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Underground > Radio & Music >

Classical Heavy Metal

11:22 / 13.07.03

i have a friend who loves his metal more than i do, and i have proimised to show him a world of heavy metal that has been in existence for decades and even centuries before the electric guitar.

you know the pieces i mean, pieces that are obvious choices, like in the hall of the mountain king and ride of the valkyries. the theme from romeo and juliet; the montagues and the capulets. less obvious ones like the sabre dance and flight of the bumblebee.

i dont think there is any chance he will not have heard o fortuna from carmina burana, or mars from holsts planets, but they will probably go on the list.

any of you have a favourite 'sofuckingmetal'piece of classical music?

11:46 / 13.07.03

I'm going to move that this be shifted to the music, mmm'kay?

11:49 / 13.07.03

well, if you want.

i thought it was more of a conversation ttopic, even thought it covered music.

14:01 / 13.07.03

Definitely a music thread!

Don't give him just the O Fortuna; give him all of Carmina Burana. I think one thing you need to demonstrate is that the scale and size of this classical heavy metal is carried over a far wider scale than your average metal song - for after all, a single symphony, for instance, is more than a mere "album" of songs, and yet there is some form of similiarity - but i'd argue that in most classical, the connection between individual movements is even greater than in most metal albums.

Maybe some Messaien? Not so much "loud" as just "fucking interesting noise"; once heard it described as "orchestral techno" and if by techno you mean Warp Records, there's a point in that.

Favourite sofuckingmetal fragment of classical music that springs to mind: the Dies Irae from the Verdi Requiem. It's all about the fucking bass drum. It's huge.

19:00 / 13.07.03

Final movement of Dvorak's New World Symphony. Shostakovich's 5th Symphony (all, of it, my favourites are I and II but the final movement is the loudest). Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique - again, especially the last movement (terrific clanging bell of doom). Last movements are often the most stirring because of the form of the classical symphony, I suppose. I always thought 'The Hall of the Mountain King' insufferably twee, but that might well be just me...

The Return Of Rothkoid

00:45 / 14.07.03

If you're into double-handed-tapping solos, try Paganini's Caprices for Solo Violin. Then try to play them. I believe big-haired metal-tutors have released videos of same. (Undoubtedly played on those Ibanez guitars with the handle in the top, however...)

12:11 / 14.07.03

if possible, links to satanic choral societies and orchestras would also be most welcome.

MPfree and the like would help...

do any of you have a favourite blasphemous composer?

12:39 / 14.07.03

Organ fugues. Bach's Toccata & Fugue in Dminor is the first that comes to mind, but he wrote others.

19:03 / 14.07.03

JS Bach wasn't blasphemous, but certainly was absolutelyfuckingbrilliant. The bit in the Magnifcat where the chorus joins in for Omnes generationes (every generation...) rocks. The rest is probably not what you are looking for.

If you want a really nasty composer, go for Vivaldi. He worked at a children's school of music during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and apparently used to invite girls of eleven or so up to his office for a 'drink'. As for the music - he also wrote some of the best music for string orchestras. The most obvious place to start is the Four Seasons, but something like L'estro harmonico also demonstrates that tangible sense of scale and architecture that Paleface was talking about.

A definite second for Shostakovich's 5th (composed when he was most oppressed by the Russian government - bits of it remind me of a big horrible machine), and the Dies Irae. That movement always reminds me of footage of volcanos exploding.

06:13 / 22.07.03

And for the really big sound, lets not forget Mahler (his name even sounds like the name of a heavy metal band).

Brigade du jour

20:55 / 01.08.03

William Tell Overture. Not the droopy cello bit at the beginning, nor the famous diddle-um diddle-um diddle-um-bum-bum bit at the end that everybody knows even if they don't know what it is, but the bit in the middle that sounds like a rock'n'roll tsunami. Rossini rocks!!!

00:18 / 02.08.03

Shostakovich is totally slayer. that is, he's Slaytanic.

Stravinsky's the Rite of Spring is totally metal, and when it first debuted in 1829 the whole crowd was headbanging -- in fact, they began to riot so loudly that the music was apparently drowned out. HEAVY.

23:43 / 02.08.03

Final chords of Sibelius’ 5th Symphony, his Karelia Suite, his Pelleas et Melisande. He really gives it laldy. Bangs along.

Bowie used to start his shows with Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra and chunks of Beethoven’s 9th (the last movement). Heavy, dramatic.

If you go the Paleface route and want him to see motifs emerge and evanesce over time, there’s Smetana’s Die Moldau which rattles along like a bit of Kraftwerk.

With Kit-Cat on the Shostakovich too. If he’s good enough for Morrissey to sample…

I got to know Moussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition first through ELP’s metal version. Maybe there are more metal bands’ covers of classical pieces that could ease him between the two styles of music. ELP also had a good go at Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. There was Manfred Mann’s Joybringer (Jupiter from The Planets). That’s fairly bangheady too.

Ah, the glory days of Pomp Rock. We shall not hear its like again.

05:15 / 03.08.03

Was it ManOWar who did "Hall of the Mountain King"?

05:32 / 13.08.03

Battle on the Ice from Alexander Nevsky, written by Prokofiev.

The Dies Irae from Mozart's requiem is also pretty good, my favorite performance for it is given by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Natural Way

20:33 / 13.08.03

Oh for shame.... I thought this thread was gonna be about "Classic (every time: a classic) Rock". Y'know, like in the old, early eighties adverts. Or like Evanesence.

I was really excited. I couldn't believe it - we were actually going to have a conversation about the worst music ever; and I was gonna be really tolerant and go "Uh-huh, yeah, I didn't know that! Really? How interesting! I'm sure this stuff's great if you just give it the chance! Violins and rock, you say? Classic!"

And now it's all ruined.

The Natural Way

20:34 / 13.08.03

That post's a bit fucked, then.

Bring back the edit function!

Why's that gone again?

Professor Silly

15:28 / 14.08.03

Try Krzysztof Penderecki (pronounced Pen-dret-ski), especially "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima." He wrote some great pieces in the late fifties through the sixties and seventies (yes, twentieth century). They all sound very ominous and scary...probably because a lot of film scores have ripped him off since then.

For example, in Spielburg's film "Poltergeist" when the hallway lengthens and all the strings glissando, with half sliding up and the other half down....that's directly ripped from "Threnody."