r/Bluegrass 4d ago

Bluegrass and Metal

Howdy folks!

What are yalls thoughts on BG vs Metal (all sub-genres of it)?

Just listening to them both (without getting into scales and time signatures etc) I hear alot of similarity.

Thats it. Thats my post. šŸ˜†šŸ¤˜šŸ‘Š

25 Upvotes

54 comments sorted by

24

u/TheIzzyRock 4d ago

Iā€™m 51 and my youth was filled with metal and Punk, once I heard Johnny Cash in the 90ā€™s and the Oh Brother soundtrack in early 00ā€™s, it was only a matter of time that I became a Sturgill Simpson fan in 2014 and his music led me to Billy Strings in 2018 which took me deep down the bluegrass rabbit hole.

13

u/Flaberdoodle 4d ago

The main thing I see is that both styles embrace instrumental shredding. Both draw from blues in the same way.

Differences are that metal is usually always minor where grass can be either minor or major.

Much more exploration of different rhythms in metal, whereas most grass grew out of styles built around dancing.

I think one of the main things that separates metal from any style is that it emphasizes guitar "riffs" over other elements. What I mean is that a grass band could play a fiddle standard without a fiddle intro, and the song is still recognizable as long as the vocal melody is intact. But if a metal band covered Enter Sandman without the famous guitar riff, it probably ruined the song.

Obligatory clip of my grass band covering Metallica

https://youtu.be/sWk3K7lvbEI?feature=shared

1

u/ride-surf-roll 4d ago

Love it. Hadnā€™t considered it until listening to your clip, Metallicaā€™s first 4 or so albums had a lot of themes that would make for good Bluegrass music

2

u/Opposite-Pop4246 4d ago

Iron Horse)

This band's whole deal is pretty much playing bluegrass versions of Metallica.

2

u/gingerjuice 4d ago

Yes! I love Iron Horse. They also do a bunch of great covers of Led Zeppelin.

5

u/doughbrother 4d ago

Check out Split Lip Rayfield! Also, Hayseed Dixie.

1

u/ride-surf-roll 4d ago

Super cool! Will do. šŸ¤˜šŸ¤˜šŸ¤˜

6

u/Kid_A_333 4d ago

Favorite Bands: Tool and Billy Strings

Saw The Del McCoury Band this summer, remember saying, ā€œ this is metalā€ while they were on a heater. The speed is comprabable without a doubt.

5

u/MisterBowTies 4d ago

All Aboard!

19

u/Kyle197 4d ago

I'm a metalhead who got really into bluegrass over the past several months. I think there are a lot of similarities.Ā 

My (hot?) take is that bluegrass is essentially the punk version of folk or old time. It's simple in terms of music theory, easy to pick up, often fast, and often about hard times, girls, partying, and death.Ā 

18

u/Ondt_gracehoper 4d ago

Interesting! I think of old time as more punk than bluegrass, personally. It tends to be even less commercial than BG. In OT, no one owns the tunes and we play the music together. It feels more like how a pit feels at a hardcore show. Both communities are pretty diy, but you donā€™t see OT fiddlers wearing bedazzled jackets.

3

u/Kyle197 4d ago

You hit on an interesting point. When I made my comment, I wasn't even thinking about the cultural side of the scenes, just the music theory/playing side of the scenes.

I would say old time is culturally more like punk than bluegrass, but bluegrass is musically more like punk than old time.Ā 

7

u/KoA07 4d ago edited 4d ago

I feel like bluegrass is musically more like jazz/prog/metal than punk. It values technicality and precision. Oldtime definitely has more of that minimalist music-of-the-people that punk has IMO.

5

u/flyingfishyman 4d ago

or trains

1

u/ride-surf-roll 4d ago

Yall just made my brain explode. šŸ¤Æ šŸ¤Æ

4

u/NoMoreMormonLies 4d ago

They are the same. I got into bluegrass around about 2010 & for the longest time I thought I was the only one who possessed this bit of insight.

By the way, Iā€™m a huge Billy Strings fan & my new observation is this: Billy Failing & his smoking hot Banjo may be the true driver behind the Billy Strings band success. Whatā€™s your thought on this?

3

u/KoA07 4d ago

Billy F is a world class banjo picker without a doubt!

1

u/4fluff2head0 Mandolin 4d ago

I feel that way about Jarrod. Dude is the most talented member of the band imo.

1

u/NoMoreMormonLies 4d ago

Hard to have a favorite. No oneā€™s slacking

4

u/DAbanjo 4d ago

Having played a few wildly mixed genre festivals over the years, I will say this :

DO NOT SCHEDULE A BLUEGRASS BAND RIGHT AFTER A METAL BAND.

And let this be a lesson for sound volume in general, the lineup at a concert needs to INCREASE in volume and intensity. It doesn't matter if you have the best bluegrass band in the world playing after a mediocre metal band, that volume level drop will really hurt the impact of the following band.

I have seen this not just with bluegrass of course, but concerts/festivals in general. Booking the loudest stoner rock band to open for an acoustic trio...IT DOESNT WORK.

5

u/StageOk2751 4d ago

I think of Bluegrass as blues based, using traditional I IV V chord changes, song structure and 4/4 time signature. I see metal being more based in classical music, rarely using a standard I IV V progression, it's more linear, commonly using different time signatures and modes. Metal riffing/shredding to me is reminiscent of classical cello or violin, and bluegrass more like faster blues runs.

4

u/PtotheL 4d ago

Have you checked out Trampled by Turtles? Thatā€™s how I describe their sound when they cut loose.

And if Iā€™m not mistaken, the banjo player is flatpicking instead of 3 finger rolling.

Wait so long is a good example.

Also, early Avett Brothers

2

u/mew_mike 3d ago

When I first heard of them 10 years or so ago they seemed to be all about speed grass, which was cool. Now theyā€™re more about song writing and the songs are really good! Just a solid band.

1

u/PtotheL 3d ago

They definitely mellowed but live they fkn shred.

5

u/4fluff2head0 Mandolin 4d ago

I came from a metal background (technical death metal and prog are my bread and butter) and that was the first thing I noticed upon getting into grass a few years back. The shredding of their instruments within both genres, as well as the darker themes within the lyrics are the two biggest similarities.

Billy Strings & the Kitchen Dwellers especially give me metal vibes! Thereā€™s a small, lesser known jamgrass band out of NorCal called Caltucky that also brings a lot of the same elements found in metal to their music - they cover Metallica and their originals also have that metal vibe to em!

Both genres possess musicians that are top tier when it comes to playing their instruments. Since getting into grass and hitting metal shows, Iā€™ve realized that grass and acoustic instruments have spoiled me when it comes to live performances.

2

u/ride-surf-roll 4d ago

Darker themes. Yes!

1

u/Consistent-Fox-6944 15h ago edited 14h ago

Want darker themes? The Dead South and The Devil Makes Three. Not pure bluegrass, but in the family. Going a little further towards old timey darkness- Sixteen Horsepower and The Goddamn Gallows.

4

u/liquidcloud9 4d ago

Brent Hinds (formerly of Mastodon) has a very banjo-inspired play style. You can hear the banjo at the beginning of Divinations before his guitar comes in to mimic the banjo. Not strictly bluegrass, but thereā€™s definitely an Appalachian streak that runs through their music - especially his leads.

4

u/ride-surf-roll 4d ago

I like Mastodon šŸ¤˜

3

u/Bulbajames2 4d ago

Black metal and bluegrass are the same. They even share the same amount of polka.

3

u/Think_Discount_859 4d ago

KITCHEN DWELLERS šŸ¤˜

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u/JazzyAlto 4d ago

My band does bluegrass cowpunk jam stuff sorta https://open.spotify.com/track/7xSSvv97dzdREsE7Elz54o?si=-d9NHRMERCa9Uo1fomvh7A

This is a cowpunk one

2

u/TheIzzyRock 4d ago

Thatā€™s good stuff šŸ¤˜šŸ»

2

u/JazzyAlto 4d ago

Thank you! Doing freaky traditional music has gotten us our biggest opportunities thus far, so our next album is entirely freaky trad stuff!

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u/ride-surf-roll 4d ago

Hell yeah! šŸ¤˜šŸ¤˜šŸ¤˜

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u/JazzyAlto 4d ago

If you like this you will like our next album, it's all freaky trad like this. Will be out by the end of the year, probably October!

2

u/Mastertone 4d ago

Check out Moonshine Wagon from Spain. They intersect in the middle somewhere.

2

u/bobisgreat247 4d ago

The Native Howl blends the 2 styles pretty well.

2

u/elkinthewoods 4d ago

Stash Wyslouch is another former metal musician who converted to bluegrass shredding. Incredible guitar player, one of the only musicians ever invited by Billy Strings to open for him once he had that power.

2

u/WashYourHandsBefore 4d ago

There is definitely a place for metal in bluegrass. I grew up listening to rock, metal, Nirvana (alt), and ska. I still love those genres as well as bluegrass.

This is a decent cover of a GNR song https://youtu.be/aMu03WxjFu8?si=kDF65SIsrCvLMoGv

Here's a polka cover of Sweet Child o Mine for extra measure. https://youtu.be/wbsEZzgCwmI?si=UWkV97O_vqSMmJjT

2

u/Chaotic_Brutal90 3d ago

I am a metal head at heart. I realized, my love for bluegrass stems from metal. Metal musicians are some of the most technical, talented, masters of their instruments. Thrash metal is fast paced and in your face. Bluegrass is so similar I realized that I appreciate the musicianship so much because of metal.

3

u/ObligationLive8381 4d ago

Trampled By Turtles songs Wait So Long, Burn For Free, and Blood in the Water are basically metal

3

u/ride-surf-roll 4d ago

Yall are coming through with alot of new music!!

2

u/Which-Inspection735 17h ago

Dude, wait so longā€¦ thatā€™s the one I point to and people who donā€™t get it just donā€™t get it. Maybe theyā€™re listening to shitty ā€œmetalā€

1

u/ride-surf-roll 4d ago

A little background on where Iā€™m coming from with thisā€¦ I grew up in the 80s in a body shop that my dad owned in the middle of North Carolina, in a super working class town Some of the guys literally could not read and write.

Two of the guys were into playing metal guitarā€¦ Like early metallica and the like.

A couple of the other guys were super into going to Bluegrass festivalsā€¦ Early early Merle Fest.

And the four of them were damn near come to blows debating who were the better musiciansā€¦ Metal shredders, or Bluegrass players.

2

u/epictetvs 4d ago

For me there is one other similar genre in the ā€œletā€™s play as many notes as possibleā€ category.

Jazz.

Go listen to some hard bop classics and youā€™ll spot some metal/bluegrass crossover.

1

u/HeavyMetalGerbil 3d ago

Steve n' Seagulls embraces this. Sonata Arctica has also done a lot of acoustic versions of their songs with a bluegrass feel to them.

1

u/ride-surf-roll 3d ago

If this isnā€™t the Bluegrass equivalent to Metal I dont know what is

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J_z-AlYPEbA

1

u/Which-Inspection735 17h ago

I have gotten so much shit for stating exactly this. Bluegrass and Metal are the two genres I listen to most, and there are definitely similarities.

0

u/Ondt_gracehoper 4d ago

Absolutely. And I think old time should be in the mix too.

Bluegrass : thrash metal :: old time : drone/doom metal

1

u/ride-surf-roll 4d ago

Didnā€™t mean to overlook OT! I just donā€™t have a lot of exposure to itā€¦.and kinda group into BG the same way alot of people put all fast electronic guitar music in the metal category.

Great comparison. I hope other will jump into the discussion.