Metal Radio

Metal is extreme music for extreme people, and that's its defining strength. Black Sabbath created the template by taking blues progressions and tuning the guitars down until everything sounded apocalyptic, and then Ozzy sang about darkness and paranoia over Tony Iommi's sludge-thick riffs. Metallica perfected the formula for speed and precision, building a genre where technical skill was non-negotiable and a single guitar riff could command a five-minute song. Iron Maiden showed that metal could be intellectual and fantasy-themed and still destroy a live audience. Metal has splintered into do…