I love the analysis but I think this ignores the percussive aspect of the electric guitar.
I am a huge thrash/death/black metal fan and a huge Ligeti/Reich/Ives/Ravel/Debussy fan so I could never call metal harmonically rich.
What to me makes metal is the percussive and melodic aspect combined of distorted, often palm muted for extra percussive effect, guitar strings in 5ths. Harmonically though, it is hard to get more simple.
I mean, harmonically rich as in, run a spectrum analyzer and see all the harmonics. Not harmonically rich, like hard-to-analyze complex scales and chords.
It is an interesting theory but as kid who hit puberty at the peak of MTV distorted 5ths on guitar, there is just something oddly sexual about that sound.
Maybe we are talking about the same causal variable though.
The engine and power chords as a form of sublimation.
I am a huge thrash/death/black metal fan and a huge Ligeti/Reich/Ives/Ravel/Debussy fan so I could never call metal harmonically rich.
What to me makes metal is the percussive and melodic aspect combined of distorted, often palm muted for extra percussive effect, guitar strings in 5ths. Harmonically though, it is hard to get more simple.