The Baron's Metal Primer, Part 2

Forgot to mention the Christian heavy metal bands earlier in the 'safe' section.

As far as Christian heavy metal is concerned...um, well...hmmm....here's the thing: I just don't happen to like any of them musically. That's great that they exist and I'd love to support them but just haven't found any that meet my standards for music quality. If you're interested in exploring Christian metal bands go here.

Now, Christian rock, on the other hand (remember rock and metal are two different beasts) I have an easy recommendation here. Petra has been the best Christian rock band in existence for the last 25 years, with a mix of rock guitar beats and catchy pop choruses (think '80s era Def Leppard...) Check out 1995's "No Doubt" and 1990's "Beyond Belief" in particular.

Now for the 'unsafe' heavy metal areas. Note that by 'unsafe' I'm referring to the fact that most of these bands have a handful of songs that don't meet LDS standards (usually profanity). There are a lot of albums (oddly) that contain exactly one song with profanity while the others are clean, and even bands that have gone for many, many albums before the first swear word makes its appearance. (Nevermore , for example went five albums before swearing, Testament went six...) If you'd rather stay away from even buying and owning an album that has an offensive song even if you don't listen to it, then you might as well skip this section. If you're like me, though, and frequently discard a select group of songs from every album anyway due to musical quality, then discarding an occassional song for bad language while still enjoying the 'good' songs on a CD won't be that big a deal.

Classic British Heavy Metal
Black Sabbath
Iron Maiden
Judas Priest
Motorhead
I don't actually listen to any of these bands, but I just mention them because they're the big names in heavy metal history and had a direct influence on many of the bands I do listen to. Black Sabbath (with lead singer Ozzy Osbourne) are essentially the 'pioneers' of heavy metal, being the first to use many of the metal trademarks: tuned-down guitars and riffing styles--and also one of the first to start using 'evil' and 'demonic' imagery in their lyrics (which is in fact where many of the metal stereotypes came from...)

80's Thrash Metal
Metallica (pre-"Enter Sandman")
Exodus
Anthrax
Testament
Megadeth
Death Angel
Directly influenced by the above British bands, these bands (all from the US) added a unique blend of speed , progressive song structures, and socially conscious lyrics. As a direct reaction to the 'drugs, sex, and partying' attitude of the 80's hard rock 'glam' bands at the time (Bon Jovi, Poison, Motley Crue, etc...) these bands served up uncompromising looks at the horrors of war and drug abuse, while also addressing racism, child abuse, social inequality, and other issues of the day. (See Metallica's "Master of Puppets", Megadeth's "Rust in Peace", Death Angel's "Act III", and/or Testament's "Practice What You Preach" for starting points here...)

Death Metal
In the early eighties, 18 year old Florida guitarist Chuck Schuldiner decided to start a band, but then was faced with the problem that neither he nor any of his band-mates could sing. No problem, Chuck 'growled' instead, and decided to call his band "Death" which lead to the 'death metal' style, characterized by low growling 'death vocals'. The absense of melody in the vocal line leads to more emphasis on the natural rhythm of the voice (not that different from rap or R&B in this aspect), but the low growl is definitely an acquired taste. Chuck (who passed away from cancer two years ago) turned into one of the premier guitarists of this metal generation, and his band (if you can get past the name) is one of the best (and cleanest) 'death metal' bands around (see 1995 "Symbolic" and 1998's "The Sound of Perseverance" for good, clean examples...) A derivative form called "Swedish Death Metal" arose in the '90s when bands from Sweden (obviously) took the 'death vocal' style and melded it with catchy two guitar harmonies to form a new, more accessible style. See In Flames for the best example of Swedish Death Metal ("Colony", "Clayman", and "Reroute to Remain" are all good albums)

Modern Heavy Metal
Nevermore
Grip Inc.
Annihilator
These bands are kind of a mixture of various other metal styles, along with some modern influences. Nevermore is my current favorite ("Dead Heart in a Dead World" (2000) is one of the best metal albums of all time...) And Grip Inc's "Incorporated", released this year, is the one I currently listen to the most.

You're welcome to email me for more specific or more detailed recommendations in a particular genre that you find intriguing. As I mentioned before, the more people are exposed to what heavy metal is and isn't (regardless of whether you like it or not), the fewer negative stereotypes there will be about metal bands--and listeners.