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 |
| Heavy. I want to feel it. How much weight do you want behind it? | 9 out of 10 | 90% | ×2 |
| As fast as anyone can play What pace? | 9 out of 10 | 90% | ×2 |
| The beginnings Does it matter when it was made? | 1982 | 48% | ×1 |
| Long. Let it go somewhere. How long should a song be? | up to 9 min | 58% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 85% | ||
Ranked over all 150 genres in the encyclopedia, on the 5 answers you gave, weighted vocals 3, heaviness 2, pace 2, era 1, length 1 out of 9. Black metal leads the next by 3 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
- 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
-
Powerviolence 81%
Hardcore taken to the limit: abrupt tempo shifts, twenty-second songs, blast beats cut with parts as slow as tar.
On the other branch of the tree entirely, and 6 steps from Black metal.
The way into Powerviolence -
Screamo 72%
Emo pushed into hysteria: continuous screaming, cutting guitars and songs that collapse into silence. Also called skramz.
On the other branch of the tree entirely, and 8 steps from Black metal.
The way into Screamo
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 9.
- As fast as anyone can play put 4 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Doom metal, Drone metal, Funeral doom. Worth 2 of 9.
- The beginnings put 67 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Folk metal, Metalcore, Nu metal. Worth 1 of 9.
- Long. Let it go somewhere. put 40 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Punk rock, Hardcore punk, Rock and roll. Worth 1 of 9.
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.