Taqwacore
Taqwacore is a subgenre of punk music dealing with Islam, its culture, and interpretation, originally conceived in Michael Muhammad Knight's 2003 novel, The Taqwacores. The name is a portmanteau of hardcore and the Arabic word Taqwa, which is usually translated as "piety" or the quality of being "God-fearing", and thus roughly denotes fear and love of the divine. The scene is composed mainly of young Muslim artists living in the US and other western countries, many of whom openly reject traditionalist interpretations of Islam, and thus live their own lifestyle within the religion or without.
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Techical death metal
Technical death metal (sometimes called tech-death or progressive death metal is a musical subgenre of death metal that focuses on complex rhythms, riffs and song structures. Technical experimentation in death metal began in the late '80s and early '90s by bands such as Death, Atheist and Cynic. In 1990, Nocturnus released their debut album, The Key, which was followed by Sarcófago's third album, The Laws of Scourge, featuring a change in their musical style, black metal/thrash metal to technical death metal. Atheist's second album, Unquestionable Presence, Pestilence's third album, Testimony of the Ancients, and Death's fourth album, Human, were all released the very next year. Human and later Death albums have proven especially influential on later '90s technical death metal bands. In 1991, New York's grindcore-influenced Suffocation released the Effigy of the Forgotten debut album, which focused on speed and brutality with "sophisticated" sense of songwriting and subsequently became groundbreaking in the genre.
Teutonic trash metal
Teutonic thrash metal is a regional scene of thrash metal music that originated during the 1980s in Germany. Along with Bay Area thrash metal, East Coast thrash metal, and Brazilian thrash metal, it was one of the major scenes of thrash metal in the 1980s.Two bands influential to early Teutonic thrash metal were Destruction, from Lörrach, and the female-fronted Holy Moses, from Aachen. After hearing Venom, both bands soon changed their sound within a matter of weeks to their new and permanent sound.
Trashcore
Thrashcore (also known as fastcore) is a fast tempo sub-genre of hardcore punk that emerged in the early 1980s. Thrashcore is essentially sped-up hardcore punk, with bands often using blast beats. Songs can be very brief, and thrashcore is in many ways a less dissonant, less metallic forerunner of grindcore. Like hardcore groups, thrashcore lyrics typically emphasize youthful rebellion or antimilitarism. In some ways, the genre is aligned with skateboarder subculture.Thrashcore is often confused with crossover thrash and sometimes thrash metal. Further confusion is added by the fact that many crossover bands, such as D.R.I., began as influential thrashcore bands. The term thrashcore is of recent vintage but dates from at least 1993. Throughout the '80s, the term "thrash" was in use as a synonym for hardcore punk (as in the New York Thrash compilation of 1982). It eventually came to be used for the faster, more intense style pioneered by D.R.I., just before their crossover period. The "-core" suffix is necessary to distinguish it from the thrash metal scene, which is also referred to as "thrash" by fans. Still more confusingly, the term "thrashcore" is occasionally used by the music press to refer to thrash metal-inflected metalcore.
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Trash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized most typically by its fast tempo and aggression. Thrash metal songs typically use fast percussive beats and fast, low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work. Lyrically, thrash metal songs often deal with social issues and reproach for The Establishment, often using direct and denunciatory language, an approach which partially overlaps with the hardcore genre. Thrash metal's "Big Four", the four bands widely regarded as the genre's most successful and influential acts, are Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax due to their status as pioneers of the genre in the 1980s. Some common characteristics of thrash metal are fast guitar riffs with aggressive picking styles and fast guitar solos, and extensive use of two bass drums as opposed to the conventional use of only one, typical of most rock music.
The origins of thrash metal are generally traced to the late 1970s and early 1980s, when a number of predominantly American bands began fusing elements of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with the speed and aggression of hardcore punk. Thrash metal is more aggressive compared to its relative, speed metal, and is thought to have emerged at least in part as a reaction to the more conventional and widely acceptable sounds and themes of glam metal, a much less aggressive heavy metal sub-genre which emerged simultaneously.Thrash metal generally features fast tempos, low-register, complex guitar riffs, high-register guitar solos and double bass drumming. Vocally, thrash metal can employ anything from melodic singing to shouted vocals. Most thrash guitar solos are played at high speed, as they are usually characterized by shredding, and use techniques such as sweep picking, legato phrasing, alternate picking, tremolo picking, string skipping, and two-hand tapping. Thrash lead guitarists are often influenced by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. Thrash guitar riffs often use chromatic scales and emphasize the tritone and diminished intervals, instead of using conventional single scale based riffing. For example, the intro riff of Metallica's "Master of Puppets" (the title track of the namesake album) is a chromatic descent, followed by a chromatic ascent based on the tritone.Speed, pacing and time-changes also define thrash metal. Thrash tends to have an accelerating feel which may be due in large part to its aggressive drumming style. For example, thrash drummers often use two bass drums, or a double-bass pedal, in order to create a relentless, driving beat. Cymbal stops/chokes are often used to transition from one riff to another or to precede an acceleration in tempo.To keep up with the other instruments, many thrash bassists use a pick. However, some prominent thrash metal bassists have used their fingers, such as Frank Bello, Greg Christian, Steve DiGiorgio, Robert Trujillo and Cliff Burton. Several bassists use a distorted bass tone, an approach popularized by Burton and Motörhead's Lemmy.Lyrical themes in thrash metal include isolation, alienation, corruption, injustice, addiction, suicide, murder, warfare, and other maladies that afflict the individual and society. In addition, politics, particularly pessimism or dissatisfaction towards politics, is a common theme among thrash metal bands. Humor and irony can occasionally be found (for example in Anthrax), but they are limited, and are the exception rather than the rule.
The origins of thrash metal are generally traced to the late 1970s and early 1980s, when a number of predominantly American bands began fusing elements of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with the speed and aggression of hardcore punk. Thrash metal is more aggressive compared to its relative, speed metal, and is thought to have emerged at least in part as a reaction to the more conventional and widely acceptable sounds and themes of glam metal, a much less aggressive heavy metal sub-genre which emerged simultaneously.Thrash metal generally features fast tempos, low-register, complex guitar riffs, high-register guitar solos and double bass drumming. Vocally, thrash metal can employ anything from melodic singing to shouted vocals. Most thrash guitar solos are played at high speed, as they are usually characterized by shredding, and use techniques such as sweep picking, legato phrasing, alternate picking, tremolo picking, string skipping, and two-hand tapping. Thrash lead guitarists are often influenced by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. Thrash guitar riffs often use chromatic scales and emphasize the tritone and diminished intervals, instead of using conventional single scale based riffing. For example, the intro riff of Metallica's "Master of Puppets" (the title track of the namesake album) is a chromatic descent, followed by a chromatic ascent based on the tritone.Speed, pacing and time-changes also define thrash metal. Thrash tends to have an accelerating feel which may be due in large part to its aggressive drumming style. For example, thrash drummers often use two bass drums, or a double-bass pedal, in order to create a relentless, driving beat. Cymbal stops/chokes are often used to transition from one riff to another or to precede an acceleration in tempo.To keep up with the other instruments, many thrash bassists use a pick. However, some prominent thrash metal bassists have used their fingers, such as Frank Bello, Greg Christian, Steve DiGiorgio, Robert Trujillo and Cliff Burton. Several bassists use a distorted bass tone, an approach popularized by Burton and Motörhead's Lemmy.Lyrical themes in thrash metal include isolation, alienation, corruption, injustice, addiction, suicide, murder, warfare, and other maladies that afflict the individual and society. In addition, politics, particularly pessimism or dissatisfaction towards politics, is a common theme among thrash metal bands. Humor and irony can occasionally be found (for example in Anthrax), but they are limited, and are the exception rather than the rule.
Traditional heavy metal
Traditional heavy metal, also known as classic metal or simply heavy metal, is the seminal genre of heavy metal music before the genre "evolved and splintered into many different styles and subgenres".Authors such as Paul Du Noyer, Garry Sharpe Young, and Andrew Cope recognize many similarities between hard rock and heavy metal, but state that heavy metal tends to depart from the original blues roots of hard rock. According to this view, original heavy metal is characterized by mid-to-fast-tempo riffs, by thumping basslines, crunchy riffs, extended lead guitar solos, and clean, often high-pitched vocals and anthemic choruses. One of the most important and innovative concepts of traditional heavy metal was the use of the double lead guitar pioneered by bands like Scorpions and Judas Priest. This concept of dual lead guitars would reach more profound heights during the late 1980s when other bands like Accept would also use it.Traditional heavy metal bands like Black Sabbath and the many bands they inspired have concentrated lyrically "on dark and depressing subject matter to an extent hitherto unprecedented in any form of pop music", according to scholars David Hatch and Stephen Millward. They take as an example Sabbath's second album Paranoid (1970), which "included songs dealing with personal trauma—'Paranoid' and 'Fairies Wear Boots' (which described the unsavoury side effects of drug-taking) —as well as those confronting wider issues, such as the self-explanatory 'War Pigs' and 'Hand of Doom'."Traditional heavy metal songs often feature outlandish, fantasy-inspired lyrics, lending them an escapist quality. Iron Maiden's songs, for instance, were frequently inspired by mythology, fiction, and poetry, such as Iron Maiden's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", based on the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem. Other examples include Black Sabbath's "The Wizard" and Judas Priest's "Dreamer Deceiver".
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Tulsa sound
The Tulsa Sound is a musical style that originated in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was a mix of Rockabilly, Country, Rock 'n' Roll, and Blues sounds of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Tulsa Sound artists include JJ Cale, Rocky Frisco, Leon Russell, Elvin Bishop, Roger Tillison, Gene Crose, David Gates, The Tractors, Steve Ripley, David Teegarden, Dwight Twilley, The Gap Band, Jim Byfield, Clyde Stacy, John D. Levan, Bill Pair, The Zigs (previously The Notions), Gus Hardin and Don White.The first appearance of note by a Tulsa Sound musician was Rocky Frisco's Columbia Harmony vinyl album "The Big Ten" under the name "Rocky Curtiss and the Harmony Flames." The album was recorded in New York at Columbia's studio at 33rd and 3rd Street in 1959 during a time when Rocky lived in Pennsylvania. Clyde Stacy was one of the first, if not the first, Tulsa Sound musician to score a nationally charted record, {Hoy Hoy b/w So Young}. This was actually a double sided hit released by Candlelight Records in 1957. Don Wallace, a popular Tulsa disc jockey, was instrumental in landing the recording contract for Clyde. Members of the NiteCaps during that period were John D. Levan, Rick Eilerts and Bill Torbett. John D. Levan was one of the first Tulsa lead guitarist having played for both Clyde Stacy in 1955, and Gene Crose 1956, then again with Stacy in 1957. Levan was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in Aug. 2004 along with Tulsa Radio Personality "rockin' John Henry.www.rockabillyhall.com Another Tulsan, Billy Reynolds Eustise, scored a hit with his 1957 recording of "Cherry Pie."Leon Russell was the first member of the Tulsa scene to make inroads into the L.A. music scene, playing for Ricky Nelson along with James Burton. He then joined Phil Spector's Wrecking Crew and then produced Garry Lewis and Jan & Dean. Russell brought many Tulsans out to Los Angeles including Jimmy Karstein, Bill Raffensperger, Tommy Tripplehorn, Carl Radle, and Larry Bell. Russell was later co-owner of the Church Studio in Tulsa and of Shelter Records, which signed a number of significant Tulsa Sound artists.
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Unblack metal
Unblack metal (or Christian black metal) is a genre of music that is stylistically black metal, but whose artists promote Christianity in their lyrics and imagery. Such artists are controversial, mainly because black metal's pioneers, especially those of the Second Wave, intended to encourage hostility towards Christianity. It is also suggested that Christianity contradicts black metal's dark nature and the individualistic and misanthropic ideals of many bands.Unblack metal is viewed as an ideological group within black metal that depicts Christianity positively. There is no method to play black metal in a Christian way. Hence, unblack metal incorporates black metal's fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, double-kick drumming, and unconventional song structure. Garry Sharpe-Young's 2001 encyclopedia A-Z of Black Metal states that "[t]opping the lot are Christian 'Unblack' acts who for all intents and purposes look like, sound like and employ the imagery of Black Metal whilst hidden in the unpenetrable vocal growls and distortions are the proclamations of Jesus Christ".Some unblack metal artists write lyrics that explicitly attack Satanism; for example Horde. This was a dominant theme during most of the 1990s. Beginning in the late 1990s, groups began to write philosophical and ideological lyrics. These often include stories of conversion, salvation, struggles with faith, and Bible quotes. Unblack metal bands may justify their playing of black metal with reasons ranging from genuine appreciation of black metal as a music style to evangelization among the black metal scene i.e. "bringing light into darkness".
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Viking metal
Viking metal is a subgenre of black metal and folk metal characterized by its noisy sound, slow pace, use of keyboards, dark and violent imagery, and, primarily, lyrical themes of Norse mythology, Norse paganism, and the Viking Age. It was developed in the 1980s through the mid-1990s as a rejection of Satanism and the occult, and instead embraced the Vikings and paganism as the leaders of opposition to Christianity. Influenced by Nordic folk music, it is considered a fusion genre of folk metal and black metal, though it is distinct from both. Many Viking metal bands claim to be descendents of Vikings.
Viking rock
Viking rock (Vikingarock in Swedish) (not to be confused with viking metal) is a rock music genre that takes much of its themes from 19th century Viking romanticism, mixing it with rockabilly, oi!/streetpunk and folk elements. Frequent themes occurring in Viking rock include vikings and Norse mythology, as well as Sweden's King Karl XII and the Caroleans.Viking rock is often linked to white supremacy. Many make no distinction between Viking rock and white power music, and there is debate whether Viking rock is essentially racist.
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Visual kei
Visual kei ( "visual style" or "visual system") is a movement among Japanese musicians, that is characterized by the use of make-up, elaborate hair styles and flamboyant costumes, often, but not always, coupled with androgynous aesthetics. Some sources think that visual kei refers to a music genre, with its sound usually related to glam rock, punk rock and heavy metal.However, this is contradictory to the fact that visual kei acts play various genres, including those unrelated to rock such as electronic, pop, etc.Other sources, including members of the movement themselves, state that it is not a music genre and that the fashion and participation in the related subculture is what exemplifies the use of the term.Visual kei emerged in the early 1980s, pioneered by bands such as X Japan, D'erlanger, Buck-Tick and Color. The term visual kei is believed to come from one of X Japan's slogans, "Psychedelic violence crime of visual shock". There are two record labels, both founded in 1986, that were instrumental for helping the visual kei scene spread, they are Extasy Records in Tokyo and Free-Will in Osaka.
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Youth crew
Youth crew is a music subgenre of hardcore punk attributed to the band Youth of Today who were primarily active during the early to mid-1980s particularly during the New York hardcore scene of 1988. Youth crew is distinguished from other hardcore and punk scenes by its optimism and bombastic moralist outlook. The original youth crew bands and fans were predominantly straight edge and vegetarian advocates.Early musical influences included Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Negative Approach, Cro-Mags and Agnostic Front. While some youth crew music is similar to melodic hardcore, youth crew also includes breakdowns intended for the hardcore dancing style associated with live performances. Youth of Today was a very thrashy youth crew band, with abrasive vocals and fast songs too short to include a lot of melody (similar to early Agnostic Front, and contrasting with the other big New York City youth crew band, Gorilla Biscuits). Later youth crew bands took increasing influence from heavy metal.
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War metal
War metal, also known as war black metal or bestial black metal, is an aggressive, cacophonous and chaotic black metal style, described by Rock Hard journalist Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann as "rabid" and "hammering". Important influences include first wave band Sodom, first wave/death metal band Possessed as well as old grindcore, black and death metal bands like Repulsion,Autopsy, Sarcófago and the first two Sepultura releases. War metal bands include Blasphemy, Archgoat, Impiety, In Battle, and Zyklon-B.
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Wizard rock
Wizard rock (sometimes shortened as Wrock) is a genre of rock music that developed between 2002 and 2004 in the United States. Wizard rock bands are characterized by their performances and humorous songs about the Harry Potter and Septimus Heap realms. Wizard rock initially started in Massachusetts with Harry and the Potters, though it has grown internationally. Wizard rock embraces a do it yourself ethic, with many bands self-producing their recordings and distributing them through online social networking channels.When performing live, wizard rock bands often cosplay, or dress as, characters from the novels. Some bands have performed at fan conventions.
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Zeuhl
Zeuhl means celestial in Kobaïan, the constructed language created by Christian Vander. Originally solely applied to the music of Vander's band, Magma, the term zeuhl was eventually used to describe the similar music produced by French bands, beginning in the mid-1970s. Although primarily a French phenomenon, zeuhl has influenced recent avant-garde Japanese bands.Zeuhl typically blends progressive rock, symphonic rock, fusion, neoclassicism, avant-rock, and vocal elements of African-American spirituals and Western military call and response.
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