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speed metal

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speed metal

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Also known as fast metal

sub-genre of heavy metal music

Key facts

Stylistic origins
New wave of British heavy metal heavy metal punk
Cultural origins
Late 1970s and early 1980s, mainly in the United Kingdom
Derivative forms
Neoclassical metal power metal thrash metal black metal

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of
music genre
Subclass of
extreme metal
Country of origin
United Kingdom
Image
Exciter bass&vocals.jpg
Show 3 more facts
Commons category
Speed metal
topic's main category
Category:Speed metal
inception
1978-01-01
Sources (3)

via Wikidata · CC0

~6 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Speed metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that originated in the late 1970s from new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM) roots. It is described by AllMusic as "extremely fast, abrasive, and technically demanding" music.

It is usually considered less abrasive and more melodic than thrash metal. However, speed metal is usually faster and more aggressive than traditional heavy metal, also showing more inclination to virtuoso soloing and featuring short instrumental passages between couplets. Speed metal songs frequently make use of highly expressive vocals, but are usually less likely to employ "harsh" vocals than thrash metal songs.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “speed metal” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.