Alternative metal, from the outside in. Each step is a genre and the single record this encyclopedia would put on first. Play them in this order and the last one should sound like a next step rather than a wall.
- 1 The way in
Heavy metal 1970
It split off from hard rock and blues rock when Black Sabbath tuned down and wrote riffs on the tritone. Volume, riff and a code of its own - every branch below starts here.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Black Sabbath - the song Black Sabbath. The first thirty seconds are the genre's birth certificate.
Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath (1970) - 2 What you asked about
Alternative metal 1988
Metal weight without the dress code or the scene rules: unconventional structures and influences from post-punk, funk or shoegaze.
Sung and screamed. Clean singing and harsh vocals trade off, often chorus against verse.
- 3 Where to go next
Stoner rock 1990
Thick down-tuned riffs, groovy drums and a fuzz tone. Born at generator parties in the desert.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Kyuss - Blues for the Red Sun. That guitar tone has been copied for thirty years.
Kyuss, Blues for the Red Sun (1992)
Assembled from the tree: every genre Alternative metal descends from, in order. Alternative metal has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.