This just came to my head. I'm curious to see what are the songs that you'd use if they would be representing their sub-genre. I know that there's too many of them to name at once, so we'll use the most known sub genres, like Thrash, Black, Death and so on.

My List

Heavy Metal
- Judas Priest - Breaking the law

Power Metal
- Stratovarius - Hunting High and Low

Death Metal
- Death - Pull the plug

Black Metal
- Immortal - All shall fall

Thrash Metal¨
- Megadeth - Tornado of Souls

Folk Metal
- Korpiklaani - Vodka

Glam Metal
- Mötley Crüe - Kickstart my heart

Progressive Metal
- Dream Theater - On the backs of angels

Symphonic Metal
- Nightwish - I wish I had an angel

Those are just a few sub-genres that I mostly listen. Give me your list and thoughts on this

It's kind of an exercise in futility since many sub-genres have also spawned distinct styles (both contemporaneous and historical), which means it's hard to pick out single songs and do justice to the richness of the sub-genre.

But I'll go along with it since futility is my middle name.

Heavy metal: Mercyful Fate - A Corpse without Soul

Power metal: Blind Guardian - Imaginations from the Other Side

Progressive metal: Ihsahn - Undercurrent

Thrash metal: Slayer - Kill Again

Doom metal: Procession - Death and Judgement

Death metal: Crytopsy - Phobophile

Black metal: Nocte Obducta - Und Pan spielt die Flöte

Folk metal: Orphaned Land - New Jerusalem

Grindcore: Nasum - Time to Act

Off the top of my head.

No list threads, please.

EDIT: Alright, I'm re-opening this on the condition that it doesn't turn into a mind-numbing collection of lists. Include some comment why you think this or that song best represents this or that subgenre, otherwise this is going to get closed again fast.

For death metal it's Cannibal Corpse's "Hammer Smashed Face" to me. It's such a cliché song, but I think it is so cliché because it really encapsules death metal in a nutshell. When I hear it, I always think "that is death metal!", meaning it really does everything I think of when I think of death metal. If I were to show death metal to someone, I'd pick that song.

For black metal it's Darkthrone's "Under a Funeral Moon" to me. The title track of the album. That song just SCREAMS black metal, it represents the spirit of what black metal is to me in perfection. The riffing, the atmosphere, the production, the vocals, that's just black metal the way I feel black metal should be. That's the black metal song to start when getting into the genre.

For black metal I'd pick Taake's "Vid I" from the first album. It basically has everything that's important to black metal: razor-sharp, trebly production, riffing that falls somewhere between triumph and melancholy, really solid rhythm section performance, ripping riffs, a good dose of folkiness in the melodies, scathing vocals and even really manly chanting stuff. Not to mention that it's just an all-around incredible song that kicks off a flawless masterpiece of an album.

For heavy metal, either Jag Panzer's "Harder Than Steel" or Slough Feg's "Sky Chariots" - just great, metal riffs out the ass, commanding vocals and triumphant themes.

For power metal, Power Quest's "Neverworld." Light on the riffing, sure, but the soaring vocals, heavenly keys and fanfare-style melodies turn this song into a clinic of everything PM is about, in a huge nine-minute epic package.

Or for the more US power metal, Crimson Glory's "Lady of Winter" might do the trick, with its silky, addictive vocals and sleek, heavy, pounding riff work.

Black metal:
Taake's "Vid I" and Darkthrone's "Under a Funeral Moon" are not bad choices, but I will go with Satanic Warmaster's "The Vampyric Tyrant", because I find it to embody this style of black metal. It has a wild nature, but also melody and sorrow, with lyrics about vampires and Satan. While Burzum is my fave black metal band, I think it represents a different kind of black metal, the ambient and repetitive kind.

Gothic metal:
Theatre of Tragedy's "Fail and 'Guiling Copesmate Death". Beauty and the beast duet vocals, Shakespeare-styled lyrics, grand piano, string instruments. It has got everything. Cradle of Filth's "A Gothic Romance" is a second choice.

Death/doom:
Anathema's "They (will always) Die". A beast of a song! It's merge of the two styles, without it being "one section is death metal, another section is doom metal".

Symponic metal:
Epica's "Kingdom of Heaven". It is proof that a song can be heavy as fuck without sacrificing the symphonic elements.

Viking metal:
Bathory's "Valhalla". This song, to me, is the definition of the genre. Loud and epic heavy metal, steady drums, male choirs etc.

Well for doom I would say it would be Into the Void. I think a lot of the doom bands are trying to sound like that.

what are some examples of brutal death metal vs. Slam death metal vs. gore grind? These 3 genres seem to get confused by a lot of people who aren't that familiar with bands or music from those genres.

black metal: "Erblicket die Tochter des Firmaments" by Burzum. It has all of the major important elements of the genre. Hypnotic repetitive riff, shrieking vocals and spiritually bleak lyrics. (Wall-to-wall blast beats and evil/Satanism are missing, but imo they are not central features of black metal.) This album also has Varg's most audible voice among his early albums, so that's a plus too.

death metal: "Seven Churches" by Possessed. I may come back to list my exemplary melodic, technical and brutal death metal songs later, but as for the original genre before all those, Possessed nailed it. If it's not rooted in thrash, it's not a proper starting point to understand death metal. I could have gone with some early Pestilence here too. Also, the blasphemous lyrics of this song/album help situate early death metal with its peers, before the tags 'black' and 'death' began to feel as boxed-in as they do now.

doom metal "Doomed Planet" by Cirith Ungol. I was very close to picking Candlemass' "Mourner's Lament", as Messiah's voice is much more suited to doom altogether. Cirith would be the ultimate doom band for me, with a less theatrical singer. "Doomed Planet" gets the nod though, because, along with matching Candlemass stride for stride in the crushing massive riff department, I just feel that more abstract apocalyptic content is doomier than the personal stuff like "Mourner's Lament".

folk metal "Auf's Leben" by In Extremo. The perfect balance of the different tones folk metal can have. This song is simple and catchy enough to not feel entirely serious, but also much more genuine and engaging than some drinking song. It also helps that the folk side and metal side instruments avoid overwhelming each other.

heavy metal: Goddamn it. This is getting harder to pick just one! Well, how about my favourite old Iron Maiden song, "Where Eagles Dare". I don't really need to tell y'all why this is heavy metal I love it 'cause it has Nicko's (to that point) most proficient drumming, an appallingly challenging vocal line for Bruce to hold up, an super-catchy bridge, ass-kicking solo, everything.

... to be continued...

PART 2 speed metal "Cross Me Fool" by Razor. Gruff vocals put this on the border of thrash, but the drumming, not quite. Razor's bad-ass rough-and-tumble lyrics also keep them more in the old speed metal than thrash, which brought its punk influenced sociopolitical side.

I can only and will only mention what I deem the most logical choices for black metal: Either a track off Darkthrone's "Transilvanian Hunger" or off Emperor's "In the nightside eclipse". Why? DT provide the very essence of raw BM while E represent the pinnacle of symphonic BM; the respective best of those 2 realms, so to speak.

I always find these fun

Heavy Metal: Ozzy Osbourne- Crazy Train
It shows that unlike pop songs, the focus is on a riff in addition to vocal melodies and choruses.

Thrash Metal: Slayer- Angel Of Death

Black Metal: Bathory- Woman of Dark Desires

Death Metal: Obituary- Slowly We Rot
Because it shows that death metal is about musical feeling and rawness, and that its not really supposed to wander out side the realm of, well, death and dying.

Doom Metal: Candlemass- Solitude
The loneliness, the sorrow, the despair.

Power Metal: Blind Guardian- Mirror Mirror
Fast, catchy melodies, the preoccupation with fantasy (Tolkien in this case)

Grindcore: Napalm Death- You Suffer

Prog-Metal: Rush- Natural Science

Thanks man, I was leaning toward that song too

For me these songs exemplify each genre based on music and imagery.

Thrash: Exodus - And then there were none. Riff-oriented, violent, apocalyptic that is what thrash is all about.

Power: Helloween - I'm Alive. Self-empowering lyrics, catchy, and soaring vocals, this may be the song that spawned a thousand clones and the 'power' of it has not diminished over time.

Speed: Motorhead - Overkill. Aggressive, unpolished, and fast - raw distortion and a lot of attitude brought the 70's to a close and was the taste of things to come from the 80's

Crossover thrash:

Cryptic Slaughter - Menace to Mankind

This song embodies everything essential to xthrash: creative metal infused high-speed hardcore riffing that gets pretty heavy in some places, a catchy chorus that comes with the sudden force of a gut punch, brutally cynical and straightforward lyrics deliverd by a maniac vocalist, and the sense of righteous anger and frustration that permeates all.

For death metal I would use Morbid Angel - Rapture. The song has everything you might find in death metal: sinister riffing in all its forms; tremolo, some power chords chug, slow groovy riffs, you name it. Classic vocal delivery, wicked solos and varied drumming using fast double bass patterns, fast blastbeats, slower groove sections and even inverted thrash beat (solo sections).

I guess Deicide's Once Upon the Cross is also a candidate. The song embodies also everything you can find in standard death metal.

For black metal is harder since the style is way too diverse. I go for Dawn - The Knell and The World. Then again, the song is really diverse with all kind of riffing and structure that can be found in plenty of black metal albums. Gorgoroth's Bergtrollets Hevn is also a very standard track that shows how to play black metal unmistakably.

For the folky side of black metal I think Borknagar's The Winterway is the one. Acoustic guitars intertwined with folk inspired riffs, deep baritone clean vocals, savage black metal rasps, powerful blastbeats over tremolo riffs, 'olden' atmosphere and a terrific line up.

Heavy metal: Iron Maiden-Number of the Beast

Power metal: Blind Guardian-Mirror Mirror

Thrash: Slayer-Angel of Death

Black: Bathory-Enter the Eternal Fire

Death: Pestilence-Out of the Body

Doom: Candlemass-At the Gallows End

Progressive: Dream Theater-Under a Glass Moon

Melodic Death: Children of Bodom-Kissing the Shadows

Folk: Grai-Song of Mother Earth

Heavy Metal: Iron Maiden-Run To The Hills

Power Metal: Sonata Arctica-San Sebastian. Its a fast and melodic song with a great chorus, its pretty much a go to song to what people think of when it comes to PM.

Thrash:Sodom-Ausgembot. Self explanatory I think.

Black: Darkthrone-Skald Av Satans Sol

Death- Suffocation-Mass Obliteration

Melo Death: Im torn between listing In Flames-December Flower or Kalmah-Swamphell

Folk-As much as I dont like Eluveitie, I have to include Inis Mona. It's basically a sort of bridge for newer listeners to get into folky stuff.

Mine would be:

Heavy Metal: Judas Priest - Hell Bent For Leather. I was also tempted to choose Breaking The Law, but I think this one represents the essence of heavy metal better, I always thought it had a rather "metallic" sound; and it doesn't really fit in any other sub-genre or movement (other Judas Priest songs culd be seen as more NWOBHM, speed metal or hard rock oriented; while many representative songs by Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple etc... also fall in those categories often). So I think this song is the best representation of pure traditional heavy metal.

Power Metal: Helloween - Eagle Fly Free. Someone else in this thread mentioned "I'm Alive" spawned a thousand clones; but I think "Eagle" has spawned even more. Just the title of the song represents the typical lyrical content of the genre perfectly. It does have an incredibly uplifting chorus with extremely high vocals but doesn't sacrifice any of it's "metalness" and never ceases to be enjoyable for me, I think of it as the archetypical power metal song. It's also right in the middle of the power metal spectrum, not as rough as USPM but not as keyboard-saturated and flowery as the euro-power that followed. For me it's the most representative power metal anthem.

Black Metal: Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. This was a hard one because many black metal songs are highly representative and influential, mostly by other Norwegian 2nd wave bands like Emperor, Burzum, Darkthrone, Satyricon. However, I think this song defines the perfect middle ground for black metal; anything Burzum would be more on the ambient side, anything Emperor would be too much on the epic/symphonic side, anything Satyricon on the melodic/viking side and even Darkthrone too much on the "raw under-produced black metal" side that also spawned many clones. Even Mayhem's Freezing Moon is atypical for the genre because of its slow pace and presence of a solo.
This song, however, besides having all the tremolo-picking and blasting typical of black metal, has one of the most EVIL sounding riffs I've ever heard in any genre, and I think that's what black metal is most about. It still sends chills down my spine every time I listen to it and the controversy sorrounding the album it closes even gives it some historical value. This song is evil as black metal should be.

Nemesis - The King Is Dead: perfect doom metal song, recorded in 1983, in the early days of this sub-genre (except Sabbath of course). Started with the great solo and slow parts, showing hardcore punk roots then (you know, early doom metal rooted in the Sabbath and early 80's hardcore punk) in the riffing, the singer telling the story about the king and its crown. The entire song is slow and epic. Cave sounding.

Tokyo Blade - If Heaven Is Hell: traditional heavy metal in its awesomeness. It's all: acoustic parts in the beginning and the middle, clean vocals, "anvil"-pounding drums, great solo that _repeating_ over and over again (very important for the great heavy metal track!), the rhythm running through the entire song that makes you head bang... what else we need?

Riot - Flight of the Warrior: thinking of Riot, their "Thundersteel" is like the alpha and omega in the power metal subgenre along with two "Keepers of the Seven Keys". Can't say anything else.

Iron Angel - Rush of Power: speed metal is a big debate. Does it really exist? Listen to this song and you will be sure of it!

Testament - Over the Wall: this one is immediately comes when I'm thinking for a perfect example of thrash. Fast, faster, the fastest... then slow mosh parts, great solo... and then repeat the thrash part itself! Scream in the end of the song. Thrash Metal Classic after "Bonded by Blood" and "Master of Puppets".

Benediction - Graveworm: deep growls, grunting, crushing, heavily distorted bloody riffs, short solo in the middle, drum artillery - pure death metal in its golden years (1991 to be exact)! No blastbeats, but it is not always required.

Tsjuder - Possessed: I had a feeling that black metal in its primal form is something like this. With its coldness, grimness, rawness, well, blackness. Let's not forget thrash roots and slow parts too (building a good black metal song only depending on endless blasts is not good at all).

Death Metal has to be a track from Bolt Thrower, because you're not going to confuse it with any other style of metal. It's nothing else but death metal.

Except grind though.

Seconding Bathory's "Woman of Dark Desires" for black metal. That grim, dirty, infernal atmosphere of the song with such dirty production is the ultimate quintessence of black metal music.
Immortal's "Solarfall" is close to it, but I guess it's more in the black/thrash side.

Under the Sign of the Black Mark is too early a pioneer of black metal to be prime example if you ask me. Many of the idiosyncratic techniques and qualities of black metal are not present on the album. It's very primal and basic; a foundation for others to build on. While it already contains many of the identity forming aspects of the genre, it also lacks too many of them.

At the Heart of Winter on the other hand is unsuitable because of opposite reasons. After Battles in the North, Immortal began borrowing a lot from other genres, and on their 1999 album this tendency was so strong that "black metal" hardly captures what they were doing anymore. It makes little sense to regard any song from that album as exemplary for the genre.

Every. fucking. time. this song is perfect. A close second would probably be something like Gorgoroth's "Måneskyggens Slave" - which is just streamlined black metal, taking all of the elements but without the punky brashness of Darkthrone.

I would add "Funeral Fog" to that list of arc typical black metal songs. It has non-traditional vocals, but the riffs are black metal excellence, coupled with fantastic drums.

^ Yeah, definitely a song I would consider a textbook example of black metal in almost every way.

Couple really quickly, with the only real criteria being "if somebody asked me 'what is [genre]?', what would I show them first?":

HEAVY: Iron Maiden - 2 Minutes to Midnight. This was a super easy choice for me and required basically a nanosecond of forethought. Every single note here completely encapsulates what traditional heavy metal is all about. You've got the signature melodies, galloping swagger, huge vocals with an even bigger chorus, every element sticks with you and each one is instantly recognizable as a staple in the subgenre. I mean hell, it has that riff in it. You know the one. That riff is so iconic archetypical that it's colloquially known as "The 2 Minutes to Midnight Riff" despite it being in like four legendary metal songs before this one. I mean sure, there are better songs (like anything Mercyful Fate wrote from 1981-84), but bands like Fate have a variable like King, who is just so completely out of this world unique that you really cant use them as a watermark for the entire style. I view it like this: trad metal, like "that riff", wasn't invented by Iron Maiden, but they sure as hell perfected it.

THRASH: Slayer - Angel of Death. Contrary to the previous entry, this was much harder for me. I asked myself "what do you consider to be the thrashiest thrash song?", and my options came up with this, Agent Orange, Hammerhead, and Bonded By Blood. All of them share some very obvious elements, but I gave the nod to Slayer for two reasons. One was that I will always maintain that Reign in Blood sort of "figured out" thrash in the sense that it pushed it to its logical extreme without becoming some sort of gimmick or something else entirely. You hear a song like Angel of Death and everything is immediately identifiable as thrash with no other sort of qualifier. The second reason is because, at the end of the day, every thrash band wishes they were Slayer.

DOOM: Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath. If you don't understand why this is the obvious, non-negotiable correct answer, then you don't deserve to have it explained to you.

BLACK: Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. I mentally had Ulver's Of Wolf and Fear penciled in when I first started brainstorming, but Ferturi made a great point in that this is pretty much the most centralized example of black metal without veering too far into any one of the spokes in the monstrous spiderweb that is the genre. If I was gonna branch off into symphonic I'd probably say some Emperor song like everybody else is, or if going in another direction I'd reach back for that Ulver song, but for the entire umbrella of black metal, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a more representative song. Pretty much the only atypical thing you can find are the vocals, but that's the least important element when the riffs, drumming, and most importantly, malicious atmosphere are just so fine tuned and fucking perfect.

DEATH: Suffocation - Infecting the Crypts. This one is gonna kill me. I don't even have one picked as I'm starting to type. Possibly because it's just the genre I spend the most time with, it's really hard to narrow it down to the perfect representation. Something that gets everything down perfectly, from the blasts to the growls to the riffs to the pummeling morbidity. Chapel of Ghouls? No, it has the attitude and the non-thrashiness of true death metal, but it has that long section with the synths too. How about Serpents of the Light? No, way too light and melodic despite having some of the most vicious lyrics out there. Hammer Smashed Face? Pull the Plug? Infecting the Crypts? Those three are all perfect, and they're the three I've been tossing around in my head all day. And then I realized I was focusing on America and totally overlooked the perfect candidates in Left Hand Path and Override of the Overture. Just. Fuck I quit, take 'em all. Infecting the Crypts is my favorite of those five, let's just go with that one.

POWER: Helloween - Eagle Fly Free. The answer is probably something shitty like Sonata Arctica or Stratovarius, but the truth is that I dislike both bands and barely know anything of them, so I'm gonna fall back on the albums that are sort of responsible for creating the entire genre. I hate to make it seem like I'm just copying Ferturi's post here, but he nailed this one as well. In all honesty, I don't much like this double album either, and part of me really wants to back out and try to convince you all that the answer is actually something from Blind Guardian or Gamma Ray, but really BG is too unique once they became straight power metal and Gamma Ray is just building on the foundation that Kai laid down in Helloween. There's really no more archetypical song than Eagle Fly Free, and there's a reason it's one of the only Kiske-era songs I can stand.

SPEED: Helloween - Ride the Sky. Yes I differentiate speed metal from power metal. Yes I know that's two Helloween songs in a row. Yes I know that Gates to Purgatory is actually the best speed metal album of all time. I'm sorry, just everything that makes speed metal what it is, its own little impenetrable niche oddity that it is, can be found on Walls of Jericho. And within there, we find Ride the Sky, which is pretty much the most archetypical song in all of song archetypes. The insane speed and wailing vocals of an adorably prepubescent Kai blend with the masterful melodies and hooks. Everything is here, and everything is perfect. For what it's worth, Blind Guardian's Valhalla is an extremely close second.

Brutal death metal: murder kit by amputated genitals
Death metal: revocate the agitator. By deicide
Thrash: no remorse. By Metallica
Power groove: throes of rejection. By pantera
Heavy metal: victim of changes. By Judas priest
Black metal: grim and frostbitten kingdoms. By immortal

Thrash : Metallica - Master of Puppets

the riffs & intensity

Grindcore : Pig Destroyer - Towering Flesh

amazing brutality & melody at the same time

perfect contrast of styles

Black Metal : Phantom - Divine Necromancy

Raw atmospheres at their best



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T5KIPDwrr8

Death Metal : Cannibal Corpse - Hammer Smashed Face

A classic, good mix of brutality and technicality

Brutal Death : Devourment -Unleash the Carnivores

INTENSITY !!!!

Come on guys, I thought this was an interesting idea that could spawn fun discussion, quit shitting it up.

Nah, Helloween probably is more representative of the genre than those bands. Nocturnal Rites would be another good pick, but they follow the template Helloween created anyway.

I really don't hear much thrash on At the Heart of Winter. It's a pretty dubious choice to represent black/thrash when there's loads of better examples.

Well truth be told, I had initially planned on splitting it between Europower and USPM, with a yet undecided song as the former, and either Omen's Death Rider or Jag Panzer's License to Kill as the latter. Then I reread Ferturi's post and realized that Eagle Fly Free was actually a perfect middle ground between the goofy bombast and the blue collar riff mastery. I suppose I just didn't edit out my original thoughts quite well enough, haha.

Black Metal: Moonblood – In a Bloody Night of Full moon.

This song is quintessential to the genre. It would be one I would suggest to the relatively new or completely oblivious listener. It has such a raw, atmospheric and ominous feel to it. Musically it’s what you would expect to find in a good black metal song- Unconventional (yet beautifully made) song structure, simplistic and repetitive riffing, overuse of the snare drum complemented with typical black metal screeches. It would be remiss for anyone to overlook this track.

Brutal death metal is a tricky term because death metal is inherently "brutal" but most bands mix the brutality with tech death, like early Nile and Suffocation. My vote for straight brutal death metal would be Gorgasm, while the sterotypical slam record would be Molesting the Decapitated by Devourment. Goregrind refers to a deathgrind band with gore-themed vocals, such as Aborted. I'll also throw a few into the ring here.

Death metal: Cannibal Corpse- Hammer Smashed Face.

Thrash metal: Slayer- Raining Blood

Black metal: Marduk- Souls for Belial

Sludge metal: Crowbar- Slave no More

Industrial Metal :

Breathe - Ministry

This is not as explicitly motorik thrash as psalm 69, yet somehow nails the desolate / machines breaking down feel married to great hooks. Defines a genre.


Black Metal

I am the Black Wizards - Emperor

Remains the essence of BM for me, and the first thing i would play for anyone asking about BM.

Grind

Siege of Power - Napalm Death

Quintessential grind that illustrates the ugly lo-fi sound, the "discharge"/"blast" duality to perfection.

Modern Death Metal

Staring into the Abyss - Origin

This song illustrates the past and present of death metal in one glorious whole, without going overboard with the prog-tech-wank sections, and somehow still retains a very dark / classic feel (mostly thanks to an avoidance of the useless atonal riffing, without sounding like melodic DM).

Gothic Metal

White Slavery - Type O Negative

This song has more re-playability than most of the more famous ones, and nails the doomy/ sludgy/ dark yet tongue n cheek sound of Peter and Co. . Truly a timeless lesson in Gothic Metal.

Thrash Metal

Elimination - Overkill

This nails it. Balances the speed / technicality with the everyday joe and relevant lyrics. Plus you get to hear the MOP riff in a more frivolous context. But I have to admit, choosing this one was hard.

Post / Sludge-Metal

Tide - Neurosis

Most of the earlier stuff sounds to me like industrial doom metal (and fucking awesome), but here they embrace a more open looser sound to great effect. A perfect example of post-metal.