METAL MEGATHREAD

[gemj]

Not sure if it's efficient to decide and jump blindly into the metal scene, and I doubt there's any sort of tutorial, but eh let me try
 
I'd recommend trying to find a sub-genre or a few that you like at first, then only after go out and listen to albums and etc. A good way to test a certain genre is to listen to compilations. Whether it is your workout/study music, background music for gaming or active listening, you can get a glimpse of what the genre is about. I'd suggest Youtube cause that's all I'm very familiar with, but I'm sure Spotify Soundcloud or whatever else can also be great. There are plenty of channels who will propose 30 mins to 2 hours lists of songs that usually fit the same sub-genre and/or sometimes a theme.

First things off though, you'll need to actually know what genres there are out there. Not gonna name groups, cause for most of these I'm not that knowledgeable, but Google is your friend, and like I said it's better to start with general listening. This ain't an exhaustive list by any means (trust me, metalheads can get VERY creative and specific lol), it simply shows the main branching points. If you want a more complete list, click here. You can check detailed descriptions there too. Pretty much all of these have derivatives and sub sub-genres

Heavy metal
Grunge / punk rock (very early metal to some extent) ?
Glam metal
Speed metal
Trash metal
Black metal
Death metal
Doom metal
Nu metal
Grindcore
Metalcore
Progressive metal
Symphonic metal
Power metal
Folk metal

It's tough to navigate through all of this, so I suggest trying to stick to one genre first, figure out if you like some of its stuff or not, and then move on from there. Some sub-genres are similar, and the differences can also get very obvious.

Once you've found a sub-genre that you particularly like, now it's time to get into groups. You can either take your favourites from what you've heard and look at more of them, or continue searching for new material, but either way, I advise using Metal Archives:

https://www.metal-archives.com/

Tonnes of info about bans and members, complete discography with lyrics, very neat classification, details, reviews and more. It's easy to discover things you are likely to enjoy.

This should be a good start for any one willing to get into the metal world. I wouldn't give it a shot if you're only doing it as a chore, but if you genuinely start having a good time, it's worth it. A few people here are probably well informed on different sub-genres (@a7x3, @JEEJAYEM, @"Al Jolson" on the top of my head).

I'm a power metal nerd newbie if you ever need me ^^

appreciate this a lot man! I wouldn't say I'm jumping in blind; if being very familiar with grunge and prog/alt rock is a starting point then I'm there. I've dabbled in some niche metal bands that I've been recommended before, but I never really went whole hog, you know?

I'll probably be sticking to Spotify for most of this, but I'l have a muck around with YouTube too. I would say I sort of know what I want to look into, i.e. probably not glam rock and nu metal but everything else is fair game. I think you bring up a good point in sticking with what I like, so in the days coming I think I'll find a starting point and see what I can grab out of it. I had a look at Metal Archives; thank you for the resource (and the reply ^_^)!