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Rock & metal
Guitar-centred music where amp tone, riff construction and drum attitude define the subgenre more than tempo does.
Sound and palette
Guitar tone is the genre's primary colour, and vague words like "heavy" do very little. Specific language works: clean valve amp with spring reverb, crunchy overdriven Marshall tone, thick high-gain rhythm guitar, palm-muted, fuzz-drenched vintage tone, drop-tuned chugging riffs. Tuning is a useful shortcut too — drop D or drop C immediately signals weight, while standard tuning with jangly chords signals indie or classic rock.
The rest of the palette follows the subgenre. Classic rock wants Hammond organ, a driving bass and a natural kit. Stoner and doom want fuzz, slow tempos and a woolly low end. Thrash wants tight palm-muted riffs and fast double-kick. Post-hardcore and metalcore want layered clean and harsh vocals with breakdowns. Shoegaze-adjacent rock wants layered reverb and pitch-shifted guitar washes.
- Rhythm guitar: palm-muted chug, open power chords, jangly arpeggios, fuzzed-out wall.
- Lead guitar: bluesy bends, melodic harmonised twin leads, fast shred, feedback swells.
- Bass: fingerstyle driving eighths, picked and clanky, fuzz bass doubling the riff.
- Drums: natural room kit, tight modern metal kit, double-kick, half-time breakdown.
- Extras: Hammond organ, strings on a ballad, synth pad under a metal chorus.
Rhythm and tempo range
Tempo bands map fairly cleanly onto subgenres. Doom and sludge live at 60–85 BPM. Classic and hard rock sit at 100–140. Punk and pop-punk run 160–200. Thrash runs 170–220 with double-kick. Metalcore often alternates: fast verses with a half-time breakdown around 90 BPM felt against a written 180.
Drum attitude is as important as tempo. Loose, slightly ahead-of-the-beat punk drumming, tight machine-precise metal kit, swinging bluesy rock groove and tom-heavy tribal pattern produce distinct results. If you want a breakdown, say so explicitly, including where it lands.
| Subgenre | Tempo | Signature |
|---|---|---|
| Doom / stoner | 60–85 BPM | Fuzz riffs, heavy cymbal wash, slow bends |
| Classic rock | 100–132 BPM | Bluesy riffs, organ, natural room drums |
| Alt / grunge | 92–124 BPM | Quiet verse, loud chorus, thick distortion |
| Punk / pop-punk | 160–200 BPM | Straight eighths, shouted hooks |
| Metalcore | 150–190 BPM | Palm-muted riffs, half-time breakdown |
| Thrash | 180–220 BPM | Fast downpicking, double-kick, tight snare |
Vocal behaviours
Rock and metal vocals span the widest range of any family, so specify precisely. Clean options: gritty rock tenor, soaring melodic clean vocal, smoky low alto, shouted gang vocals on the chorus. Harsh options: mid-range screamed vocal, low guttural growl, raspy black-metal shriek. Metalcore's characteristic mix — screamed verses, clean sung chorus — should be stated as a structural instruction.
Harsh vocals reduce lyric intelligibility, which is idiomatic but worth choosing consciously. If you want the words audible, ask for clean vocals, clear diction or reserve the harsh delivery for one section.
Production character and pitfalls
Mix language should match the era. Raw live room, natural drums, minimal editing for classic and garage rock; modern metal production, tight low end, scooped mids, clicky kick for contemporary metal; lo-fi, blown-out, tape-compressed for garage and punk; wall of reverb, layered guitars, vocals buried for shoegaze-leaning work.
Pitfalls: asking for "heavy metal" with no tone or tempo details and receiving generic mid-tempo hard rock; combining clean vintage tone with modern scooped metal mixing; forgetting that double-kick needs a fast tempo to make sense; and stacking so many guitar layers that the riff stops being audible. As always, one riff idea clearly stated beats three vaguely described ones.
- Describe the amp tone, not just the adjective heavy.
- Match tempo to subgenre; double-kick at 100 BPM sounds wrong.
- State vocal type explicitly, including where harsh and clean alternate.
- Use quiet-loud contrast rather than constant maximum intensity.
- Choose one era of mix character.