The Top Five Most Metal Pieces of Classical Music by Violinist Rachel Barton Pine of Earthen Grave

Posted December 9 by Jeanne F.

Decibel first befriended the uber-accomplished violinist Rachel Barton Pine in our January 2009 issue (click here for the article) where she proudly outed herself as a die-hard metalhead. Since then, we’ve christened her The Notorious RBP because in every video we’ve seen of her shredding, she dominates. Rachel has since hooked up with Chicago doom/thrash band Earthen Grave—which features Ron Holzner (ex-Trouble) on bass, Jason Muxlow (The Living Fields) and Tony Spillman on guitar, Scott Davidson (of Chicago’s infamous Rebel Radio) on drums, and Mark Weiner on vocals—where she plays extended-range electric violin. Earthen Grave has shared the stage with Megadeth, Pentagram, Black Label Society, Mayhem, Macabre, Machinehead, November's Doom, and Nachtmystium, and in June released their demo/EP "Dismal Times," comprising 3 original songs and 2 covers. This writer got a chance to see the band live, and my head almost came unscrewed. The phrase “tighter than a gnat’s ass” comes to mind.

Rachel is adamant that classical and metal have many similarities, so we asked her to share her picks for Top 5 Most Metal Pieces of Classical Music. Discover music that caused an actual riot and has been described as “the first nihilist work in the history of music.”

What is “metal?” A quick search on Wikipedia tells me it’s “a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall loudness;” as for Grove Music Online, academia’s musicological bible, the entire genre is generalized as “distorted guitar ‘power chords’, heavy riffs, wailing vocals and virtuosic solos by guitarists and drummers;” and in most online dictionaries, metal is just “loud and harsh sounding rock music with a strong beat.” These definitions are clearly insufficient. Metal isn’t limited to particular chords, certain instruments, or even a minimum volume level. It’s about the attitude of the musicians and the feeling of the listeners – metal grabs you by the throat, hits you in the gut, tears you down, lifts you up, and makes you feel ALIVE.

So where does metal end and “classical” begin? When I play ”One” or “Cowboys from Hell” on my acoustic violin, the 1742 “ex-Soldat” Guarneri del Gesu, I’m definitely playing metal. When I perform last movement of the Violin Concerto No. 1 by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) on the same instrument, it’s even more intense and driving, so that’s metal too. As a lifelong concert violinist and metalhead, I love finding classical compositions that convey the same sense of power as songs by my favorite bands. Here are five of the best. Turn up the volume and prepare to get damaged!

In no particular order:

1. The Iron Foundry by Alexander Mosolov (1900-1973)

This symphonic piece by an obscure 1920s Soviet composer is three of the most brutal minutes of music ever written. It’s metal, literally and figuratively. Mosolov uses music to recreate the feel of an industrial factory. He even augments the orchestra’s percussion section with an actual metal sheet. This piece has been described as “a collection and assembly of noises” and “a metallic nightmare.” I defy you not to headbang at 2:09 of this recording.

2. Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) by Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Though written in 1912-13, Stravinsky’s landmark composition, The Rite of Spring, still sounds contemporary in its use of rhythm, harmony, and brilliantly creative orchestration. From the sludgy “Rondes Printanières” (Spring Round Dances) to the thrashy “Jeu du Rapt” (Ritual of Abduction), “Adoration de la Terre” (Dance of the Earth), “Glorification de l'Élue” (Glorification of the Chosen Victim), and “Danse Sacrale” (Sacrificial Dance), the impact of this great work is absolutely primal.

Originally a ballet but now most often heard in concert halls, The Rite of Spring’s storyline centers on pagan rituals and a sacrificial virgin who dances herself to death. The audience response to the first performance was so visceral that it caused an actual riot (mosh pits hadn’t been invented yet…).

3. Symphony No. 7, 2nd movement (Allegretto) by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Beethoven transformed music by getting in your face and making you uncomfortable, throwing wide open the limits of musical expression. The slow movement of Symphony No. 7 isn’t loud. It isn’t fast. But its relentless underlying rhythmic motif and the impact of the two crescendo climaxes place this Allegretto firmly in the “doom” category.

4. Symphony No. 6 by Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

Probably no classical composer captures the human struggle of life and death better than Gustav Mahler. Many composers wrote mind-blowing large-scale orchestral music: the symphonies of Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), Piotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), and Anton Bruckner (1824-1896), the symphonic tone poems of Richard Strauss (1864-1949), Hector Berlioz’s (1803-1869) opium-fueled Symphonie Fantastique with its Dies Irae-themed last movement, "Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath," and ever-popular excerpts such as "The Ride of the Valkyries" from Die Walküre by Richard Wagner (1813-1883), "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Peer Gynt Suite by Edvard Grieg (1843-1907), "O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana by Carl Orff (1895-1982), "Mars" from The Planets by Gustav Holst (1874-1934), "The Hut on Fowl’s Legs" from Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881), "Montagues and Capulets" from Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev, etc.

But Mahler, more than any other, strove to push the boundaries of orchestral composition to its utmost limits, saying that a symphony should be an “entire world.” His music shifts between satire and sincerity, violence and transcendence, ugliness and ecstasy, despair and exuberance, personal suffering and a continuous search for spiritual meaning, Death is never far from his mind. Symphony No. 6, originally entitled “The Tragic,” includes the famous "Three Hammer Blows of Fate." The last movement ends in the dark minor key in which it began, rather than resolving into a major key of triumph or acceptance. It’s been called “the first nihilist work in the history of music.” All hope is lost.

Every true metalhead should be familiar with all of Mahler’s Symphonies.

5. String Quartet No. 4 by Bela Bartok (1881-1945)

Classical music is much more than 19th-20th Century orchestral repertoire: early music from the Baroque, Renaissance and Medieval, contemporary music, opera, chorus, strings, winds and brass, organ, piano, chamber music, concertos, sonatas… the variety is endless. You don’t need a full symphony to create incredible intensity, as Bartok demonstrates in his String Quartet No. 4.

A string quartet is comprised of two violins, viola and cello. Bartok uses these instruments to create an amazing palate of colors, including the entirely muted second movement and the entirely plucked fourth movement. Each of Bartok’s compositions includes at least one great headbanging moment; the Fourth Quartet thrashes from the first note and doesn’t let up, with the best mosh section occurring halfway through the last movement. Among the vast string quartet repertoire, this is the work most likely to cause whiplash.

More suggestions of classical repertoire may be found on my podcast, Violins Rule! Heavy Metal Meets Classical Music. Violins Rule! currently has six episodes, and I plan to add more in the next couple months.

Search Editorial