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JAZZ METAL SPECIAL The Origin And Evolution Of Jazz Metal Story online since: 26.05.2009 / 21:52:37 ......................................................................................................................................................... Avant-garde metal draws on many outside genres for influence. Be it Ambient, Folk, Classical composition or any other genre, AGM as it is lovingly known has always blurred boundaries between previously unconnected styles, and perhaps it has fused no other genres more than it has Metal and Jazz. Many metal bands have incorporated Jazz into their metal and vice versa, so I decided to write an article outlining some of the major player in the field and help other's understanding of where it all started. So with the help of my other avantgarde-metal brethren, I present to you my take on the history of Jazz Metal and where it has taken the genre today. Emergent Practitioners Jazz Metal didn't really kick off as its own genre until the late eighties/early nineties, which saw the surfacing of three bands which would lay down the foundations for most future releases in the genre.  One group which can be said to have really established the whole movement is the Floridian Death/Thrash band Atheist, who in 1989 showed hints of Jazz influence in their debut album "Piece of Time”. Two years on, they released a landmark Jazz Metal album in the form of their follow-up effort; "Unquestionable Presence”. Here, they refined their sound and experimented more with jazzy chord progressions and eclectic time signatures, possibly creating what could really be called the "first” real Jazz Metal album. In 1993, two other bands seemed to catch on to this idea and released Jazz Metal albums of their own. A Death Metal band also from Atheist's state of Florida known as "Cynic” surprised everyone when, after just a two year gap between their 1991 demo and their debut, "Focus”, they transformed themselves into a whole different beast, incorporating Jazz Fusion, Prog and even some Psychedelia into their sound and taking the genre to places that it had never before been. Over in Europe, Dutch Death/Thrash metallers Pestilence also decided to have their hand at this concept and released their fourth album "Spheres”. Fans were sceptical about the new elements and many of the original followers of the band cite it as their worst album, but Jazz Metal enthusiasts lapped it up and it is still referred to as one of the great albums in the genre. Back in Florida again, Atheist released their third full-length, "Elements” to the public. This album included even deeper Fusion influence and marked another stage in their evolution. Remarkably, each of the three bands split-up after their 1993 albums and each re-united to record new material in 2008 (although Atheist had a reunion tour back in 2006).  Another band who helped develop the genre were in Brooklyn based New Yorkers, Candiria, who began to dip into pools of hardcore, ambient, hip-hop and jazz to create a cohesive and heavy sound. All the players of the band have some sort of jazz background, especially drummer Ken Schalk, that helped push the group's already intriguing songwriting and structure into looser realms - Many of their albums feature fully improvised pieces, and their structured songs change and blend genres fluidly, but always with a mind for jazz syncopation and how it could be applied to hardcore and metal. Modern Jazz Metal From it's humble beginnings, Jazz Metal began to mature as more bands began to experiment with their sound and stretch the genre every which way. Some leant more towards Fusion, some to Metal and some created a perfect blend of the two. Many important bands have spawned over the years – too many to list conclusively – so here are a bunch you should check out. (Demos are not counted in the "First Jazz Metal release” heading) Cynic Genre: Progressive Fusion/Metal First Jazz Metal release: 1993 Hey, haven't these guys already been talked about? Yes, but this time I'm referring to their 2008 album "Traced In Air”. Cynic's new album was awaited with bated breath by multitudes of "Focus” fans, and they definitely didn't disappoint. The sound on this release is much more mellow and Jazz oriented than "Focus” and is a classic in the genre. Albums to buy: Focus (1993) Traced In Air (2008) Meshuggah Genre: Jazzy Industrial Trash First Jazz Metal release: 1995 For years Meshuggah has been pummeling audiences with a highly rhythmic, industrialized thrash that continues to be reduced and distilled into its most refined form. In this process, the band has experimented with layered polyrhythms to rival the most complex Indian tala, sometimes making every member, including vocalist Jens Kidman, a part of the rhythm section. It doesn't hurt that lead axe Fredrik Thordendal has a serious Allan Holdsworth fetish, emulating the great jazz fusion guitarist in his tone and his use of odd tweaks in his solos, though Thordendal soars over a churning, many-headed industrial mass. Albums to buy: Destroy Erase Improve (1995) Nothing (2002) ObZen (2008)  Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects Genre: Industrial Jazz/Thrash Metal First Jazz Metal release: 1997 Unfortunately, this project produced only one disc, Sol Niger Within, featuring Fredrik Thordendal and Thomas Haake of Meshuggah, as well as a number of session musicians rounding out on bass, synth, drums and sax. Within, Thordendal philosophically explores the idea of alien abduction/psychedelic hallucination in one long composition that features plenty of guitar-solos-turned-harmonic-adventures, some full and partial improvisation within sections, and the meanest primal screams since Yoko Ono, against a backdrop of the serpentine rhythmic assault Meshuggah fans have come to love. What makes this album so great is that it feels like a thorough blend of jazz and metal - you could at times mistake this lineup for the players on Bill Bruford's One of a Kind, it has such a solid jazz-rock stomp in the syncopation and the soloing - and yet the vocals are harsh, the solos are near-atonal and the harmonies FIRMLY resist convention. You don't need to be a Meshuggah completist to seek this disc out. Albums to buy: Sol Niger Within v. 3.33 (1997) (reissue with slight restructuring and bonus tracks) Gordian Knot Genre: Progressive Rock/Metal/Fusion First Jazz Metal release: 1998 Sean Malone of the immortal Cynic contributes another leading name in Jazz Metal with his project "Gordian Knot”. Featuring many renowned guests such as Steve Hackett, Jim Matheos, Bill Bruford and Terry Gunn, Gordian Knot produces a kind of music which is difficult to categorise without sounding like a pretentious idiot. Playing a mixture of the Progressive Rock many of the guest musicians are famous for, Experimental Metal and Jazz Fusion, their music remains unique to this day and their albums will intrigue any listener of the band members other projects. Albums to buy: Gordian Knot (1998) Emergent (2003) Liquid Tension Experiment Genre: Progressive Jazz Metal First Jazz Metal release: 1998 Featuring John Petrucci, Mike Portnoy and Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater, and rounded out by King Crimson and session legend Tony Levin, Liquid Tension Experiment toes the line between the flamboyant, scripted solos common to much prog-metal and a freer sense of improvisation more familiar in avant-jazz. The group released two studio albums and a live box, and only some of the material sounds like an instrumental Dream Theater. The rest loosens up, for the most part, and at its best, listeners can hear the players listening actively to one another, pushing their music, whether composed or improvised, forward, out of their highly technical comfort zones. Albums to buy: Liquid Tension Experiment 2 – (1999) maudlin of the Well  Genre: Avant-Garde Metal First Jazz Metal release: 1999 maudlin of the Well stands as some of the most well-realized genre-experimentation in metal. Imagine a backdrop of Tiamat's Wildhoney, painted over with wide strokes of the Miles Davis/Gil Evans collaborations, by some twisted clone of Joy Division's Ian Curtis. Here, the jazz influence is primarily in timbre, with tons of horns and woodwinds (and violins, cellos, woodwinds, vintage keyboards, etc.) in addition to the standard rock instruments. Main brain Toby Driver insists that many of the group's compositions were reached, fully formed, through experiments in lucid dreaming - whether this is actually the case, or whether the group is playing humble with their excellent arrangement skills, the music does have a dreamlike quality - melancholic, for sure, but quite beautiful. motW suddenly disbanded and reformed as Kayo Dot, a more compositionally focused rock/metal group, taking a few tricks from their previous incarnation. But 2009 saw a fan-funded reunion LP, with all of the core members returning to re-invoke their surrealistic, meta-genre music. Albums to buy: Leaving Your Body Map(2001) Part the Second (2009) Aghora Genre: Progressive Jazz Metal First Jazz Metal release: 2000 Aghora reunited Sean Malone and Sean Reinert, the serpentine rhythm section of Cynic, pairing this element with some interesting prog riffs and a female vocalist (Danishta Rivero) who wasn't searching for the pseudo-operatic sound that has become such a steady cliche. The result was an album that took straightforward melodic material, tweaked it with compound time-signatures and the telepathic rhythmic interplay of Malone and Reinert, and made something knotty and highly listenable. In 2006, they released a less substantial record known as "Formless”, losing Malone, lowering Reinert's importance and gaining much less praise than their first effort, which still stands as a testament to Jazz Metal today. Albums to buy: Aghora (2000) Gonin-Ish Genre: Fusion Metal First Jazz Metal release: 2000 Gonin-Ish have that certain Japanese "something”. No strangers to polyrythms and other otherwise inexplicable rhythmical and melodical experiments, the band manages to keep a groove going without ever sounding too technical. Add some weird piano melodies and a female vocalist somewhere between banshee and angel and you have something you should check out. Former drummer Junichi Harashima plays in SIGH meanwhile. Albums to buy: Gonin-Ish (2000) Naishikyo-Sekai (2005) Planet X Genre: Metal Fusion First Jazz Metal release: 2000 Derek Sherinian, ex-keyboardist for Dream Theater, presents to the listener the "sickest instrumental band in the world” as enthused by the synth-wizard himself. Planet X were one of the first bands to convincingly combine Jazz Fusion and Metal in equal parts and also remain one of the best. Containing huge amounts of experimentation (as Virgil Donati says, their most exotic time signature is 4/4) and just as much improvisation, their albums are a great buy for any fans of the genre. Albums to buy: Universe (2000) Quantum (2007)  Spiral Architect Genre: Jazzy Technical Progressive Metal First Jazz Metal release: 2000 Spiral Architect are easily one of the most technical bands on the face of the planet, combining lightning fast guitar licks with unfathomable time signatures and rhythms. This doesn't, however mean that they are just technical for the sake of it, as their (currently) solitary album is meticulously crafted with incredibly focused direction and intelligence. Fans everywhere are eagerly awaiting their second release which has been due since...2006. Band members are still working sporadically on material, so here's hoping for a full-length in 2010! Albums to buy: A Sceptic's Universe (2000) Canvas Solaris Genre: Jazzy Technical Progressive Metal First Jazz Metal release: 2003 Canvas Solaris have undergone many changes to get to where they are now. Initially, they played slightly experimental death metal, before dropping two band members and going instrumental. They then began to play a very unique brand of Technical Progressive metal, drawing on a large Jazz influence and playing music to melt your brain. They then lost bassist/guitarist Ben Simpkins and drafted in three new members. Their evolved sound is makes more use of keyboards and really piles on the atmosphere, of course not letting technicality take a back seat, these guys still shred. Albums to buy: Sublimation (2004) Penumbra Diffuse (2006) The Atomised Dream (2008) Behold...The Arctopus Genre: Avant-Garde Free-Jazz Metal First Jazz Metal release: 2005 Behold...The Arctopus are a very esoteric band; their extreme tendency towards dissonance and lack of conventional structure in any sense makes them very difficult to comprehend. Free-Jazz has a huge influence on their sound; they have taken the idea of completely unmetred bars, obscure chord progressions and the like and fused it into an aggressive instrumental metal aesthetic. Perhaps the one thing about these guys that everyone can agree on is that they can certainly shred. Albums to buy: Nano-Nucleonic Cyborg Summonings (2005) Skullgrid (2007)  Sleep Terror Genre: Experimental Jazz/Death Metal First Jazz Metal release: 2005 Amalgamating brutal Death Metal riffs with impressive jazzy runs, Luke Jaeger creates a very unique brand of instrumental Death Metal. He writes and plays all the music on his CDs (with assistance from a drum machine), sometimes attacking the listener with hyper-technical licks, and then suddenly cutting to a chilled-out Jazz-like interlude. It's Death Metal for those with attention deficits. Albums to buy: Paraphile (2006) Probing Tranquility (2006) The Fractured Dimension Genre: 20th-Century/Jazz/Metal First Jazz Metal release: 2008 Jimmy Pitts (of defunct piano-based Black Metal band Scholomance), Jerry Twyford and Alex Arellano busts out a wide variety of tunes with influence ranging from 20th-Century and Classical composition, to Jazz and all the way to Progressive Metal. Featuring some very technical and equally weird playing by the band and their array of renowned guests, they create a very interesting sound. With more material on the way, get to know them now! Albums to buy: Towards The Mysterium (2008) Animals As Leaders Genre: Electronic Progressive Jazz-Metal First Jazz Metal release: 2009 Fusing elements from Electronic music, Jazz, Metal and Prog-Rock, Tosin Abasi (ex-Reflux) shreds his way onto the Jazz Metal scene with some very eclectic but impressive playing. Showing off his wizardry on 7- and 8-string guitars, he writes very organic and melodic passages, with much emphasis on technicality. His debut promises a lot for the future and is a worthy listen. Albums to buy: Animals As Leaders (2009) Exivious Genre: Fusion Metal First Jazz Metal release: 2009 Original band of Tymon Kruidenier, the second guitarist on Cynic's Traced In Air, Exivious create a very unique form of Jazz Metal. Think the missing link between Cynic's Focus and Traced In Air if Paul Masvidal lost his voice and spent a whole year listening to nothing but Allan Holdsworth. Every member shows off his virtuoso skills in a classy and intelligent manner, including much improvisation, but sacrificing no flow or structure. Their debut could be remembered for many years to come as a milestone in the genre. Albums to buy: Exivious (2009)  Candiria, Meshuggah, Special Defects, maudlin of the Well and Liquid Tension Experiment by Adam Matlock Gonin-Ish by Tentakel P. Everything else by Simon Brand Simon Brand |
