How do you map metal? Um, what is the square root of awesome? This flashy (and sadly, Flash-driven) site layers audio, visual and historical information to showcase micro-genres of metal. By superimposing genres onto a Game of Thrones-esque map, with the time axis moving left to right, viewers can see the development of metal in a whole new way. Like, for instance, the peninsula of Goth Metal.
Or John Herrman's favorite, Mathcore.
Graphing music is tricky; I did it once for McSweeney's and it took months to decide what a genre even meant. The navigation on the Metal Map is a bit wonky but it's an ambitious stab at getting beyond the meaningless infographic.