Thrash Metal: What happened when heavy metal got combined with early punk attitude. Focuses almost entirely on guitar riffs. It is usually very fast with shouted or harsher melodic vocals. The most famous thrash metal bands are the 'Big Four' (Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax), but other notable examples include Testament, Exodus, Overkill and countless others who mostly sound pretty similar. Crossover thrash is generally thrash metal with more of a hardcore influence. Examples of that would be Municipal Waste and Stormtroopers of Death.
Death Metal: Started as a more extreme offshoot of thrash metal, and as such, early death metal (Possesed, early Death) sounds very thrashy, however, that sound has evolved a lot since then. Generally includes low growled vocals intertwined with the occasional high screams, with low tuned, usually highly complex guitar riffs and fast and technical drumming. Incredibly diverse sub-genre, if you can bear, or enjoy harsh vocals then you will definitely find death metal you like somewhere in the heap, from technical death metal (Gorguts) to melodic death metal (Amon Amarth), to progressive death (Edge of Sanity).
Black Metal: Also started as an offshoot of thrash, black metal generally focuses on atmosphere rather than individual instrumentation. Mainly high screaming vocals, and a raw, dark sound, black metal is the least accessible of the metal sub-genres, and also contains the highest percentage of crap bands (there are some absolute gems, but also mountains and mountains of rubbish to wade through). Like death metal, the sound is incredibly varied. Deathspell Omega sounds nothing like Leviathan, for example. Often features atmospheric keyboards, with less pronounced and obnoxious use than power and prog metal.
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