Keyboards in Metal. How can this be?

If we don't count early metal/hard rock ,and pop-oriented glam metal of 80's, there were not much keyboards in metal...I know of lot of metalheads frowning upon keyboards in modern metal.

Let's just say keyboards in metal happened...somewhere in time...

As a keys player myself, I can say they're not important in any metal I've heard. There's a time a place for keyboards in any type of music. Sometimes it adds another coat to it, sometimes it sounds horrific.

The most important music in metal for me is drums. Think about it. Every band except Sunn0))) and Earth and other funeral doom bands (or drone doom, could never decipher the terminology), utilises drums and get's their energy from drums. I mean, look at pig Destroyer and Suffocation. Can you imagine them without the same level of drumming? It would be DULL!

Stephen wrote: DeathOfSeasons wrote: Stephen wrote: Keyboard added a depth and beauty to the music but of course can't be done in thrash or death,     Ever heard of Sadist or Nocturnus? never heard of them buddy, but that's only my opinion i guess probably the keyboard was used at the intro or outro because when it's used in the midst of a song, isn't the key sound will drown and vanished with a dominant distorted guitar and pounding drums esp for death ?

 

DeathOfSeasons wrote: Stephen wrote: Keyboard added a depth and beauty to the music but of course can't be done in thrash or death,     Ever heard of Sadist or Nocturnus?

never heard of them buddy, but that's only my opinion
i guess probably the keyboard was used at the intro or outro because when it's used in the midst of a song, isn't the key sound will drown and vanished with a dominant distorted guitar and pounding drums esp for death ?

Ugh . . .
There was that series on VH1-2 where Comedians and Metal Band members would comment on
Heavy Metal, and some Comedian, whom I never heard of, would say "KEYBOARDS! Keyboards isnt
Metal!".   Well of course he thought that, because they're playing the song from Europe . . . (Oh God,
do I really need to say the "song" ? ).

I never knew Metal had to have Rules . . .

Yeah I know many Metalheads don't want Keys in their music, well, that means you really dont have
to listen to it (or maybe, you didn't notice them ).
Deep Purple, Rainbow, Uriah Heep, ELP (ELP were considered "Hard Rock" by some long ago, I'm
sure by ignorance of not knowing what Prog Rock was) and the like, have Keyboards as "essential
parts" of the Band, not only to add textures, but as a Lead instrument.
Like Dream Theater, they basicaly brought on a wave of Prog Metal Bands (other than "Powermetal")
that still used the crunching, riffy chugging Guitars, but had Keyboardists as a Lead and Textural
Instrument as just another part of the Band, not as just something in the backround (Like Post-Ozzy
Black Sabbath).
There are TONS of International Prog Metal Bands that use Keyboards as a Lead Instruments with
Guitarists and they can sound VERY Heavy and Technical too, with various Vocal styles as well . . .
Especially with The new wave of Dark-Wave/Prog Metal (TNWODWPM?) like, Forever After,
Epica, Leaves Eyes, Within Temptation and many more.

And then you have the Extremes like Emperor, Dimmu Borgir, Samael and other Blackmetal Bands
that use them as Textures, but you can hear them.
I think Nocturnus was considered the 1st Band to use Synth/Keyboards in Death Metal.
Soilwork and Opeth use them, but Opeth have been using "Per Wiberg" of late as a Soloist, getting
back to those 70's influences (like Jon Lord and Ken Hensley).
Fates Warning always recruited Dream Theater's Kevin Moore to add some textures and little solos
in their later albums ("No Exit" on).
And Kevin Moore (and Portnoy for the 1st 2) has his "Radiohead meets Dream Theater" Band "OSI".

Many other Bands use various "unusual Instruments" to an enhance ideas. 
Believer, Atrocity and Rosicrusion, 3 Tech/Death Metal Bands used Male and Female Opera
Singers to enhance a song, just to add something that had never been done before, they were
ahead of their time.
Martin Walkyier (Co-founder of Sabbat (u.k.) who formed Skyclad has a Fiddle Player and they set
the course for Folk Metal.
Ihshan, the Blackmetalist from Emperor on his latest Solo Album, there is a song where you hear
this chugging riff in the backround as Ihshan plays his Guitar on top of it, I then realized that "riff" is a
freakin' Saxaphone as the player does a Sax Solo!
The Post-Prog Metal Band Sculptured uses Trumbones and Trumpets AND Keyboards.
The Ocean is also another Band that breaks the mold of Metal with all its influences and all sorts of
sounds.
And Apocalyptica are all strings!  Mark Wood of Wood plays a Lead Doubleneck Violin with a
Tremelo Bar, his Band has no Guitarist.

We live in a time of Metal that is influenced by "decades" of various music.  How can anyone percieve
of it not grabbing parts of different musics to enhance an idea?
Heres the thing about the pre-concieved notions of "Metal", it is regulated to that mind-set, and soo
damn irratating that people cant get out of that "Box". But if you don't like it, you don't like it .
The more Bands push the envelope, the better I like it.

Go here and see how many Prog Metal Bands use Keyboards, its NOT a "minority" anymore :
http://www.progulus.com/rprweb/playing.php

Guitar, Bass and Drums I totaly agree are the foundations of Heavy Metal, but Keyboards can be an
essential part of Metal depending what your vision is when concieving a Band, or just an "Idea" to be
purely creative.
I believe in no rules for Metal . . . period.


Edited by MAVIIIVAM - 12 Apr 2010 at 1:24am

jampa17 wrote: Well, I was very disapointed when I was a teen because there was no rock music with keyboards in the late 90's. I wonder if the instrument was not heavy enough or if the instrument was not good enough. Luckly, I found bands like Dream Theater, Angra, Stratovarious and another that really succed in that. Now we have a lot of this kind of metal in sub genres like Symphonic Metal, Prog Metal and Power Metal, but some purist still denied the keyboards as an important part of metal. What do you think about it?   We can denied the importance of John Lord in metal? please, share your thoughts about it...

See the problem with metal bands that use keyboards is that 99% of them are inconceivably cheesy and awful such as all the bands you listed.


Edited by Beekeeper - 10 Apr 2010 at 3:53am

Stephen wrote: Keyboard added a depth and beauty to the music but of course can't be done in thrash or death,

 

Like that guy said, it's all a matter of your taste. I am sure bands wouldn't give up doing what they like doing, incorporating the instruments they like to use and play just to please you. I might be coming off like a dick here, but assuredly it's not my intent. Simply, if you don't like what they are doing  a) either its not your type of music  or  b) just don't listen to that band.   Who's definition of 'metal' are you going by? Yours? Theirs? It's different for everyone. Else, we would have x50000 Iron Maiden replicas walking about.

There is no point to being one dimensional, sometimes I find that bands are so much better when they let themselves speak what they define as much, but sadly a lot of them like to play 'traditionally' and use only the basic stuff. Not saying it's bad, in fact it's fine, just don't expect me to hold a band in as high of regard as the OG's of that stuff. The previous poster mentioned his favorite subgenre is sludge, which at it's bare bones as a whole I find entirely, cripplingly, painfully unlistenable. It's not that I find it "bad", it's just that ALL THOSE BANDS SOUND THE SAME. I do/did like certain records, but don't expect me to go ape-sh*t over it. With a little talent and originality you'd be surprised how cohesive it sounds.

I'm just talking from experience, but if people like to live in a boxed metal world, let them, who am I to say? In short - Keys are not "essential" by many a definition, although they just add some zest to the mix. Just my thoughts on this subject, not that anyone actually cares.

Edited by coorpz - 09 Apr 2010 at 11:55pm

micky wrote: Negoba wrote: Bass is not essential. Just listen to the classic ...and Justice for All.     bass is another one that is not exactly important.. unless you consider doubling the guitar riff to make it heavier important (all back to the importance of the guitar)

Well yeah, any metalhead that knows anything about metal should know that doubling the guitar IS important.
There is never a point where the bass guitar isn't important in metal.
If you've ever heard a mix with a bass guitar side by side with one without a bass guitar, you definitely don't take bass guitar for granted after that.
A lot of people say "I Can't hear the bass guitar" which to me is silly. It only seems that way because a good mix engineer knows how to blend the bass guitar and guitar tracks together well so they sound seamless.
Without a bass guitar, the only thing holding down the low end of a mix is a kick drum, which isn't sufficient enough to do it by itself.
It's not and never has been about making it "heavier". It's just about ensuring you have a full sounding mix that covers a good range of the frequency spectrum rather than having a huge hole in the sub bass and mid bass.

As much as I love Jon Lord (I've been posting my PA Deep Purple reviews in the past hour or so), his keyboards work so well because they find a perfect foil in the guitar played by a certain Mr Ritchie Blackmore. It is the combination of both those instruments that makes DP's sound as exciting as it is, IMHO. Micky said it well... Metal is, and always will be, guitar-based. Keyboards can add some extra spice, but they will never be the main ingredient.