The Batlord

I think the main issue with people who aren't well-versed in certain genres is that they haven't developed the ear or the experience to tell the difference. To me, death metal like Suffocation sounds nothing like black metal such as Mayhem.

Death Metal




Black Metal




I can understand a non-metal initiate not being able to tell the difference, but to me the differences are totally obvious. I would almost never confuse '90s black metal with '90s death metal (Though certain bands did still take influences from both genres.)

Another thing you have to understand is that many of these genres (like thrash, black, death, and grindcore) evolved at the same time, and were influenced by many of the same bands in the eighties. Bands like Sodom played what is often called early black metal at first, but then "evolved" into a thrash metal band, while also having elements of what would become death metal. Before the genres really branched out in the '90s there could be only slight differences, mainly in their approach and what scene they happened to be a part of.

Early Sodom




Later Sodom




Thrash metal was heavily influenced by certain scenes, especially in New York and San Fransisco, with bands being "shown what to do" by groups that loosely defined the sounds of their respective areas. While black metal was very much a central and Scandinavian phenomenon due to bands like Celtic Frost, Bathory, and Venom who wouldn't have had as much influence in America simply due to geographical distance making cross-pollination less of an issue.

The aforementioned Sodom was German, along with scene mates like Kreator and Destruction. And since they were physically closer to Bathory (Sweden), Celtic Frost (Switzerland), Mercyful Fate (Denmark), and Venom (Britain) they had much more early black metal influence than the American bands.

But they were also developing a sound that was evolving around the same time period, and so there were still similarities (Especially after American thrash become so big, around which time the German bands started playing much more traditionally thrash music.)

So yeah, distinguishing certain strains of metal can be difficult at first, -- with certain sub-genre labels having been given in hindsight largely down to the bands and scenes they influenced the most -- and the earlier the bands the harder it is to draw decisive boundaries. Often early thrash/black/and death metal can almost be interchangeable, but over time the divisions became much more relevant.

Take an early black metal band like Sarcofago. They had a huge influence on Norwegian black metal (which was basically the scene which finally set black metal apart as its own separate genre), but they are just as much of a thrash band and early death metal band.





I'm sure you'd agree that indie genres like indie folk, dream pop, shoegaze, noise rock, etc can be hard to differentiate when you're not familiar with them due to their similar influences, but once you've put in the time listening to those genres the differences become much more apparent. (I listed those genres in order of differences, as obviously it's pretty easy to tell the difference between indie folk and noise rock).

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