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BY WILLIAM RESTREPO | |
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 HISTORY OF SPEED METAL | ||
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 As
the seventies waned metal faded into a sad repetition of the image
of its glory. Excess and a lack of musical innovation lead metal to
still waters, where it drifted into either the hair-and-makeup
wailing guitar tradition of stadium metal or the rising punk
movement. Exceptions were Iron Maiden, who brought
melody and narrative tempos to heavy metal, and Motorhead,
whose proto-punk progressive metal grated against tradition and
sensibilities with its biker graffitti narrative of nihilism in
modern culture. These acts brought to a close the fading image of
blues-oriented rock ("heavy metal") and the rise of the
inherent progressive anti-aesthetic minimalism in bands such as Black
Sabbath, spawning separate tendencies at once.In reciprocation to the decay, a furious tendency toward hardcore punk use of strumming rhythm over driving percussion simultaneously developed alongside the melodic and progressive intentions of the more advanced bands of previous generations. The counterpoint of punk - whose violent rhythms and anti-consonant phrasing were vanguard of the new deconstruction of pessimism - was the glitter-ladencomplexity of heavy metal, complete with classical melodies and rock virtuosity; the fusion of these two begat speed metal, racing tempo music using the muffled strum to form hard-edged and precision riffs with embedded melody, emphasing structure where traditional heavy metal used shorter phrasing to emphasize placement and tone.  Of
these rising acts Metallica (1982), sister act Megadeth
(1984), and northern cousins Exodus (1984) were the
primary disseminators of groundbreaking material. Metallica,
of special note for their use of open chords, complex harmonics and
melodic composition, began their career in emulation of faster
versions of older metal bands. Soon acquiring musical skills and
theoretical counseling in the dual virtuoso team of Kirk
Hammet (lead guitar) and Cliff Burton (bass),
Metallica grew in renown and peaked in musical development with
album Master of Puppets, combining the complex
composition of 1970s progressive rock bands with the thundering
domination of violent hardcore. Burton
died soon after in a tour bus accident and the band never recovered,
but soon they had spawned groups of emulators and innovators in the
style of muffled-strum epileptic-tempo speed metal and other groups
interested in the possibilities of metal/hardcore fusion, so that by
1987 when they retired the metal scene had become more extreme and
more erudite almost overnight.
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