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!This should be at the top. In multiple countries, this has been the stereotype. Plus, it's total idiocy to call it "satanic" just because you think every metal band is part of the Illuminati. This kind of stupidity has spread on 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.
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!
True enough. No genre is for everyone, and one does have to get a taste of its diversity to fully appreciate it. It takes open-mindedness and imagination to make a meaningful decision about which genres you like and dislike, but that doesn't make them discrete and entirely separate.
Just as I've listened to a lot of music and it took me a while to find that electronic music was my jam, I'm sure many metal fans, jazz fans, and such have done the same. In the mainstream media, people are forced to form an opinion immediately, and that ruins their judgment.
Oh my god, all those core kids and nu metal posers are the worst!
I can't stand it when a band writes lyrics that don't seem to have any pattern at all. It's like some bands just write random sentences and then try to fit them into a song. If the lyrics are thought-provoking, it's a little easier to tolerate, but patternless lyrics are a real pet peeve of mine.
Oh yeah, definitely. It's why I've never liked Burzum that much. Unintelligible lyrics paired with a simplistic, repetitive beat - two things on this list already.
Let me say this: vocalists like John Tardy and Chris Barnes have great growls, but it would really help if you could actually hear them in the music. In most of their songs, their vocals are just a low rumble in the background.
Growling in metal music, in general, should not be considered good singing. You can't make out any of the words, and that explains a lot of the flak about metal being satanic. Sing like an actual human being!
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 him not taking 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 drumbeat that's a little bit less snarey.
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 offbeat? 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.
Next to guitar work, drums are the sickest instruments in metal music, in my opinion. Offbeat drumming really shows the player's talent.
You know what's worse than having a bad chorus? Not having a chorus at all. Like I said, I get that metal isn't supposed to be super catchy, but I need something memorable! After listening to an album, I want to be able to look at a song title and think, "Oh yeah! That's the song that goes like that!" Unfortunately, this often isn't the case.
Don't forget that riffs may play an even 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.
They are poser metal bands, and this should be at number one.
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 musical 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 just see it as, for example, thrash metal with Christian lyrics. I guess we could use the term Christian metal, but then we'd have to start calling everything else atheist metal.
Can you please accept the fact that metal is not the only music genre that deserves to exist? People have different views and different tastes, and there are other genres that take just as much hard work and make just as much of a connection with people.
Nu metal and rap metal are not real metal. Sorry. The only decent example I can think of where these beats mix with metal isn't 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.
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.
Black metal bands are posers of satanic cults. They are still humans, but their brains are upside-down.
If whoever added this can name five of those bands, then I'll take them seriously.
These bands created the stereotype of metal.
Several songs aren't really representative of the entire genre, but anything forced is never good. Outside of metal, it's the forced feel-good issue.
I'm indifferent to cursing - I'm fine with or without it. I don't mind it, but I don't need it either.
There are 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 has never had an explicit song.
What band is this? I can't read the dang logo!
I'm looking at you, Megadeth fans.