A more accurate history of Metal

Let's go back... back to a time before Zeppelin, before Sabbath, before the Beatles, before even Jimi Hendrix, Little Richard, BB King, Elmore James and Fleetwood Mac. Back to a place in Mississippi, in the Delta, where a young man by the name of Robert Johnson developed an older technique of playing the guitar, known loosely as Delta Blues. This young man was said to have gained his powers by going to a crossroads and selling his soul to the Devil for guitar lessons.

He wrote truly defining songs, like Sweet Home Chicago, Crossroad Blues, Travelling Riverside Blues, Preaching Blues (Up Jumped the Devil), and Terraplane Blues. He played the guitar like he was two people, way before Jimi plugged in and electrified, wailed before Dylan learned to blow harp, and his slide and old guitar did ALL the talking. There has never been another one, and only Hendrix comes close in originality.

Later on, when black artists were getting little airplay (and even less respect), an englishman by the name of John Mayall was training young artists in Britain to play the blues. Among their ranks came people like Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood, the list goes on.
It was the Brits who were recognising the potential of the black man's blues.

So if the black man wasn't getting airplay (even though they were recording, usually for nothing{slave wages}) then these young men sure as hell would.
The Rolling Stones came out with Love in Vain, an old Robert Johnson tune. Fleetwood Mac had I Believe My Time Ain't Long, which was an old Elmore James remake of an even older Robert Johnson song I Believe I'll Dust My Broom.

By the way, James defined electric slide blues. Cream (Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce) had Crossroad Blues, originally by Johnson.
The Beatles were ones to play old blues and Elvis songs in their early gigging days, and Elvis remade Big Mama Thornton's song Ain't Nothin' But a Hounddog.
Cream were unusual at the time for introducing the "memorable riff", with such tunes as Sunshine of Your Love, White Room and Politician.

And it was Blue Cheer who introduced riff-mania with their remake of the Who's remake of Summertime Blues.
And finally we come to Black Sabbath, contemporaries of Led Zeppelin (a rather upbeat but catchy band).
Black Sabbath's influences were the Beatles, Cream, the Shadows, and also jazz influences. But they started out playing the blues. And then they turned the volume up.

You see, Blue Cheer, Led Zeppelin, Cream and even Jimi Hendrix were doing the same thing as Black Sabbath (basically), except for one element: They were unhappy. Beautifully melancholy and pissed off at the same time.
What a wonderful balance. This helped contribute to their "sound". Theirsound was a Wall of Sound of Blues.
The Blues were never meant to be happy, and the content has never been.

Heavy Metal was defined in those hot, sticky delta bayous in Mississippi and Louisiana. It was given attitude by the Chicago blues players. It was given electricity by Edison, it was given power by poverty, by dissatisfaction with the way of the Wicked World, and headbanging is an old reaction, just like dancing, just like jumping, just like moshing. Heavy Metal is among the oldest musical genres of the world. It used to be called "The Blues".

And then came the 80s. The punk revolution and the creation of heavy metal in the 70s gave way to a further mutation of the blues.
This mutation was called 'thrash' or 'speed' metal.
In my personal opinion, the first speed metal band was Motorhead. Contrary to popular beleif, Metallica did NOT invent thrash metal. They only helped it a great deal. 1983 saw the birth of a lot of metal music--- all the legendary metal bands of the 80s were kicking ass or started to kick ass at this time: Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Death, etc...

Before Death came around, most bands that would now be condsidered death metal were only known as 'heavy thrash'. Death, as well as Slayer, helped contribute to the death metal that most underground 'Heads know and love. At this time, what some may call the first two black metal bands were young and kicking ass: Mercyful Fate and Venom. The term 'black metal' didn't get popularized until Venom's album titled 'Black Metal' came out.

The early 90s saw a surge in death metal bands, but not quite as drastic as the early to mid-80s. Around this time, also, a slowed down, super-crunchy style of death metal came about that is called Doom Metal. Taking the gutteral growl of the death bands and adding keyboard arrangements and/or other instruments (mainly violins) while completely slowing down the music helped define Doom Metal as it is today.

A popular and well known Doom Metal band is a band called My Dying Bride.
Death metal is extreme, but the desire for something even more extreme gave birth to the Black Metal revolution, which some say started in 1995 and is still going on to this day. Five years ago, an anarchic wave of musical rebellion --Black Metal-- swept through the city of Olso.

Virulently anti-Christian disciples of black metal terrorized Norway's capital, as well as neighboring cities like Bergn, with an array of violent acts, from murder and suicide to cannibalism and cemetary desecration. Bands within the movement claimed responsibility for burning more than 50 churches in an attempt to eliminate Christianity and reclaim the country for its ancient Pagan (Viking) faith.

In the course of this violence, dozens of musicians were jailed for arson, murder, assault, and other major crimes...

The black metal of today is slightly different than the black metal of the 80s. Todays black metal (most) is faster, more furious, and keyboard arrangements are used more heavily to create an atmosphere of mysticism, darkness, or even fear. Just like at one time Metallica's Kill Em All was considered the most extreme album of its time... black metal is the most extreme music of our time. And that is a major part of Metal: being extreme.

Heavy Metal, the great grandchild of the blues, the grandson of rock n roll, and the love child of 60s psychedelia, has always been the black sheep of rock's family tree. It is anti-social, loud, distorted, dark and dangerous, the antithesis of chart and radio fodder (take note, all you trendy MTV 'metal' fans), and always likely to profit from exploitation of generation gaps. Metal is a minority.

Unperturbed by any need to conform and oblivious of media-courtship or crossover recognition, it moves at its own pace, sometimes hardly at all. It either retreats into its own shadowy circles, derided by the masses and misunderstood by most, or advances like a monster with meat in it's mouth, never worrying about popular taste, never wanting to be flavor of the month. Metal is not trendy or popular... nor has it ever been.

Most people look at the 80s and remember bands like Poison or Ratt being popular and 'metal' bands.... but they are not. Thrash/Death metal's growth was in the underground. Metal never went anywhere. Black metal is today's version of the 80s thrash, and rap 'metal' is today's version of glam rock. To quote Skullview: Hold the sign up high.... metal 'till you DIE!!!!!