A brief history

Heavy metal was born in the working class towns of England in the late 1960's and 70's. Many people will argue over who was the first, but most experts on the genre will generally agree that Black Sabbath was the first full-fledged heavy metal band.

Black Sabbath went onto become a strong influence of the next wave of heavy metal bands in the late 70's, aptly called the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (commonly referred to as NWOBHM). NWOBHM bands that gained global popularity were Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Saxon. All four of these bands are still active to this day.

NWOBHM was a big influence in the next big movement in metal. Along with punk rock, NWOBHM gave birth to the first thrash metal bands in the United States such as Metallica, Exodus, Anthrax, Slayer, Megadeth, Vio-Lence, Testament, etc in the early 80's. Thrash metal tends to be the most commonly recognized form of metal, especially in the States, because of the massive popularity of "the big four" (Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax).

From thrash metal came the next logical, and more extreme, progression: death metal and black metal. Like thrash metal, death metal was born in the United States on the East Coast in the late 80's. With deep guttural vocals and buzzsaw guitarwork, bands like Possessed, Cannibal Corpse, Immolation, and Morbid Angel occupied a smaller and more extreme realm of the metal world.

Black metal was birthed in the cold Scandinavian countries of Europe around the same time as it's close relative, death metal. Perhaps most well-known for the Satanic and murderous tendencies of the musicians involved, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding this sub-genre.

In the spirit of keeping this a brief history, I will leave the countless other sub-genres for the Sub-Genres page and for you to discover for yourself.

 

Last updated: March 11, 2009