Genre Ambassadors/Representatives

[riseagainstrocks]

When I think of metal genres, I tend to think of a big '5' if you will: death, black, doom, power, and classic/thrash. Pick one representative for each and post the YouTube link (this is all so I can develop a good playlist for the office). Don't feel bound to innovators or anything, just whoever does it best in your opinion. Feel free to include a little pitch as well.

Death (includes death, technical, grind), Black (includes atmospheric, raw, progressive), Doom (includes funeral, stoner), Power (includes symphonic, folk), and Classic (includes NWOBHM, and for the purposes of this thread, thrash).


Death - Death - Pull the Plug. Perhaps an obvious choice, but few records still send shivers down my spine. If you've somehow never heard this song, get ready to become a devotee of Leprosy. Welcome to the fold, we have t-shirts.


Black - Leviathan - Mine Molten Armor. Fear, hate, and sorrow - vital components to any black metal record. The older I get, the more I appreciate the more atmospheric stuff, but I'll always have a soft-spot for pure misanthropic rage. The Tenth Sublevel of Suicide might be one of rare "worship" albums to surpass its idols. The scream/tempo change at 6:11 is like the definition of black metal in a 9 second sound-bite.


Doom - Swallow the Sun - The Giant. Probably the strangest choice on my list, as the band has as many misses as hits. But The Giant captures the longing and bitter apathy so critical to creating the "doom-y" aesthetic. Brilliant mix of clean and harsh vocals coupled with production so heavy it's a wonder the Earth's rotation doesn't wobble every time this is played on a decent pair of speakers.


Power - The Lord Weird Slough Feg - Death Machine. While straddling the line between NWOBHM and power metal, I've always seen the band as a little closer to the latter. Traveller is certainly their best record, but Down Among the Deadmen has a near flawless tracklist too. The album's closer is a 4 minute love letter to the second best post-apocalyptic film series to come out of the 70's, Deathsport.


Classic - Accept - Balls to the Wall. The sheer amount of attitude in the opening riff kind of sums of heavy metal just a few simple chords. Udo's voice captures the 'don't give a ****' ethos and hard-charging feeling integral to the genre at large.


I'd like to re-visit this every couple of months to see if any have been "dethroned".

What are your genre ambassadors? Any go-to tracks when someone says "what's up with this death metal you keep going on about"?

[MicShazam]

Death
Nile - Evil to Cast Out Evil


Black
Ulver - I Troldskog Faren Vild


Doom
Cathedral - Ebony Tears


Power
Helloween - Far in the Future


Classic
Crystal Viper - Why Can't You Listen

[Maajo]

This is a good one. These may not all be my favorites or their best songs, but they're all relatively close in regards to both in my opinion.

Death:



I don't even think this is necessarily Opeth's best song or album, but Still Life's my favorite album and my favorite song off of it is definitely Godhead's Lament. I like the clean part in the middle, it's just kind of awesome how it just sort of mellows out for about a minute with this short, folky sounding verse before it starts to kick back into gear and eventually goes back to being heavy as ****.

Black:



This is a band that defies what it means to be black metal for me. It's not really the most black metal album at all, but they have one of the most original sounds in the genre, and despite them being a lesser known band in the genre, they actually seem to have well-produced albums. Also, how do they pull off mellow black metal so convincingly??

Doom:



Doom was easily the sub-genre I had the most trouble with, probably because I've not really gone too deep into this sub-genre. I really like Sleep though, and this is a good ****in' song off of a great ****in' album.

Power:



I could have picked any number of Judas Priest songs here, they're power metal I think? They've always been one of my favorites, even when I didn't know **** about music. This might not be my favorite song by them, but it's still one of their best.

Classic/Thrash:



Lemmy.

[riseagainstrocks]

Damn, this thread didn't attract responses like I thought it would...

[The Batlord]

Why did you combine thrash and heavy metal?

[riseagainstrocks]

Originally Posted by The Batlord

Why did you combine thrash and heavy metal?

Honestly, mostly because I don't really listen to much Thrash or Classic so I defined my "big 5" a bit differently than most. If you want to put one of each up as representative, I won't tell anyone.