BLACKENED NEOLORDLY DOOMDEATH THRASHCORE

BLACKENED NEOLORDLY DOOMDEATH THRASHCORE



This is a completely myopic, entirely biased guide based on my personal journey from Power Metal Enjoyer to Black Metal Appreciator. It took a lot of tries until something clicked and I found some bands that worked for me. No matter what, remember: most bands are gonna suck and there's nothing you can do about it. CW a whole lot of things, but I'll try to keep it light. Let's Metal ! !
SHARING MY TRIP WITH EVERYTHING
WITH EVERYTHING

EARLY METAL - 1965-1971

SHE'S SO

H E A V Y Y Y

Functionally, all early metal is going to be baby doom. I don't make the rules. "Heavy" was the qualitative metric, and doom is as heavy as it gets. Blue Cheer: proto-doom. Led Zeppelin: proto-doom. The Beatles: proto-doom. ("I Want You (She's So Heavy)" is one of the earliest doom metal songs, I will die on this hill.)

This tendency towards heaviness, towards STOMP, is lifted directly from the blues; the best metal acknowledges this and proceeds forward in a way that honors its black forebears. The worst metal also acknowledges this and uses it as an excuse to put out an album of fruity Nordic ambient keyboard bullshit.

Varg Vikernes is the worst person in metal. Burzum sucks. We'll cover it, though. Emphasis on the 'ugh'.
I NEED YOUR PAIN KILLER, DOC
SHOT INSIDE OF ME

SOUL OF A WOMAN
WAS CREATED BELOW

There's a huge amount of crossover between psychedelic rock and what I think of as early doom. If it's pure heavy blues in a minor key, produced like it's being played in the darkest chamber of the deepest dungeon from which no light can ever escape, then I'm gonna call it doom: Flower Travellin' Band, "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", and "Dazed and Confused" all play in this space. Blue Cheer seems to enjoy that low-end fuzzy sound, but they skew a little bluesier, and Vincebus Eruptum is as consistently hard as they get. MC5 are punk, really; I'm not gonna cover punk, but it's gonna develop simultaneously.
INNOCENTS RAPED
WITH NAPALM FIRE

OH NO NO
PLEASE GOD HELP ME
KICK OUT THE JAMS,
M O T H E R F U C K E R
Man, this album
really cooks.

SEVENTIES METAL - 1972-1979

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Doesn't exist. Black Sabbath isn't metal. I'm sorry. (The song "Black Sabbath" is, actually; but it's part of the previous category. Again, I don't make the rules.) This era is still mostly holdouts from the blues rock developments, but the overall tone has mellowed somewhat. Pop is in. The world is too deeply sad to reinforce that sadness. Lynyrd Skynyrd makes this list. "Free Bird", for its freewheeling solo play, was a tempting add, but "Simple Man"'s powerful, heavy, hard radio-rock consistency is a more valuable artifact.
OPEN UP YOUR PURSE
OPEN UP YOUR BONES

WHITE LINE FEVER
GONNA MAKE YOU A DREAMER		 "Ah-ha!", you think. "I've got him now - I know he wept when Lemmy ascended; surely the glorious, frenzied stylings of Motörhead will be to his taste?" You're not wrong, but unfortunately, Motörhead is, in fact, a rock-n-roll band. Word of god himself, God L. Kilmister. They don't play heavy metal. "Ace of Spades" isn't until 1980, anyway.
FORGET YOUR LUST
FOR RICH MAN'S GOLD

IN HELLISH GLARE & INFERENCE
THE OTHER ONE'S A DUPLICATE		 Glam happens. Whatever. The hardest glam rockers (say, T.Rex) don't quite crest the hill for our purposes. Nor will the hair metallers. That's not discrimination; those are outgrowths of pop, not of metal. It's pop adapting metal's trappings and creating its own fusion. Interestingly, metal's approach to developing pop music within its bosom is through folk, pop's oldest form. A huge amount of these blues-rock bands are British, and British folk classics are all over these records.
MY MOTHER WAS A WITCH
SHE WAS BURNED ALIVE