What's with all them different metal genres?

[Methe]

Metal has loads of subgenres, and subgenres of subgenres, and subgenres of subgenres of subgenres et cetera. To be honest, I don't think anyone has covered this well so far, though the chart was a good start.

Also, if you can't get a hang on metal then don't get into electronic music, you would probably just cry trying to make sense of all the subgenres of UK Garage. Also probably a good idea to not get too into punk, you can call a lot of stuff just "punk" or "post-punk" but subgenres of hardcore punk get confusing. Hip-hop has a fair few as well but a lot of the subgenres are a bit confusing to me.

So, some major styles (in no particular order):
HEAVY METAL
THRASH METAL
SPEED METAL
INDUSTRIAL METAL
DEATH METAL
GRINDCORE
BLACK METAL (very different from death metal)
DOOM METAL
POWER METAL
GOTHIC METAL
GROOVE METAL
FOLK METAL (not at all a controversial thing, I have no idea what the hell Jamie McLaughlin is talking about. It even actually has a few subgenres of its own, which are also accepted.)
PROGRESSIVE METAL
METALCORE (strictly speaking there are two completely distinct subgenres of metal both called metalcore, a kind that began in the 1990s and the more famous one that began in the 2000s)
ALTERNATIVE METAL
AVANT-GARDE METAL
VIKING METAL isn't really a major subgenre but it does exist (the first album was Hammerheart by Bathory) so I thought I'd just whack it on here. Funnily enough, it's not music about vikings, it's just a style of music that evolved from black metal.

I can't really be bothered to go too much into subgenres, you can look them up for yourself and some of the subgenres names get a bit silly, but some of the more notable ones are some of the big subgenres of doom:

STONER METAL
SLUDGE
POST-METAL
DRONE DOOM

Some of the genres (eg progressive metal) are impossibly broad, so don't expect, say, Dream Theater or Meshuggah to sound at all alike! Look these all up on Wikipedia or on some music database site or something. Listen to what online metal nerds like, but don't listen to them when they say they dislike something. Remember, how stupid a genre's name is doesn't correlate to how valid it is as a genre.

Now get yourself to Wikipedia.

EDIT: I forgot GLAM METAL, if that's your thing!

 

[Henkie36]

There's a documentary called "Metal : A headbanger's journey" It's really good to get a feel for how the styles evolved over the years and how bands influenced one another.

Here's the diagram from the film :

Spoiler

Well, at least this clears why people call subgenres a total clusterfuck. Aside from that, I can't get any useful info from this.

 

[Timmons]

awh man it has SOOO many subgenres, many of them are 'metal genre A + metal genre B = metal genre C'

or 'metal + hardcore punk = metalcore' for example, such as bands like Converge

all lots of combinations

another example, 'death metal + progressive metal = progressive death metal' most famous example of this are Opeth

and for the record, black metal is nothing like death metal

 

[Jamie McLaughlin]

Metal has loads of subgenres, and subgenres of subgenres, and subgenres of subgenres of subgenres et cetera. To be honest, I don't think anyone has covered this well so far, though the chart was a good start.

Also, if you can't get a hang on metal then don't get into electronic music, you would probably just cry trying to make sense of all the subgenres of UK Garage. Also probably a good idea to not get too into punk, you can call a lot of stuff just "punk" or "post-punk" but subgenres of hardcore punk get confusing. Hip-hop has a fair few as well but a lot of the subgenres are a bit confusing to me.

So, some major styles (in no particular order):
HEAVY METAL
THRASH METAL
SPEED METAL
INDUSTRIAL METAL
DEATH METAL
GRINDCORE
BLACK METAL (very different from death metal)
DOOM METAL
POWER METAL
GOTHIC METAL
GROOVE METAL
FOLK METAL (not at all a controversial thing, I have no idea what the hell Jamie McLaughlin is talking about. It even actually has a few subgenres of its own, which are also accepted.)
PROGRESSIVE METAL
METALCORE (strictly speaking there are two completely distinct subgenres of metal both called metalcore, a kind that began in the 1990s and the more famous one that began in the 2000s)
ALTERNATIVE METAL
AVANT-GARDE METAL
VIKING METAL isn't really a major subgenre but it does exist (the first album was Hammerheart by Bathory) so I thought I'd just whack it on here. Funnily enough, it's not music about vikings, it's just a style of music that evolved from black metal.

I can't really be bothered to go too much into subgenres, you can look them up for yourself and some of the subgenres names get a bit silly, but some of the more notable ones are some of the big subgenres of doom:

STONER METAL
SLUDGE
POST-METAL
DRONE DOOM

Some of the genres (eg progressive metal) are impossibly broad, so don't expect, say, Dream Theater or Meshuggah to sound at all alike! Look these all up on Wikipedia or on some music database site or something. Listen to what online metal nerds like, but don't listen to them when they say they dislike something. Remember, how stupid a genre's name is doesn't correlate to how valid it is as a genre.

Now get yourself to Wikipedia.

EDIT: I forgot GLAM METAL, if that's your thing!

Damn it, sir. I love you, but you're the kind of guy that makes metal seem like some kind of science.

"VIKING METAL isn't really a major subgenre but it does exist (the first album was Hammerheart by Bathory) so I thought I'd just whack it on here." Also, thanks. Just for that.

 

[Jamie McLaughlin]

awh man it has SOOO many subgenres, many of them are 'metal genre A + metal genre B = metal genre C'

or 'metal + hardcore punk = metalcore' for example, such as bands like Converge

all lots of combinations

another example, 'death metal + progressive metal = progressive death metal' most famous example of this are Opeth

and for the record, black metal is nothing like death metal

Are you trying to say that Converge is part metal? I love me some Converge... But part Metal? No. Not at all...

 

[Methe]

Damn it, sir. I love you, but you're the kind of guy that makes metal seem like some kind of science.

"VIKING METAL isn't really a major subgenre but it does exist (the first album was Hammerheart by Bathory) so I thought I'd just whack it on here." Also, thanks. Just for that.

Haha, no worries! Plenty of other genres have ridiculous number of subgenres that seem near identical if you're not familiar with them but I think you just have a bit more scope to dip your toe in without going into large numbers of subgenres (for instance the term "punk" on its own is a lot more descriptive than the term "metal" on it's own, even though they have comparable numbers of subgenres).

Also, there is very much A metal community online, whereas there wouldn't be a single electronic community online. Someone really into, say, techno may be able to talk in depth about all the different movements within makina, or someone into trance could tell you exactly how goa trance and psytrance differ - but that's not to say that the techno fan would even know there were trance subgenres, or vice-versa. Even though there are far more specific genres in electronic music than in metal, you'd be more likely to get enough people into the same thing to nerd out with metalheads, at least online.

In any case, metal information's easy as hell to find online and there's nothing to say that you can't look up things individually, I know sweet FA about groove metal except the names of a few bands for instance. If you're interested, go out and look it up, if not, don't!

 

[Gardenia]

There's a documentary called "Metal : A headbanger's journey" It's really good to get a feel for how the styles evolved over the years and how bands influenced one another.

Here's the diagram from the film :

He missed Doom Metal. This upsets a certain "Voltaic Warlock." Although they _could_ fit into stoner metal. Saint Vitus does not though.

 

[king_katchit]

I have developed a much simpler method to describe the various sub-genres of metal. It really only has two real categories.

'Metal I like' and the very descriptive 'Shit'.

 

[Schadrach]

Death metal features a guttural grunting vocal style usually, and black metal's vocals are closer to shrieking or howling.

I've always been of the opinion that black metal and death metal differ mostly in how they're scored -- that is that great black metal is at least decent death metal and vice versa, since the two subgenre are so similar, and it's only the minutia of what makes a given song "good" that effects which you treat it as.

 

[repeating integers]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os5TXyJlEMc&feature=related

Is this Pirate Metal? It's pretty awesome.

My friend is really into Alestorm because of how hilarious they are. I find it hard to disagree with him.

 

[Elias Alexis]

This. Mostly because when asked what music I like, I just say 'Metal'. When asked what genre, I reply 'the Metal kind'. Theres way too many labels for music of any kind these days. Ive been a fan of the heavy for close to 20 years, and I only recently discovered that there were so many forms and sub-forms of the genre. Many bands I like, when you take in their whole discography, can be classed into more than a few of the subtypes, so it just becomes redundant to typify them IMO. Metal is Metal. If it can move me, thats all that matters.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Yeah, sure.

Heavy Metal is a much debated genre by itself. One reviewer of a Led Zeppelin album coined that term. It's been downhill ever since.

See, there are many subgenres, as well as sub-sub-genres... There are a ridiculous amount of sub-genres of Metal. Luckily for you, this is not Punk (which is even more intense in terms of quantity).

Heavy Metal = Iron Maiden, Motorhead, early Running Wild, early Black Sabbath. Traditional metal; blues riffs done with the key of a "satan's" Or "devil's" chord. One of the most early forms of offensive rock. Because people are stupid.

Heavy metal eventually decided to be faster.

Speed Metal = early Metallica, early-mid era Judas Priest, mid-era Running Wild, mid-era Tankard, Anthrax. Really just "faster" heavy metal.

Speed + Punk = eventually metal and punk decided to make some sexy little babies = Thrash.

Mid-Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Tankard, Kreator, Destruction, Sodom, Razor, and last but definitely least; Slayer.

Thrash created the whole concept of "extreme metal". Which eventually turned into Death and Black. Power Metal is divided into two sides; Blue collar USHM and Heavy Metal++. Basically continuing the normal aspects of "heavy metal".

Death is generally considered a direct evolution of Thrash. Black was a revolution against death, or metal in general. Death is Thrash++, whilst Black is Thrash+European stylings+Crust Punk.

Black Sabbath actually created four styles at once without notice. Heavy Metal, Stoner rock, Doom Metal and Sludge. Stoner-rock is blues-heavy metal. Doom Metal is similar, yet much slower and with more distortion. Sludge is stoner+doom+Orange amps. Fuck you, other metalheads, you know it's true.

Shit like Viking Metal and Folk Metal doesn't actually exist. They're just themes. Lyrical content does not equal musical qualities.

If I forgot anything, you guys should tell me. Jameson is not healthy.

*applauds*

Bravo sir, bravo.

Basically, anyone complaining that Heavy Metal got confusing fails to realize that it's how all music genres get formed. Everything is an offshoot of something else in the music industry.

Let's look at the genealogy of Metal for a second, hm?

First, you start out with traditional African music. Slaves are carted over to America and work the fields and plantations. Traditional rhythms change to accommodate the work's slow pacing and the themes of unpaid working class woe. Blues forms from there. Blues blossoms across America, is discovered by folks like Eric Clapton and others like Ozzy Osbourne, who instead choose to take Blues and give it a harder, grittier edge by pairing it with elements from Progressive Rock à la Led Zepplin and elements of devil worship. Heavy Metal is born, along with Doom and Sludge Metal and potential others. In the early eighties, kids who grew up listening to Sabbath and Punk get together and form Metallica. The foundations for Speed Metal are laid down. A little later, this'll transition into Thrash.

So on and so forth. This could be applied to any genre, really. You could start a flowchart detailing how we got to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to folks like Tiesto or Deadmau5 if you cared to. Considering that, saying you don't understand why Metal branches out like it does is essentially admitting that you don't understand how cultures are formed and evolve.

 

[FernandoV]

Well, metal is like you Iron Maiden etc
Death metal is like really heavy stuff etc, death growling and what not
Black metal has really dark undertones, but is normally similar to death metal
Orchestral metal is metal with... you guessed it! an orchestra! haha
Melodic death metal is like just death metal, but has techno and stuff to make it more of a tune
nu metal is just like slipknot etc. Not sure what's so different. has faster verses and slower chorus' in comparison
Rap metal is what it says on the tin haha

Help?

Melodic Death Metal is not infused with techno; it's rhythm is more defined and essential to the genre.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

Hmm, seems everybody covered more or less all the genre's for me...

snip

Hey dude from the other thread! How've you been? Heh, anyway I'll agree with you that Viking Metal doesn't really constitute a genre, in the same sense that Djent isn't really a genre so much as identifying bands based on one common trait (although technically you could argue genre is exactly that...but let's delve into semantics...anymore than we have to anyway.) To me Viking Metal is essentially just Folk Metal with lyrical/atmospheric themes pertaining to Vikings. Although you seem to be skeptical of Folk Metal too...I agree that some bands simply have Folk influences and briefly use Folk instruments during interludes such as is the case with my avatar. While Bergtatt may have flute and acoustic sections built around an otherwise predominantly Melo Black/Black Metal kind of style. The likes of Skyclad have their song structures built around a Folk style:


At any rate, I'm not overly concerned with genre. Sure a lot of things can be easy enough to identify by label, but a lot of acts can be hard to pin down and a lot of subgenre's just seem to be splitting hairs. The point being everybody has their own interperatation in regard to what something is and I prefer to sample something myself before trying to read too much into the label's.

Progressive Metal: some of the most annoying fans in metal.

Well, we do try.

Captcha: snobs, ritast? Even the captcha thinks I'm pretentious...

 

[Vicarious Reality]

There're so many it's ridiculous. A friend of mine is really into technical metal and death metal.
I've sat through various lectures but I can't keep track of all the genres.

Like, there's this band called Nile who write about Ancient Egyptian stuff (or was it The Book of the Dead? I don't remember) so I guess they're Egyptian Mythology Metal or something.

No, according to them they play Ithyphallic brutal technical death metal.

Sometimes i wonder if people argue like this over which drawer to file your tax papers in.

 

[Robert Ewing]

There was a fad in which the metal group was considered much, much cooler if they were in their own genre, or a genre that nobody had ever heard of.

Thus a massive clusterfuck of genres were born. Most metal genre's don't even have bands that belong to that genre anymore. And other genre's were explained, but never actually filled, and some just have a single band occupying it.

 

[Chased]

Progressive Metal: Heavy Metal mixed with elements of progressive rock and extreme pretentiousness. Has some amazing musicians, such as Arjen Lucassen and Devin Townsend, and some of the most annoying fans in metal.

I listen to my fair share of metal and I never understood this label. The genre has tons of subgenres but when it comes to a band like Opeth they're just labeled progressive metal even if their sound could be completely different then another progressive band like Gojira.

Anyway, I think the reason for all of this categorizing is just the human desire to recognize patterns.