Melodic hardcore, from the outside in. Each step is a genre and the single record this encyclopedia would put on first. Play them in this order and the last one should sound like a next step rather than a wall.
- 1 The way in
Rock 1954
The whole family: guitar, bass, drums and a beat borrowed from blues and rhythm and blues. Every branch below grows out of this trunk, metal included.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
The Beatles - Revolver, if you want to understand why everything branched so fast.
The Beatles, Revolver (1966) - 2 Then
Punk rock 1974
Three chords, two minutes and zero patience for solos. A full reset of rock, and the second major source of extreme metal.
Shouted. Barked or chanted, and you can still make out the words.
Put on
Ramones - Ramones. Fourteen songs in twenty-nine minutes, not a wasted note.
Ramones, Ramones (1976) - 3 Then
Hardcore punk 1980
Punk accelerated to 200 bpm, songs of one minute and shouted vocals. Without it there is no thrash, no grindcore, no metalcore.
Shouted. Barked or chanted, and you can still make out the words.
Put on
Bad Brains - Bad Brains (the ROIR cassette). The fastest band of the decade.
Bad Brains, Bad Brains (1982) - 4 What you asked about
Melodic hardcore 1985
Same speed and urgency, but with sung choruses and guitar harmonies.
Shouted. Barked or chanted, and you can still make out the words.
Put on
Kid Dynamite - Kid Dynamite. Seventeen songs, twenty-four minutes, zero fat.
Kid Dynamite, Kid Dynamite (1998) - 5 Where to go next
Neoclassical metal 1984
Bach and Paganini transposed onto a distorted guitar: harmonic minor scales, sweep arpeggios and three-minute solos.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Yngwie Malmsteen - Far Beyond the Sun. Instrumental, six minutes, unplayable.
The pick names a track. This is the record the encyclopedia holds by them.
Yngwie Malmsteen, Rising Force (1984)
Assembled from the tree: every genre Melodic hardcore descends from, in order. Melodic hardcore has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.