Heavy metal bands only sing about dark subject matter
"Its all about satan, demons, death, suicide and murder"
That certainly applies to metal. Metalbands exclusively sing about demonic subjectmatter. However hardrockgroups in the past very rarely had evil lyrics let alone songs about satan. Old-fashioned heavy metal bands had very joyfull lyrics and they sung about partying, drinking, chicks and having fun. Hardrock bands used to have a positive attitude and they had a optimistic and hopefull feeling about them. That doesn't mean that heavy rock bands are well-behaved to the contrary they are lot tougher than all that metalcrap. It's just that that evil dungeonistic atmosphere that you get a lot in music nowadays didn't exist in the rockmusicof the 70s and 80s. One of the fundemental misconceptions that people have about hardrock is that heavy music must also by definition be dark or evil. This is complete nonsense. Just because music sounds loud or rough doesn't mean that it's also dark or brutal. You can sound loud and fun both at the same time. Heavy metal is loud music but it also has a party feel to it. It's exactly that happy Wayne's World attitude that makes hardrock so enjoyable.
It's completely unbelieveble that people on internet say stuff like "Iron Maiden is such an evil band" or "In the early eighties everyone sang about satan". Yeah right! That's without a doubt totall rubbish. Except for Venom and Mercyfull Fate nobody in the early eighties sang about satan. But that's probably the only bands those retards know. It's only in the 90s that bands started to sing about evil subjectmatter and in the 21st century it only got worse. That's because in last two decades we got a lot of crowd-followers who absolutely dont know a thing about heavy metal and let themselfs get brainwashed by the ignorant media who tell them that heavy rock is dark music. This whole "hardrock is demonic music" bullshit is offcourse made up by all those stupid punks who want to give heavy metal a bad name. Because if people believe that heavy rock is brutal and morbid music people with good taste will not listen to that kind of music. That's why it's important to tell people that heavy metal isn't dark or evil music but very smart and positive (but very rough and agressive) music. If metalheads say that something has that typical heavy metal feeling than they mean it's very evil or violent. Typical shallow interpretation that you would expect from them. If hardrockers tell you that something has got that genuine heavy metal feel they mean that there's passion in the music or that it's got a certain intensity or enthousiasm in it. So don't be fooled by all the bullshit that all those dorky indierockers are trying to tell you. HEAVY METAL ISN'T DARK MUSIC!! Everybody that thinks differently should be dropped in a stream with boiling hot lava.
Heavy metal bands allways use double-bass
"You can't make a hardrock record without having a double-bass blasting through all the songs"
Absolutely wrong. Everyone who listens to old-fashioned heavy metal records knows that drummers played simple four to the floor drumbeats. Double bass was very rarely used and only in fast songs. I don't understand that you have all these fake heavy metal fans who all think double bass is so wonderfull while hardrock bands in the past seldomly used them. I think every real hardrocker will throw up when he hears all these modern metal records were every bit of space is filled with DB-bass banging. I allways get annoyed when guys send ads to the musicpapers and they allways want a drummer with a double bass pedal something heavy rock bands in the past weren't interested in. If I would send an ad to a magazine I would insist that he would leave the fuckin double bass kit at home and just play simple 4/4 rhythms and if he doesn't like that that he can talk a walk. All that stupid double bass thumping must be stopped.
Powermetal sounds just like 80s heavy metal.
This must be without doubt the biggest bullshit that ever existed. All those crapbands like Sacred Steel, Angra, Avantasia and Twisted Tower Dire sound nothing like bands like Accept, Holocaust, Riot or Blackfoot. Powermetal bands didn't exist in the eighties definitely not in the first half of that decenium. Yet when bands like Hammerfall and Iced Earth came along in the late nineties you actually had magazines telling you that they were "real heavy metal that sounded just like the music of 15 years ago. What a joke! When I think of bands of that period i think of bands like Saxon, Judas Priest, Triumph, Jaguar or Krokus. All that insipid powermetal stuff is lightyears removed from those bands. It's only in the late 80s that you got some bands that started to vaguely resemble powermetal like Helloween, Realm, Sanctuary, Fates Warning and Metallica and even those bands weren't really powermetal yet. It's only in the 90s that powermetal started to take shape and it's only in the 21st century that it became a genre of itself. That's exactly the reason why it always makes me laugh when people say that bands like 3 Inches Of Blood, Disturbed or Paragon are authentic heavy metal bands while actually the are just as modern, shitty and pathetic sounding as Funaral For A Friend, LCD Sound System or The Hives. Come on! Just look at how those bands look like. They just look like they come from medieval times and they only sing about knights and trolls. That's not what bands in the eighties were like. Back then they sung about very contemporary subjectmatter and looked like that. That whole 'lord of the rings' feel didn't exist back then. So please lets lay that whole "powermetal is just like oldfashioned heavy rock" nonsense to rest.
The devilhornsalute is really heavy metal.
"Hardrockers have allways done that."
FUCK OF! The devilhornsalute is a really supermoden ritual that's typical for the stupidity of the modern rock/metal fan. A real heavy metal fan would rather cut of his pinky and index finger than make that stupid salute. It allways works on my nerves when I go to a heavy rock consert and I see all those idiots making that stupid DH-salute. It makes me want to shoot everybody in the crowd down with a machinegun. A lot of people think people in the past also did that. Then they are wrong because back in the 80s except for Ronnie James Dio nobody did that. It's only in the 90s people started to do that because of Metallica and particually arch-metalnerd Jason Newsted.It's only in the 21st century that it became obligatory to make the DH-salute. That's not surprising because all those metalheads are faceless herdfollowers who all do exactly the same as everybody else in the metal-targetaudience. Doing exactly what everybody expects from you is the ethos of metal. If you see photo's of hardrock groups in the past you never see anybody make that devilhornsalute. Nowadays you just know when you see a photograph of a metalband that everyone will be making the DH-salute without exception. The worst thing is when old heavy rock groups also start to make that fuckin DH-salute. It angers me when I see people like Rob Halford, Udo Dirkschneider or Gene Simmons also make that stupid salute. It's so clear that they are just going along with the trend. They only do that to please the metalyouth instead of distancing themselfs from such a stupid ritual that has nothing to do with oldfashioned hardrock. So please stop making that embarrising devilhornsalute and please let it die. Period.
Hardrockers allways wear black clothing
"Thats just part of heavy metal"
What a rubbish. Nowadays that may be so. If you go to a metalconcert you literaly see everybody dress in the same boring black clothing. The uniform is allways exactly the same; black bandshirt, black jeans, black bomberjacket, army boots. Really original (NOT). That used to be totally different. In the past everybody just wore what they liked and nobody cared what kind of colour belonged to the music. Heavy metal fans weren't bothered with how the looked. Image wasn't as important back then. If there was one colour that dominated in hardrock music it was BLUE. Just look at photographs of hardrockers back then and you notice that they often wear blue denim jeans and coats. Ofcourse they wore real jeans with diagonal lines not those ugly modern jeans with straight lines. Than you also have the bullshit that bandshirts have to be black. Not true. Aside from the fact that you in the past didn't have to wear bandshirts (there you go again) a lot of bandshirts were white. Just look at rockfans in the past and they often had white bandshirts. A lot of people think that bandshirts are often black because it must look dark. Nonsense. They are black because a brightly coloured picture looks better against a black background than a coloured background. Thats also the reason why a lot of metalheads wear black because they think it looks evil or dark while in reality it just looks very nerdish. So please wear clothes with a different colour than black it just looks horrible.
Heavy metal bands only sing about fairytales
"It's all dragons, unicorns and knights"
People who seriously think this should be struck by lightning. This is completely untrue. It's totally baffeling that fake hardrock mags like Aardschok or Kerrang say retarded stuff like "heavy metal bands allways sing about dungeons and dragons" or "knights fighting against dragons to save the princess". What a bullshit! I really feel like kicking somebody who says that in the face. This is only because of those stupid thick powermetal bands who give a totally wrong idea of what heavy metal is all about. Clearly people like that have never listened to the lyrics of groups like Accept, Grand Funk Railroad, Led Zeppelin, Samson or Motorhead because none of those bands have such wimpy fairytale lyrics. Have you not noticed that lot of metalbands have a medeival image. They allways have dragons or vikings on the frontcover and you allways see idiots on the bandpictures standing with swords or axes. You wont get that kind of stupid stuff with hardrock acts who allways have a very modern and present day look. All that whimsical nonsense was totally absent in the past where all the bands had an ordinary wayne's world look. Hardrock bands only sung very rarely about fantasy stuff and if they did it wasn't in that stupid metal way. On to the next ignorant myth!
Hardrock came out of classicall music
Or like Joey Damaio said "Richard Wagner is the godfather of heavy metal"
UTTER BOLLOCKS!! Every real hardrocker knows that heavy metal is inspired by the blues and that its ultra-simple music based on three chords. Listen to bands like Saxon, AC/DC, Deep Purple, UFO, Motley Crue, Accept etc. all bands that make staightforward raunchy rock n roll that's got absolutely nothing to do with classical music. The idea that people think heavy rock is inspired by classical music is ofcourse created by modern day metal. Lot of metal music sounds very bombastic, complex and whimsical and is filled with unnecessary schmaltzy stuff like violins, opera-singing, keyboards, flutes and all that other insipid stuff that a HM-fan absolutely hates. You hear a lot of this kind of stuff in powermetal(obviously) but also in a lot of extreme metal and lets not forget all those maudlin gothicmetal bands. In the hardrock music of the 70s/80s classical influences were a complete rarity and it was only used occasionally in instrumentals or solo's to give the songs a bit of distinction. The heavy rock groups of that time had a very stripped-down, down to earth no-nonsense approach. They had simple verse-chores-verse structures and used simple pentatonic scales and even often had simple 12-bar blues structures. Its only when Metallica came along with their complicated and unnecessary complex music that you started to get classical influences in heavy metal. Lets not forget Yngwie Malmsteen and all the other annoying shred guitarists who all thaught that they would become the new Beethoven on guitar. Its in the 90s and 21st century that classical music became a fundamental part of metal and you got all these twerpish bands like Dream Theater, After Forever and Blind Guardian that have absolutely nothing to do with the gritty essence of heavy rock. But its totally understandible that people believe this crap because the press is run by all these arty musicnerds and all those punks will do anything they can to discredit the rock n roll approach of heavy metal even though all those classic rock bands kick all those dorky pseudo rock bands in th ass. Don't let yourself get brainwashed by all that wikipedia bullshit. Hardrock has absolutely nothing in common with classical music and THATS THAT!
Judas Priest started the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal
Completely wrong! There is no band that was the big instigator of the NWOBHM. Ted Nugent, Deep Purple, Montrose, AC/DC, Van Halen, Status Quo, Black sabbath, ZZ Top, Motorhead, Wishbone Ash etc. were just as influencial on that movement as Judas Priest. This whole JP is the big influence on the NWOBHM myth is a typical example the ignorant pack mentality of a lot of metalfans who simply repeat what they hear other people say. It's simply not true. The 'New Wave of British Heavy Metal' are a very broad and varied group of bands and all sounded different. Judas Priest is also not any louder than the other 70's band. Bands like Rainbow, AC/DC, UFO and Triumph are just as heavy. You notice when NWoBHM bands mention their influences they allways name a lot other bands beside Judas Priest. Iron Maiden has for instance never covered any Judas Priest's songs on their B-sides. This ofcourse doesn't mean that Judas Priest didn't have any influence on those bands to the contrary they had a lot of influence only not any more than all the other bands mentioned above
Hardrock bands used to have hair all the way down to their ass.
"You must have long hair to like heavy metal"
It allways makes me laugh when I'm in a pub or a recordshop and I overhear a couple off blokes talking and they make these ridiculous remarks like "hardrockers used to all have long hair" or "Nowadays heavy metal bands all have short hair not like in the past". I wonder what people mean with "the past" but if they mean the eighties then they are absolutely wrong. Ofcourse long hair belongs to heavy rock but its hardly mandatory. Actually a lot of bands didn't have that long hair at all. Mostly they had half long hair down to their shoulders and sometimes even shorter than that. It's only in the 90s that metalbands grew their hair very long. Which is ofcourse not surprising because the pack-mentality reigns supreme in the metalscene wear everything has to fit in to very strict and narrow rules. They have been told be all the target-audience analists that metalheads must have long hair and ofcourse all those metalzombies follow suit without hesitation. When heavy metal guys used to have long hair it allways looked clean and tidy as if it was washed with shampoo and conditioner. Nowadays it looks more like they wash it with mud which makes you wonder what's the point in having long hair if its only gonna look so ugly. They allways have their hair parted in the middle they while never part it on the side or do something different with their hair. So this idea that there was a mythical era that hardrockers all had long hair and that they later suddenly all cut it of can only by filed under the catagory of complete bullshit. Dont let any of those crowd-followers tell you that they you have to wear your hair long to be a heavy metal fan because back in the old days they didn't all do that.
Powermetal doesn't come from speed/thrashmetal
"It sounds like the normal heavy metal of that time"
Powermetal would not have existed without thrash! Bands like Hammerfall, Gamma Ray, Nevermore or Brainstorm are 100% influenced by speedmetal and not the ordinary hardrock of that time. Just think about it. The ordinary heavy metal from the past does not have double bass, heavy compressed guitars, high operatic vocals or fairytale lyrics. If the powermetal bands had sounded like heavy rock bands from the 80s they would have sang about girls or cars or played simple partyrock riffs and straightforward four to the floor drums. The PM groups just sound to whimsical and complex to be compared to bands like Mamas Boys, Sinner, Rainbow or Keel. You started getting all these crappy influences in trashmetal that you later got in powermetal. Actually powermetal is just a continuation of the bay-area metal sound except where those bands still sounded somewhat tough and rebelious the PM acts that followed them from the nineties onwards had a complete wimpy and overblown approach. Bands like Metallica, Magedeth and Fates Warning allready had that unnecessary complex sound with lots of irritating double bass banging that is at odds with the simple toe-tapping approach of bands like Helix or Accept. The high-pitched screaming also started with speedmetal bands just listen to acts like Toxik, Realm, Agent Steel or Sanctuary and you can hear where all those nerdmetal bands get their inspiration from which they definately dont get from the bluesy Paul Rogers/Ian Gillan style singing that heavy rock bands used to have. Even though the speedmetal bands did not have fantasy lyrics you did start getting that kind of cheesy subject matter more often in thrash just listen to the band Omen and you know what I mean something ordinary hardrock bands didn't sing about. If powermetal bands like Sacred Steel or Dragonforce had released their cds in the 80s they would have been considered as thrashmetal and had speedmetal groups like Overkill or Forbidden made their music nowadays than they would have been powermetal bands not thrash. So powermetal is totally a product of thrash and it should never by compared to the ordinary heavy metal of that time. Period!
Heavy metal groups allways sing with a high voice
"Especially the bands from the past"
Complete crap! Everybody who knows anything about hardrock music knows that the bands from the past did not sing with a high pitched opera voice. The heavy metal acts from back then all had a completely different way of singing not like the metalbands from today who all sing the same. Actually a lot of heavy rock singers sang with low-pitched and tough-sounding voice. Just listen to Ian Gillan or David Lee Roth. Or people like David Coverdale, Phil Mogg or Rock n Rolf who have a rough no-nonsense way of singing. Lets not start talking about Lemmy. Ofcourse there were singers with a high voice but they didn't sing in that horrible opera way that you get with powermetal groups. Just listen to Ted Nugent or the singers of Rush or Raven. The bands from the NWOBHM had low pitched and shouting ways of singing. Just listen to bands like Battleaxe, Praying Mantis, Tank, Holocaust, Chariot etc. People like Bruce Dickenson or Rob Halford who are often the usuall suspects when it comes to this discussion don't really sing that high. They actually have a normal way of singing. I get incredibly irritated when you mention the name of Bruce Dickenson or Rob Halford you get these idiots who put on a high shrieking voice. They do not sing like that! People who say this should get their head blown of with a shotgun. That high-pitched opera way of singing only started with Geoff Tate of Queensryche. Who was succeeded by Lizzy Borden's out of tune wailing. It is a typical American phenomenon (ofcourse) that high squeling singing. It became more prominent with the arrival of speedmetal and bands like Toxic, Sanctuary, Tyrant, Realm or Hades had that ball-crushing high pitched way of singing. But it is in 90s/00s that it became standard with the arrival of powermetal (that is inspired by thrash) that metal bands sang like that. High-pitched singing is an modern day phenomenon nothing oldfasioned about that. Singing with a high voice is not what defines the vocals of old heavy metal groups it is the bluesy way singing that makes it typical. That is the reason why powermetal acts are so fake because the don't have a bluesy feel in their voice.
Thrashbands are real heavy metal. Hairmetal groups are a bunch of posers.
This claim would be laughable if it were not for the fact that a lot of idiots believe it. People who believe this should be lynched because it is complete bullshit. It's 180 degrees the other way round. Thrashgroups like Slayer, Metallica, Exodus and all the rest of those retardbands are fake-sounding and it's the glammetal bands that make real heavy metal. Just listen to genuine hardrock acts like Judas Priest, AC/DC, Accept, Ozzy Osbourne, Nazareth, ZZ Top etc. and you can clearly hear that bands like Motley Crue, Wasp, Guns n Roses and Poison sound much more like those band than all that speedmetal crap. It are the so-called hairmetal groups that continue the HM sound that was popular before that while the trashmetal acts clearly sounded very different from the traditional hardrock sound. Ofcourse bands like Twisted Sister, Dokken or Britney Fox sound like genuine heavy metal. They have got the same bluesy vocals, groovy rifs, pumping basslines and 4/4 drumbeats and s&d&r&r lyrics. Just like the bands from the past they play in a midtempo pace with occasionally a fast song. The speedmetal bands sound nothing like the heavy rock of the past with their chainsaw guitars, double bass bashing, monotonous yelling and horror lyrics. It's completely different music than real hardrock and unbelievable that fans of the kind of moronic music dare to call the glammetal bands who do make real heavy metal posers. All those buffoons should apologize to all those genuine hardrock bands. But this has nothing to do with the music it is only because of the so-called gay image. This explains why a lot of people do not like hairmetal because they wear make-up. Do you really think people would hate those bands if they had beards and mustaches and wore ordinary clothes? Ofcourse not! A lot of those herdfollowers probably think that bands like Twisted Sister or Vinnie Vincent Invasion dress like that because they want to look like women. Everybody with brains in their head know that they dress like that because of the stageshow not because they want to look wimpy. But metalheads will believe anything that they have been told without any hesitation. If you just teel them often enough that thrashmetal is good and that hairmetal is bad they will totally accept it. Clear evidence that metalfans base their opinion on image that on (musical) content. So please don't listen to all those imposters who want to fool you that speedmetal groups are better/more real than the hairmetal(genuine hardrock) bands. IT IS ABSOLUTE NONSENSE! DISCUSSION CLOSED!!
Heavy metal used to be unoriginal music and it became more varied later on
Absolute rubbish! This is 180 degrees the other way round. It was the hardrock music of the past that was innovative and original and it's the retarded metalcrap that you get nowadays that sounds all the same. The formula is very predictable. You just know when you put on a metalrecord you will be greeted by annoying grunts, screams, double bass thumping and soulles chainsaw guitars. Which is ofcourse accompanied with the standard black clothing, devilhorn salutes and boring black clothing. The heavy metal of the past on the other hand was filled with interesting ideas. If you still think hardrock bands used to sound the same and were one-dimensional then you must listen to songs like 'Magicians Birthday' (Uriah Heep), 'Blinding Light Show' (Triumph), 'Rime Of The Ancient Mariner' (Iron Maiden), 'Achilles Last Stand (Led Zeppelin). All very unique sounding songs that debunk the idea that ''heavy metal is stupid music for close-minded people''. I can mention another 100 examples. And what do the metalbands of today have to counter that? Completely braindead and cliche sounding groups like Biohazard, Cannibal Corpse, Dimmu Borgir, Powerwolf, Trivium, Within Temptation and the list goes on. What an inovative music ladies and gentlemen! It's like there has been no progress in metalmusic for the last twenty years. What you hear now is exactly the same as what was going on back then it has only got much worse. The hardrock groups of the past sounded different every couple of years not just musically but also in appearance.
Have you noticed that you can sum up all the metalgenres in just a couple of words. Deathmetal: growling vocals, gorelyrics, deathmarch-riffs, Blackmetal: screaming vocals, satanic lyrics, screechy guitars, Powermetal: high opera singing, fantasy lyrics, overblown music, Hardcore: barking vocals, thuggish lyrics, king-kong riffs, Gothic: wimpy girl singing, vampire/suicide lyrics, gay-sounding fairytale music. So there! Zero originality. Dont you notice how shallow all these descriptions sound. But depth isn't something metalheads care about. This is a lot more difficult when applied to hardrock. Can you just describe the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal in a couple of words? Absolute not! They were far to diverse to be just summed up in such a shallow way. That is because heavy rock bands didn't let themselves be put into a narrow format and just did what they liked. Nowadays you have all these very strict rules with metalgroups and they don't stray an inch from standard expectations. Another reason why metalbands sound so the same as that they have no personality. Metalbandss have a very faceless and exchangable image. While hardrock acts have charisma and personality in spades. You notice when acts like Rainbow, AC/DC or Black Sabbath replace their singer it effects the appeal of that band. This is the reason why a heavy metal band did not have to be particulary original because the personality of the singer or even the other bandmembers gave the band their own unique sound. You could replace all the members of a deathmetal group and you wouldn't hear a difference. You can't destinguish metalbands from each other. Even if a metalact tries to be different take for example Opeth than they will not really sound any different than all the rest of the metalherd because they have the same annonymous appeal.
What irritates me the most when people say that the metalmusic of today is so ''varied'' because there are so many styles. Let me make one thing very clear. There are no different styles! Metalheads have the bad habit of giving everything that sounds slightly different a genrename even though their is no real difference. You should see through that. The reason why blackmetal and deathmetal are considered two separate styles is not because the are really different (they are just two variations of the same style) but because of the closeminded views of metalfans.Heavy metal hasn't became a more broader style of music it has become more divided into these meaningless divisions who only differ in minute little details. This ofcourse allways goes together with the idea that hardrock used to be a very unvaried style because you did not have all these little annoying styles. The reason you did not have any substyles back then is because the bands were individualistic enough not to be put in such a narrow mold. Phrases like 'hardrock', 'heavy metal' or 'heavy rock' were good enough. There is more difference between the indivdual songs from bands like Judas Priest, Rush and Motley Crue than between all those ''different" styles.
Heavy metal is anti-commercial music that belongs in the underground
If you read the stuff that gets writen on websites with "dedicated" sounding names like 'metal4life' or 'metal to the bone' then you will see these embarrising statements like "heavy metal is real underground music" or "hardock is hated by the mainstream". Somebody that isn't in the know might think that heavy rock is very obscure music that is only liked by devoted followers. To everone thinking this i say the following: HEAVY METAL HAS ALLWAYS BEEN COMMERCIAL MUSIC!! That kind of underground-attitude did not exist in the hardrock of the 70s/80s. Bands like Kiss, Judas Priest, Van Halen, AC/DC, Quiet Riot etc. played in huge arena's, sold millions of albums and even had hits. Even the lesser known acts like Molly Hatchet, Accept, Loudness or Helix have sold at least a million records. Not exactly unknown music. Hardrock is not like punk were it's the rule that it should remain small-scale. Only when trashmetal came along especially since the nineties did that start to play an important rolein heavy metal. Much to the annoyance of many hardrockers. But metalfans are a bunch of punks anyway. It is also complete nonsense that heavy rock is hated by the mainstream. As if the 75 million people who bought Iron Maiden records are all hardcore rock fans or the 100 mil. Black Sabbath fans or the 250mil. Led Zeppelin fans. The mainstream has allways loved heavy metal. No my friends it is the elite that has allways hated this kind of music and has done everything in its power to make it as difficult as possible for hardrock bands. Magazines like Mojo or Spin are responsible for all those lies about heavy rock. That is exactly were this bullshit that heavy metal is underground music comes from. They only say that to keep heavy rock ghettoized and to keep people from listening to classic rock and to stop the bands from becoming a succes even though it used to be completely normal. It is time to get this music out of the ghetto and make heavy metal popular again. Hardrock commercial? Absolutely and I'm 100% proud of it. Don't forget that braindead bands like Cannibal Corpse and Marduk are typically underground. You do not want to be a part of that.
Heavy metal bands only use cheerless melodies it must sound scary
One of the fundamental misunderstandings about hardrock is that it's dark, gloomy or evil music. Bands that play loud or agressive can by definition only sound depressing or devilish. This is totally untrue because heavy metal groups from the past often had happy and cheerfull melodies. It's only when thrash arrived that people started using funeral melodies which became the standard in the metal from the nineties onward. You can sound tough and energetic and still have a sense of fun. Something the ignorant rockherd just doesn't want to accept. What annoys me the most and I hear this from guitar teachers, guitarworld and all those stupid video's on youtube that heavy rock guitarists allways use the Aeolian scale. That's complete crap! This scale is used just as much as the six other seven-note scales. You play the aeolian scale by playing the white keys on a piano from A to the higher A. This gets used often in hardrock but it is definately not dominant. The major scales (Ionian, Lydian, Mixolydian), neutral (Dorian) and the other two minor scales (Locrian, Phrygian) are used just as much in heavy metal. For instance the New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands often used major keys (just listen to acts like Raven, Demon or Tygers of Pan Tang) or southern rock groups or with American hardrock music. Ofcourse pentatonic scales or used the most often. Don't be fooled by their incorrect bullshit and use the melodies you want to.
Hardrock bands don't sing about love. It's all hate and violence in heavy metal
I often read stuff that people are writing on music forums and lot of it is rubbish. The subject of love songs is discussed regularly. Ofcourse you are going to hear names like Celine Dion, Whitney Houston of Elton John and other middle of the road artists because well.. rockbands don't sing about wimpy subjectmatter like girls and love ....right? AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! This drives me crazy. Yes hardrockbands also sing about this stuff. Songs about girls, romance, relationships, heartbreak, sex etc. are completely normall in heavy rock. You can make a K-tell '20 lovesongs the hardrock edition'. Thats how often they sung about it. You sometimes wonder if people actually read the lyrics of the bands they are listening to. I get it it is very difficult to take the lyricsheet out of the sleeve on see for yourself what it is about. Watch out you might break a leg while doing this. You can also just listen to the music and hear what they are singing about. How often do bands have a songtitle with the word 'Heartbreaker' in them. Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk, Free, Rolling Stones, Touched, Darxon. Or 'Victim Of Love' Whitesnake, Wildfire 'Lovechild' Deep Purple, Accept 'In And Out Of Love' Bon Jovi, Heavy Pettin. And the list goes on. That's a lot of songs with the words 'heart','love', 'fool' or 'Little Miss'. This often gets pared with the nonsensical idea that heavy rock acts only sing about murder and death which refers to the so-called mythical dark past of heavy metal. In reality hardrock bands only occasionally sing about violent subjectmatter. If they sing about this they do that to express frustration or to create drama in their music or to be menacing not because they want to be threatening or scary. This is just another attempt to portray heavy metal as something dorky or naff. As if hardrockers are naive nerds without any social skills. This can be neatly filed under the category 'complete nonsense'. Especially with all the Warren Beatty's that used to dominate rockmusic. There is nothing wimpy about songs that are about love and heartbreak. Hardrock bands of the past sounded a lot tougher with their lyrics about women and sex than all that metal crap with their nerdy songs about satan and vikings.
Hardrock bands only use powerchords instead of full chords.
You will see hundreds of video on youtube made by guys giving you guitar lessons. You can learn a lot of good things from them but a lot of what they say is rubbish. One of those things is that rockbands only play powerchords. A powerchord is an important part of the musical arsenal of the rockguitarist but this is so overexaggerated. Hardrock guitarists actually often use major or minor chords or other chords. Good example is 'Running With The Devil' where the chorus has major chords. There is no powerchord used in that song even though they clearly use distortion. Lots of songs from Van Halen and all the other heavy rock groups are like that. But all that seems to go completely unnoticed by these guitar tutors. They repeat the some mantra over and over that you can only use powerchords because full chords will sound blurry when you use distortion or something along those lines. This can be filed under the heading of 'complete bullshit' because you can play a full chord like a major or a minor and still use full on distortion with out sounding fuzzy. Ofcourse we play full chords. What did you think. It will become a bit boring after a while if you only use powerchords. For the people who do not know what a powerchord is. Its a chord without the third minor/major so that you only have the rootnote and the fifth note. For that reason its often called a 5 chord. Thats one string up from the basenote two frets ahead. Thats x57x or x577x. You also have powerchords that have more than three notes like the open G5 chord 3x0033 that lots of rockacts used to have. Or the open E5 chord 022400 (the rush 'xanadu' chord) is another example. You also have other chords thar consist out of two notes like the 4 chord where the second note one string above the first note like x55x or x557x. There are 5 frets in between the notes instead of seven. Ted Nugent used these a lot like in 'Cat Scratch Fever'. Then you have powerchords that where the major/minor third is played but not the fifth. You play the maj3 (x54x) four frets higher the min3 (x53x) three frets higher. If you play these in sequence you get very powerfull riffs. Like in Motley Crue's 'Too Young Too Fall In Love'. Proof that you dont have to play 5-chords to get a sense of might.
But o no the Rick Beatto's and Ben Eller's tell you. You should use powerchords because they sound powerfull and you wont get that of you use full chords. Nope you can play a major chord and it can sound just as mighty as a powerchord. Just listen to Quit Riot's 'Metal Health' they play a Amaj 0222 a Csus2 3x033 than a open G5 3x0033 and ends with D/F# 2x023. Thats great. I hear this so often which proves that you dont need powerchords to sound powerfull. People who discover rockmusic for the first time are allways exposed to that muddy sound that bands have today that confirm that idea. Ofcourse most current musicfans are totally incapable of distinguishing between different types of rock and dont realise that bands used to have a more professional sound. Nirvana sounds that way so Nightranger must also sound like that. But 80s rock has a very different sound from 90s rock and used distortion that sounded clearer that gives more room to play different chords. The blurry sound that nineties bands had where the different notes sound less destinct from each other then ofcourse the chords you going to use will sound less defined. I think lot of guitar teachers only know that type of music and get a wrong idea of distortion. Lets not forget that metal also plays a huge role in these misconceptions metal has ofcourse been invented to give hardrock a bad name. They play deathmarch riffs that only lend themselves to powerchords. With that ugly chainsaw guitarsound you can't play anything more then two notes.
Another nonsense explanation is that you should use powerchords so that the tonality will be ambigious and that you have "more freedom" as player. Which doesnt make sense because if you do not use full chords your are limiting your music enourmously. We want people to hear in what tonality we are playing that gives your music character. If you only play powerchords your music will sound very predictable and anonymous. Just listen to metalgroups they only play powerchords and they all sound the same. If i want to play a song in say mixolydian i want listener to be aware that its in that mode and you reach that by playing a major, minor or other chords. Just look at Alex Lifeson who uses loads of different chords imagine if he only played powerchords the music of Rush would sound very boring. But thats exactly what they want you to think. This is just another attempt by the music industry to discourage you of making hardrock music. They are just trying to limit you by making you think that you only have a few options. This is all part of the 'lets turn heavy metal in to something stupid' project that they have been pushing on us since bands like Metalica and Anthrax came along. What are the reasons that hardrock bands often use powerchords? Because it is an easy wat to fill up your songs. You just need to put a few powerchords here and there and you can let a few bars pass by and that will feel musically satisfying. The most important reason is that rock is fairly straightforward music. The structure is simple and the powerchord is the most simple chord so they get used a lot. This is not classical or jazz where they play very unusual chords or melodies. Rock is a lot more minimal and because of the volume you need to play less chords than with acoustic folkmusic where you play full chords using a strumpattern. This has nothing to do with that you cant play full chords because of distortion or that you dont sound mighty or that your tonality is too defined. Thats just herdopinion. So play whatever you want and use your imagination and dont let all those musicprofessors tell how you should play.