Speed metal is one of subgenre in heavy metal that spawned in 1980s and was direct musical progentior of thrash metal. Used by heavy metal band such as Judas Priest,Black sabbath, and Deep purple.This genre rooted in the music of uk’s NWOBHM bands.The term speed metal has been broken down and specified with other terms under heavy metal (typically thrash metal, power metal, , black metal) and is often succeeded by such terms when an artist’s sound or style is specifically defined. The term ’speed metal’ was also used in a very broad sense by some glam metal and NWOBHM groups during the 1980s. Many Japanese bands from the 1980s to the present can also be described as speed metal, largely due to the success of X Japan.
The exact origin is difficult to pinpoint but many consider the earliest speed metal song to be Deep Purple’s Highway star,including album from Black Sabbath entitled Paranoid.
Highway Star introduced the single-note riffing at fast tempos and the complex guitar and keyboard solos (performed by Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord respectively) borrowed from progressive rock of the 1970s, but heavily influenced by classical music. These features commonly went on to be associated with more modern metal genres, but at the time, was typical of speed metal.
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