Neo-classical Metal

It is no secret that some of the world’s best guitarists love to play heavy metal. The genre’s speed, intensity and allowance for technicality make it very appealing to guitarists that feel unchallenged through other musical genres. These musically frustrated guitarists often turn to a subgenre of heavy metal called neo-classical metal as an outlet to express their desire to create extraordinarily technical, guitar-driven heavy metal music. 

Simplistically speaking, neo-classical metal is heavy metal music that takes influence from classical music. Usually, the influences from classical music are expressed through the subgenre’s complex guitar playing. Neo-classical metal is 100% guitar-driven and relies heavily on classically influenced, technical guitar playing. 

Neo-classical metal is the one subgenre of heavy metal that discourages the standard “band” format. Most neo-classical metal is played by guitarists who release the music under their own names, and are accompanied by a basic backing band. Many of these backing bands don’t feature vocalists in an effort to focus more on the captivating guitar work.

Neo-classical heavy metal was pioneered long before the term for the subgenre was coined. The idea of melding classical music with heavy metal can be traced all the way back to 1969 when Jon Lord from Deep Purple composed Concerto For Group and Orchestra. On this release, Deep Purple performed with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to create classically influenced, orchestral rock music. 

The typical version of neo-classical metal was pioneered during the 1970s. Ritchie Blackmore, Uli Jon Roth and Randy Rhoads in particular were some of the world’s best rock guitarists around that time, and their technical playing influenced the development of neo-classical metal immensely.  

It wasn’t until the 1980s that neo-classical metal really began to become popular. With the rise of speed and thrash metal at this time, guitarists became more technically proficient and were able to handle the complexity of neo-classical metal. At the forefront of the scene was Yngwie Malmsteen, who is arguably regarded as the most important neo-classical metal musician of all time. Malmsteen is a Swedish musician who came over to the US in the early 1980s and experienced major success with his solo material. His debut solo album, Rising Force, is considered to be a monumental neo-classical metal album, and was even nominated for a Grammy award. Since his debut, Malmsteen has released many other notable neo-classical metal albums throughout his career, and has helped to give the subgenre a strong following.

Beyond Malmsteen, many other neo-classical metal artists rose to prominence in the 1980s. Some of these artists included Tony Macalpine, Vinnie Moore, Paul Gilbert, Jason Becker and Marty Friedman. Many of them were signed to Shrapnel Records, which was famous for signing neo-classical metal artists throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Today, neo-classical metal is alive and well, though it is not quite as popular as it used to be. There are also many more full bands than there used to be who play or take major influence from the subgenre. DragonForce, Cacophony, Symphony X, Rhapsody of Fire, Children of Bodom, Protest the Hero and The Human Abstract are all famous metal bands today that use the technical guitar playing of neo-classical metal to create modern takes on the once more popular style of music. 

Power metal

For this week’s entry, we will discuss the most uplifting and somewhat cheesy subgenre of heavy metal known as power metal. Power metal essentially combines characteristics of traditional heavy metal and speed metal while occasionally adding symphonic elements into the mix in order to create a unique style of metal that sounds very “epic.”

There are various recurring musical qualities of power metal. Power metal is characterized by having very slow guitar and bass chord changes, in contrast with subgenres such as thrash metal that feature very rapid changes. Guitar players of the subgenre are also usually very technical and skilled musicians, and are known for demonstrating their musical prowess through complex lightning fast guitar solos. Bass guitarists often aren’t featured very much in power metal, in order to allow for a heavy emphasis on the guitar-playing. The vocals of power metal are also very highly emphasized throughout the music. The vocals are usually soaring and operatic, with many of vocalists able to hit notes in a high register. Drummers usually use double bass pedals or two bass drums. Power metal bands also frequently feature keyboardists, which isn’t typically common in most of the other heavy metal subgenres.

There are two different “scenes” of power metal. The first is American power metal. American power metal began to take shape in the early 1980s, drawing influences from speed metal and the NWOBHM. American power metal is very riff-driven, and doesn’t feature keyboards often. Some examples of American power metal bands include Kamelot, Manowar, and Jag Panzer. American power metal never really took off or gained much popularity.

However, European power metal, the second of the two power metal scenes, did experience quite a bit of popularity. European power metal took more direct influence from the NWOBHM and less from speed metal. European bands used keyboardists heavily and focused on melody and positive lyrical themes through their music. Some popular European power metal bands include Blind Guardian, Firewind, Helloween, Stratovarius, HammerFall, Dragonforce, and Sonata Arctica.

Today power metal has a strong following of devoted fans and many power metal bands experience much success, particularly in Europe.