The Different Styles of Heavy Metal Music
Contents
There are many different styles of heavy metal music, each with its own unique sound and feel. In this blog post, we’ll explore some of the most popular metal genres and subgenres, and help you find the right one for you.
Introduction
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom. With roots in blues rock, psychedelic rock, and acid rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall loudness. The genre’s lyrics and performance styles are sometimes associated with aggression and machismo.
Today, heavy metal’s musical style has diversified considerably. Subgenres have emerged like crossover thrash. Some metal styles have fused with other genres from punk rock to create new sounds like gothic metal and industrial metal. Other musical styles such as folk metal bring traditional European music styles into the genre while others like doom metal take a heavier approach
The Different Styles of Heavy Metal Music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Their popularity peaked in the 1980s with bands such as Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, and Iron Maiden. There are many different styles of heavy metal music, each with their own unique sound.
Death Metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, aggressive, powerful drumming featuring double kick and blast beat techniques, minor keys or atonality, abrupt tempo, key, and time signature changes, and chromatic chord progressions. Its themes are often dark and violent, with death, decay, blood, gore, Satanism, necrophilia and horror all being frequent topics.
Death metal breaks down into a number of subgenres including melodic death metal (also known as “Gothenburg metal”), blackened death metal (also known as “death ‘n’ roll”), brutal death metal (also known as “goregrind”), Deathcore (a fusion genre including elements of death metal with hardcore punk) and technical death metal (which emerged in the 1990s).
Early bands in the genre such as Possessed (1985), Necrophagia (1985), Obituary (1986), Morbid Angel (1986) and Death (1985) are considered forerunners of the genre. In 1983 Venoms debut album Black Metal was influential to the development of the style. At the start of the 1980s dozens of shoddy recordings by mostly European bands were released so rapidly that it became difficult for fans to sort out which ones were good or not.
Doom Metal
Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that originated in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely through the work of Black Sabbath. Heavy, slow, and intense, doom metal features some of the most extreme sounds in all of heavy metal. Lyrically, doom metal is often preoccupied with death, violence, and other dark subject matter. Doom metal is similar to other extreme genres like death metal and black metal, but often distinguished by its ponderous pace and droning riffs. Some of the most popular doom metal bands include Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, Candlemass, Cathedral, Saint Vitus, and electric Wizard.
Thrash Metal
Thrash metal is a type of heavy metal music that is characterized by its fast tempo and aggressive guitar work. Typically, thrash metal songs are shorter than other heavy metal songs, and they often feature complex guitar solos. Thrash metal bands became popular in the 1980s, and the genre has since spawned several subgenres, including death thrash, black thrash, and Speed Metallica.
Black Metal
Black metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that often features fast, thrashy riffs and extreme vocals. Lyrics in black metal songs often deal with satanic or anti-christian themes. The first black metal band is generally considered to be Venom, who formed in 1979. Black metal quickly gained popularity in Norway in the early 1990s with bands such as Mayhem, Burzum, and Emperor. These Norwegian black metal bands were often associated with church burnings and other forms of violence.
Power Metal
Power metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music combining characteristics of traditional metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a more uplifting sound, aimed at eliciting an emotional response from the listener.
lyrical themes often deal with fantasy and mythology, as well as positive emotional experiences. The genre originated in the early 1980s mostly in Europe and achieved commercial success in the 1990s.
During the 1990s and 2000s power metal achieved underground popularity in South America, mainly Brazil and Argentina. In Brazil power bands such as Angra gained mainstream recognition during this time.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are many different styles of heavy metal music, each with its own unique sound and characteristics. Whether you prefer the hard-hitting sound of thrash metal or the more melodic sound of power metal, there is a style of heavy metal music that is sure to appeal to you. So put on your favourite headbanging tunes and rock out today!
