/guid/9202a8c04000641f80000000004fe2d9 rename

Traditional heavy metal, also known as classic metal or simply heavy metal, is the seminal genre of...

Traditional heavy metal, also known as classic metal or simply heavy metal, is the seminal genre of heavy metal music before the genre "evolved and splintered into many different styles and subgenres.". Basically, the short, original, and proper term for this genre is "heavy metal", but as Michka Assayas notes in his dictionary of rock, the term "heavy metal" may sometimes be used in different senses. As a matter of fact, while the term can refer to the seminal style, it also can be used as a large umbrella term for any subgenres deriving from it (heavy metal= metal [see Heavy Metal article]). Hence the term "traditional heavy metal" or classic heavy metal may be employed to avoid confusions with the larger sense. In order to avoid the potential ambiguity, others like Sharpe Young may use the term "heavy metal" exclusively to refer to original genre and use the term "metal" instead to refer to the global genre including subgenres. Similarly Paul Dunoyer also uses the term heavy metal to refer to the original style exclusively. Assayas's Rock Dictionary points out another ambiguity of the term "heavy metal" and notes that in certain context, some may consider it as synonymous to