First wave, 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
Black metal 1982
Tremolo picking, blast beats, shrieked vocals and deliberately cold production. More an aesthetic than a technique - atmosphere matters more than clean sound.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky. The production is intentional, not a flaw.
Darkthrone, A Blaze in the Northern Sky (1992) - 3 What you asked about
First wave 1981
The bands that supplied the name and the themes, while still playing speed or thrash metal. Venom released the album that christened the genre.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Bathory - Bathory. Recorded on almost no budget, and it sounds like another planet.
Bathory, Bathory (1984) - 4 Where to go next
Technical thrash 1988
Thrash with dissonant chords, odd meters and bass up front. The bridge between thrash and progressive metal.
Shouted. Barked or chanted, and you can still make out the words.
Put on
Voivod - Nothingface. It includes a Pink Floyd cover that makes perfect sense.
Voivod, Nothingface (1989)
Assembled from the tree: every genre First wave descends from, in order. First wave has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.