Avant-garde 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 Then
Progressive metal 1988
Prog rock ambition with metal weight: odd meters, concept albums and instrumental virtuosity.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Opeth - Blackwater Park. Growls and acoustic guitar in one song, and nothing forced about it.
Opeth, Blackwater Park (2001) - 3 What you asked about
Avant-garde metal 1993
Metal that imports anything - jazz, cabaret, electronics - and refuses to settle into a shape.
Sung and screamed. Clean singing and harsh vocals trade off, often chorus against verse.
Put on
Arcturus - La Masquerade Infernale. Black metal, cabaret and opera on one album.
Arcturus, La Masquerade Infernale (1997) - 4 Where to go next
Screamo 1991
Emo pushed into hysteria: continuous screaming, cutting guitars and songs that collapse into silence. Also called skramz.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
City of Caterpillar - And You're Wondering How a Fool Can Die. Post-rock catching fire.
City of Caterpillar, City of Caterpillar (2002)
Assembled from the tree: every genre Avant-garde metal descends from, in order. Avant-garde metal has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.