Pantera
Pantera was an American heavy metal band from Arlington, Texas. The group was formed in 1981 by the Abbott brothers – drummer Vinnie Paul and guitarist Dimebag Darrell – along with lead vocalist Terry Glaze. Bassist Rex Brown joined the band the following year, replacing Tommy D. Bradford, the unofficial original. Having started as a glam metal band, Pantera released four albums during the 1980s. Looking for a new and heavier sound, Pantera replaced Glaze with Phil Anselmo in late 1986 and released Power Metal in 1988. With its fifth album, 1990's Cowboys from Hell, Pantera introduced a groove metal sound. Pantera's sixth album, 1992's Vulgar Display of Power, exhibited an heavier sound. Far Beyond Driven debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Tensions began to surface among the band members when Anselmo became addicted to heroin in 1995; these tensions resulted in the recording sessions for The Great Southern Trendkill being held separately. The ongoing tension lasted for another seven years, during which only one studio album, Reinventing the Steel, was recorded.
Pantera went on hiatus in 2001 but was disbanded by the Abbott brothers in 2003 amid communication problems and their conclusion that Anselmo would not return to the band. The Abbott brothers went on to form Damageplan, while Anselmo continued work on several side projects, including Down, which Brown joined as well. Any hopes for a reunion were lost on December 8, 2004 when Darrell was shot and killed on stage by a mentally unstable fan during a Damageplan concert in Columbus, Ohio. Paul died of heart failure in 2018, leaving Glaze and Brown as the only surviving members of the band's original line-up; the band was named Gemini to Eternity before landing on Pantera and consisted of Vinnie Paul Abbott on drums, Dimebag Darrell Abbott on lead guitar, Terry Glaze on rhythm guitar. In 1982, Hart left Glaze became the group's lead vocalist. Glaze stopped playing rhythm guitar, leaving Darrell as the sole guitarist, doing both lead and rhythm duties; that year, Bradford departed and was replaced by Rex Brown on bass.
Pantera became an underground favorite, though its regional tours in this era never took them beyond Texas and Louisiana. The band began supporting fellow heavy metal/glam metal acts such as Stryper and Quiet Riot, who in turn promoted Pantera's debut, Metal Magic. Metal Magic was released on the band's record label of the same name in 1983 and produced by the Abbott brothers' father, Jerry Abbott, at Pantego Studios; the following year, Pantera released Projects in the Jungle. Although still much a glam metal album, the band members crafted songs that had less overbearing melodic influences than songs from Metal Magic. Another change was Terry Glaze's name, as he was henceforth credited as "Terrence Lee". In addition, a music video for the album's lead track, "All Over Tonight", was created. Projects in the Jungle was released on the band's independent Metal Magic Records label and produced by Jerry Abbott. In 1985, Pantera again released a full-length album on Metal Magic Records, titled I Am the Night.
As with Projects in the Jungle, this album saw Pantera's sound becoming heavier, the heavy metal press took more notice of the band. Because of poor distribution, I Am. Around 25,000 copies of I Am the Night were sold. Pantera's second music video was produced for the track "Hot and Heavy". 1986 and 1987 saw the release of several landmark thrash metal albums that would prove influential to Pantera's developing musical style. Among the most prominent of these were Metallica's Master of Puppets, Slayer's Reign in Blood, Anthrax's Among the Living and Megadeth's Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? Terrence Lee's glam approach did not fit the band's developing style and he and the other members parted ways, beginning a search for his replacement. Pantera turned to Matt L'Amour, a David Coverdale lookalike, he sang a number of shows with Pantera in Los Angeles during the winter of 1986, but it became apparent that L'Amour could not hit the high notes Glaze was capable of. Together with his lack of stage presence, this meant Pantera could only play cover songs so L'Amour departed.
Pantera next auditioned El Paso native Rick Mythiasin to sing for Steel Prophet and Agent Steel. A former schoolmate of the Abbott brothers, David Peacock of the band Forced Entry, joined the band as lead vocalist in the spring of 1986, but despite Pantera doing most of the work for their fourth album during the summer with Peacock and the Abbotts found Peacock's voice to be unsuited to the musical direction Pantera wished for. By the end of the year, Pantera revisited original frontman Donny Hart, but Hart himself knew he was not the man Pantera were seeking and Jerry Abbott was to fire him. During 1986, New Orleans native Phil Anselmo had always heard. At the end of the year, they invited him to audition, the eighteen-year old Anselmo became a member of the band. Anselmo had been the vocalist for the bands Samhain and Razor White. Upon playing with Pantera, Anselmo clicked with the other
Mark Tremonti
Mark Thomas Tremonti is an American musician, singer and record producer, best known as the lead guitarist of the rock bands Creed and Alter Bridge. He is a founding member of both bands, has collaborated with many other artists over the years, he formed his own band, Tremonti, in 2011, releasing the album All I Was in July 2012, followed by Cauterize in June 2015, Dust in April 2016 and A Dying Machine in June 2018. The metal rock opera A Dying Machine has been adapted by Tremonti and science-fiction novelist John Shirley. Since his early years with Creed, Tremonti has received positive recognition as a guitarist and songwriter and has received a number of accolades, including one Grammy Award for Creed's single "With Arms Wide Open." He was named "Guitarist of the Year" for three consecutive years by Guitar World, in 2011 he was listed in Total Guitar magazine as the fourth greatest heavy metal guitarist of all time. Tremonti was born on April 1974, in Detroit, Michigan, he grew up in a Roman Catholic family of Italian descent in Grosse Pointe, just outside Detroit, for most of his childhood before moving to Wilmette, Illinois.
He began to become enthralled with music, bought his first guitar at the age of eleven. When he was fifteen, his family moved again to Orlando, where he enrolled in Lake Highland Preparatory School. During this time, his mother was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus, which left Tremonti devastated. After graduation, he moved to Clemson, South Carolina to attend Clemson University to major in finance. After his freshman year in college, he moved back to Florida to enroll in Florida State University, where he was reunited with his future Creed band mate Scott Stapp, whom Tremonti had known in high school. Before Creed took off, he worked as a cook at Chili’s. Tremonti is a founding member of the American hard rock band Creed, he formed the band with lead vocalist Scott Stapp in 1993 with fellow members Brian Marshall and Scott Phillips joining as bassist and drummer, respectively. Rhythm guitarist Brian Brasher was briefly a member from 1993-95. Creed is recognized by many as one of the major acts of the post-grunge movement of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Tremonti and Stapp have been collectively recognized as one of the most prolific songwriting teams in all of rock music. The band released their debut album My Own Prison in 1997 to strong mainstream success, selling over six million copies. Four singles were released from the album: "My Own Prison", "Torn", "What's This Life For", "One"; each song reached No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, making Creed the first band to achieve such a feat with a debut album. My Own Prison was followed in 1999 by Human Clay, an immediate success and certified diamond and eleven times platinum by the RIAA; the band released four singles from Human Clay: "Higher", "With Arms Wide Open", "What If", "Are You Ready". "Higher" spent a record-breaking 17 weeks on the top of the rock radio charts. Marshall left the band in 2000 due to increasing tension with Stapp, he was temporarily replaced by touring bassist Brett Hestla. Creed won their first, to date only, Grammy Award for Best Rock Song for "With Arms Wide Open" in 2001.
That same year, after a tour, the band released another multi-platinum selling album, from which six singles were released: "My Sacrifice", "One Last Breath", "Hide", "Don't Stop Dancing", "Weathered", "Bullets". It would be the band's only album without Marshall on bass; the tour to support this record was overwhelmingly successful but ended with a controversial concert in Chicago that led to the band's breakup. The band announced that they had disbanded in 2004, citing tension between Stapp and the other members, Tremonti in particular; the three instrumental members went on to found Alter Bridge while Stapp opted for a solo career, Creed released their Greatest Hits in November 2004. However, after months of speculation, despite early claims from Tremonti that Creed would never return, it was announced that Creed had reunited with plans for a tour and a new album; the record, Full Circle, was released in October 2009, accompanied by three singles, "Overcome," "Rain," and "A Thousand Faces".
Though a moderate critical success, it became the band's only album to not be certified by the RIAA. Creed supported the album by touring throughout North and South America and Australia during the summers of 2009 and 2010; the band released a record-breaking concert film titled Creed Live in December 2009. Tremonti and Phillips planned to alternate tours between Alter Bridge and Creed with the singers of both bands working on their own projects while the other band is active. A fifth Creed album was expected in late 2011 or early 2012 according to Tremonti, in early 2012 the band reconvened to tour and start work on a fifth album which never began production. In June 2015, while promoting his second solo album Cauterize, Mark Tremonti claimed in interview with Kerrang that he " been a close friend of Scott's in 9 years", he said that Stapp thought that Tremonti and Phillips would return to Creed permanently and forget their work with Alter Bridge. The band felt this was unfair and didn't talk any further about Creed's future during the whole South American Tour in 2012.
Alter Bridge kept going at the tour's conclusion. Alter Bridge was formed in January 2004 by Tremonti and Phillips after Creed disbanded, they asked Myles Kennedy of The Mayfield Four and the future vocalist for Slash's solo project, to be their singer. The newly formed band released their debut album, One Day Remains, in August 2004 o
Probot
Probot was a heavy metal side project of ex-Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters rhythm guitarist and lead-singer Dave Grohl. Described by Grohl as "a death metal Supernatural," the album mixes instrumentals recorded by Grohl himself with various metal singers whom the musician admired; the album was released in February 2004 by Southern Lord Records. It featured one single entitled "Centuries of Sin"/"The Emerald Law". After years of popularity in the alternative rock scene, Dave Grohl wanted to express the passion for heavy metal he bore since his youth, he mentioned the catalyst of the experience being during the first leg of the tour in support of the Foo Fighters album There Is Nothing Left to Lose, with the mellower songs making him think about the heavier bands he used to listen to. Following the tour, Grohl went to his house in Alexandria, Virginia, to record some heavier songs in his home studio Studio 606 with Adam Kasper. Grohl would play with his Gibson Explorer as he watched TV with Kasper, once he got a riff that interested him, he would bring Kasper along to the basement, recording a drum arrangement followed by bass and guitar.
Each instrumental would take about 45 minutes to complete. Grohl said that he did not intend to make an album out of the recordings – "I didn’t call them songs because they were bare instrumentals with no intention of putting vocals on them and no direction as an actual song." After four days of recording and Kasper had done seven tracks, with Grohl making some copies out of the master tape before labeling it Probot to distinguish from the Foo Fighters' work. Some time inspired by the Santana album Supernatural, Grohl decided to attempt collaborations with singers he had idolized, he came up with "my wish list of all of my favorite singers from this era which is'82 to'89 underground metal, all the bands I listened to at the time: Eric Wagner from Trouble, Snake from Voivod, Cronos and Wino," and started contacting the musicians, some of whom were reached by Grohl's friend Matt Sweeney given the Foo Fighters had restarted their tour. Grohl feared his fame built out of being "a stupid, middle-of-the-road, alternative-rock idiot" could drive the metal singers away, but many agreed immediately.
Cronos would explain that "I'm open for everything. And Dave's cool," detailing that Grohl's email opened with "a real fan letter" where he mentioned his longtime appreciation of Venom, explained about his idea of a metal album with all his metal heroes "to get something off his chest."Seeing the positive response, Grohl brought Kasper and Sweeney back to do five more instrumental tracks and round out the project. According to Grohl, the songs sent to Eric Wagner and King Diamond had been done for Ozzy Osbourne as he was contacted to write for the then-upcoming Down to Earth, but when Osbourne's label did not respond, he repurposed them for Probot. Sweeney would organize the project as Grohl toured with the Foo Fighters, getting vocalists on board and organizing tracks; the demo tapes were sent to the singers, each of whom was asked to come up with lyrics, record them and title the song. Cronos detailed he wrote three different versions. On the album, Grohl teamed up with heavy metal vocalists from 1980s and 1990s bands who influenced his musical tastes while he was growing up.
Similar to 1995's Foo Fighters, Grohl wrote all of the music and performed most of the instrumentation. Each track on the album features a different lead singer including Lemmy, Max Cavalera, King Diamond and Tom Warrior. Grohl described the sequencing as "like a compilation tape that I would have made as a kid."Only Lemmy and Wino visited Studio 606 to record, with all the others sending tapes from studio to studio until the album was finished. Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil plays additional guitar on two tracks thanks to Kasper, who had brought the Probot tapes to Seattle and they attracted Thayil's interest. Grohl was pleased with the addition as Thayil had more experience with lead guitars, while Grohl was "more about the riff and the rhythm". A bonus track titled "I Am The Warlock" was provided by comedian/actor/musician Jack Black. According to Black, who described the song as "a homage to'Iron Man.'" after Grohl approached him regarding writing lyrics, his spouse Tanya Haden suggested "it should be about a fucked up relationship," so Black made it about a warlock.
Grohl approached death metal legend Chuck Schuldiner of Death to contribute to Probot. However, Schuldiner was struggling with brain cancer and was unable to be involved despite the efforts of Grohl and others to raise funds for his medical treatment. Grohl attempted to get Slayer's lead singer Tom Araya on the album, but he was unable due to scheduling conflicts. To replace him, Grohl invited Kurt Brecht from D. R. I. Grohl mentioned he and Sweeney had discussed and considered a lot of different singers, including the retired Jeff Becerra of Possessed, Chuck Billy from Testament, Pantera's Phil Anselmo, the vocalists from Kreator, Destruction and Candlemass. Sweeney vetoed Unleashed's Johnny Hedlund, who at the time was rumored to be a Nazi sympathizer. In a 2007 interview for Guitar World magazine, Grohl was asked about the future of Probot, he explained that the idea behind Probot was to choose his favorite vocalists that inspired him when he was a teenager. Grohl said that he does not think that he will do it again, because he does not want to go outside of that idea.
Despite Grohl's label Roswell having a deal with RCA Records, he knew such an unorthodox project featuring cult musicians of the past would not be accepted by major labels. RCA was interested at first, but Grohl decided to follow the spirit of the original bands "on independent, punk-rock do it yourself labels." So
Motörhead
Motörhead were an English rock band formed in June 1975 by bassist and songwriter Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister, the sole constant member, guitarist Larry Wallis and drummer Lucas Fox. The band are considered a precursor to the new wave of British heavy metal, which re-energised heavy metal in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Though several guitarists and drummers have played in Motörhead, most of their best-selling albums and singles feature the work of Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor on drums and "Fast" Eddie Clarke on guitars. Motörhead released 22 studio albums, 10 live recordings, 12 compilation albums, five EPs over a career spanning 40 years. A power trio, they had particular success in the early 1980s with several successful singles in the UK Top 40 chart; the albums Overkill, Ace of Spades, the live album No Sleep'til Hammersmith cemented Motörhead's reputation as a top-tier rock band. The band are ranked number 26 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock; as of 2016, they have sold more than 15 million albums worldwide.
Motörhead are classified as heavy metal, their fusion of punk rock into the genre helped to pioneer speed metal and thrash metal. Their lyrics covered such topics as war, good versus evil, abuse of power, promiscuous sex, substance abuse, most famously, the latter theme being the focus of their hit song "Ace of Spades". Motörhead has been credited with being part of and influencing numerous musical scenes, thrash metal and speed metal especially. From the mid-1970s onward, Lemmy insisted that they were a rock and roll band, he has said that they had more in common with punk bands, but with their own unique sound, Motörhead is embraced in both punk and metal scenes. Lemmy died on 28 December 2015 from cardiac arrhythmia and congestive heart failure, after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. Drummer Mikkey Dee and guitarist Phil Campbell both confirmed that Motörhead would not continue as a band. By 2018, all three members of Motörhead's classic line-up had died. Lemmy was dismissed from Hawkwind in May 1975 after being arrested in Canada for drug possession.
Now on his own, Lemmy decided to form a new band called Motörhead, the name inspired by the final song he had written for Hawkwind. Lemmy wanted the music to be "fast and vicious, just like the MC5", his stated aim was to "concentrate on basic music: loud, city, arrogant, speedfreak rock n roll... it will be so loud that if we move in next door to you, your lawn will die". He recruited guitarist Larry Wallis on the recommendation of Mick Farren, based on Wallis' work with Steve Peregrin Took's band Shagrat, Lucas Fox on drums. According to Lemmy, the band's first practice was at the now defunct Sound Management rehearsal studios, in Kings Road, Chelsea in 1975. Sound Management leased the basement area of furniture store The Furniture Cave, located in adjacent Lots Road. Kilmister has said, their first engagement was supporting Greenslade at The Roundhouse, London on 20 July 1975. On 19 October, having played 10 gigs, they became the supporting act to Blue Öyster Cult at the Hammersmith Odeon.
The band were contracted to United Artists by Andrew Lauder, the A&R man for Lemmy's previous band, Hawkwind. They recorded sessions at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth with producer Dave Edmunds, during which Fox proved to be unreliable and was replaced by drummer Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor, a casual acquaintance of Lemmy's, their record label was dissatisfied with the material and refused to release it, although it was subsequently issued as On Parole in 1979 after the band had established some success. In March 1976, deciding that two guitarists were required, the band auditioned an acquaintance of drummer Taylor's named "Fast" Eddie Clarke. Wallis, continuing to tour with a reformed Pink Fairies, quit after the auditions and Clarke remained as the sole guitarist; this trio of Lemmy/Clarke/Taylor is today regarded as the "classic" Motörhead line-up. In December, the band recorded the "Leaving Here" single for Stiff Records, but United Artists intervened to prevent its general release as the band were still under contract to them, despite the label's refusal to issue their debut album.
Initial reactions to the band had been unfavourable. By April 1977, living in squats and with little recognition and Clarke decided to quit the band, after some debate, they agreed to do a farewell show at the Marquee Club in London. Lemmy had become acquainted with Ted Carroll from Chiswick Records and asked him to bring a mobile studio to the show to record it for posterity. Carroll was unable to get the mobile unit to the Marquee Club, but showed up backstage after the engagement and offered them two days at Escape Studios with producer Speedy Keen to record a single; the band took the chance, instead of recording a single they laid down 11 unfinished tracks. Carroll gave them a few more days at Olympic Studios to finish the vocals and the band completed 13 tracks for release as an album. Chiswick issued the single "Motorhead" in June, followed by the album Motörhead in August, which spent one week in the UK Albums Chart at number 43; the band toured the UK supporting Hawkwind in June from late July they commenced the "Beyond the Threshold of Pain" tour with The Count Bishops.
In August, Tony Secunda took over the management of the band, their cohesiveness became so unstable that by March 1978, Clarke and Taylor had formed and were performing as The Muggers with Speedy Keen and Billy Rath. In July 1978, the band returned to the manag
Dave Grohl
David Eric Grohl is an American singer, songwriter and director. He is the founder, lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and primary songwriter of the rock band Foo Fighters since 1994, was the best known and longest-serving drummer for Nirvana from 1990 to 1994, when they disbanded following the death of Kurt Cobain. Foo Fighters meld melodic elements with heavier ones, have found worldwide success and won multiple awards, most notably with four of their albums winning Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album. With Nirvana, Grohl established himself as a appreciated drummer, in 2014 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside bandmates Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic in the group's first year of eligibility. Grohl is the drummer and co-founder of the rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures, wrote the music and performed all the instruments for his short-lived side projects Late! and Probot. He has recorded and toured with rock band Queens of the Stone Age. David Eric Grohl was born on January 14, 1969, in Warren, the son of teacher Virginia Jean and newswriter James Harper Grohl.
He is of German and Slovak descent. When he was a child, Grohl's family moved to Virginia; when Grohl was seven, his parents divorced, he subsequently grew up with his mother. At the age of 12, he began learning to play guitar, he grew tired of lessons and instead taught himself, he began playing in bands with friends. At that age, "I was going in the direction of faster, darker while my sister, three years older, was getting into new wave territory. We’d meet in the middle sometimes with Bowie and Siouxsie And The Banshees". At 13, Grohl and his sister spent the summer in Illinois, at their cousin Tracy's house. Tracy introduced them to punk rock by taking the pair to shows by a variety of punk bands, his first concert was Naked Raygun at The Cubby Bear in Chicago in 1982. Grohl recalled, "From on we were punk. We went home and bought Maximumrocknroll and tried to figure it all out."In Virginia, Grohl attended Thomas Jefferson High School as a freshman. He was elected vice president of his freshman class and in that capacity would manage to play bits of songs by punk bands like Circle Jerks and Bad Brains over the school intercom before his morning announcements.
Grohl's mother decided that he should transfer to Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria because his cannabis use was affecting his grades. He stayed there beginning with a repeat of his first year. After his second year, he transferred yet again to Annandale High School. While in high school, Grohl played in several local bands, including a stint as guitarist in a band called Freak Baby, it was during this period. When Freak Baby kicked out its bass player, Grohl decided to switch to drums, the reconstituted band renamed themselves Mission Impossible. In a 2013 interview with Sam Jones he mentioned he didn't take drumming lessons and he learned from "listening to Rush records and Punk Rock"During his developing years as a drummer, Grohl cited John Bonham as his greatest influence, had Bonham's three-rings symbol tattooed on his wrist. Mission Impossible rebranded themselves Fast before breaking up, after which Grohl joined the hardcore punk band Dain Bramage. Many of Grohl's early influences were at the 9:30 Club, a live music venue in Washington, D.
C. He said, "I went to the 9:30 Club hundreds of times. I was always so excited to get there, I was always bummed when it closed. I spent my teenage years at the club and saw some shows that changed my life." Grohl said in an interview with The Guardian, "They don't understand that when I was 15 and had Zen Arcade, that's when I decided that I loved this music. For me to do anything else for the sole reason of doing something different would be so contrived." At the age of 17, Grohl auditioned with local DC favorites Scream to fill the vacancy left by the departure of drummer Kent Stax. In order to be considered for the position, Grohl lied about his age, claiming he was 20. To Grohl's surprise, the band asked him to join. Grohl dropped out of high school in his junior year. Over the next four years, Grohl toured extensively with the band, recording a couple of live albums and two studio albums, No More Censorship and Fumble, on which Grohl penned and sang vocals on the song "Gods Look Down". While playing in Scream, Grohl became a fan of Melvins and befriended the band.
During a 1990 tour stop on the West Coast, Melvins' Buzz Osborne took a couple of his friends, Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic, to see the band. A few months Scream unexpectedly disbanded mid-tour following the departure of its bassist Skeeter Thompson, who left to join The Four Horsemen. Grohl called Osborne for advice. Grohl soon joined the band full-time. At the time that Grohl joined Nirvana, the band had recorded several demos for the follow-up to their debut album Bleach, having spent time recording with producer Butch Vig in Wisconsin; the plan was to release the album on Sub Pop, but the band received a great deal of interest based on the demos. Grohl spent the initial months with Nirvana traveling to various labels as the band shopped for a deal signing with DGC Records. In the spring of 1991, the band entered Sound
Gothic metal
Gothic metal is a fusion genre combining the heaviness of heavy metal with the dark atmospheres of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy metal music; the genre originated during the early 1990s in the United Kingdom as an outgrowth of death-doom, a fusion of death metal and doom metal. Lyrics are dark and introspective with inspiration from gothic fiction as well as personal experiences. Pioneers of gothic metal include Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Anathema, all from the north of England. Other pioneers from the first half of the 1990s include Type O Negative from the United States, Tiamat from Sweden, The Gathering from the Netherlands. Norwegian band Theatre of Tragedy developed the "beauty and the beast" aesthetic of combining aggressive male vocals with clean female vocals, a contrast, adopted by groups before them, but not as a regular trademark. During the mid-1990s, Theatres des Vampires, Rotting Christ and Cradle of Filth brought the gothic approach to black metal.
By the end of the decade, a symphonic metal variant of gothic metal had been developed by Tristania and Within Temptation. Nightwish integrated elements of gothic metal into their well-known mix of symphonic metal and power metal. In the 21st century, gothic metal has moved towards the mainstream in Europe in Finland where groups such as Entwine, HIM, Lullacry and Poisonblack have released hit singles or chart-topping albums. In the US, only a few bands such as Type O Negative, HIM, Lacuna Coil and Cradle of Filth have found some degree of commercial success; the term gothic entered heavy metal music with the release of Paradise Lost's Gothic album in 1991. Since fans have been at odds with one another as to "which bands are, or most are not, authentically Goth"; some musicians have disputed the gothic label associated with their bands, including Rozz Williams of Christian Death and Andrew Eldritch of The Sisters of Mercy. In the gothic metal subgenre, members from such groups as After Forever, HIM and Nightwish have downplayed or dismissed the gothic label from their music.
The music of gothic metal is characterised by its dark atmospheres. The adjective "dark" is used to describe gothic music in general while other terms that are less used include deep, romantic and intense. Gothic metal has sometimes been viewed as "a combination of the darkness and melancholy of goth rock with heavy metal". Allmusic defines the genre as a fusion of "the bleak, icy atmospherics of goth rock with the loud guitars and aggression of heavy metal" and further notes that "true goth metal is always directly influenced by goth rock — ethereal synths and spooky textures are just as important as guitar riffs, if not more so". Gothic metal is a varied genre with bands pursuing many different directions, from "slow and crushing variations" to "orchestral and bombastic"; the doom metal background of early pioneers like Anathema, Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride has been taken up by groups like Artrosis, Ava Inferi and Draconian. The black metal approach of Cradle of Filth, Theatres des Vampires and early Moonspell can be found in such subsequent bands as Graveworm and Samsas Traum while the symphonic metal approach of Tristania and Within Temptation can be found in other groups like Epica and After Forever.
Other variations include the symphonic black metal of Trail of Tears, the folk metal of Midnattsol, the industrial metal of Deathstars and Neon Synthesis, the alternative metal of Katatonia and Lacuna Coil, the doom metal of Type O Negative, the nu metal of Coal Chamber, the metalcore of Motionless in White. There is a diverse range of vocal styles in gothic metal. Male singers in the genre range from the guttural growls and black metal shrieks of Dani Filth and Morten Veland to the clean baritone vocals of Østen Bergøy and the bass range of Peter Steele. For the female singers, the different vocal styles includes the screams and growls of Cadaveria, the "poppy" vocals of Tanja Lainio from Lullacry and the operatic soprano style of Vibeke Stene from Tristania. There are more female singers in gothic metal than there are in any other heavy metal subgenre, but female vocals are neither necessary nor synonymous with the genre. Liv Kristine of Theatre of Tragedy and Leaves' Eyes notes that the gothic tag is misinterpreted and points out that "not every band with female vocals is a gothic band".
The genre is known to attract more female fans relative to other subgenres of heavy metal music. The lyrics of gothic metal are known to be melodramatic, romantic, dark or sometimes gloomy. For the three English bands that helped to pioneer the genre, their gloomy lyrics reflect their background in doom metal while their darker or melodramatic lyrics draw influence from gothic rock; the music of My Dying Bride has been noted as "dripping with treachery and pain" from a "lyrical fascination with deceit and transgressions of every variety". Lyrics that focus on suicide and the meaninglessness of life can be found in Anathema while Paradise Lost too has "never lost their depressive edge". Gothic fiction, a literary genre that blends horror and romance, has been a source of inspiration for the lyrics of many gothic metal bands like Cadaveria, Cradle of Filth, Theatres des Vampires and Xandria. Critic Eduardo Rivadavia of Allmusic identifies drama and mournful beauty as requisite elements of the genre.
For My Dying Bride, the subjects of "death and misery and lost love and romance" have been approached from different angles. The common gothi
Cradle of Filth
Cradle of Filth are an English extreme metal band, formed in Suffolk, England in 1991. The band's musical style evolved from black metal to a cleaner and more "produced" amalgam of gothic metal, symphonic metal and other metal genres, their lyrical themes and imagery are influenced by Gothic literature, poetry and horror films. The band has gone through many lineup changes, with vocalist Dani Filth being the only constant member; the band has broken free from its original niche by courting mainstream publicity. This increased accessibility has brought coverage from the likes of Kerrang! and MTV, along with frequent main stage appearances at major festivals such as Ozzfest and the mainstream Sziget Festival. They have sometimes been perceived as Satanic by casual observers though their outright lyrical references to Satanism are few and far between. Cradle of Filth's first three years saw three demos recorded amidst the sort of rapid line-up fluctuations that have continued since, with the band having more than twenty musicians in its history.
An album entitled Goetia was recorded prior to the third demo and set for release on Tombstone Records, but all tracks were wiped when Tombstone went out of business and the band could not afford to buy the recordings from the studio. The band signed to Cacophonous Records, their debut album, The Principle of Evil Made Flesh, was Cacophonous's first release in 1994. A step-up in terms of production from the rehearsal quality of most of their demos, the album was still a sparse and embryonic version of what was to come, with lead singer Dani Filth's vocals in particular bearing little similarity to the style he was to develop; the album was well-received however, as as June 2006 found its way into Metal Hammer's list of the top ten black metal albums of the last twenty years. Cradle's relationship with Cacophonous soon soured, the band accusing the label of contractual and financial mismanagement. Acrimonious legal proceedings took up most of 1995, the original version of the band's second album, Dusk... and Her Embrace was recorded by the Principle... lineup for Cacophonous but scrapped.
Subsequently re-worked with new band members for Music For Nations, the embryonic Cacophonous version was released as Dusk... and Her Embrace: The Original Sin in July 2016. The band signed to Music for Nations in 1996 after only one more contractually obligated Cacophonous recording: the EP V Empire or Dark Faerytales in Phallustein, which, it has since been conceded, was hastily written as a Cacophonous escape-plan. Despite the circumstances of its release however, its handful of tracks are staples of the band's live sets to this day, "Queen of Winter, Throned" was listed among twenty-five "essential extreme metal anthems" in a 2006 issue of Kerrang! magazine. The EP marked Sarah Jezebel Deva's debut with the band, replacing Andrea Meyer, Cradle's first female vocalist and self-styled "satanic advisor". Deva appeared on every subsequent Cradle release and tour until 2010's Darkly, Venus Aversa, but was never considered a full band member, since she performed with The Kovenant and Mortiis, fronted her own Angtoria project along with Cradle's former bass guitar player, Dave Pybus.
The re-worked and re-recorded Dusk... and Her Embrace followed the same year: a critically acclaimed breakthrough album that expanded the band's fan-base throughout Europe and the rest of the world. Cradle's inaugural album for Music for Nations set the tone for; the album's production values matched the band's ambition for the first time, whilst Dani's vocal gymnastics were at their most extreme. The theatrical stage shows of the 1997 European tour helped keep Cradle in the public eye, as did a burgeoning line of controversial merchandise, not least the notorious T-shirt depicting a masturbating nun on the front and the slogan "Jesus is a cunt" in large letters on the back; the T-shirt is banned in New Zealand, a handful of fans have faced court appearances and fines for wearing the shirt in public, some band members themselves attracted a certain amount of hostile attention when they wore similar "I Love Satan" shirts to the Vatican. Alex Mosson, the Lord Provost of Glasgow from 1999 to 2003, called the shirts "sick and offensive".
The band approved, using the quote on the back cover of the 2005 DVD Peace Through Superior Firepower. In 1998, Dani began his long-running "Dani's Inferno" column for Metal Hammer, the band appeared in the BBC documentary series Living with the Enemy and released its third studio album and the Beast. A realised concept album based on the legend of the "Blood Countess" Elizabeth Báthory, the album boasted the casting coup of Ingrid Pitt providing guest narration as the Countess; the album led to Cradle's US debut, Dani claimed it in 2003 as the Cradle album of which he was most proud, although he conceded dissatisfaction with its sound quality. The following year the band continued to tour, but did release the EP From the Cradle to Enslave, accompanied by the band's first music video, which formed the centrepiece of the DVD PanDaemonAeon. Replete with graphic nudity and gore, the video was directed by Alex Chandon, who would go on to produce further Cradle promo clips and DVD documentaries, as well as the full-length feature film Cradle of Fear.
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