Defining contemporary metal music: Performance, sounds and practices

Contemporary metal music (CMM) features, usually down-tuned, harmonically distorted timbres, and from a performance perspective regularly contains fast and frequently complex subdivisions, as well as highly synchronized instrumentation. The combination of these elements results in a significant concentration of dense musical sound usually referred to as ‘heaviness’. From a performance, sounds, practices and production aesthetics perspective, this article proposes the broad musical parameters for CMM’s heaviness, and from this viewpoint likewise seeks to distinguish CMM from traditional heavy metal music.