Below are all the posts I’ve written for this blog, listed in one place. They are roughly organized by time period and (sub)genre, which makes some time overlap between the categories.
Thanks to a reader named Will Pearce for suggesting this improvement!
Multi-style / Genre-wide studies
How Much Math is in Math Rock? Riffs, Progressive Rhythm, and Embodied Music Theory (Meshuggah, Dream Theater, Metallica)
How Much Math is in Math Rock? Part II: The Evolution of Meshuggah’s (not so) Radical Style (Meshuggah, Slayer, Metallica, Pantera, Voivod, Anthrax)
Compound AABA Form and Style Distinction in Heavy Metal (too many bands to list here; 1969-present, from hard rock to death metal)
Bang your Head: Construing Beat through Familiar Drum Patterns in Metal Music (main examples include Metallica, Pantera, Amon Amarth)
Song Form and Storytelling in Mainstream Metal (main examples include Mercyful Fate, Death, Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Pantera)
Early Metal: before 1975
“Summertime Blues” in the Wintertime? — Blue Cheer and the birth of metal
A Pre-History of Headbanging Before Black Sabbath
Metal Is Not Unique: Comparing Black Sabbath “Black Sabbath” to Other Late-60s Experimental Rock
New Wave of British Heavy Metal (1975-early 1980s)
Chorus Without Words: Iron Maiden’s “Remember Tomorrow”
Turnarounds and Tonality in Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train”
Vamp or Cadence? Exploring Strategies for Ending Songs in Motörhead’s “Overkill”
Metal Without Riffs? “If I Were King” by Vardis
Accidental Variation in Jaguar’s “Back Street Woman”
Incomplete Choruses in Sweet Savage’s “Eye of the Storm”
Instrumental Verse-Chorus Form? Compound AABA in “Transylvania” by Iron Maiden
Metal in the 1980s and early 1990s (Thrash, Progressive, Hair/Glam)
Metallica and the Case of the Missing 32nd Note
Form and Narrative in Metallica’s “The Call of Ktulu”
“Fade to Black” and the Performativity of Genre (ISMMS 2017 conference paper)
Metering Constructions and 3+3+2 Rhythms in Thrash Metal (SMT 2017 Conference Paper)
7/8 or 4/4? Measuring Meter in Metallica’s “Kill ‘Em All”
Mixed Reviews: Early Review of Metallica’s “Ride the Lightning” (translated from German)
Microtiming in a Riff from Metallica’s “Master of Puppets”
Metal Monoliths: Epic Scale in “Suite Sister Mary” by Queensrÿche
Grunge, Nu-Metal, and Extreme Metal (up through the early 2000s)
Deja vu in “Fragments” by Witch-Hunt (new retrospective release)
What’s (not) so metal about System of a Down? Past Styles in Modern Metal
Interrogating the Origin Myth of Celtic Frost
Form and Narrative in Type O Negative’s “Black No. 1”
Subtle Meter Shifting in Pantera’s “Primal Concrete Sledge”
Fragments of Riffs and Small Alterations in Meshuggah’s “obZen”
The Promise and Perils of Online Sources: Trying to Figure Out a Riff from Death’s “Torn To Pieces”
Why is Slipknot so Heavy? Structural Acceleration in Slipknot’s “Duality”
Metal in the 21st Century
The Longest Riff Turnaround in the World? “The Last Hope in a World of Hopes” by Temperance
The Music Theory Unicorn in the Most Metal Anime Theme Song Ever Made (“The Rumbling” by SiM)
Give the Grammy to “Body Count”
Guest Post by Calder Hannan: Metric Complexity in Car Bomb’s “Lights Out”
Inversions of Values in Ghost’s “Cirice”
Wayne’s World and World Record Headbanging
Disconnecting Rhythm and Pitch in Meshuggah’s “Nostrum”
Fragments and Asymmetrical Repetitions: Meshuggah-like Rhythms in Tesseract’s “Retrospect”
Guest Post by Calder Hannan: Disconnected Layers of Meter in Inter Arma’s “The Atavist’s Meridian”