What Is Heavy Metal Music?

Heavy metal is a subgenre of rock music defined by its use of volume, distortion, and aggressive attitude.

Heavy metal includes an array of musical styles. The genre encompasses party anthems from ’80s glam metal bands like Mötley Crüe and Poison, the relentless drive of speed and thrash metal rockers like Metallica, Sepultura, and Pantera, and the macabre, sludgy tones of black metal and doom metal. The groups are united by a guitar-driven rock template, backed by a powerful rhythm section of bass guitar and drums and a lead singer whose vocals often reflected the sonic power of the instruments.

Heavy metal features heavy lyrical content . Though heavy metal songs can be celebratory, reflective, and even inspirational, there is often an element of aggression, dismay, and rebellion against societal norms in their lyrical content.

Heavy metal was often under attack . The lyrics and visual components of many heavy metal bands—long hair, dark clothing, and macabre iconography—made the genre a flashpoint for parents, watchdog groups, and even governmental figures, who have sought to restrict and even repress heavy metal music.

Heavy metal is a lifestyle . Efforts to repress heavy metal have only strengthened the devotion of heavy metal fans, commonly known as “metalheads.”

A Brief History of Heavy Metal Music

The history of heavy metal music dates back to popular music of the mid-1960s.

Beginnings : The roots of heavy metal sprouted in the mid-1960s, with British Invasion groups like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and the Who, all of whom employed songs with punchy, distorted electric guitar built on blues riffs.

Beyond the British Invasion : The psychedelic rock movement of the late ’60s set the template for heavy metal by greatly expanding on the British Invasion model. Guitarists like Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix —an American musician whose solo career began in England—increased volume and distortion and pushed the limits of recording equipment and concert amplifiers. Guitar riffs grew slower and more rhythmically repetitive, broken only by long bursts of guitar solos, while bassists maintained a low-end heaviness, and drummers kept a constant, booming beat.

The first wave : From this cauldron emerged the first wave of heavy metal from England: Led Zeppelin, which featured massive blues-rock riffs from former Yardbirds guitarist Jimmy Page; Birmingham’s Black Sabbath, which mixed granite rock riffs with the unearthly vocals of Ozzy Osbourne and a lyrical focus on the macabre and supernatural; and the groove-heavy Deep Purple, one of the rare heavy metal bands to include an organ in its lineup. Though initially described as “hard rock,” these bands eventually earned the “heavy metal” label.

American rockers : The power of the first wave of heavy metal acts sent ripples through the rock ‘n’ roll scene. Their style was adopted to varying degrees by American hard rock bands such as the MC5, the Stooges, Alice Cooper, and KISS—all of which employed shock rock theatrics. Groups such as the bawdy AC/DC and Aerosmith filtered the Rolling Stones through the new heavy metal sound.

New Wave of British Heavy Metal : By the 1980s, the heavy metal scene had grown to include a purist contingent that focused on pummeling riffs and multi-guitar attacks known as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM). This group included Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Saxon, and the mighty Motorhead, and incorporated elements of biker and gang iconography and fashion into the metal lexicon.

Enduring legacy : Metal repeatedly fractured during the 1990s, producing goth-tinged acts like Marilyn Manson and Slipknot, as well as industrial fusions like Helmet. Symphonic metal groups like Finland’s Nightwish also saw success. Some of these ’90s groups, like former White Zombie frontman Rob Zombie, remained relevant into the new millennium; others faded away.

In some sense, heavy metal in the twenty-first century looks the same as it ever did. The genre remains a loosely connected collection of camps, each striving to capture the power and drive of the pioneering acts—some of which, like Black Sabbath, Ronnie James Dio, and Judas Priest, continue to record and tour.

4 Characteristics of Heavy Metal Music

Many characteristics define the sound of heavy metal music, including:

Blues-rock lineups: Heavy metal’s roots can be traced to British Invasion bands, which were invariably composed of one or two guitars, bass, and drums. Unlike British Invasion groups, heavy metal vocalists often did not play an instrument. Notable exceptions include James Hetfield, who sang and played rhythm guitar for Metallica.

Dark lyrical themes : Heavy metal songs are often anchored around dark themes of fear, mistrust, paranoia, anger, or sadness, which link the music to its roots in the blues favored by the British Invasion. However, the subgenre to which a metal band belonged invariably dictated the lyrical content. Death metal or black metal groups addressed sinister matters or gruesome concepts, while pop-metal groups such as Van Halen and Def Leppard focused on good times and the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle.

Emphasis on guitar : The sonic power of the guitar, and the ability to distort and alter its sound and volume, is the bedrock of heavy metal. Vocals and the rhythm section operate to emphasize and support the guitar’s central role in metal.

Powerful vocals : In the early days of metal, the music’s volume could overpower most sound systems and drown out vocals. A singer with a commanding voice and durable lung power—like Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, Black Sabbath’s Ozzy Osbourne, or Judas Priest’s Rob Halford—could be heard over the sonic fireworks and served as the template for future metal vocalists. Depending on the subgenre of metal, vocals can be shouted, growled, shrieked, or even rapped; the unifying factor is the power of those vocals.

Heavy Metal Subgenres

Heavy metal has amassed a diverse collection of subgenres over the years:

Deathcore : Deathcore fuses downtuned guitars and a “death growl” vocal style with the hard riffing and solo instrumental breaks of metalcore. The unsettling noisescape of bands such as Whitechapel and the Dillinger Escape Plan epitomize deathcore.

Glam metal : Glam metal borrows the pop-inspired guitar riffs, vocal harmonies, and make-up and costuming of glam rock and folds them into a heavy metal format. Glam metal dominated airwaves in the ’80s through Mötley Crüe and Poison, and traces can be heard in bands like the Darkness and Wolfmother.

Grunge : As personified by Pacific Northwest bands like Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden, grunge enjoyed chart dominance for much of the early ’90s.

Hardcore metal : Though hardcore metal, or punk metal, suggests a union similar to metalcore or grunge, the subgenre draws more on the furious energy of thrash metal and other extreme metal offshoots. Motorhead exemplifies hardcore metal, as do newer acts like Killswitch Engaged.

Nu metal : A subgenre of alternative metal that emerged in the 1990s, nu metal , or aggro metal, borrowed from a diverse array of genres including funk , industrial music, hip-hop, and electronic music. Its lack of guitar solos and an emphasis on rapping as vocals are perhaps its more definitive elements; proponents ranged from the pop-friendly Limp Bizkit and Papa Roach to the confrontational Rage Against the Machine.

Speed metal : Speed metal bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax, parlayed a furious blend of high-speed riffs culled from punk that stood in direct contrast to the pop-metal scene.

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