Your way in
Proto-metal 1968
The heavy bands from before the term existed: over-amplified acid rock, already built around the riff.
- Heaviness
- 6
- Speed
- 5
- Melody
- 7
- Where from
- USA / United Kingdom
- Tempo
- 90-140 bpm
- Song length
- 3-7 min
- Written about
- Drugs, Doom and apocalypse, Bikers and the road, The occult, newly fashionable
- Vocals
- Sung
Why this one
| You said | Proto-metal | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| No words at all When someone is singing, what should come out? | clean | 80% | ×3 |
| Heavy. I want to feel it. How much weight do you want behind it? | 6 out of 10 | 80% | ×2 |
| A steady walk What pace? | 5 out of 10 | 100% | ×2 |
| The beginnings Does it matter when it was made? | 1968 | 100% | ×1 |
| Normal How long should a song be? | up to 7 min | 79% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 87% | ||
Ranked over all 150 genres in the encyclopedia, on the 5 answers you gave, weighted vocals 3, heaviness 2, pace 2, era 1, length 1 out of 9. Proto-metal leads the next by 2 points. Where two genres score the same the broader one wins, because a genre with subgenres under it is somewhere to carry on from and a leaf is a full stop.
Five records, in this order
- 1The one to put on first
Budgie, Budgie 1971
Budgie - Breadfan. Metallica covered it, but the original is stranger.
- 2Then
- 3Then
- 4Then
- 5Then
The first is Proto-metal's own entry point. After it come Proto-metal's essential records in the order the encyclopedia lists them. Every one of these has a page here with links out to somewhere it can be played.
If that is not it
-
Hard rock 84%
Louder volume, thicker riffs, vocals pushed to the edge. Heavy metal splits off from it, but hard rock stays closer to the blues and to the chorus.
On the other branch of the tree entirely, and 5 steps from Proto-metal.
The way into Hard rock -
Surf rock 83%
Instrumental, drenched in tank reverb, with fast tremolo picking. The sound of the Californian coast, later recycled by punk and by Tarantino.
On the other branch of the tree entirely, and 5 steps from Proto-metal.
The way into Surf rock
Not simply the second and third of the ranking: those are almost always near neighbours of the first, which is three names for one suggestion. An alternate has to sit at least 4 steps through the tree from the headline and from the other alternate, which is the same floor the "sounds like this, but isn't" panel uses.
What your answers ruled out
- No words at all put 33 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Black metal, Death metal, Grindcore. Worth 3 of 9.
- The beginnings put 67 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Folk metal, Metalcore, Nu metal. Worth 1 of 9.
- Normal put 13 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Progressive rock, Krautrock, Acid rock. Worth 1 of 9.
Counted as genres scoring 20% or less on that answer alone. A recommendation that only shows what it chose is hiding half of what it did.