The metal world classified and several examples of bands that changed this universe.
Although metal music can simply be defined as heavy, hard and most of the time fast music, there are a variety of genres, styles and ways to classify it. Then the proposal of this article is to classify metal music and offer some examples of bands inserted in each genre with a general explanation of that. Actually it is impossible to fill in every blank completely, and in some situations there are several bands that could be classified in more than one genre.
It is also important to salient that the idea is not classify every rock’n’roll genre but only heavy metal, with the exception of hard rock that influenced lots of metal styles and deserves a remark.
Last of all, it is important to remember that genre is only a human attempt to put some characteristics together, and actually the music is above every explanation and is better explained as listening to than putting ideas on paper.
1- HEAVY METAL:
The term refers to a general definition of bands that play metal music. Despite every band has had another specific classification, in general it is possible to claim everyone to be called a heavy metal band.
BANDS: Iron Maiden, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Ozzy, Megadeth, Led Zeppelin, Rainbow, Van Halen, Alice Cooper, Motley Crue, Scorpions, Steppenwolf, Def Leppard, Motorhead and more.
2- BLACK METAL:
One of most specific genres is black metal using satanic themes and dark forces to create extreme subjects. Vary on from bands using simple dark themes to more extreme bands such as some from Norway. The subjects, the themes and the vocals (cleaner) differ from death metal though sometimes some elements are almost equal.
BANDS: Bathory, Venom, Celtic Frost, Darkthrone, Burzum, Mercyful Fate, Emperor, Mayhem, Gorgoroth, Ancient, Immortal, Marduk, Dimmu Borgir, Gehenna, Satyricon and others.
3- DEATH METAL:
With more extreme and darker themes, unintelligible and guttural vocals, it can be considered one of the dirtiest sounds. Furthermore, it is possible to distinguish clearly the blast beat drums in its lines.
BANDS: Death, Obituary, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Possessed, Entombed, Morbid Angel, Sepultura, Kreator, Slayer, Immolation, Suffocation, Six Feet Under, and more.
4- THRASH METAL:
Coming from and changing hardcore completely, the genre put faster and “no-so-great” singing on hardcore and changed music literally with a thrash music (hard and memorable riffs), and a new style on clothes (wearing jeans and leather jackets).
BANDS: Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth, Kreator, Destruction, Sodom, Testament, Metal Church, Sepultura, Death Angel, Celtic Frost, Overkill, Anvil, Exciter, Exodus, Nuclear Assault, Voivod, Possessed, Mortal Sin and more.
5- NEW WAVE OF BRITISH HEAVY METAL:
The most important UK movement that crucially contributed for spreading metal around the world is called NWOBHM. In general, formed by heavy metal bands and associated with the same definitions.
BANDS: Motorhead, Diamond Head, Saxon, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Judas Priest, Raven, Venom, Grim Reaper, Samson, Angel Witch, Fist and other more.
6- DOOM METAL:
The genre is characterised for having a sort of heavy sound however a little more slow. Moreover, the themes create a foreboding atmosphere in the metal sounds. Likewise, the riffs are crucial components.
BANDS: Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Necromandus, Cathedral, Pentagram, Lucifer’s Friend, Witchfinder General, Candlemass, Burning Witch, Yob, Windhand and others.
7- DRONE METAL:
A expressive kind of metal sound, however slowest and with less notes that sometimes receives a sort of prejudice in the metal world in function of some lack of heaviness.
BANDS: Burning Witch, Black Bones Angel, Nadja, Khanate, Locrian, Earth, Boris, Melvins, Teeth of Lions Rule The Divine, Sun O))) and a little more.
8- SLUDGE METAL:
The main characteristics here are the imagery sounds associated with shocking contributions. Furthermore, the music is a kind of hardcore-punk sound with hard guitars and much expressiveness.
BANDS: Crowbar, Mastodon, Down, Corrupted, Acid Bath, Grief, The Melvins, Buzzon-En, Neurosis, EyeHateGod and more.
9- STONER METAL:
If you join the Doom metal, the Drone metal and the Sludge metal, and add to everything a sort of psychedelic rock and roll, the aftermath of it all is the Stoner Metal.
BANDS: Electric Wizard, Black Sabbath, Acid King, Goblin, Cannabis Corpse, Sleep, Belzebong, High On Fire, Bongripper, Corrosion of Conformity, Down, Monster Magnet, Orange Goblin, Weedeater, Bongzilla, Goatsnake and more.
10- POWER METAL:
When you add to heavy metal a little more speed and new themes such as fantasy, epic stories and older adventures seeming classical fictional books, you have a new genre called Power Metal that was a little more popular among European bands.
BANDS: Helloween, Manowar, Blind Guardian, Sabaton, Dio, Accept, Vicius Rumors, Kamelot, Stratovarius, Dragonland, DragonForce, Avantasia, Omen, Power Quest, Manilla Road, Rhapsody of Fire, Nocturnal Rites and others.
11- PROGRESSIVE METAL:
Usually the music is very elaborate with complex structures and with technical musicians. The advanced themes is appreciated for whom admire outlier musicians, although the complexity is rejected for some people that only want music with more popular interaction.
BANDS: Dream Theater, Queensryche, Meshuggah, Opeth, Nevermore, Coheed and Cambria, Gojira, Symphony X, King Crimson, Porcupine, Tool, Tree, and Rush/Yes (from Progressive Rock).
12- ALTERNATIVE METAL:
Outside the mainstream there are some bands that are characterised for having a combination of sounds which are out of conventional metal genres and themes.
BANDS: Alice In Chains, System Of A Down, Tool, Voivod, Faith No More, Disturbed and more.
13- SYMPHONIC METAL:
In the recent years there are several bands that mixed up orchestral sounds with metal, and sometimes vary on different vocals from lyric ones until guttural. The orchestral music can be synthetic or seldom real but with precise and hard guitars.
BANDS: Epica, Nightwish, Rhapsody of Fire, Kamelot, Therion, After Forever, Within Temptation, Delain, Xangria, Masterplan, Haggard, Endenbridge, Leaves’ Eyes and others.
14- SPEED METAL:
This genre is a little confuse but reflects a transition of bands from a raw thrash metal for a new cleaner sort of style. Likewise some people tend to classify it such as a new commercial kind of thrash metal with old bands turning into more popular.
BANDS: Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Overkill, Testament, Exciter, Anvil, Metal Church, Raven, Slayer, Accept, Running Wild etc.
15- CROSSOVER THRASH:
What happens if punks try to go metal? It was what happened when it was combined metal with punk music and it was created the crossover thrash. Despise the past conflicts between them, the troubles turned in water under the bridge, and these two genres was blended together, and was born a new thrash music with punk attitude or the Crossover Thrash.
BANDS: Corrosion Of Conformity, Nuclear Assault, Iron Reagan, D.R.I., Agnostic Front, Discharge, Municipal Waste, Suicidal Tendencies, Stormtroopers Of Death, The Accused and a little more.
16- GROOVE METAL:
There is another kind of thrash music that is possible to locate between the aggressiveness of thrash and the shock rock that comes from nu metal. That is exactly what represents the Groove Metal, a shock music with a thrash style.
BANDS: Pantera, Sepultura, Lamb Of God, White Zombie, Machine Head, Down, Soulfly, DevilDriver, Fear Factory, Five Finger Death Punch, Chimaira, Prong and more.
17- HARD ROCK:
Despise not being exactly a metal genre, it is important to consider this hard and extreme genre, because since 70’s has been influencing metal genres in general. Likewise, some of the bands from hard rock might even be considered heavy metal bands for funs.
BANDS: AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Scorpions, Gun’s And Roses, Deep Purple, Van Halen, Cream, Rainbow, The Who, Rush and several more.
18- GLAM METAL:
There was a time when metal bands prioritised more the visual styles than the music itself. Perhaps the exactly word to use here could be glamour rock’n’roll. If there was, and really there was good music from Glam age, on the other hand, the scene was most remarkable for fancy costumes, makeup, rebellious behaviour than for having spectacular music construction.
BANDS: Kiss, Queen, Twisted Sister, Ratt, Motley Crue, Whitesnake, Poison, Skid Row, Cinderella, White Lion, Vixen, Winger, Extreme, Dokken, Lita Ford, Quiet Riot, Warrant, Autograph, etc.
19- NU METAL:
One of the most polemic metal sounds. If on the one hand the numbing rhythm is well-combined with a hardcore thrash sound, on the other the down-tuned music almost does not have guitar solos. Likewise, another important characteristic is the presence of a kind of shock rock and lots of synthesisers.
BANDS: Korn, Disturbed, Papa Roach, Slipknot, Mudvayne, Deftones, Staind, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Coal Chamber and others.
20- INDUSTRIAL METAL:
Another polemical kind of metal music was created when electronic sounds were mixed with metal. Moreover several artificial songs brought by synthesisers were created and brought a sort of electronic metal music, what was vehemently rejected by traditional headbangers.
BANDS: Ministry, Marilyn Manson, Rammstein, Fear Factory, Nine Inch Nails, Front 242, Godflesh, KMFDM, Die Krupps, Revolting Cocks and more.
21- NEW WAVE OF AMERICAN HEAVY METAL:
Some American bands brought a truly turmoil in America and other places during 2000’s mainly among young people. A new generation of headbangers not necessarily accepted entirely by the old generation was created, following a new generation of metal bands.
BANDS: Avenged Sevenfold, Slipknot, As I Lay Dying, Korn, Disturbed, Killswitch Engage, Lamb Of God and several others.
22- GOTH METAL:
A sort of specific metal music where the lyrics are dramatic and melancholic, and the ambience is crucial for the bands. Despite almost every metal genre is represented by black clothes, the gothic world is determined for a specific type of black clothe, accessories and black nails.
BANDS: Anathema, Danzig, Cradle Of Filth, Lacuna Coil, Paradise Lost, HIM, Within Temptation, Sirenia, Type O Negative, My Dying Bride and others.
23- CHRISTIAN METAL:
This is the metal bands inside the Christian world, using mainly the gospels and the scriptures to come up with their lyrics. So, the genres here vary on a lot but with Christian music and religious themes in everyone of them.
BANDS: Stryper, Bride, Whitecross, Demon Hunter, Saint, Messiah Prophet, P.O.D., Underoath, Narnia, The Devil Wears Prada, Living Sacrifice, Eterna, August Burns Red and a little more.
24- RAP METAL:
This genre is simple a blend of Rap songs with metal music, and brings a queer type of new rhythm.
BANDS: Rage Against The Machine, Body Count, Biohazard, Limp Bizkit, Dog Eat Dog, POD, Linkin Park, Downiest, HED PE and a little more.
25- FUNK METAL:
This is another mixed type of music, crossing metal with funk. In fact, the genre was extremely important to later help the arising of nu metal in the world’s music scene.
BANDS: Faith No More, Rage Against The Machine, Mr. Bungle, 24-7 SPYZ, Primus, Living Colour, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Infectious Grooves, Fishbone and more.
26- METALCORE:
Hardcore is an important genre in the rock and roll. What if we could do hardcore a little more heavy? Joining hardcore with metal, increasing the speed and adding some new elements, and it was created the Metalcore.
BANDS: As I Lay Dying, Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, Hatebreed, Atreyu, All That Remains, Avenged Sevenfold, Underoath, Bullet For My Valentine, Bring Me The Horizon etc.
27- FOLK METAL:
When it is possible to use cultural and eclectic elements from a culture, and add hard music to them, it is possible to develop a kind of music where you can include folk and local culture and ideas. Likewise, it is still possible to add some folk instruments to combine with hard guitars and innovate culturally. This new heavy sound is called Folk metal.
BANDS: Amorphis, Finntroll, Heidevolk, Chuachan, Eluveitie, Korpiklaani, Subway To Sally, Skyclad, Bridge City Sinners, Turisas, Elsiferum, Tyr, Alestorm and more.
28- EXPERIMENTAL METAL:
The most important characteristic here is the creativity or how it is possible to come up with new instrumental lines. Therefore, the important factors for these metal bands are try new sounds, experiment new combinations and use songs from new places. So experimentation is the key word inside this style of music.
BANDS: Neurosis, Meshuggah, Voivod, Fantomas, Agalloch, Boris, Kayo Dot, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Mr. Bungle, Maudlin Of The Well, Arcturus, Gorguts etc.
29- MELODIC DEATH METAL:
It is a type of death metal, however with highly melodic guitar riffs, combining the traditional heavy metal (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) with the elements of death metal. Also more popular in Europe.
BANDS: Dark Tranquillity, Arch Enemy, Soilwork, At the Gates, Carcass, Children Of Bodom, Amon Amarth, Kalmah, Hypocrisy, Scar Symmetry, Death,The Black Dahlia Murder and more.
30- GRINDCORE:
First of all, a blast beat type of music with an indistinguishable vocal. Secondly, an spontaneous sort of heavy music with a deep growling. Surelly, grindcore is not a kind of music for all tastes.
BANDS: Napalm Death, Terrorizer, Carcass, Extreme Noise Terror, Nasum, Repulsion, Pig Destroyer, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, ZAO and a little more.
31- WAR METAL:
Do you want it heavy? Then take this chaotic, violent and blasphemous sound. To cut a long story short, the music really sounds like a war. A fast and raw music that generate a messy kind of metal.
BANDS: Conqueror, Behemoth, Belphegor, Goatwhore, Dissection, Naglfar, Akercocke, Death Worship, Revenge and more.
32- VIKING METAL:
This is a sort of black metal sound, however a little more polemical in function of the themes and lyrics. Actually, the Scandinavians that do it, show in their musics fixations on pre-Christian norse heritage, and create their musics focused in these themes, mainly talking about the Vikings conquests.
BANDS: Amon Amarth, Enslaved, Bathory, Tyr, Moonsorrow, Thyrfing, Ensiferum and some others.
Concluding, there are many genres inside the universe of Heavy Metal. Although sometimes the diversity can cause some misunderstandings and troubles among headbangers, the truth is that everyone can find a style to follow and appreciate. For what's worth, take your poisons inside this universe and enjoy it!
