Metal Music of Germany

Germany has a long and strong history with heavy metal. It is measured by many to be one of Europe’s heaviest contributors to the scene. The genre is quite famous within the country. Early Hard Rock/Heavy metal was brought to German soil with the success of Scorpions. Germany is recently known for its large metal festivals including Wacken Open Air, Summer Breeze Open Air and Party, San Open Air.

source of picture: heavymetal.about.com

Germany has a strong tradition of Speed metal and Power metal. Early speed metal bands include running Wild, Grave Digger, Rage, and to some extent Accept & Warlock. The European pattern of Power metal, born in Germany, was popularized by German bands such as Helloween, Gamma Ray, and Blind Guardian and gained the international recognition, in many cases these bands originally started out playing Speed metal, but later switched to Power metal.

Three local variants of metals subgenres exist in Germany. The teutonic thrash metal scene is represented by such orchestras as Violent Force, Exumer, Kreator, Sodom, Tankard, Destruction and Protector. The Medieval metal, a branch of folk metal incorporates German folk music with industrial metal. These incudes In Extremo, Corvus Corax, Subway to Sally, Schandmaul and Wolgemut (the last is considered folk rock in Germany). Another variant, Neue Deutsche Harte, a form of industrial metal includes Absurd, Defeated Sanity, Legio Mortis, Totenmond, Agathodaimon, Die Apokalyptischen, Milking the Goatmchine, Zarathustra, AEBA, Desaster, Lunar Aurora, Wigrid, Atrocity, Disbelief, Moonblood, Ahab, Reiter, Bethlehem, Endstille, Morgoth, Caliban, Equilibrium, Nagelfar, Nargaroth, Naeera, Necrophagist, Falkenbach, Finsterforst, Coldworld, Crematory, Dark fortess, Fleshhcrawl, Fragments of Unbecoming, Debauchery, Deadlock, Slaughtercult, Daerk Millenium, Darkened Nocturn, Dark Fortress, Golem, Grailknights, Incubator, Heaven Shall Burn, The Ruins of Beverast, Secret of the Moon, Obscura, Nocte Obducta, Leaves’ Eyes, Suidakra, and Katharsis. These bands range from genres of death metal, metalcore, deathcore, black metal and doom metal.