Genre story · Metal
Southern Metal
Metal made heavier and groovier through the Southern United States' hard-rock, blues and hardcore networks.
Southern Metal is a loose regional and musical label often associated with the 1990s heavy underground. Groups in New Orleans, including Down and Crowbar, developed different mixtures of doom weight, hardcore aggression and blues-influenced groove. Corrosion of Conformity, from North Carolina, moved from early hardcore and crossover toward a heavier hard-rock and Metal approach. These artists had distinct histories and should not be merged into a single 'Southern sound' with one founding band.
Riffs that leave space
A Southern Metal track can use thick low guitar chords, deliberate grooves and vocals shaped by rock and hardcore delivery. Some arrangements stay close to doom or sludge, while others have quicker, more conventional metal structures. The blues and Southern-rock vocabulary is more apparent on certain albums than others, and it is not a universal requirement.
A geographical shorthand
Southern Metal overlaps with Sludge, Groove Metal and Southern Rock. The label's value comes from the history of regional scenes and their shared influences, not from defining metal performed anywhere in the South as one genre.
Essential recordings
- 1994Corrosion of ConformityDeliveranceBlues-derived heavy riffs in a band with hardcore roots.
- 1995DownNOLAA New Orleans-associated supergroup working through doom, sludge and hard-rock weight.
- 1998CrowbarOdd Fellows RestExtremely heavy, slow guitar writing from the Louisiana underground.