In junior high & early high school, I was a metalhead. At least, I considered myself to be such, even though at the time that meant listening to what we now know as Glam/Hair Metal. Then Grunge hit the music scene, and while I didn't necessarily hate it, I had to find something else to listen to in order to stand out, since everyone was into what I disparagingly dismissed as "Pearl Jam and Nirvana." So I chose to get into swing music (yes, you read that correctly). I've since come back around to grunge (actually I pretty much loved it secretly all along), but I never really got back into Metal. Oh, sure, I headbanged to some of my old favorites, and I did enjoy a few "Metal-ish" bands (e.g., NIN, Rage Against the Machine), but I pretty much lost interest in the genre as a whole. Until recently. I'm not 100% sure what inspired me, but I decided to explore what is for me a long-neglected musical genre. This site represents my exploration, and my thoughts as I come to know some of the subgenres of Heavy Metal Music. I hope you enjoy it, and I especially hope you can give me tips, pointers, ideas, correction, etc. Before we begin, though, a few notes. This site is by no means a comprehensive (or even remotely authoritative) overview of the genre. It's also fairly biased against bands/subgenres that have been relatively commercially successful...not because these aren't "true metal," but more because I already know about most of them. Likewise, I won't delve into the contentious issue of which band(s) actually started metal...again, I already listened to many of these, and this exploration is intended to cover new ground. Finally, I recognize that metalheads love to argue about subgenres, and there are fair cases to be made against some of the choices I've made on this site. Still, this is how I've organized my journey, but I'd love to hear from you if you have additional guidance! Okay, I think I've blathered on enough. Horns up and here we go! Who have I missed? What else should I hear? e-mail dmusictheory at dmtheory dot com |
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