Experimental Metal - History

History

According to Ian Christe, experimental metal emerged out of death metal as a number of musicians "abandoned the tightly wound structure of the music and experimented with abstractions of its founding elements." Progressive rock has also been cited as an influence. Some early examples are the King Crimson releases Larks' Tongues in Aspic and Red in 1973 and 1974 respectively, with the latter album's title track defining an "avant-metal style" that Robert Fripp would revisit years later. Another early example is the 1976 Led Zeppelin album Presence. The online music service Rhapsody dates the emergence of the style to the early 1980s and experimental bands such as Celtic Frost, who are considered pioneers of the genre. Rhapsody subsequently traces the history of the style through jazz-style acts such as Ephel Duath and Mr. Bungle, noise groups like Unsane and Fantômas, shock groups such as The Locust, and more recent ambient experiments by bands like Pelican and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. Other pioneers of experimental metal include Boris, Earth, Helmet, Maudlin of the Well, Neurosis, Sunn O))), and Voivod. In the late 1990s, Misanthropy Records emerged as a promoter of Norwegian experimental metal until it folded in 2000, and, according to Jeff Wagner, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a so-called "new wave of avant-garde metal" was spearheaded by The End Records. Wagner states that "with the support of and other specialty labels, metal's new avant-garde had arrived." Some record other labels which promote experimental metal are Holy Records, Hydra Head Records, Southern Lord Records, the Relapse Entertainment imprint of Relapse Records, and The Flenser. In the United States, a local experimental metal scene has emerged in the San Francisco Bay Area with bands such as Giant Squid, Grayceon, and Ludicra. According to the New York Times, some regional scenes that developed in the mid-1990s included the cities of Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Oslo.