Genre story · Metal
Heavy Metal
Heavy guitar rock becoming a musical tradition of its own, long before its later extreme branches.
Heavy metal developed from late-1960s and early-1970s Hard Rock, with Black Sabbath establishing a central model for ominous riffs and amplified weight. Deep Purple, Judas Priest and other British bands contributed different forms of heaviness and technical playing. The New Wave of British Heavy Metal around the turn of the 1980s brought younger groups, faster tempos and a renewed underground network; Iron Maiden became one of its most recognizable names.
The riff as an anchor
Distorted guitar parts, firm bass-and-drum patterns and powerful vocals make up a broad vocabulary, but the details vary greatly across eras. Some recordings emphasize blues-derived grooves, others build toward precise twin-guitar arrangements or extended dramatic passages. The genre is recognizable through musical weight and a guitar-centered approach rather than one fixed tempo or lyrical subject.
An origin, not a catch-all alias
Heavy Metal is an important historical genre within the broader Metal family. Thrash, doom and death metal took different parts of the early language and transformed them; they did not all emerge in one moment.
Essential recordings
- 1970Black SabbathBlack SabbathA formative combination of menace, distortion and riff-driven heaviness.
- 1980Judas PriestBritish SteelCondensed, tightly written British heavy metal.
- 1982Iron MaidenThe Number of the BeastA major statement of the NWOBHM era.