“DISTORTED GUITAR OVERLOAD…”
How metal came to mean more than just Metallica et al
I F metal is a quest for extremity, it stands to reason that there have always been bands out to push the envelope into realms of pure noise. the first real watershed came in the mid-’80s, when the ‘Big Four’ – Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth – pioneered thrash, a harsh, dystopian rendering of metal privileging breakneck pacing and shred guitar.
Simultaneously, in the UK, Napalm Death and Extreme Noise terror were refining the sound of grindcore, distilling hardcore punk and anarchist politics into compressed explosions of noise. Death metal, as pioneered by US groups like Morbid Angel and Possessed, travelled to Norway and in the hands of Mayhem and Emperor, morphed into black metal – a lo-fi, primitive take on metal perfectly suited to the freezing north.
Meanwhile, groups like Matt Bower’s Skullflower and Justin Broadrick’s Godflesh have situated themselves between the distorted guitar overload of metal and the transgressive misanthropy of industrial music, using guitar, bass and drums to craft music of impossibly bleak nihilism.
But the crossover between metal and noise possibly finds its modern apotheosis in the music of Sunn O))). Over eight studio albums, Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley have honed a singular take on metal, characterised by monolithic downtuned riffs and plodding, glacial tempos. From such a simple aesthetic springs incredible range – the duo have collaborated with Scott Walker and Julian Cope – and their live shows, in which performers take to the stage in hooded robes, swathed in dry ice, have the quality of ritual; dark but elevating. LP