History
This blog is about the genre of music known as Metal. Metal originated from the late 1960s to early 1970s, from the United Kingdom. It was pioneered by a few prominent figures, such as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. It is well known for having very aggressive sounding instruments, such as Drums, Shouting vocals and the characteristic Electric Guitar. The tempo often ranges drastically, from 60 bpm to a frightening 350 bpm. Here is an example of a Metal song.
Use of Music Technology
Metal has been influenced by development in music technology in many ways. First, Reverb is incredibly prominent in Metal music. They also make heavy use of Wah-Wah, Fuzz and Phasor, to make the drums and guitar thicker. Here is an example:
Melody
In metal, the melodies are often fast paced, and played on the Electric guitar, often backed by vocals. They most commonly played in a minor key to give it a sound for the message of the song, which often is about sadder subjects.
Structure
They often use an “intro, verse, chorus, verse, solo, chorus, chorus, outro” style in metal, which sets the way for a good song that is a reasonable length. However, this is not the basis for all metal songs, as there are some very long metal songs that have many other steps, as there are a wide variety of metal structures.
Rhythm
There is many different kinds of rhythms for metal songs, however, one of the most common is known as the “Heavy Metal Gallop”, which is commonly used in Heavy Metal songs. This is an 8th note followed by 2 16th notes.
Harmony
In Metal there is many different harmonies, with a large variety. First, there is a large amount of power chords used for effect, with many minor keys followed by major keys. This often is then distorted to create an effect of incredibly prominent and powerful music, almost overpowering.
Sources: https://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Metal-Song
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-BPM-speed-of-heavy-metal-music
https://www.britannica.com/art/heavy-metal-music
https://metal.mit.edu/brief-history-metal
My piece
The piece which i made was inspired by a video game: Final Fantasy VII. I made the song into a metal song. I feel like i didn’t do it too well though.
First, the instruments which i had changed halfway through the original piece’s production, which ended up with me having my main guitar having to be changed out to a synth, which i feel didn’t sound as good as before, and it had less mastering. The song feels a bit slow for me, and it has no chorus, which is pivotal in a metal song.
Here are some of the pictures:This is the metal piece: i did experiment a bit but i got on straight away.
As you can see i spend quite some time doing automation
Here are my instruments.
I spent ages painstakingly adding the midi. As you can see metal is complicated so this was important.
Review
Strengths:
I like the way it sounds at times. It is complex and the guitar sound good. I also like the timing. everything is in time which is good. I think it sounds like metal so that is good i suppose.
Weaknesses:
The music jumps around too much. It also needs more finishing. I need to spend time adding compressors to make it sound better.
In conclusion: I believe that my piece isn’t very great. It could be mastered better and needed some more time to shine. Later, I should make songs of this genre have a specific chorus, and more instruments could be added to give the piece depth.