Beatdown / metallic hardcore, 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
Metalcore 1990
Hardcore and extreme metal fused: breakdowns, melodic riffing and screamed verses alternating with sung choruses.
Sung and screamed. Clean singing and harsh vocals trade off, often chorus against verse.
Put on
Killswitch Engage - Alive or Just Breathing. The album that defined a decade.
Killswitch Engage, Killswitch Engage (2000) - 3 What you asked about
Beatdown / metallic hardcore 1993
Hardcore reduced to breakdowns and slow groove, with barked vocals and lyrics about loyalty and endurance.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Hatebreed - Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire. Twenty-seven minutes, produced by Steve Evetts.
Hatebreed, Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire (1997) - 4 Where to go next
Crust punk 1984
D-beat soaked in metal and mud: thick tone, apocalyptic themes, trousers unwashed since 1989.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Amebix - Arise! It sounds like the end of the world, which was the point.
Amebix, Arise! (1985)
Assembled from the tree: every genre Beatdown / metallic hardcore descends from, in order. Beatdown / metallic hardcore has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.