107 Amazing Metal Music Facts That Will Interest You!

Heavy metal is known for its loud and extreme music and has become one of the most popular genres of music since its inception and has given birth to various subgenres of music.

Early heavy metal musicians who pioneered the genre used the structures of rhythmic, rock, and technical aspects of the music and incorporated super-fast drumming and distorted guitar.

Heavy metal is most popularly known for its dark lyrics, which they are often targeted for; however, not all bands have the same style of lyrics, and different subgenres focus on other aspects of the world.

Heavy metal music has given birth to various forms of the style, with many heavy metal bands departing from the original basis of the music style. These subgenres have gained popularity of their own and have branched into further smaller or larger subgenres.

The most famous subgenres are glam metal, death metal, grindcore, and nu-metal.

Heavy metal music is believed to have picked up the pace in the industry in the late '60s and the early '70s as a branch of hard rock. The first three forerunners of the genre are Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath.

In the late '70s, metal bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden got rid of the influence of blues music in heavy metal and merged it with punk, rock, and fast-tempo guitar and drum works, and in turn, created the British Heavy Metal wave.

With the advent of the '80s, thrash metal and glam metal gained popularity as they were a subgenre of heavy metal.

Metal continued to evolve for decades and led to the creation of genres like nu-metal and metalcore.

Bands like Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax revolutionized metal in the '80s and created the thrash metal genre known for its harsh vocals, fast tempos, and guitar riffs.

If you like this article about metal music facts, be sure to check out articles about Chinese music facts and classical music facts too!

Metal Music Artists

Metal music artists like Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Slayer, Motorhead, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Megadeth have played a respectable role in the transformation and inception of the heavy metal music scene. They helped give birth to subbranches of heavy metal in the form of thrash metal, black metal, death metal, nu-metal, and power metal.

English heavy metal band Judas Priest is credited with the revolution of the fashion industry in the heavy metal scene! They were famous for their provocative dressing sense and became one of the most influential bands during the metal era of the '80s.

The American death metal band Cannibal Corpse has been banned from performing in several countries because of their over-the-top lyrics and horrific depictions of death in the music videos!

James Hetfield, the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and the lead vocalist of the band Metallica, is one of the most influential musicians of the metal genre and has helped the metal scene grow worldwide with his skills. His first look into the world of instruments was when he was nine years old.

He started learning the piano because of the cookies he would get at the end of the lessons! Hetfield credits this piano-playing experience to make it easier to sing and play the guitar.

Jon Schaffer, the last remaining member of the American heavy metal band, Iced Earth, began his foray into the world of music because of his horrid time at a Lutheran School. He wanted to prove the people wrong and hence started a band.

Ritchie Blackmore, the guitarist of the heavy metal bands Rainbow and Deep Purple, is considered to be the founders of the 'guitar shredders.'

Darrell Lance Abbott, or Dimebag Darell as he is popularly known, is one of the most influential heavy metal guitarists even after he died in 2004. However, a fact about him is that he did not like playing the guitar as a child.

He even chose a BMX bike over a guitar as a kid and eventually began his music days mastering the drums before he gave it up for a guitar.

After learning rock and roll riffs, he, alongside his brother Vinnie, formed the band Pantera in 1981, and the band released their first album Metal Magic in 1983. Today, Pantera is seen as one of the most popular heavy metal bands in the world!

Black Sabbath has seen a plethora of musicians join and leave the band. They have had 27 official members throughout their years of being active.

American thrash metal band Megadeth was recognized by the Human Society of the United States in 1993's Society Genesis Awards for their work on their fifth album, 'Countdown to Extinction.' The songs' Sink o' My teeth' and 'Symphony of Destruction' were two of the most famous songs from the album.

Megadeth was also awarded the Doris Day Music Award to raise awareness about the dangers of poaching and animal rights.

Adam Jones, the guitarist of the American heavy metal band Tool, is rated as the 75th best guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone. However, before he joined the band, he was offered a scholarship in the film industry but rejected it to study sculpture and art in Los Angeles.

He began working as a sculptor and visual effect designer in films.

He picked up most of his skills during this phase and put all his skills into the music videos that Tool would go on to release. Jones' showreel includes his works on famous movies like Ghostbuster II and Jurassic Park!

The creation of the heavy metal guitar was caused by a bodily injury! Tomy Iommi, one of the most famous guitarists of all time and a member of the band Black Sabbath, lost his middle and ring fingers while working in a factory.

Doctors told him his guitar playing days were over, but he created prosthetic fingertips using an old leather jacket for himself.

These fingertips helped him but affected the sound of his guitar. His ability to bend the guitar's strings would later become a signature of the sound that Black Sabbath produced.

Some bands take mislabeling very seriously! In a 2014 episode of The Simpsons, Bart Simpson refers to heavy metal band Judas Priest as 'death metal.' Because of fan outrage, the show's writers apologized to the band, and a shot of Bart writing down on the blackboard' Judas Priest is not 'Death Metal" can be seen in the episode.

The guitar solo to the 1984 song 'You Just Got Lucky' by heavy metal band Dokken was shot on an actual volcano while they were touring in Hawaii! Seismic activity increased during the filming, but the band kept on filming.

They finally stopped when park rangers came up to them and asked them to stop. The volcano erupted when the band was getting ready to leave!

Dimebag Darell, the guitarist of heavy metal bands Pantera and Damageplan, was the owner of a real goat! He would paint the goat's goatee red, pink, or purple to match his signature facial hair!

Metal Musical Instruments

Most heavy metal bands that play heavy-metal music have one to two guitars paired up with drums and bass guitars.

Some bands use organs, electronic keyboards, or other instruments. Since heavy metal songs are powerful and loud, there are repeated strong rhythms in the music. Some of the most common elements of heavy metal music are time signatures and unusual key changes.

Facts About Metal Music's Origins

The heavy metal genre is believed to have developed in the late '60s and early '70s, with the United States and the United Kingdom being termed the genre's pioneer.

The origin of the word 'heavy metal' is shrouded in mystery as nobody knows where the term comes from. Some believe that the term is taken from a hippie movement where the word 'heavy' represented serious or deep.

Others believe that the name originated from author William Burroughs, whose novel had a character named 'heavy metal kid.'

The term is also credited to the band Steppenwolf's song 'Born to be Wild.' Lester Bangs, a journalist and critic for Creem Magazine, used the term 'heavy' in one of his articles published in the magazine.

The year 1968 saw massive progress towards the popularization of the heavy metal genre with the formations of three of the pioneers of the genre in Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin.

First Heavy Metal Song

There are disagreements among all sections of the heavy metal fan community related to the first-ever heavy metal song. Most of the fanbase credits Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath with the first heavy metal song.

The British fanbase credits Black Sabbath and the American fanbase credits Led Zeppelin, with some in the middle who give equal credit to both bands.

Deep Purple is sometimes included in the discussion as part of the 'unholy trinity,' including Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. A small part of the fanbase credits bands like Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly, and Blue Cheer to be the first bands to play heavy metal.

In 1968, the band Blue Cheer released a cover of the song 'Summertime Blues' by Eddie Cochran in their debut album Vincebus Eruptum. The song includes riffs and heavy drums, which led to many believe that the first heavy metal song was the Summertime Blues' cover by Blue Cheer.

Did You Know?

Bruce Dickinson, the lead singer of the British heavy metal band, Iron Maiden, is also a trained pilot! He plied his flying trade for Astraeus Airlines and has flown famous clubs like Liverpool FC and Ranger FC to Naples and Israel, respectively!

Hatebeak, an American death metal band, has a parrot named Waldo as its lead singer! The band has never done a live tour, fearing that the decibel levels at live shows would harm the bird.

On February 28, 1970, Led Zepplin performed in Copenhagen, Denmark under the name 'The Nobs' because Eva von Zeppelin, the granddaughter of the Zeppelin airships inventor, threatened to sue Led Zeppelin for ruining the family name!

The song 'You Suffer' by Napalm Death, a British grindcore band, made its way to the Guinness Book of World Records as the shortest song ever with a duration of 1.316 seconds.

Finland is very selective about its music genre! Finland is home to most metal bands per capita.

There are around 53.5 metal bands per 100,000 people in the country. Even with heavy metal music originating in the United Kingdom and the United States, the genre rose in popularity in the Nordic nations. There's even a heavy metal band in Finland for kids in the form of Hevisaurus who sing about dinosaurs!

Based on the research published in the Journal Of Feline Medicine And Surgery shows that cats would get stressed out when they were made to listen to heavy metal music. Their pupil size and heart rate increase when heavy metal music is being played. Compared to that, classical music soothes them as their pupil size and heart rates decrease.

The album art of' Vulgar Display of Power' by the American heavy metal band Pantera shows a man being punched. The fan who volunteered to be on the album cover took almost 80 punches before the perfect shot was captured and used as the cover!

Dan Spitz, the lead guitarist of the heavy metal band Anthrax, became a master watchmaker after he departed from Anthrax. He replaced his days of being around other metal musicians with the comfort of learning about making watches from the Bulova School of Watchmaking in Switzerland.

A religious group from Tempe, Florida, put on a show named 'Lamb of God' and were confused when metalheads turned up to the event thinking they were going to see the heavy metal musicians from the American metal band Lamb Of God.

Former Cannibal Corpse guitarist Bob Rusay is now a golf instructor! After being booted from the band in 1993, Rusay wanted to live a normal life and eventually started a career in golf. He received his training certificate from the United States Golf Teachers Federation and became a golf instructor in Arizona.

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