Your way in
Traditional heavy metal 1976
The classic form: high vocals, twin lead guitars, choruses to raise a fist to. Leather and studs.
- Heaviness
- 7
- Speed
- 6
- Melody
- 9
- Where from
- UK / USA
- Tempo
- 120-170 bpm
- Song length
- 4-6 min
- Written about
- Defiance, Steel and machinery, Fantasy and battle, Metal itself, as a subject
- Vocals
- Sung
Why this one
| You said | Traditional heavy metal | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy. I want to feel it. How much weight do you want behind it? | 7 out of 10 | 90% | ×2 |
| Quick and driving What pace? | 6 out of 10 | 90% | ×2 |
| The beginnings Does it matter when it was made? | 1976 | 72% | ×1 |
| Yes. A proper melody. Do you want a tune you could hum afterwards? | 9 out of 10 | 90% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 87% | ||
Ranked over all 150 genres in the encyclopedia, on the 4 answers you gave, weighted heaviness 2, pace 2, era 1, melody 1 out of 6. Traditional heavy 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
Judas Priest, Sad Wings of Destiny 1976
Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny. Before the leather, and already perfect.
- 2Then
- 3Then
- 4Then
- 5One step further in
The first is Traditional heavy metal's own entry point. After it come Traditional heavy 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
-
Hard rock 87%
Louder volume, thicker riffs, vocals pushed to the edge. Heavy metal splits off from it, but hard rock stays closer to the blues and to the chorus.
On the other branch of the tree entirely, and 5 steps from Traditional heavy metal.
The way into Hard rock -
Proto-punk 82%
Garage rock turned hostile and repetitive, with noise and nihilism. Nobody called it punk yet, but everyone at CBGB copied from it.
On the other branch of the tree entirely, and 6 steps from Traditional heavy metal.
The way into Proto-punk
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
- The beginnings put 67 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Folk metal, Metalcore, Nu metal. Worth 1 of 6.
- Yes. A proper melody. put 12 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Grindcore, Brutal death metal, Cybergrind. Worth 1 of 6.
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.