Metal is a world of its own and even critics who grew up listening to AOR like Led Zeppelin and Quiet Riot seldom...

Metal is a world of its own and even critics who grew up listening to AOR like Led Zeppelin and Quiet Riot seldom maintain a serious affectation for the stuff. Rock intellectuals invariably prefer punk, alternative, even hip-hop and their disdain rankles the metal faithful. The phallic narcissism of metal has few parallels outside of toilet art, X-rated movies, and (oh yes) rap.

As one of those rock intellectuals, I remain unconverted. It never seems to occur to metal fans that the melodramatic, reverb-drenched sound of metal is precisely what rock-and-roll was put on Earth to save us from.

>rock intellectuals

So what exactly makes punk more "adult" than metal? They're both children's music desu.

This might have been true at the time that he wrote it(I'm guessing the 80s) but at this point metal is the only subgenre of rock where real stylistic and conceptual progress is still being made.

>This might have been true at the time that he wrote it

1997

this, i can take seriously a person who sais he knows about music but only listens to rock

can't*** sorry

Oh. Well, the 90s were a pretty rancid time for metal outside of DM and BM, and I can't imagine Christgau ever heard Gorguts or Abruptum(or would even have the proper contextual understanding of what those bands were doing even if he did hear them).

>Rock intellectuals
What's this guy's favorite piano concerto anyway

Guitar music is dead, man. Even here in Finland which was always metal central the scene is shrinking. I saw Black Sabbath on the final tour and most of the people in the audience were 25 and up, even a few 60 year olds were there. Oh, and some 10 year olds there with their parents. Back in the 80s any metal show would be full of rowdy teenagers.

i dunno one had clear political intention and impact
the other has songs about dragons

I couldn't really care about mainstream metal and I don't measure the relevance of a genre by its record sales desu.
Finland's black metal scene is one of the most vital and creatively expansive in the world, even though almost all of it is utterly underground.

>the other has songs about dragons
>he thinks all metal is Dio

>or would even have the proper contextual understanding of what those bands were doing even if he did hear them
Well, he completely failed to understand Black Sabbath back in the early 70s, their background and influences. He seems to not understand that there's a world outside the confines of New York City.

but you get my point? one was a political statement about class, one wasn't

...

You never listened to Megadeth or Dying Fetus if you think metal can't be political.

PERFORMS ITS AROUSAL FUNCTION WELL WITH NO OUTSIDE HELP

>the other has songs about dragons
how is that a bad thing

its childish.

Are you forgetting bands like Botch, Converge, Cave-In, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and Today Is The Day?

Nah, pretentious people prefer punk, alternative, and hip hop because they are infinitely easier genres to digest. Metal's the only genre of popular music that focuses on making something with high visceral energy and intricate hooks. Popular music usually either focuses on just the visceral energy (punk, alternative, hip hop) or intricacy (prog, art rock, some forms of hip hop is this but more rhythmic) making the music infinitely more easy to digest. Metal's just very in-your-face and throws a lot to the listener.

Thematically (in terms of lyrics) I do like that metal doesn't attach itself to anything super particular, rather going with goofy overthetop imagery. It's what I feel gives the genre such an enormous international appeal among non-english speaking countries because that way, everyone regardless of where you are in the world knows that it's about the music itself.

you say that as if most rock lyrics are any better
this is from someone who barely listens to metal btw

>Botch, Converge, Cave-In, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and Today Is The Day

I love most of these bands and they've definitely done influential and important work but I didn't intend to get too specific in my previous posts. Same reason why I didn't mention the likes of Godflesh and Corrupted.
BM and DM was where there was enough great stuff being put out on a regular basis that you didn't have to look too hard to find it. Everywhere else, you had to dig through a lot of garbage.

>pretentious people like x, y, and z
>now let me give a pretentious explanation of why they're actually just too stupid to understand metal


lel

>Nah, pretentious people prefer punk, alternative, and hip hop because they are infinitely easier genres to digest
ie. self-styled rock "intellectuals"

It's not pretentious though. I literally laid out qualities of metal that, especially for its more extreme forms, makes it hard to digest for people who aren't into the music. Most of my all time favorite stuff in the genre used to be stuff I personally found boring because it totally went over my head the first time.

>rock intellectuals

screaming vocals dont go over people's heads, it's just unnecessarily abrasive and juvenile to most people.

>screaming vocals dont go over people's heads, it's just unnecessarily abrasive and juvenile to most people.
See, you kinda proved my point right here. If you still don't realize that a genre like death metal uses growls (not screams, growls btw) because they are a lower pitched vocal form that matches the distortion/pitch levels/intensity of the rest of the music, perhaps you don't have much experience with the genre nor do you have even a halfway decent understanding of it.

I find it a pain and annoying listening to someone singing like that, if they sing normally it might be better

someone could make an album with farts for vocals and if someone didnt like it you would say they didnt understand the intricacies of the farting

Nah, again, it's something the average person is not used to hearing so it can seem a bit grating at first, but it's not inherently bad. No metal fan will ever honestly admit that they liked death metal immediately unless they were exposed to the music at a super young age by their parents or something. It's far more fitting than clean vocals for what the sound is trying to do.
But I very clearly defined why it works. Like I explained actual qualities of the music (metal's abrasiveness/visceral feel, its riffs, why growls work.) You are giving us a false equivalency.

Is there anyone more up their own ass than metalheads?

People who listen to forms of alternative rock, death grips fans, some jazz fans, and some classical fans.

>People who listen to forms of alternative rock
>people who listen to nirvana, pavement or gbv are up their own ass
I've got to say from personal experience these are easily some of the most indifferent people when it comes to others.

>Radiohead fans not always looking down on anything not Radiohead
>MBV fans often just being scathing at even other forms of shoegaze and alt rock, too
>complete and utter disregard for non-alt rock
Come on.

i listen to nirvana im not up my own ass but alot of fans are.

coincidentally these fans also listen to metal aswell.

>attacking the music FANS instead of the music itself or the argument first replied to
Yeah, sure, metalheads are the ones up their own ass.

i just attacked my own fanbase and you still take offense. go fucking listen to a 50 year old screaming about dragons killing baby vikings you fucking cunt

>i just attacked my own fanbase
K-k-kurt?

>coincidentally these fans also listen to metal aswell.
Hahahahahah, yeah sure you did. That's the most disingenuous and literally pretentious bullshit.

Also
>sperging on the second sentence
Yeah, I am the one taking offense.

He's such a pretentious twat it drives me crazy.

Show us those pearly whites, Robbie!

I don't who this critic is or where he was coming from. Don't care. I still love it all. I went through a huge period of listening to everything prog and metal related. The older I get, however, the more I am drawn to simple songs in the rock genre. Yes, all those tempo, key, and time signature changes are impressive, but nothing rocks to me like a song in 4/4 with simple chord changes.

im taking offense at your offense at my offense at your offense to this thread and the ops offence to your offence to his offence.

This quote triggers metalfags every time haha

im not denying that there's intricacy, but you cant expect everyone to like a certain sound. it's not inaccessible because people dont understand the depth of the music; it's inaccessible because most people seriously just dont like the way growls/screams sound.

ironic considering he'll give any meme rap album that comes out nowadays an A-, A, or an A+

I am not saying that it's just depth though. I never did. Even in my very first post in this topic I very much made it clear that it's not just the riffs being relatively intricate to pop music, but also because the music is so visceral/heavy. It's that combo in particular that does it. Growls fit that particularly on the visceral/heavy end because it's something that's not only alien sounding to most inexperienced people, but is also very in your face with erratic rhythms. But it's not just that, or at least so in a genre like death metal where the riffs often have no overt traditional melodic content (and why people will often first move towards melodic death metal because it does have traditional takes on melodies like in other forms of music.)

He's gotten softer and less critical as he's gotten older, a lot of those albums probably would have gotten a C in the 70s.