Heavy Metal Style Dictionary
Double bass
The manner of playing the drums, in which the drummer hits the big drum with high speed, sometimes called the bass drum. Either two separate bass barrels for each leg are used, or a special pedal, with which the drummer plays on one bass drum with both feet.
Bay Area Thrash
One type of thrash metal that became popular in the early and mid 80s in San Francisco, California, in the so-called Bay Area. Among the groups you can list Metallica, Testament, Megadeth and Exodus.
Blast beat
The term for the style of playing the drums. Playing the blast beat, the drummer very quickly alternates the working drum and the bass drum. This technique is used in most genres of extreme metal.
Breakdown
Used in various genres of heavy metal, especially in metalcore. It consists in slowing down a song, so that rhythmic guitar riffs come to the fore. Drummer puts accents, pounding two bass barrels at once. Vocalists often insert single, but repetitive phrases into breakdown.
Cookie Monster Vocals
Used to denote the manner of performance in def-metal, which is an illegible op. The name was borrowed from the Mupet show, as it seemed to someone that the voice of the monster Kuki is very similar to the voice of the vocalists of the death metal.
Black metal
Heavy metal subgenre characterized by funeral music and high piercing vocals. The texts of many black metal songs have a satanic or pagan meaning, while the band members themselves wear costumes with skeletons and other similar drawings. Black Metal’s “second wave” is distinguished by more symphonic keyboard sound and melodic sections.
Examples: Venom, Mayhem, Cradle Of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, Immortal, Burzum, Gorgoroth, Satyricon, Marduk, Dark Funeral.
Death metal
A genre that evolved from thrash metal. Fast and rough, with a characteristic rumbling vocal growling “Cookie monster”.
Examples: Death, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Carcass, Obituary, At The Gates, Arch Enemy, In Flames, God Dethroned, Necrophagia, Suffocation.
New Wave Of British Heavy Metal
The abbreviation NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) received universal acclaim. A new wave of British heavy metal was born in the late 70s and early 80s in England. Following the pioneering groups such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, the performers of the new wave began to play cleaner metal with minor rock’n’roll and blues motifs.
Thrash metal
Heavy metal genre characterized by high tempo, intense guitar parts, two bass drum unison and aggressive vocals. Also known as speed metal.
Examples: Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, Exodus, Nuclear Assault, Annihilator, Stormtroopers of Destruction (SOD), Testament, Overkill, Metal Church, Sepultura.
