Metal Madness

Let’s time travel back to the 1960’s and early 1970’s to the days of Heavy Metal! High amplified distortion, long guitar solos…and LOUD! It is the most commercially successful genre of rock music. In the mid 1960’s bands like Cream,Yardbirds, and Jeff Beck are generally credited to developing heavier bass and drum sounds. Their distorted guitars made them different from blues-rock guitar players.

In the 1970’s Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, & Black Sabbath wrote songs with distorted power chords and the music became heavier. Because of the disco movement, metal bands received a serious lack of airplay and bands tried to make up for this with elaborate stage performances from bands like Kiss, Aerosmith, and Alice Cooper. These elaborate stage shows helped them build an international fan base!

Bands in the 1980’s like Def Lepard, and Iron Maiden helped form the “New Wave of British Metal”. Guitarists like Eddie Van Halen showed extreme virtuosity, and Glam Metal came to light with bands like Guns and Roses. As sub-genres of metals started to form with faster tempos, metal started to become commercially mainstream.

Students will learn each historic metal decade of through performing a real live metal show! Perform the songs that were ground-breaking hits for metal bands. Who better to learn from than the School of Rock Libertyville's exceptional teaching staff.