Month: May 2015

A Pre-History of Headbanging Before Black Sabbath

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I just wanted to share this conference paper which I will be presenting in a few weeks! It was written for the Modern Heavy Metal conference this June in Finland, and will be included in a conference proceedings book. But I wanted to make sure the paper was available to anyone, not just people who have the time and money to attend the conference.

The paper can be downloaded for free at the link below; it is copyrighted by myself and by the organizers of the conference, so please do not reprint without contacting me for permission. Enjoy!

“Metal Movements: Headbanging as a Legacy of African American Dance” on Academia.edu

“Metal Movements: Headbanging as a Legacy of African American Dance” PDF

Edit: The full conference proceedings are now available online.

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Fragments and Asymmetrical Repetitions: Meshuggah-like Rhythms in Tesseract’s “Retrospect”

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Note: This is part of a series commemorating the 25-year anniversary of the band Meshuggah by exploring the roots and legacy of Meshuggah’s style of progressive metal rhythm.

Meshuggah’s unique rhythmic style is instantly identifiable, and it is easy to hear their influence in a number of recent bands. A number of Meshuggah’s imitators have been clustered together by fans and critics under the genre label “Djent.” This name supposedly refers to the staple sound of the style, a palm-muted power chord played with heavy distortion on the lower strings of a 7- or 8-string guitar. One of the more successful bands in this style is Tesseract, who layer the Meshuggah-influenced Djent sound with clean vocals, soaring choruses, and softer acoustic sections. A representative example of their style is the song “Retrospect” from their second studio album Altered State (2013).

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