Surf rock and black metal are secretly identical 

What if corpsepaint is actually just too much sunblock?

Svrfer

Tremolo picking, the end.

Sunmetal. A Sci-Fi inspired beach-rock interlaced with heavy metal distortion and demonic vocals. The drone of the beach, the drone of the devil, and the drone of the ship engines, all in one.

you didn't even mention the most obvious connection which is tremolo picking.

A lot of the similar sounds also come from the fact that both genres rely heavily on tremolo picking.

I sometimes play Misirlou with Metal Distortion and it sounds so BRVTAL

Doom Metal bass riffs often make awesome Dub/Reggae Bass lines.

Slayer without distortion is still punchy and brutal as fuck...

So you're telling me now I can enjoy true northern grimness while I'm at the beach??? Very good!!!!!

Yeah, but that's because Dick Dale totally kicked ass.

As an armchair black metal "fan", I could point out the similarities between BM and traditional Flamenco guitar. Essentially old Flamenco is acoustic proto-black metal technique-wise. I'm also a big Ventures fan and never realized the similarity until you mentioned it! Don't forget the surf tremolo picking style too! BTW, I may be an armchair black metal fan, but my armchair's arms have ten inch spikes coming out of them skewering the souls of the malcontent while the chair itself is brutally drenched with the blood of the misery of 10,000

no shit, tons of metal and rock correlate

is that fucking Egoraptor in a black metal bikini?

Is that Egoraptor in a blackmetal bikini at the end?

They're not identical, they sound similar because surf music was created out of a weird fusion of early rock and middle eastern music that utilizes a lot of minor keys. Minor keys sound strange to the common ear and give a tone of creepiness or sorrow, which is the reason metal it mostly in minor. So when you play metal without distortion, you're just getting a lot of minor scales, which sounds similar to surf rock

When I worked at a thrift store they had classical music playing in one of the rooms. I being a drummer who likes all walks of metal, started to notice that classical music is just black metal before amplifiers. still blows my mind to this day how easy it is to put a very melodic piece of classical art to the sounds of black metal drums.

Why did Kanye's interview clip seem so fuckin' hilarious to me? 😂 I should be horrified!

>shows leviathan >shows ponyshit never has my mood switched so fast

The fuck did the first two minutes have to do with anything?

trve kvlt surf music is great, very relaxing.

I remember when I was in high school and I discovered that reggae had a huge influence on punk rock. It just made no sense to me at the time and blew my mind.

2:10 "best metal" Mastodon and some brony fan material lol

nice uploading on my birthday

The recent EDM boom is oh so similar to the emergence of Italo Disco, trying to cram in so much of it's influences into one particular style blissfully ignorant that it became "the New Cheap" in the process. Skrillex/Savant and Gary Numan/Depeche Mode/Duran Duran/Sisters of Mercy have identical stories of how they came to be.

I know it isn't black metal but I must bring up Rammstein`s "Mein Land" where is literally a beach-themed song.

This is similar to what I noticed about how Journey's "Wheels in the Sky" is basically a country song when you break it down. Especially the bass line.

black surf music sounds just as scary and dark than regularblack metal

so... with a few hours in Audacity I could turn a 80s surf song into metal mayhem without ever cutting or pasting anything. radical.

I thought this one was kind of obvious, honestly. Surf-rock puts very little emphasis on vocals, either ditching them entirely or using them for texture; is often lo-fi, minimal and reverb-drenched to a fault; and uses a lot of strange modes and chromatic tropes that also show up in black metal. They are also the only two genres that I can think of where tremolo picking and chord sweeps are basically the default, with any other mode of guitar playing being either a digression or sonic filigree. On-topic now: Gabber and brutal death metal are very closely linked, which makes some sense if you think about it and a lot of sense if you're familiar with the genres and their idioms but sounds super weird on paper.

Oh my god! Sam, this was amazing. I absolutely love black metal, and this had me in stitches. Californian Hunger is one of the funniest metal variations that I've heard in a very, very long time. Thank you so much for this :D

Agent Orange Misirlou... I've been making this connection for years now and nobody believes me lol

ehh what you are picking up mostly when you hear similarities in surf rock and BM is the use of tremolo picking. the use of the same picking technique doesn't make the two identical. that and the low fi sound.

When you change Angel of Death into a major scale and remove the distortion, it becomes a Disney song.

Burzum was mentioned, was reminded of my daily prayer to our lord and savoir Varg Vikernes.

Now I'll always imagine some dude in corpse paint surfing when listening to dick dale and surf party's when listening to mayhem

my first video I watch on this channel and Mastodon, Burzum, and Darkthrone are mentioned nice

Finally, an episode of This Exists where I actually know what Sam is talking about.

This whole thing is evocative of how Chuck Berry came up with his signature style. He arranged his iconic signature licks by transcribing Bill Monroe's bluegrass mandolin riffs into electric guitar. The end result doesn't sound much like bluegrass, but the underlying similarities are stunning.

No. No they're not.

Every time I see Kanye, a little piece of me dies...

This makes SO much sense though!!! I listen to a lot of garage rock/surfer rock, and the more black metal music I come across the more I’m reminded of the aforementioned genres. They’re like the same thing just different fonts lmao

1:47 - Thanks for the shout out!

As someone who has, on multiple occasions, searched for 'Black Metal Surf', this has instantly become my favorite episode.

ok, just do a surf song with distortion

Since the day Anthrax covered "Pipeline" from the Ventures ( or was it the Chantays ? ), I know that Surfrock influenced Metal. The fast picking-style and the atmosphere of some of the songs with their oriental scales ( "Misirlou" for ex.) is totally another approach than that of the "normal" rock´n´roll-bands of that time.

Well, I was asking myself how could I love so much Wolves in the throne room and Trashmen at the same time.

my house smoke alarm blares perfectly in time with SOAD's Violent Pornography

I've heard so many black metal demo's from the late 80's/early 90's that have some pretty funky.... circus like riffs going on. Best way I can describe it lol I know some of you know what I'm talking about.

Punk = 50's rock 'n' roll + distortion Mars by Holst and sorcerers apprentice both follow the build - brakedown - build structure of a dance tune. Both of these sound like orchestral drum n bass to me!

I'm so glad this subject was brought to your attention. I just showed my friend some of these a couple of weeks ago. I constantly find the roots between genres. At the end, it's just rhythm and melody. However you put them together and whatever extra metaphorical gravy you put on them, is usually the distinction between genres and subgenres. Of course there are many differences between them, but I always toy around with ideas like turning "Don't Leave Me This Way" into a punk song, or anything Gordon Lightfoot into black metal. The roots and structures cross genres constantly. We've just been putting more "gravy" on over time, or cutting the meat up and putting it on a larger plate. We often just rearrange shit and present it differently, but most things can transcend the idea of normal connections.

Surf and Doom Metal are closer, but that lends to the Surf sounds in Black Metal. There's a strong Punk element in Thrash, and Punk has strong Surf roots. Doom and Punk blended to make Thrash, Black Metal extended from Thrash . . . POOF! Surf and Black Metal share similarities.

They actually do have some similarities, like double picking, hammer-ons, the neck slide, & faster tempos then that if other genres of the time. My personal favorite connections between two completely different genres is the similarities between metal (80's Thrash, & symphonic metal more specifically) to that of the Classical (from classical guitar to Opera, to Symphonies) They have similar complexities in song structure, technicality, atmosphere, there even times when the lyrics will resemble that of Opera. They've proven that because of the unseen similarities between the two, that Metalheads & people who listen to mostly classical have have developed similar brain waves, & thought patterns.

0:35 "Woah, dude, Teshsngfgdjhadgjeoo you is Taming of the Shrew!"

Country music and punk music have a lot in common. It's most obvious when you look at outlaw country, but knowing the history of the two genres, I couldn't show the slightest bit of surprise when I learned there is a thriving (and excellent-sounding) country-punk scene.

I made this connection a few years ago when I played surf rock with a ton of distortion, and it was pretty great

It perfectly explains why "Rock Lobster" and other B-52s songs make for such kickass metal riffs. Between this and its influence on film music (James Bond anyone?) and goth rock (just listen to early Bauhaus like "Dark Entries" or "God in an Alcove" FFS!) , I'm honestly convinced surf rock is actually the key to everything.

I disagree. Blast beat drumming, guitar tone, and shrieked vocals still make an important distinction between the two genres. I would argue there's also difference in riff styles.

really enjoying this videos man! keep it up

I've been studying glam metal for about 10 years and found that its made its way even in some small fraction into almost every rock genre and many metal genres since

The guitar solo in the middle of Megadeth's Hangar 18 is nearly identical to the Punch Out theme on NES.

Hah, I love it! I've always like "Psychobilly" music however. Very heavily inspired by surf / rockabilly music and not ashamed of it.

The fist song I ever learned on the guitar when I was a kid was Wipeout... By the time I was in my late teens I'd been in 3 heavy metal bands. Theory confirmed.

Could you do an episode on the greatly underrated genre of electro swing? Love your work!

I fucking love black metal

Kinda overly generalized black metal and made a few examples, which were decently solid, but not very representative of the genre. Also, the vocals are a distinctly different component between the genres, which was COMPLETELY overlooked in the video. Not only that, the idea that the "only" difference was the distortion/effects used by [black] metal completely undermines the fact that this IS a huge difference between the genres. As a matter of fact, the distortion or commonly employed effects of one genre [of guitar based music] are one of the KEY FACTORS that separate it from other genres. The distortion/effects IS a huge difference between the genres.

i still remember the tiki bars burnings back in 1963

well in one of sam dunn's movies dick dale himself states that he intended to sound heavy and energetic and he likes metal music, to me the connection is bigger when you realize surf music, hardcore and thrash metal all come from california

holiday in Cambodia sounds like surf

Cool world views for making metal songs= Flat earth, hollow earth, Earth run by secret Yeti society, earth inhabited by Deros

coming back to this. is like pearing into a window of hope, joy and optimism.

I love the way you look at things. Always interesting to watch where you will go next. Thanks for taking us along.

Excuse me, I think I need to find this symphonic horse metal. Because it's highly relevant to my interests.

How about the similarities between 1960s northern soul and modern EDM? Both are characterized by driving "four on the floor" beats, both had humble beginings in secluded "warehouse parties" which were fueled by amphetamines and whose lyrics are often repetative and tend to be somewhat uplifting. Just thought I'd contribute!

cool episode man, the best in some time now. The thing i had never thought of and had no idea

funny, i tried to tell people this exact same thing back in high school in the mid 1990s...they all laughed and said i was crazy and didn't know anything about music...but true intelligence, the real measure of smarts, isn't in what you regurgitate--it's in the ability to see connections where there seem to be none.

Thank you for telling me about symphonic horse metal opera.

Ty Segall was ahead of the curve. He had a black metal band. They would rock Hawaiian shirts, corpse paint and spit blood.

You have made my month. I am hungover and need sleep, but I need this more...I NEEDS IT!

When you remove the distortion, all that stays is the melody. The melody is awesome both in black metal & surf rock, but the distortion is really good at that White Noise effect to silence the voices. Jokes aside, the massively saturated sound of (some) black metal outfits was really great, even at low volumes, at dampening the ambient brouhaha IRL before noise cancelling software/headphones/stuff was common

Ah, "The Black Satans" parody BM band @ the end of the video....

lets go surfing in norway

my friend and I were changing Metallica and megadeth lyrics to be about surfing, like a week before I saw this. spooky.

Quick question: Besides the black metal link tee (which I have) do you do any other merch?

why does this guy look like my gym teacher

i really don't see the big similarity

I've always thought this! seriously! I was literally just looking up surf rock to look at the drums and see how they would go with a black metal riff since they sounded so similar and I came across this

If you play it with piano then it's classical music,if you play it with trumpet its jazz,play it with synth and it's new wave The thing that makes metal what it is may not be the melodies it might be just distortion of guitar Even death metal in musical box is just lullaby

What genre should I look up if I like every sound of black metal songs except the eternally unoriginal yet typical "ptptptptptptptptptptptptptptpt" drum beat in the background?

REEEEEVVVEEERRRBBB

My face is identical to a punching bag if viewed from certain angles.

Reminds me of a bit I read about how dozens of modern rock and pop songs are basically just Pachelbel's Canon in D with a new coat of paint. Most notably, Green Day's Basket Case.

The first half of the video has no meaningful content.

This dude's a total metal head. I dig it.

Yo, your 'Videos used:' links don't work, I would like to listen to some of those surfer rock songs and compare them with their 'matching' black metal song. As a black metal fan and listener I'm really interested.

U told my dad this since I was a kid. ;-) seemed obvious to me. Also, lots of metal is basically classical music with distorted guitars. Thats why you can have a shredding guitar with classical music and it sounds good. There are bands whom shall remain nameless that basically do just this....sometimes with Christmas music.

I guess it's tr00 kvlt down in Kokomo

Both genres are all about the electric guitar, and not being stuck in blues. I would say, in regards to how the styles differ is the main difference is the amps. Surf was the U.S. Fender sound. Tight, glassy. twangy, etc. Metal is all about the Britt, or Marshall sound. Heavy, crunchy, ominous. I think metal swallowed up the guitar hero kids, and by the 70's the clean Fender players went Country Western and everyone else was changed by Black Sabbath.

I now want to listen to Pony Metal. I did not know that was a thing I could want.

I have never realized the similarity of death metal and surf rock until now. But, I have realized that if you replace the clarinets and violins of klezmer music with reverby guitars, you get surf rock.