Post-metal / atmospheric sludge, 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
Heavy metal 1970
It split off from hard rock and blues rock when Black Sabbath tuned down and wrote riffs on the tritone. Volume, riff and a code of its own - every branch below starts here.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Black Sabbath - the song Black Sabbath. The first thirty seconds are the genre's birth certificate.
Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath (1970) - 2 Then
Doom metal 1980
The branch most faithful to Black Sabbath: slow tempos, thick riffs and crushing atmosphere. The weight comes from space, not speed.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Saint Vitus - Born Too Late. The title says exactly how the band felt.
Saint Vitus, Saint Vitus (1984) - 3 Then
Sludge metal 1989
Doom plus filthy hardcore: feedback, screamed vocals and a guitar tone like Louisiana mud.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Eyehategod - Take as Needed for Pain. The feedback between tracks is part of the album.
Eyehategod, Take as Needed for Pain (1993) - 4 What you asked about
Post-metal / atmospheric sludge 1997
Sludge with post-rock logic: long songs, crescendos and instrumental passages. Neurosis invented the form.
Sung and screamed. Clean singing and harsh vocals trade off, often chorus against verse.
Put on
Isis - Oceanic. The most accessible album in the genre, and no weaker for it.
Isis, Oceanic (2002) - 5 Where to go next
Nu metal 1994
Seven-string guitars tuned very low, hip-hop groove, a DJ or sampler and lyrics about personal trauma. The decade's best-selling and most disputed genre.
Sung and screamed. Clean singing and harsh vocals trade off, often chorus against verse.
Put on
Korn - Korn. The first track opens with bagpipes, which nobody ever remembers.
Korn, Korn (1994)
Assembled from the tree: every genre Post-metal / atmospheric sludge descends from, in order. Post-metal / atmospheric sludge has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.