Steve PMHIf you think you know enough about metal music, you probably don’t.
I bet you don’t know that Dave Mustaine worked as a telemarketer after getting fired from Metallica, or that Morbid Angel names their albums alphabetically.
Even better, you probably have no idea that the woman on Black Sabbath’s debut album vanished from public records, and no one knows where she is.
But most of all, I bet you don’t know that the roots of metal music can be traced back to the ‘50s, long before the bands saw the light.
Stick around to learn about the emergence of metal music, its history, and its subgenres.
What Is Metal Music?
Metal music is a genre that branches off rock, best known for powerful drumming, aggressive vocals, distorted guitar chords, and low-range bass notes.
It’s a pretty easy genre to study and learn about because it only revolves around a few key components, rarely straying far off them.
Occasionally, musicians add speed at play, speeding the song’s tempo or playing a fast-shredding guitar solo. Other than that, the components are pretty much the same.
The word ‘metal’ supposedly comes from the hippie movement, but its origins aren’t too clear.
A lot of people mistake metal for a subgenre of rock, but it’s not. It just branched off it, like rock itself branched off of Blues. Plus, metal can’t be a subgenre with a lot of subgenres already branching off of it.
Some metal subgenres are indeed crossovers between rock and metal. Other than that, there isn’t much in common between the two separate genres. In fact, rock has more things in common with blues than with metal.
History of Metal Music
The history of metal music is often lost between rock and heavy metal’s histories. Since heavy metal is metal’s most successful subgenre, and arguably the most popular subgenre in music history, people only trace its milestones without paying much attention to the mother genre.
Join us as we dismantle the history of metal, its pioneers, and where it is now.
Beginning From Scratch
Although metal didn’t make it to worldwide fame until the ‘60s, its roots trace back to one decade prior. Around the ‘50s, guitarists had already started experimenting with playing harsher tones. However, the first metal acts didn’t appear until well into the ‘60s.
Back then, metal was still heavily affected by rock and blues. It didn’t become a genre on its own until the musicians started adding elements of punk and heavy drumming.
Black Sabbath is considered the band that laid the foundation of metal music, and Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple followed behind. The three bands were called ‘the unholy trinity of heavy metal’ because they supposedly invented the genre.
A lot would argue that Led Zeppelin was a rock band, so it couldn’t have ‘invented’ heavy metal. I beg to differ, though. The band’s influence on metal is the reason it got where it is today.
Heavy metal would lay forgotten among the pages of history alongside disco and pop-punk if not for them.
Led Zeppelin’s debut album came out in 1969, while both Deep Purple and Black Sabbath released their memorable metal hits in 1970. Only at that time did metal start becoming a genre of its own.
The ‘70s and ‘80s – Golden Era or Downfall?
The ‘70s decade is considered the golden age of metal and its subgenres. In the few years following the baby steps in the ‘60s, metal managed to shed its rock and blues origin, dictating itself as a separate genre.
Some legendary acts like Iron Maiden and Motorhead helped that happen by infusing frantic drum sounds, punk music, and throaty vocals in their songs.
Still, metal wasn’t as nice on the people’s ears as rock was. The genre kept getting shunned by the industry, favoring punk instead. That led to the small bands releasing their hits without a label backing them, so they didn’t have the opportunities other bands of different genres had.
A few years in, and the music industry couldn’t ignore or shun metal anymore. It started to branch out into various subgenres, with some influential acts spearheading the genre into unrivaled success.
Poison and Motley Crue set hair and glam metal in motion, while legendary bands like Metallica started gaining the attention of thousands of fans. Some metal acts also started playing on MTV, which created a whole new fan base for the aggressive genre.
The ‘90s – More and More Subgenres
By the ‘90s, metal’s subgenres started becoming too many that it was almost impossible to keep track of all of them. There was alternative metal, which branched out into rap metal and funk metal. There was also avant-garde metal, black metal, death metal, power metal, hardcore punk, speed metal, and doom metal.
Not to mention some subgenres didn’t live long enough for us to talk about, such as glam metal.
Yet, heavy metal was and still remains the most celebrated subgenre.
Like Primus and Nine Inch Nails, some rising metal acts started blending other genres in their music to make signature sounds.
Many bands adopted that approach later on, including Linkin Park, Korn, Slipknot, and P.O.D. They fused their music with hip hop and rap, creating some memorable hits that dominated the charts for ages.
So, you can say the ‘90s decade was the age of transformation of metal, with grunge and alternative metal in control of the scene.
Subgenres of Metal Music
Metal music has more subgenres than you can imagine. I tried to gather the most prominent ones, and those aren’t even half of the actual number. Take a look at each subgenre and how it differs from the others here.
Heavy Metal
Heavy metal is the core subgenre of metal, from which all the subgenres branched later on. It’s the closest subgenre to the earliest form of metal, and its pioneers are Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin.
All heavy metal bands are significantly influenced by the unholy trinity, sticking to their sounds without changing the distortions or speed.
A lot of hard rock bands are grouped into heavy metal, although they play a different genre. Led Zeppelin may be mistaken as one of those, but it laid the foundation of heavy metal, so it’s an exceptional case.
Power Metal
Power metal is all about fantasies, dragons, and mythical creatures. Mainly, the lyrics focus on these topics, infusing metal components into the music.
The subgenre is best known for high vocals and undistorted noise. It’s as different as night and day from dark metal and other subgenres, easily being the most melodic out of all subgenres because of the fantasies associated with it.
It’s also considered a close cousin to gothic metal.
Some of the pioneers for this subgenre include HammerFall and DragonForce.
Thrash Metal
Thrash metal may be the most prominent subgenre that derived from heavy metal—primarily due to the legendary bands that adopted it like Megadeth and Metallica. It’s now falling off the radar with so many subgenres around, but it remains in the consciousness of loyal fans.
The subgenre helped increase the magnitude of early metal music. It increased the speed and added some complex guitar chords and riffs, resulting in a highly intense sound.
Thrash metal is also the reason shredding guitar solo performances became a thing.
Glam Metal
Glam metal no longer exists today; that’s why you probably never heard of it. Or, you may have heard its alternative name: hair metal.
Glam metal bands are best known for their glamorous appearances and their aesthetics that screamed ‘glam.’ They include Dokken, Van Halen, and Alice Cooper.
Their music was good, but the lack of key components didn’t help their cause. While doom metal revolved around dread and black metal adopted controversial topics, glam metal had a bit of a bland approach to metal.
Glam metal bands were the ‘Lady Gaga’ of heavy metal, stealing the eye wherever they go because of their appearances.
Black Metal
Black metal screams ‘distortion.’ It’s the sole most essential component of the genre, along with shrieked vocals, fast tempos, and extreme noise. It’s needless to say the media isn’t a huge fan of black metal, but it doesn’t have to do with the fact that their music is boisterous.
It has more to do with their controversial lyrics, which mostly revolved around religious beliefs and iconoclastic ideologies. The writers threw some satanic themes in as well.
Spooky, isn’t it?
Some black metal bands include Mayhem, Emperor, and Darkthrone.
Death Metal
Death metal emerged from thrash metal, and it was heavily influenced by black metal. It’s a loud subgenre, depending greatly on distorted notes and loud drums. That’s aside from the growling vocals, of course.
A lot of people mistake death metal for thrash metal and vice versa. The most prominent difference between them is that thrash metal creates some catchy sounds, while death metal doesn’t care much about the commercials. It’s all about harsh vocals and distorted tones.
A lot of subgenres branched out of death metal, like progressive metal.
