In the Defense of Criticism Towards Metal

A girl I know is doing a history report on criticism towards metal and she asked me to say a few things about it. How does she get history topics like that??? I'm jealous... Let me know what you think.

Firstly let me state that criticism is entirely valid. I know that there are many people who simply do not enjoy the genre which is something I can greatly understand. I for instance like very, very little music within the Hip Hop genre. What bothers me and I believe to be extremely ignorant about many of the criticizers however is how they generalize. It's an incredibly complex musical genre and is filled with hundreds of variants of styles and sounds. When most people consider Metal they either consider old NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) like Judas Priest, thrash metal like Slayer, or Nu-Metal/core like Slipknot. Most metal however sounds nothing like those bands.

There is of course a lot of metal that is incredibly simple and conceptually 'stupid' to be blunt. What most people do not know about is the huge amount of complex, experimental, and extremely intelligent music within the genre. Kayo Dot for instance, sounds NOTHING like Slipknot and is one of the most unique and intelligent bands within any genre. There are also many poly-rhythmically complex bands (often labeled Mathematical or Technical) that rely heavily on the use of extreme time-signature variation and mathematical formulas. The most famous and praised band of this genre is Meshuggah of which I am a big fan of. Meshuggah was the forefather of the tech math genre which was then carried over into other genres such as as Breakcore (electronic) and Math-Rock.

Another thing that bothers me is when arrogant people state that vocals within metal are only shouting. Firstly, not all metal bands utilize the distorted vocal technique. There are many metal vocalists with beautiful voices such as Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth (listen to A Fair Judgement, Burden, or Face of Melinda) or Mariusz Duda of Riverside. Very few of the metal vocalists now a days use only angry shouts as was custom with Slayer (again, generalization comes into play.) The metal vocalists of now are able to twist their voices into the most in-human and unattainable sounds possible. Screaming is no longer just the angry shouts of an angsty teenager, it is an art form. If just anyone could create the gnarly shrieks of Grutle (Enslaved), the powerful roars of Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth, Bloodbath, etc.), or the inhuman grunts of Muhammed Suiçmez (Necrophagist) then the human world would likely be a much more twisted and frightening place. I myself cannot even fathom creating those sounds with only my voice.

In conclusion, it simply frustrates me when people do not look deeper within and try to find music they could actually enjoy, within any genre. I used to hate most metal until I began to dig and discovered that intelligent & original works actually do exist within the genre. Like I said, I hate most hip hop but I dug and dug and actually discovered some music groups (albeit underground ones) that I quite enjoy.

- Jake Kobrin

Note:

I am not trying to sound pretentious within the text. I understand that some people simply DO NOT LIKE METAL. If that person has dived through the entirety of the genre then not only do I applaud them for their efforts but I entirely understand. I just wish to eliminate the general disdain and mocking attitude towards the genre. Hey, I really dislike Rush but I entirely respect them for being better musicians than I probably ever will be and breeding life into many bands that I love that would probably not exist without them. That's all I'm asking for, a little respect for the genre.

Good subject Jake. Always a pleasure to read posts by someone so pationate about his music as you are.

Slartibartfast wrote: OK, isn't that more of a defense of metal against criticism?

Hehe, yeah, looks like poor choice of preposition more than anything.  

On topic, what is meant by "seeking respect"?  Requiring approval from people who don't follow your favourite music genre?  Why is that important?  Because if you ask me, I don't see how any non-popular, non-classical genre except jazz will get general critical approval. Actually lot of people would just as well criticize jazz too; they just don't get the opportunity because jazz nerds are few and don't talk to the lowly masses..or something.   I don't like hip hop and I don't look for ways and means to vent my dislike because I am indifferent to it, like people who don't listen to metal would be to it.  But if somebody who's a good friend of mine happens to be a hip hop fan and forces me to explain why I don't like hip hop, the generalizations will come tumbling out.  Obviously, I cannot satisfactorily analyze a genre I am not familiar with and I cannot become familiar with a genre unless I enjoy it to at least some extent. To believe that one can understand clealry a genre one doesn't like at all is illusory, imo.

Next, metal doesn't need to adopt conventional styles of singing or complex music theory to be "good".  If it can be done well with those, a la Akerfeldt's singing, well and good, but it is not a necessary condition.  As a metal fan, I have never had a problem with the shouted style of singing, it is energetic and aggressive and more often than not fitting of the music that accompanies it.   Likewise, repetitive, simple structures do impose constraints on creativity  but hey, I never hear anybody complain of how repetitive AC DC is.   Un-melodic solos are perfectly acceptable in metal and perhaps more suitable than saccharine sweet guitar that somebody who doesn't listen to metal might find more palatable.  All this is to say that metal has carved out an unique niche and it does not need to conform to conventional perceptions of music to be "good": is it by the way more important for metal fans to consider their metal music good or for the "non-metal" world to accept it?  

It bothers me that efforts to defend metal tend to veer towards how metal CAN absorb more conventional, in fact mainstream-wise acceptable, ideas of music because I don't follow how that by itself makes it a better genre or makes the criticisms against it less valid, if at all they have validity.  I don't have anything against efforts to make metal more mainstream-friendly but that cannot be held up as the quintessence of metal.  And no more will introducing complexity in metal make it a better genre;  that would only mean it is more difficult to play and compose than people suggest but these two are not sufficient conditions for good music.

The point is, it is a futile exercise to make somebody understand what is it you find so awesome in metal; it is in a world in itself, just like prog.  Those who get to like metal will find a vast array of music to enjoy; for the rest, hard luck but the world goes on.

I largely agree with what Jake said - people should indeed delve deeper into genres before dismissing them. However, most people can't devote that much time to music they don't enjoy listening to ... so we should be easy on them as long as they make clear in their post that they're a) simply not enjoying the music and b) haven't devoted much time to check it out.

Nice post man, pretty much sums up most of my thoughts on the subject. I just have one thing to add: a genre is like a person. If you don't know that person then don't start spitting fireballs about them.

many people dislikes metal because of grawls ,screams they cannot see the beauty behind the curtain, although it is very enjoyable curtain , but for some it is barrier , i feel sorry for them  canot see the beauty of Opeth, Meshuggah , Death,  Borknagar,Quo Vadis, .. Other people consider it is too agressive , distortion boders them, but most of them do not know what great music is . 

BaldFriede wrote: angelmk wrote: many people dislikes metal because of grawls ,screams they cannot see the beauty behind the curtain, although it is very enjoyable curtain , but for some it is barrier , i feel sorry for them  canot see the beauty of Opeth, Meshuggah , Death,  Borknagar,Quo Vadis, .. Other people consider it is too agressive , distortion boders them, but most of them do not know what great music is .  Ha, distortion does not bother me in the least; nothing like a good ol' distorted guitar to get rocking. And I would have expected distorted guitars to be a main feature of prog metal. Yet sadly I find it ain't so. The growling is not specific of prog metal, it can be found in other genres of metal too. I personally find it childish and annoying; if that is supposed to be aggressive then the grandmother on my mother's side was a kangaroo. It is a gimmick from a cheap monster movie, in my opinion.

I've never been a fan of Chuck Shuldiners vocals to be honest. He's still one of my most respected musicians of all time. 

angelmk wrote: BaldFriede wrote: angelmk wrote: many people dislikes metal because of grawls ,screams they cannot see the beauty behind the curtain, although it is very enjoyable curtain , but for some it is barrier , i feel sorry for them  canot see the beauty of Opeth, Meshuggah , Death,  Borknagar,Quo Vadis, .. Other people consider it is too agressive , distortion boders them, but most of them do not know what great music is .  Ha, distortion does not bother me in the least; nothing like a good ol' distorted guitar to get rocking. And I would have expected distorted guitars to be a main feature of prog metal. Yet sadly I find it ain't so. The growling is not specific of prog metal, it can be found in other genres of metal too. I personally find it childish and annoying; if that is supposed to be aggressive then the grandmother on my mother's side was a kangaroo. It is a gimmick from a cheap monster movie, in my opinion. i didn't say for grawling to represent agression, i said  metal in general is considered agressive by some group of people, and about grawling ,screaming you don't like, ok i respect your opinion, but man you don't know what you are missing , very good bands out there , you have just pay  them more attention,  ,don't boders with the clean voice / grawl /scream whatever it is,  for me melody , rhythm , music is important , not if one screams, grawling or so. some have very good screams/grawls, ex: Mikael Akerfeldt from Opeth , it has such a nice grawl i enjoy listening it, Garm also, Chuck schuldiner, ...

I do like screaming, but I don't like growling. show me a person that growls like that in real life. nonsense. screaming, however, happens a lot

I used to dislike screams, growls, gutturals, etc because I used to think, "wow that singer is horrible..." I began to tolerate them when I stopped thinking about it as singing started to think of it as another instrument more percussion based than driven by melody. I now like them . Though they can be cliche and 'cheesy' they can be extremely dark and emotional when used correctly. 

Edited by Jake Kobrin - March 01 2009 at 02:56