Metal genres and subgenres – Why to class music?

If you wonder what the differences are in terms of music between the numerous metal genres, music that sounds pretty similar, why name it differently? What is the purpose of classing and categorising music? Is it really necessary? 
Classifying music is essential because music evolves constantly. Classification is a fundamental element when it comes to understanding and tracking progress and how music evolves. It is also about the history of music, taking all the aspects involved into consideration and registering them for posterity.

Considering that this is a pretty complex subject already explored by many specialists, my approach here is an unpretentious overview aiming to answer the most latent questions new Metalheads may have when starting their music journey and a general approach to genres and their subgenres.

To start, we can say that a genre has a sound and a scene of its own, while a subgenre is when an artist or group of artists add their own sauce influenced by similar aspects, creating something slightly different but with the same roots.

One interesting point to discuss is the difference between Heavy Metal and Metal music. Heavy Metal is a genre that includes all those bands from the NWOBHM (Iron Maiden, Angel Witch, Saxon, Holocaust, Tygers of Pan Tang, Girlschool, Tank, etc.) and more. Heavy Metal was the main root of the creation of Metal Music and all its subgenres.

It is important to keep in mind that art is mutable, and music is fluid because its creators also evolve and go through constant changes and phases, and it reflects in their music. There are also market tendencies and a certain pressure in practical terms to stay in the market. So, all these external and artistic elements will translate into bands that can fit in many subgenres and even genres, like Venom, who started as a Heavy Metal band but whose work influenced the Black Metal scene, or Metallica, who began as Thrash Metal and went gradually to a more consonant sound as a Heavy Metal band.

A perfect example of music that sounds similar and gets classed in different ways is Speed Metal and Thrash Metal. They are pretty similar indeed, pretty fast, and many tend to equate the two, while others argue that there is a distinct difference between them. In his book “Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal”, Ian Christe states that Thrash Metal relies more on long, wrenching rhythmic breaks, while Speed Metal is a cleaner and more musically intricate subcategory, still loyal to the duelling melodies of classic Metal. However, on the next page, Christe calls Speed Metal a “subset of Thrash Metal” and argues that “There was little intrinsic difference between Speed Metal and Thrash Metal. However, the sudden boom of fast, raging bands helped distinguish between throbbing, rhythm-heavy Thrash Metal and something a bit cleaner and more melodic, Speed Metal.

I would also point out that there are differences in themes and lyrics. Thrash often brings political themes and also “war and anger” lyrics, while Speed Metal stays around softer themes, lighter lyrics, and even a tad of good humour.

I saw a very old concert flyer (I am trying to find this photo to illustrate this page), and in the flyer, Megadeath named themselves “Speed Metal”.
Thrash was born from a mix of Heavy Metal and Speed Metal. Judas Priest was among the bands that influenced Mustaine. The bands Anvil, formed in 1978; Exciter, also formed in 1978; and British Steel by Judas Priest, released in 1980 (among the fastest albums by the band) were inspirations for Thrash. Venom and even Accept were also influences on Thrash Metal bands. Speed Metal was also used as a base for Power Metal.

Even though Speed Metal served as a base for genres like Thrash and Power, it is more like a style of playing within Heavy Metal, and there isn’t precisely a full Speed Metal scene.
“Speed metal” is Heavy Metal with fast tempos and fast riffs. It is just a descriptive term to differentiate bands like Exiter from bands like Saxon.
Thrash is its own thing, with a heavier sound, lyrics involving politics and war, and specific music features like fast percussive beats and low-register guitar riffs overlaid with shredding-style lead guitar work. The Thrash Metal scene counted with a vast public throughout the 80s.

There is another thin line when you compare Doom Metal / Sludge / Stoner or Folk and Pagan Metal.

Doom is defined by slow-tempo Heavy Metal (slow-heavy riffs) with dark imagery and atmosphere. Traditional Doom bands include Saint Vitus, Epic Doom like Candlemass, and Goth Doom like Paradise Lost.
Sludge and Stoner are subgenres. Sludge is in a few words, Doom meets Hardcore and Stoner is when Doom meets psychedelia with drug-related lyrics and related imagery and main bands that represents the subgenre are Eletric Wizar and Acid Wich.

Sludge as a subgenre is more challenging to define in a few words, and while researching my Metal books and the web, I found this brilliant definition that is worth mentioning from Reddit:

“Sludge Metal: This genre is pretty hard to define. At its most basic level, it’s a mix of the heaviness and darkness of doom metal and the aggression and hostility of the more extreme strains of hardcore. In that sense, it has a lot in common with early grunge. Since many seminal bands came from the Southern USA, there’s a lot of crossover between sludge metal and southern metal. In more recent years, some sludge bands became more ambient, which led to the post-metal of Isis and Pelican being a thing, while other bands became more sleek and progressive, a la Mastodon”.
A Sludge band that represents well the subgenre is “Eyehategod”.

Metal Fusions:

If you think about these two words, “influence and inspiration,” and you observe the cultural aspects, social, and economic context of a certain period of time and how musicians are influenced by other older musicians in each generation, you get the main ingredients to understand how genres, subgeres and fusions are created. Musicians create their music based on all these elements, adding their own touch and their own signature when developing their work.

When Metal meets other Music styles like Metalcore or NU Metal.

NU Metal has been the subject of numerous debates between Metalheads for years, and if you ask me, NU is a Metal genre and a very important one at that. After the Thrash ear started collapsing with the birth of Grunge, NU Metal brought the youth back to Metal and also new public and mainstream attention.

NU was claimed and acclaimed, validated by an entire generation of older and new Metalheads. It helped diffuse Metal music to new generations and keep Metal alive and kicking during a period when all eyes and ears were directed towards Gunrge.

Nu Metal was born with is the mix of Heavy Metal, Groove Metal/Industrial Metal and Rap/Funk/Hip Hop and even touches of  Grunge. The most important NU band is probably Korn. Guitars in Nu Metal are heavily influenced by Groove Metal bands. NU Metal bassists and drummers are often influenced by funk and hip hop, respectively, adding to NU Metal’s rhythmic nature.

Metalcore is also a genre that has been widely discussed and criticized. It is interesting to discuss Metalcore in this article since most criticism of the genre started when the link between Hardcore and Metal was severed, leaving the genre in a sort of musical limbo. The Hardcore root was gradually left behind.

Here is an interesting video about Metalcore:

Anything that happened after the Killswitch generation started losing touch with the Hardcore spirit, becoming something else that was still called Metalcore somehow.

How about Pagan Metal and Folk Metal?

Similar experiences, but on Pagan Metal, the influence of Black Metal is stronger.

I am including a conversation with Luke Kelu666 on Instagram, a friend who actively helped me with this article.

Therefore another interesting word to describe music fusions is the word “code”

For example, we say Behemoth is “Blackened Death,” but it is still Death Metal. It has the codes of Black Metal, but it sounds closer to Cannibal Corpse than Darkthrone.

For example, Alcest was originally a BM band sonically, but the music evolved into something more atmospheric, so it fits into that subgenre. You would describe them as “Atmospheric Black Metal with shoegaze influences,” which ultimately could be described as Blackgaze.

You can also check out Metal Dictionary to learn and understand the terms and jargon musicians and music journalists use.

Another interesting experience is to educate your ear, listen to the music, analyse its influences and roots, try to give your classification, and then check to see what others have come up with or how the artist describes their work. If you are also a musician, you have a significant advantage, and if you also compose, you probably do this already when searching for inspiration.

Finally, most artists hate labels and define their music in words. Still, it is inevitable since music is one of the most important forms of expression and art; therefore, it has power over people and influences their lives. Emotionally, music will get under your skin and reach your soul. Still, intellectually, we need to understand how it was created to at least capture it more concretely as if in an attempt to capture its essence.

If you want to learn more about the evolution of extreme Metal, watch Sam Dunn’s videos on YouTube!