Extreme Music

Extreme metal
Stylistic origins	Heavy metal
Cultural origins	1980s, United States and Europe
Typical instruments	Electric guitar bass guitar drums vocals
Derivative forms	Gothic metal groove metal neoclassical metal power metal
Subgenres
Black metal (ambient black metal symphonic black metal war metal) death metal (melodic death metal technical death metal) doom metal (epic doom funeral doom traditional doom) speed metal thrash metal
Fusion genres
Between extreme metal styles Black-doom blackened death metal death-doom With punk/hardcore styles Crossover thrash crust punk grindcore (deathgrind goregrind pornogrind) metalcore (deathcore mathcore melodic metalcore) sludge metal With various other styles Avant-garde metal black 'n' roll blackgaze death 'n' roll drone metal pagan metal stoner metal Viking metal
Regional scenes
Australia Brazil Canada Denmark Finland France Germany Italy Japan Norway Netherlands Poland Sweden United Kingdom United States
Local scenes
New York City San Francisco Bay Area
Other topics
Growling hardcore punk heavy metal subgenres list of bands moshing NWOBHM screaming

Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal and visual transgression". The term usually refers to a more abrasive, harsher, underground, non-commercialized style or sound associated with the speed metal, thrash metal, death metal, black metal and doom metal genres. With the exception of doom metal, all of these genres are characterized by fast tempos, attesting to their roots in hardcore punk, which has also fused with extreme metal in the forms of crossover thrash, crust punk, grindcore, sludge metal and metalcore. Though many extreme sub-styles are not very well known to mainstream music fans, extreme metal has influenced an array of musical performers inside and outside of heavy metal.

"Extreme" can be meant to describe any of the following musical elements: instrumentation (whether it is intended to be faster, more aggressive, abrasive or "heavier" than other metal styles), lyrics (dealing with darker, more sensational topics and themes), vocals (which often use guttural, harsh or abrasive singing), or appearance and stage demeanor (using corpse paint, Satanic or occult imagery). The "extreme" label is most commonly applied to bands whose music is extreme; for example, few would consider Kiss or Alice Cooper to be extreme metal, though they could be considered to employ extreme elements in their appearance and stage demeanor for their time.

"Extreme metal's sonic excess is characterized by high levels of distortion (also in the vocals – grunting or screaming), less focus on guitar solos and melody, emphasis on technical control, and fast tempos (at times, more than 200 beats per minute). Its thematic transgression can be found in more overt and/or serious references to Satanism and the darker aspects of human existence that are considered out of bounds or distasteful, such as death, suicide and war." "Visual transgression [can include] ... medieval weaponry [and] bloody/horrific artwork."

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Wikipedia