The Corroseum forum (new design under construction)

Who cares about labels and generes? For me all of them are Heavy Metal played in many different ways.

Seconded!

Venom and Gamma Ray are metal but they're not the same. I do like labels, I never take them as something definitive but as a hint on a band's sound. I find them helpful even more nowadays with so many bands to check out.

At the end of the day a label doesn't mean much, if you dig something, you dig it, everything else is of minor importance.
They do help sometimes though.

Labels and genres can be helpful, since they give the potential listener a few ideas about what he or she may expect from a band.

Doom and Thrash may both be metal, but the feeling of these genres and the reactions they evoke from the listener are quite different.

It is funny to remember that back in the early-mid 80s, metallers mostly listened to all kinds of Heavy Metal, and even bands like Celtic Frost toured along side with Helloween or Kreator and fans enjoyed the whole concert and gave no shit about labels and generes. Nowadays seems guys are more centered into a single genere, I mean a heavy metal fan hardly would listen to a Black Metal band (old or new) and viceversa. In my case I would listen to anything I like and generes and labels are of no importance to me.

Me too! Sadly people seem to be less open today when it comes to experimentation in metal. And the bands which are tagged as "new", progressive", "avant-garde" often play utter shit which is meaningless for real music fans.

Hopefully there are still people who know what the real deal is all about, for instance on this very forum!

Putting the bands in small boxes is indeed very convenient for labels who try to sell a "product".

It might be interesting to know in which category a band might belong, but in the end, only the gut feeling of the listener is real!

metalmaster wrote:It is funny to remember that back in the early-mid 80s, metallers mostly listened to all kinds of Heavy Metal, and even bands like Celtic Frost toured along side with Helloween or Kreator and fans enjoyed the whole concert and gave no shit about labels and generes. Nowadays seems guys are more centered into a single genere, I mean a heavy metal fan hardly would listen to a Black Metal band (old or new) and viceversa. In my case I would listen to anything I like and generes and labels are of no importance to me.

I think everybody here at The Corroseum listens to (almost) all genres. I know I do yet I still find labels helpful. If I'm in the mood to listen to a new Thrash band I'm gonna look for a band that plays that style. As I say, they're nothing definitive and the fact that this thread names lots of bands which can't be easily labeled is proof of that.

metalmaster wrote:It is funny to remember that back in the early-mid 80s, metallers mostly listened to all kinds of Heavy Metal, and even bands like Celtic Frost toured along side with Helloween or Kreator and fans enjoyed the whole concert and gave no shit about labels and generes. Nowadays seems guys are more centered into a single genere, I mean a heavy metal fan hardly would listen to a Black Metal band (old or new) and viceversa. In my case I would listen to anything I like and generes and labels are of no importance to me.

Well, you happen to like heavy, power, thrash, black and death. I like 'em too. But it has little to do with the existence of labels and subgenres per se.

Different subgenres, different moods, different attitudes, different mentalities. They are not all totally different though and similarities can be found at their core. However it would be absurd for example to expect everyone who likes classic heavy and power metal to also love black metal (or hate it just because it's not called 'heavy metal')

The Point here, in my opinion, is that Metal fanatics are quite close minded regarding styles they "dont like".
Even when I lost any interest in Black metal and death metal since 1992-1993 (because all this clonning phenomenon, or pathetics shit like that of Norway), I try to follow those styles and from time to time 1-2 bands catch my attention. I dont mind if it is a new Black metal band, if they kick ass I will buy it. And of course have to be Metal... those industrial, electro gothic mixed with some metal I hardly could call metal and are of zero interest to me.
Of course this is my point of view and anyone can do anything they want...

THE LORD WEIRD SLOUGH FEG and HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE for me. But, I think you're not wrong in any way for just calling them just HM.

The Knell wrote:classify parabellum as wtf metal so it belongs to the list as well in my book

While listening to them, I think they don't differ at all from other angry and noisy Brazilian hardcore bands of that time. Except, lyrical approach and image which puts 'em more into the metal category. They were some kind of crossover band, but not in the sense of US crossover (like DRI, COC, Cryptic Slaughter etc.)