Metal scientists at the Institute of Hessian Studies (IHS) today revealed research that shows definitely how the guitar as the lead compositional instrument leads heavy metal songs but not rock ones.
For the first time, this provides an empirical framework to distinguishing metal from rock and hybrids of rock that, like Opeth or Pantera, often disguise themselves as metal despite having much more pop culture intentions.
This research illustrates the principle that metal is something driven by guitar (meaningful riffs, conversing, through-composed) and not driven by vocals. This principle of metal was mentioned in the metal FAQ.
By measuring the share of playing time occupied by vocals for several Metallica songs from different albums, researchers correlated vocal-domination to rock hybridization as well as selling out or commercialization.
| Song | Vocal Length | Song Length | Vocal % | 1984: |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Fight Fire with Fire” | 84s | 285s | 29.5% |
| “Ride the Lightning” | 118s | 396s | 29.8% |
| “Fade to Black” | 99s | 417s | 23.7% |
| “Creeping Death” | 133s | 395s | 33.7% | 1991: |
| “Enter Sandman” | 158s | 330s | 47.9% |
| “Sad but True” | 155s | 327s | 47.4% |
| “Unforgiven” | 226s | 387s | 58.4% | 1996: |
| “Ain’t My Bitch” | 181s | 304s | 59.5% |
| “Until It Sleeps” | 204s | 269s | 75.8% |
| “King Nothing” | 178s | 328s | 54.3% |
The earlier, relatively “benchmark” metal songs have meaningful non-vocal musical content, namely riffs, riff combinations and variations, solos, intros, outros — which can be listened to on their own and are memorable on their own.
These earlier songs could even do relatively well without any vocals. This is actually supported by the fact that Metallica had an instrumental piece in every of their first four albums but stopped doing this on later albums.
On the later albums, namely the Black album and the twang metal albums, more time was surrendered to vocals, while guitar parts have dramatically decreased in their significance and value. The songs have become “one-riff” songs, where you (are lucky if you) have only one main riff that is musically meaningful, memorable and independent of vocals (see “Enter Sandman”) while the rest of the guitar parts are just unobtrusive background accompaniment to vocals, often providing harmony to them as in pop rock.
Such transition from multiple-riff pieces to one-riff ditties is the metal equivalent of the transition from polytheism / paganism to monotheism. Easier to spread, easier to multiply, easier to monetize, easier to control.
In more terrifying cases, like above-mentioned “Until It Sleeps,” the songs became “no riff” songs because all of the guitar parts are just accompaniment / chord progressions so it makes no sense to give them any independent space.
Vocal parts on those albums merged into large time chunks where verses, pre-choruses and choruses go one after another immediately, without any kind of interlude riffs between them. This became vocals-driven music that would not be a meaningful listen without vocals.
A clueless listener who hears only the surface of the music might think that heavier sound makes you more metal — while ignoring the song structure and the instrumental vs. vocals / “song” ratio. For an example, one could say that “later Ozzy Osbourne albums are more metal than early Black Sabbath albums because the guitar sound is so intense!” In fact later Ozzy Osboune is pure vocals-driven rock, musically, while early Black Sabbath has quite a few songs where vocals are not the main thing.
Benchmark metal, where riffs have a significant role, is less human-dependent, less “human-all-too-human,” as it relies less on the particular human personality behind the mic. Just because generally it allows less time for this human to express itself. Such music is meant to, and built to, speak on more large scale and timeless topics than emotions and struggles of a person.
Tags: analysis, metal, music theory, vocals
