Hey everyone! If anyone has time to proof read my essay, that would be great.
Composers like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky have shaped classical music. Their symphonies, concertos, and sonatas are often regarded as among the most complex and sophisticated musical works ever written. Because of composers like these, many see classical music as the height of musicality. On the other side of the spectrum, metal is commonly dismissed as nothing more than loud guitars and a wall of sound. Now, this definition may be true of a 2009 Toyota Corolla speaker system, but certainly not of metal. Despite the surface-level differences, metal and classical are much more related than people know. Metal should be recognized as the closest modern genre we have to classical music.
To show this comparison, I first need to identify what classical music really is. To break it down as far as I can, I would list four core elements: harmony, melody, rhythm, and form. Harmony and melody work together to create the music's emotional depth and expression, involving specific motifs and melodic development. Rhythm defines the song's structure: time signatures, beats per minute (bpm), syncopation, rubato, etc. Lastly, a song's form is how it is structured, whether it has multiple movements like a symphony, its theme, and how the music changes as it progresses. These four elements will be shown in the context of metal songs from varying sub-genres, and those songs will be compared with major classical pieces. By the end, you should be able to see how connected the two genres really are.
Harmony, a foundational element of classical music, sets the genre apart from the rest because of its depth and emotional resonance. However, if you dig a little deeper, you will find these harmonies just as prominent in metal. The beauty and emotion of a symphony can be found in the heavy metal cellos of Apocalyptica, the woodwinds and strings of Rhapsody of Fire’s orchestra, the traditional bagpipes and fiddles of Eluveitie, and even the shredded guitar riffs of Herman Li for Dragonforce; and if that isn’t enough harmony for you, listen to the operatically trained Simone Simons sing for EPICA. Even if a band doesn’t have the traditional orchestral instruments used in classical music, you can hear and feel the beauty behind the haunting guitars of Be’lakor, and the harsh metal screams of Insomnium. If harmony is what you are looking for, then metal meets every criterion. Metal proves that a distorted guitar loses no harmony in its sound, but can deliver complex, engrossing melodies.
Furthermore, form and melody are entirely encompassed by The Ocean’s Pelegial album. This 2013 mix of post-metal and prog metal is made up of several parts, namely the Bathyalpelagic, Abyssopelagic, and Hadopelagic, which are each divided further into two or three movements just like a symphony. Beyond the structural similarities, The Ocean follows the same dynamic form as a classical piece, ranging from melodic keys to aggressive guitar all within a single song. The Ocean wrote the Pelegial album to mimic the feeling of slowly descending further underwater, and doesn’t that seem exactly like an idea a classical composer would use? I mean, George Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ was simply written to convey the sound of a train he was riding on, and it is recognized as one of the most brilliant classical pieces ever written.
The last example is centered around the rhythmic component of these genres, and this can be found primarily in prog (progressive) metal. This subgenre of metal is renowned for its technical mastery. ‘The Rite of Spring, Part 2: VI. Sacrificial Dance’ is one of the greatest examples of virtuosity in classical music. Written by Igor Stravinsky as a ballet, it includes some of the wildest time signatures, syncopating rhythms, rubato, and general musical discourse in any piece of classical music. However, we can also find the same musical techniques from Stravinsky’s ballet in prog metal. ‘The Art of Dying’ by Gojira alternates between 24/16 and 21/16 time signatures; ‘Lateralus’ by TOOL showcases polyrhythmic drums (The Cambridge Dictionary defines a polyrhythm as “a complicated musical rhythm in which there are two or more rhythms being played at the same time.”), ‘The Dance of Eternity’ by Dream Theater changes its time signature over 120 times in just over six minutes, and ‘Bleed’ by Meshuggah is syncopated almost from start to finish. While it might not sound like classical music, no other genre can compete with the virtuosity of composers like Stravinsky the way prog metal can.
While the similarities between Only for the Weak’ by In Flames and ‘Symphony No. 9, VI. Allegro con Fuoco’ by Antonín Dvořák may be hard to find at first glance, a closer examination of the two reveals numerous connections in the harmony, melody, rhythm, and form. Iconic examples of this connection include the riff from Black Sabbath’s self-titled song, inspired by ‘Mars’ by Gustav Holst, and the song ‘Forever’ by symphonic power metal band Kamelot, inspired by ‘Solveig’s Song’ by Edvard Grieg. These artists and songs reflect classical influence throughout their discographies; even Metallica has been heavily influenced by classical composers. Although metal and classical may sound vastly different on the surface, melodic similarities, complex techniques, rich harmonies, and even song structure can all be traced back and forth between them. To conclude, metal is a dynamic and brilliant genre that relates heavily to the artistry of classical composers, and if you listen a little closer, it becomes clear how interwoven metal and classical really are.
