Your way in
Avant-garde metal 1993
Metal that imports anything - jazz, cabaret, electronics - and refuses to settle into a shape.
- Heaviness
- 7
- Speed
- 7
- Melody
- 5
- Where from
- Norway / USA
- Tempo
- 60-200 bpm
- Song length
- 4-10 min
- Written about
- Absurdity, Mysticism, Identity and dissolution, Whatever the record decides it is about
- Vocals
- Sung and screamed
Why this one
| You said | Avant-garde metal | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Both, trading off When someone is singing, what should come out? | mixed | 100% | ×3 |
| Light How much weight do you want behind it? | 7 out of 10 | 50% | ×2 |
| Quick and driving What pace? | 7 out of 10 | 100% | ×2 |
| The nineties Does it matter when it was made? | 1993 | 100% | ×1 |
| The dark What should the words be about? | Absurdity, Mysticism, Identity and dissolution, Whatever the record decides it is about | 0% | ×1 |
| No. Texture and force are enough. Do you want a tune you could hum afterwards? | 5 out of 10 | 60% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 76% | ||
Ranked over all 150 genres in the encyclopedia, on the 6 answers you gave, weighted vocals 3, heaviness 2, pace 2, era 1, about 1, melody 1 out of 10. Avant-garde metal leads the next by 2 points. Where two genres score the same the broader one wins, because a genre with subgenres under it is somewhere to carry on from and a leaf is a full stop.
Five records, in this order
- 1Start one step outside
Opeth, Blackwater Park 2001
Opeth - Blackwater Park. Growls and acoustic guitar in one song, and nothing forced about it.
- 2The one to put on first
Arcturus, La Masquerade Infernale 1997
Arcturus - La Masquerade Infernale. Black metal, cabaret and opera on one album.
- 3Then
- 4Then
- 5Then
The first is the entry point for Progressive metal, one step outside, so the second record has something to be heard against. After it come Avant-garde metal's essential records in the order the encyclopedia lists them. Every one of these has a page here with links out to somewhere it can be played.
If that is not it
-
Post-hardcore 74%
Hardcore that allows itself dynamics, empty space and irregular structures. Emo, screamo and mathcore all branch off from here.
On the other branch of the tree entirely, and 7 steps from Avant-garde metal.
The way into Post-hardcore -
Old school death metal 74%
The sound of the first wave: either the Swedish HM-2 buzzsaw or the cavernous American murk, with no showy technicality.
4 steps from Avant-garde metal, meeting it only at Heavy metal.
The way into Old school death metal
Not simply the second and third of the ranking: those are almost always near neighbours of the first, which is three names for one suggestion. An alternate has to sit at least 4 steps through the tree from the headline and from the other alternate, which is the same floor the "sounds like this, but isn't" panel uses.
What your answers ruled out
- Both, trading off put 72 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Alternative rock, Blues rock, Doom metal. Worth 3 of 10.
- Light put 12 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Death metal, Brutal death metal, Sludge metal. Worth 2 of 10.
- The nineties put 23 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Blues rock, Progressive rock, Rock and roll. Worth 1 of 10.
- The dark put 119 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Punk rock, Hardcore punk, Alternative rock. Worth 1 of 10.
- No. Texture and force are enough. put 40 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Folk metal, Folk rock, Emo. Worth 1 of 10.
Counted as genres scoring 20% or less on that answer alone. A recommendation that only shows what it chose is hiding half of what it did.