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Comment by morley | Hacker News Reader

I consider myself a minor, amateur metalhead (to which I'm sure a real metalhead would take umbrage), and I have to look up the definitions of black and death metal every few months to remember the difference. It doesn't help that their names are so similar, and that I don't particularly like either genres.

Off-hand, there's also sludge, stoner, prog, doom, folk, nu, and power metal, and several different slices of each genre.

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It would have made sense to divide up Death Metal into subgenres. Doom metal/stoner metal is the most interesting thing I've come across in recent years.[1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pcfW9pP8XQ&t=10m58s

I wouldn't put doom and stoner under death metal, very different aesthetics. That's just me though.

I agree. The definition of death metal is a real hodgepodge. It's sort of like classifying animals as

  1. dog
  2. cat
  3. horse
  4. other

What you're talking about reminds me of those tree diagrams for Rock music. I always found those helpful in terms of understanding the relationship between various subgenres.

I did a quick google and found this:

http://www.maximummetal.com/images/metaltl.jpg

You missed Djent!

Meshuggah time...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4A_tSyJBsRQ

and hair metal! :)

Is hair metal different from power metal?

I think power metal is closer to prog metal than hair metal, but this is calling out for an XKCD style map.

Absolutely but I'm terrible at describing such things. However here are two examples.

Hair Metal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u8teXR8VE4

Power Metal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIZNb96EQJ8

I never understood why bands went to the compressed machine like sound. The Ratt song has so much more "soul". And this is coming from a Blind Guardian fan!

Hair metal is another term for glam metal; think Guns & Roses, Warrant, those kinds of 80s hard rock/ kind of metal bands.

Power Metal is like closer to speed metal; think of something like "Ramble On" played by Judas Priest or Iron Maiden.

I think Guns & Roses would take exception with being grouped with glam metal. Their debut and grunge marked the end of glam metal.

I always thought that GnR was a bit of a divergence from so called "hair metal", sure some of the guys had that big hair that was practically a uniform, but they had a different feel than your stereotypical hair metal bands like Warrant or Ratt. Hair metal had the glitz and glamour of rich rockers partying to excess, but Guns and Roses just had more sleeze. In reading Motley Crue's The Dirt and Nikki Sixx's Herion Diaries, they really sold that image a bit for me in that, while they got along well with each other on tour and partied together, there was a bit more of a dirty aspect.

They're totally different, though to be fair there are some bands like Manowar who are considered to be Power Metal. They are very focused on their aesthetic (shirtless, oiled up dudes in leather pants riding motorcycles). I think they get lumped in because their lyrics are about glorious battle and such, a traditional lyrical topic of the genre, but musically and aesthetically they're doing something very different from the rest of the genre. I think most Manowar fans consider them to be Power Metal, but many fans of the broader genre (myself included) would disagree.

The rest of the genre is derived from the lineage of the band Helloween, itself heavily influenced by the NWOBHM. Many point to 'Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1' as the first Power Metal album. Other early bands include Blind Guardian and Gamma Ray (which was founded by Kai Hansen, who played with Helloween and is considered by many to be the father of the genre). It's closely associated with Speed Metal, the line between them is not always clear but modern Power Metal bands tend to have "something extra" beyond fast guitar and high-pitched vocals, whether it's symphonic or progressive influences, more existential lyrical topics, a focus on storytelling, etc. It's often more about who the band is friends with than their musical or lyrical content or aesthetic. It's closely associated with Scandinavia, and it's worth noting that Symphonic Metal was at the very least heavily influenced by this genre, the respective scenes being tightly entwined/the same people.

Some examples of what many self-identified fans of Power Metal would consider good Power Metal- Helloween- Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1 Sonata Arctica- Ecliptica Kamelot- Epica (The Symphonic Metal band Epica named themselves after this album) Rhapsody- Symphony of Enchanted Lands

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