Your way in
Thrash metal 1983
NWOBHM plus hardcore punk: palm-muted riffs, brutal tempos and lyrics about war and society. The first truly extreme branch.
- Heaviness
- 8
- Speed
- 9
- Melody
- 6
- Where from
- California / Germany
- Tempo
- 180-250 bpm
- Song length
- 4-6.5 min
- Written about
- Nuclear war, Institutional corruption, Addiction, The horror film
- Vocals
- Shouted
Why this one
| You said | Thrash metal | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shouting, but I can still hear the words When someone is singing, what should come out? | shouted | 100% | ×3 |
| Heavy. I want to feel it. How much weight do you want behind it? | 8 out of 10 | 100% | ×2 |
| Quick and driving What pace? | 9 out of 10 | 80% | ×2 |
| The nineties Does it matter when it was made? | 1983 | 72% | ×1 |
| The dark What should the words be about? | Nuclear war, Institutional corruption, Addiction, The horror film | 50% | ×1 |
| Yes. A proper melody. Do you want a tune you could hum afterwards? | 6 out of 10 | 60% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 84% | ||
Ranked over all 150 genres in the encyclopedia, on the 6 answers you gave, weighted vocals 3, heaviness 2, pace 2, era 1, about 1, melody 1 out of 10. Thrash metal leads the next by 1 point. 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
- 1The one to put on first
Slayer, Reign in Blood 1986
Slayer - Reign in Blood. Twenty-nine minutes that redefined the word extreme.
- 2Then
- 3Then
- 4Then
- 5One step further in
Exodus, Bonded by Blood 1985
Exodus - Bonded by Blood. Recorded in 1984, released late, and it held up anyway.
The first is Thrash metal's own entry point. After it come Thrash metal'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
-
Celtic punk 79%
Tin whistle, mandolin and accordion over distorted guitar. Irish pub songs turned up to eleven.
On the other branch of the tree entirely, and 5 steps from Thrash metal.
The way into Celtic punk -
Post-metal / atmospheric sludge 78%
Sludge with post-rock logic: long songs, crescendos and instrumental passages. Neurosis invented the form.
4 steps from Thrash metal, meeting it only at Heavy metal.
The way into Post-metal / atmospheric sludge
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
- The nineties put 23 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Blues rock, Progressive rock, Rock and roll. Worth 1 of 10.
- The dark put 119 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Punk rock, Hardcore punk, Alternative rock. Worth 1 of 10.
- Yes. A proper melody. put 12 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Grindcore, Brutal death metal, Cybergrind. Worth 1 of 10.
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.