Top 10 Most Annoying Things About Metal Music

Metal is a truly amazing genre of music. It takes a lot of talent to write and play, and it deserves a lot more credit than it gets. But like anything, no matter how good it is, there are some things about metal that (with lack of a better word) can annoy the living crap out of some people. Here are some of those things. Also, for those of you who are going to say I don't like metal, or I don't like some of the bands on this list, please read this: I LIKE METAL AND I LIKE EVERY BAND THAT I TALK ABOUT ON THIS LIST!
The Top Ten
1 Everyone Accuses It of Being Satanic

This should be on top. In multiple countries, this has been the stereotype. Plus, it is total idiocy to call it "satanic" just because you think every metal band is a part of the Illuminatti. This kind of stupidity has spread in the internet, and even a user on this site still promotes this moronic misconception.

This one really irritates me, there are several "Christian based" bands out there. I'm catholic and I love Five Finger Death Punch, Slipknot, Killswitch Engage, and so on.

Not many people know that the members of Black Sabbath, one of the first popular metal bands, were all members of the Anglican church and prayed before every show.

2 Beat Changes

I love metal, but these can go die in a hole! If your song has only one or two beat changes, that's fine. But if your beat changes every 15 seconds, it really makes the song hard to get into. The worst part about it is that metal would sound a lot better if it didn't have any beat changes. It's not like they're absolutely necessary. Lyrics and riffs would flow a lot better without beat changes. So how did they make it into metal anyway? I don't know, but it must have been some sort of freak accident. Beat changes are easily the most annoying thing in metal!

3 You Have To Listen To Every Song A Lot To Really Appreciate It

While this can be annoying, I like to think that any music worth listening to takes time to get used to. Good, more complex music doesn't immediately appeal to the ears like simple-minded pop music does and its appeal lasts ages longer than pop. Of course, this primarily only concerns the musically-inclined. Most of society, truthfully, doesn't have the capacity to recognize and appreciate where the REAL quality music exists. All most people need to be happy with music is a beat, these days, it seems. The ability to dance to a song grants it superiority over the real quality stuff. You may dislike me for saying so, but it is honestly the truth, and I think (deep down) you see the truth of it, also.

4 Lazy Syllabic Arrangements

I can't stand it when a band writes lyrics that seem to not have a pattern at all. It's like some bands write random sentences down and then try to put them to a pattern. If the lyrics are thought-provoking, it's a little easier to swallow, but still, patternless lyrics are a real pet peeve of mine.

Oh yeah definitely. It's why I've never liked Burzum that much. Unintelligable lyrics put with a simplistic, repetitive beat. Two things on this list already.

5 Bands Who are Mistakenly Called Metal Bands

Oh my god, all those core kid and nu metal posers are the worst!

6 Repetitive Albums
7 Unintelligible Growls

Let me say this. Vocalists like John Tardy and Chris Barnes have great growls, but it would really help if you could hear their growls in their music. In most of their songs, their vocals are just a low rumble in the background.

Growling in metal music, period, should not be viewed as good singing. You can't make out any of the words and that explains all of the flak about metal being Satanic. Sing like an actual human being!

8 Too Much Snare Drum

I'm also sensitive to this but it's mostly in thrash, not much in other subgenres.

One of the reasons I like Randy Black (thrash/speed metal drummer) is that he uses lots of fills and also switches to short or long sections where double bass becomes a lead instrument. It breaks monotony although he uses snare drums a lot, too.
Example: Ultra-Motion by Annihilator. Double bass for a minute in the middle of the song is a real treat despite he doesn't take it slower.

I'm looking at you, Slayer. I get metal is supposed to be fast, but apparently speed comes at the price of having the most uninteresting drumbeats ever. Seriously, could you think of something besides hitting the snare drum over and over again? Maybe take it a little slower so you can add something of substance? Could you maybe make the double bass audible? I honestly don't care what you do, just learn a drum beat that's a little bit less snarey.

9 Offbeat Drums

You know what's worse than bad drumbeats? Bad drumbeats that don't follow the beat of the song! I thought the drums were supposed to be the rhythm, not a random banging noise that happens when it wants to. Or maybe the drums are right but everything else is off beat? I don't know but either way, it annoys me to death when the drums don't match up with the rest of the song.

You'd appreciate it if you realized how incredibly difficult off-beat drumming is. I play a lot of Dream Theater, and trust me they have some difficult stuff.

10 Lack of Hooks

You know what's worse than having a bad chorus? Not having a chorus at all. Like I said, I get metal isn't supposed to be super catchy, but I need something memorable! I would like it if after listening to an album, I could look at a song title and say, "Oh yeah! That's the song that goes like that! " Unfortunately, this isn't the case.

The Contenders
11 Boring Hooks

Don't forget that riffs may play even a more important role than choruses in metal. Metal riffs are amazing and very often metal songs are remembered by their riffs.
But a good chorus is always welcome, too.

Example - Hall Of The Mountain King by Savatage. The chorus isn't long or catchy but you can't forget the riff and the vocals.

I get metal isn't supposed to be really catchy, but I would like something to remember the song by. The point of a chorus is to stand out from the rest of the song and be the part of the song that you can identify the song by. A lot of choruses in metal don't have this, meaning that it's usually hard to remember how the song goes.

12 Subgenres that are Mistakenly Called Metal Subgenres

They are poser metal bands and this is should be at number one.

13 People Making Metal Genres Based Upon Lyrical Themes

Oh yeah, Christian metal is based upon lyrical themes and it isn't a music genre. The case with Viking metal is even more complicated because there is a metal subgenre called viking metal based on specific music features. Viking metal is basically a subgenre of black metal (Bathory) but many people think that every song about vikings is viking metal. For example, Amon Amarth sing about the vikings but they aren't viking metal, they are death metal. Turisas aren't viking metal either.

This is why I've never liked the term "Christian Metal." I've never understood why people can't look at it as, for example, thrash metal with Christian lyrics. I guess we could use the term Christian metal, but we'll just have to call everything else Atheist metal.

14 Bands and Subgenres that are Barely Metal
15 Shaming Every Other Genre

Can you please accept the fact that metal is not the only music genre that has a reason to be here? People have different views and different tastes, and you'll find that there are other genres which take just as much hard work and make just as much of a connection with people.

16 Rap and Dance Beats Mixed with Metal

Nu metal and rap metal are not metal. Sorry. The only decent example I can think of where these beats mixing with metal is not even metal; "Sober" by Bad Wolves is more of a soft rock/light metal ballad.

You can't mix the worst genre of music with the best, it's not allowed!

This actually works sometimes.

17 Weak Growls

What's a strong growl? To me, Chuck Schuldiner and Randy Blythe are examples of strong growlers. The thing that makes their growls so awesome to me is the roughness. It sounds less human and more demonic, which is how you want to sound when you sing metal. A lot of early screamers, such as Tom Araya, don't seem to have this same grit to me. His voice sounds more like a yell than a scream, and I find it really obnoxious. I know I'm pretty much alone on this, but I find vocalists like this to be slightly annoying.

18 Evil and Murderous Black Metal Bands

Black Metal causes a lot of violence, but it doesn't affect me. I think if black metal musicians want to be all satanic and kill and burn everything, that's fine. Just stay away from me.

Black Metal Bands are posers of satanic cult, they are still humans but their brain is upside-down.

If whoever added this can name five of those bands, then I'll take them seriously.

19 Blast Beats for More Than 10-15 Seconds Without Beat Changes
20 Several Metal Songs Have Forced Cursing Just for the Sake of Making It Sound Metal

Several songs are not really representative for the entire genre but anything forced is not good - outside metal it's the forced 'feel good' issue.

I'm indifferent to cursing - I'm OK with or without it. I don't mind but I don't need it either.

There's plenty of metal songs without cursing but this is one of the things I don't care for about the genre. That and the screaming.

Nightwish never had an explicit song.

21 Elitists
22 Unreadable Band Logos

What band is this? I can't read the dang logo!

23 Calling Each Other "Posers"
24 Typical Annoying Fanbases

I'm looking at you, Megadeth fans.

25 The Fans
8Load More
PSearch List