The
contributions of Allan Holdsworth to the possibilities of metal fell like two
stones separated by more than a decade into the same pond. The first little
pebble was articulated during the rise of early to mid nineties technical death
metal (particularly Cynic and Pestilence and to a more limited extent Atheist
and Death). The ripples of this first drop washed over a young Fredrik
Thordendal (Meshuggah). Thordendal would go onto elegantly extrapolate
Holdsworth via Meshuggah leading to a second stone – the rise of djent (some of
my favourites include Tesseract, Viljdharta, Monuments and the singular
Contortionist along with the Faceless and Veil of Maya) and a
re-conceptualisation of metal in the twenty first century.
What is
it though about Holdsworth that makes his work so integral to metal? On first
listen of a classic such as Metal Fatigue
the listener with little knowledge of electric guitar technique or harmony
generally simply hears some pretty jazz fusion with a few odd noises not un-entirely
unexpected for the genre. However, digging deeper when armed with a smattering
of musicological knowledge there are two key aspects to Holdsworth’s playing
which make him stand out within his chosen field and come to influence metal.
The
first technique is his use of non-standard and extended range chording.
Holdsworth frequently extended some of the more complex chords of the jazz
vocabulary across multiple octaves and achieved their sounding via quite
unique, non-standard playing. Holdsworth plucked as well as tapped out his
chords to create ethereal, shimmering angels
of harmony.
The
second technique and perhaps the hardest to grasp for a novice listener is
Holdsworth’s use of slurs, glissando and note bending. Rarely did he proceed in
“proper” in diatonic harmony from A to B, he would create slippery, fluid lines
that snaked in and across octaves and arrive at quite unexpected intervals yet
always sound musical and accessible. Indeed such is the extent that Holdsworth’s
melodies frequently defied conventional melodic tropes the result is that they
can easily sneak past the listener unnoticed with their unfamiliar cadences.
The
effects of these two techniques and their relevance to metal are threefold. The
first two are somewhat oblivious. Non-standard chord voicing equips the metal
guitarist with a new harmonic vocabulary, an opportunity to expand the metallic
sonic palette without compromising on the aesthetic values of the genre. The
second technique was perhaps always inherent in metal anyway, particular after
the advent of thrash metal, particularly evident in the soloing techniques of
Slayer where melodic progression is eschewed in favour of noisy, dangerous
sounding dive bombs, outlandish vibrato and deliberate dissonance. In other
words, Holdsworth’s playing, committed to modal exploration and fluidity acts
as an explicit engagement with the same principles of (dis)harmony played
intuitively or “from the gut” so to speak of the non-musically-schooled.
The
third effect is more abstract and theoretical and can be seen to be
characteristic of djent. The deconstruction and critical analysis of Holdsworth
technique. Following on from non-standard melodic articulation it is performed with
a kind of hyper-attention to detail with every interval specifically mapped out
very much the opposite of the Slayer “gut” approach. Interesting, however, is
that this form of hyper-technicality is being passed onto a new generation of
guitarists as a standard technique. It will be fascinating to see where this
leads as we approach the 2020s. So hats off to you Mr Holdsworth, we stand a
world apart from your original creations and intentions. Your electric guitar
revolution was not as loud or bombastic as that of Hendrix but for those who
heard it was as equally profound.
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