War metal / bestial, 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
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.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky. The production is intentional, not a flaw.
Darkthrone, A Blaze in the Northern Sky (1992) - 3 What you asked about
War metal / bestial 1990
Black and death metal reduced to noise, speed and bullet belts. The least legible branch of metal there is.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Blasphemy - Fallen Angel of Doom. Twenty-five minutes of organised chaos.
Blasphemy, Fallen Angel of Doom (1990) - 4 Where to go next
Deathgrind 1990
Death metal compressed to the length and speed of grindcore. No intro, no outro.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Pig Destroyer - Prowler in the Yard. No bass player, and you don't miss it.
Pig Destroyer, Prowler in the Yard (2001)
Assembled from the tree: every genre War metal / bestial descends from, in order. War metal / bestial has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.