presentation — some musicians in Scandinavia who were disgusted at contemporary death metal bands portraying themselves as “normal dudes”, in contrast to to the themes of their music, implying in the process that their art was a joke or insincere.  And, frankly, this is a wonderful thing to be disgusted by!  We all should be.  However, this hardly suffices as a dividing line for two genres of music, and at any rate, it seems impossible to argue against the sincerity of the early death metal bands (Benton may be a clown nowadays, but you don’t burn an inverted cross into your forehead if you don’t mean it).

So, death metal and black metal are actually one genre, with the two different labels amounting to little more than bands choosing how they want to market themselves.  But we still have a lot of work to do here; there’s still heavy metal and speed metal to deal with.  And then, we have to draw the line between pre-underground and underground as the two genres.

Admittedly, I have to approach these two from the perspective of a slight outsider — my heart has belonged to underground metal for about twenty-five years at this point, so even in the points where I enjoy traditional pre-underground metal, I can only approach it from the perspective of someone made rabid by Darkthrone and Infester, not from the perspective of a guy who can sing along to every Blitzkrieg and Overkill release.  However, from this outsider perspective, it seems as though, again, there isn’t a clear dividing line.  Both subgenres feature primarily diatonic riffs, where the melody serves primarily either to reinforce the rhythm or create the implication of a chord progression for harmonic resolution.  Both subgenres feature melodic content in the vocals, even though they are rarely the lead instrument in either genre.  The two genres sound so much alike that Metallica can slip Diamond Head riffs into their songs seamlessly, or Sodom can cover Motorhead’s “Iron Fist” faithfully and it barely sounds different from their own original material.  As Shelley pointed out when covering “doom metal” in his “There Are Only Four” article, tempo alone does not a subgenre make.

But why can we place such a hard line between classic and extreme metal?  Well, beyond tuning proclivities and production, there do seem to be clear differences between these two camps:

• Classic metal typically has melodic content in the vocals, even though the rhythm guitars are generally the lead instrument.  Extreme metal vocals rarely have melodic content and are limited to a combination of rhythm, texture, and theatrical expression.
• Classic metal typically subjugates the melodic contours of its riffs to the sustenance of a rock-like beat and the completion of a functional chord progression.  Extreme metal rarely subjugates the melodic riff in such a way, with melodic interest always taking precedence over harmony resolution and while there are many riffs written from a rhythm-first approach, such riffs rarely conform to a simple rock beat, instead creating energy in unpredictable ways by stressing varying beats across bars and avoiding simple “stress beats 2 and 4 so people can dance along” rhythms.
• While the claims that extreme metal are chromatic are largely overblown (most of it is best understood as diatonic music that uses some out-of-scale notes for color), it is infinitely more comfortable with angular melodies and dissonant harmonies than classic metal is.
• Extreme metal frequently uses unmuted tremolo picking to create an effect akin to a bowed instrument, a technique that simply wasn’t available to most classic metal bands who were limited to amplifiers such as Marshall Super Leads that had little preamp compression.  Similarly, the usage of sustained artificial harmonics in a melodic context that has become a standard technique in extreme metal wasn’t available on older amplifiers.

This is where my high school teachers told me I’m supposed to end with a conclusion that wraps things up neatly in a bow and includes some kind of “call to action”, but I’m four doubles of Aberlour 12 into the night and not feeling that right now.  Hopefully, after reading this, you’ll treat the living tradition that is extreme metal as a whole, as one heinous Satanic (in the sense of being fully harmful and pernicious in intent, regardless of the usage of established “religious” symbols or the lack of that usage) musical expression, and regard all that is outside of that current as false, whether as “themed” “black metal” or play-act “fun” “death metal”.  There is only the phrasal-melodic rock-quartet based music that unapologetically has the blood of the Devil running through it, and that which tries to make apologies but can’t hide His heinous face.  No more.