Best Metal Evolution Episodes

Metal Evolution was a documentary series by Sam Dunn, exploring the history of different Metal subgenres.
The Top Ten
1 Extreme Metal

They talk about early Extreme Metal Bands like Venom, Hellhammer, and Celtic Frost. It moves on to the early British Grindcore scene talking to bands like Napalm Death and Carcass. Then, they move on to Chuck Schuldiner and Death, and how the Florida Death Metal scene started. They then look at Norwegian Black Metal and how Symphonic bands like Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth helped create many Black Metal subgenres. Dunn mentions how he thought that Extreme Metal was beginning to die in the 2000s, until modern bands like Enslaved and Gojira came along, bringing new stuff to the plate. And thus paving the way for bands in the future.

In my opinion, this is the best episode. It is very interesting to think that Metal was all melodic and clean, and the only bands people thought of were Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath in terms of heaviness. Bands like Venom, Death and Napalm Death raised the bar, creating harsh, guttural, and growlong vocals. It turned Metal from a small genre into a massive underground sensation.

2 Progressive Metal

It talks about early Prog rock of King Crimson, Yes, and Genesis, and the heavier style of Rush. It then talks about the early bands like Queensrÿche. They talk to bands like Mastodon, Dream Theater, Dillinger Escape Plan, and Meshuggah and how those early Prog rock bands influenced them.

This was the last episode I think.

3 Thrash Metal

Not sure it was in the thrash episode but it was related to thrash so I'll put my comment here. For me the most memorable thing from the whole epic documentary was when a psychology professor measured the brain response to different music genres. Do you remember how Sam Dunn's brain responded to Raining Blood by Slayer? That was awesome!

4 Early Metal (Parts 1-2)

There are 2 parts to this: US division and UK division. It didn't let me add them separately so I combined them into one. It explores the 1960s hard rock pioneers like Blue Cheer, Iron Butterfly, MC5, Deep Purple etc. It also explores the early Heavy Metal Bands like Black Sabbath, Pentagram, Rainbow, etc.

5 Pre-Metal

This episode explores classical, jazz, and blues artists that heavily influenced Metal Bands. It also explores early rock and roll, and artists that were once considered 'heavy' in their time.

6 New Wave of British Heavy Metal

I liked the theme song of the documentary - The Trooper by Iron Maiden, which was the first Maiden song I heard and instantly loved. So The Trooper made me their fan and to a great extent - a metal fan.

Talks about the popularization and creation of new subhenres of Metal in the 80s, thanks to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, definitely Leppard, Saxon, Venom, Motörhead, Witchfinder General, etc.

7 Grunge

It's interesting. Although Grunge is more associated with alternative rock, this takes a look at how grunge is connected to metal, and asks whether grunge can actually be called metal, and if it belongs in the story of heavy metal

Of course, it was a good episode - it answered an important question and I was happy with his conclusion because mine was the same.

8 Shock Rock

This episode talks about the early shock rock artists like Arthur Brown, Alice Cooper, and KISS and how they influenced future Metal Bands like Mercyful Fate, Venom, and Marilyn Manson.

9 Nu Metal

Talks about early bands that influenced the creation of Nu Metal, such as Anthrax/Public Enemy's song, Faith No More, Rage Against The Machine, and Sepultura's 'Roots'. Along with the rise of Nu Metal in the 90s thanks to Korn, Deftones, Linkin Park, Disturbed, Limp Bizkit, etc. A lot of time is spent talking about how the Metal community despised and rejected this new style, and how most didn't even view it as Metal.

10 Glam

This talks about the popular 80s glam scene. I didn't care for it, considering the image and music of glam just makes me cringe

I didn't even finish this episode.

The Contenders
11 Power Metal

My least favorite episode because Sam Dunn kinda failed here. He admitted he didn't know what power metal was, which was still OK. But he reacted to it like an amateur - by neglecting and overlooking. He presented power metal in a sarcastic way. His aggressive interview with Manowar was ugly - Manowar started using the term

It talks about NWOBHM bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, and how they influenced the early Power Metal Bands such as Helloween, Manowar, Gamma Ray, etc.

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