What phono cartridge is suited for metal and heavy rock?

Its impossible to make a cartridge favor a certain genre. What makes it good for metal will make it good for jazz too. With high output cartridges, if not loaded properly they can be bright due to high frequency resonances caused by the inductance of the cartridge in parallel with the capacitance of the tonearm cable. That is why low capacitance cables are used for phono signals!

You'll also find that the ability of the arm to track the cartridge properly far outweighs the cartridge character! Put another way, if the arm isn't doing its job properly neither will the cartridge. Paying attention to proper setup is really important too!

I've yet to hear a cartridge that could not do Fields of Nephilim, Black Sabbath and Verdi's Requiem all equally well. 

I think you'll find that controlling vibration around the turntable is a big deal if the turntable is in the room with the speakers. Anti-vibration platforms can really help the deep bass, smoothness in the highs at high volumes!

iv always found most metal music badly recorded.

Regards, Alex-77:

Lots of good suggestions above.

Recently excavated from my pile of pickups, a rather primitive Shure M75ED body already mounted to an ADC 6gm magnesium headshell. Tags appear to be sturdy AT6101’s. No memory of where/when it was obtained. Absent the stylus so prowled the internet and landed on V-M Audio Enthusiasts, selected a Swiss EVG .3 x .7 nude elliptical, a very reasonable thirty dollars to revive the vintage cart.

Aligned to Stevenson, loaded it at 100k/200pF. 1.4gm downforce. First up, Kraftwerk "Autobahn". Driving bass, rich mids but the Hf’s a little on the etched side. It immediately put a smile on my face, even bringing life to Tulls’ rather wispy "Aqualung". I’ll play with loading in a bit.

Well aware of the distinction between enthusiast and audiophile level transducers, not a recommendation but rather a report. If Vivaldi is your cup ’o tea one might look elsewhere.

A voiceing from the past, on my EPA-250 TA this cartridge/stylus combination has a huge boogie factor.

Peace,

iv always found most metal music badly recorded.

It can be really hit or miss, even within a band’s catalog. It can also get expensive because even the ones that don’t sound great can go for a LOT of money, and you can’t trust the reviews on DiscOgs AT ALL. But there are a lot of really great sounding metal records out there, and even some spectacular ones.

From my own modest collection, the following are spectacular: Avantasia’s Metal Opera 1 & 2 and Wicked Symphony (Moonglow comes close), Iced Earth’s The Glorious Burden, Rage Soundchaser, Metallica "Black" 45 RPM box from 2008, Metallica Load OG, Helloween Keeper 1 & 2, most of Magnum’s catalog, Iron Maiden Brave New World, Blind Guardian Nightfall, Nightwish Decades box, the Edguy box, the Megadeth classics (RIP, Countdown), Van Canto Voices of Fire, Opeth Morningrise, a couple from Porcupine Trees, the first 3 OG’s from Cirith Ungol, Danzig...oh and Warrant Cherry Pie sounds ridiculously good but that’s more hard rock / hair metal. There’s loads out there worth chasing, and worth playing on a great hi-fi.