Vision of God Records

Black metal is a form of extreme metal defined by fast tempos, tremolo‑picked guitar lines, blast‑beat drumming, shrieked or rasped vocals, and a deliberately raw, icy production aesthetic. Harmonically, it favors minor and modal collections (especially Aeolian and Phrygian), open-string drones, parallel fifths and fourths, tritones, and sparse or suspended chord voicings over blues-derived harmony. Arrangements often employ layered guitars, long-form song structures, and enveloping reverb to create a bleak, otherworldly atmosphere. The genre’s visual and thematic language is equally distinctive: corpse paint, monochrome artwork, and lyrics exploring anti-dogma, nature, pagan myth, cosmic nihilism, and misanthropy. While some scenes have been associated with controversy and extremism, the musical identity centers on sound, atmosphere, and aesthetics rather than any single ideology.

Blackgaze is a fusion of black metal’s intensity (tremolo‑picked guitars, blast beats, harsh shrieks) with shoegaze’s lush, immersive textures and dreamy melodicism. It typically layers high‑gain, reverb‑drenched guitars into a luminous wall of sound, favoring suspended or added‑tone chords that blur tonality and create a sense of vastness. Songs often unfold in long arcs with dramatic dynamic shifts—from pummeling crescendos to breathy, ambient passages—and may juxtapose screamed vocals with soft, clean singing. While the mood can be bleak or melancholic, many blackgaze works balance darkness with radiant, almost euphoric uplift, aided by expansive production and post‑rock pacing.

Christian metal (sometimes called "white metal") is a form of heavy metal defined primarily by its Christian lyrical content and worldview rather than by a single, unified sound. Musically, it mirrors the broader metal spectrum: from classic and glam-influenced heavy metal, to thrash, power, doom, death, and metalcore. Expect high-gain guitar riffs, driving rhythm sections, and vocal approaches that range from soaring melodic hooks to harsh screams, depending on the substyle. Lyrically, themes include faith, redemption, spiritual struggle, hope, social concerns approached from a Christian perspective, and occasionally direct scripture references or evangelistic messages. Scenes often coalesce around church-based venues, faith-oriented festivals, and dedicated labels, while many bands also operate in mainstream metal circuits.

Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal defined by heavily distorted, low‑tuned guitars, rapid and complex riffing, blast beat drumming, and harsh guttural vocals. Its harmonic language favors chromaticism, dissonance, and tremolo-picked lines that create an ominous, abrasive atmosphere. Lyrically, death metal often explores dark or transgressive themes—mortality, mythology, anti-religion, psychological horror, and the macabre—sometimes with philosophical or social commentary. Production ranges from raw and cavernous to hyper-precise and technical, reflecting the genre’s many regional scenes and substyles. From the mid‑1980s Florida scene (Tampa) and parallel developments in the US, UK, and Sweden, death metal evolved into numerous branches including brutal death metal, technical death metal, melodic death metal, and death‑doom, each emphasizing different aspects of speed, complexity, melody, or heaviness.

Death-doom metal is a fusion of death metal’s extremity and doom metal’s slow, crushing weight. It pairs down-tuned, monolithic riffs and oppressive tempos with death metal features such as guttural growls, occasional double-kick bursts, and abrasive distortion. The mood is bleak and melancholic, often enhanced by minor-key harmonies, sustained chords, and sparse melodic figures. Some bands add keyboards, violin, or clean guitar interludes to deepen the sense of tragedy and atmosphere. Lyrically, it focuses on grief, mortality, desolation, and existential dread. Arrangements tend to be long-form and dynamic: glacial passages anchor the music while strategically placed surges of death-metal intensity create cathartic contrast.

Deathgrind is a fusion of death metal and grindcore that combines the former’s low‑tuned, heavy riffing and guttural vocals with the latter’s ultra‑fast tempos, blast‑beat drumming, and short, abrupt song structures. Typical tracks run one to three minutes, feature rapid chromatic tremolo picking, sudden tempo shifts, and a relentless rhythmic attack. Vocals alternate between deep death‑metal growls and high‑pitched screams, while lyrics range from socio‑political critique to graphic, gore‑themed narratives depending on the band. Production tends to be tight and cutting, often with triggered kicks, aggressive guitar tones, and clear articulation so that riffs remain intelligible at extreme speed.

Doom metal is a heavy metal subgenre defined by slow to mid-tempo grooves, down-tuned, highly distorted guitars, and an atmosphere of dread, melancholy, and weight. It emphasizes ominous, minor-key riffs and sustained tones over speed or virtuosity, creating a crushing sense of space and inevitability. Vocals range from plaintive and theatrical (epic/traditional doom) to anguished wails or harsh growls (death-doom), and lyrics often explore themes of suffering, mortality, the occult, apocalyptic visions, and existential despair. Song structures are typically riff-centric and long-form, with repetition and gradual dynamic shifts producing a hypnotic, ritualistic feel.

Drone is a minimalist music genre defined by sustained tones, long durations, and extremely gradual change. Harmony is often static or centered on a single fundamental with subtle overtone shifts, while rhythm tends toward stasis or very slow pulses. Sound sources range from acoustic instruments (e.g., strings, organ, bagpipes, shruti box, tambura) to electronics (sine waves, oscillators, feedback, tape loops, and later digital synthesis and processing). Many composers favor just intonation or other alternative tuning systems to emphasize beating patterns, psychoacoustic effects, and the internal life of sound. Although drone as a sonic principle is ancient and global, the modern experimental genre cohered in the 1960s through the New York minimalists and related avant‑garde circles, then spread into ambient, experimental, and heavy music scenes. The focus is less on melody and more on timbre, resonance, and the phenomenology of listening.

Electronicore is a fusion of post-hardcore/metalcore and electronic dance music. It blends down-tuned, chugging guitars, double-kick breakdowns, and screamed/clean call-and-response vocals with club-ready synths, sidechained pads, risers, and drop-centric song structures. Typical tracks juxtapose verses rooted in metalcore energy with EDM-style builds and explosive drops that can reference trance, electro house, or dubstep. Production is as central as performance: sequenced arpeggios, supersaws, wobble/growl basses, and glitch edits are arranged alongside live drums or tight sample-reinforced kits. Lyrically, electronicore keeps the emotive intensity of post-hardcore—introspection, catharsis, and youth-culture themes—while adopting EDM’s hook-forward choruses and festival scale.

Grindcore is an extremely fast, abrasive fusion of hardcore punk and extreme metal characterized by blast-beat drumming, highly distorted down-tuned guitars, and a mix of guttural growls and high-pitched screams. Songs are typically very short—often under two minutes and sometimes just seconds—favoring intensity over traditional verse–chorus structures. Lyrically, grindcore spans politically charged and socially conscious themes (war, capitalism, animal rights) as well as gore and body horror (particularly in goregrind). Production ranges from raw, live-in-the-room ferocity to tight, modern clarity. The style is defined by relentless speed, dissonant or chromatic riffing, and sudden start–stop shifts that create a feeling of controlled chaos.

Jesus music is the grassroots, folk‑rock oriented precursor to contemporary Christian music that emerged out of the late‑1960s Jesus Movement in the United States. It blends the sound and songcraft of folk, rock, soft rock, and country rock with explicitly Christian, testimonial lyrics meant to communicate faith in everyday language. Arrangements are typically simple and intimate—acoustic guitars, gentle rhythm sections, close harmonies—and choruses are often designed for congregational singing. Stylistically earnest and evangelistic, Jesus music prioritized message over virtuosity, favoring direct storytelling, scripture paraphrase, and personal conversion narratives.

Mathcore is an extreme offshoot of metalcore and hardcore punk characterized by rapid-fire shifts in meter, tempo, and texture. It emphasizes dissonant, angular riffing; complex, polymetric drum patterns; and whirlwind song structures that often feel deliberately chaotic. The genre fuses the precision and rhythmic gamesmanship of math rock with the aggression of hardcore and the density of extreme metal. Songs routinely feature sudden stops, blast beats, start–stop riffing, odd time signatures, and atonal or chromatic harmonies, producing a sound that is tense, volatile, and cathartic.

Metal (often used to mean heavy metal in its broad, umbrella sense) is a loud, guitar-driven style of rock defined by high-gain distortion, emphatic and often martial rhythms, and a dense, powerful low end. It foregrounds riff-based songwriting, dramatic dynamics, virtuosic guitar solos, and commanding vocals that range from melodic wails to aggressive snarls and growls. Harmonically, metal favors minor modes, modal color (Aeolian, Phrygian), chromaticism, and tritone-inflected tension, while thematically it explores power, mythology, the occult, social critique, fantasy, and existential subjects. While adjacent to hard rock, metal typically pushes amplification, distortion, precision, and thematic intensity further, forming a foundation for many specialized subgenres.

Symphonic metal fuses the power and riff-driven weight of heavy metal with the grandeur of orchestral music, choral writing, and operatic vocals. It often features full-scale symphonic arrangements—either via live orchestras and choirs or through sophisticated sampling—alongside distorted guitars, bass, and double-kick drumming. Hallmarks include cinematic songwriting, classical harmony (minor keys, modal colors, counterpoint), sweeping string ostinati, brass fanfares, and layered choirs. Vocal approaches range from operatic soprano leads to melodic rock vocals and occasional harsh growls. Lyrically, the genre leans toward myth, fantasy, history, philosophy, and romantic or existential themes, delivering an epic, theatrical atmosphere.

Christian (often shortened to Christian music or CCM in market terms) is an umbrella genre for popular and worship-oriented music whose lyrics explicitly express the Christian faith. It blends contemporary songwriting and production with devotional intent, ranging from pop and rock to folk, country, and modern worship anthems designed for congregational singing. While rooted in centuries of church music and hymnody, the modern "Christian" genre coalesced in the late 1960s United States with the Jesus Movement, later building its own labels, radio networks, and touring circuits. Today it includes radio-friendly CCM, stadium worship, youth-focused pop/rock, and stylistic fusions that carry Christian themes into nearly every mainstream style.

Christian music is a broad market category that encompasses popular styles—pop, rock, folk, gospel, hip hop, country, and worship—whose lyrics explicitly reflect Christian faith, scripture, and devotional themes. It grew out of the 1960s Jesus Movement and the post-war gospel tradition, combining congregational hymn-writing with the production values and song forms of mainstream popular music. Today it includes radio-friendly contemporary Christian music (CCM), stadium-sized praise & worship collectives, and crossover artists who chart on both Christian and mainstream charts.