Why is a metalhead and metalhead?...The philosophy?
I asked this very question to a friend who I studied my foundation who is a lover of metal music. He gave me this answer
"It makes me happy, I can get my rage out in a positive way, even if it means moshing. I head-bang, throw the horns and listen to metal and I'm happy, it also gives me an identity and when I was younger and when I was depressed and alone it gave me strength inside and made me feel special.
The clothes are uniform which gives an identity, you meet fellow metal heads and there's a connection despite colour, greed and faith. Being an outcast and meeting fellow outcasts just makes you feel part of something which make an outcast feel special"
Jonathan Halls
So the main parts to being a metalhead is...
- To be part of something. A wider group
- Finding your identity within something
- Losing yourself in the music to let out emotion
- Rebelling against the commercial and the mainstream
- Love/hate relationship with God and religion
How did the heavy metal subculture start?
Derives from the loud blues and psyched of the late 1960's, but left the blues influence behind and kept the powerful, loud and guitar miffs of the late 60's and early 70's.
It began establishing itself as one of the most commercial successful forms of rock 'n' roll
The who
Jimmi Hendrix
Alice Cooper
Led Zepplin
These bands fused heavy guitars with blues.
By the mid 70's the leaders of the new heavy metal were being established
Black Sabbath
Deep Purple
Thin Lizzy
Judias Priest
Aerosmith
AC/DC
By the 1980s heavy metal exploded and was not just music but a way of life.
By the mid 80's/ early 90's speed metal and thrash metal had broken off the main subculture to form their own and became more popular.
But by the mid 90's with the introduction of grudge popularity took a nose dive.
And what about Thrash Metal....
The earliest Thrash metal is credited as thrash metal was Queen's "Stone cold crazy" in 1974 and Black Sabbath's "Symptom of the Universe" though this is subject to debate amongst all Thrash metal heads.
The fast paced instrumentation introduced by Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Venom and Motor Head became the essential aspects of Thrash.
A great deal of Thrash metal groups pay tribute to hardcore punk.
The popualrity of Thrash metal increased and lead to a more heavier sound form of thrash metal came with the release of Metallica's "Ride of the Lightening" , Anthrax's "Fistful of metal" , Overkill's self titled EP and Slayer's "Haunting the Chapel".
1986 - A big time for Thrash Metal, lots of highly publicised thrash metal.
During the late 1980's Thrash Metal continued its climax with bands like Anthrax and Sepultura.
Bay Area thrash is referred to a steady following of heavy metal bands in the 1980's who formed and gained international status in the San Francisco Bay Area. This scene was widely known as a starting point of American Thrash metal. Again this is subject to debate.
In the 1990s after this climax in popularity for the genre, it died down.
Though revival has been taken place during the 2000s
Bands such as Enli and Municipal Wadte have been key to this revival.
A lot of the old bands from this 1990s have made comebacks in the 2000s
"Big Four Tour" - Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax
In 2010 seven shows where put on in the Sonisphere Festival.
First show in Warsaw, Poland, June 16 2010
Last Show Istanbul, Turkey, June 27 2010
On May 5 2010 Metallica said that the show in Sofia on June 22 would be televised to over 450 cinemas in the USA.
Tell me about the music...
2 types - American Thrash metal / British Thrash Metal.
American Thrash Metal
Agent Steel
Annihilator
Anthrax
Dark Angel
Death Angel
Sucidal Tendencies
Exciter
Exodis
Flotsam and Jetsam
Infernal Majesty
Megadeth
Whiplash
Nucleur Assault
Oblivion
Overkill
Possessed
Razor
Sacred Reich
Sacrifice
Slayer
Testament
Thrash metal was spawned by the New Wave of British Metal
There is an argument that uploads punk as another motivation for budding thrashers. The street ethic played a part.
Musically the thrash bands aspired towards technical proficiency, which is a part of the punk approach.
The focal part of this movement was Bay Area of San Francisco, California. Then New York and New Jersey for its cultural centre despite the presence of Anthrax and Overkill.
Once it started, thrash metal rose to popularity with suitable speed. Bu 1986 and 7 Thrash has taken its command of the metal media into the charts.
Metallica and its popularity made sure the genre was here to stay
British Thrash Metal
Atomkraft
Onslaught
Pariah Satan
Rearimation
Sahbat
Sacrilege
Slammer
Toranaga
Xentrix
Britain - The leader in the field of rock and metal
The brightest hopes of UK Thrash came with Xentrix, Pariah and Sahbat
Uk Thrash metal was unable to compete with America and Germany. Fans deserted the scene.
Thrash metal bands tended to write a mixture of "political" songs and more direct, extensional critiques of modern society.
Metal in the mainstream
Dress/Make up
Last year, in the 5 and 6th season of skins there were 2 episodes dedicated to the character Rich, a metalhead shown to shut out the world and listen to his music. The episode in season 5 is purely based around his life as a metalhead.
Dress/Make up
Jeans/T-shirt (Band, Black, Studded)
Leather Jacket (Studded, ruffed)
Studded bracelets, necklaces and accessories (studs, skulls, bass guitars)
Long hair
All black clothing
Where can metal heads shop?
This is a big independent label which bases itself around metal music which also sells merchandise like band t shirts and CDs for fans to buy on its website.
A t-shirt based store selling t shirts and magazines of all genres.
Metal Fashion
Its a style of dress, body, modification, make-up, hairstyle and so on, done by fans of metal music often know as headbangers or metal heads.
The fashion has its origins in rocker, biker and leather subcultures.
Some of the influences of modern military clothing and Vietnam War can be seen by fans and bands of thrash metal like Metallica, Destruction and Megadeth.
Wearing bullet belts around their waist
Spike bands or gauntlets
Patches
Designers
Ann Sophie - Back .... Swedish Avant - Garde designer
Here are some bits and bobs of her A/W 09 collection. Heavily influenced by her personal tastes (she is a metalhead herself) we can see this through her clothing as she is known for her metal/goth clothing.
Yves Saint Laurent's A/W 2012 collection we can see elements of the metalhead dress in the designs. The focus on black and and the the biker jacket and the top, is a take on the metal style
Kanye West's debut A/W 12 collection showed a lot of leather jackets and experimented with the styles of the jacket with a focus on black. This is playing on the main style of a metalhead, but you could say this is also an influence from a rocker style (subject to opinion) but he does use the item of the leather jacket and turning it into a more avant-garde form.
Kanye West's debut A/W 12 collection showed a lot of leather jackets and experimented with the styles of the jacket with a focus on black. This is playing on the main style of a metalhead, but you could say this is also an influence from a rocker style (subject to opinion) but he does use the item of the leather jacket and turning it into a more avant-garde form.
Rick Owen's clothes can also be said to be influenced by the metalhead style.
The bagginess and focus on black could easily fit into the sub genre of metal but also could be said to be borderline rocker chic.
