Heavy metal
The genre that pushed hard rock towards greater distortion, weight and technical precision, with palm muting and gallop rhythms as core vocabulary.
Heavy metal is defined as much by production and technique as by harmony: high-gain amplification, palm-muted low strings, tight rhythmic unison between guitar and drums and a taste for chromatic riffs rather than blues progressions. Lead playing is typically fast and highly articulated, drawing on sweeping, tapping and scale patterns rather than on bends and blues phrasing. Its subgenres define themselves by how much of that vocabulary they keep and how much they add.
Example: A riff of palm-muted low notes in unison with the kick drum, played through a high-gain amplifier, is heavy metal.
See also
Related
- PageDistortion
- PagePalm mute
- PageGallop rhythm
- PageAmericana
- PageBebop
- PageBluegrass
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley