Guide to Metal

Everyday someone, somewhere, has their interest peaked as to what heavy metal has to offer. The list here is for the neophyte, the beginner, one who knows little, or maybe nothing much at all about metal but wants to find out more. Metal music has a deep, rich, history of life changing material and its catalog can be intimidating at first. For the beginner this list may also seem intimidating, but please know that this list is stripped down to the absolute essential albums that have formed the groundwork for metal and its various subgenres. For the seasoned veterans this list may seem incomplete. Hessians are passionate about their culture, and a list like this is always cause for debate. However, each album here has had its own unique, essential contribution and the importance of these releases cannot be stressed enough. Metal, its Hessian culture, and its history all started with its music.

Here is a guide for any possible beginner. Enjoy the journey!

Origins: Heavy Metal

Heavy metal is where it all began. Evolving out of rock and blues, but also largely influenced by classical music, and much like its cousine progressive rock, early heavy metal focused more on neo-classical romantic themes, and less on predictable rock trappings and clichés. Among earlier bands that influenced the development of rock aesthetics into metal, Led Zepplin and Kiss are worth mentioning. King Crimson, who specifically introduced a revolutionary approach to writing rock songs with their unique romantic and surreal approach, and The Doors with their psychedelic/apocalypric style also deserve a special mention.
-King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)
-The Doors: The Doors (1967), Waiting for the Sun (1968)

Most, however, would agree that Black Sabbath is THE most important cornerstone in the formation of metal music. Black Sabbath’s approach to music was unlike anything anybody had ever seen before. During the era of “the hippie”, Sabbath took the listeners to a reality check; showing that life has plenty of darkness in many forms, and instead of ignoring it one should embrace truth even if it is ugly.
-Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath (1970), Paranoid (1970), Master of Reality (1971)

Throughout 1970s Bands like Judas Priest helped inspire what was to be known as “The New Wave of British Heavy Metal”, with Iron Maiden being a prime example that particular sound. NWOBHM inspired many of greatest future bands such as Slayer, Metallica and Megadeth. Judas Priest and Iron Maiden’s use of dueling lead guitars is a direct link to bands like Slayer especially, who use the same approach to this day.
-Judas Priest: Sad Wings of Destiny (1976)
-Iron Maiden: Iron Maiden (1980), Killers (1981), Piece of Mind (1983), Powerslave (1984)

Motorhead was another group that inspired bands across many platforms. It was not uncommon in the early 80′s to see punks and headbangers alike wearing Motorhead patches on their jacket of choice. Aesthetically, perhaps they were among the “roughest” of the 70s metal bands; indeed part of the double-bass drumming technique as well as the vocal style of the later Speed and even Death Metal bands were influenced by Motorhead.
-Motorhead: On Parole (1979), Overkill (1979), Ace of Spades (1980)

Simultaneously, other Heavy Metal bands began to embrace darker themes. Angel Witch, while technically a NWOBHM band, influenced not only speed metal but also first wave Black Metal bands such as Hellhammer/Celtic Frost. Mercyful Fate was also a poineer in this direction. Their singer King Diamond took the vocal styles found on albums made by bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, and extended the approach to create a style known to many Hessians as “metal crooning”. King Diamond’s makeup, along with artists from bands like Celtic Frost and Sarcofago, inspired the “corpse paint” look later adopted by the second wave of black metal bands. Venom, whose repeated use of occult imagery went on to become a staple in black metal is also notable.
-Angel Witch: Demo (1979), Angel Witch (1980)
-Mercyful Fate: Don’t Break the Oath (1984)

Lastly, it is worth mentioning that Heavy metal also sparked a sub-genre called “Doom Metal”, whose artists took Black Sabbath in particular to heart. The term ‘doom’ was adopted because of the downtuned, (sometimes)slow dirgy playing style. Highlights include Witchfinder General’s “Death Penalty”, Cathedral’s “Forest of Equilibrium”, St. Vitus’ “V”, and Candlemass’ “Doomicus Epicus Metallicus”.

Crossing Over: Thrash and Grindcore

Hardcore punk is a genre that had a great influence on metal thoughout the 1980′s. Its harsh tone, fast power chorded riffs, and brash vocals helped inspire much of extreme metal. But even more importantly, its minimalistic approach to composition helped move metal away from the bloated stadium rock style that was the disease of the time. Influential bands in this genre include Discharge, Exploited, The Misfits, Black Flag and Minor Threat.
-Discharge: Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing (1982)

Hardcore Punk, when infused with the genetic code of metal, gave birth to “Thrash”. Thrash used punk structures and fused them with metal riffs. Combined with this was punk’s ethics of commentating on everyday life with social analysis. DRI and Suicidal Tendencies are great examples of bands that took their hardcore roots and expanded on them, infusing new power into the genre and becoming increasingly influential to bands such as Slayer. Their own later works also evolved into something similar to speed metal by the end of the decade.
-DRI: Dirty Rotten LP (1983), Dealing With It (1985)
-Suicidal Tendencies: Suicidal Tendencies (1983)
-Amebix: Arise! (1985)
-Fearless Iranians from Hell: Die for Allah (1987), Foolish Americans (1990)

Note: there is a bit of a nomenclature issue here since “Speed Metal” (Metallica, Exhodus etc.) is also commonly referred to as “Thrash Metal”. Sometimes “Thrash” is called “Crossover” to avoid confusion.

What Grindcore did was take thrash with its minimal but fast pace, and take it to its logical extreme, reducing its structures even more, while picking up the pace even further. The result was an out of control grinding cycle done in a destructive mechanical fury. Grindcore at its best harshly rejects authority and mocks society, very much like the hardcore punk and thrash that came before it. Napalm Death and Repulsion are the two bands given credit for the founding the genre, although Napalm Death started out as a hardcore band in the early 80′s, and later adopted a more extreme speed death metal style. Carcass took a different approach lyrically, focusing on gore-based themes to display the futility of materialism and embrace mortality.
-Napalm Death: Scum (1987), From Enslavement to Obliteration (1988)
-Repulsion: Horrified (1989)
-Carcass: Reek of Putrefaction (1988), Symphonies of Sickness (1989)

Fear and Fury: Speed Metal

Let’s backtrack now to the early 80′s. The New Wave of British Heavy Metal had by this point left it’s mark on the impressionable metal youth. Add some hardcore influence to the mix and speed metal came to be. Use of complex palm muted riffs is a trademark of speed metal technique which was adopted by various bands all throughout metal afterwards. Paranoid neurosis and social displeasure are the core of this genre, showing us that the 80′s was unique to music in general, but especially for metal. Even though the music transcends time, it also maintains an aura that is specific to the period which cannot be reproduced. In this aspect, it resembles hardcore punk, whose social criticisms and musical approach is also synonymous with the time period it came from. Speed metal’s melodic structures though, show a maturity and deep understanding of technique brought about by the heavy metal forefathers.
-Metallica Kill ‘Em All (1983), Ride the Lightning (1984)
-Megadeth Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying? (1986), Rust in Peace (1990)
-Voivod: Killing Technology (1987)
-Nuclear Assault: Game Over (1986)

New Horizons: Proto-Death/Proto-Black Metal

By mid to late 1980′s metal was quickly evolving and branching out into different creative directions. On the one hand you had Speed Metal bands constantly pushing the boundries of their music beyond anything that had been tried before, both aesthetically (playing faster and more furiously) and compositionally (more complex riffs and song structures). Bands like Slayer, Kreator and Sepultura are often credited for being some of the most influential bands with regards to the sound of Death Metal. Technically many of these works can already qualify as early Death Metal, though it took the marketing side of things a little while longer to recognize them as a new sub-genre.
-Slayer: Show No Mercy (1983), Hell Awaits (1985), Reign in Blood (1986)
-Sepultura: Morbid Visions (1986), Schizophrenia (1987), Beneath the Remains (1989)
-Kreator: Endless Pain (1985), Pleasure to Kill (1986)
-Sodom: Obsessed by Cruelty (1986), Persecution Mania (1987)
-Possessed: Seven Churches (1985)

On the other hand, there were a series of bands pushing the boundries in a different direction, focusing on using metal to create a dark and sinister atmosphere. Their music is often referred to as the First Wave of Black Metal. Bathory, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost and Sarcofago are prime examples of this style. Bathory is largely credited with creating the black metal sound. In their later albums they went on to create a unique epic style, now recognized as “Viking Metal”. Celtic Frost emerged from the ashes of Hellhammer, making them almost inseparable when looking back in metal history. Hellhammer used the most primitive of playing styles to create an atmosphere of nihilistic evil. This primitive black metal style would be adopted by hundreds of imitators. Celtic Frost saw the former Hellhammer musicians mature and go into different forms of mystic darkness. Here we see a black metal band playing in an almost death metal style. The aesthetics used by both Hellhammer and Celtic Frost also made a huge impact on what was to be the black metal explosion of the early 90′s.
-Bathory: The Return (1985), Under the Sign of the Black Mark (1987), Blood, Fire, Death (1988), Hammerheart (1990)
-Hellhammert: Apocalyptic Raids (1984)
-Celtic Frost: Morbid Tales (1984), To Mega Therion (1985)
-Sarcofago: INRI (1987)

Embracing the Morbid: Death Metal

The ultimate evolution of the most extreme Speed Metal bands led to a sound that we recognize as Death Metal. Mocking the ethics of modern times, this genre celebrates personal values, or lack thereof, above and beyond dualist morality. Death metal is very (romantically) anti-heroic and sometimes blantantly valueless while at the same time becoming inspirational in its brutality. Musically its complicated phrasing style works to create a story-telling (narrative) style, as if made to be a sinister take on the opera format. Competent Death Metal musicians are able to use a variety of techniques and influences (from jazz and classical to folk or even funk) while simultaneously holding together their songs as coherent pieces. The genre is often viewed as having a few branches within itself. The American School of Death Metal tends to be more rhythmically dynamic and percussive.
-Morbid Angel Altars of Madness (1989), Blessed Are the Sick (1991)
-Deicide: Deicide (1990), Legion (1992)
-Suffocation: Effigy of the Forgotten (1991), Pierced from Within (1995)
-Death: Scream Bloody Gore (1987), Spiritual Healing (1990)
-Immolation: Dawn of Possession (1991), Here in After (1996)
-Autopsy: Mental Funeral(1991)

The Swedish (and broadly speaking, European) School of death metal, on the other hand, is known to focus more on melodic development and themes associated with Romanticism.
-At the Gates: Gardens of Grief (1991), The Red in the Sky Is Ours (1992)
-Sentenced: Shadows of the Past (1991), North from Here (1993)
-Dismember: Like an Everflowing Stream (1991)
-Therion: Beyond Sanctorum (1991)

Death Metal as a genre seems to have also been susceptible to experimentation and fusion with a variety of other musical styles. Atheist is perhaps the most successful example of the use of jazz elements in death metal, while Demilich uses unconventional groove elements to craft a uniquely gelatinous soundscape.
-Atheist: Piece of Time (1989), Unquestionable Presence (1991)
-Demilich: Nespithe (1993)

Blood and Ice: Black Metal

At around the same time that Death Metal was reaching its creative peaks and begining to acquire some commercial success, a very closely tied network of musicians in Norway, inspired by the early works of Bathory and Hellhammer/Celtic Frost created what is now referred to as the Second Wave of Black Metal. The music emphasized atmosphere and romanticism, evoking images of the Nordic landscape and a longing for the times long gone. We will leave it to you to read up on the events that followed the outbreak of this music; it suffices to say here that the passion of these musicians for their ideas ran so deep that for the first time the war-like theatrics of metal spilled out of the stage and into the real world.
-Mayhem: Deathcrush (1987), De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994)
-Burzum: Burzum (1992), Det Som Engang Var (1993), Hvis Lyset Tar Oss (1994), Filosofem (1996)
-Darkthrone: A Blaze in the Northern Sky (1992), Under a Funeral Moon (1993), Transilvanian Hunger (1994)
-Immortal: Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism (1992), Pure Holocaust (1993), Battles in the North (1995)

The sound of black metal seems most conducive to ambient music due to its lucid aesthetics and lack of staccato (compared to other sub-genres of metal anyways), while compositionally, more than any other sub-genre it displays a neoclassical approach mixed with romantic leanings. Unsurprisingly some bands like Burzum, Beherit and Ildjarn started making ambient music in their later albums, while others like Emperor and summoning invented a method of orchestration within the genre, with summoning also taking notes from the ambient and electronic genres in their methods of layering and sampling. Graveland and Enslaved, on the other hand, took Bathory’s Viking Metal sound and adopted it to the sensibilities present in the Second Wave approach.
-Emperor In the Nightside Eclipse (1994), Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk (1997)
-Summoning Minas Morgul (1995), Dol Guldur (1997), Oath Bound (2006)
-Ildjarn: Forest Poetry (1996), Hardangervidda (2002)
-Beherit: Drawing Down the Moon (1993), H418ov21.C (1994)
-Graveland: Carpathian Wolves (1994), Thousand Swords (1995)
-Enslaved Vikingligr Veldi (1994)

Following the outbreak of black metal, the style was adopted and used by various musicians around the world. However, we at Hessian.org are of the opinion that, certain exceptions aside, Second Wave of Black Metal has been the last largely and truly inventive stride in the evolution of metal so far. Whatever movement that is brewing towards a future innovation in metal, first has to dispense and transcend the current marketing-based generalizaions that force bands to conform to stereotypes corresponding to “Black Metal”, “Death Metal”, “Retro” etc. (most of the pioneers mentioned in the above list have done exactly that in their own time). Averse Sefira is an example of a contemporary band that seems to have been successful in creating music that somewhat does this by containing both the fluid atmosphere of black metal and the dynamic capabilities of death metal. Here is to a bright future for Hessiandom!
-Averse Sefira: Tetragrammatical Astygmata (2005), Advent Parallax (2008)