Heavy metal genres

Heavy metal is a diverse genre that includes multiple styles, including:

• Alternative metal - the term has a very broad definition, but is usually used to discribe artists playing a style of metal which is either unique or hard to define. Faith No More are a good example of this catergory, with their 'unconventional' metal sound, as with former frontman Mike Patton's side projects Fantômas and Tomahawk. Some artists of this catergory take an extremely avant-garde approach to their music, such as The Melvins, Slipknot and Meshuggah, while others have a more conventional but unique style such as Tool, Rage Against The Machine and Helmet.
• Black metal - a precise definition for this style is very hard to give. One approach is strictly based on the lyrics, which are Satanic and otherwise occult. Bands include Mayhem, Darkthrone and Venom.
• Christian metal - including a wide range of styles based on many of the genres above but with explicitly Christian lyrics (rather than anti-Christian or merely explicit lyrics).
• Death metal - extreme music with low-pitched guitars and growling vocals. There is no common theme in the lyrics, they range from splatter (Cannibal Corpse) and war (Bolt Thrower) to Christian motives (Mortification). Besides the mentioned, Death, Morbid Angel and Entombed are other important bands.
• Doom metal - inspired largely by the lumbering dirges and stoned, paranoid darkness of Black Sabbath, and one of the very few heavy metal subgenres to prize feel and mood more than flashy technique, doom metal bands include Candlemass, Cathedral and Anathema.
• Epic metal - lying between doom metal and classical American heavy metal with a balance between slow and solemn hymns and the occasional outburst into powerful mid-tempos, epic metal includes epic and some fantasy; they're not the only themes, however, and lighter elements like bikes, women, and a healthy amount of self-apology are just as frequent. Bands include (early) Manowar, (early) Virgin Steele, Cirith Ungol, Omen and Medieval Steel from the US, some Bathory (the Viking themed albums) from Sweden and more recently DoomSword from Italy.
• Folk metal - not many examples of this genre which comprises of a mix between folk melodies/instruments with the charactersistic powercords of Metal. Skyclad is probably the most known band in this genre. A related genre has evolved in Germany, fusing modern metal and medieval (German) music. Proponents of this genre include Subway to Sally and In Extremo, but they are not well-known outside Central Europe because of their singing in German.
• Grindcore - A style of metal influenced by Thrash metal, and also Hardcore and Punk. The style is characterized by a vocal style similar to Death metal, rapid fire "blast beats" from double-kick drums and short songs. Exponents of the genre include Napalm Death (regarded as pioneers of the style), Carcass and Terrorizer.
• Hair metal - frequently if derisively known as glam or glam metal, hair metal focused on stage craft and appearance (leather, spandex, long hair and makeup being very common), and generally used a lot of "feel good" rhythms and catchy lyrics. Bands include Mötley Crüe, Ratt, Skid Row, Poison, Dokken, Greg Howe, Vixen, and Cinderella among many others.
• Goth metal - fusion of the bleak, icy atmospherics of goth rock with the loud guitars and aggression of heavy metal, finding the middle ground between the two styles in a melodramatic sense of theater and lyrical obsessions with religion and horror. Bands include Theatre of Tragedy, Paradise Lost, Lacrimosa and My Dying Bride.
• Hard rock - primarily influenced by rock and roll and blues, this style was developed in the mid to late 1960s by artists such as Jimi Hendrix and Steppenwolf, and characterised by a heavily distorted guitar sound, occasionally coupled together with keyboards/organs. Many British bands in the late 1960s such as Led Zeppelin, Cream and Free adopted the style, which then evolved into heavy metal. It is sometimes hard to distinguish hard rock from early heavy metal, with some artists such as Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy and AC/DC falling into both styles.
• Hardcore (also Metalcore) - Raw, charged-up music with influences from Thrash, Death Metal and Hardcore punk. Key artists of this genre are Killswitch Engage, Chimaira, Nothingface and Machinehead.
• Industrial metal - Fusion of electronic dance music, Techno, and heavy, distorted guitars. Synthesizers and drum machines are heavily used in this sub-genre. Nine Inch Nails, Fear Factory and Rammstein are but a few of the key artists of this genre.
• Melodic death metal - an offshoot of death metal, containing more melodic guitar riffs (sometimes accoustic), and occasional 'clean' singing in some examples. Death and Morbid Angel are primary influences of the genre, which has been developed further by predominately Swedish bands such as Opeth, In Flames and Katatonia.
• Neo-classical metal - the traditional toolbox of metal song-writing is used in neo-classical metal, but with a twist: all of it takes place in a structure that is heavily influenced by baroque music. The chord progressions, arpeggios, broken chords, and speedy scale runs of neo-classical metal are borrowed for the most part from Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi and Niccolo Paganini. Although Yngwie J. Malmsteen is the most well-known proponent of this branch of metal, classical elements used in heavy metal and hard rock date back to Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple and Eddie Van Halen's innovations in the late 1970s.
• New Wave of British Heavy Metal - mid- to late 1970s style, including bands like Judas Priest
• Nu metal - newest form of heavy metal, usually features down tuned guitars (7 string guitars are common), sampling artists/DJs and angst-ridden, hip hop-influenced vocals of bands like Korn, Papa Roach, Staind, Skid Row, Orgy, System of a Down, Drowning Pool and Limp Bizkit.
• Power metal - clean vocals and hymn-like choruse, while the lyrics are often based on fantasy or science fiction themes. The most famous bands include Helloween, Blind Guardian and Hammerfall, all of them continental European, and Iced Earth coming from the US.
• Progressive metal - combining elements of progressive rock and heavy metal, progressive metal bands include Dream Theater, Symphony X, Stratovarius and DragonForce.
• Speed metal - focusing on instrumental virtuosity and featuring riffs and solos played extremely fast, speed metal is exemplified by the twin lead guitars of Judas Priest and Motörhead.
• Stoner metal - including heavy, sometimes slow and sludgily distorted riffs and the obvious influence of psychedelic music, creating a sound that is strongly reminiscent of the 1970s metal of Black Sabbath, Budgie, and similar bands. Important bands include Cathedral, Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, and Monster Magnet.
• Thrash metal - a very aggressive and rhythm-based style of metal that includes Slayer, Overkill and early Metallica and Megadeth.
• True metal - This term was coined in the 1990s, when fusions of metal and techno or metal and hiphop were dominating the charts, and its original use was probably to distinguish between such fusions and the more traditional metal from the 1980s. It is not exactly clear what true metal means - it seems to hover somwhere between epic metal power metal. The term is also misleading because it seems to imply that all other metal genres are "false".