What Are the Different Types of Heavy Metal Music?
Contents
If you’re a fan of heavy metal music, you might be wondering about the different types of metal out there. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the most popular subgenres of metal, from thrash to death metal.
Introduction
Different types of heavy metal music exist, each with its own unique subculture. The four main types are death metal, black metal, thrash metal, and power metal.
Death metal is the heaviest and most extreme type of heavy metal music. It is characterized by growling vocals, fast tempos, and heavy guitar riffs. Death metal lyrics often deal with dark subjects such as death, religion, and violence.
Black metal is a type of heavy metal music that emerged in the early 1980s. It is characterized by fast tempos, shrieking vocals, and heavily distorted guitars. Black metal lyrics often deal with dark subjects such as Satanism, death, and gloom.
Thrash metal is a type of heavy metal music that emerged in the early 1980s. It is characterized by fast tempos, aggressive vocals, and heavily distorted guitars. Thrash metal lyrics often deal with social issues such as war and pollution.
Power metal is a type of heavy metal music that emerged in the mid-1980s. It is characterized by epic lyrics, soaring vocals, and twin guitar harmonies. Power metal lyrics often deal with positive subjects such as fantasy and mythology.
Types of Heavy Metal Music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and the United States. With roots in blues rock and psychedelic 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.
Death Metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal that typically employs heavily distorted guitars, slammed blast-beats, and growled vocals. Death metal breaks from traditional hard rock by having a much darker lyrical focus. Songs often deal with topics like murder, torture, mutilation, and sometimes even Satanism or the Occult. Death metal is also one of the heaviest and most aggressive sounding types of heavy metal music.
Doom Metal
Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a heavier sound than other heavy metal genres. Doom metal is influenced by the sounds of early Black Sabbath and Pentagram, and artists in the genre often use horror-themed lyrics. Early doom metal bands include Saint Vitus, Trouble, Witchfinder General and Candlemass.
Thrash Metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its high speed and aggressive musicianship. The songs are often de-tuned and incorporate fast percussive patterns, typically played with twin guitar harmonies. Thrash metal songs often make use of highly distorted guitar tones, and some songs feature solos that are played at high speeds.
The genre evolved in the early 1980s from faster, more aggressive styles of heavy metal such as New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) and hardcore punk. Thrash metal was an inspiration for subsequent extreme genres such as death metal and black metal.
Noteworthy thrash metal bands include Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, Exodus, Testament, Overkill, Destruction, Nuclear Assault, Sodom, Kreator, Death Angel, Exodus, Machine Head and Lamb of God.
Black Metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that often features fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, Blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structures. Black metal songs often have dark, nihilistic or Satanic lyrical themes, and although many bands have adopted this style, the music tends to be anti-commercial and underground.
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, reliance on virtuoso soloing and melodic singing. These elements sometimes result in an expansive soundscape that is more associated with progressive metal than typical heavy metal.
While the term “power metal” has been used since the late 1970s to refer to new wave of British heavy metal bands such as Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, the term acquired its definitive meaning in the 1980s with thedevelopment of power/speed and speed metal. In Germany,vantgarde speed/death band Sodom popularized power/speedmetal with their early releases such as In The Sign Of Evil (1984). Other pivotal bands in the genre’s formation include Helloween from Germany, Scandinavia’s Mercyful Fate, visualization of guitarist Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s work and Brazil’s São Paulo scene.
Progressive Metal
Progressive metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that fuses the powerful and preachy vocals of traditional metal with the complex instrumentation and extended song structures more often found in rock music. The result is a sound that is both heavy and complex, making it a favorite of metalheads who appreciate a challenges as well as those who simply enjoy headbanging to a good riff.
Progressive metal bands are often very technically proficient, and their songs often showcase the guitarists’ and bassists’ abilities with extended solos and complex rhythms. The drummers in these bands are also usually quite skilled, as they are required to keep up with the rest of the band while also providing an anchor for the rest of the instruments. This technical prowess is one of the things that sets progressive metal apart from other subgenres of heavy metal.
Progressive metal is not for everyone – it can be challenging to get into if you’re not used to hearing such complex music, and it can be difficult to find bands that you like if you don’t already know what you’re looking for. But if you’re up for a challenge and want to hear something different from the usual heavy metal fare, then progressive metal just might be for you.
Nu Metal
Nu metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that emerged in the late 1990s. It is characterized by unique, aggressive percussion rhythms, guitars that are heavily down-tuned, and often incorporates hip hop influences. Nu metal bands have been described as having “an alternative approach to songwriting that focuses on mood and texture rather than traditional song structure.”
Nu metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that emerged in the late 1990s. It is characterized by unique, aggressive percussion rhythms, guitars that are heavily down-tuned, and often incorporates hip hop influences. Nu metal bands have been described as having “an alternative approach to songwriting that focuses on mood and texture rather than traditional song structure.”
Some nu metal bands such as Deftones and System of a Down have continued to enjoy success and popularity even after the genre’s commercial peak in the early 2000s.
Conclusion
In conclusion, heavy metal music is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, and overall loudness. There are many subgenres of heavy metal, including thrash metal, death metal, black metal, and doom metal.
