Left Hand Sounds

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.

Blackened crust is a hybrid of black metal’s icy tremolo riffing and harsh shrieks with crust punk’s d-beat drive, power-chord urgency, and politically charged ethos. The style favors raw, abrasive production, minor-key and dissonant harmonies, and tempos that lurch between breakneck blast beats and galloping d-beat/skank rhythms. Guitar tones often lean on buzzy fuzz or chainsaw-like distortion (e.g., HM-2-inspired), while vocals range from caustic hardcore bellows to black metal rasps. Lyrically, it typically inherits crust’s anti-authoritarian, anti-fascist, and socially critical perspective, delivered with black metal’s bleak atmosphere.

D-beat is a raw, fast, and politically charged subgenre of hardcore punk named after the signature drum pattern popularized by the British band Discharge. The style emphasizes a relentless, galloping 4/4 beat, overdriven guitars, gritty bass, and shouted vocals. Songs are typically short (1–3 minutes), mid-to-fast tempo (often 160–220 BPM), and built around simple, minor-key power-chord riffs. Lyrics are direct and confrontational, focusing on anti-war, anti-authoritarian, and social-collapse themes. Production values are intentionally rough, prioritizing impact and urgency over polish. Aesthetically, D-beat overlaps with UK82 street punk and anarcho-punk, and it laid key groundwork for crust punk and later extreme punk-metal hybrids. Global scenes flourished especially in Sweden and Japan, where the style became synonymous with a noisier, more abrasive “raw punk” sound.

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.

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.

Neocrust is a modern, melodic offshoot of crust punk that fuses the genre’s raw, D‑beat drive with expansive, post‑metal/post‑rock atmospherics and soaring, minor‑key melodies. It retains the political urgency, DIY ethic, and abrasive vocal delivery of classic crust, but emphasizes layered guitar harmonies, longer song forms, and dynamic contrasts. Typical tracks blend tremolo‑picked leads over thick, downtuned rhythm guitars, propelled by fast D‑beats and occasional blasts that give way to slower, sludgy passages or cinematic builds. Lyrics are often anti‑authoritarian and ecological, delivered through harsh, shouted or screamed vocals. The result is an “epic crust” aesthetic: aggressive and dark, yet emotive, melancholic, and cathartic.

Punk is a fast, abrasive, and minimalist form of rock music built around short songs, stripped-down instrumentation, and confrontational, anti-establishment lyrics. It emphasizes DIY ethics, raw energy, and immediacy over virtuosity, often featuring distorted guitars, shouted or sneered vocals, and simple, catchy melodies. Typical songs run 1–3 minutes, sit around 140–200 BPM, use power chords and basic progressions (often I–IV–V), and favor live, unpolished production. Beyond sound, punk is a cultural movement encompassing zines, independent labels, political activism, and a fashion vocabulary of ripped clothes, leather, and safety pins.

War metal is an extremely aggressive fusion of black metal and death metal known for its chaotic, bestial sound. It emphasizes relentless speed, blast-beat drumming, heavily distorted low-tuned guitars, and raw, clipping production that borders on noise. Rather than melody or intricate harmony, war metal prioritizes density, abrasion, and overwhelming intensity. Vocals are guttural, barking, or cavernous roars, often layered or doubled to create a wall of sound. Lyrical themes center on war, desecration, blasphemy, and apocalyptic imagery, matching the music’s scorched‑earth aesthetics. Tracks are typically short, violent bursts with minimal dynamic relief, frequent tremolo-picked barrages, and chaotic solos. The overall aesthetic is primitive and deliberately unrefined, evoking the feel of a battlefield bombardment translated into sound.

Hardcore (often called hardcore techno in its early form) is a fast, aggressive branch of electronic dance music characterized by heavily distorted, punchy 4/4 kick drums, tempos ranging from roughly 160 to well over 200 BPM, and a dark, high‑energy aesthetic. It emphasizes percussive drive over complex harmony, using clipped and saturated kick-bass sound design, sharp hi-hats, claps on the backbeat, and harsh synth stabs or screeches. Vocals, when present, are typically shouted hooks, sampled movie lines, or crowd chants processed with distortion and effects. Originating in the Netherlands in the early 1990s, the style quickly splintered into related scenes and subgenres such as gabber, happy hardcore, Frenchcore, terrorcore, speedcore, and later hardstyle. Its culture is closely associated with large-scale raves, specialized labels, and distinctive visual branding.