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DEATH
METAL Death metal is the most brutal form of music in existence. A typical death metal band is generally identifiable by their use of heavy distortion, excessive down tuning, pummeling double bass drum and trademark growl vocals. The term 'Death metal' covers a huge number of different sub genres - gothenburg, grindcore, crustcore and s.o. Riffs range from slower, heavy as molasses type riffs to lightning speed fretwork with blast beats. Rarely are keyboards used on a regular basis. Bands: Death, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Obituary, Children Of Bodom DOOM METAL Probably the most atmosperic and definitely the slowest metal genre, doom metal was created by the forefathers of heavy metal, Black Sabbath. Their self-titled song was one of the first examples of what later called doom metal. Another revolution within the genre happened in the early 90's when three english bands - Anathema, Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride started playing doom-death. Slow and morbid, dark and always melancholic, doom metal also can be characterized by a number of experiments with 'non-metal' instruments - like piano, violin or organ. Bands: Anathema, My Dying Bride, Cathedral, Solitude Aeturnus, Tristania GOTHIC METAL Gothic metal is softer and more dynamic than doom, but it has the same melancholic and sometimes even depressive touch. It's also very atmospheric and melodic, with the wide use of keyboards and female vocals, which makes it probably the least aggressive metal style. Bands: Lacuna Coil, Sentenced, The 69 Eyes, To Die For, Within Temptation BLACK METAL Probably the main thing black metal is known for is lousy-sounding production. It's also monotonous dissonant riffs, lots and lots of blastbeating and screaming/hissing vocals. Lyrically more towards paganinsm, poetic longings for "dark medieval times", a little bit of satanism here and there. And of course leather with spikes and buckets of corpse paint. Image is important to many black metal bands... Black metal tends to be more atmospheric - a lot of bands use keyboards, occasionally you can hear clean vocals or even female vocals. Bands: Dimmu Borgir, Marduk, Emperor, Burzum, Cradle Of Filth INDUSTRIAL METAL Metal meets techno beats, samples and other electronic sounds. The pioneers in this genre were Ministry who already in the late 90's discovered that two such different styles can actually be mixed together. Now industrial metal is almost as much popular as the nu-metal - and as much hated by 'true' metalheads. Bands: Fear Factory, Filter, Spineshank, Static-X, Rammstein NU METAL This genre could win any nomination for 'the most hated sub-genre within the metal scene'. Old school metalheads and 'true' metalheads don't even consider it to be metal at all. Nu metal was born together with Korn in the mid 90's and to this day has become the most popular metal style. Nu metal is the mix of aggressive and simplistic heavy guitar riffs, rap, pop, industrial, hardcore, alternative and god-knows-what-else. Nu metal is 100% american 'invention' - at least I don't know any nu metal bands coming from any other countries than the United States... Sub-Genres include Rap Metal, Metalcore and Industrial Nu Metal. Bands: Korn, Slipknot, Deftones, Linkin Park, Godsmack POWER METAL Appeared in the late 80s from classic heavy metal. Despite being faster and more powerful than heavy metal, it's still a very melodic style, with less anger and aggression. First bands playing power metal include Helloween, Blind Guardian, Yngwie Malmsteen and Stratovarius. Power metal often crosses with progressive metal (Ivory Tower, Symphony X, Evergrey, Vanishing Point... actually, most of power metal bands use progressive elements) and symphonic metal (Nightwish, Rhapsody). Btw, if you hear double-bass drumming and parallel lead guitar/keyboard solo in a song about mighty warriors or magic lands, that's most probably IS power metal :) Sub-genres include Melodic power metal, neo-classical power metal and symphonic progressive power metal. Bands: Man o' War, Helloween, Stratovarius, Nightwish, Blind Guardian, Gamma Ray
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