Thread: What is metal?

You can take all of the posts on this forum over the last year,put them together and you still wouldn't have enough to completely describe metal. Good luck my friend.

It's a genre of music, a culture and for some people, far more.

its hard to say what makes something metal and something else not metal, with every "rule" you have for making something metal, there will be a metal band who breaks it. you could say it has to be aggresive but then you'll have bands like Earth or Sunn O))) who arent aggresive but still metal. you could say it isnt happy but then you'll have power metal bands doing the happiest metal you could imagine. its funny though isnt it, with all this ambiguity, i think its pretty easy to tell whether something is metal or not

yeah, right Pel, but isn't it more fun to actually describe it?

I'll start:
Genrewise - anything related to music between white noise and the sickest, vilest black or death metal, from jin&yang-happy tunes to the most depressing images on any given media (tape, instrument, vinyl, digital, etc),
Energy - also not too easy to describe. I can get goosebumps with an Anathema intro or blasting Cannibal Corpse as loud as my body can stand. Musical energy is usually powerfull, whether it's silent or bashing
People - could be anyone; male, female, 'not certain'. MRU-members (and the ones to be) and metal heads can be found amongst musicians, clerks, firemen and arsonists, cooks and eaters, football players and sloths, municipal workers, actors, of any belief: christians like The Fraterno Metallo, atheists, agnostics, jews, muslim, satanist, buddhist
Sound - Kerrangg!! (thank you Lemmy)
Volume - nuff said
Intonation - whispers and screams, gore lyrics, grunts, heavenly female voices, raspy thrash voices

All of the above AND none of the above. Metal is life. Metal is energy. Metal is (meeting) people. Metal Worldwide

Since Mr.All Bass was not around way back when I posted my rules for metal, I will bring them back here.
Remember these are just my personal rules, there are many exceptions.

1. NO Ballads
2. No wimpy singers (Winger)
3. No Keyboards
4. No pink clothing
5. No playing of air guitar
6. Guitars rule, Singer shall not be more important than the guitars
7. Drum solos no longer than 30 seconds
8. No audience participation at concerts.
9. No acoustic guitars
10. Guitars Bass Drums = Metal
Oh I almost forgot No chanting things that aren't words like AY Ay Ay Yeah
or Who oh oh oho.

Stach,
Your rules are fine 'cept for No. 1 and especially No. 8.

My metal has to be organic, meaning not to much distortion, effects, too polished sound of recordings. It is hard to describe what it NEEDS to be, but it has to be from the heart, not aimed at Billboard charts and Kerrang! reviews. In case of doubt, refer to any Motorhead or Darkthrone album for guidance.

Well, objectively metal doesn't "exist" in the same way that good and bad don't actually "exist". I stopped worrying about it once I realized that every 5 years another new sound comes along that doesn't sound a thing like the other. When Stratovarius and Anal Blasphemy can be grouped in the same genre, I stop worrying about it personally.

I disagree with stach's rules. IMO, thrash is THE metal genre, and it DEFIANTLY has ballads. Besides, weather you like it or not, glam is a form of metal and it violates MANY of those rules. herrieman's definition is epic...like to the point where (if it wasn't so long), I'd make it my sig, or post it on FB!

Originally Posted by Moloc

Rule No. 3 should be rule No. 1.

That depends on how keyboards are used. Take black/ambient metal for instance, I can't imagine it without keys creating background creepiness. It's been a long time since keyboards and metal AND balls do not exclude one another.

Originally Posted by resevil239

herrieman's definition is epic...like to the point where (if it wasn't so long), I'd make it my sig, or post it on FB!

This was only a small taste of what I wanted to state

this is why i don't have any of those rules. people argue about them despite the fact that you say that they are just personal rules with exceptions.

Originally Posted by About2Crash

this is why i don't have any of those rules. people argue about them despite the fact that you say that they are just personal rules with exceptions.

That is exactly it Crash.
Those are my rules.
There are exceptions and nobody has to agree with the rules.
The only reason I posted was the question was asked so That was my answer.

I love metal ballads, love keyboards, love audience participation and chants (as long as they don't last too long and aren't in every song) and love a good metal acoustic set

But I love folk metal and prefer melodic dm/bm so I guess this is why it differs

Metal shouldn't have rules. And you've got to manyt kinds of metal so you can't say if it's metal or not if it's too soft or if there are keyboards in it. It's only my opinion.

Metal is a belief in my way of thinking!

Originally Posted by KISSandCooper

Metal shouldn't have rules. And you've got to manyt kinds of metal so you can't say if it's metal or not if it's too soft or if there are keyboards in it. It's only my opinion.

Metal is a belief in my way of thinking!

good point. After all, isnt part of metal (as a subculture, not just a type of music) about being against the mainstream, or at least different from it? In my mind, part of being a metalhead is being open minded. If we set such strict rules as to what is and isn't metal, then don't we loose that part of metal?