[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_metal1_8418.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: [[MetalScream YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!]]]]
[floatboxright:
Primary Stylistic Influences:
+ HardRock, BluesRock, PsychedelicRock, AcidRock
]
[floatboxright:
Secondary Stylistic Influences:
+ PunkRock (later metal bands especially), ProtoPunk, ProgressiveRock
]

[[WMG:[-''If you were looking for the 1981 movie, go here: WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal''-]]]

[[WMG:[-''If you were looking for the anthology magazine, go here: Magazine/HeavyMetal''-]]]

[[WMG:[-''If you were looking for the media notes, go here: MediaNotes/HeavyMetal''-]]]

->'''Headbanger #1:''' Wha-? What is that sound!?\\
'''Headbanger #2:''' It's a devil screaming!\\
'''Headbanger #3:''' It's an angel singing!\\
'''Headbanger #2:''' It is the pounding of Creation's Hammer upon the Anvil of Time!\\
''[beat]''\\
'''Headbanger #1:''' '''IT'S FUCKING AWESOME'''!\\
'''Eddie Riggs:''' It's called... Heavy Metal.
-->-- ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend''

A musical genre originating in the 1960s and '70s, influenced by {{Blues}} and PsychedelicRock, emphasizing heavy, powerful sound with distorted electric guitars played through large speaker cabinets, resonant powerchords, guitar riffs, thundering, intense and precise drums, and (sometimes) extended, virtuoso guitar solos. More than other genres, metal emphasizes loudness, and guitar players use huge stacks of speaker cabinets and powerful amplifiers to achieve this.

Famous for {{Heavy Metal Umlaut}}s, passionate {{Metal Scream}}s, headbanging by audiences and performers, and {{metalhead}}s having huge online and in-person arguments about [[NoTrueScotsman which bands are and aren't metal, or about metal history in general]]. The look varies by era, but long hair, leather, jeans, studded belts, and boots are widely part of the metal look. Band patches and band t-shirts and leather vests are also worn.

Like all musical styles, Metal has a number of subgenres (in which the music gets faster or heavier, or lighter, or more experimental) and derivatives, in which metal crosses over with another style (e.g. folk metal, pop metal, rap metal and other hybrids).

Not to be confused with MetallicTropes (although this genre was named after the term for metallic elements with high proton counts).

Extreme Metal redirects here. The definition of this genre is hazy and controversial, but it's generally considered to be an umbrella term collecting ThrashMetal, DeathMetal, BlackMetal, and any of their derivatives. DoomMetal is occasionally included in this, but sometimes only the heavier variants of that genre such as SludgeMetal and Death/Doom.

No relation to the song by ''[[Music/JusticeBand Justice]]'', [[NonIndicativeName which is not a heavy metal song]].

The US developed a CyclicNationalFascination on Heavy Metal during the later half of TheEighties, as well as a moral panic when MoralGuardians became concerned that metal songs and hard-partying rockstars would corrupt youth.

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[[index]]
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Heavy Metal Subgenres ]]

* AlternativeMetal
** FunkMetal
** NuMetal
* AvantGardeMetal
* BlackMetal
* ChristianMetal
* DeathMetal
** {{Deathcore}}
** MelodicDeathMetal
** TechnicalDeathMetal
* DoomMetal
* FolkMetal
* GothicMetal
* {{Grindcore}}
* GrooveMetal
** {{Djent}}
* HairMetal
* HeavyMithril
* IndustrialMetal
* {{Metalcore}}
* NatureMetal
* NewWaveOfBritishHeavyMetal
* PowerMetal
* ProgressiveMetal
* RapMetal
* SpeedMetal
* SymphonicMetal
* ThrashMetal
* TraditionalHeavyMetal
[[/index]]


For an in-depth look, see [[MediaNotes/HeavyMetal Media Notes on Heavy Metal]] and [[http://www.mapofmetal.com/#/home the Mäp of Metal]].

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