METAL...it comes from hell. Or does it? Maybe it's just music, fucktard.

So, I was at a kegger the other night, and me and this dude got to talking about music, a frequent happening with me, anywhere. Anyway, I knew he was a metalhead, so I said how if I had to pick out any modern form of music that was closest to classical, I'd pick metal, just because of the unique arrangements and such. He agreed in the case of symphonic black metal, but concluded his statement with the sentence: "And everyone hates metalcore". At which point I objected, and hence started the discussion that inspired this writing.
I'm really sick of hypocrisy in music, especially extreme, "rebellious" forms of music. The whole "we're non-conformists because we conform to this extreme music's ideology" bullshit really gets under my skin. I think that the idea of metal, when it started, was "Fuck you, mainstream. We're not going to write music that prescribes to a set formula of songwriting. We're gonna do our own thing." And they did.
And it was awesome.
But now it seems metal is in a place where "metalheads" aren't willing to admit it's metal if the artists do what they want with the music instead of trying to keep themselves confined in a certain set of rules and song formulas. Which is exactly what metal was trying to get out of when it first appeared on the scene.
...
Enter metalcore; the argument aforementioned dude used (if I can remember correctly) was that metalcore wasn't real metal because it didn't stay true to the ideology of satanic black metal. I don't think metal should be defined by any particular ideology; it's an extreme form of music.

Which brings me to another point: what's with ultra-sub-classification of music? I mean, trying to make music fit into a box is one thing; making an excel spreadsheet with attached diagrams and a legend for quick reference is quite another. Any musician that seriously starts describing their genre using more than three words should be greeted by a swift kick to the face, followed by raucous laughter. I do understand the desire to classify music for convenience; but like I said, you should only need three or less words to describe it. If you want to get specific about a band using words...don't. Just tell your audience to go listen to said bands music. Not complicated at all and it accomplishes what you were trying to do as a fan, which is getting people to listen to your favorite band's music. CRAZINESS.
I once had someone describe some trance music as "psy-trance-electro-happyhardcore-fusion", so after kicking them in the face I realized I didn't have to listen to the artist anyway because I'd already read the book.

Plus most black metal sucks ass anyway. Just kidding!

\m/,
Brian