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Breakdown of Metal

Junior Spellweaver
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Death metal:

1. Usually incorporates brash and harsh vocals normally of the growl state, which means coming from the gut.

2. Guitar riffs are normally harmonic and complex, same with bass.

3. drumming is fast and to a "T" double bass-wise and contains a more on time signature with the song.

Black metal:

1. Vocals consist of high screams and low gut rolls, but more-so towards the screams.

2. The music in most black metal bands is actually very symphonic as opposed to death metal which is harmonic. Yes there actually IS a difference between the two, symphonic = symphany and symphanies, like black metal bands normally incorporate a keyboardist to offset everything and give an ambient feel.

3. Drumming for black metal will normally consist of varied blast beats and comtemporary double bass sometimes the time signatures change during the song.

4. Clean vocals are also incorporated in most black metal as well.

Gore metal:

1. Vocals are mostly gut rolls and very low growls with eccentric highs.

2. guitar riffs are a mix between technical and hard rock.

3. Drumming is mostly blast beats.

metalcore:

1. vocals are mostly screams.

2. guitar riffs are for the most part, NOT complex in any way and are usually simple riffs dealing more with Drop D tunings and lower.

3. drumming is mostly double bass with some high hats.


Thrash metal:

1. vocals are soft screams that mostly sound very clean and clear as opposed to death/black metal which for some people (whos ears arent accustomed to the style) cant understand

2. guitar riffs are complex and are normally fast in 3/4 and 4/4 time sigs, common tunings are drop D, B, E#.

3. drumming consist of (depends on the band really) subtle double bass to full double bass in songs, as well as blast beats, but normally drumming is considered "normal"

Those are what I feel to be the distinguishing points between different metal genres feel free to contribute but I feel that I am pretty much right on target.
 
err..u couldve mentioned the HUGE difference in lyrics between death and other types of metal ; also death is not only growling its voice doesnt fit into any category depends on band morbid angel is growl, COF is both ends, so is malevelant creation not to mention abigor.

you gotta realise deth is rly hard to put under three points well actually its point black not posssible its 2 varied
 
Cradle of Filth's lyrics are probably the best death/black metal lyrics I've ever heard. Especially on Damnation and A Day, the lyrics show the events of the Fall of Man through the eyes of Lucifer. Dani Filth is really one smart mother fucker. He is also one weird mother fucker as well.
 
Cradle of Filth's lyrics are probably the best death/black metal lyrics I've ever heard. Especially on Damnation and A Day, the lyrics show the events of the Fall of Man through the eyes of Lucifer. Dani Filth is really one smart mother fucker. He is also one weird mother fucker as well.

Lolz yer yur right bout dani' but abigor has worse lyrics one of their albums is called channeling the quisstance of satan

Lolz what does that tell u ? i still love them though ^^
 
It's much more complex than this, obviously

You should have focused on major genres instead of going into such infamous subgenres as gore metal, which is actually a subgenre of grindcore<Gorecore> or just plain gore-themed death metal in most cases.

The breakdown of death and black isn't truly correct, only a few black metal band incorporate symphonic elements into their music (COF are NOT black metal, fellas!), and in my humble opinion, every metal genre can be performed with harsh vocals.

To try and make it clearer, we should define some other genre breakdowns:
Folk Metal
Doom metal
Heavy Metal
Drone metal
Stoner Metal
Gothic Metal
Symphonic Metal


As efareo said, the lyrics play a great role in the definition of the genre, you won't hear, say, a death metal band singin' of babelonian gods or mythical beasts and demons.
Defining such breakdowns should take much more than a couple of sentences, and of course, the current metal scene is vastly filled with genre fusions, I don't think the true pure genres are at most now, so you can't really judge by stuff you listen to but refine the material.
 
well i wasnt going for uber super duper breakdown, i just wanted to give a general breakdown, death/black/thrash are the most common IMO so thats what i was shootin for =].
 
well i wasnt going for uber super duper breakdown, i just wanted to give a general breakdown, death/black/thrash are the most common IMO so thats what i was shootin for =].

I totally agree with you
But some metal breakdowns are hard to define as there is a strict relationship between all the genres, and most metal genres are based earlier creations.
It's getting quite late here, but I will try and define stuff tomorrow, just to clear the confusion.

Way to go, duder =]
 
Lolz yer yur right bout dani' but abigor has worse lyrics one of their albums is called channeling the quisstance of satan

Lolz what does that tell u ? i still love them though ^^

Actually their lyrics to previous albums are glorifying the writings of Marquis de Sade. That's sadism for people who don't know who Marquis de Sade was. They aren't Satan worshipers or anything. They are just really fucking weird.
 
Allrighty then, I'll try and give it a shot

Heavy Metal
The thing that started out the whole genre, evolved from hard rock at the early 70's, a couple of important points when it comes to heavy metal:

1)The usual and most common band build : A drummer, bassist, a rythm guitar and a solo guitar, but it's nothing obligatory

2)Early heavy metal music was heavily influenced by blues, early heavy metal bands relied on blues scales, rythm and playing techniques when composing and performing music (Along with the hard rock, from which it has originated)

3)As I've noted in point No.3, heavy metal has evolved from hard rock, and thus early metal albums had a sounding as if it was a hardrock-blues with heavily distorded guitar effects.

4)Heavy metal is drum and guitar oriented, the vocals are usually clean just as in most hard rock songs, and the themes vary from occultism and psychedelic experiences to lovecraft and war, the hard rock genre is a versatile genre which can sound good enough with almost any lyrical theme.

Examples and must-haves:
Black sabbath - Paranoid
Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast


Stoner\sludge Metal
Oh my, I'm getting so damn wet on this one xD
Stoner metal\stoner rock deprives from early heavy metal bands such as, let's say Black Sabbath, here go a couple of points:

1)Stoner is slightly more droning and slow than Heavy metal, the riffs are bass oriented and tend to be quite repetitive.

2)As the name suggest, stoner metal has just the mood most of you hard drinkin', weed stiffin' fellas are looking for, the music was done that way it would reflect the way an intoxicated person feels and behaves, you might be able to imagine what I mean.

3)A heavier, slower heavy metal.
The vocals are somewhat harsh in most cases and the guitars seem to mostly let ring along the bass and drums rythm, adding a psychedelic feeling of the music. The lyrical themes are <mostly> drug and alcohol abuse, sometimes go into occultism and dark romanticism as well.

Examples and must-haves:
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
High on fire - Surrounded by thieves
Boris - Heavy Rocks <Wow, these awesome guys are from japan!>





Lemme some time to polish your definitions, I will be back later tonight to end my job here.
 
Crap, too much to do, I am so friggin lazy xD

Try the ultimate-guitar articles for accurate definition of genres, I'll be in the mood for stoner today =}
 
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