What is nice about metal is that it's a very wide genre where creativity is crucial but all you need is a guitar and some distortion. Some specific genres are easily recognized because they were represented in the earlier days of extreme metal and that they were immediatly associated with certain bands or certain specifics of the music.
I think about thrash metal: -Thrash metal originated, and remains, heavy metal with tempos influenced more predominantly by hardcore punk. Thrash Metal also caused the tritonal chord to be heavily associated with Metal and intensity a key ingredient throughout most Metal genres. Thrash Metal songs are usually fairly complex, and frequently contain constant time and tempo changes. Thrash Metal replaces melody with brutality and speed, with the use of ample distortion. Thrash also started the use of double bass drums in Metal. Vocals are usually yelled, screamed, or snarled, though, at the same time, melodic.
Then black metal: Evolving from thrash metal, black metal has a dark, cold atmosphere replacing the head-on brutality of thrash metal. Though not as brutal as death it is still considered to be on the more extreme wing of the metal scales. The bass is usually played in tremolo, vocals are usually shrieked, screamed, rasped or grunted, with the lyrical themes being very often (though not always) satanist, occult, or anti-Christian in nature. The production quality of the music is often very poor, most likely an established tradition of opposing the commercial record and music industry back in the subgenre's hayday, from the late 80's to the early 90's. Black metal's origins have been put to a few bands (the name black metal, is usually acredited to Venom, who coined the term, with their album called Black Metal), though the style itself is thought to have came out of Norway and many of the members of the scene were known to have been involved with the church burnings that took place in Norway in the 1990's. Black Metal is now found throughout the world, with each region seemingly attributing their culture differently to the Black Metal sound
Now Death: Death metal is a subsidary of thrash metal pushed to more brutal extremes, with strange chord progressions, exotic scales and erratic time changes. Double bass drums are universally implemented, as well as rapid snare drums, blast beats, and chaotic cymbal crashes. Vocals are usually growled, but also can be shrieked, yelled, or screamed. Current death metal bands often dabble in neo-classicism, Jazz-fusion, medieval music, or folk and symphonic endeavors. The lyrical content usually deals with the darker side of human imagination, dealing with blood, death, gore, and satan. However, Death Metal is not limited to just blood, death, and gore. It can also range out to philosophy and even politics.
Extreme metal: Extreme metal is a cross-genre reference to some heavier and aggressive styles of metal including black metal, death metal, grindcore and thrash metal
Melodeath: Melodic death metal (often referred to as melodeath) is generally considered an offshoot of death metal. The subgenre contains more melodic guitar riffs and solos, which are sometimes acoustic, and also occasional 'clean' singing as opposed to traditional death grunt vocals. The song structures are generally more progressive, using diverse themes throughout the song. Death and Morbid Angel, often considered the "godfathers" of death metal, are primary influences on the genre, but its progenators are still a mystery. Sentenced can be credited with creating the first melodeath album with the release of North From Here. Some credit In Flames as the band which popularised the sub-genre. Melodic death metal, though from the same geographic area as black metal, rarely speaks of Satanism or the downfall of Christianity, but has more poetic themes, which vary greatly.
One extremely important piece of the melodic death jigsaw puzzle is the Gothenburg style, named after the city where it originated. It is not certain what band originally started the Gothenburg sound, but it is widely accepted that In Flames, At the Gates, and Dark Tranquillity are three major popularizers of the Gothenburg sound, and some of the only widely known bands to practice it.
It was originally thought that nearly all melodic death metal bands are from the Scandinavian and Northern European regions, especially from Sweden and Finland, however with the notable exceptions of both Beyond Shadows and Exhalted, it seems that the North American state of New York also has some form of this sound.
* Nowadays, people prefer to experience a mix between some musical or lyrical aspect of a couple of genres, take all the best of apsects of each, the cream of accoustic pleasure and you have awesome music. Kalmah is a good example of that. I'd mention Ensiferum too.
Source: Wikipedia
I think about thrash metal: -Thrash metal originated, and remains, heavy metal with tempos influenced more predominantly by hardcore punk. Thrash Metal also caused the tritonal chord to be heavily associated with Metal and intensity a key ingredient throughout most Metal genres. Thrash Metal songs are usually fairly complex, and frequently contain constant time and tempo changes. Thrash Metal replaces melody with brutality and speed, with the use of ample distortion. Thrash also started the use of double bass drums in Metal. Vocals are usually yelled, screamed, or snarled, though, at the same time, melodic.
Then black metal: Evolving from thrash metal, black metal has a dark, cold atmosphere replacing the head-on brutality of thrash metal. Though not as brutal as death it is still considered to be on the more extreme wing of the metal scales. The bass is usually played in tremolo, vocals are usually shrieked, screamed, rasped or grunted, with the lyrical themes being very often (though not always) satanist, occult, or anti-Christian in nature. The production quality of the music is often very poor, most likely an established tradition of opposing the commercial record and music industry back in the subgenre's hayday, from the late 80's to the early 90's. Black metal's origins have been put to a few bands (the name black metal, is usually acredited to Venom, who coined the term, with their album called Black Metal), though the style itself is thought to have came out of Norway and many of the members of the scene were known to have been involved with the church burnings that took place in Norway in the 1990's. Black Metal is now found throughout the world, with each region seemingly attributing their culture differently to the Black Metal sound
Now Death: Death metal is a subsidary of thrash metal pushed to more brutal extremes, with strange chord progressions, exotic scales and erratic time changes. Double bass drums are universally implemented, as well as rapid snare drums, blast beats, and chaotic cymbal crashes. Vocals are usually growled, but also can be shrieked, yelled, or screamed. Current death metal bands often dabble in neo-classicism, Jazz-fusion, medieval music, or folk and symphonic endeavors. The lyrical content usually deals with the darker side of human imagination, dealing with blood, death, gore, and satan. However, Death Metal is not limited to just blood, death, and gore. It can also range out to philosophy and even politics.
Extreme metal: Extreme metal is a cross-genre reference to some heavier and aggressive styles of metal including black metal, death metal, grindcore and thrash metal
Melodeath: Melodic death metal (often referred to as melodeath) is generally considered an offshoot of death metal. The subgenre contains more melodic guitar riffs and solos, which are sometimes acoustic, and also occasional 'clean' singing as opposed to traditional death grunt vocals. The song structures are generally more progressive, using diverse themes throughout the song. Death and Morbid Angel, often considered the "godfathers" of death metal, are primary influences on the genre, but its progenators are still a mystery. Sentenced can be credited with creating the first melodeath album with the release of North From Here. Some credit In Flames as the band which popularised the sub-genre. Melodic death metal, though from the same geographic area as black metal, rarely speaks of Satanism or the downfall of Christianity, but has more poetic themes, which vary greatly.
One extremely important piece of the melodic death jigsaw puzzle is the Gothenburg style, named after the city where it originated. It is not certain what band originally started the Gothenburg sound, but it is widely accepted that In Flames, At the Gates, and Dark Tranquillity are three major popularizers of the Gothenburg sound, and some of the only widely known bands to practice it.
It was originally thought that nearly all melodic death metal bands are from the Scandinavian and Northern European regions, especially from Sweden and Finland, however with the notable exceptions of both Beyond Shadows and Exhalted, it seems that the North American state of New York also has some form of this sound.
* Nowadays, people prefer to experience a mix between some musical or lyrical aspect of a couple of genres, take all the best of apsects of each, the cream of accoustic pleasure and you have awesome music. Kalmah is a good example of that. I'd mention Ensiferum too.
Source: Wikipedia
