Horror punk, 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
Rock 1954
The whole family: guitar, bass, drums and a beat borrowed from blues and rhythm and blues. Every branch below grows out of this trunk, metal included.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
The Beatles - Revolver, if you want to understand why everything branched so fast.
The Beatles, Revolver (1966) - 2 Then
Punk rock 1974
Three chords, two minutes and zero patience for solos. A full reset of rock, and the second major source of extreme metal.
Shouted. Barked or chanted, and you can still make out the words.
Put on
Ramones - Ramones. Fourteen songs in twenty-nine minutes, not a wasted note.
Ramones, Ramones (1976) - 3 What you asked about
Horror punk 1979
Punk with B-movie horror imagery, baritone vocals and mutant doo-wop choruses.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Misfits - Walk Among Us. Thirteen horror songs in twenty-five minutes.
Misfits, Walk Among Us (1982) - 4 Where to go next
NWOTHM 2005
New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal: a new generation deliberately playing like it's 1982, down to the tape production.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Assembled from the tree: every genre Horror punk descends from, in order. Horror punk has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.