Groove metal is, naturally, a subgenre of Heavy Metal. Considered either an evolution of Thrash Metal or a return to metal's blues-rock roots, groove metal is characterised by bluesy, slow-to-mid-tempo guitar riffs and harsh vocals. It's a very obscure genre name, but the bands from the genre are not. First of all, who played groove metal first? Let's not get into that. Mentioning Pantera, Exhorder and "stole from" in the same sentence is guaranteed to cause Internet Backdraft, so let's not have discussions about who stole from whom. Bands typically considered to be groove metal include: