Your way in
First wave 1981
The bands that supplied the name and the themes, while still playing speed or thrash metal. Venom released the album that christened the genre.
- Heaviness
- 8
- Speed
- 8
- Melody
- 5
- Where from
- UK / Sweden / Switzerland
- Tempo
- 160-220 bpm
- Song length
- 3-5 min
- Written about
- Satanism, theatrically, Blasphemy, Speed and violence, Occult imagery borrowed from horror
- Vocals
- Growled or shrieked
Why this one
| You said | First wave | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| A growl or a shriek When someone is singing, what should come out? | harsh | 100% | ×3 |
| Heavy. I want to feel it. How much weight do you want behind it? | 8 out of 10 | 100% | ×2 |
| The seventies and eighties Does it matter when it was made? | 1981 | 100% | ×1 |
| The dark What should the words be about? | Satanism, theatrically, Blasphemy, Speed and violence, Occult imagery borrowed from horror | 100% | ×1 |
| Short. Say it and stop. How long should a song be? | up to 5 min | 75% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 97% | ||
Ranked over all 150 genres in the encyclopedia, on the 5 answers you gave, weighted vocals 3, heaviness 2, era 1, about 1, length 1 out of 8. First wave leads the next by 6 points. Where two genres score the same the broader one wins, because a genre with subgenres under it is somewhere to carry on from and a leaf is a full stop.
Five records, in this order
- 1Start one step outside
Darkthrone, A Blaze in the Northern Sky 1992
Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky. The production is intentional, not a flaw.
- 2The one to put on first
Bathory, Bathory 1984
Bathory - Bathory. Recorded on almost no budget, and it sounds like another planet.
- 3Then
- 4Then
- 5Then
The first is the entry point for Black metal, one step outside, so the second record has something to be heard against. After it come First wave's essential records in the order the encyclopedia lists them. Every one of these has a page here with links out to somewhere it can be played.
If that is not it
-
Old school death metal 91%
The sound of the first wave: either the Swedish HM-2 buzzsaw or the cavernous American murk, with no showy technicality.
4 steps from First wave, meeting it only at Heavy metal.
The way into Old school death metal -
Powerviolence 88%
Hardcore taken to the limit: abrupt tempo shifts, twenty-second songs, blast beats cut with parts as slow as tar.
On the other branch of the tree entirely, and 7 steps from First wave.
The way into Powerviolence
Not simply the second and third of the ranking: those are almost always near neighbours of the first, which is three names for one suggestion. An alternate has to sit at least 4 steps through the tree from the headline and from the other alternate, which is the same floor the "sounds like this, but isn't" panel uses.
What your answers ruled out
- A growl or a shriek put 78 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Alternative rock, Blues rock, Doom metal. Worth 3 of 8.
- The seventies and eighties put 4 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Kawaii metal, New nu metal, Progressive metalcore. Worth 1 of 8.
- The dark put 119 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Punk rock, Hardcore punk, Alternative rock. Worth 1 of 8.
- Short. Say it and stop. put 18 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Doom metal, Progressive rock, Progressive metal. Worth 1 of 8.
Counted as genres scoring 20% or less on that answer alone. A recommendation that only shows what it chose is hiding half of what it did.