I have quite many friends who listen to modern metal music and most of them have the idea that metal must be very dark with a really brutal sound. This includes grouling vocals and bass drum beating something like 16th notes. Anything aside from that they don't really like to call metal. So I had the idea to start a discussion here about what any of you considers metal and what are the essential characteristics of it. Of course everyone has a different idea and you cannot get a universal definition. That's why it would be interesting to discuss it.
Heh... I think that music that is similiar to rock, but heavier is metal... That's the only way for me to explain it... And there is no true or false metal... Lol i just saw that you're Estonian too Yay where do you live?
Metal is just rock and roll that is either a. faster than usual b. heavier than usual there are many sub genres that spawn from metal but I think for the overall genre that is "metal" those two points sum it up. I don't think growling always defines metal music but it probably does.
Yeah, with so many subgenres today it's really hard to find the difference. I mean if rock'n'roll was originally a guitar driven music with a backbeat and a blues backgroud then heavy metal emphasized its heaviness and power with power chords and complicated solos. I think you can hear when some artists are trying to be heavy. Even when you're listening to a really old track you can understand that they want to be heavyer than usual. It i s quite relative. To Raivin: in Tartu currently - I study here.
It's heavier than ususal for sure, that's not because it's the main goal in metal, but it is what makes it metal indeed. This is generally done by going more extreme then in rock, for example: emphasize on tempo (slow in genres like doom, fast in genres as thrash metal, grindcore but also in power metal), technique (often death metal, but also in progressive), low tuned (doom), distortion, epic sound (and so often bombastic), etc. etc.
Yes this is a topic I have certainly struggled with since I first started listening to metal. I do find it frustrating when so many bands feel the need to add 270 beat per minute double-kick drums over every riff, and how so many metal guitarists have oversized egos as if there is a competition to see who can play the fastest and most technical guitar solos. But Metal is such a diverse genre nowdays, particualy in recent years the traditional barrier between what is metal and what isnt gets crossed often- ie I often find myself listing to music that sounds like jazz played with distorted guitars, or folk music played by people who wear corpse-paint. The problem is a lot of metalheads are just too patriotic about what music they listen to and set up genre barries by constantly sorting out every band into subgenres example Blackened-technical-death-metal. Idk, I guess thers just a lot of angry metal heads who just want to argue about what is true metal. lol
A lot of my friends that I don't hang out with too often but smoke a lot of ganja with were definitely really into modern metal before me and that's something I noticed. They're so closed minded about metal overall. I'll try to talk to them about the variety of metal I listen to and most comments are negative. Pretty much heavily into grindcore and technical death metal and not much else. Even if they like other subgenres, it's only something like "Yea, they're okay." Me, I was an oldschool metalhead early on. Then I picked up the weed and dropped a lot of that getting into jambands. But as time went on I really appreciated psychedelic music. As I got into more intense psychedelia I became interested in trying out other forms of intense music. What I decided is I do pretty much love intense music and to me it's all psychedelic (Jerry was said all music was psychedelic.) So fuck the rest of them, I like anything that sounds good to me.
I really like old heavy metal like Led Zeppelin, some punk-metal like the Nymphs and I like new Sludge metal like the Melvins, but I don't really think they should all be called metal. There really should've been a different label because they all sound so different. Then there's black metal and death metal and prog metal... they sound nothing alike!
haha, I get it! Metal is heavier than a rock. Makes sense. ^^ And yea, Led Zeppelin is the shit, great stuff.
But Nu-Metal isn't heavy at all. Speaking of that, I really hate this fake-heavy shit, you know what I mean? It's like really "loud" to make all the 13-year-old kids thing they're listing to "heavy metal, man" but it's actually just a wall of pop guitar.
there are definately sludge/doom bands that i would classify as metal. it actually is my favorite metal genre. like moksamedicine I really gor into psychedelic rock at some point, but also into hardcore and i see many bands in these genres like a fusion of the best these two genres have to offer. i like a bit of trash like slayer and metallica but that's probably it as for my taste for metal music.
Metal is what ever you want it to be As in everyone has their own opinion on whats metal and whats not. Metal to me is awsome riffs, harmonic/brutal vocals, the unexpecting, atmospheric.... just liike opeth Opeth is metal.. everything else is just a sub genre of opeth heavy metal = heavy opeth doom metal = doom opeth funeral metal = funeral opeth etc etc love it or leave it
Metal has always been difficult to define for me, you see there are bands like Burzum who's lead singer was jailed in '93 for killing Euronymous. He released albums under the name of Burzum using only a synth machine, that being all he was allowed to play. It sounds like ambient medieval music, which is very classical in a sense. This brings me to another point - I find metal to be very similar to Classical music especially in the guitar solos and harmonic style. A few modern bands, for instance Between The Buried And Me, remind me of classical music most of all for their lack of a cohesive time signature and the oftentimes aloof changes they make. That's pretty much why I make the connection. The metal bands that have distinctive verses and choruses in the traditional song structure found amongst most modern popular music obviously would not fall into this category. Again, I am at a loss, but made at least a thready connexion. What are your thoughts?
I have dropped calling things 'metal' in favour of more specific genres.. the music that was once metal has now spread far beyond its own boundaries that its impossible to pin down.
