the.com/drone metal
Metal slowed to geological speed, so heavy riffs become weather systems.
means A subgenre of metal built from extremely slow, sustained, heavily distorted chords or tones, often stretched into minutes-long drones with little traditional riffing or percussion — texture and volume replace speed and hooks.
from The 'drone' half comes from Old English 'dran'/'drān', the male honeybee, whose name gave us the low continuous hum sound by the 1800s; the genre borrowed that sense of unbroken, buzzing sustain. 'Metal' traces to 'heavy metal,' a phrase lifted from rock criticism in the early 1970s (itself possibly echoing earlier slang and lyrics) to describe loud, distorted guitar music. Drone metal itself crystallized in the 1990s, when bands like Earth and Sunn O))) slowed metal's riffs down toward near-stillness, fusing metal's weight with minimalist drone music's patience.
- tempo
- so slow a riff can outlast a cigarette
- pioneers
- sunn o))) named themselves after an amp brand
- volume
- played loud enough to feel in your sternum
- mood
- less song, more sustained tectonic dread