Metal as a genre is pretty focused on riffs of course, but some bands have vastly more melodic riffs and lead guitar playing than others.
Melodic death metal is a funny genre. It's got more of a focus on memorable melodies than death metal, obviously, but it's usually still got rhythmic and simplistic grunted vocals and a tendency to repeat melodies in short sections so they really end up feeling like short little riffs. So when I say melodic development, I mean melodies that progress over longer sections instead of just repeating every 4 seconds in the form of a riff.
Metal does this a lot. Repeating ideas in little chunks. Typically 4 times in a row. Then do another chunk. It's the basis of thrash metal songwriting, but lots of other metal genres - even prog metal - tends to do it a lot. The way I think of it, that makes a band less melodic, since they go for instant repetition of a theme instead of development.
I don't have the proper terminology down quite right to really express fully what I mean.
|