List of heavy metal genres

Since the form's development in the late 1960's, Heavy metal has spawned a number of often overlapping subgenres.

Note that while some fans have firm notions of what defines genres and subgenres--and which performers best exemplify those styles--others reject such notions as useless, or worse, limiting.

• Alternative metal - the term has a very broad definition, but is usually describe sartists playing a style of metal which is either unique or hard to define. Faith No More are a good example of this category, with their 'unconventional' metal sound, as with former frontman Mike Patton's side projects Fantômas and Tomahawk. Some artists of this category take an extremely avant-garde approach to their music, such as The Melvins and Meshuggah, while others have a more conventional but unique style such as Tool, Rage Against The Machine and Helmet.
• Australian war metal - style originating in Australia, characterized by a fusion of death metal rhythm section with 1980's Thrash-style guitar riffs and vocals, particularly influenced by German thrash bands such as Sodom and Coroner; exponents of Australian war metal include Bestial Warlust, Destroyer666 & Gospel of the Horns.
• Avant Garde metal - art house metal, circus metal, a little out of the ordinary, often combining different musical styles with metal. See also Circus metal.
• Black metal - a precise definition for this style is very hard to give. One approach is strictly based on the lyrics, which are Satanic and otherwise occult. Bands include Mayhem, Darkthrone and Venom.
• blues rock Most important early Heavy Metal performers were rooted solidly in blues rock: Jimi Hendrix, Cream (band), Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin.
• Christian metal - including a wide range of styles based on many of the genres above but with explicitly Christian lyrics (rather than anti-Christian or merely explicit lyrics).
• Circus metal - also described as art house metal or avant garde metal, this genre often incorporates a very circus or carnival element to the sound. Bands like Mr. Bungle, Dog Fashion Disco, Secret Chiefs 3, Vicious Hairy Mary, Headkase and Darth Vegas were known also to mix in elements of ska, punk, jazz, Egyption, Arabian, surf rock, industrial and techno with their already quirky 'circus meets death metal' sound. Often frowned upon by serious metalheads, who accuse the genre of being too much of a light-hearted mockery of metal.
• Death metal - extreme music with low-pitched guitars and growling vocals. There is no common theme in the lyrics, they range from splatter (Cannibal Corpse) and war (Bolt Thrower) to Christian motifs (Mortification). Besides the mentioned, Death, Morbid Angel and Entombed are other important bands.
• Doom metal - inspired largely by the lumbering dirges and stoned, paranoid darkness of Black Sabbath, and one of the very few heavy metal subgenres to prize feel and mood more than flashy technique, doom metal bands include Candlemass, Cathedral and Anathema.
• Epic metal - lying between doom metal and classical American heavy metal with a balance between slow and solemn hymns and the occasional outburst into powerful mid-tempos, epic metal includes epic and some fantasy; they're not the only themes, however, and lighter elements like bikes, women, and a healthy amount of self-apology are just as frequent. Bands include (early) Manowar, (early) Virgin Steele, Cirith Ungol, Omen and Medieval Steel from the US, some Bathory (the Viking themed albums) from Sweden and more recently DoomSword from Italy.
• Extreme metal - not a specific genre but a broader definition of the more heavier and aggressive styles of metal including Black metal, Death metal, Doom metal, Grindcore, Hardcore and Thrash metal.
• Folk metal - not many examples of this genre which comprises of a mix between folk melodies/instruments with the characteristic powercords of Metal. Skyclad is probably the most known band in this genre. A related genre has evolved in Germany, fusing modern metal and medieval (German) music. Proponents of this genre include Subway to Sally and In Extremo, but they are not well-known outside Central Europe because of their singing in German.
• Grindcore - A style of metal influenced by Thrash metal, and also Hardcore and Punk, that takes its name from the "grinding" sound made by the atonal riffs 'grinding' into one another. The style is characterized by a vocal style similar to Death metal, rapid fire "blast beats" from double-kick drums and short songs. Exponents of the genre include Napalm Death (regarded as pioneers of the style), Carcass and Extreme Noise Terror.
• Goth metal - fusion of the bleak, icy atmospherics of goth rock with the loud guitars and aggression of heavy metal, finding the middle ground between the two styles in a melodramatic sense of theater and lyrical obsessions with religion and horror. Bands include Theatre of Tragedy, Paradise Lost, Lacrimosa, Tristania and My Dying Bride.
• Hair metal - frequently if derisively known as glam or glam metal, hair metal focused on stage craft and appearance (leather, spandex, long hair and makeup being very common), and generally used a lot of "feel good" rhythms and catchy lyrics. Bands include Mötley Crüe, Ratt, Skid Row, Poison, Dokken, Greg Howe, Vixen, and Cinderella among many others.
• Hard rock - primarily influenced by rock and roll and blues, this style was developed in the mid to late 1960s by artists such as Jimi Hendrix and Steppenwolf, and characterised by a heavily distorted guitar sound, occasionally coupled together with keyboards/organs. Many British bands in the late 1960s such as Led Zeppelin, Cream and Free adopted the style, which then evolved into heavy metal. It is sometimes hard to distinguish hard rock from early heavy metal, with some artists such as Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy and AC/DC falling into both styles.
• Hardcore - Hardcore evolved as a more chaotic and extreme form ofpunk. Bands like Agnostic Front, Black Flag and Minor Threat helped pioneer the genre.
• Industrial metal - Fusion of electronic dance music, techno, and heavy, distorted guitars. Synthesizers and drum machines are heavily used in this sub-genre. Nine Inch Nails, Fear Factory and Rammstein are but a few of the key artists of this genre.
• Math Metal - This term was coined by Mudvayne frontman Chüd, and features bands such as the previously mentioned Meshuggah and the noisy, grindcore and jazz influenced band by the name The Dillinger Escape Plan.
• Melodic death metal - an offshoot of death metal, containing more melodic guitar riffs (sometimes accoustic), and occasional 'clean' singing in some examples. Death and Morbid Angel are primary influences of the genre, which has been developed further by predominately Swedish bands such as Opeth, In Flames and Katatonia.
• Neo-classical metal - the traditional toolbox of metal song-writing is used in neo-classical metal, but with a twist: all of it takes place in a structure that is heavily influenced by baroque music. The chord progressions, arpeggios, broken chords, and speedy scale runs of neo-classical metal are borrowed for the most part from Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi and Niccolo Paganini. Although Yngwie J. Malmsteen is the most well-known proponent of this branch of metal, classical elements used in heavy metal and hard rock date back to Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple and Eddie Van Halen's innovations in the late 1970s.
• New Wave of British Heavy Metal - late 1970s and early 1980s style, which revitalised metal after a period of stagnation during the 1970s. Major artists included Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Saxon and Diamond Head.
• Nu metal - Some argue Nu-Metal is a misnomer, stating the genre has very little to do with heavy metal. Others reject this idea. There is a pronounced hip hop influence, and guitar technique is often differnt from "traditional metal". Important bands include Korn, Papa Roach, Staind, Slipknot, Orgy, System of a Down, Drowning Pool Machine Headand Limp Bizkit.
• Oriental metal - based on death metal and combines slow heavy riffing with elements and influences from Jewish tradition and eastern music. Oriental metal bands include Salem and Orphaned Land.
• Party metal - also known as pop metal as it is a style which draws some influence from pop music, and to some degree associated with the Hair metal scene of the 1980s. Many people sight Cheap Trick as a seminal influence of the genre back in the late 1970s, and has continued on by artist such as Van Halen (especially their album 1984), and more recently Andrew WK.
• Power metal - clean vocals and hymn-like choruses, with lyrics often based on fantasy or science fiction themes. The most famous bands include Helloween, Blind Guardian and Hammerfall, all of them continental European, and Iced Earth coming from the US.
• Progressive metal - combining elements of progressive rock and heavy metal, progressive metal bands include Dream Theater, Symphony X, Stratovarius and DragonForce.
• Speed metal incorporated hardcore punk's speed with more traditional metal. Frequently overlaps Thrash Metal: Judas Priest and Motörhead.
• Stoner metal - including heavy, sometimes slow and sludgily distorted riffs and the obvious influence of psychedelic music, creating a sound that is strongly reminiscent of the 1970s metal of Black Sabbath, Budgie, and similar bands. Important bands include Cathedral, Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, and Monster Magnet.
• Thrash metal: Incorporated hardcore punk's speed with traditional metal. Slayer, Overkill and early Metallica and Megadeth. As is true for many of the terms in this list, the moniker "thrash metal" was not always embraced by its supposed representatives; early on, Metallica referred to themselves as "power metal" (conflicting with the above definition of this term). Conversely, many more or less obscure bands, like Kreator, came up with equally obscure classifications for themselves, such as hate metal. Such labels were often soon forgotten or reused for something else.
• True metal - This term was coined back in the 1980s by US band Manowar, but came into wider use in the 1990s when fusions of metal and techno or metal and hiphop were dominating the charts. Its original use was probably to distinguish between such fusions and the more traditional metal from the 1980s. It is not exactly clear what true metal means - it seems to hover somewhere between epic metal and power metal. The term is also misleading because it seems to imply that all other metal genres are "false".
• SID Metal - A recent genre of metal which uses a SID chip. The Swedish band Machinae Supremacy is said to be the founder of this genre.