Your way in
Avant-garde metal 1993
Metal that imports anything - jazz, cabaret, electronics - and refuses to settle into a shape.
- Heaviness
- 7
- Speed
- 7
- Melody
- 5
- Where from
- Norway / USA
- Tempo
- 60-200 bpm
- Song length
- 4-10 min
- Written about
- Absurdity, Mysticism, Identity and dissolution, Whatever the record decides it is about
- Vocals
- Sung and screamed
Why this one
| You said | Avant-garde metal | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shouting, but I can still hear the words When someone is singing, what should come out? | mixed | 80% | ×3 |
| Quick and driving What pace? | 7 out of 10 | 100% | ×2 |
| The nineties Does it matter when it was made? | 1993 | 100% | ×1 |
| The inside of a head What should the words be about? | Absurdity, Mysticism, Identity and dissolution, Whatever the record decides it is about | 50% | ×1 |
| Long. Let it go somewhere. How long should a song be? | up to 10 min | 67% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 82% | ||
Ranked over all 150 genres in the encyclopedia, on the 5 answers you gave, weighted vocals 3, pace 2, era 1, about 1, length 1 out of 8. Avant-garde metal ties with the next, and won on being the broader of the two. 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
Opeth, Blackwater Park 2001
Opeth - Blackwater Park. Growls and acoustic guitar in one song, and nothing forced about it.
- 2The one to put on first
Arcturus, La Masquerade Infernale 1997
Arcturus - La Masquerade Infernale. Black metal, cabaret and opera on one album.
- 3Then
- 4Then
- 5Then
The first is the entry point for Progressive metal, one step outside, so the second record has something to be heard against. After it come Avant-garde 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
-
Groove metal 82%
Thrash slowed to a groove that hits you in the chest: syncopated riffs, mid-tempo drums, barked vocals.
4 steps from Avant-garde metal, meeting it only at Heavy metal.
The way into Groove metal -
Progressive metalcore 80%
Metalcore with eight-string guitars, ambient passages and structures borrowed from djent.
4 steps from Avant-garde metal, meeting it only at Heavy metal.
The way into Progressive metalcore
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 8.
- The inside of a head put 88 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Punk rock, Hardcore punk, Black metal. Worth 1 of 8.
- Long. Let it go somewhere. put 40 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Punk rock, Hardcore punk, Rock and roll. 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.