INTENSIVE HEAVY METAL MUSIC COURSE AND ITS DIFFERENT SUBGENTS:
With a history of more than 40 years, the world of metal music is full of subgenres. These brief descriptions will give you an idea of the stylistic elements of individual artists or groups that may fall into this category. Maybe you're just a little confused or curious about what all the listings are for the various metal classes, look no further ladies and gentlemen, we're here to help! A few well-chosen categorical labels never hurt anyone if used responsibly.
NWOBHM- As in New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, one of the most collectible branches of Heavy Metal. It refers, as you might guess, to the UK-born metal revival of 1979-80, which featured bands such as Iron Maiden, Saxon, Motorhead, Angel Witch, Samson, Tygers Of Pan Tang, Quartz, later Chateaux , Savage, Witchfinder General, Fist and many others. NWOBHM brought respectability and renewed vigor to the metal scene after the transformation of punk, causing a huge underground ripple in Europe and the US that continues unabated to this day.
Hard stone– Heavy rock is a subgenre of rock music that has its early roots in the garage and psychedelic rock of the mid-60s and is much harder than mainstream rock music that spans at least 3 eras. Part of the metal line that appeals to several generations of music lovers with roots in the 70's and now popular in the latest Guitar Hero & Rock Band video games etc. Examples include classic bands AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, UFO, Blue Oyster Cult, Aerosmith, Bad Company, Ted Nugent, Van Halen to newer artists such as Airbourne, Buckcherry.
AOR-As in Adult Oriented Rock. Very much an American phenomenon. Journey, Styx, Loverboy etc. AOR is all about melodic structure, nuanced and generally hooky. It almost always involves bright colors, big beats, rock poses, stages, poses, parties, etc. For our purposes, it is often interchangeable with hard rock or melodic rock. Pop metal varieties such as Def Leppard and Bon Jovi. It's not exactly metal per se. The Collectors Guide To Heavy Metal describes it like this: This head-band, hazy, hang-out guitar slog that makes you want to drink soda, wear a nice shirt, and chase women instead of drinking beer, wearing black, and desecrating cemeteries. .
traditional metal- (TRANS) The original genre of metal music before it evolved into many different styles and subgenres. As time goes on, the term has become less and less associated with the 70s and more with the 80s, describing bands with heavy technical, gothic and progressive elements, loosely bracketed by Judas Priest, Dio, Iron Maiden, Accept. , Manowar, UDO Warlock, Doro, Blaze, Ozzy Osbourne, Halford, Metal Church, Sinner, Saxon, Wolf, Savatage, Scorpions, Anvil, Holyhell, Metalforce, D.S.G. and maybe Halloween. They may be somewhat interchangeable with the terms "Classic Metal", "True Metal" by ardent advocates, or simply "Heavy Metal".
progressive metals- (PROG) A union of progressive rock and heavy metal, started with Rush and then with 80's bands like Queensryche and Fates Warning. Experiencing a revival thanks to the success of Dream Theater, bands like Morgana Lefay, Tad Morose, Cynic, Vanden Plas, Angra, Symphony X are taking the flag. Usually musical ability, virtuosity, unnecessary indulgence, big songs, fancy lyrics and operatic singing.
Euro– The Euro sound is more associated with Danish, Swedish or German metal. that deep soulful, soulful, mysterious and melodic tone that gives goth-metal on the heavier side and euro-hard rock on the lighter side. Examples of bands that have the soul of Euro but use it in radically different ways include Scorpions, Accept, Heavy Load, 220V, Gravestone, Helloween, Mercyful Fate, Overdrive, Picture, Sabbat and Rage. It was considered a bit cheesy and dated in the 90s, as was AOR, which gets mixed up with some Euro confidence quite easily.
a lot of metal– Originally referred to the raw heaviness of the 80s (Pantera named the album after him, old concert brochures referred to Metallica as Power Metal). These days, most power metal bands pride themselves on their playing skills and can lean towards progressive, combining fantasy, mythological, battle or personal themes mixed with melodic guitar and vocal lines, double bass drums 80s sets Helloween and later Gamma Ray , Huge Popularity has recently been made by the new generation HammerFall, DragonForce, Rhapsody Of Fire, Edguy, Falconer, Firewind, Blind Guardian, Stratovarius, Primal Fear, Sonata Arctica and fans of American Iced Earth, Jag Panzer, Virgin Steele and Manowar.
Lavar– Echoing the style popularized by the big four Metallica/Slayer/Megadeth/Anthrax/Testament, the five... Think crunchy riffs, socially conscious lyrical themes, growling, if not always, vocals. Sometimes referred to the Bay Area Sound (from San Francisco), for example Exodus, Death Angel, Overkill, Heathen, Nuclear Assault, Holy Terror, Artillery, Whiplash or the Canadian band Annihilator and the German bands Kreator, Sodom & Destruction. It can sometimes be described as SpeedMetal. Generation Y newcomers Municipal Waste, Evile, Bonded By Blood, Toxic Holocaust, Gama Bomb, Enforcer, Merciless Death, Warbringer, Bludvera, Manic Ritual created a youthful resurgence in popularity, affectionately called the New Wave Of Thrash Metal.
gothic metal– Or Gothic. Sonically speaking, goth is very dark and Euro-sounding, with a lot of stealing from classical music styles, sometimes orchestrations, symphonies. Leading the way was Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, Anathema. Currently, there are many popular chart-topping bands such as Evanescence, Nightwish, Within Temptation, Lacuna Coil, Tristania, Leaves Eyes, The Gathering, etc. More rock or industrial gothic bands like Type O Negative, Danzig, Therion. , Tiamat & Moonspell, expand this official landscape..
metal core–Musician who uses metal skills to write hardcore songs. A post-metal genre that rejects the metal style of narrative composition in favor of a post-hardcore style of the intense, disjointed variety, borrowing riffs from rock, funk, jazz, metal, emo, punk and playing them to awkward, jerky beats. changes. The use of the heavy metal style of music, particularly melodic death metal and hardcore scream vocal style. they are also heavily exploited. Emphasis on splits (initiated by Pantera), which are slow and intense passages that the audience can enjoy. Examples: Parkway Drive, Earth Crises, Unearth, Darkest Hour, Poison The Well, (early) Avenged Sevenfold, All That Remains, Underoath, Sonic Syndicate, Atreyu, Deadlock, Haste The Day, Autumn Offering, In This Moment, As I Lay Die, God forbid, Kill Switch, Shadow Fall, Chaimer.
standAs in hard punk. In the context of metal, the boundaries were blurred in the 80s with thrash/speed punk and crossover bands like C.O.C, D.R.I, Suicidal Tendencies. Taking the lyrics out of the hardcore equation was almost always thrash. In the 1990s, hardcore activism, anger and rage seeped into cutting edge bands like Pro-Pain, Biohazard and Pantera.
Industrial- Takes inspiration from industrial music and heavy metal, using repetitive metal guitar riffs, sampling, synthesizer or sequencer lines, and distorted vocals. Obvious supporters of Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Godflesh, KMFDM. Many variations of cyber metal like Fear Factory, Rammstein, Filter, Stabbing Westward, Orgy & Static-X, Skrew, Prick, White/Rob Zombie.
Death metal- Almost interchangeable with the grindcore (at the most extreme) of the first Napalm Death & Carcass. Black metal themes are a game, but really the concept is gore, blood, body parts, Cannibal Corpse are pretty big corners of the concept. Other signatures: explosions, grindcore vocals, low tuning, doom chords. see bands like Morbid Angel, Death, Obituary, Deicide, Six Feet Under, Dismember, Hypocrisy, Entombed, Carnage, Unleashed. Derived genres like Gothenburg Melodic Death Metal (Dark Tranquility, In Flames, Soilwork, At the Gates), Technical Death (Cryptopsy, Atheist, Cynic), Goregrind. (Cephalic Carnage, Pig Destroyer), Prog Death (Opeth), Deathcore (Job For a Cowboy), Death/Doom, Blackend Death... still confused?
death core– It combines dark death metal tones, speed, dissonance, low, spontaneous, growling screams and frenzied explosions, melodic metalcore riffs and heavy boring breaks, without clean singing. Examples: Suicide Silence, Whitechapel, Carnifex, Working for a Cowboy and Everyone Will Die.
death technician -Technical death metal (also known as tech-death, progressive death metal, or prog-death) is a musical subgenre of death metal that originated and developed in the early to mid-1990s. Mean and cynical. It focuses on challenging and challenging orchestral skills and complex songwriting.
Przykłady: Archspire, Psycroptic, Dying Fetus, Beyond Creation, Spawn of Opetany, Necrophagist, Decapitated, Decret Birth, Obscura, Brain Drill i Beneath The Massacre.
Melody and Death Metal -Originating in the 1990s, this extreme form of metal combines fast, harmonic guitar riffs borrowed from traditional heavy metal with death metal elements such as distorted guitars, explosions and fast percussion. Example: Arch Enemy, Amaon Amarth, (early) In Flames, Soilwork, Dark Tranquility, Children of Bodom, Misery's Crown, Be'lakor, Scar Symmetry
Black metal– The term probably originated from Venom, although it was probably only explained by the evil trio with the help of Bathory, Hellhammer and Celtic Frost from the 1980s who helped create the foundation. It refers to satanic metal. a bunch of infamous figures burning churches in Norway. Dark paintings containing corpses and pins. The music can be gritty, basic and harsh, or set with a grand symphonic sweep, often using fast tempos, vocals, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo, double percussion and unconventional song structure. Names like Immortal, Mayhem, Burzum, Emperor, Darkthrone are largely from Norway. It's considered a somewhat underground form of music, although contemporary marketers Dimmu Borgir, Satyricon and Cradle Of Filth seem to be making it available to the masses.
viking metal– A term coined to describe the growing interest of Scandinavian death gangs to move away from Christian themes to more nationalistic themes, themes from their own early history. Manowar is an anomaly of the American species. Bathory pretty much made it in the 1980s in its current form, Amorphis, Unleashed. Battle Metal, as Metal Hammer likes it, refers to it as independent, with Amon Armarth, Turisas, Kiuas, Finntroll and others incorporating folk elements into their music.
fatal metal– Pioneer of artists like Sabbath (inventors of metal), sometimes slow, sometimes muddy, always dense, sinister and heavy. Think of a cathedral, a chandelier, the Holy of Holies, pentagram, problem. Some genres of stoner rock can sometimes be an offshoot of the Doom genre.
glamour metal– Often referred to as hair (or sometimes sleaze) metal originated in the late 1970s and early 1980s, particularly from the American music scene on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Kiss, New York Dolls, Van Halen - Big hair, hair party rock bands you know, Poison, Cinderella, Quiet Riot, Ratt, Pretty Boy Floyd, Motley Crue, Warrant, Slaughter, Dokken, Faster Pussycat, Tigertailz , Twisted Sister, Winger, White Lion, LA Guns, WASP, Nitro, Stryper.
now metallic– A subdued and groovy rising 90s post-grunge riff, mostly without a guitar solo, inspired by alternative-heavy hits such as Rage Against The Machine, Faith No More, Mr Bungle and elements of hip hop, alternative, funk styles . The image often features baggy athletic/sporty labels instead of jeans, leather and traditional studded dresses. Some of the bands most commonly associated with Nu Metal are Korn, Deftones, POD, Limp Bizkit, Sevendust, Mudvayne, Mushroomhead, Powerman 5000, Staind, Coal Chamber, Godsmack, Linkin Park, Papa Roach. Slipknot is sometimes (perhaps wrongly) included in this genre, and others such as Disturbed and Drowning Pool have recently shifted towards a more heavy metal sound.
day -Named for the thick, polyrhythmic sound and grooves of Meshuggah's guitar and rhythm, this progressive metal-derived subset typically features muted guitar chords, syncopated riffs, virtuosic solos, and polys. Many professionals use an extensive range of 7-, 8-, and even 9-string guitars. Some bands that have elements of Djent include TesseracT, SikTh, Textures, Veil Of Maya, Periphery, Architects, Monuments, after The Burial, Born of Osiris, In Hearts Wake and Northlane.
folk metal -A style that incorporates traditional folk elements from the artist's country, many folk metal bands have violinists. Examples: Skyclad, Eluveitie, Korpiklaani, Finntroll, Ensiferum, Primordial, Falkenback, Elvenking and the merry pirates of Alestorm.
As you can see, metal and all its variations and derivatives is such a diverse and currently so popular and collectible genre of music that such a guide cannot be completely exhaustive or 100% accurate, but rather more approximate. However, I hope this guide can be helpful in navigating the sometimes neglected and underrated world of music, with a fascinating and sometimes controversial history, and useful as you explore the music and merchandise in the Heavy Metal Merchant store.
Bibliography:
Spotify
Heavy Metal Collector's Guide - Martin Popoff
Goldmine Heavy Metals Price Guide
The Metal Book - Chris Ingham
Metal The Definitive Guide - Garry Sharp Young
The sound of the beast – kompletna historia heavy metalu o headbangingu – Ian Christie
Headbangers - the world megabook of heavy metal bands - Hale
The Great Discography of Metal: From Hard Rock to Hardcore - M.C. Ισχυρός