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Golden Age of Heavy Metal

On Led Zepplin’s eponymous first album you can practically see the blueprint, in Robert Plant’s wail, in the machine gun drums and shredding guitars, for the sound that would eventually become heavy metal. Bands like Led Zepplin, Black Sabbath , Judas Priest and Deep Purple planted the seeds for what came to be known as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM). Inspired by their forbearers, New Wave bands such as Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Saxon and Motorhead phased out the blues influence of earlier acts, picked up the pace and introduced the harder edge that would eventually come to embody heavy metal.

Inspired by the NWOBHM, American bands began developing their own fusion of metal, punk and hard core. Bands like Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeath and Slayer, known as the “Big Four”, unleashed the thrash metal scene upon rabid fans in the early 80s. Upon leaving Britain and entering the American market, some NWOBHM bands refined their sound and embraced the more mainstream, commercial metal of West Coast acts like Motley Crue and Poison which led to heavy rotation on MTV and more sales. In the late 80s and early 90s with the rise of hip-hop and grunge, metal and hardcore bands like Bio Hazard, Machine Head and Pantera refined the aggressive brutal heart of the sound, inspiring a New Wave of American Heavy Metal. Bands like Avenged Sevenfold, Disturbed, Godsmack, Slipknot and System of a Down have embraced the sound and brought heavy metal back to mainstream audiences.

Another related subgenre that has experienced massive growth is nu metal. Though many bands reject the label, it has come to describe the evolution of a sound originally attributed to bands like Tool, Faith No More, Jane’s Addiction, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine and even Nirvana. Where these 90s bands left off, producers like Ross Robinson picked up and actually incorporated genres as diverse as hip hop, electronic and industrial to create the hard rock/metal/rap-mash up now played by bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit, Staind, P.O.D., Slipknot, Linkin Park, Godsmack and Papa Roach. Regardless of labels, old school, new skool, or no school, between reunion tours, festivals and co-headlining shows, we live in a golden age of Metal and some of the best bands in history are on tour now.

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