Top 10 Differences Between Hard Rock and Heavy Metal

RE the bluesy bands in Stoner, Sludge, and Doom metal:
These bands are bluesy but there are problems with that because metal is strictly non-bluesy. Jeff Hanneman of Slayer said about Pantera that he liked some stuff but Pantera were too bluesy at times. And Jeff Hanneman wasn't the only one - when the groovy Pantera were signed to a major label, American and Canadian metal bands (mostly thrash bands but not only) left the same label to protest. If this was such a big problem with Pantera, imagine what metal musicians would say about bands with even more blues elements.
These blues inspired metal subgenres are very small and they are getting smaller for a reason - they don't belong. They were put in the metal genre long ago due to a misconception and now their metal status is just a tradition and inertia. This tradition doesn't bother me much but I know that they were mistakenly attached to metal. Probably the bands know this, too, and started some desperate adaptation ...more

This is the single most important factor and many of the other factors are just extensions of this, though it's not universal as some metal like Black Sabbath is blues based.

Metal is strictly based on classical music but it doesn't mean that you have to hear classical music directly, not at all. Based on classical means that metal songs use scales typically found in classical music. Metal uses the template of classical music and this template is the structure behind the metal songs, its backbone. Metal music progresses in the way classical music does. This is the reason metal goes well with classical and they are absolutely compatible. No wonder, metal music is structured in the same way.

"Blues based vs classical based" is used to determine if a band is hard rock or metal. Hard rock uses blues scales, metal uses classical scales. It's already known that several heavy sounding bands are not metal because their songs are blues based: Guns N Roses, AC/DC, Motorhead, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Whitesnake, and so on. I know that many people still think these bands are metal but it's wrong.

Also, very often heavy metal is confused with heavy blues ...more

More often than not, although old school Heavy Metal bands like Black Sabbath actually started out as a Blues band so Metal owes just as much of it's origin to the aforementioned genre as Hard Rock does. The only major difference in my not-so-humble opinion is that Hard Rock embraces it's roots while Metal is hell-bent on "evolving" or simply straying from it's roots and/or coming up with new ones.

Metal should be played like thunder, raw and straight to the beat.
Metal compared to blues based rock is like comparing a military march played by an orchestra versus a traditional folk song made for dancing, mating, laughing and crying.

Minus glam metal.

The key thing to note about this is it's talking about how the guitar is used, not about the number of guitarists. Even though Judas Priest and Iron Maiden have many guitars, you can't divide them into lead and rhythm because they are all playing metal riffs. Meanwhile with a band like AC/DC there is a very clear line between open chord rhythm guitar and single note lead guitar.

A hard rock band usually has only 1 guitar player, Metal bands are the bands with more than 1 usually, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest are even the best known metal band with a lead and rhythm guitar, so not sure where this comes from.

As a result - hard rock usually sounds happy whereas metal sounds sad and dark.
There were some surveys about that and researchers measured people's brain responses to certain songs - some minor scales just made people start crying even when they didn't understand the lyrics or there were no lyrics at all.

True. Many minor scales such as E minor is very common in metal. Because it makes low sound.

Except for power metal
And I believe that a few of Iron Maiden's tracks have some major 3rds, such as Number of the Beast

Yep that's true.

This is because classical music is more complex than blues. Think about this:
Classical music is art music and it was the music of the European aristocrats.
Blues is folk music created by the Afro-Americans in the rural areas.
Besides, most of the metal music is progressive in general (not only prog metal) while hard rock is not progressive. Some hard rock bands have progressive songs but these songs are prog rock songs and not hard rock songs.

Metallica is the most diverse band in history. Out of every band ever. From the sound of Fuel, Master of Puppets, and One it's all different. Metallica is special

In general metal has a much tighter sound, while hard rocks sounds looser.

I don't know the different of vocals really. But I have noticed, metal vocals is more powerful than hard rock. But I have also seen some bands who play metal, but there vocals is kinda like hard rock. Unmatched.

Eh, James Hetfield, Dave Mustaine and Freddie Mercury are the exceptions to the rule.

Although there are some exceptions, such as James Hetfield and Freddie Mercury

This and metal being newer than hard rock are the only things on this list that make sense. The rest is just metalheads wanting to feel special or superior. Metal also came from hard rock and blues, and not from classical music. Metal can be popular. Hard rock doesn't use major scales all that often. I could go on.

In my opinion metal does have a harsher, and more aggressive than hard rock. The reason for this is because 1, metal tends to be played with higher distortion than Hard rock, and 2 because metal is played in darker modes like Locrian, while hard rock is almost always in Aeolian.

In metal, there is a big competition based on technical skills and metal attracts virtuoso guitarists and drummers, hence better, longer, faster and way more complex solos and drum beats.The average metal musician is way more technically skilled than the average hard rock musician. It's also true for the average metal singers - some of them are even trained opera singers. Hard rock material definitely doesn't require such degree of vocal skills. AC/DC songs don't need singers with the stellar vocal skills of Rob Halford, Roy Khan or Hansi Kürsch, to name a few.

Take AC/DC for example. One thing most people don't like about them is the fact that they sound repetitive. There's hardly any difference between their albums and their sounds is really just the same. You'll hardly if ever see that in Metal.

I wouldn't go that far, basicly because there is only a thin line between being a metal band or a Hard rock band.

You're right. For me though the main difference is metal is just deeper and focuses on heavier emotions

I remember adding this. And in fact it is really true. Palm muting makes the sound even darker.

The entire "rock N roll" idiom is most notably available in AC/DC and Motorhead, for example. Most of their songs are RNR, played faster and heavier but the RNR template is there. Lemmy himself (R.I.P.) stated many times that Motorhead had never been a metal band and they had always been a RNR band. He certainly knows what is the difference between RNR and metal.

There's no "roll" in metal - the "roll" part makes music sound playful and happier but metal doesn't want that. Also, thanks to this "roll" part in hard rock, you can still dance to some hard rock songs but you can't dance to typical metal songs.

True, Power metal, happy metal, viking metal, symphonic metal, death metal, thrash metal, Ghotic metal, melodic metal, extreme metal. It seems to me everyone here is refering to Speed or extreme metal. But there is only one type of Hard Rock, which is basically a 16 notes in a bar music. To me Hard Rock is about 'Sex, drugs and rock & roll', where metal contains all things in life, 'Sex. drugs, rock & roll, historic battles, historic events, made up events' So very diverse on so many levels.

While in hard rock you basically hear the same template over and over again, in metal things are completely different because metal experiments more than hard rock.

Take bands like Avenged sevenfold for example they have experimented with their music so much listen to these four songs and you'll see the experimentation,(acid rain, natural born killer, almost easy, and chapter four)

Yes, metal is faster than hard rock. In my opinion, it should be on top 3. This is the basic difference of hard rock and metal. Metal makes more brutal sound because of speed. Hard rock makes heavy sound, but with slow riffs. It's just the style.

I put it at #13 because this is obvious and doesn't need much explanations - everybody in the world knows it except one member of the Top Ten.

Yeah that's easy.

Hard rock can be a lot of fun but there's no fun in metal.

While I agree with the topics, I disagree with the phrasing, as you're more likely to find introspective lyrics in metal than hard rock despite technically being personal.

Private sphere - love, sex, relationships, family, having fun, getting high, getting drunk

Public sphere - society, the broader context of our life. Lyrical themes: social order, politics, war, injustice, poverty, world leaders, deaths of innocent people, violence, corruption, religion, youth problems, children, elderly people, people with disabilities, discrimination, and many similar subject matters.

Everybody can relate to lyrics about the private sphere ("she left me, he didn't call me, let's have sex"). But you need to be more mature, more socially aware and more socially sensitive in order to listen to metal songs about politics, social injustice or people with mental disorders (Welcome Home, Metallica).

Eh. That's pretty vague. The thing is, hard rock is extremely vague as a genre. While glam metal indeed focuses on "the private sphere", other bands thjat are often considered Hard Rock (I.e. many bands that were in a more agressive brand of rock like The Who or The Rolling Stones) have wider themes. Led Zeppelin, The Who, Rush, Grunge acts (often considered Hard Rock) have a wide range of human and political themes.
Classifying a genre's lyricism is pretty selective in general. You can generally craft an opposite argument easily.
For example, most Pantera songs are about agressivity and power, Slayer's lyrics are also mostly about brutality and agressivity, Cannibal Corpse is only about torture, Venom is mostly about Satan...
Is that really what I think? No. I could do the opposite to defend metal. You just have to select well for your agument. So I don't think it's a factor of differenciation.

I think the main problem with Hard Rock is that the genre is way, way too ...more

Many times they may be faster. More difficult to play? Doubtful. Blackmore, Beck, Clapton, Vai, Vaughn, Page etc might disagree. Plus they have the task to make it melodic and tastrful not just angry and fast.

It's because hard rock is based on blues and blues is sensual and sexy - probably blues hits the areas in your brain related to your reproductive organs and hard rock may produce hormones of sexual pleasure.

On the other hand, there aren't many love songs by metal bands. In fact, sensuality and sexuality are banned in metal. Metal musicians know that "sex sells" but they actually avoid this.

From my experience, metal is far from influencing the brain areas related to your reproductive organs. I think metal music is rather rational and I often find that listening to metal music helps me think faster and better.

Metal is "sexy" to me, and I think many people will agree. I don't really find music in general "sexy", but metal is probably the closest to it.

RE "Mötley Crüe? Poison?" (by the way, a very good question by Brobusky).
Yes, they sound sexy and they have many songs about sex but it's one of the reasons they aren't considered metal. It's not the only reason though - the main reason is that their music is mostly hard rock but was called glam "metal".

Although there are exceptions (I.e sludge metal, stoner metal/rock, grunge, doom metal, drone metal, groove metal, etc.)

Metal is a complex genre, but it's so complex to the point where it doesn't sound fun.

You can hear hard rock songs on the radio but you don't hear metal songs, except probably Nothing Else Matters by Metallica, which is an acoustic love ballad though. You don't hear Brain Drill in your local mall. You don't even hear Helloween who are not very heavy.

You barely hear metal songs in mainstream besides Enter Sandman, Crazy Train, and perhaps Through the Fire and Flames

It's funny though because metal is a very popular genre but you never get it on radio

Most metal songs have longer length than hard rock songs.

70s hard rock used to be heavy but not as metal until early 80s. in the mid and late 80s hard rock or hair metal you can call it, they decided to make softer music which saved some heaviness into their albums. on the other hand metal remained always heavy but sometimes they add calm parts in their music for newer ideas instead composing the same way instead.

Hard rock want us to participate in sing-along, which isn't found in heavy metal. (Minus the concerts)