Your way in
Proto-metal 1968
The heavy bands from before the term existed: over-amplified acid rock, already built around the riff.
- Heaviness
- 6
- Speed
- 5
- Melody
- 7
- Where from
- USA / United Kingdom
- Tempo
- 90-140 bpm
- Song length
- 3-7 min
- Written about
- Drugs, Doom and apocalypse, Bikers and the road, The occult, newly fashionable
- Vocals
- Sung
Why this one
| You said | Proto-metal | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy. I want to feel it. How much weight do you want behind it? | 6 out of 10 | 80% | ×2 |
| A steady walk What pace? | 5 out of 10 | 100% | ×2 |
| The beginnings Does it matter when it was made? | 1968 | 100% | ×1 |
| Yes. A proper melody. Do you want a tune you could hum afterwards? | 7 out of 10 | 70% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 88% | ||
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. Proto-metal leads the next by 1 point. 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
Budgie, Budgie 1971
Budgie - Breadfan. Metallica covered it, but the original is stranger.
- 2Then
- 3Then
- 4Then
- 5Then
The first is Proto-metal's own entry point. After it come Proto-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 Proto-metal.
The way into Hard rock -
Acid rock 83%
The heavy end of psychedelia: raw distortion and endless jams. Blue Cheer is often named the first genuinely heavy band.
On the other branch of the tree entirely, and 5 steps from Proto-metal.
The way into Acid rock
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.