Ege Özgün (PHYS/PhD)
ozgun@fen.bilkent.edu.tr
In classical music and jazz, pieces with long running times are quite common. In rock music, with the advent of progressive rock bands, long songs nearly became standard for that era. In metal music, lengthy songs can be encountered throughout the various genres. In this week’s column, I am going to present some examples (all of which exceed 10 minutes) from different metal genres:
Opeth-Black Rose Immortal (20’14”)
The longest entry in the list, this magnificent song is from Opeth’s legendary 1996 album, “Morningrise.” “Black Rose Immortal” (BRI) is a doom/death metal song, reflecting Opeth’s earlier attitude. The song contains many tempo changes and is full of twin guitar harmony. It is highly recommended that this song be listened to separately from the right and left speakers. The song also features a blend of harsh and clean vocals, and jazzy bass and drum parts organized in a very natural and intelligent way. One thing that makes BRI and the rest of the album unique is that you can feel the excitement of the musicians while listening to it; you can clearly see that they had no commercial worries back then.
Iron Maiden-Rime of the Ancient Mariner (13’36”)
One of the longest heavy metal songs is next on our list. “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (RotAM) is the closer for Maiden’s 1984 album “Powerslave.” The song’s lyrics are based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem of the same name; some parts of the poem are directly quoted in the lyrics. Musically it is a very strong heavy metal song, having two main parts with moderate tempos separated by a slow narrative part. Twin guitar work by Dave Murray and Adrian Smith is accompanied by Bruce Dickinson’s unique vocals and Steve Harris’s signature bass playing. Nicko McBrain’s drumming is consistent as always and has many tempo changes. The lyrics and music fit together perfectly in RotAM.
Enslaved-Vetrarnótt (10’58”)
“Vetrarnótt” (A Winter’s Night) is from Enslaved’s debut, “Vikingligr Veldi,” and is a very nice illustration of Viking/black metal. The structure is very simple and contains very few riffs, but this does not prevent the song from being stunning. The main riff is performed with fast-paced tremolo picking, which is one of the signatures of black metal. Very melodic, folky keyboard parts join it at certain points. Grutle’s strong, grim vocals complete the scene and indeed create the atmosphere of a winter’s night.
Nile-Unas Slayer of the Gods (11’43”)
This time we have a brutal death metal song with some epic parts. The song opens with a very nice intro (which is either stolen from—or a tribute to—Candlemass’s “Well of Souls”) and then becomes quite fast paced. There are many tempo changes throughout the song. Oriental riffs—one of the main components of Nile’s music—are very dominant. Such an extended song length is very unusual for the genre, but Nile really did very well in realizing the idea behind this experimentation.
Voivod-Jack Luminous (17’29”)
Seventeen minutes of techno thrash bombardment from Canada. The song is from Voivod’s 1993 album “The Outer Limits.” With its sci-fi-themed lyrics, dozens of signature and tempo changes, and perfect combination of instrumental parts with syncopated riffing, this song is a complete masterpiece, with every second of it offering great music and surprising the listener even after many hearings.
Ahab-Aeons Elapse (12’44”)
The last entry is a funeral doom piece from the German band Ahab (who took their name from the most famous character in the novel “Moby Dick”). As you may expect of a funeral doom song, it has an extremely slow tempo. A nice combination of harsh, clean vocals, highly melodic guitar leads and harmonies, and solid drumming…with all of these put together, the song envelops the listener in a powerful atmosphere.
As we can see, there are different ways of composing great long songs. The important thing here, in my opinion, is not the method but the fact that these pieces have been written in a very natural way. They were not composed with the intention of exceeding a specific duration; they have the length they do simply because they were meant to be this way.
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