For those who prefer heavier sound, we have picked some of the easiest heavy metal songs to play on guitar.
As for metal music, nowadays there are many genres and sub-genres, since it has been always evolving and crossed with other music genres and styles. But heavy metal is one of the founding and initial sounds of metal. Anyhow, there are often disputes and many disagreements between metal music fans about a band belonging to a certain metal subgenre, especially because many bands tend to develop a unique recognizable sound, using particular distinctions or features of different metal subgenres. So, for verification, so to say, whether a band is categorized as heavy we have consulted Encyclopedia Metallum, as the largest source of information on metal bands. And while there are many bands, as we have noted, fusing many genres of metal and other kinds of music, we will tend to pick those bands that are considered as heavy metal (or NWOBHM, see later) nowadays. Ok, so we have figured out what we want to have on our list, but how do we see metal and particularly heavy metal music today?
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It all started in the 1960s, deeply rooted in the popular music of that time, namely rock music that was in a stage of maturing at that age, after it stated departing from its blues origins. The music being created in that time was more loud, rebellious, energetic, lyrics started being more harsh, describing social and youth problems of that time. That was the time when bands and individuals like Jimmy Hendrix, Led Zeppelin or Cream started shaping new, heavy, hard rock style of music. Then in 1968, Black Sabbath was formed, and ever since considered an establisher of a new sound, the heavy metal. They have introduced darker and heavier sound. And since then the avalanche started, with many new bands emerging, which had brought to the appearance new sounds and styles of the same music. That’s when all genre and subgenre “confusion” started: power metal, glam metal, progressive metal, shock rock and early punk, then the era of new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM), thrash metal, death metal, stoner metal, speed metal, and further, black metal, metalcore, goth metal, industrial metal, nu metal, grindcore… So, there’s this whole confusion of genres and different impacts on bands.
But let’s get back on the easiest heavy metal songs to play on guitar. This whole thing is, of course, subjective and depends on music skill levels. Because of that reason, we have started our research looking for songs for beginners on electric guitar. We have thus searched for opinions of guitar players on music forums oriented towards metal music. Those were Ultimate Guitar, Metalstorm, Metal Tabs and Guitar Master Class. So from those resources we have gathered information on which songs were the easiest for people to play as beginners. Most of them agree (considering the number of recommendations) on some particular bands such as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest or Iron Maiden, having in mind only heavy metal genre. So we didn’t want only those bands to fill our list, and we have also added others, according to other, but less numerous recommendations from those and similar forums.
Practicing any instrument requires dedication and practice on daily basis. There are many recommendations for practicing “metal” guitar playing. Those are practicing various exercises for both hands, including scales, arpeggios, fretting and so on. And even if metal is prime goal of your music development, apart from starting with easiest heavy metal songs to play on guitar be sure to go through various music styles like blues or jazz from which you can learn a lot, and of course don’t miss trying out some of the Easiest Famous Songs to Play on Guitar.
But for the part of your practice where you focus on heavy metal, we have tried to be as objective as we could in terms of picking only “pure” heavy metal for our list using the criteria we explained above. Surely not everyone will agree with this list, having to add some of their favorite songs or throw out some of the songs on the list, depending on guitar skills or music taste. But, here is the compilation of recommendations of some of the easiest heavy metal songs to play on guitar we found suitable for those interested in this sound:
