ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that adequate theories for analysing heavy metal will graft non-tonal referential collections and elements of tonal syntax into a hybrid theory such as System 7, which combines set-class, pc centric, and tonal syntactic relationships. It constructs a theoretical framework for analysing tonal and post-tonal relationships in heavy metal. In System 7, a power chord does not automatically equate functionally with a triad just because distortion adds a third as a harmonic to the sound. System 7 provides some insight into the highly creative and innovative compositional world of heavy metal. The intermixing of triadic structures with the post-tonal structures developed in the Phrygian Dominant scale fits the aesthetic of heavy metal in general and the subject of the song in particular. Metal compositions form the bulk of the musical examples exhibiting system 6b syntactic relationships, such as functionless semitones among roots.
