Analyzing the Metalness of Soundgarden

I considered doing a post last week that would tackle both Soundgarden and Alice in Chains, but my feelings for AIC are much stronger and I felt they deserved their own post. A "new" Soundgarden track has been recently released on the radio that will appear on some upcoming compilation album or other. I put "new" in quotes because it was actually an outtake from Badmotorfinger.

I have explained on a few occasions that I was getting into music heavily when grunge was popular and that I was a little different than some of my peers in that I latched onto Alice in Chains and Soundgarden when they latched onto Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Soundgarden was not quite as much of a change as their later material stripped away some of their more metal influences, but at the beginning, they were very clearly a stoner/doom metal band. By the time the massively successful Superunknown was released, they were mostly a hard rock band with minimal metal influences, but up until that time, they were very heavy.

Unfortunately I don't have much of their material pre-dating Badmotorfinger because it's a little tough to find, or I haven't really looked much, but that's okay because I feel Badmotorfinger presents Soundgarden at their best and is clearly a metal album on its own.

BADMOTORFINGER
Stoner doom was not nearly as prevalent at the time this album was released, but if it were, this would fall neatly into the genre.

The album starts off with the upbeat tempo of "Rusty Cage" with an extremely heavy bass riff and featuring the Sabbath/Zeppelin-like guitar riffs the band built its principal sound upon. "Outshined" features a massive riff during the verses. "Slaves & Bulldozers" is another slow-burning, psychedelic metal track. "Jesus Christ Pose" is the most infamous song on the album for starting off a censorship battle. It's also the most metal song on the album with a bit of a galloping bass riff. "Room a Thousand Years Wide" is my favorite track off of the album and starts with a primal scream from Chris Cornell. It features a grinding doomy riff and some pained vocals from Cornell, it even features a saxophone solo at the end. Good stuff. "Drawing Flies" has equal parts punk and metal in it, with a metallic riff played at punk speeds. "Holy Water" features a distorted bluesy riff that sounds as if it would have been at home on the first Sabbath album, or something by Trouble at least. "New Damage" closes things out with another doomy track.

There are some songs on here that are not as metal. "Face Pollution" is for the most part a punk song. "Somewhere" is just a slow rock song. "Searching With My Good Eye Closed" is a little more uptempo but still is more clearly a stoner rock song than a metal one. "Mind Riot" is another slower track.

Based on this album alone, I would classify Soundgarden as a metal band, due to their heavy riffs that are clearly influenced by doom metal bands like Black Sabbath. They add some psychedelic touches and stoner influences, but remain a metal band. There is a stoner doom subgenre, and this band seems to fit. Their earlier material is even closer to doom metal while their later material strips much of it away.

Analyzing the Metalness of Alice in Chains

Alice in Chains is one of the early bands that got me into metal. I have mentioned many times that I was in junior high when the grunge wave was taking over MTV. Groups like Nirvana and Pearl Jam were all over the place. I did like those bands, but never as much as I liked Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. To me, there was just something more to those bands that I could not find in Nirvana and the others. Well, that's because the music was more metal, and that was the music that for which I was becoming interested. I will discuss Soundgarden in more depth at a later time, but for now I want to focus on Alice in Chains.

I have heard many people state that Alice in Chains is not a metal band. I'm not sure what music by this band they are listening to, because it has never been less than obvious to me that they are a metal band. Sure, they have some hard rock influences and yes they are a part of the grunge scene, but grunge is not really a clear genre description as the band's never had a coherent, consistent sound. Even looking at the biggest grunge band, Nirvana, it's never clear just what their sound really is. Sometimes its punk, sometimes it's not. Grunge takes influence from a variety of genres, including some bands that are more influenced by metal. Alice in Chains is one of these.

The band originally formed as a glam metal band, but eventually dropped all of those influences and went for a darker sound, influenced by Black Sabbath, doom, and thrash metal. Guitarist Jerry Cantrell has even said that he primarily considers Alice in Chains to be a metal band.

FACELIFT
I do not own this album, but have heard it. The songs "Man in the Box", "We Die Young", and "Sea of Sorrow" all appear on this album. "Man in the Box" was the band's breakout hit and features a very heavy riff that is slowed down and repeated throughout the song. Layne Staley's tortured vocals soar over the top of the riff. "We Die Young" is basically a thrash/groove metal song and is possibly the most metal track the band has ever done. Even "Sea of Sorrow" is clearly a metal track.

DIRT
The band's follow-up album helped them break out to a much wider audience. The songs were shorter, tighter, and punchier. They still put out some longer tracks, but the band had streamlined their sound. The album begins with the incredibly heavy "Them Bones" and Staley's pained yowl. The main riff is definitely a metal riff with guitar solos layered upon it. "Dam that River" is basically a stoner metal song with a bludgeoning riff. The main riff out of "Rain When I Die" is a reworking of Sabbath's riff in "Electric Funeral". "Sickman" bears a strong resemblance to some of the heavier bands out of the Sunset Strip glam metal scene, but delivered in a minor key and heavier. Even songs like "Junkhead" and the title track, while being softer, are still at their core clearly influenced by Black Sabbath's doomy, sludgy style of metal. Many of the remaining songs also feature heavy main riffs delivered in a minor key.

The lyrics on this album deal a lot with the darker side of human existence: drug use, depression, and other heavy topics. The atmosphere of the entire album is cold and miserable. Staley's pain is felt clearly from his vocals and lyrics.

I think that a lot of people who do not consider Alice in Chains to be a metal band focus on the band's softer songs. "Down in a Hole" and "Rooster" are two of the band's biggest hits, yet neither can really be considered a metal song. They have some elements, but are more or less simply hard rock songs.

ALICE IN CHAINS
The self-titled album came a few years after Dirt. In between that time, the band released an EP with some softer, more melodic material. Some suggested a change in style. This album corrected that feeling. This was actually the first album I ever got on CD.

The undeniably metal tracks are "Grind", "Brush Away", "Sludge Factory", "Head Creeps", "Again", and "God Am". These songs are even heavier than the metal tracks from the band's previous album and the doom metal influence is very clear on a number of them. The riffs were clearly metallic, but there is some hauntingly beautiful music to go along with it. The band accomplished its goal of producing ugly music in an attractive way. "Again" in particular has an extremely heavy riff.

There are again some non-metal tracks on this album and the band does have a few mostly acoustic numbers as well. "Heaven Beside You", "Shame in You", and "Over Now" are beautiful songs driven by Cantrell's impressive acoustic guitar work.

BLACK GIVES WAY TO BLUE
Alice in Chains released their fourth full-length album in 2009 after a 14 year hiatus due to the continuing drug problems and eventual death of singer Layne Staley. William DuVall handled vocal duties on this album and he surprisingly sounds significantly like Staley.

As for the music, this is a very consistent album. It is extremely heavy and loud, but it is slow and somber. While the music is much slower than the majority of the music that came before from this band, it also appears to be very much a return to the sludgy doom of some of their heaviest material. I think this album can best be described as a stoner doom/traditional metal album. It sounds like something that would have come out in the 1970's. The riffs have a lot in common with groups like Sabbath and other heavy metal bands from the period. This continues throughout the album without much deviation.

Alice in Chains is a metal band that has had some non-metal moments. That is very evident from their full-length albums. The people who do not consider the band metal are mostly basing it on songs they have heard on the radio.

Analyzing the Metalness of King's X

King's X has always been an extremely difficult band to pin a genre tag on. Their music runs the gamut between hard rock, heavy metal, progressive metal, funk, and soul. In addition, the vocals are often influenced by the above styles, as well as gospel, blues, and British rock groups of the 1960's such as The Beatles. It's an eclectic mix to be sure. So, is King's X a metal band? In a word, sometimes.

I have heard a lot of material from this band, though very little since the late 1990's. I own only one of their albums, 1994's Dogman which will form the principal material in this analysis as this album is widely considered their most metal release. As mentioned in a previous post, the music must have ties to Black Sabbath and it must sound like metal.

DOGMANOkay, this is the only album I own by King's X, so this analysis is far from complete. But, I figured looking at what is widely considered the band's most metal release will give me some indication of whether this band is, in fact, a metal band, at least occasionally.

Much of the riffing on this album is more distorted and Sabbath-influenced than on the band's previous material. The title track kicks things off here and we are immediately treated to a distorted, bluesy, Sabbathian riff coupled with Doug Pinnick's soulful crooning. The title track is definitely a highlight on this album and a great way to kick things off. "Shoes" is a slow-burning, yet heavy track that sounds as if it would easily fit in on any Deep Purple album. "Pretend" sounds like a cross between Black Sabbath and The Beatles, an exceptional song. "Black the Sky" also features a very basic metal-sounding riff along with some very heavy distortion, including one hell of a closing. "Don't Care" also has some extremely heavy power chord riffing going on. "Complain" is another song that would have sounded at home on 1970's era heavy metal albums, as would "Pillow".

On the other hand, "Flies and Blue Skies" is basically a blues ballad. Not bad, but not metal. "Fool You" sounds a lot like a hard rock band playing an old R&B song, but it has one hell of a closing as well. "Sunshine Rain" is another ballad with some impressive metallic riffing, but does not rise to the level of a metal song. "Human Behavior" sounds like Led Zeppelin, with more blues influence, especially the "Black Dog"-esque riff. "Cigarettes" is yet another softer ballad. "Go to Hell" is a pure hardcore track and lasts less than a minute. "Manic Depression" is a cover of a song by Jimi Hendrix.

As for the musicians, guitarist Ty Tabor is the principal music-writer. He brings most of the metal influence to the band. He also has a couple of metal side projects, including his solo project and a prog metal project with John Myung of Dream Theater. Doug Pinnick also has quite the metal history and was once offered the vocalist position in Deep Purple.

I have also heard some other songs by the band, all of which I felt were clearly closer to metal. I think King's X's genre probably would be a lot less controversial if the band had come around in the 1970's or 1980's. The band has the same kind of downtuned, bluesy metallic riffs that the first major metal bands also had.

CONCLUSION
King's X is a borderline band, and they are certainly questionable because of the time they came out. In the late 1980's, death and thrash metal were becoming dominant forms of metal, whereas King's X played a more basic blues-influenced form of metal, punctuated by elements of other styles.

Analyzing the Metalness of Faith No More

I have been thinking about this for some time. In my post on true metal vs. false metal, Kelly posited that he and I have some bands that we disagree on whether they are metal or not. He stated that he believes Slipknot is a metal band that I do not and asserted (correctly) that I believe Faith No More is a metal band and he does not. While I certainly understand his viewpoint that Faith No More is not a metal band, after all they have played many different styles over the years, respectfully I do not agree with it. As I have mentioned before, I believe that to be considered a metal band, a band must have one release that is predominantly metal. They may not be metal throughout their careers, but they must be metal on at least one album. I believe Faith No More qualifies under this rule. Faith No More has several albums that can be considered metal albums.

Kelly set forth his own test on Full Metal Attorney, and I still believe Faith No More qualifies under his test. He has two criteria, it must have ties to the sound of Black Sabbath, and it must sound like metal. Again, I believe Faith No More qualifies more often than not.

I will take these two criteria into consideration as I analyze each of Faith No More's full-length album under vocalist Mike Patton.

THE REAL THINGThe Real Thing was the breakthrough album for Faith No More. This album thrust the band into the mainstream with several big hits including "From Out of Nowhere", "Falling to Pieces", and of course "Epic". The album is a combination of a variety of styles including metal and funk.

The metal influence is fairly clear early on. Many of the songs have an underlying thrash metal-inspired guitar riff driving the song. Other elements such as slap bass style and heavy keyboards add on, but the thrash riffs are frequently present. The riff is even present during "Epic" which features rapped vocals by Mike Patton. Guitarist Jim Martin is clearly a metal guitarist and has been in a thrash metal band by the name of Voodoocult after leaving FNM and also doing two solo heavy metal albums in the late 1990's/early 2000's. Drummer Mike Bordin is also clearly a metal-influenced musician and parlayed this into stints with Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne, as well as Jerry Cantrell.

The track "Surprise! You're Dead!" is one of the most metal songs the band has ever done. Featuring a strong thrash metal riff and some maniacal vocals including bloodcurdling screams from Mike Patton, this is an absolutely mind-blowing song. "Zombie Eaters" also features very strong metal influences after the initial soft parts and building into the climax. This continues throughout the title track. The band also covers the Black Sabbath classic "War Pigs". The only track on the album that does not have a metal base is the jazzy lounge song "Edge of the World".

This album, to me, sounds like clearly a metal album. There are some other elements present, but the basis is in metal with some heavy keyboard use to provide some melodies. This album can easily be recognized as a predominantly metal album. The guitar and drumwork provides the foundation for the band's sound on this release.

ANGEL DUSTThis album builds on some of the melodies from the previous albums. The keyboards and slap bass have taken on an even more prominent role in the band's sound. Guitar solos have also become more prevalent this time around. The sound overall is a bit more upbeat and funky, even though the subject matter remains dark. This album features the hit "Midlife Crisis".

As far as songs go, "Caffeine" features a repeating powerful metal riff. It is probably the most metal song on the album. "Midlife Crisis" also has, at its core, a metal riff. It is somewhat buried, but definitely present. "Smaller and Smaller" is another fairly clear metal track with a faster Sabbathian riff as its main melody. "Everything's Ruined" also features a metal riff in the bridge to the chorus. Other songs to feature metal elements include the dark and doomy "Malpractice", the more upbeat and funky thrash of "Kindergarten", and the slow-burning rage of "Jizzlobber".

There are a few more non-metal tracks on this album, such as "RV" and "Midnight Cowboy". "Be Aggressive" is mostly a funk rock track and features very little metal influence. It's also pretty damn funny. "Crack Hitler" is another extremely dark funk song.

There are several songs on here that focus more on the funk element of the band's music, but most of the songs remain rooted in metal. This album also appears to me to be a predominantly metal album and fit the criteria set forward by Kelly in his post.

KING FOR A DAY...FOOL FOR A LIFETIMEI reviewed this album in detail recently. It's a departure for the band as the various elements and styles are not combined into a coherent mix this time around. Instead, this album finds the band experimenting with different styles of music that are then released as full, individual songs. The metal songs on this album are more stripped-down and easily identifiable as such, and the non-metal songs bear very little metal influence.

Since I discussed this album in depth very recently, there's no point in rehashing things. At least half of this album's tracks are metal enough to have this album considered predominantly metal. Metal is the most frequent style at play on this album, even though there are several songs that clearly have little to no metal elements.

ALBUM OF THE YEARFaith No More's final full-length album so far finds the band stripping its sound down even more. This is also the only Patton-era FNM album I have a hard time classifying as predominantly metal. It's my least-favorite album from that time in the band's history as it is far softer and laid back. It still has its moments, but it is clear that the magic was gone by this point.

The album starts off promisingly with the track "Collision" which sounds like an outtake from the Angel Dust album but without all the intensity. It does feature a heavy guitar riff at its core, but is not clearly metal. "Stripsearch" features a metal riff at the very end of the song, but nothing more. "Last Cup of Sorrow" is built around a distorted heavy metal riff but does not use it to its full effect. "Mouth to Mouth" also has a slight metal riff as its foundation, although it is much more rhythmic than melodic.

The only tracks that are clearly metal are the skeletal riffs of "Naked in Front of the Computer", and "Got That Feeling". Each of these tracks feature shadows of the former thrash influences of the band's first two albums under Patton.

Many of the other songs feature large influences from other styles of music. There are several slower ballad-type songs on this album. Album of the Year fit in very well with the era's alternative rock mainstream, although few people really knew about it because most metal bands had been relegated to the underground, even those attempting to change with the times. It is unclear if FNM were changing with the times, or if this was a natural progression. I lean towards the latter given the band's other influences even at its most metal times.

CONCLUSION
As I alluded to, I believe Faith No More fits the criteria set out by Kelly in his post about defining metal. The band had thrash influences early in its history which covers the first prong of Kelly's test. In addition, the thrash riffs were a major part of the core of many of the band's songs. It is true that FNM had many other influences and played a lot of songs that would be difficult to classify as metal, but I believe their metal influences for the most part win out over the other influences.