The Different Metal Genres

In this article I try the impossible task of categorizing the sub genres of metal. It's "impossible" because definitions are vague, and most bands cross between multiple genres, which makes it tough to categorize a band as one particular thing. But for the fun of it, here's my stab at the impossible task. If you disagree with anything I write below, feel free to email me, but do note that on this topic, I believe no perfect consensus can be reached.

NOTE: This is not a complete list of ALL metal genres, for example, no mention of Black Metal or Viking Metal, this is just the metal genres you're likely to see reviewed on this website.

Heavy Metal

• Heavy Metal / Classic Metal:
  
• Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica
• Speed Metal:
• Style: Heavy Metal, but at faster tempos.
• Slayer
• Thrash Metal:
• Style: Thrash metal guitar playing is most notable for the "chugging" sound it creates through low-pitched palm muted riffs, and high-pitched shred guitar solos.
• Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer
  
• Groove Metal:
• Style: Mid Tempo Thrash with strong emphasis on memorable catchy riffs and hooks
  
• Pantera, Chimaira, Machine Head, Fear Factory
• Power Metal:
• Style: Style of heavy metal combining characteristics of speed metal, often within symphonic context
  
• Blind Guardian, Dragonforce, Nightwish
  
• Funk Metal:
• Style: Style of metal that includes elements of funk
• Extreme, Faith No More, Korn, Primus, Rage Against The Machine
• Nu Metal:
• Style: fusion genre that blends heavy metal, groove metal, grunge and hip hop. Turntables, sequencers and samplers are sometimes included
• Korn, Slipknot, Deftones
  
• Rap Metal:
• Style: fusion genre that blends heavy metal with rap/hiphop.
  
• Anthrax, Korn, Slipknot, Rage Against The Machine
• Dance Metal:
• Style: heavy metal with dance beats on drums.
• Prong
• Glam Metal / Hair Metal:
• Style: heavy metal from the 80s. Lyrics about partying, booze and girls. Usually involves flamboyant dress and long hair. Men frequently wear makeup.
• Poison, Bon Jovi, Motley Crue
• Neo-Classical Metal:
• Style: heavy metal combined with classical music and scales.
  
• Yngwie Malmsteen

Experimental

• Progressive Metal:
• Style: mixes metal and progressive rock, aggressive metal music with long songs and experimental / complexity, sometimes neoclassical elements
• Dream Theater, Queensryche, Fates Warning, Tool, Voyager, Tesseract, Darkwater, Born Of Osiris, Veil Of Maya, Between The Buried And Me, Volumes
• Industrial Metal:
• Style: It is usually centered around repetitive metal guitar riffs, sampling, synthesizer or sequencer lines, distorted vocals and drum machines creating percussive elements
• Ministry, KMFDM, Fear Factory, Nine Inch Nails, Prong
  
• Tech Metal / Space Metal / Future Metal / Cyber Metal:
• Style: Using keyboards, synth, samples or heavily processed instruments to create a spacey / science fiction / futuristic sound. Similar too Industrial, but with less of a focus on percussion.
  
• Obliveon, Anomalous, Fear Factory, Mnemic, Devolved, Volumes
  
• Polyrhythmic Metal:
  
• Style: Complex song structures with the illusion of two time signatures being played at the same time. Drums frequently use this pattern: High hat and snare keep a standard 4/4 rhythm while the kick drum follows the guitars, and the guitars play repeating patterns that appear to be at odds with the standard 4/4 time signature
• Periphery, Tesseract, Textures, Meshuggah, Darkwater, Bury Your Dead, Volumes
• Djent Metal:
  
• Style: A word originating from Meshuggah, the Djent sound is a distorted guitar sound that occurs when you chug slowly a power chord in a heavily palm muted manner. The chugging frequently happens in an odd rhythm (often combined with polyrhythmic metal). Term was popularized by Periphery.
• Periphery, Tesseract, Animals As Leaders, Textures, Meshuggah, Devolved, Volumes

Death Metal

• Death Metal:
  
• Style: Growls, grunts and cookie monster vocals and fast blast beats and double bass on the drums
  
• Cannibal Corpse, Hate Eternal, Hate, Vader, Trigger The Bloodshed, Yyrkoon
• Brutal Death Metal:
  
• Style: Death Metal with particular emphasis on complex and fast drumming, palm muted fast picking on guitar, and extremely guttural vocals
  
• Disgorge, Pathology, Devourment, Iconic Vivisect
• Technical Death Metal :
• Style: Death metal, but with more complex riffs and song structures, frequently performed at super fast speeds
  
• Aborted, Aeon, Beneath The Massacre, Braindrill, Cryptopsy, Decapitated, Dying Fetus, Nile, Psycroptic, Suffocation, Spawn Of Possession, Devolved, Origin
  
• Progressive Death Metal:
• Style: Technical death metal, but generally longer songs and more experimenting
  
• Anata, Gorguts, The Faceless
• Melodic Death Metal:
• Style: Death metal, but with more emphasis on melody. Usually mid to slow tempos.
• Arch Enemy, In Flames, Nightrage
• Blackened Death Metal:
• Style: Combines black and death metal
• Myrkskog, Behemoth, Akercocke, Crionics
• Death N Roll:
• Style: Death metal with elements of 70s rock
• Entombed, Gorefest, Carcass (later)
  

Grindcore

• Grindcore:
• Style: Short songs, noisier than deathgrind
• Napalm Death (early), Carcass (early)
• Deathgrind:
• Style: intensity, speed, and brevity of grindcore with the complexity of death metal
• Cattle Decapitation, Pig Destroyer, Nasum, Misery Index
• Goregrind:
• Style: Similar to deathgrind, but with a focus on lyrics about gore.
• Carcass, Exhumed, Impaled, Aborted
  
• Pornogrind:
• Style: Similar to deathgrind, but with a focus on lyrics about sexually explicit material
  
• Meat Shits, Cock and Ball Torture, Dead, Lividity, Waco Jesus

Hardcore Punk

• Hardcore:
  
• Style: Punk influenced music, but heavier and faster than standard punk. Vocals: "Scream, chant and spoken word"
• Prong (Early), Corrosion of Conformity

Metalcore

• Metalcore:
• Style: Combines heavy metal with hardcore elements such as hardcore vocals and breakdowns. While death metal does use breakdowns (like Suffocation), the metalcore/deathcore breakdown tends to be simpler, a single note chugged in an odd pattern vs several notes. Vocals: hardcore "Scream, chant and spoken word"
• Trivium, As I Lay Dying, Bleeding Through, Unearth, Hatebreed, Bury Your Dead, Volumes
  
• Melodic Metalcore:
• Style: Metalcore with the addition of sung vocals
• All That Remains, Eighteen Visions, Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, Between The Buried And Me
• Mathcore:
• Style: Unusual Time Signatures, dynamic, violent, discordant, technical, off-kilter, no rules mixture of metal, hardcore, prog, math rock, grind and jazz (sometimes associates with grindcore)
• Dillenger Escape Plan, The End, Ion Dissonance
• Deathcore:
• Style: Death metal + death metal and hardcore vocals (sometimes singing) + breakdowns.
  
• All Shall Perish, Animosity, The Black Dahlia Murder, Cryptopsy (later), Despised Icon, Impending Doom, Job For A Cowboy, The Red Chord, The Red Shore, Suicide Silence, Whitechapel, Thy Art Is Murder