Last week, after listening to Baroness and being suitably impressed, I didn’t really know how to continue my heavy metal exploration. So I sought out a guide on the internet and I found (the now defunct) Stylus Magazine’s article Into the Void: A Beginner’s Guide to Metal.
It sounded perfect, and after a brief read through it seemed pretty promising as it broke heavy metal down into some of sub-genre’s I’d heard of: death metal, black metal, doom metal, etc… So I jumped right in and listened to their Death Metal list (at least, all of it that was available on Spotify).
Now, maybe this was a bit of a rash decision because I’ve subsequently learnt that death metal isn’t the easiest of genres to listen to. In fact, some might go so far as to describe it as the some of the hardest, ugliest (to use Stylus’ word), least pleasurable music you can find.
Well I gritted my teeth and over two days worked my way through the list. I got through it, and in the next day or two I’m going to put up some of my first impressions of death metal.
But before I do so, you should know that since I listened to that list I’ve researched the evolution of heavy metal. Really, just because I needed to clear up how you get from Black Sabbath to Mastodon in forty years. The result of this investigation is best served in diagram form. I therefore present the Shoveling Snow Evolution of Heavy Metal Flow Chart in all its pot-holed shoddiness:
Now before anyone says “that’s wrong, and that’s wrong too” – I know, this is a really, really, really rough sketch and is in no way definitive (or even right). But on the other hand If you want a copy of this gloriously error-ridden guide, send me a postcard with your address on the back and I’ll send you your very own hand-crafted copy.
