Thanks for making this podcast. Overall, it was good, but you left out some stuff. It would have been nice to have some lyrics to go along with those samples to exemplify the typical themes of the sub-genres, as well as the typical vocal styles; the growl or "cookie monster" voice is frequently a determining factor as to whether or not a song gets thumbed down.
It would have been nice to hear examples of some of the terms used outside of the bigger samples. I'm not still not sure about aeolian mode, palm-muting, and arpeggios, and I would've liked to hear the chromatic scale compared to the pentatonic.
As far as the sub-genres are concerned, you left out speed metal, doom metal, folk metal, stoner metal,nu metal and probably some others that I'm not thinking of.

Personally, I mostly prefer power, progressive, folk, stoner, and the classics, but I also like a bit of thrash and speed just a little bit of death, but only if the vocals aren't too horrible and it has a good guitar melody (some Dethklok comes to mind.)

Thanks again. Any chance we could get a part 2?

Hi, Eric,

Thanks for listening. We definitely had to make some cuts (and some choices) to squeeze this all into one show, so yeah, we could only hit nine genres this time, and didn't delve into the lyrical content so much.

I could see a Part 2 down the road a bit, sure.

Not yet covered:
Speed metal
Doom metal
Folk metal
Stoner metal
Nu metal
What else?

As for the chromatic vs. pentatonic, and arpeggios etc., I recommend checking out some of our other episodes that go into those topics.

For pentatonic, look for "The Blues Scale with Bob Coons." For arpeggios, I recommend "Upright Bass with Seth Ford-Young." For chromaticism, the best is "The Guitar Riff with Will Redmond."

In general, to search all of our episodes by the musical terms discussion, there's this index:
http://blog.pandora.com/podcast/musical_terms_index.html

Thanks again for listening (imagine that phrase barked in a Cookie Monster voice),
Kevin

Great podcast. I was looking most forward to this one when you announced it was in consideration for season 2. I'm young student right now who listens to this music, and even people my age such as my friends have trouble understanding why I like this music. I thought it was a great analysis of metal, a music form many people often consider noise. You missed a lot of the type of metal I like but that is understandable considering how many "sub-genres" metal fans tend to like to divide themselves into. Overall, I thought it was really amusing to listen to music experts dissect the intricacies of a type of music I can barely comprehend sometimes(despite having to listen to it for half and 20 years on this planet).

Thanks, Geraint! Very happy to hear it. Indeed, there are some many metal variations out there, it's overwhelming. And, even for us, some metal is barely within our comprehension. (hee hee) That's part of its appeal, I think.

I enjoyed the podcast - there was definitely some cool stuff. But ome of the discussion on the origins of different genres seemed a bit off to me... And a lot of the musical examples didn't sound very indicative of what I think of when I think of those styles. And what was with the almost-clean guitar tone for some of the clips?

Great, great show! I really learned a lot. ^^ I'm just getting into metal, so I want to be able to talk about it with some knowledge... ^^;

A couple more things I would've liked to hear in the show: How is Metal different from Rock? (Is it a subset of Rock? Does it have different origins, focuses, etc.?) And where does Symphonic metal fit into these categories?

Thanx. ^^

I have to agree with what Jeff's comments were, but with every grain of salt I throw, some sweetness must fall your way as well...

First, overall, GREAT podcast! I think the genres you covered were accurately defined, even if not accurately demonstrated. The examples you gave on the web page are actually well chosen, I think, and makes me believe you "get it".

But let's get back to Jeff's comments above. What is the main difference between your listed examples and the one's performed? The guitar tone, and the guitar technique. Now I DO realize that you guys probably had limited time and possibly limited equipment to whip up these examples, but to be honest, they sounded more "garage-brewed punk" than "metal"...

Metal does not incorporate a spanky, shrill, twangy sounding guitar tone. Often times the guitar tone may be a bit on the high-mid side, but it is also rounded and filled a bit with some low end (typically focusing at or around 100 - 150 HZ). I know that may be a bit nerdy of me to say, but the TONE is one of the major differences between your performance example and your referenced examples.

The other major difference is technique. When you start delving into more extreme genres of metal, like thrash, prog, and sometimes death metal and grindcore, the artists take great pride in their rhythmic abilities. Bands of those genres are typically very TIGHT. You have to be in order to play 32nd notes at 130 - 150 bpm with heavily distorted and compressed guitars. Perhaps you guys would have sounded "cleaner" if your guitars were a bit more distorted, using at least a variant on the standard "scooped" tone?

Anyway, I don't enjoy being a "hater", because I absolutely love your show, and will continue to listen to it religiously.

Excellent show with excellent information. For once I wasn't mostly in the dark about the show's content, so I have some notes.

Since you mentioned black metal as a subgenre of death, I think "fantasy" metal or that particular discussion should be presented under the umbrella of power metal (Sonata Arctica, Dragonforce, Hammerfall, etc.). Technical black metal (Necrophagist, Nile, Cryptopsy, etc.) is usually well-produced now because of its specific nature, contrary to earlyish black metal (Mayhem, Gorgoroth, Emperor).

Also I don't believe Swedish melodic death metal (in the vein of Carcass, Arch Enemy, In Flames, Soilwork, etc. big timers) should be confused for lord of the rings metal by anyone seriously having this discussion (most super theatric and/or goth bands aren't from Sweden anyway, but instead other close countries like Norway and Finland). I also don't quite agree with the terminology switch from heavy metal (Iron Maiden, Judas Priest) to power metal.

I enjoyed the examples and I felt the intentions were dead on, and have no real complaints not already mentioned. Thanks again for a great show and website. Also thanks if you actually read this.

I really liked listening to this, but agree with that it would have been nice to hear some lyrics with the examples to better define the categories. I would also like to learn more about Symphonic Metal, as was also mentioned by a previous poster.

It wasn't bad, but some constructive criticism:

1. Do a little more research on metal genres. It wasn't so bad at first, but as you got into the more extreme styles (death/black metal) it became quite clear that you were probably briefly versed in the Cliff Notes of the genre. Black Metal a "subgenre of Death Metal"? Come on. By the 90's Black Metal had become its own very distinct style, incorporating influences from classical and folk music to create a very dissonant, noisy, yet simultaneously melodic and beautiful listening experience.

2. If you want to illustrate what metal is about, maybe try actually getting a metal guitar sound. The drummer and bassist were very skilled and came off as convincing for each style they were trying to portray, but the guitar was almost laughable. In metal, especially Death metal, huge amounts of distortion are required to give the notes more power and sustain. Usually the low ends will be turned very high and the mid range will be either scooped (for that chunky, Obituary/Suffocation sound) or cranked (for that Morbid Angel sound). Black metal tends to turn the gain and treble very high, achieving a more grating effect.

3. Harmonies! While thundering power chords are a huge aspect of metal, you cannot nearly illustrate the basics of the genre without some fundamental counterpoint theory. This is especially relevant for the case of Power Metal and so-called "Fantasy Metal", which use mostly diatonic, Aeolian-based counterpoint between the guitars and/or keyboards. Thrash/Speed metal tends to use the perfect 5th or 4th, often by playing a phrase or riff then playing it again with a second guitar playing the same riff a 5th above. Death and Black metal tend to use more dissonant or chromatic harmony, such as the ever-popular parallel minor 3rd's.

4. Solo's?

Overall, a good effort. As a serious metal musician, I like to see the genre receive a serious analysis. The song examples provided under each genre are a good indication of what they are like to new listeners.

I have no issue with any of the genera generalizations. What I'm not sure you meant to do was make an ethno-centric observation. The move from pentatonic blues based metal to metal more based on Western European major/minor modes does not automatically equate to an increase in seriousness.

1.where's the distortion?
2.Honestly maybe you should have got some real metal heads because this episode was cool and all but as a person who loves metal, i hated to hear these people talk.