Biker metal dicirikan oleh pendekatan tempo menengahnya terhadap metal, suaranya yang "terasa berpasir dan Amerika", dan keselarasannya dengan budaya pengendara sepeda motor secara keseluruhan.[6] Genre ini telah dikontraskan dengan bentuk metal yang lebih lambat dan lebih opera, seperti karya Judas Priest di awal 2000-an.[7] Demikian pula, biker metal menghindari kecepatan dan keahlian yang menjadi terkenal di tahun 1980-an.[8]
Biker metal telah terbukti berpengaruh pada genre mulai dari speed metal hingga hardcore punk dan crust punk, dan merupakan bagian integral dari perkembangan metal ekstrim.[1][2] Giuseppe Sbrana dari grup musik heavy metal Botswanan Skinflint telah menyatakan bahwa grup musik biker metal sangat berpengaruh pada estetika grup musik heavy metal Afrika.[17]
Terminologi
Asosiasi dengan budaya biker telah hadir untuk sebagian besar seumur hidup heavy metal dan punk rock: Thin Lizzy sering difoto dengan sepeda motor membentang sejauh tahun 1973; Joan Jett muncul di sampul Outlaw Biker Magazine; Judas Priest menggunakan citra pengendara motor yang dimulai pada pertengahan 1970-an, namun juga banyak meminjam dari sadomasokisme;[18][19][20] dan gaya berpakaian metalhead yang umum terkait erat dengan gaya berpakaian geng motor.[21]Spin memuji vokalis Motorhead Lemmy sebagai yang pertama membawa budaya sepeda motor ke punk rock dan heavy metal, kemungkinan melalui pengaruh grup musik rok sebelumnya seperti Steppenwolf, Lynyrd Skynyrd dan Grateful Dead.[20] Penggunaan awal istilah "heavy metal" bahkan hadir dalam lagu Steppenwolf tahun 1968 "Born to Be Wild", mengacu pada sepeda motor.[22]
^Gaines, Donna. Teenage Wasteland: Suburbia's Dead End Kids. hlm. 191.
^WIEDERHORN, JON (24 March 2017). "39 years ago: Motorhead paved the way for Thrash with second album 'overkill'". Loudwire. Diakses tanggal 23 September 2018. With their 1977 self-titled debut, Motörhead opened the floodgates for a new style of bluesy, bombastic biker metal, but two years later, on March 24, 1979, they rewrote the rule book altogether with the more urgent, combustive Overkill.
^Grinder, Sleaze (7 March 2016). "Flash Metal Suicide: Steve Jones". Classic Rock. Diakses tanggal 23 September 2018. So naturally, Jones wanted to keep the motor revving. And as we rolled into the last gasp of the 80s, biker metal was where it was at. COP, Warrior Soul, Zodiac Mindwarp, Spread Eagle, Horse London, Two Bit Thief, The Cult, Four Horsemen, I mean, everybody had long hair and dangling earrings and black biker boots and snorted whiskey and guzzled gasoline in '89. Biker metal was glam metal gone Mad Max, basically, and 1989 was truly the Year of Manly Living.
^Epstein, Dan; Bienstock, Richard; Shteamer, Hank; Krovatin, Christopher; Grow, Cory; Hudak, Joseph (29 December 2015). "Motorhead's Lemmy: 20 Essential Songs". Rolling Stone. Diakses tanggal 3 July 2019. A herald of the laid-back biker metal of the band's latter years, "Born to Raise Hell" is a Motörhead classic lacking any pretense.
^Bienstock, Richard. "25 Most Anticipated Metal Albums of 2016". Rolling Stone. Diakses tanggal 23 September 2018. Former Ozzy Osbourne guitar man Zakk Wylde spends most of his time these days churning out doomy biker metal with Black Label Society
^Bienstock, Richard (18 September 2018). "See type o negative's massive, melancholic live cover of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid"". Diakses tanggal 23 September 2018. Seeing as Type O Negative are the band that brought heavy-metal doom to goth rock, it's no surprise that they were huge Sabbath fans. And while their best-known Sabbath cover is "Black Sabbath," from the original '94 Nativity in Black tribute album, a few years earlier (it was tacked on as a bonus cut to 1992's "live" album The Origin of the Feces) they took on the Sab's biker-metal classic "Paranoid," turning into a very Type O–esque dirge.
^Bienstock, Richard (11 February 2016). "10 Epic Live Black Sabbath Covers". Guitar World. Diakses tanggal 23 September 2018. And while their best-known Sabbath cover is "Black Sabbath," from the original '94 'Nativity in Black' tribute album, a few years earlier (it was tacked on as a bonus cut to 1992's "live" album 'The Origin of the Feces') they took on the Sab's biker metal classic "Paranoid," turning into a very Type O-esque dirge.
^Marshall, Frank (31 March 2011). "Botswana's Cowboy Metalheads". Vice Media. Diakses tanggal 23 September 2018. Also many metalheads in Botswana are cowboys from the villages and farms, so they mix the cowboy image with a biker metal look
^Cope, Andrew L. (115). Black Sabbath and the Rise of Heavy Metal Music. Routledge.
^Bayer, Gerd. Heavy Metal Music in Britain. hlm. 136.