Your way in
Black metal 1982
Tremolo picking, blast beats, shrieked vocals and deliberately cold production. More an aesthetic than a technique - atmosphere matters more than clean sound.
- Heaviness
- 9
- Speed
- 9
- Melody
- 4
- Where from
- Norway / Sweden
- Tempo
- 160-280 bpm
- Song length
- 4-9 min
- Written about
- Winter and wilderness, Anti-Christianity, Misanthropy, Folklore and nation
- Vocals
- Growled or shrieked
Why this one
| You said | Black metal | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| A growl or a shriek When someone is singing, what should come out? | harsh | 100% | ×3 |
| As heavy as it gets How much weight do you want behind it? | 9 out of 10 | 90% | ×2 |
| Quick and driving What pace? | 9 out of 10 | 80% | ×2 |
| The beginnings Does it matter when it was made? | 1982 | 48% | ×1 |
| Somewhere else entirely What should the words be about? | Winter and wilderness, Anti-Christianity, Misanthropy, Folklore and nation | 50% | ×1 |
| Something to hold on to Do you want a tune you could hum afterwards? | 4 out of 10 | 80% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 82% | ||
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. Black metal ties with the next, and won on being the broader of the two. 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
- 1The one to put on first
Darkthrone, A Blaze in the Northern Sky 1992
Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky. The production is intentional, not a flaw.
- 2Then
- 3Then
- 4Then
- 5One step further in
Deafheaven, Sunbather 2013
Deafheaven - Sunbather. It opens with nine minutes that justify the whole genre.
The first is Black metal's own entry point. After it come Black 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
-
Crust punk 77%
D-beat soaked in metal and mud: thick tone, apocalyptic themes, trousers unwashed since 1989.
On the other branch of the tree entirely, and 6 steps from Black metal.
The way into Crust punk -
Slam death metal 73%
Reduces brutal death metal to slow, lurching riffs made purely for moving your head.
4 steps from Black metal, meeting it only at Heavy metal.
The way into Slam 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
- A growl or a shriek put 78 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Alternative rock, Blues rock, Doom metal. Worth 3 of 10.
- As heavy as it gets put 13 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Rock and roll, Folk rock, Country rock. Worth 2 of 10.
- The beginnings put 67 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Folk metal, Metalcore, Nu metal. Worth 1 of 10.
- Somewhere else entirely put 106 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Punk rock, Hardcore punk, Alternative rock. 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.