Metal MusicUpdated 4 months ago

Heavy Metal: A Brief, Purist’s History

Heavy metal was born out of the late 1960s/early ’70s working-class blues rock scenes of Birmingham, England and Detroit, Michigan — a cathartic howl from industrial wastelands where factory smog choked the sky and young musicians sought volume as therapy. The distorted, down-tuned riffs of Black Sabbath, the operatic excess of Deep Purple, and the galloping bombast of Judas Priest set the table for decades of splintered subgenres.

By the late ’70s and early ’80s, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) injected punk’s speed and DIY ethos into the genre. In America, thrash pushed tempos into the red, death metal descended into guttural extremity, and black metal retreated to the frostbitten fjords of Norway, worshipping atmosphere and misanthropy. Metal has since sprawled — from doom’s slow-motion sermons to prog’s labyrinthine structures, from the gloss of ’80s hair metal to the savage precision of modern technical death.

If rock ’n’ roll was rebellion, metal became ritual.

20 Heavy Metal & Subgenre Essentials for the Discerning Buyer

1. Black Sabbath – Paranoid (1970)

The undisputed genesis moment. Sabbath slowed blues to a crawl, downtuned their guitars, and invented a genre in the process. “War Pigs” and “Iron Man” are basically riffs-as-doctrine.

2. Judas Priest – Sad Wings of Destiny (1976)

Where metal first truly shed its blues roots — operatic vocals, twin guitars, and proto-speed metal riffing that made leather and studs a uniform.

3. Motörhead – Ace of Spades (1980)

Too fast for rock, too raw for punk, too loud for anything else. Lemmy was the middle finger to everything polite in music.

4. Iron Maiden – The Number of the Beast (1982)

NWOBHM’s magnum opus — galloping basslines, mythic lyricism, and Bruce Dickinson’s airborne wail. Essential for anyone claiming to “know metal.”

5. Metallica – Master of Puppets (1986)

Thrash’s apex predator. Complex arrangements, social commentary, and enough riffs to last a lifetime.

6. Slayer – Reign in Blood (1986)

28 minutes of pure, distilled violence. Thrash metal’s most concentrated blast of speed, aggression, and nihilism.

7. Megadeth – Rust in Peace (1990)

Technical thrash at its sharpest — political paranoia and mind-melting guitar duels from Mustaine and Friedman.

8. Anthrax – Among the Living (1987)

Thrash with a New York attitude — streetwise, irreverent, and unafraid of comic book references.

9. Venom – Black Metal (1982)

Lo-fi, chaotic, and sacrilegious — birthed an entire subgenre from sheer attitude. The blueprint for first-wave black metal.

10. Bathory – Under the Sign of the Black Mark (1987)

Where black metal found its frostbitten, pagan identity — raw, atmospheric, and primitive in the best way.

11. Mayhem – De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994)

The cursed Norwegian artifact — part music, part true-crime saga. Grim, eerie, and legendary in its infamy.

12. Death – Symbolic (1995)

Technical death metal’s high art — Chuck Schuldiner’s philosophical lyrics and intricate compositions elevated the genre.

13. Morbid Angel – Altars of Madness (1989)

One of death metal’s keystones — blistering speed, unholy atmosphere, and Trey Azagthoth’s iconic riffs.

14. Pantera – Vulgar Display of Power (1992)

The groove metal bible — mid-tempo swagger, hardcore attitude, and riffs heavy enough to bend steel.

15. Opeth – Blackwater Park (2001)

Prog-death perfection — lush acoustic passages meet crushing heaviness in a seamless, hypnotic flow.

16. Mastodon – Leviathan (2004)

A concept album about Moby Dick that somehow became a modern sludge/prog masterpiece.

17. Sleep – Dopesmoker (2003)

One song, over an hour long — a doom metal pilgrimage through riffs, haze, and sheer commitment to the bit.

18. Electric Wizard – Dopethrone (2000)

If Sabbath worship were a religion, this would be its most sacred scripture — filthy, slow, and mind-meltingly heavy.

19. Ghost – Meliora (2015)

The poppiest occult rock you’ll ever hear — hooks, harmonies, and a theatricality that pisses off purists while recruiting new converts.

20. Gojira – From Mars to Sirius (2005)

Environmental consciousness meets polyrhythmic chug. Modern metal with a brain and a backbone.

Heavy Metal Subgenre Essentials

NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal)

Era: Late ’70s–mid ’80s
 Vibe: Denim, leather, and riffs that gallop like they’re late for war.
 Why It Matters: This was metal’s post-puberty growth spurt — faster, sharper, less blues, more myth. Bands took Sabbath’s darkness and added speed, twin guitar harmonies, and lyrics about either actual history or ridiculous fantasy.

Essentials:

• Iron Maiden – The Number of the Beast (1982)
  
  

• Judas Priest – Sad Wings of Destiny (1976)
  
  

• Saxon – Wheels of Steel (1980)
  
  

If You Like This → Try This:
 If Maiden’s gallop feels like home, step into Diamond Head’s Lightning to the Nations — rawer, dirtier, but the DNA is all there.

Thrash Metal

Era: Early ’80s–early ’90s
 Vibe: Punk speed, classical precision, Cold War paranoia.
 Why It Matters: Born in garages and dive bars, perfected in sweaty pits. The “Big Four” (Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax) distilled aggression into tight, palm-muted riffs and politically aware fury.

Essentials:

• Metallica – Master of Puppets (1986)
  
  

• Slayer – Reign in Blood (1986)
  
  

• Megadeth – Rust in Peace (1990)
  
  

• Anthrax – Among the Living (1987)
  
  

If You Like This → Try This:
 If you’ve rinsed the Big Four, test your stamina with Kreator’s Pleasure to Kill or Testament’s The New Order.

Death Metal

Era: Late ’80s–present
 Vibe: Low tunings, blast beats, guttural growls; lyrics about death, decay, and other dinner-table topics.
 Why It Matters: Death metal took thrash’s precision and made it heavier, darker, and frankly, grosser. Early Florida scene (Death, Morbid Angel, Obituary) set the standard; Sweden gave it chainsaw guitars.

Essentials:

• Death – Symbolic (1995)
  
  

• Morbid Angel – Altars of Madness (1989)
  
  

• Entombed – Left Hand Path (1990)
  
  

If You Like This → Try This:
 Graduates of Death should tackle Cannibal Corpse’s Tomb of the Mutilated — just don’t read the lyrics over breakfast.

Black Metal

Era: Early ’80s first wave, ’90s Norwegian second wave
 Vibe: Cold, lo-fi, occult, atmospheric; sometimes genuinely terrifying.
 Why It Matters: More about feeling than fidelity. Black metal birthed a worldwide network of misanthropic auteurs who valued atmosphere over accessibility. Infamous for both music and… extra-curriculars.

Essentials:

• Venom – Black Metal (1982)
  
  

• Bathory – Under the Sign of the Black Mark (1987)
  
  

• Mayhem – De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994)
  
  

If You Like This → Try This:
 If you love the frostbitten aesthetic, move into Emperor’s In the Nightside Eclipse — symphonic grandeur without sacrificing darkness.

Doom Metal

Era: Early ’70s roots, late ’80s onward as defined subgenre
 Vibe: Slow, heavy, and trance-inducing; the soundtrack to watching fog roll in over a graveyard.
 Why It Matters: Sabbath started it, but bands like Candlemass and Saint Vitus dragged it into a more theatrical and apocalyptic realm.

Essentials:

• Black Sabbath – Paranoid (1970)
  
  

• Candlemass – Epicus Doomicus Metallicus (1986)
  
  

• Sleep – Dopesmoker (2003)
  
  

If You Like This → Try This:
 For the truly patient listener, Electric Wizard’s Dopethrone is a swamp of fuzz you can’t escape from.

Sludge / Stoner Metal

Era: ’90s–present
 Vibe: Doom’s slow drag with Southern rock grit and bong smoke.
 Why It Matters: Louisiana birthed sludge; California rolled it into stoner metal. Heavy, dirty, and often weirdly groovy.

Essentials:

• Mastodon – Leviathan (2004)
  
  

• Kyuss – Welcome to Sky Valley (1994)
  
  

• High on Fire – Blessed Black Wings (2005)
  
  

If You Like This → Try This:
 If Mastodon’s polish appeals, go rawer with Eyehategod’s Take as Needed for Pain.

Groove Metal

Era: ’90s dominance
 Vibe: Mid-tempo swagger, ultra-tight chug riffs, fight club energy.
 Why It Matters: Thrash slowed down and hit the gym. Pantera defined the sound; Machine Head kept it relevant.

Essentials:

• Pantera – Vulgar Display of Power (1992)
  
  

• Sepultura – Chaos A.D. (1993)
  
  

• Machine Head – Burn My Eyes (1994)
  
  

If You Like This → Try This:
 For groove with a hardcore edge, try Lamb of God’s Ashes of the Wake.

Progressive Metal

Era: ’80s onward
 Vibe: Long songs, tricky time signatures, more notes than anyone asked for.
 Why It Matters: Fuses metal’s heaviness with prog rock’s complexity — Dream Theater made it showy, Opeth made it emotional.

Essentials:

• Opeth – Blackwater Park (2001)
  
  

• Queensrÿche – Operation: Mindcrime (1988)
  
  

• Fates Warning – Awaken the Guardian (1986)
  
  

If You Like This → Try This:
 If Opeth’s blend of brutality and beauty grabs you, go heavier with Gojira’s From Mars to Sirius.

Modern / Crossover Essentials

Because some customers want "metal but not too metal."

• Ghost – Meliora (2015) – Hook-laden occult rock.
  
  

• Baroness – Purple (2015) – Sludge with melody and heart.
  
  

• Power Trip – Nightmare Logic (2017) – Thrash energy, hardcore urgency.