I hate heavy metal and everything about it – the posturing, the imagery, the lack of innovation, the mindless fans. Am I missing anything?

Had there been an option for *Genrally rubbish, but with a few redeeming tracks' I had taken that one :) . Now I went for Crap.

I'm not voting because my response would be "depends on what kind of metal".

There's some really great bands in the more extreme forms of metal, particularly grindcore and death. Poodle-rock fretwanking and nu-metal are an abhorrence, but there's plenty else worth exploring.

Where would you stand on a song like Helter Skelter by The Beatles?

I think some songs are okay...Ace of Spades is a stormer. But what is the difference between heavy metal and hard rock? Sometimes the edges are blurred.

Heavy, extreme and brilliant – but predates heavy metal/hard rock really.

It still begs the question (don't worry, I'm not expecting an immediate answer) about how we define the genre.

Theres so much good metal out there, Its often obscured by all the Nu metal / kerrang kid rubbish. Theres so many split genres and pigeonholes within heavy metal now, I think its almost become undefinable, somebody described a band to me the otherday as "Norwegian jazzcore doom". Its all metal at the end of the day though really.

I really Like Isis at the moment, their album Celestial has nearly brought me to tears a few times, nice big doomy riffs and 8 minute tracks.

While were on the subject of hard rock, I quite like Whitesnake :ohdear: . . . . . and Europe . . . .

Jim

What band was that? Was it Ultralyd?

Without giving it too much thought ( a bit like the genre, :lol: ), heavy metal wears spandex and / or uses hairspray and / or wears make-up. Hard rock doesn’t. Thusly;

Kiss, Motley Crue, Iron Maiden = Heavy Metal
Motorhead, Nirvana, Lynyrd Skynyrd = Hard Rock

Obviously, there’s bound to be some crossover, as in ‘Eat Y’self Fitter’, where our hero goes to a ‘HM club’, but is accosted by an ‘easy rider coot’ – more hard rock than HM, surely?

In the main, the music is cack. Heavy metal more so.

Believe in BOC!!! The first three are among my favourite LPs, period.

i do have my sabbath moments.... :whistle:

Agreed.

:lol: Too much hair and not enough sleeve

Metal as a genre is kind of gross, and all the subcultural trappings it entails, but some of the music, especially when it gets more nuanced and accomplished (but not wanky), is fine. I like a great non-metal band to have a healthy dose of metal influence, sometimes. And the haircuts usually suck - as do the groupies.

metal - angry and loud for all the wrong reasons

One of my problems with Heavy Metal is that it never seems particularly heavy, whereas when I go to hear The Fall live, I'm always amazed at the sheer power of them.

There's definitely a 'metal' influence in the recent Fall songs 'Blindness' and 'All Clasp Hands' - Specifically Judas Priest's "Metal Gods" from their 'British Steel' LP...it's the same riff as 'Blindness'!!

The musical genre I hate the most is modern-day "R and B"

Me too. That bleached pap is an insult to the definition and tradition of R&B.

However, since I'm old and presently removed from that nonsense (my kids are too young to bother with it), I can ignore it far more easily than the horrible etched memory of all that dumb ass heavy metal that plagued my white boy musically formative years. Boy, I hated that shit!

If your talking led zeppilin and Black Sabbath, count me in....

Bon Jovi ect? :gun: :finger: :gun:

I think original Heavy Metal was largely great. But once punk happened, if you were still into metal, you were missing the point. All the kids in my school who dug Sabbath, Hawkwind and Rush were the ones who got into punk later on.

I would suggest that playing metal after 1977 is about as relevant as forming a rock'n'roll revival band.

However, I would dispute Stephen's point about heaviness. The following pack as much heavy power as the Fall in their own way;

Sweet Leaf - Black Sabbath (ooh I wonder what that could be about?)

Paranoid - Black Sabbath (a favourite of MES's from adolescence)

War Pigs - Black Sabbath

Snowblind - Black Sabbath (ooh I wonder what that could be about?)

Silver Machine - Hawkwind

Master Of The Universe - Hawkwind

A Passage To Bangkok - Rush

The Marshall Plan - Blue Oyster Cult

So it's strictly visual appearance that separates one from the other, the music itself has nothing to do with it? Not sure if I buy that. Actually, I'm not sure if making a distinction between "hard rock" and "heavy metal" is a fruitful endeavor. Seems to me they're just two names for the same thing, and most of it's unfortunately dreadful, with a few gems gleaming beneath the murky steaming surface.

Good for making sturdy items with!!!!!!

I wouldn't classify Black Sabbath as a Heavy Metal band :devil:

Me three. Metal is fine, in the main. Worse'n some, better'n most. Harry has pointed the way of abhorrence errant.

I hear the Rythem...

Must have traded the Blues in for there "Bling Bling".

Interesting article in new issue of The Wire about the Metal genre with reference to bands often mentioned on here, such as Earth and Sun 0))).

Yup - but I don't think they could be categorized as Heavy Metal. Not according to my definition: 80's bands with spiky name logos :D.

I think I would rather go to a pantomime than see a heavy metal act.

Spinal Tap is a great pantomime metal act.

Tsk, there are/were some really great metal bands you know, especially among the grindcore lot. One of my favourite musical experiences ever, and one I never tire of going on about, was rehearsing in a studio in Birmingham, the floor above Napalm Death. The flooring etc. was enough to damp down the noise so you could hear what was going on - and it was astonishing. I've never heard anything so complex, so brilliantly played, yet so exciting, and it completely changed my view of that kind of music (previously I wouldn't have given it house room). We gave up on our rehearsal - and just sat and listened. :)

The drummer out of Napalm Death used to go in our pub! We called him "Stick".

Note I did say that I would rather go to a panto than see a heavy metal act. Listening to it is a different experience to watching it. I was trying to make the point that a lot of HM bands were pretty good at looking pretty stupid, perhaps putting some people off.

Agreed, splendid film.

Fair enough, I'd find that hard to disagree with. Though you can always close your eyes at the gig :)

Been listening to "Screaming for Vengeance" lately by Judas Priest. Songs like "Riding on the Wind" and "You've Got Another Thing Coming" are quintessential Rock and Roll through and through. B)

Mick Harris?

He does ambient hip hop instrumentals as a solo project...

I'd argue that when it first started in the late 60s and early 70s that it was pretty valid for the time and made a genuine step forward in music. However since then , as with most musical forms, it became commodified and artists with more of an interest in filty lucre or exercising their groins got hold off it and turned into the tasteless pantomime it has become.

With most things the "underground" of the movement has continued relentless and I think there are still some valid new things coming through as espoused by the Wire in the last issue.

There are some interesting MP3s to download on the Wire website which demonstrate some of the more challenging (and less glam) aspects of the music.

I would point out that at its most extreme Spectre vs Rector could be considered Heavy Metal in its purist form (nb also The Falls reading of Deep Purples Black Knight on In a Hole +)

I don't know if I ever knew what his proper name was. I never knew it was him until somebody told me. This was in the 1980s now. I remember thinking it was trange that he was Midlands based but the rest of them were in East Anglia. He was a quiet chap and very modest, didn't drink much, was always one of those blokes who had got to go somewhere and couldn't stay long.

I'm suprised no one mentioned Deep Purple. Especially the Ian Gillan days. Ian was the 1st singer that developed the standard heavy metal voice and it's still the best - in his day at least. cheers

How can anyone knock a genre that's thrown up Napalm Death, Sabbath, Zeppellin, Manowar, Metallica, Slayer, Sepultura, Slipknot, Ministry, Extreme Noise Terror, Mötörhead, Judas Priest and Spinal Tap?

What's the worst, most ridiculous HM band?

My vote goes for the non-ironic sub Spinal Tap, sub Wayne's World catastrophically dumb wank that is Venom.

Heavy metal inspired soft metal, for this it should be most ashamed, all those fluffy mullets and high pitched guitaring bollocks.

It was no fun growing up in the 80's having to listen to such shite on every T.V programme.
Still there is a new underground developing for heavy metal in Britain, and its not all bad, taking its influences from the past as well as the present, some of the bands I've seen have been excellent, and I'm not even a heavy metal punter.