Metal on piano

People always told me that I liked metal because of the sound. Well — that was true; however, it wasn’t the whole story. I liked the music too. When I got further into the genre, people would bring me the LATEST COOLEST THING EVAR and when I figured out that 99% of those were soulless shallow trash with some nifty quirk or aesthetic tacked on, I started telling people that good music was production-agnostic. You could play it on a kazoo, on a synthesizer, or on a tuba, and good music will still have whatever it was made you like it.

Here in my view is the proof — complex metal classics played on piano, sounding like a progressive rock interpretation of classical music:

Although Varg Vikernes is normally a bad source for information about reality, he did tell us how he saw his music:

When forced to take a stand I say today that it’s metal music. Metal with roots in classical music. – Interview With Raped Ass of Christ ‘Zine

Metal with roots in classical music. Classical music, most like the Romantic and modernist kind, with its roots in traditional music and transcendental thinking. And you can hear the proof of it when you translate your metal to piano playing.

0 thoughts on “Metal on piano”

  1. AnHero says:

    It’s funny that you continue to put down Vikernes, cause when you take away his feelings about other races, you’re left with socio-political ideas very similar to this site.

    If he’s not a good source for realistic ideas and they are close one’s own…

  2. Xr says:

    A keen eye on reality and the ideas imposed upon reality itself are two entirely different things, dear AnHero.

    Of those samples above, I found the Immolation interpretation quite impressive. It provides a good example how Metal relies on power chords/fifths and complex chord progressions.

  3. Howdy-hail!

    Spawn of Possessions "Scorched" in its orchestrated version just might be another great example. It might have tempi that’s a wee too intense at times, but I’d say Bach and Shostakovich and aren’t all too distant in compositional texture.

    "Scorched": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8i98kGAaEw

    Try these for comparison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjvTTfbpWjY & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CwICXwLBmo

    Continually, another — quite famous — interpretation of Metallica’s Orion by Rodrigo y Gabriela done in the style of "classical guitar": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0d3dqccuNg

    Finally, two other song waiting to be interpreted by a pianist or likewise to prove the musical quality obviously are "Condemned to Obscurity" by Gorguts and "Phobophile" by (ye olde!) Cryptopsy.

    Not simply due to the fact they have piano intros, that would’ve been simple aesthetics and nothing more, no more for their overall Sonata-feel, violent flow of mini-crescendos and motifs, much like the third movement of Beethoven’s famous Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor (Commonly known as the "Moonlight Sonata")!

    "Condemned to Obscurity": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYTpR3VhzUk

    "Phobophile": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1FivvPQIUY

    "Capricornus Rex in tenebris
    I long to feel the dark caress
    Of your cloven hooves;
    I seek the loving warmth of your ANUS
    As I place my worshipful
    Lips about your teats"

  4. anon says:

    The Black Sabbath song is just called “Too Late”. You might have it confused with “Don’t Start (Too Late)” from Sabotage.

  5. dicknose says:

    Classical music is this music that was written by a bunch of dead people a long time ago. And it’s formula music, the same as top forty music is formula music. In order to have a piece be classical, it has to conform to academic standards that were the current norms of that day and age

  6. Knur says:

    @dicknose: “Metal music is this music that was written by a bunch of long haired guys in the latter half of the 20th century”.

    Dead white male music also tends to be quite inspiring and incidentally fits to what the best of metal set to achieve compositionally, conceptually or otherwise. The “classical music is a construct” thing misses the point that given a natural irregularity in quality of both metal and classical (or “classical”, for that matter) works, it makes sense to flesh out what’s best and ditch the formula part.

  7. sgafgwrth says:

    The land… the sea… Beauty.

  8. wat says:

    speekin of Immolation wen d fukc is anus gonna tell us how to feel about Majesty and Decay :L

  9. Cargast says:

    When you’re old enough.

  10. wat says:

    baaawwwwww

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