LE #3 Notes Flashcards
1
Q
What is important about Anarchy in the UK?
A
- Ramones important influence
- Punk forms in the UK
- no attachment to Blues, Psychedelic or classical
- no virtuosity
- Rejection of Pretence, elitism
- rejection of materialism
- celebration of anti-virtuosity
- punk helped found thrash
- brought, unrefined, speed, shared metal penitent and attitude
- Punk returns rock to its roots
2
Q
How are Metal and Punk Similar?
A
Similar:
- attitude
- rejection of cultural norms
- protest
- Ramones influence both metal and punk
- both born out of club scenes
- both look to 1950’s 1960’s rock for influence (metal to lesser extent)
3
Q
What is important about the Ace of Spades?
A
- NWOBH influenced by Punk
- speed metal is fast and melodic
- starting point for thrash metal
- rhythms reminiscent of punk
- virtuosic solos of metal
- Lemmy’s bass tone could be influenced by Geezer Butler
- pushing forward of rhythm/ blues section
- Simple, minimalist song structure
- emphasis on authenticity and lack of pretentiousness because of simplicity(structure, length, musicality)
- After punk, greater emphasis on shorter song
- reconciliation between older ideas and minimalism
4
Q
What is important about Runnin’ with the Devil/Eruption?
A
- Eddie Van Halen’s guitar style is unique
- Classical Influence
- Sounds like an updated proto-metal
- Vocal Vibrato like Uriah Heep
- Still minimalist
- use of dive-bombs, very technical and virtuosic, tapping solo
- got idea of tapping from Jimmy Page’s heartbreaker solo
- Modded guitar, locking nut to prevent guitar from going out of tune during divebombs
- perfects dive-bomb
5
Q
What is important about the Number of the Beast?
A
- Steve Harris is bass player and founding member
- Debut of Bruce Dickinson; very operatic and photo-metal influenced
- Dickinson saw Iron Maiden playing in a London club and new he had to join as his previous band wasn’t professional or tight enough
- Influenced by Deep Purple
- Virtuosic guitar solos and licks
- emphasis on speed
- typical vocal inflection
- similar to Uriah Heep
- different to Gypsy because of lack of guitar offs and more than one riff, is also less distorted
- occult theme is the influence of sabbath
- Analogue vs. digital
- Analogue changes playback each time
- solos are not extended
- song starts with quote from book of revelations
- Inspired by Steve Harris watching The Omen 2
6
Q
What is important about I was made for Lovin’ You?
A
- sounds disco/pop influenced
- use of synthesizer/strings
- past the era of extreme live improvisation
- post-punk aesthetic of simplicity
- John travolta as the common man that dance empowers is what disco represents and why its popular
- Ace Freely said it was kisses attempt to gain success again after Destroyer and that they were looking for new influences
- Kiss Alive was the album that propelled them to success and Destroyer was their biggest album
- got flack for overdubbing tracks on Kiss Alive
- Kiss was a bizarre mix of glam rock and heavy metal
- Impressive stage theatrics(floating drum solos)
- Gene and other member had comic book appeal to appeal to a new audience (creative differences)
- Paul and Ace wanted to go heavier
- written by Paul quickly to show how easy it was to write a disco hit
- relatively static drumbeat until the solos/ lack of rhythmic subtly
7
Q
What is important about The Payback?
A
- rhythmic emphasis on downbeat typical for funk
- samples attempt at connecting with a greater history just like the re-purposing of Blues ideas
- This empowered the following generation by providing authenticity and authority again similarly to Blues
- James Brown had the image of the unbeatable man
- song lyrics displaying anger/protest/rebellion
- music easy to dance to/not many changes repetition of small musical figures and deceptively simple
- grandiose visual elements
- “On the One” Emphasis on the first beat for musical accompaniment
- Abandonment of melody/ proto-rapping w/ syncopated rhythms
- Use of contemporary sounds; horns sound like a siren, vocals sounds like an argument
8
Q
What is important about the Cult of Personality?
A
- Living Colour all African-American
- funk drumbeat for verse
- heavy metal guitar riffs
- Second guitar solo very virtuosic and the first is really short
- protest reminiscent of Boom as they both attack many people
- breaks the mould of 80’s glam metal
- really unmelodic guitar solo thats dissonant like Robert Fripp of King Crimson
- attacks Ghandi, Stalin, Mussolini, and Kennedy just like Boom attacks Tony Blair, Bush, Sadam Hussein and Bin Laden
9
Q
What is important about the (2112)Overture/Temple of Sphinx?
A
- Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture is used within 2112
- Overture is (First section of the song 2112), It’s a big grand introduction Usually instrumental and found at the beginning of an opera
- Typically uses material that develops over the course of the narrative
- Uses foreshadowing of characters and the story within this overture
- Basically the “Colesnotes” or small summary of the drama
10
Q
What is the story behind the 2112 album?
A
- There is a protagonist and an antagonist
- The protagonist finds a guitar and his very own creativity to make music
- He is overjoyed by this discovery and takes it to the Priests of Syrinx (antagonists) who control every aspect of life
- They dismiss his discovery despite the protagonist trying to convince them of its worth
- But the priests smash it, since it is what destroyed humanity and it was something of the past
- He has a dream where he is empowered, but eventually wakes up to find it was a dream and its all false
- This saddens him and eventually, he commits suicide
- Then we hear conflict in the background and it sounds like some other entity has taken control, but we don’t know if they are good or bad
- This was the album (4th album) that put Rush on the map. - The first 3 albums weren’t that successful but, first 3 albums were a gradual maturation process of the group.
- Rush began to gather more success outside the confines of Toronto as well
- Original drummer left due to health issues and Neil Peart eventually came into their band and is a perfect fit
- He becomes the lyricist to the band even though Geddy sings
- So the writing became more sophisticated and developed and somewhat fantasy based as opposed to the straight ahead simple lyrics that the band wrote about before Neil came in
- The preceding album Caress of Steel was not successful so there was pressure on the band
- 2112 was an example of getting away from the rock roots and moving towards a progressive feel
- The band was into that aggressive, powerful sound that melded with psychedelic. 2112 was a crossroads for this genre
- 2112 album was a huge success and shows progressive rock influences
- 1981 was platinum status for this album. It was a multi-movement suite since it covers the whole album. It was an significant heavy metal concept album
But the band took a lot of flak for this album - This was because of a bizarre perception of the band being very right winged
- Many of the critics called them “Little Hitlers”
- This is because 2112 is loosely based on Ayn Rand’s “Anthem” which takes place in a futuristic setting
- The book dealt with the dispensing of individuality
- Ayn Rand is pretty far right on the political scale, which was quite extreme for that time and rattled a lot of cages
- On the inside of the album, Neil gave a small dedication to Ayn Rand
- The band offended many people due to Rand’s right wing values and they spent some time trying to downplay and backpedal on this reference/association with Rand
- The imagery on the album cover “the star-man” cowering at the star symbol
11
Q
What is important about the Moor?
A
- typical prog death features (long songs, key and tempo changes)
- elusive lyrics because of death growl
- technical aspects of jazz to an extent classical are incorporated (main chromatic riff)
- folk is also incorporated to connect with the theme of the album and song
- use of motif riff reminiscent of psychedelic and blues
- extreme juxtaposition of clean and distorted caused by abrupt changes in vocal timbre, guitar timbre, and instrumentation (inclusion of piano during clean parts)
- Timbre of vocals suggest internal and external conflict
- death growl during lyrics expressing anger with external world
- clean vocals for lamenting over lost love with Melinda
- this paints the protagonist as a very complex character
- this parallels the complex music
- song functions as the overture for the concept album
12
Q
What is the story of Opeth’s 4th album, Still Life?
A
- Takes place in early Christian society
- protagonist is expelled from society for losing faith
- Returns to find his first love, Melinda (named after his daughter Mikael Achetfeld’s daughter)
- She is being married off against her will
- He is hung by the end of the album
13
Q
What is important about Revolution Begins?
A
- Contrast of clean and distorted parts
- Use of Strings
- Distorted vox over clean instrumentals creates weird dynamic
- melodic death metal is the genre and is the pinnacle of anti-establishment music
- extreme anger in voice, surprising for female
- revolution in this vocal style, guitar playing and lyrics
- females grasping empowerment of metal music
- vocalist of this song replaced a previously male vocalist without any backlash from metal community
14
Q
What is important about the Magician’s Birthday?
A
- They look to psychedelic music for a more legitimate influence than blues
- fusion between prog and proto metal
- mystic lyrics
- song divided into 3 acts and completely flips
- use of keys in second part
- bpm change and virtuosic solo that is extended
- whammy bar use
- wah wah pedal use
- 2nd part sounds really improvisational
- triplet feel and then regular feel for 3rd part
- changes in vocal timbre and treatment change as the song progresses
- natural voice and smooth treatment for voice at the beginning
- solo foreshadows entry of bad guy
- different and forced vocal register for bad guy
- production includes echo that sounds unnatural, sinister and larger than life
- hero wins the day when the falsetto kicks in
15
Q
What is important about Killing in the Name?
A
- Album cover photo of Vietnamese buddhist monk lighting himself on fire
- Released around 1992 riots in LA, 5 police officers beating black man for resisting arrest
- Officers in beating were acquitted, protest arises as a result
- Accidentally played on BBC radio in 93
- funky verse riff and drums
- protest lyrics
- heavy sabbath inspired riffs
- bpm change post chorus/ second verse
- eclecticism of psychedelic music (cowbell at the beginning)
- experimental guitar solo with pitch-shifter pedal
- bloods and crips joined together for this riot
- minimalist but effective lyrics
- direct comparison with kkk (burning crosses and cops wearing white)
- Rage combines music of black and white people, acts as a medium to communicate between cultures
