1. Metal 101
Stuff I think you should care about
By Keidra

2. First off: I am not an expert
• Listened to metal for 20 years
• Wrote about heavy music for beer money sometimes
• Wrote an essay about listening to heavy metal that
people still seem to care about
• Actually waited in line for Dave Mustaine’s autograph
• I attempt to play it badly sometimes
• Probably going to Maryland Deathfest next year
• Go to metalhistory.com if you want it broken down

3. With that… what is metal?
• It starts with the blues, or at least blues rock,
which the Brits did best:
Black Sabbath,
essentially the heaviest
blues band EVAR

4. What else?
• Riffs, not chords dominate
• Rhythm and Precision
• Distortion
• Dissonant tonality “The Devil Chord/Interval”
• Downtuned guitars

5. But…there’s more!
Punk and hardcore influence metal a lot, too!
New Wave of British Heavy Metal

6. 80’s Thrash Metal: The Big 4 and
Friends

7. Subgenres
• Thrash metal (The Big 4 and friends)
• Glam Metal (Motley Crue and such – is this
really metal? I am not going there)
• Death Metal (Deicide, Morbid Angel, Cannibal
Corpse)
• Prog/Power Metal (Dream Theatre,
Nightwish, DragonForce, Queensryche)

8. More Subgenres
• Black Metal** (Dimmu Borgir, Burzum,
Gorgoroth, Skeletonwitch)
• Doom/Stoner Metal and friends (St. Vitus,
Trouble, Eyehategod, Kyuss, Down)
• Metalcore (Converge, DEP, Killswitch Engage,
Every Time I Die)
• Grindcore and stuff (Napalm Death, Brutal Truth,
Pig Destroyer)
• Tons of hybrid shit (symphonic metal, post-metal,
viking metal, avant garde metal)

9. • Not all Black Metal is racist
National Socialist Black Metal is the subgenre
thematically aligned with the Nazi party.
Though there is sometimes uncomfortable
overlap with some subgenres.
**Important to Note

10. Also Important to Note
• EVERYONE WILL ARGUE ABOUT WHAT
SUBGENRE THEIR FAVORITE BAND ACTUALLY
IS AND WHY IT IS THE BEST
• Who’s right? YOU. Everyone else is totally
wrong.

11. Pros and Cons
• Pros:
Diversity! There’s something for everyone!
Kinda.
• Cons:
Way too much to keep up with if you have a job
and other hobbies.
Lots of bullshit posturing about “false metal”

12. Where to start? Your own tastes
• Do you like groove? Maybe Doom metal
• Do you like melody? Maybe Symphonic metal
• Fan of hardcore? Some non-sucky metalcore
bands may be for you
• Fan of shit like Rush? You will love prog metal
• Fan of shit like Frank Zappa ? Try avant garde
metal

13. Education!
Should you want to actually know
more

14. Reading!
Sound of the
Beast – Ian
Christe

15. Reading!
Heavy
Metal: The
Music and
Its Culture –
Deena
Weinstein

16. Reading!
Decibel
Magazine

17. Blogs!
Metal Injection.com
Blabbermouth.net
MetalSucks.com
InvisibleOranges.com
ReigninBlonde.com

18. And that’s it