Extreme metal

Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual transgression".

The term usually refers to a more abrasive, harsher, underground, non-commercialized style associated with the speed metal, thrash metal, black metal, death metal, and doom metal genres. Hardcore punk has been considered an integral part of the development of extreme metal in song structure and speed, apart from the case of doom metal.

• You wanted it heavier, faster, more extreme, and of course, you had the speed and thrash metal scene, along comes the early black metal scene, then the death metal scene, and at that point, when I got into death metal, I was 14-15 years old, and I was just learning a few licks on the guitar, and I thought, 'I could do that. I could do 'You Suffer' by Napalm Death.' You didn't necessarily have to be on the right fret, you know, just make noise, that's how it started. I always wanted to be a really good lead guitar player, like Yngwie Malmsteen style, that's what I wanted, but I never practiced, never got there, and nobody else in the band at the time, when I started with my first band, Eruption, nobody wanted to be the singer. And I was, like, 'Well, I guess I'll be the singer.' And then because I couldn't really sing like Celine Dion, you know, I tried to do the screams instead.
  • Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth, as quoted by Jomatami of Ultimate-Guitar [1]