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You may notice that we are no longer following a strictly linear chronology. By the early 90′s, metal was developing along several distinct lines, just as jazz had begun to do in the early 60′s.

Two lines of development are similar enough that their artists are often described as one or the other. The first I’d like to present is doom metal.

Doom metal can be traced to none other than Black Sabbath, whose albums Master of Reality and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath featured a number of dark, plodding tracks, including “Who Are You,” “Sweet Leaf,” and “Into the Void.” The detuned, down-tempo “downer rock,” as described by Sabbath drummer Bill Ward, is echoed quite strongly in the reefer-inspired music of groups like Electric Wizard, EyeHateGod, and Madison’s own Bongzilla.

The classic doom sound arose in the 1980′s, and was pioneered by groups like Witchfinder General, Saint Vitus, and Candlemass:

By the 1990′s, we were introduced to a less gothic, more rock ‘n roll variant on doom, as evidenced in the songs of groups like Crowbar. This brings us one step closer to a concurrent trend in metal — that of sludge.

Sludge metal, so-named because of its origins near the Mississippi delta, is not as tightly executed as other styles, giving it a resemblance to grunge, which seemed to rule the 90′s hard rock world. While Seattle-based artists Nirvana and Soundgarden infused the Sabbath sound with indie-pop and punk, their sludge counterparts kept things nice and heavy.

One sludge group that did not come out of the south, The Melvins, were among the most influential. From their formation in the 1980′s to today, they have consistently produced some of the finest hard rock I have heard, and I recommend their Houdini album whenever I have the chance.

Metal always had a progressive side. Black Sabbath, brutish though they seemed, would sometimes craft lengthy songs with sectional forms; and thrash artists like Metallica routinely served up 6-minute long mini-epics. Metal musicians historically seem to have been highly straightforward, pragmatic musicians who harbored fascination with the academic. And it was academia from which came Dream Theater, the brainchild of Berklee students John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy.

In the 90′s, critics had written metal off as dead at the hands of grunge, never minding that Metallica were still outselling Nirvana, and that grunge rockers like Soundgarden were living tributes to Sabbath. These were my college years, and I fondly recall the closed-door “parties within parties” where we rhythm section nerds would keep Dream Theater’s debut, Images And Words, in rotation alongside decidedly anti-metal artists Beck and Soul Coughing. Good music is good music, and prog rockers were determined to play their best in any cultural climate.

Progressive metal as realized by Dream Theater is sectional, often with sharp contrasts in meter and key from one section to the next. Every musician in the group is world-class. Arrangements push performers into tight rhythmic unison one moment, raggy polyphony the next. Odd meters figure prominently. Uncommon in other forms of metal, keyboards are often central to the sound.

Although Dream Theater ruled the 90′s, their neo-classical counterparts Symphony X have been the dominant prog band since, and at this moment are my personal preference. Here is one of their finest moments on record:

Modern progressive metal is often less melodic and more agressive. What it has in common with Dream Theater and Symphony X is its tight group work, but that’s where the parallels end. Today, the term “progressive” can refer to anything intricate or highly developed. From Protest the Hero, here is an impressive melding of hardcore, power, and progressive influences:

Death may be the most athletic of metal subgenres. It is packed with unrelenting tremolo-picked guitar riffs and blast beats. You might consider the drummer the star of a death metal band; to play death, a drummer must conquer hypersonic tempi, with all four limbs in constant play.

Death originated in Florida during the late 1980′s, with the release of Seven Churches, by Possessed. Other groups from the area, including Morbid Angel, Death, Atheist, and Deicide, followed their lead. In the hands of its progenitors, death metal isolated and expanded on thrash’s most extreme characteristics. Thrash beats were fast; death is faster. Thrash vocalists sang or chanted with a little grit; death singers screeched raspily. Guitars were more distorted and deeply tuned than ever.

By the time Cannibal Corpse broke in the early 90′s, the predominant vocal style had settled into a much lower register, becoming the “cookie monster” growl we now associate with death metal:

At its inception, lyrical and visual themes in death metal were anti-theistic. Later, it seems the novelty of religious rebellion wore off; and morbidity became the central focus. Some critics attribute this to our innate fascination with our own mortality; others prefer a more direct explanation — that gore is entertainment. Death metal seeks, if not to become a slasher film soundtrack, to at least narrate the details.

Even if death isn’t the most listened-to metal style, I consider it to be metal’s nerve center. It perpetually maintains a following among the most serious of metal fans. It is at once a natural extension of thrash and a wellspring from which came today’s extreme styles. And it remains strongly represented. Here are one of my current favorites — a group that chooses Egyptology over bloody gore as its prevailing motif, named Nile: