What do you call the genre where it seems so incredibly stupid as to be a hoax perpetrated by the Onion? I’m not thinking of any band in particular… Gorgoroth!
First time I stumbled onto them on YouTube I thought it was the metal version of Spinal Tap. But this thread has made me realize that there are actually a lot of bands like that, they’re apparently serious and people “listen” to them. Huh.
Gorgoroth!
That is Norwegian Black Metal, which is slightly but significantly different than regular black metal.
The first batch of Black Metal bands included Venom (duh), Bathory, Hellhammer, Celtic Frost. Lyrics were generally laced with Satanism, gore, death and much bad stuff happening.
When the Norwegians claimed Black Metal for their own, in the early 1990s, they had a definite musical slant (classical symphonic music fused with hard rock) they started with, and by incorporating more music phrases and themes from Norwegian folk traditions, they fused these disparate elements into their own unique sound.
Moreover, their lyrical content was not necessarily Satanic, it was anti-Catholic. There is history of hundreds of years of oppression and submission of native Norwegian religion(s?) to Catholicism, since not everyone was happy with what went on after King Olav was killed in 1030. Also, they can lay claim to writing stuff about vikings, and it’s a known fact that writing about Vikings is always awesome, unless your name happens to by Yngwie J. Malmsteen.
They also brought the use of corpsepaint and spiky accessory wear to the forefront, everyone seeming to do their best to look like someone it would be inadvisable to hug or even get close to. Concerts in NBM are often very theatrical affairs, with lots of props and even many costume changes. The vocals in NBM are more CMV, too; you usually don’t hear the falsetto caterwauling of power metal in NBM.
And yeah, there’s a lot of bands out there that fit the description to some degree: Dark Tranquility, Dimmu Borgir, Tiamat, Children of Bodom, Entombed, Emperor, Hypocrisy, Satyricon, etc. etc.
In fact, Ihsahn, formerly of Emperor, came out with an amazing album earlier this year that is a kind of Norwegian Free Black Jazz Metal. There’s a review on my blog with link to half the album’s songs, if anyone is interested.
(that’s the link to my blog, right there)
A friend of mine went to Norway and brought me back a Gorgoroth CD as a souvenir. It still has the price tag sticker in krona stuck on the cover. This CD is the jewel in my Black Metal collection.
The vocalist for Gorgoroth is a very interesting character. A couple of reporters from Vice Magazine travelled to Norway to film a documentary about him. It’s a great introduction to the Black Metal scene if you’re not already familiar with it:
What? Dimmu, Emperor and Satyricon are (or more accurately were) Norwegian black metal. No disrespect to the great Tiamat and Entombed, but what do the others have to do with anything?
Metal has become a ridiculous genre perpetuated by angst-ridden twits, social pariahs and middle-aged grocery baggers with internet-constructed nihilistic “ideologies” that are as infantile as their insincere Satanic and morbid imagery that stopped being cool in 4th grade, at a push. When you look back at the birth of black metal, death metal, etc., no one gave a shit what anyone thought about their music, and they were true to their message. Just look at Darkthrone and the early days of Mayhem. I can look past stupid ideologies to an extent (Deathspell Omega), but if you can’t stand behind your music, it’s worthless.
You forgot “Power Metal”, which tends to be mostly from European Countries. It’s melodic metal, usually with some symphonic elements (horns, violins, etc) thrown in. Lyrics tend to be fantasy based (think Dungeons & Dragons or Lord of the Rings), and there’s a strict rule that there has to be one, and only one, power ballad per album. Except for the symphonic elements, song structure is usually similar to 80’s metal (lots of chugging guitars, verse 1, chorus, verse 2, chorus, solo, repeat verse 1, either fade out or end on cymbal crash). Examples include: Blind Guardian, Rhapsody, Hammerfall, and various bands with “Dragon” in the name.
Then there’s “Goth Metal”, which is also mostly European, and mostly features a female singer with an otherwise male band (with at least one spiky punk type hairdo and one bald guy). Lyrics tend towards dead lovers ghosts and violent female goddesses. Sometimes they also have a growler (male vocalist with cookie monster type croaking). Examples include Nightwish, After Forever, Epica, Within Tempation.
I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone. This is what the Dope is all about. The information you guys have provided is first-class and more than I could have imagined!
Special props go out to:
Súil Dubh, I love your descriptions, especially of the lyrics
Acid Lamp, Your descriptions are also superb, and I will take your advice on using Pandora (which I listen to all the time)
Kilmore, I agree with your sentiment about genre being the last thing I should be worried about. I am open to listen to everything, and go with what I feel
MOIDALIZE, Thanks for the links. I will be busy for a few hours checking them out
Snowboarder Bo, you are obviously a metal expert, I bow to you, thanks for your input!
Chakra Nadmara, love your distinction between death and black metal!!
So here’s kind of why I am asking. There’s is this cool music venue in Northern Virgina, where I live, called The State Theatre. I have been frequenting it for years, and they mainly feature rock bands, but never any metal.
So they just started a monthly metal night, dubbed “Mandatory Metal,” which will feature 4 local metal bands. The first night was apparently a success. I wanted to go to the first one, but was busy that night. The next was is this Friday, so I thought I would check it out. I really like seeing live music, so this was the appeal to me.
That blog I linked, DC Heavy Metal, is where I heard about it. Here is their review. The bands playing on Friday are Trihexyn, Apothys, Immortal Decay and Deranged Theory. (Local bands, you probably would have never heard of them)
Apothys is has this entertaining description: Crawling out of the blackest corner of Springfield VA, Apothys is sure to leave you in a strange form of euphoric agony as they unleash their metal upon you all… Apothys quickly have laid a claim to being Virginia’s death metal kings.
<devil horns> Hell yeah! 
Anyway, I am a pretty ordinary 34-year-old woman. Am I going to totally stand out like a sore thumb at this show? What should I wear (serious question!)
I should mention that Northern Virginia is also home to Jaxx which has been around for over 20 years, which is a quintessential hub for metal bands, local AND national ones. However, I haven’t had a chance to get to Jaxx a lot because it’s a little father for me. And The State is a much nicer venue. Whereas Jaxx is a dive in a dilapidated strip mall, The State is a refurbished movie theater from the 1930s and has a good stage and sound. It is also close to the Metro and nearby downtown Falls Church which has other nice bars & restaurants.
Aye, that is a great little movie (like most of what I’ve found on the Vice site). I can also highly recommend the movies Get Thrashed and Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey.
Get Thrashed is solely about thrash, is well put together, and has archival footage of bands that likely hadn’t been seen or heard since shortly after it was filmed in the early 1980s. It features interviews with nearly everyone of any importance in the thrash scene and is just an excellent look at the genre.
Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey is equally engaging, although the film does attempt to cover 40+ years of musical evolution in just about 2 hours. Surprisingly, the film does a really good job, mostly because Sam Dunn knew what to focus on and what to just leave off. And very fortunately, he knew he had to leave off about an hour of footage he shot in Norway, because he realized the sub-genre needed more time to itself, the people and events are so offbeat and off-kilter. So he left it out of the movie… but he made it into it’s own special one hour DVD that comes with the regular feature. I can’t recommend it enough, really.
We seriously need a devil horns smiley… I’ve seen them on other boards, and I think we should hold Ed hostage until he gives us one. 
nyctea, just wear jeans and a t-shirt with some sneakers. Here’s the thing tho: if you enjoy the evening and start to go more often, have an outfit. I don’t mean you need to show up in your “goin’ out to see local metal bands” costume, but dressing similarly will help people recognize you as someone they’ve seen before at a show, and nothing breeds a scene like familiar faces will. Local bands will tend to show up local band shows, to support each other and hear their friends newest songs. If you find yourself added to the list of “vague friendly faces I recognize”, the scene will be that much stronger which will result in more fun concerts, etc., etc.
So remember to always wear your purple jeans or a Meshuggah t-shirt to every show or whatever and soon enough people will begin to recognize you just as you begin to recognize others you see at shows all the time.
And remember: always be nice to the guy in the back of the crowd who looks like he’s a little too old to be there, really, but who’s banging his head like he’s in a Speednailing™ contest anyway. That guy is more punk rock than any 10 mohawk haircuts, and he deserves Aretha’s Due. Don’t fuck with him; buy him a drink.
Power metal also has the typically high (falsetto) vocals. Dragonforce is the pre-eminent power metal band in the world today. In fact, since they really only have one song that they just keep playing over and over and over, maybe today’s power metal genre is really just that one song! Think about it!
Just went through all of these. Very helpful. Here are my comments:
death metal: Like the music, but not the guttural vocals
black metal: Again, like the music, not thrilled with the vocals
Thrash metal: I like Slayer, Sepultura’s vocals sound like black metal although I like the music, and DRI sounds kind of punk to me
doom metal: Eh, this is Ok
metalcore: I like this
grindcore: Again, I like the music, not vocals
hardcore: sounds “punk” to me, not a big punk fan
“tech”: I totally see what they’re doing there with the guitar & drums, but the guttural vocals ruin it for me
technical death metal: I generally like these ones
brutal death metal: Again with the vocals! 
So I would have to say that generally, I like the music, but need something without the deep vocals.
I really liked this!
Fair point.
As a result of this thread I checked out Celtic Frost, like nyctea scandiaca I like the music and the theatrics but the growly vocals kind of leave me cold.
Got to admit I’m more into the high pitched vocalists like Geoff Tate. Michael Kiske, Bruce Dickinson, Rob Halford and James LaBrie.
Although I do like other vocal styles; Dio, Ozzy, Hetfield plus KISS and a whole lot of other softer bands.
To “some degree”, for large values thereof !
Dark Tranquillity plays in a very characteristic genre pretty much of its own, the Swedish Melodic Death-Metal (Gotenburg) ; here is one of their best songs.
It’s from their double album Deliverance and Damnation, specifically the Damnation half. That whole album is along the same lines with “pretty” vocals and leaning much more to the prog rock side, while Deliverance has the growly kind, done by the same vocalist, that you aren’t fond of, and is back to prog metal.
Yeah, hardcore can be quite thrashy, but it’s more punk than metal. I’d reccomend Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today, Turning Point, and Chain of Strength to anyone interested in hardcore. Judge and Inside Out are a couple of pretty “metal” hardcore bands.
Then, of course, there are the likes of Converge, Coalesce, Cave In, Deadguy, Kiss It Goodbye, Shai’ Hulud, Threadbare and all the rest in the “metalcore” genre. 108 is interesting: they were a hare krishna metal/hardcore band that was once described as “Slayer passing out pamphlets at the airport.”
The vocals are always the most obvious obstacle to people, but when you listen to this music long enough you start to appreciate the vocal abilities of these guys. That screeching or guttural sound is hard to maintain and often compliments the type of aggressive music they’re playing.
But, you’re a chick, and you like Opeth (which is okay; I like Opeth too), so maybe you want to check out stuff like In Flames and Lacuna Coil. Quite a bit of black metal has minimal vocals, with songs that are practically instrumentals (Agalloch comes to mind), so the harsh vocals don’t dominate a song.
Or, you and everyone else can just listen to Bolt Thrower, so the world can truly be a better place.
Amen, brother! Preach it!
Totally on target with CMVs, too. I’ve written before how back in the '80s I couldn’t take bands like that seriously. I would just laugh and laugh.
But, I do like screaming. And yelling. I’d rather listen to Janis Joplin than Barbara Streisand, for instance. So I found that as I sought harder and heavier music, the vocals were more often shouted, screamed or yelled. Before long, I was listening to music with near-CMVs, and yeah, you get to where you have an ear for CMVs. Some people are good at it and some people suck at it, just like any other form of singing. It takes a while to educate your ears about the style, is all.
A band I recently wrote about, Landmine Marathon features a very good vocalist who happens to be female. Grace Perry’s got an awesome set of CMV pipes, and the band rocks hard as hell.
Another decent band (although they don’t groove enough to be great, yet), Straight Line Stitch, also features another femme front but Alexis Brown mixes it up from near-CMV growling to beautiful melody, usually in a verse-chorus format similar to Killswitch Engage (you know, the old Loud-Soft-Loud ploy).
I mention these bands not because they are unusual, but because female fronted metal bands, even with CMVs, are becoming more and more just a part of the scene. Angela Gossow showed it could be done, and now others are following thru.
And lastly, srsly, Bolt Thrower rules. They really laid the ground work for a huge amount of music that would follow them (and today the vast majority of headbangers don’t even know who they are :().
nyctea, will you come back and let us know what shows you saw and what you thought of them? I admit I’m a bit giddy at having a noobie woman show interest in the heaviest of heavy metal genres; I want to know what you think about the shows and the music!
ETA: I couldn’t stop myself from listening to World Eater just now… one of the first real death metal songs I ever taught myself.