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Nerds love taxonomy, and metal nerds are among the nerdiest of music nerds. (What other genre treats the work of Robert E. Howard so seriously?) We classify the shit out of everything we hear.
This obsession with categorization can be annoying, but it can also be useful. I’m especially fond of tracing individual riff types. If metal songs are sentences, riffs are the common words that make up those sentences. Tracing the etymology of riffs can reveal a lot about the song: its influences, its intentions, and its internal standards for success.
Like any language, the language of riffs involves synonyms and near-synonyms. Say, for instance, that you’re writing a metal song. You want to switch from a fast or driving riff to a crushing heavy part at a climatic moment of your song. The heavy part should have more rhythmic breathing room than the preceding riff. What kind of riff do you write?
Metal songwriters have devised several options for this situation. (Notice that the Wikipedia entry for death metal includes “tempo changes” in its list of genre tropes.) I’ve made out three options for heavy-part riffs. I’ve listed them below with examples; they’re ordered from most- to least-palatable for metal listeners over 30.
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This is the most capital-m Metal version of the heavy part. It appears frequently in early American death metal.
I use the term “slowdown” literally here. This type of heavy part is defined by a noticeable drop in tempo, paired with more open picking-hand patterns. Sometimes the tempo drop is so extreme that the song grinds to a near-halt.
Examples:
Autopsy – “In the Grip of Winter” (Mental Funeral)
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Incantation – “Blasphemous Cremation” (Onward to Golgotha)
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Morbid Angel – “Rapture” (Covenant)
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Dead Congregation – “Morbid Paroxysm” (Graves of the Archangels)
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Father Befouled – “Sacrilegious Defilement of Deranged Salvation” (Morbid Destitution of Covenant)
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Portal – “Writhen” (Swarth)
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When most modern death metal bands want to write a heavy part, they write slams. Unlike slowdowns, slams don’t necessarily involve a tempo drop, though some involve one.
Slams are usually simpler and more predictable than the preceding riff. They also usually involve chromatic, palm-muted chord progressions. I think of Suffocation’s heavy parts as archetypal slams, though I wouldn’t be surprised if they picked up the trick elsewhere.
Examples:
Suffocation – “Funeral Inception” (Despise the Sun)
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Cryptopsy – “Slit Your Guts” (None So Vile)
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Devourment – “Autoerotic Asphyxiation” (Butcher the Weak)
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Hate Eternal – “Hatesworn” (Phoenix Among the Ashes)
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Atheist – “Fictitious Glide” (Jupiter)
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Agoraphobic Nosebleed – “Timelord Two (Paradoxical Reaction)” (Agorapocalypse)
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“Breakdown” is a four-letter word to many metal folks these days. Understandably so—during the aughties, breakdown-centric bands overran the metal world like kudzu. But like any riffing style, breakdowns can be effective when used sparingly.
Breakdowns differ from slams in their increased simplicity. They typically consist of single chugged chords, interspersed with pauses and occasionally with other chords for contrast. They’re often associated with hardcore, though I’ve yet to hear a hardcore punk band with no metal influence to speak of play a breakdown.
Sometimes distinctly non-hardcore bands will use breakdowns, to varying effect. I remember Anaal Nathrakh catching a lot of flack for the below example, but nothing was made of the Hypocrisy and Pig Destroyer breakdowns here.
Examples:
Converge – “When Forever Comes Crashing” (When Forever Comes Crashing)
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Knut – “Bite the Bullet” (Challenger)
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All Shall Perish – “Better Living Through Catastrophe” (The Price of Existence)
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Anaal Nathrakh – “The Lucifer Effect” (In the Constellation of the Black Widow)
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Pig Destroyer – “Phantom Limb” (Phantom Limb)
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Hypocrisy – “Alive” (A Taste of Extreme Divinity)
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What are your favorite examples of each of these riff types? Are there other ways that bands do this that I haven’t touched on here? Do you have special affection (or distaste) for any of these?
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this is what I come to Invisible Oranges for
Same here.
Yeah. This is fantastic.
I’m partial to the occasional slowdown/breakdown (less so for slams, despite being a big fan of most of those bands listed, oddly).
I do however have my own personal rule of thumb for the difference between a “breakdown” and a “bro-down” (lovely term).
I.e. – if the music in question makes you imagine a giant mechanical, isnectoid monster crushing and devastating an inhabited planet… well son, you’ve got yourself a breakdown (Case in point: Anaal Nathrakh).
But if the only thing it puts you in mind of is slightly overweight guys in Tapout shirts showing off their “sick moves”, well then I’m afraid you’re in bro-down country my friend.
Obviously not a hard and fast rule, but it tends to work reasonably well to differentiate between parts written to service the music, and parts written solely for the fans to “get down” to.
Under what classification does the “Die by my hand!” part in Creeping Death fall?
Interesting question! If we use this taxonomy, it’s closest to a slowdown, though the tempo drop is pretty slight.
Thrash metal doesn’t lend itself to this classification system very well. Its songs tend to be more uniform/coherent and rely less on discrete “parts” and dramatic mood shifts. But I’m not a big thrash guy, so maybe someone who is could devise a similar system that handles thrash more effectively.
I dunno, a lot of thrash — especially from the late 80’s, early 90’s era — does seem to be constructed of various disparate elements in the song structure. “Creeping Death” is an excellent example of that sort of composition.
Also, when reading about your description of (and listening to your examples of) slams, the first thing that came to mind was some of Overkill’s stuff (in particular, I want to say “Evil Never Dies”, but I’d have to go back and listen to that record to make sure — I could be thinking of a different song).
You got it right. E.vil N.ever D.ies. I would probably put that in the slam or slowdown category. Definitely not a breakdown, as it really isnt any sort of simplification of the riff…
Under Doug’s current taxonomy I’d call that a slowdown. I’m a pretty massive thrash head, and a lot of thrash bands used slow downs and breakdowns with some frequency, albeit not normally at the very end of the song as a definite climax—that’s probably part of what would make it, as Andy Synn put it, a ‘bro-down.’ In this case, whoever, Creeping Death is a pretty bro-y slow down.
The big aspect of the breakdown that I think doug missed is the 4/4 cymbal bell, which slowdowsna nd slams tend to miss.
For reference to a Metallica breakdown, see “Disposable Heroes”:
Why
Am I Dying
Hell
Have No Fear
(etc.)
In point of fact, breakdowns aren’t always in 4. For instance, the Knut and Converge breakdowns above are in 6, while the Pig Destroyer one wraps in 15.
Time signature notwithstanding, I think the point is, the cymbal hit tends to be consistently ON every beat, while the guitars often play odd off-beat rhythms that contrast with the straight cymbal hits.
Doug, your pieces never disappoint. Esp. when you reference Bob Howard from the get-go.
Also, Integrity using Slayer “slowdown” parts for their “breakdowns” is just one of the many reasons they might be the greatest band O.A.fuckingT.
Thank you, sir!
It’s funny how many metalcore bands used Slayer slowdowns that way. All Out War were masters of that tactic as well.
I think the breakdown to Ghost Of War is the most imitated Slayer breakdown.
The slowdowns by diSEMBOWELMENT and Winter are nothing short of CRUSHING.
diSEMBOWELMENT-The Tree of Life & Death
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr4jNutSDUE&feature=relmfu
Winter-Destiny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0_B2ddzaPM
I take issue with the “unnecessary breakdown”: the breakdown tacked onto a generic emo/metalcore/whatever song in such a way that it serves no musical purpose other than to make kids heads explöde. But even big, dumb hardcore songs can get serious mileage out of a well-placed breakdown. Hatebreed are the biggest and dumbest of all, and probably the best at pulling it off. The end-of-song breakdown (Hatebreed love to end songs with breakdowns) in Doomsayer pretty much rules.
http://youtu.be/igH24n7Lkv8?t=2m43s
When I read this post, I immediately thought of Hatebreed’s Worlds Apart, which is a spectacular song ending breakdown.
My favorite breakdown, partially because it’s literally a song as a single breakdown and because the vocals are more a slogan than anything, is Bury Your Dead’s Losin’ It. The song/breakdown ends the Cover Your Tracks album like a haymaker to the jaw. I’ve heard that the band used to open shows with it, and if you listen to it, you can see why it’d be a perfect preview and declaration of intent for a hardcore band.
Ah, great point about Bury Your Dead. I witnessed them do it at the end of a show (during which was the first time I had experienced a wall of death) and it very much felt like a “I came, I saw, I conquered” declaration. It was immersive, and one of my most memorable concert-goinng experiences.
Does anybody write better breakdowns than Converge? (The answer is no)
Nothing wrong with a well-timed breakdown, but what annoys me is when the song becomes just a vehicle for the WICKED SLAMZ BRAH.
Great topic, the slowdowns section however missed one of my all time faves, disincarnate “stench of paradise burning.” “Drowniiiiing in a sea of fire….the rapture of crematiooonnn…”
great piece.
the ’slowdown’ in Spectral Domination by Disma is absolutely punishing.
also i remember enjoying the ‘breakdown’ in Conjuration Ov Sleep Daemons by Behemoth the first 1000 times i heard it.
well, i have to add the 2 machine head slowdowns which absolutely crushed me the first time i heard them back in ‘94/’97 and STILL batter right now: the end of ‘davidian’ and the middle section of ‘down to none’
and old crowbar had a lot of slow downs but the transition wasn’t really that startling going from ‘dying snail’ to ‘crippled tortoise’
+1 Davidian. That one is in fact a slowdown on top of a breakdown. Accompanied by a single growl of “SLOW”, which is pretty awesome in itself.
I’m quite partial to slams myself. I mean if you need another Devourment example, see “Babykiller”. The whole song is practically a slam; not to mention the crushing sub bass drops on the newer, album version of the song.
Slowdowns are often reminiscent of doom/sludge metal. Even though Salome is sludge, I distinctly remember they have slowdowns from some of their faster parts (I’m thinking of their split with Thou)… and well they’d just get slower from there until its just droning.
Well made piece. Loving the analysis.
One of the reasons watain have become so important to me is their ability to incorporate celtic frost breakdowns alongside melody and atmosphere while staying ‘underground’. I’m thinking of the title track to’sworn to the dark’ or ’stellarvore’ from the same record.
Re converge: how about ‘drop out’? From the same LP, ‘You fail me’ extends the breakdown to the whole the song. The first time I heard that track I felt like I was being personally assaultyed. You have to be in the mood.
Also: every Obituary song from their first 3 albums. Back to Celtic Frost again.
Very nice article. I wouldn’t have thought to discuss something like the slowdown with respect to the slam and the breakdown. I’ve pretty much used the term “breakdown” when I talk about either slams or breakdowns, but then have to go to great lengths to explain that I mean it in a good way.
I wish Converge would write some music in their older tradition again. The execution wasn’t as solid, but I feel like the songs were a lot more memorable.
it might be cool to just hear them “re-writing” a bunch of “classic” old tracks to incorporate Ben’s prowess.
I find it a bit disappointing that they like playing their newer “hardcore style” songs live (they must figure that’s what most fans want?) because I’d agree those (mainly from No Heroes on) are less interesting/memorable.
Thanks for the article. After listening to the clips, I realize that I shouldn’t be so disparaging of breakdowns; there are actually some really great ones out there. Also, masterful choice of Portal’s “Writhen” for a slowdown. That song is amazing, one of my favourites by them.
Great article – more like this please. I’d like to throw out Earth Crisis as another huge biter of Slayer breakdowns.
This was a really cool idea for an article. However, the picks for slams were AWFUL. In an over-saturated sub-genre of slamming death metal bands, you picked bands that have nothing to do with it, and song selections that were not even hardly slams. You could have used Cephalotripsy, Vulvectomy, or any of the other 1345982308 slamming bands out there. Those choices really don’t display what a slam truly embodies.
I’ve always been quite partial to slowdowns, especially when used in a thrash/speed/death metal song.
It feels like that moment in a horror movie when the prey is running from the killer & stops to catch their breath.
They look back and see… nothing. (sense of relief?)
Where did he go? (sense of confusion)
He was right there a second ago?!? (sense of dread)
Did I outrun him? (sense of hope)
I don’t underst… KNIFE IN THE EYE!!!!!!
In fact, even more than slowdowns, I L-O-V-E it when a song comes to a complete & utter STOP.
L
O
N
G
P
A
U
S
E
…and starts back up again.
That is probably why I love Metallica’s “All Nightmare Long” so much.
My $0.02