Photo:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/notsogoodphotography/3032536832/">notsogoodphotography</a> under a CC licsense.
So you want to communicate better with your sullen, alienated teen, whose earsplitting music just sounds like so much godawful noise? Well imagine how 16-year-old Tommy’s jaw will drop to the floor when, sitting around the dinner table, you casually say, “Oh, I don’t know about you, but Gorgoroth shreds so much harder than that weak death-metal stuff, you know, like Fleshrot.”
“But, but what about Mastodon?” Tommy stammers, disbelieving.
“Meh,” you say. “I’m not so into the progressive crap. Gimme some good thrash, you know, Kreator ‘n’ shit.”
In three short minutes, your relationship is back on track thanks to Raz Ben Ari’s recent video, which will teach you—and your mom—to recognize various metal subgenres, distinguishing glam from thrash from power metal from black metal. The takeaway message, at least for me, is that subgenres are plain stupid. Why would any band limit itself when it’s so much more fun to string 10 subgenres together within one song, as RBA does here? Okay, listen and learn. Quiz after.
Okay, now it’s quiz time. Name the following subgenre(s):
P.S. Don’t forget to study for next week’s quiz: riffs (see below). And fer Lucifer’s sake, buy your kid a helmet!
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