I've never heard of this, and I've been a fan of theirs since the 80's. I think a lot of people talk about "Metallica Fans", and the actual fans are looking around for the napster-hating, "sellout"-shouting, haircut-obsessed chauvinists that everyone describes, because they're actually pretty rare.
Being a big Metallica fan, I think there is much more intetesting and useful stuff in their music to discuss, than was told in the video. For me the biggest mystery of their music is how do they make so killer catchy riffs and use to make the chromatic intervals sound so cool. I hope you will tell about that in the next chapter about Metallica))
I think the reason behind that both Lars and James are musically open minded and understand how to implement their influences into their music adding an aggressive thick sound to them. Their dual guitar melodies come from Thin Lizzy and King Diamond. The heavy riffing comes from Black Sabbath, and bands like Tank,Motörhead,Diamond Head,Blitzkrieg. Basically Metallica plays British Heavy Metal "americanized".
I think it is funny that people commented being so offended and rude about how he discribes the tone of the song. What is sad is that they are too busy being offended to enjoy this great advice and FREE music theory lesson.
I like your channel. This video seemed to be less in depth than the others. It was more focused on the theme of machismo and less about the songwriting.
@@Holistic-songwriting The melodic elements of Metallica seem to increase with each album (with the exception being St. Anger). Consider the softer passages in songs like Fight Fire With Fire, Fade to Black, Battery, and Welcome Home (Sanitarium). They're each very melodic in nature and help to amplify the "male" nature of the rest of the song. Even in Welcome Home, most of the song is pretty sing-songy (though in a distinctly Metallica way). Or, consider the section in Master of Puppets after the second verse, where the band plays a i-VII-VI-VI progression (I think it's called and Andalusian Progression, but it escapes me at the moment). The soloing is extremely melodic (with one of the guitars playing and f# underneath the C as a melodic note). With that, Kirt always found a way to bring melodies into his soloing. As they progressed in their career, James gradually brought more melody into his singing. Looking at Hardwired... to Self Destruct, there are a number of songs that have almost anthemic chorus (Moth Into Flame, Halo On Fire). TL;DR: Though it's never been the sole focal point of the bands creative output, Metallica has (for the most part) always incorporated melody (or, at least, melodic tendencies) into their songs.
All this series are the "rosetta stoned", joining rythm, melodies, lyrics and storytelling, voices . Thanks a lot for this "male/gemenine" image, it is the best simple example to explain.
Thank you so much for FINALLY talking about how important the "St Anger" era is in Metallica's history. All these fanboys who can't stand that album are just purists who can't accept a more vulnerable side of the band, and that's such a shame. By the way, I don't know if that's because I'm more familiar with this theme, band and their music than with other ones, but I feel like you could've "analysed" the music more in depth rather than just focusing on all the "male" thing. Their music was ahead of their time, they used chromatic stuff all along their discography, they wrote 11 minutes long songs with bass solos and LOTS of time signature changes, they wrote beautiful and meaningful ballads, Hetfield is literally a human metronome who basically plays drums on his guitars, they influenced thousands of musicians... I gladly agree with the machismo factor in their career, but why should we sum their music up only with that? Danke schön für alle ihr Arbeit, Friedemann.
I agree with most of your comment, but I honestly have to question anyone who enjoys listening to St. Anger. It has literally the worst drum sound I've ever heard in a metal album (at least from a band that wasn't starting out recording their first demos in a garage). It's pretty much unlistenable regardless of whatever merits the songwriting may have.
@@lukesmusic317 The production doesn't have to be perfect to be able to enjoy the music itself. I personally think the drum sound reflects the aggression and mood the band was in at that period of time. But honestly, Metallica ALWAYS had issues for their production/mixing/mastering. You can't tell me seriously the general sound on Kill em all is better than St Anger, that'd be a lie. You might prefer it, but it's not "better" production wise.
The fans who rejected the St. Anger album didn't do so because of vulnerability. Metallica has been vulnerable many times in the past, and albeit, not without controversy, but without fans totally abandoning the work. Their first real power-ballad, "Fade to Black", was written by Hetfield's about his battles with depression and suicidal thoughts and feelings. Throughout their career, he's bared his soul in this way, from "To Live is to Die", where they mourn the loss of their co-founder, to "Mama Said", where he mourns his mother. There has been vulnerability, and there has been controversy, but no one abandoned them. The reaction from the St. Anger album was due to Metallica's abandoning some of the key aspects of their music, and generally, the fact like it sounded like a different band altogether.
Als jemand der selbst Musikschaffender ist, bin ich echt froh darüber, dass du diese Videos machst! Gerade die Episoden über Nirvana, System und die, unter der dieses Kommentar steht haben mich sehr zum denken angeregt! Stay Gefährlich! P.S. Ich so hart lachen müssen wie ich dich das das erste mal sagen gehört hab, weil das ein Satz ist, den ich selbergern und oft (bzw. die österreichische Abwandlung davon "Bleibt's G'fährlich")
"You can make agressive music, without negative energy, and i dont think that anybody ever thought that would be possible. You can make music agressive and fucked up, but with positive energy between the people creating it" Lars Ulrich - 2003
My friend recently showed me your channel, and I'm really enjoying it. I absolutely love how you break down the music and how it expresses the emotions an artist is trying to convey. Thank you for creating such amazing content! There are also three bands I'd really enjoy hearing your take on: 1. Queen 2. Dream Theater 3. Coheed and Cambria
Amazing! i really liked that you explained a lot of their character with "male" or "female" makes it much more easier to understand and to apply to other bands as well Cant wait for the next episode Thank you!
I've watched quite a lot of these, and enjoyed them. But, this one didn't come across as that insightful, and honestly seemed like some more research could've been a good idea. For me, boiling the most important trait of Metallica down to "male" isn't that accurate. And, talking about "male" rhythms, "male" melodies etc. etc. Seemed unnecessary. You could've just as easily called it for what it is, simplicity, effective simplicity. Nothing to do with gender. For me a way more important trait would be "zero fucks". They've always made music that was true to themselves, whether that entails making long instrumentals, more straight to the point groovy songs, ballads (Nothing Else Matters, Mama Said, Bleeding Me, Fade to Black etc. etc.), or even doing an album with Lou Reed fusing spoken word poetry with Heavy Metal. I'm not denying that there is a fair bit of machismo-attitude in their sound and image. But, boiling it down to that being the defining characteristic of Metallica just doesn't feel right to me. I'm not a fan of Metallica because of the machismo-attitude. If anything, I'm a fan of them, in spite of that, not because of it. Sorry, but this video came across as not having that good an understanding of what they're about as a band, and also kinda sexist. Dividing things like rhythm and melody in to gender-boxes and even stating that "women have more drama", I mean, come on, seriously. Could've put a little more thought in to that statement. And, I'm not saying you can't do insightful analysis based on gender and gender-performance. But, you need to have a motivated reason to do so. Like, let's say, doing an analysis of how women are portrayed through the camera lens in a horror film. The conclusion has to kind of justify bringing up gender, beyond simply reasoning, "I feel this is male", or "this is male to me". That's just too subjective for this subject matter.
Agreed. The 'male' vs 'female' thing didn't help the video at all. It made the musical explanations harder to understand, while also being very distracting from the message. The other mysoginistic comments, like "my wife runs around a lot and all soap operas are bad", also came across as pretentious and annoying.
For a solid minute after your Ron Burgundy joke, I was sitting here thinking... "This man is a funny guy, I like this man". Liked and subscribed just for that!
Thanks for covering Metallica! And thanks for the whole season in general. While chord progression content can be found on the internet (big up Jake Lizzio!), the parts of your videos in which you outline similarities and patterns in vocal melodies and how the image of an artist is slowly built over time is something I cannot find anywhere else, aside from your channel as of now. So thank you for that - I know it can take a lot of time to produce these kind of videos. I am writing this because I just wanted to weigh-in on the image of Metallica. They resemble aggression, I think everyone can agree upon that fact, but that doesn't sound like the most optimal way for describe them to your parents or your children. 16:44 - 16:48 really sums up their image best. The feeling after you've been to a Metallica concert or if you have just finished listening to one of their albums is very... relieving. You've let so much anger go and that same musical therapy was discussed when James Hetfield was a guest on Joe Rogan's podcast. There also might be a quintessential side of the band that was left out in the video - the 80's aggression paralleled with Cliff's melodic harmonies that became the pinnacle of thrash metal and spawned many prog metal bands soon after, fighting the glam movement by being down-to-earth (e.g. on stage, the band would wear what they would normally, like Cliff's denim jacket) to James' more lyrical side during the 90's, having spent an entire decade experimenting and getting a lot of shit from fans, which takes ball if you, at one point, 'ruled the world', as the cliche went. I am from Europe and I feel like Metallica is way more known for their ballads, especially by casual fans. I used to tell people I am a thrash metalhead just to see how they react, and most just viewed it an aggressive niche of music that is too chaotic to listen to. But if I played them the preludes of "Master of Puppets" or "To live is to die", they would go on about how big Metallica were and how great their music is. That is why I really enjoyed that you touched upon the logical structure of their songs, because the the sound of the band may seem chaotic at first, but once you are in their world it really isn't. Although Metallica can't write sheet music, in the recent AJFA 30th anniversary they showed mountains of papers in which they had written down the architecture of their songs (intros, bridges and so on). I feel like Metallica transcended their genre, because I've had so many people citing some of their songs as their favorite ones, whilst listening to completely different styles of music (usually not 'fans' of metal). The only artist or band I can think of right now is Kendrick Lamar, in the sense that he makes people who aren't into hip-hop listen to hip-hop (just as a disclaimer, I am not comparing him to Metallica in any other way, as it would be valueless). And one final thing, I remember reading a book about the band's biography when I was a kid and the first few hundred pages were quotes from James and Lars that emphasized on their jamming, but the word 'jam' was never referenced. It was more along the lines of 'sweating in the garage, playing those killer riffs'. I remember thinking how awesome the devotion to their craft sounded to me. I've always associated 'jamming' with funkier bands like RHCP or Extreme , although it might be a subjective thing. For example, when Iron Maiden write their songs, you imagine Steve Harris playing the bass and whistling the melodies for the guitarists to pick up and come up with galloping riffs and while the verb 'jam' technically covers this activity, I don't necessarily see it as jamming, it's more of a... riffing kind of thing? Just wanted to share my few cents, because I know that, for better or worse, I have found myself subconsciously changing how I view an artist' image based upon similar in-depth videos on TH-cam, with yours being the most effective currently, and I have enjoyed reading your comments pages for more information on particular bands or artists. Anyway, have a great day, Friedemann! Man, how cool does one have to be in order to share a name with Bach himself...
Ha! ;) well Bach was called Johann Sebastian of course, but it's true, his son, also a composer, was named Friedemann as well! Thanks for all the insights, I spend a ton of time on research for each of these videos but alas it's impossible to learn catch up with a fan of 20 years. Not for a lack of trying though!:)
Guess I was sleepy, yeah, I meant one of his sons, no idea how that came out. I can tell you're doing tons of research, because you are doing it for too many artists and there's only so much that you can be a massive fan of :)
Great breakdown here! Was waiting to see this from you myself too! As for the gender thing (awkwarrrrd I know), the generally acceptable way to say that is "Masculine" and "Feminine" as in "more masculine" which you use in the descriptions of traits just great, so it nails that! It lends into the concept of expression (how you choose to express yourself in anything speech, fashion, body language and musical composition) rather than male/female which can seem (totally accidentally) like a gender identity thing - in places where you say "more female traits" it'd be more clear that you mean expression if you said "more feminine traits" when drawing the distinctions. But I respect your prefacing the whole concept and making your intentions clear, since it's such a minefield. Awesome as always!
Great video!! Death would be a great band to check in a future. Chuck Schuldiner is such an interesting personality in the history of metal. That includes every musician that has ever collaborated with him!!
Metallica also uses a lot of acoustic guitar compared to most metal bands, especially for their intros.I was hoping you'd talk abou that. Being a non metal person this is what attracted me to their music. Aggressive but with a sense of calming.
I had initially watched this video over 4 years ago, when I was fresh out of college. At that time I didn't agree with most if not all the things you'd said, as was evident by the click on the thumbs down button. Revisiting this video after 4+ years, as a more mature musician but probably more importantly as a more mature person, even though I still might not agree with everything you say, I definitely understand and appreciate where you're coming from. Congratulations on putting this video together, you definitely raise some interesting and fascinating points. Great job. You have earned my like, genuinely. I'll look forward to more such content. Cheers! \m/
DAFUQ man, it REALLY feels like you're talking about something you don't know! I ussually love your videos but it seems like you didn't put the same passion in this one than in the others.... Metallica has a great sense of melody (they played a live with the San fransisco Symphonic, not a coincidence) and building tension, they're not always at 100% from start to finish. You are actually summering metallica's music to only Kill Em All and Ride The Lightning. Just listen to One, Nothing else matters, Fade to black, The Call of Cthulu, The Unforgiven, And Justice for all..... Anyway, everybody makes mistakes, just wanted to let you know that I don't share your point of view on this one (don't get all the female/male music neither though). I still love your videos and I encourage you to keep going!! By the way, If you like gojira, maybe you could make a video about this band? ;)
Man was I happy to see this video! I strongly agree with the idea of metallica's sound quintessentially encompassing a "male" approach. I see a lot of people debating that the video didn't touch on some of the more nuanced moments in metallica's music like their ballads and the classical influences on their sound, I view these elements as still very masculine because they are usually instrumentally used as moments of brevity to build a sense of grandeur that compliments the "macho" heavy riffs. and lyrically their lighter more ballad like songs are always written from a male viewpoint and deal with very masculine emotional responses to more sensitive/emotional subjects like: love (nothing else matters) rejection and shame (the unforgiven) depression/suicide (fade to black) and pretty much falling out of love? (bleeding me). there's probably much more i could elaborate on but those are just some of my opinions.
This video made sense and I'm for very happy to watch it. Specialy the part explaining the use of Tonic in Metallica's music. And asking what we associate with Metallica cause me to actually think what all those words actually means. Appreciate that.
DUDE... Watching this just made me realise how much of an impact Metallica has left me songwriting wise. Although I don't listen to them much anymore from day to day as I do with Karnivool, Toska, or Dorje which most of the time, according to this discussion, is more 'female'. And despite all of that, I almost always hold on to the tonic when creating riffs just like James and whenever I want something to sound heavy in my demos I subconciously, or sometimes not, program the drums to sound like what I'd imagine Lars would play for that part. I discovered Karnivool about 2 years ago along with Toska and Dorje, and it has definately improved my writing and has pushed it more in a 'female' direction for my aural pleasure(and it helps that Rabea Massad and Ian Kenny are geniuses) I honestly kind of thought my days of learning basically every single Metallica song and learning everything about them was past me and that I'm a completely different player than I was 5 years ago. And I guess in some ways I am but some things just never change. For reference: I'm currently 20 years old so that makes me 18 when I found Karnivool and I started playing guitar when I was about 10-11 and until I was about 17 did eventually I develop a taste for other things than JUST Metallica. This was a very nice episode BUT.... *inhale* WHEN DAFUQ ARE YOU GOING TO DO ONE ABOUT KARNIVOOL? SRSLY?! YOU'VE DONE ONE FOR TOOL AND DEFTONES COME ON!!!!
Oh yeah, Hoagie from Day of the Tentacle! I really considered what you said about using male / female archetypes to music but I don't find it a very useful or illuminating way of understanding music. I can understand using words like chaotic, martial, straight, aggressive, loose, fast, intense, melodramatic etc. but masculine and feminine is too broad and vague to be useful. That's just my opinion. Interesting video though.
Well, different strokes for different folks I guess. It's a concept I use quite a lot actually, for example to contrast two sections against one another, Male against Female tends to work very well. Glad you spotted the day of the tentacle reference ;)
Wow! One of the best episodes ever!!! Brilliant! Great season finale! I thought I wouldn't like this one so much since I'm not a great fan of Metallica myself either. But this was very instructive and insightful. Congratulations! You even helped me understand what bothers me about Metallica! And what makes me enjoy more complex styles, like jazz. It's clearly because I'm a girl, loll, at least my musical brain is. Btw, took me a while to remember who the typical Metallica fan you portraited was, lol, the guy from Day of the Tentacle.
Nice video! I would have liked to see a deeper look into the more progressive, melodic, thrashy and mellow parts of Metallica, though. I think the examples here were of some of the most straight forward stuff, which to be fair is perhaps most popular, but to me personally the least interesting. Keep up the great work!
You pointed out very well their evolution as a band. As you mentioned, they couldn't stand being always rude and agressive. They are humans like anyone else and only after accepting it, Metallica could go on.
Great video as always ! For the next one, I suggest you take At the Gates into consideration. With very unique sound and plots for songs they should take a place in these videos, I believe.
I actually got pretty well the whole male/female thing, is not that confusing. And I think this the first time I agree completely with one your videos in these series. Is not that I don't agree with the others, they're awesome, is just that I always have a very diferent view of the image and sound of the bands you describe or maybe is that I feel you don't talk about the things I consider to be the most important, but it's always enjoyable to see different points of view and I always end up learning something I didn't know. I would love to see an episode on Queens of the Stone Age although I'm sure as hell we're definitely not going to have the same views on that one hahaha but it would be very interesting to see your take on them. Keep on the good work, man. Love your videos.
I'm really curious to see what you could come up with on an analysis of some more extreme metal bands like Cattle Decapitation. I've been enjoying this series a lot. Hope there's much more to come!
Yo, you've gotta do Slipknot, Soundgarden and Foo Fighters next season. That'd be sick! (Also really appreciate the content, have learned a lot from watching you)
Excellent analysis! Please, cover the writing style of Kid Rock or Prince, they both hit multiple styles with great success, whether you love them or not! Thankx and keep up the great work....learning a lot from you as usual!
Would love an episode or season about more synth driven music. EDM (the Glitch Mob), synth pop (Neon Trees), synth rock (Imagine Dragons), or retro new wave (Tears for Fears and Duran Duran)
Thank you very much. Very cogent take of the band and astute insight into how the real life story could not be divorced from the nature of the art itself. I loved the Some King of Monster doc, and loved the music even more upon watching it, for all the reasons of authenticity you covered. I suspect the ‘hard core fans’ who weren’t onboard with the raw visions of the band were those who fit the stereotype you mentioned. I have always thought the music has only gotten better and better, realer and realer, more mature and more mature, the most recent work always displacing the former in my current playlist, precisely for this reason. Bravo
Beautifully done bro! You hit the nail on the head with Metallica here. How about we start off the new season with an episode on Queens Of The Stone Age?? (especially the early days, their writing style was strange and fucked up but addictive with deep cuts like You're So Vague and Born To Hula, Avon, and Medication)
Hey Mr Findeisen For this band I would say: 1. Pre 2. Pubescent 3. Angst I don’t mean to be funny, but even tho I love metal and they were a band that showed the way for the only metal band, I just even got them... or maybe I had grown up by the time I got to hear them... On that note... please... may you do one of these band next time? 1. Meshuggah 2. The Mars Volta 3. Canvas Solaris 4. King Crimson 5. Rolo Tomassi 6. Opeth Sorry.. I know that is a lot.. I have more.. but just to mix it up: 7. Owane 8. Talk Talk 9. Alva Noto - Ryuichi Sakamoto I am sure you will find a lot to break down when looking into any of these.. Thanks for your videos….. They are Holistic… :)
The word that describes Metallica for me is "riff". Seriously, one Metallica song has so many riffs that other rock band would make a full album from them - take for example Halo on Fire, that song changes so many times. It's even their composing habit or peculiarity - James comes with a bunch of riffs and they (Lars + James) try to find out which riff goes well with another riff, and another, and another, until they get an extremely complicated song. I love Metallica for this, because the songs are not boring!
Thx a lot for this episode, Metallica has a big influence on my music and it was awesome to see/hear their songwriting analysed. Could you please do one on Avenged Sevenfold too? If anything, their songs are quite complex.
Shinedown would be cool to get into. Interesting East coast sound - or maybe just the east coast rock. I love their composition and the way Eric Bass seems to be the actual genius.
I came up with an interesting comparison that St. Anger era Metallica to the original Shield run from late 2013 to February 2014. There were tensions within the group then had a therapy session then resolved the issues. After that, they continued without any problems.
If you haven't done it already could you please do Avenged Sevenfold? I'd love to see how they do (or don't) write a chord progression or song. Keep up the good work. I always love watching these. Ty.
I really wished that The Tragically Hip was larger outside of Canada. Gord Downie's song writing is brilliant and I would love to have you do an episode on him and the band.
1. YEEEEAH
2. OOOOOH
3. WAHWAHWAHWAH
Don't forget 4. NNNEEEVAAA'!
Woah- Ohhhh!
"I don't sound like that....
YEEEAHHH!!
...I guess I do."
Hetfield, 2003
psteeg that was funny as hell.
lmao
First word that came to mind was "YEAH!"
I knew I was by far not the only one, haha
YEA HEEAAAH
Oh yeah? OH YEAH?
First word was Drink.
Second word was Drunk.
Hahah yeah
If fans left because James took his kid to ballet practice, then they were EXTREMELY shit fans to begin with.
T Timeler, there are plenty of reasons to leave Metallica, but that is definitely not one of them.
agreed
I've never heard of this, and I've been a fan of theirs since the 80's. I think a lot of people talk about "Metallica Fans", and the actual fans are looking around for the napster-hating, "sellout"-shouting, haircut-obsessed chauvinists that everyone describes, because they're actually pretty rare.
Being a big Metallica fan, I think there is much more intetesting and useful stuff in their music to discuss, than was told in the video. For me the biggest mystery of their music is how do they make so killer catchy riffs and use to make the chromatic intervals sound so cool. I hope you will tell about that in the next chapter about Metallica))
I think the reason behind that both Lars and James are musically open minded and understand how to implement their influences into their music adding an aggressive thick sound to them.
Their dual guitar melodies come from Thin Lizzy and King Diamond.
The heavy riffing comes from Black Sabbath, and bands like Tank,Motörhead,Diamond Head,Blitzkrieg.
Basically Metallica plays British Heavy Metal "americanized".
And how they can use the same 5 chords or so over and over again without really repeat themselfs
Good point dude, spot on 🤟🏼👍
@Shockheadd45 all their albums except for St anger and some songs like sad but true or the thing that should not be are in e standard
@@TheKartoffel101 Also Death magnetic and the last one. Oh, and the half tone down in all load and reload. And I disappear
My words were
1. YEEAAH YEEEAAAH
2. WAAAAAAHWAAAHWAH
3. Endless Downpicking
GIMME FUE! GIMME FIE! GIMME DABAJABAZA! OOHH! YEAH!
Made my night
@@kp8923 ditto
Goobin Pls gimme food gimme fries gimme salad on the side OOOH YEAHAAW
lmfao
no
This video is the equivalent of an essay written for a university class you didnt show up for the entire semester.
My am smart guy *inclines fedora*
I think it is funny that people commented being so offended and rude about how he discribes the tone of the song. What is sad is that they are too busy being offended to enjoy this great advice and FREE music theory lesson.
I like your channel. This video seemed to be less in depth than the others. It was more focused on the theme of machismo and less about the songwriting.
I always thought it went like this: James and Lars fighting verbally. They write down their words. Put music to it. New song.
1. Yeah
2. Yeah
3. Yeah
I am the Table
Rammstein next?
it would fit btw damn good because rammstein's new album will be released in January ^^
aggressive
melodic
Burton
Melodic... interesting! Wouldn't have made my list for sure. Mind elaborating on that?
@@Holistic-songwriting The melodic elements of Metallica seem to increase with each album (with the exception being St. Anger). Consider the softer passages in songs like Fight Fire With Fire, Fade to Black, Battery, and Welcome Home (Sanitarium). They're each very melodic in nature and help to amplify the "male" nature of the rest of the song. Even in Welcome Home, most of the song is pretty sing-songy (though in a distinctly Metallica way). Or, consider the section in Master of Puppets after the second verse, where the band plays a i-VII-VI-VI progression (I think it's called and Andalusian Progression, but it escapes me at the moment). The soloing is extremely melodic (with one of the guitars playing and f# underneath the C as a melodic note). With that, Kirt always found a way to bring melodies into his soloing. As they progressed in their career, James gradually brought more melody into his singing. Looking at Hardwired... to Self Destruct, there are a number of songs that have almost anthemic chorus (Moth Into Flame, Halo On Fire).
TL;DR: Though it's never been the sole focal point of the bands creative output, Metallica has (for the most part) always incorporated melody (or, at least, melodic tendencies) into their songs.
I'm thinking Amy Lee, Chad Kroeger, Chris Daughtry, or Shaun Morgan.
What does Tim Burton got to do with it?
@@MrParkerman6 Tim Burton, the legendary bass player who died way too young and brought the goth sound to Metallica.
All this series are the "rosetta stoned", joining rythm, melodies, lyrics and storytelling, voices . Thanks a lot for this "male/gemenine" image, it is the best simple example to explain.
Pls do Slipknot
I was about to ask if he did slipknot yet
strange. mafia yessssss
PLS dont. slipknot sucks.
This is the best video in the whole internet about metallica song writing. Goodjob man. It was awesome.
Thank you so much for FINALLY talking about how important the "St Anger" era is in Metallica's history. All these fanboys who can't stand that album are just purists who can't accept a more vulnerable side of the band, and that's such a shame. By the way, I don't know if that's because I'm more familiar with this theme, band and their music than with other ones, but I feel like you could've "analysed" the music more in depth rather than just focusing on all the "male" thing. Their music was ahead of their time, they used chromatic stuff all along their discography, they wrote 11 minutes long songs with bass solos and LOTS of time signature changes, they wrote beautiful and meaningful ballads, Hetfield is literally a human metronome who basically plays drums on his guitars, they influenced thousands of musicians... I gladly agree with the machismo factor in their career, but why should we sum their music up only with that?
Danke schön für alle ihr Arbeit, Friedemann.
I agree with most of your comment, but I honestly have to question anyone who enjoys listening to St. Anger. It has literally the worst drum sound I've ever heard in a metal album (at least from a band that wasn't starting out recording their first demos in a garage). It's pretty much unlistenable regardless of whatever merits the songwriting may have.
@@lukesmusic317 The production doesn't have to be perfect to be able to enjoy the music itself. I personally think the drum sound reflects the aggression and mood the band was in at that period of time. But honestly, Metallica ALWAYS had issues for their production/mixing/mastering. You can't tell me seriously the general sound on Kill em all is better than St Anger, that'd be a lie. You might prefer it, but it's not "better" production wise.
Luke's Music sorry, that's pathetic.
That you're not able too hear beyond the production, which is obviously not bad, but different
The fans who rejected the St. Anger album didn't do so because of vulnerability. Metallica has been vulnerable many times in the past, and albeit, not without controversy, but without fans totally abandoning the work. Their first real power-ballad, "Fade to Black", was written by Hetfield's about his battles with depression and suicidal thoughts and feelings. Throughout their career, he's bared his soul in this way, from "To Live is to Die", where they mourn the loss of their co-founder, to "Mama Said", where he mourns his mother. There has been vulnerability, and there has been controversy, but no one abandoned them. The reaction from the St. Anger album was due to Metallica's abandoning some of the key aspects of their music, and generally, the fact like it sounded like a different band altogether.
I just can't get over the trash can.....I mean snare
do pink floyd!
Zackapo YES
Zackapo yes please
Pink floyd has to happen
It's too good
YUP
"who is the typical Metallica fan?"
Me: a nerd innocent looking girl thst no one believed her loving Metallica.
Cool video. But I really wished to see analysis on their brilliant songs like fade to black and one, which are more of ballads than riffage
Based on A minor. Arpessios.
Lol yeah but James sings while doing it !! I cant even strum and sing
he obviously chose songs they are known for which match their overall image. duh?
MrParkerman6 One isn’t based on A minor arpeggios.
'Epic' was the first word that came to my mind when I thought of Metallica.
Als jemand der selbst Musikschaffender ist, bin ich echt froh darüber, dass du diese Videos machst! Gerade die Episoden über Nirvana, System und die, unter der dieses Kommentar steht haben mich sehr zum denken angeregt!
Stay Gefährlich!
P.S. Ich so hart lachen müssen wie ich dich das das erste mal sagen gehört hab, weil das ein Satz ist, den ich selbergern und oft (bzw. die österreichische Abwandlung davon "Bleibt's G'fährlich")
great video, my favorite band and the reason why I play music today. love your stuff man, cant wait for more
You said "by the end of January", it's April now, I miss this section!
Would love to see you do Pantera, love the series!
"You can make agressive music, without negative energy, and i dont think that anybody ever thought that would be possible. You can make music agressive and fucked up, but with positive energy between the people creating it" Lars Ulrich - 2003
My friend recently showed me your channel, and I'm really enjoying it. I absolutely love how you break down the music and how it expresses the emotions an artist is trying to convey. Thank you for creating such amazing content! There are also three bands I'd really enjoy hearing your take on:
1. Queen
2. Dream Theater
3. Coheed and Cambria
First!
nice :D
Ha ha
well done!! xD
Even if you "went" last..............you CAN go first :P
I could swear you are Metallica fan. The research you’ve done is commendable.
Amazing!
i really liked that you explained a lot of their character with "male" or "female"
makes it much more easier to understand and to apply to other bands as well
Cant wait for the next episode
Thank you!
I've watched quite a lot of these, and enjoyed them. But, this one didn't come across as that insightful, and honestly seemed like some more research could've been a good idea.
For me, boiling the most important trait of Metallica down to "male" isn't that accurate. And, talking about "male" rhythms, "male" melodies etc. etc. Seemed unnecessary. You could've just as easily called it for what it is, simplicity, effective simplicity. Nothing to do with gender.
For me a way more important trait would be "zero fucks". They've always made music that was true to themselves, whether that entails making long instrumentals, more straight to the point groovy songs, ballads (Nothing Else Matters, Mama Said, Bleeding Me, Fade to Black etc. etc.), or even doing an album with Lou Reed fusing spoken word poetry with Heavy Metal.
I'm not denying that there is a fair bit of machismo-attitude in their sound and image. But, boiling it down to that being the defining characteristic of Metallica just doesn't feel right to me.
I'm not a fan of Metallica because of the machismo-attitude. If anything, I'm a fan of them, in spite of that, not because of it.
Sorry, but this video came across as not having that good an understanding of what they're about as a band, and also kinda sexist. Dividing things like rhythm and melody in to gender-boxes and even stating that "women have more drama", I mean, come on, seriously. Could've put a little more thought in to that statement.
And, I'm not saying you can't do insightful analysis based on gender and gender-performance. But, you need to have a motivated reason to do so. Like, let's say, doing an analysis of how women are portrayed through the camera lens in a horror film. The conclusion has to kind of justify bringing up gender, beyond simply reasoning, "I feel this is male", or "this is male to me". That's just too subjective for this subject matter.
Totally agree! 👍
Agreed. The 'male' vs 'female' thing didn't help the video at all. It made the musical explanations harder to understand, while also being very distracting from the message.
The other mysoginistic comments, like "my wife runs around a lot and all soap operas are bad", also came across as pretentious and annoying.
The male female thing is stupid but so is "no fucks given".
Thank you. I was thinking the same thing
Well put, if I had attempted a post like this, it would have been much more trolly and I don't like to be trolly.
For a solid minute after your Ron Burgundy joke, I was sitting here thinking... "This man is a funny guy, I like this man". Liked and subscribed just for that!
favourite channel ever thanks for a wonderful season. Look forward to the next!
My reaction to having watched two of your videos and getting to the end of this one:
HOW HAVE I NOT HIT SUBSCRIBE YET?
Thanks for covering Metallica! And thanks for the whole season in general. While chord progression content can be found on the internet (big up Jake Lizzio!), the parts of your videos in which you outline similarities and patterns in vocal melodies and how the image of an artist is slowly built over time is something I cannot find anywhere else, aside from your channel as of now. So thank you for that - I know it can take a lot of time to produce these kind of videos.
I am writing this because I just wanted to weigh-in on the image of Metallica. They resemble aggression, I think everyone can agree upon that fact, but that doesn't sound like the most optimal way for describe them to your parents or your children. 16:44 - 16:48 really sums up their image best. The feeling after you've been to a Metallica concert or if you have just finished listening to one of their albums is very... relieving. You've let so much anger go and that same musical therapy was discussed when James Hetfield was a guest on Joe Rogan's podcast.
There also might be a quintessential side of the band that was left out in the video - the 80's aggression paralleled with Cliff's melodic harmonies that became the pinnacle of thrash metal and spawned many prog metal bands soon after, fighting the glam movement by being down-to-earth (e.g. on stage, the band would wear what they would normally, like Cliff's denim jacket) to James' more lyrical side during the 90's, having spent an entire decade experimenting and getting a lot of shit from fans, which takes ball if you, at one point, 'ruled the world', as the cliche went.
I am from Europe and I feel like Metallica is way more known for their ballads, especially by casual fans. I used to tell people I am a thrash metalhead just to see how they react, and most just viewed it an aggressive niche of music that is too chaotic to listen to. But if I played them the preludes of "Master of Puppets" or "To live is to die", they would go on about how big Metallica were and how great their music is. That is why I really enjoyed that you touched upon the logical structure of their songs, because the the sound of the band may seem chaotic at first, but once you are in their world it really isn't. Although Metallica can't write sheet music, in the recent AJFA 30th anniversary they showed mountains of papers in which they had written down the architecture of their songs (intros, bridges and so on).
I feel like Metallica transcended their genre, because I've had so many people citing some of their songs as their favorite ones, whilst listening to completely different styles of music (usually not 'fans' of metal). The only artist or band I can think of right now is Kendrick Lamar, in the sense that he makes people who aren't into hip-hop listen to hip-hop (just as a disclaimer, I am not comparing him to Metallica in any other way, as it would be valueless).
And one final thing, I remember reading a book about the band's biography when I was a kid and the first few hundred pages were quotes from James and Lars that emphasized on their jamming, but the word 'jam' was never referenced. It was more along the lines of 'sweating in the garage, playing those killer riffs'. I remember thinking how awesome the devotion to their craft sounded to me. I've always associated 'jamming' with funkier bands like RHCP or Extreme , although it might be a subjective thing. For example, when Iron Maiden write their songs, you imagine Steve Harris playing the bass and whistling the melodies for the guitarists to pick up and come up with galloping riffs and while the verb 'jam' technically covers this activity, I don't necessarily see it as jamming, it's more of a... riffing kind of thing?
Just wanted to share my few cents, because I know that, for better or worse, I have found myself subconsciously changing how I view an artist' image based upon similar in-depth videos on TH-cam, with yours being the most effective currently, and I have enjoyed reading your comments pages for more information on particular bands or artists.
Anyway, have a great day, Friedemann! Man, how cool does one have to be in order to share a name with Bach himself...
Ha! ;) well Bach was called Johann Sebastian of course, but it's true, his son, also a composer, was named Friedemann as well! Thanks for all the insights, I spend a ton of time on research for each of these videos but alas it's impossible to learn catch up with a fan of 20 years. Not for a lack of trying though!:)
Guess I was sleepy, yeah, I meant one of his sons, no idea how that came out. I can tell you're doing tons of research, because you are doing it for too many artists and there's only so much that you can be a massive fan of :)
I was 12 when the Black Album came out and Enter Sandman still makes me smile and is the reason I started taking guitar seriously.
Did you just assume the gender of Metallica’s music?
That joke isn't overused, not at all.
danzoil No shit, he said it’s a controversial topic these days I’m just being a smart ass
When I read your comment, I expected to see "4 years ago" above it, not fuckin "11 months ago" lmao
Great breakdown here! Was waiting to see this from you myself too!
As for the gender thing (awkwarrrrd I know), the generally acceptable way to say that is "Masculine" and "Feminine" as in "more masculine" which you use in the descriptions of traits just great, so it nails that! It lends into the concept of expression (how you choose to express yourself in anything speech, fashion, body language and musical composition) rather than male/female which can seem (totally accidentally) like a gender identity thing - in places where you say "more female traits" it'd be more clear that you mean expression if you said "more feminine traits" when drawing the distinctions. But I respect your prefacing the whole concept and making your intentions clear, since it's such a minefield. Awesome as always!
Interesting! Thank you. :)
Please do QUEEN next! 👑🎤🎹🎶
he doesnt want to waste his time on gay bands,
@@monkeyrobotsinc.9875 Learn to deal with the fact that a band has a gay member
-Heavy
-E minor
-MASTER MASTER
Great video!! Death would be a great band to check in a future. Chuck Schuldiner is such an interesting personality in the history of metal.
That includes every musician that has ever collaborated with him!!
I've always respected Ron Burgundy as a drummer.
Simon Burford I WAS SO CONFUSED
Flutist
1. Downpicking
2. Wah
3.YEEEEEAAAAAAHHH!!!
Metallica also uses a lot of acoustic guitar compared to most metal bands, especially for their intros.I was hoping you'd talk abou that. Being a non metal person this is what attracted me to their music. Aggressive but with a sense of calming.
I had initially watched this video over 4 years ago, when I was fresh out of college. At that time I didn't agree with most if not all the things you'd said, as was evident by the click on the thumbs down button.
Revisiting this video after 4+ years, as a more mature musician but probably more importantly as a more mature person, even though I still might not agree with everything you say, I definitely understand and appreciate where you're coming from. Congratulations on putting this video together, you definitely raise some interesting and fascinating points. Great job.
You have earned my like, genuinely. I'll look forward to more such content. Cheers! \m/
12:05 Tries to start the car.
12:12 Windscreen wiper goes on.
12:18 Tries to close stubborn door.
12:23 Drives away.
Bro 🤣🤣🤣
Hey. This is the first time I've watch one of your vids. I like the analysing. It rang true. Subscribed!
first word i thought of was "loud" and then i couldn't think of anything else that came across as valid across their whole career, as long as it was.
Aggression, Shredding and Timeless
DAFUQ man, it REALLY feels like you're talking about something you don't know! I ussually love your videos but it seems like you didn't put the same passion in this one than in the others.... Metallica has a great sense of melody (they played a live with the San fransisco Symphonic, not a coincidence) and building tension, they're not always at 100% from start to finish. You are actually summering metallica's music to only Kill Em All and Ride The Lightning. Just listen to One, Nothing else matters, Fade to black, The Call of Cthulu, The Unforgiven, And Justice for all.....
Anyway, everybody makes mistakes, just wanted to let you know that I don't share your point of view on this one (don't get all the female/male music neither though). I still love your videos and I encourage you to keep going!!
By the way, If you like gojira, maybe you could make a video about this band? ;)
Man was I happy to see this video! I strongly agree with the idea of metallica's sound quintessentially encompassing a "male" approach. I see a lot of people debating that the video didn't touch on some of the more nuanced moments in metallica's music like their ballads and the classical influences on their sound, I view these elements as still very masculine because they are usually instrumentally used as moments of brevity to build a sense of grandeur that compliments the "macho" heavy riffs. and lyrically their lighter more ballad like songs are always written from a male viewpoint and deal with very masculine emotional responses to more sensitive/emotional subjects like: love (nothing else matters) rejection and shame (the unforgiven) depression/suicide (fade to black) and pretty much falling out of love? (bleeding me). there's probably much more i could elaborate on but those are just some of my opinions.
This video made sense and I'm for very happy to watch it. Specialy the part explaining the use of Tonic in Metallica's music.
And asking what we associate with Metallica cause me to actually think what all those words actually means. Appreciate that.
DUDE... Watching this just made me realise how much of an impact Metallica has left me songwriting wise. Although I don't listen to them much anymore from day to day as I do with Karnivool, Toska, or Dorje which most of the time, according to this discussion, is more 'female'. And despite all of that, I almost always hold on to the tonic when creating riffs just like James and whenever I want something to sound heavy in my demos I subconciously, or sometimes not, program the drums to sound like what I'd imagine Lars would play for that part. I discovered Karnivool about 2 years ago along with Toska and Dorje, and it has definately improved my writing and has pushed it more in a 'female' direction for my aural pleasure(and it helps that Rabea Massad and Ian Kenny are geniuses) I honestly kind of thought my days of learning basically every single Metallica song and learning everything about them was past me and that I'm a completely different player than I was 5 years ago. And I guess in some ways I am but some things just never change. For reference: I'm currently 20 years old so that makes me 18 when I found Karnivool and I started playing guitar when I was about 10-11 and until I was about 17 did eventually I develop a taste for other things than JUST Metallica. This was a very nice episode BUT.... *inhale*
WHEN DAFUQ ARE YOU GOING TO DO ONE ABOUT KARNIVOOL? SRSLY?! YOU'VE DONE ONE FOR TOOL AND DEFTONES COME ON!!!!
We need season 3! Queen, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Prince, Michael Jackson, Daft Punk, David Bowie, Kendrick Lamar!
“Jumps around just like my wife?” Man what happened to you bro?
What a fantastic analysis! You put into words everything that I felt during years listening Metallica!
Oh yeah, Hoagie from Day of the Tentacle! I really considered what you said about using male / female archetypes to music but I don't find it a very useful or illuminating way of understanding music. I can understand using words like chaotic, martial, straight, aggressive, loose, fast, intense, melodramatic etc. but masculine and feminine is too broad and vague to be useful. That's just my opinion. Interesting video though.
Well, different strokes for different folks I guess. It's a concept I use quite a lot actually, for example to contrast two sections against one another, Male against Female tends to work very well. Glad you spotted the day of the tentacle reference ;)
Hey
Friedemann, Fred(?) I just finished your book a couple days ago and it has really made my songs less boring and more engaging. So thank you.
oh hi me from a year ago
Wow! One of the best episodes ever!!! Brilliant! Great season finale! I thought I wouldn't like this one so much since I'm not a great fan of Metallica myself either. But this was very instructive and insightful. Congratulations!
You even helped me understand what bothers me about Metallica! And what makes me enjoy more complex styles, like jazz. It's clearly because I'm a girl, loll, at least my musical brain is.
Btw, took me a while to remember who the typical Metallica fan you portraited was, lol, the guy from Day of the Tentacle.
Nice video! I would have liked to see a deeper look into the more progressive, melodic, thrashy and mellow parts of Metallica, though. I think the examples here were of some of the most straight forward stuff, which to be fair is perhaps most popular, but to me personally the least interesting. Keep up the great work!
Metal
Aggressive
Scooped Mids
3:33 I like how literally everyone is creative
01:02 click here to start the video
Thanks again for another great video ! I’d love to see you breakdown the sound of Korn if you haven’t already
You pointed out very well their evolution as a band. As you mentioned, they couldn't stand being always rude and agressive. They are humans like anyone else and only after accepting it, Metallica could go on.
Great video as always ! For the next one, I suggest you take At the Gates into consideration. With very unique sound and plots for songs they should take a place in these videos, I believe.
I actually got pretty well the whole male/female thing, is not that confusing. And I think this the first time I agree completely with one your videos in these series. Is not that I don't agree with the others, they're awesome, is just that I always have a very diferent view of the image and sound of the bands you describe or maybe is that I feel you don't talk about the things I consider to be the most important, but it's always enjoyable to see different points of view and I always end up learning something I didn't know.
I would love to see an episode on Queens of the Stone Age although I'm sure as hell we're definitely not going to have the same views on that one hahaha but it would be very interesting to see your take on them. Keep on the good work, man. Love your videos.
I'm really curious to see what you could come up with on an analysis of some more extreme metal bands like Cattle Decapitation.
I've been enjoying this series a lot. Hope there's much more to come!
Love your series, please do Queens of the Stone Age!
Yes, we're alive James.
I'd love to see Architects!
This video series is brilliant!
Keep it up and
Have a nice day!
Yo, you've gotta do Slipknot, Soundgarden and Foo Fighters next season. That'd be sick! (Also really appreciate the content, have learned a lot from watching you)
I love your thoughts on how image and music combine. It's really shaped how I write music.
Thank you! Hearing that I my videos help always means a lot.
Damn.... So much valuable info, I need more of you in my life
"His drumming is very compladx and unique" plays the simplest drumbeat as an example
Enjoyed this, as always. Still really looking forward to your take on Nine Inch Nails. There is a lot of genius to unpack there!
Excellent analysis! Please, cover the writing style of Kid Rock or Prince, they both hit multiple styles with great success, whether you love them or not!
Thankx and keep up the great work....learning a lot from you as usual!
Please do Architects next
That would be awesome
I honestly don't believe he can do them justice...
I love his videos though.
Would love an episode or season about more synth driven music. EDM (the Glitch Mob), synth pop (Neon Trees), synth rock (Imagine Dragons), or retro new wave (Tears for Fears and Duran Duran)
Thank you very much. Very cogent take of the band and astute insight into how the real life story could not be divorced from the nature of the art itself. I loved the Some King of Monster doc, and loved the music even more upon watching it, for all the reasons of authenticity you covered. I suspect the ‘hard core fans’ who weren’t onboard with the raw visions of the band were those who fit the stereotype you mentioned. I have always thought the music has only gotten better and better, realer and realer, more mature and more mature, the most recent work always displacing the former in my current playlist, precisely for this reason. Bravo
Wholeheartedly agree. Thank you! :)
Beautifully done bro! You hit the nail on the head with Metallica here.
How about we start off the new season with an episode on Queens Of The Stone Age??
(especially the early days, their writing style was strange and fucked up but addictive with deep cuts like You're So Vague and Born To Hula, Avon, and Medication)
You are so right! The look behind is so important ! Very impressive ! Very good !
Hey Mr Findeisen
For this band I would say:
1. Pre
2. Pubescent
3. Angst
I don’t mean to be funny, but even tho I love metal and they were a band that showed the way for the only metal band, I just even got them... or maybe I had grown up by the time I got to hear them...
On that note... please... may you do one of these band next time?
1. Meshuggah
2. The Mars Volta
3. Canvas Solaris
4. King Crimson
5. Rolo Tomassi
6. Opeth
Sorry.. I know that is a lot.. I have more.. but just to mix it up:
7. Owane
8. Talk Talk
9. Alva Noto - Ryuichi Sakamoto
I am sure you will find a lot to break down when looking into any of these..
Thanks for your videos….. They are Holistic… :)
Green Day and Offspring would be great! Amazing work man! Dropping a sub
@Holistic Songwriting Dude! I love the DVDA intro!
Love the vid. The background music is fantastic
as well. Phrygian Dominant?
I'd be really glad for a video about Ben Howard. In my opinion he's a great songwriter and quite underrated.
Or Bon Iver, his first two albums are just a game changing in this decade.
I love your analyses. This series is so interesting. I would love to see your take on Queens of the Stone Age.
The St. Anger era Metallica reminds me of mid - winter 2013 of The Shield in WWE. Where 2 members argues and they reconciled after a summit.
The word that describes Metallica for me is "riff". Seriously, one Metallica song has so many riffs that other rock band would make a full album from them - take for example Halo on Fire, that song changes so many times. It's even their composing habit or peculiarity - James comes with a bunch of riffs and they (Lars + James) try to find out which riff goes well with another riff, and another, and another, until they get an extremely complicated song. I love Metallica for this, because the songs are not boring!
Thx a lot for this episode, Metallica has a big influence on my music and it was awesome to see/hear their songwriting analysed.
Could you please do one on Avenged Sevenfold too? If anything, their songs are quite complex.
Shinedown would be cool to get into. Interesting East coast sound - or maybe just the east coast rock. I love their composition and the way Eric Bass seems to be the actual genius.
"...compare this to Ron Burgundy..." I fucking DIED 😂😂
I came up with an interesting comparison that St. Anger era Metallica to the original Shield run from late 2013 to February 2014. There were tensions within the group then had a therapy session then resolved the issues. After that, they continued without any problems.
YEEAHH! Slipknot would be another awesome video. Or Incubus!
Loved the subtle Chad Smith is Ron Burgundy assertion. XD
you're a very good presenter, even if it wasn't about music i would probably still be captivated,
If you haven't done it already could you please do Avenged Sevenfold? I'd love to see how they do (or don't) write a chord progression or song. Keep up the good work. I always love watching these. Ty.
Great video as always :) I would love to see Slipknot next!
This stuff from Some Kind of Monster, reminds to that The Shield (Reigns, Rollins, & Ambrose) the tension between each other.
I really wished that The Tragically Hip was larger outside of Canada. Gord Downie's song writing is brilliant and I would love to have you do an episode on him and the band.