NWOTHM, 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
Traditional heavy metal 1976
The classic form: high vocals, twin lead guitars, choruses to raise a fist to. Leather and studs.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny. Before the leather, and already perfect.
Judas Priest, Sad Wings of Destiny (1976) - 3 What you asked about
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.
- 4 Where to go next
Easycore 2007
Pop punk with hardcore breakdowns glued into the middle. Sweet chorus, hammer at the end.
Sung and screamed. Clean singing and harsh vocals trade off, often chorus against verse.
Put on
A Day to Remember - Homesick. The most effective sweet-to-brutal switching in the genre.
A Day to Remember, Homesick (2009)
Assembled from the tree: every genre NWOTHM descends from, in order. NWOTHM has no subgenres, so the last step is the genre that rates closest to it by sound.