Defining contemporary metal music: Performance, sounds and practices

Contemporary Metal Music (CMM) features, usually down tuned, harmonically distorted timbres, and from a performance perspective regularly contains fast and frequently complex subdivisions, as well as highly synchronized instrumentation. The combination of these elements results in a significant concentration of dense musical sound usually referred to as “heaviness”. From a performance, sounds, practices and production aesthetics perspective, this article proposes the broad musical parameters for CMM’s heaviness, and from this viewpoint likewise seeks to distinguish CMM from traditional heavy metal music. The analytical perspective implemented in this article adopts aspects of the theoretical frameworks developed by Allan F. Moore (2001) in Rock: The Primary Text. Moore expresses the challenges encountered in imparting a definition of rock, stating, “we are always in the process of defining rock, and no formulation I shall offer can be considered definitive” (Moore 2001, p.4). There are numerous similar problems when attempting to classify musical parameters for Contemporary Metal Music (CMM) (Walser, 1993; Shuker, 2005; Weinstein, 2011). For example, there is the possibility that oversimplifications are made through excessively broad generalisations. However, Moore’s sentiments regarding a model of style for rock music could be seen as equally valid when applied to CMM. Therefore, although there can be no unchanging and definitive description of CMM, the author similarly proposes that there are ways of expressing common musical sounds, performance perspectives and a coherent set of practices that are frequently shared. In addition to proposing these common sounds, perspectives and practices, the methodology implemented in this article is further influenced by Allan F. Moore (2001). Moore distinguishes heavy metal from hard rock from the perspectives of: structure; tempo; guitar articulation; instrumentation and associated texture; vocals; and from numerous elements collectively referred to as ‘formal predictability’ (Moore, 2001, pp.157-151). In a comparable manner, this body of work seeks to distinguish, and provide a clear delineation between, CMM and traditional heavy metal (THM), and as “points on a style continuum” (Moore, 2001, p.148).