Teach me all about the kinds of metal!

Greetings all!
Music has been always been life for me. I listen to almost all kinds of genres of songs. I always listened more to rock. Recently i started hearing the faster side of metal. But i really can't distinguish them. If someone could tell me.. whats are the different kinds of metal and most importantly...what i want to know is how do you classify/identify or make distinction as to which is death or black or melodic or symphonic or thrash.. and the other kinds of metal?!

Another thing.. since i have started listening to the above kinds of metal all of a
sudden all i can want to hear is them. I can't stand hearing any slow or mushy songs anywhere! The other ones are full of energy and life .. maybe its a phase or its addictive as anything. But i dont mind.. it's awesome!

Like i said above... i dont have anyway of classifying them or know about any bands in particular. I just get the popular metal tracks.. some of the songs i have are by Slayer ,Children of Bodom, Cradle of Filth, Opeth, In Flames, Rhapsody, Carcass, Sepultura, Trivium, Deicide, Dragonforce, Stratovarius ..etc . But i dont have much of a collection. i would like to start one. It's not easy to get access to them as HMMM.. i av noticed that none of the music channels play these kinds on the tele.. :shk: (another question:- why is that? )
Now it would be great if a metal lover would give me tips as to which other bands i should be on the lookout for..infact id be grateful if you guys could tell me about the good artists along with the tracks you think are really smashin' n rockin' !

Thnx!

I always say it - Entombed. If you haven't heard them, try finding an album called "Uprising", it's superb.

As for the "genre identifying", I'm not much help there. I know if I like it, and thats it. Wikipedia on the other hand, has a page dedicated to it Here, so have fun, and don't forget - Try Entombed!

If you ever get a chance and the odds are massively not in your favour as they rarely play any gigs and only ever in England, give MrDeth a listen.

Out of this world

My all-time favorites are Tungsten and Cobalt.

bloodbath. hands down the BEST metal band i've ever heard. extol is awesome too.

well theres...

Heavy metal
Nu metal
Black metal
Death metal
Thrash Metal
Grunge Metal
Goth metal (like black metal)

Thats all i can think off but iam sure there more

My fav are heavy metal ,black metal and death metal

Hey...

'chebob' .. the wiki(pedia) link waz wicked! Dint know they had everything so orderly classified and explained like that.

'Prometheus James' ... i couldnt find anything on MrDeth.. but its good to know england has such bands.. later this year il be moving into the UK..and once settled i hope i get to see some action live

And thanx everyone.. thnxxx for providing the names for me. Im tryin em' all.. Keep em' coming!
I cant get enough !!

Hmm.. wuw .. therz like some many sub-genres to metal! What i want to be able to do is try to identify..if i get a song.. what kind of metal it is.. like u know.. u listen to pop, rap , rnb , techno , rock.. songs and u can identify the genre easily.. here i find such difficulty except for heavy metal.. i know which is heavy metal. But in this its not that easy. If i try to identify on lyrics basis.. i wouldnt know which is for e.g dark or black..as lyrics maybe about demons,vampires,anti-god..etc. Get what im trying to say?
i have no idea why all this classifying part matters to me and why i cant just listen to them whatever they are and just enjoy it.. its seems like some kind of nutty craze to know and understand it all !

I dont know what you call it, but some of my all time fav:

-Pantera
-Danzig
-Iron Maiden
-Malmstein -guitar player
-Metallica -UPTO metallica metallica
-Megadeath
-Judas Priest
-Slayer
-Dimond Head

MrDeth? Surely you mean Megadeth??

My choices:

'Arise' Sepultura
'Master of Puppets' Metallica
'Clandestine' Entombed
'Vulgar Display of Power' Pantera

I suggest you check out symphonic power metal. That's the best kind of metal. In my opinion.:bnghd:

Well, there are about as many different definitions of metal subgenres as there are metal bands, but here's my take on them. Opinions vary, so feel free to comment if you think I'm way off base here. This is my very brief attempt at defining some of the metal subgenres.

1) Death Metal

Death metal is generally recognized by its down tuned guitars, and growling cookie monster like vocals. The music itself may be very fast (ie Deicide), or rather mid-paced (ie bolt thrower). Generally, bands sing about death, destruction, war, torture, satan, etc. Nobody seems to agree on who the first death metal band was, but Venom, Celtic Frost, Bathory, Hellhammer (all of these bands would be highly influential to black metal, see entry below) and Death are usually mentioned as being founders of the genre. There have been several distinct movements in death metal. In the 80's up until the early 90's, Florida had a HUGE death metal scene. Bands like Death, Morbid Angel, Nocturnus, Deicide, Obituary (and many others) all hailed from Florida, and most of their albums were produced by Scott Burns, who helped define the "florida death metal sound" as it was called. The other major scene was centered in Europe, notably in Sweden. The "gothenburg sound" as it came to be known was engineered by sunlight studios, and is best exemplified by bands like entombed, dismember, carnage, etc. England had Carcass, who perhaps was the first band to mix extreme music with extrememely gory artwork and lyrics that are so commonplace today. Napalm Death also hailed from england, but they are more commonly identified with the grindcore movement (see below) The best death metal albums/bands in my opinion are:

entombed - left hand path
bolt thrower - war master
dismember - like an everflowing stream
obituary - slowly we rot
death - scream bloody gore
carcass - reek of putrefaction

2) grind core (or just grind)

As far as I'm concerned, the best grind core band of all time was (and still is) Napalm Death. The most notable difference between grindcore and death metal is the speed at which the music is played. Grindcore is insanely fast, characterized by "blast beat" drumming, often political lyrics, and differing vocal styles. Vocal styles in grindcore were all over the map, from high pitched yelping, to extremely gutteral barked vocals. Many of the original grindcore bands hailed from england, but it soon became a worldwide following. The best grind bands in my opinion are:

Napalm Death
Sore throat
Nasum
Agathocles
terrorizer

3) black metal

Usually associated with Norway, church burning, and murder, black metal is by far the most controversial genre of metal. Originally, black metal took the speed of grindcore and added extremely satanic lyrics, and often times a horrible recording that made some albums practically unlistenable. Also, black metal distinguised itself by the use of "corpse paint" and often hilarious homeade costumes, swords, etc. In recent years black metal has added atmosphereic keyboard, acoustic interludes, and more fantasy (ie lord of the rings) type lyrics. Sadly, there are many black metal bands who are overtly racist, so I'd steer clear of any band that aligns itself with the NSBM (new socialist black metal). There are so many different sounding black metal bands these days, that I'm not even sure how to define the genre anymore. But, the "classic" black metal sound was heavily influence by Hellhammer, celtic frost, and venom. The best traditional black metal bands in my opinion are Mayhem, Darkthrone, emperor, and immortal.

I'm sick of typing, so maybe later I'll get to thrash metal, and "crossover".



[edit on 6-7-2006 by outofstep]

Thnx again all!

All the while i have been thinking bands playing such genres are very few in number. But now i have realised these styles have originated a long time ago and there are numerous bands.. and still many many people are unaware of it. Like here in my country.. i guess very few are into this form of music.

'outofstep' .. that is some wonderful piece of info u have put in nice and simple words. Very intresting read! Oh do continue whenever you get time! Will wait for
it.

Continued......


4) Thrash metal

As far as I'm concerned, thrash metal started with bands like Metallica, Slayer, Sadus, Exodus, Legacy (later Testament), flotsam and Jetsam, megadeth, etc in the early-mid 80's. European bands like Sodom, destruction, Kreator, etc made the movement popular worldwide. Thrash metal is generaly rather fast, full of catchy often complex riffs, guitar fills, etc. Thrash vocalists usually were able to actually sing, although the trademark "thrash" sound usually included a singer who had a somewhat rough or rasphy voice as opposed to the clean singing hair metal bands, but you can usually still understand what the vocalist is signing, unlike most death metal. Thrash metal died out in the late 80's with most of the bands either breaking up, or changing their sound so much that they didn't even resemble their former selves (like metallica, megadeth, etc). There still are thrash bands around, and even some of the old bands like destruction and kreator are still making decent records.

5) crossover

When I was growing up, we defined a crossover band as one that mixed elements of hardcore, punk, and metal to form a unique sound that wasn't quite punk, wasn't quite metal, but somewhere in between. Usually, crossover bands would have the speed, aggression, and political lyrics of a punk band, but would include metal type riffs and guitar solos. The best know crossover bands were definately:

Corrosion of conformity (first two albums only)
Cryptic Slaughter
Septic Death
Suicidal Tendencies (first few albums)
DRI
Heresy
Ripcord

Crossover is making a bit of a comeback lately due to the success of bands like municpal waste, who sound like they were transported here by a time machine directly from 1986.

if you want to listen to acoustic death metal, check out impaled northern moonforest.

Originally posted by 25cents
if you want to listen to acoustic death metal, check out impaled northern moonforest.

Acoustic Death metal??? ,WTF would that sound like??

Originally posted by 25cents
if you want to listen to acoustic death metal, check out impaled northern moonforest.

HA HA HA!! I thought I was one of the only people who appreciated that band! They are worth it for the song titles alone! Too bad they only pressed 200 copies of their ep, more people need to be exposed to that band.

seth putnam is the MAN. it's gonna cost me and my buddy $1200 or so to bring those guys out here, but we really wanna do it.

Originally posted by 25cents
seth putnam is the MAN. it's gonna cost me and my buddy $1200 or so to bring those guys out here, but we really wanna do it.

Are you talking about an actual INMF show, or just an A.C show? And by "out here", where do you mean? I'd love to see Seth (in whatever band) play again. About six years ago A.C. played here (Milwaukee) and did two shows, one a 5:00 all ages show, and a 10:00 drinking show. I went to both and had the best time! I also was able to score the limited sloth/angry hate lp from seth. Good times!

There is also

Prog Metal

Bands like

Dream Theater
Queensrÿche
Fates Warning


Power Metal

Rhapsody
Blind Guardian
Sonata Arctica
Kamelot
Iced Earth
Gamma Ray

Originally posted by outofstep

Originally posted by 25cents
seth putnam is the MAN. it's gonna cost me and my buddy $1200 or so to bring those guys out here, but we really wanna do it.

Are you talking about an actual INMF show, or just an A.C show? And by "out here", where do you mean? I'd love to see Seth (in whatever band) play again. About six years ago A.C. played here (Milwaukee) and did two shows, one a 5:00 all ages show, and a 10:00 drinking show. I went to both and had the best time! I also was able to score the limited sloth/angry hate lp from seth. Good times!

INMF. we like AC, but we're much more into ridiculous crap...robot gangster rap, bands that sing songs about high school track teams, and nintendo rock.

and i'm a few miles outside of phoenix AZ, in a college town called tempe.