What deserves to be called Metal?

Saturday, June 6th, 2009
by Mark Carras

What deserves to be called Metal?

So on this late Saturday night I made a comment that Metal Mania on VH1 Classics needs to play a bigger variety of classic metal. It seems that the show has no programmer and they just play about 4 different tapes over and over again. Those 4 tapes have the same videos with nothing but the order changed. Now this could be a rant about how pathetic the programming for Metal Mania can be, but I was de-railed into a much more passionate debate.

For those who do not know about @vikingfist on Twitter, you really should follow him. This man is passionate about metal to a frightening degree. Well, @vikingfist said that “I like how THAT METAL SHOW never has metal on it. Just Cock/Hard Rock. KISS is great, but it isn’t Metal! Just hardrock.” Well, as comical as I think full on glam is, I still think it fits into Metal more than Hard Rock. Why? When I was first getting into Metal in the early 80’s (yes I am old), Glam bands were all over every Metal magazine, Metal Video show, Metal radio show, Metal tour, Metal label, and pretty much anything that was part of the Metal scene. It is part of the classic Metal era. I’m not a huge fan and prefer traditional Metal and old school Thrash (85-95), but just because I’m not a fan doesn’t make it non-Metal.

Now the roots of Metal most pretty much agree on. Or should I say the core of what makes something Metal is something most agree on? Bands like Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, & others were the first pretty much Metal bands. Everything else is an off shoot from that. Now there is some debate on if bands like Led Zeppelin, Motorhead, Deep Purple, or Steppenwolf fit the Metal tag or not. I say they can be added if it is made clear that there is a debate. Kind of like adding a star next to the stats of a baseball celebrity that was caught using steroids. Sure they played and the stats happened, but their placement in any “Hall Of Fame” is questioned. So they barely made it and their placement is the grey area that will keep Pandora’s box closed for anyone who strays even further from the perimeters.

I think some are trying to change history and unless it has 45 minute blast beats and Cookie Monster impressions for vocals, it isn’t Metal. Well, that just isn’t true. Van Halen may not be as heavy as Cannibal Corpse, but they were part of the fore-fathers of this style along with many other bands. Can we deny that Stephenwolf was the first to scream “heavy metal thunder”? Can we deny that Sammy Hagar told us to “Get your one way ticket to midnight, Call it Heavy Metal”?

Now this brings us to other questionable off shoots of the Metal Scene. In the interest of full disclosure my username on many Metal forums in the 90’s was “RapIsNotNewMetal”. It was the mantra of a site I ran once called Abrasive Rock (the pre-cursor to RockMyMonkey) even! I still stand by that, but I will get to that later. First let’s talk about Glam. When Glam was the massively popular style that packed out stadiums, it was never played on Hard Rock video shows. Those bands almost never played with Hard Rock staples like Deep Purple or Steppenwolf. They did however play with “real” metal bands on the bigger package tours and festivals. They were also in magazines with bands like Exodus, Slayer, Iron Maiden, and Overkill. The place to find out the latest about the Glam bands were the places you went to find out the latest about Thrash, Power Metal (then just called Metal), and everything else. Call it “Poser Metal” if you prefer, but that is still calling it Metal. It’s the redheaded step child of Metal, the retarded cousin, the joke everyone makes fun of, but it is still part of the family. We all have members of our family that embarrass us, but they are still family. It’s a guilty pleasure at best, but it is Metal.

Now that brings us to the Rap-core off shoot. The place to find out about the latest in Rap-core was not hardcore Metal magazines. It was the pop mainstream. I never heard Limp Bizkit on the local Metal radio shows. I never saw Limp Bizkit tour with Nevermore. The term Rap Metal never really even took off. People used Rapcore more it seemed. Now Nu-Metal used the guitar riffs strongly inspired by rap, but never had Rap vocals so it’s another story. Nu-Metal may be the only member of the Metal family I can say I hate (for the most part), but it is Metal. It is the worst example of Metal. It is so pathetic many may say it makes Glam look like a respectable member of the family. It is the member of the family many of us would like to disown, but it is still part of the massively huge umbrella that is Metal.

For the record, my tastes mostly stick with Metal from 85-95. I like old school Thrash, Traditional Metal, Doom, Stoner Rock, and Hard Rock. I’m not much into Death Metal, Black Metal, Grindcore, Glam, Nu-Metal, or Metalcore, but I do like bands from all those styles. I would say in fact I like and dislike those members of the Metal family just as much equally.

Now please feel free to comment below and continue this debate. However, let’s keep the respect level at it’s highest for all involved. Keep the debate about facts and history and not about insults. Otherwise what’s the point? And make sure and check out Viking Fists blog at www.vikingfist.wordpress.com because it was his passion that inspired this overly long passionate blog post from me.