Extreme Heavy Metal

OK! I am now writing about my favourite topic after the Internet! Extreme Heavy Metal (or Extreme Metal) is a somewhat recent genre, if you think about it. Ok, not that old, but it has it's roots in the late 70's and early 80's. This genre is not so famous among mainstream Music fans but has influenced many performers outside of Metal! This is basically non-commercial music not meant for radio play.

First off, people keep asking me pissing off questions about the differences between Hard Rock and Heavy Metal... there are a lot of differences! In Heavy Metal:
-> The tempo is much faster.
-> Complex song structures.
-> Immediate change in music, constant riffs.
-> Long instrumental sections.
-> Fast picking of Guitars, fast drumming (double-bass as in "double-kick")
Hard Rock is basically all the commercial stuff, stuff that you hear on the radio.

Heavy Metal was developed as a more faster and emphatic version of the "Blues-Rock" in the late 1960s. Bands like Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath and of course Jimmi Hendrix who were influenced by "Blues-Rock" were the pioneers of starting this genre. By the 1970s bands like Judas Priest and Motorhead were making songs that would later be called as "Heavy Metal"! Even Iron Maiden and Saxon were fine-tuning the music of Heavy Metal.

The late 70s and early 80s saw the development of Thrash Metal and Speed Metal (sub-genres of Extreme Heavy Metal). Bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax proved that Extreme Metal could be made commercial! Slayer's "Hell Awaits" and "Reign In Blood" albums were considered as the birth of Extreme Metal, and more precisely Death Metal.

There are many, many sub-genres under Extreme Metal. More notable are the Thrash Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal and arguably Doom Metal.

Thrash Metal: Chacterised by high-speed riffing and agression, fast, percussive and low-register Guitar riffs. Th lyrics almost always deal with social issues. Eg: Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax (Big Four of Thrash)

Black Metal: It often employs fast tempos, high-pitched shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo-picking and unconventional song structure. Eg: Celtic Frost, Cradle Of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, Mayhem etc. It has a few sub-genres:
-> Symphonic Black Metal
-> Viking Black Metal

Death Metal: The genre is typically characterized by the use of heavily distorted guitars, harsh vocals that are low-pitched and/or growled, morbid lyrics, exceptionally fast-paced rhythms and melodies, frequent blast-beats on drums, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes. Eg: Death, Morbid Angel, Possessed.
Its sub-genres include:
-> Melodic Death Metal: In Flames, At The Gates, Carcass, Dark Tranquillity, Amon Amarth etc.
-> Progressive/Technical Death Metal: Opeth, Cryptopsy, Edge Of Sanity
-> Deathcore, Brutal Death Metal and a few more of which I have no idea.

Doom Metal: It features very slow tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "denser" or "heavier" sound than other metal genres. Both the music and the lyrics intend to evoke a sense of despair, dread, and impending doom. I don't have much idea of this genre!

Extreme Metal is an exceptionally good genre if you are a hardcore instrumental type! This takes the instruments like the Guitar, Keyboards and Drums to their limits. If you are about to start listening to this genre, then my suggestion is to start from Thrash Metal, then go for either Black Metal or Death Metal depending on your choice of voclas, low-pitch growl or high-pitch shrieks, respectively. I hate the general mentality that Extreme Metal is bad and anti-Christ like and so on. It's not. It's the choice of the respective bands. Great bands like Megadeth and Metallica are not anti-Christ whatever people say! Generally Thrash is sort of the genres that deals with politics and social issues. I guess the one to worry about would be Black Metal!

\m/ But all in all a great genre! Enjoy listening! And be a Metalhead for life! \m/