Web designer Patrick Galbraith has built the Map Of Metal – an interactive tool for exploring the world of metal. It is a bit like Ishkur’s Guide to Electronic Music but for metal. The map shows how the various subgenres of metal are connected, provides descriptions of the various subgenres (culled from Wikipedia) and plays full track examples of each type of music (drawn from Youtube). The map has a funky design sense that adds to the fun. Patrick uses denim, patches of leather, chains, threads , band-aids, buttons, pins and a whole lot of skulls to knit the whole visualization together.
There’s lots of information crammed into this hand made visualization. There are about a hundred metal genres represented, (South American death Metal anyone?), era, connections, influences, and lots of music. Each genre is represented by a dozen or so representative artists and tracks. Unlike Ishkur’s, the Map Of Metal plays full tracks so the music never stops while you are exploring. It is certainly a whole lot more interesting than the map of metal I built a few years ago by analyzing Last.fm tags:
I do wish that I could see the whole map at once – there is a navigation map that shows the whole thing but it is far too small to give me a sense of the whole space.
The Map Of Metal is good fun. Worth checking out.
Music Machinery 