Metallica?

 

One of the points is that they introduced a whole new sound to metal - which in itself is progressive. ? So did Mayhem. And Bob Dylan introduced a new sound to folk when he went electric, (and Schoenberg to classical when composing atonal works and developing twelve tone etc). 

 

However, there ARE significant progressive aspects to the music itself, in all 5 of the basic areas - which is what Prog Metal bands have since buit on;

 

1. - this is the principal area in which Metallica were so progressive - and I agree with The T - right up to and including the Black album.

 

Although the latter is extremely pared down compared to it's predecessors, it cleverly blends in thrash rhythms with "straight" rhytms that are pure metal. Metallica distilled metal music and made it pure by stripping out the last remains of "swing" - the main ingredient that differentiates metal from rock in a rhythmic sense.

 

Metallica's approach to rhythm uses the broadest palette of any thrash band in the 1980s; much broader than any metal or "standard" rock band previously. Even Lars, while not the best drummer on the planet ever, drove the rhythm section with a sensitivity that added new range and dynamic to metal, varying the speed and intensity in a manner that's surprisingly subtle. Yes. Subtle.

 

2. Melody - if we ignore Hetfield for just one moment... (actually, he's not so bad!), Metallica brought new approaches to metal melodies in the guitar riffs, bass lines and solos - which was facilitated by the new approach to riffing. Metallica's melodies are strong, instantly recognisable as their own, and frequently have a modal flavour that I think of as Egyptian ("Creeping Death" is the strongest example). The guitar solo in "Master of Puppets" blew my mind the first time I heard it (on the day the album came out). Hammett may never have been the greatest, but his solos are constructed - composed - from technical building blocks that are easily identified. This compostition (definitely not bluff!!!) is far more rigorous than that of most earlier metal bands (especially Maiden) - as far as I can tell, Michael Schenker stands almost alone in this approach before Metallica. /edit... I just thought of a very few more - but they're still the exception rather than the rule.

 

3. Timbre - Metallica changed sound for every album, and not all of it was engineering. "Ride The Lightning" has the definitive Prog-Metal sound (minus a few tweaks for clarity), and the next 3 built on that (even if the production on "AJFA" sucks badly...). Their approach to the textures in the music is what Prog Metal is built on - the lights and shades of "Fade to Black" and "Call of Cthulu", for example, rivalled Iron Maiden's lights and shades. This would seem to be one of the very roots of Prog Metal.

 

4. Harmony. OK, so "KEA" started out with an overdose of Sabbath-esque tritones. "RTL" enters Iron Maiden territory on more than one occasion - but I'm sure (and this is only from memory) that there's modal harmony on there. "MOP" and "AJFA" definitely feature modal harmony - which is a significant portion of the Prog in Prog Metal.

 

5. Form. While it's true that Iron Maiden did interesting things with form, most of what they did was add twiddly bits between sections. This is not to belittle what they did, just to illustrate the difference. Metallica added sections to the standard song form like building blocks - a bit inelegant and lacking in grace, but totally suited to metal. Not only that, but they varied sections, such that the same riff may feature a different drum pattern, or a riff is changed by a few notes to construct a new one. This is a fundamental feature of Progressive ROCK - an approach that may be found in Genesis "The Musical Box".

 

 

In short, Metallica stand alone as a significant if not crucial influence on Prog Metal, just as the Beatles do for Prog Rock (after all, no-one's suggesting we add the Rolling Stones!).