Thursday, May 01, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Music: Metal music machine

The Pure American Metal tour displays the genre's evolution

By Mike Prevatt

Metal doesn't seem to be doing too well lately, if you hadn't noticed. Even the school bully has switched from nu-metal to emo, and those '80s hair bands will inadvertently feel the stigmatic repercussions of the Great White show that killed 99 people earlier this year in Rhode Island. Actually, though, metal is doing great--it's thriving in the underground, where it can go through the various stages of experimentation and reinvention without risking big-budget failure. It's also redefining itself, as evidenced by the Pure American Metal tour.

Envisioned by Virginia act Lamb of God, the tour is designed to attract fans of "heavy" music, which includes metal, hardcore, thrash, groovecore, grindcore, et al. While Lamb of God--which releases an album next week called As the Palaces Burn--and opener Chimaira, seem more closely linked to traditional metal, by way of its apocalyptic themes and epic pummeling, their tour mates challenge the idea that metal must directly descend from Pantera.

"I think all these bands represent a section of a resurgence into thrash and death metal, and we're hoping to bridge the gap because there a lot more similarities than differences," says Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton. "If someone has a different sweatshirt or wears eyeliner, it doesn't mean it's not metal."

One of those bands is Orange County, Calif.'s Atreyu, which embeds metal flourishes and song structures into its otherwise punk-oriented, hardcore-based sound, evidenced on its album Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses. And it's not lost on the band either.

"We love a lot of Swedish metal bands, and even some '80s metal bands," says singer Alex Varkatzas. "We totally recognize metal in our music."

Given the heaviness of these bands and their influences, what's interesting is their concerted attempts at melody. In most metal and hardcore bands, there's an emphasis on the noise factor, nihilistic themes, or onstage props that can sometimes evoke little beyond novelty. However, bands like Lamb of God and Atreyu understand the need to change up time-tested structures, even if their choruses and hooks are unconventional.

"We have infused a bit more melody, but it's hard to say that we're melodic in the sense that, say, In Flames is," says Morton. "We've decidedly strived to explore new avenues within heavy music, and try different formulas, song arrangements and structures. With [As the Palaces Burn], the songs are more conceptual and arranged, and that was very deliberate, for a different-sounding record. If we have five or six records, I want our fans to disagree over what their favorite record is. We want a collection of music that cannot be defined by one factor."

Atreyu, which seems influenced more by the wealth of melodic, structured hardcore and punk that comes from its hometown, is a bit more modest about why it writes and conceives its music the way it does.

"None of us listens to chaotic hardcore," says Varkatzas. "As a group, we're not into weird tempo timing stuff. We're just five kids who love each other and love doing this, and that sincerity and us having a great time comes across in what we write. People can judge that."

Whatever they judge, there's no way to get around it: Metal is in the hands of a new generation, and it has evolved.