I’m back from my holiday break from blogging. And it’s time for a new theme. Back when I was doing the birthday time travel theme, my girlfriend asked me “Why are you so metal”? Now, she was only joking around when she asked that question but I could probably trace my journey into heavy metal. It would include listening to Queen when I was really little to one of my friends giving me the Faith No More “Real Thing” cassette to finding WSOU on the radio and many other milemarkers. But instead of doing that, I don’t wanna explore why I’m so metal… I wanna be more metal! Over the last few weeks, I have been watching the wonderful VH1 Classic documentary series: Metal Evolution. As a musician, it has been great to hear about the roots of heavy metal and how it evolved. I think for this theme I wanna look at not how it has evolved but at the various evolutions. According to wikipedia, there are over 30 different sub genres of heavy metal and each day of this theme, I’m going to pick a subgenre and post a song from that sub genre. Welcome to the 10kdays Metal Marathon.
Subgenre #1: Funk Metal
Since I mentioned Faith No More, I figured I would take a look at the subgenre that they are sometimes placed in. Funk Metal is just what the title implies, the mixing of funk’s heavy rhythmic core with the crunch of heavy metal. It is a definite mix that often raises eyebrows when you first hear about it. But you have to remember that all music is linked in some way. Funk and metal both have solid roots in strong basslines and drumwork. Whether you call them vamps or riffs, both have repeated guitar parts that drive the song. So, it’s not that a crazy blending.
It’s not a very prevalent genre anymore, it evolved in the 90’s into nu metal which I’ll cover another day. Today, I’m going to look back on one of my favorite bands that were placed in the Funk Metal subgenre- Mind Funk. Back in the early 90’s when I first got into listening to Seton Hall’s Pirate Radio (WSOU) , I would hear Mind Funk all the time and I enjoyed their style. It was a pleasant change from the heavier metal and the grunge that was all over the station but they still carried a certain darker undercurrent in their music (which would show more as the band turned into a grunge band by their next album).
Song: 1109: “Big House Burning” by Mind Funk
10kdays 