Why are death metal fans so narrow minded?

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The only breed of death metal that I listen to is technical death metal.

But to be honest, I've always found arguments about genre to be silly. (I listen to whatever sounds good. I do not care if it should be strictly classified as this or that)

+1

Professing superiority of one metal genre, whilst denouncing another, is remarkably similar to what another group of people do with sky wizards...funny how that works.

my previous answer was written in a totally literal sense assuming that the OP was correct in saying that they are narrow minded.

however, now i have given it some thought, i must conclude that there is no accounting for taste.

i personally do not like folk music for example, and i knew a person who was enraptured by it, and she used to ask me to turn off the lights and crank up some of her songs on my sound system and "learn" how good it really is, and i obliged, but the whole time i was listening to it i was thinking "how long is this s**t going to go for?".

she thought i was not as musically intelligent as she was for my failure to appreciate it, and i thought she was devoid of the true depth of appreciation of music i had that allowed me to see it was simple garbage. we were both wrong.
i wondered just how the music she liked "landed" in the seat of her consciousness, and had to conclude that if i knew, i would understand how she liked it and therefore also like it myself.

everyone has different life stories and therefore different forms of musical identification (as in they "identify with it), and ne'er the twain can meet.

why do some people like green and hate red, when others like red and hate green? who knows?

i never liked metal because it seems almost rebellious as a musical form, and it is grating on my sense of pleasant tonality as well as rudimentary in it's musical sentence structure.
metal sounds "angry" and "frustratedly unfulfilled" as a musical composition due to it's inspiration that stems from dissatisfaction in some way.

i have no idea how to discriminate between the various sub genres of metal because i do not like it at face value.

i have played a few metal songs purely on the piano to see whether they could be "livened up" or elaborated symphonically upon to my taste, but every time i find myself having to jab at the keyboard in repeating staccato iterations of the same chords over and over again, and so i will never like it.

maybe those who see the glory in it would view me as a musical heathen, but they do not understand that there truly is NO ACCOUNTING for taste.

If I'm going to listen to death metal I want it to be brutal and angry. I find it irritating when there is some awesome crunchy guitar going on and then suddenly it bursts out into a melody. It's like going for a walk in hell and suddenly fluffy bunny rabbits run past. Not what I want!

That's not say I don't like melody. If I'm in an uplifted mood and I want some good melody I'll put on some reggae or melodic trance.

yes your personality needs that type of sound that you identify as "brutal and angry".
there is no accounting for taste.



melody is all there is that is important in music. whatever floats your boat (another learned saying) is peculiar to you.

Maybe in a conventional, socially accepted sense. While I do enjoy melodic music, sometimes I just want my eardrums to be pummeled, and sometimes I just want to listen to something weird, like this:


I like myself some good sonic experimentation.

BTW, before anyone asks, Skinny Puppy isn't death metal. They're electro-industrial, and some of their stuff is more intense than death metal, particularly on "Too Dark Park".

I don't really get it either. Later Death (the band) was quite melodic. Their 6th full length album "Symbolic" was well received.

I am into death metal, but I am into the melodic stuff. Every now and then I will listen to something like Belphegor or Demigod. But even those bands have melody in their music.

I like various metal sub- genres and other music outside of it, there are some kinds of music I like more than other types, but I can't objectively say what I like is 'better' not much point in seeing it as a competition. Something does not have to be metal to be good or enjoyable though, a lot of 'metal' bands don't even know what specific sub-genre people consider them or even if they'd call their music metal per say. For instance I've always seen Korpiklaani referred to as folk metal, but I saw some interview with them on youtube and they seemed rather perplexed that they would be considered metal at all, they saw it more as just good music to drink and have a good time or something to that effect.

It's funny you should bring that up! I had a few beers with Korpiklaani at a show in Phoenix a few years back, and they were very much of the "That's what we do. We drink, and we make music." mindset. Beyond that, they really didn't care...great group of guys

To your point though...I think that mindset is a very good quality to have, and a large part of the music I enjoy is made by guys who embrace that. Agalloch, Opeth, and even bands outside of 'metal' such as Hurt, KMFDM, and VNV Nation are all very fluid in their sound. They don't allow branding to limit themselves, and I agree with you that it's just a little bit silly for fans to impress said limitations.

I can go from burzum to blondie to tupac to neil young when my media player is on random, I like metal but I like music more than genres.

It's not just death metal fans that can be close minded, I've noticed punk fans and hip hop fans can be close minded too. I can't really comment on hip hop since I've tried it and I'm not really a fan, but with punk I can listen to both the more underground stuff AND the mainstream "pop-punk" stuff and enjoy them. I don't see what's so bad about enjoying bands like Green Day and Billy Talent that have had some radio exposure.

It's a primarily close minded group of people in general. I know I'm not going to be popular for saying this but I've never much liked ANY self-described metal fans because a lot of them are really pretentious in their own special way, and metal is an incredibly closed off space for people who aren't white men. I see a lot more open mindedness in some of the "not metal" metals like symphonic metal though. Idk and there's something about how a lot of metal fans act like their genre is somehow superior to non metal genres that rub me the wrong way. It's the same reason I'm loathe to interact with people who like classic rock lol. It's weird that people think they can classify one genre or sub genre of music as better than others based on their arbitrary personal tastes.

The only time I really speak out against genres is against the fans usually, or if there's a pervasive nasty culture within the actual artists. I know this is about death metal, but the black metal genre is filled with incredibly virulently racist fans and bands. It's a haven for skinheads.

I think sometimes take people preferring metal to say current popular music as them thinking they're all superior or something. I mean a lot of times people who like metal are just really, really into it...I can see how it can come off as being closed off or whatever but that may have to do with a lot of metalheads are used to feeling closed off from society and a lot of norms so the music becomes more than just music you like to hear it's an entire subculture. I like some classic rock as well and yeah I'd say some of it is better than a lot of current popular music, as well as a lot of metal sounding better, but when it comes down to it it's to each their own.

I mean I hang out with plenty of people who aren't really into metal and granted I have to cringe at some of the stuff they listen to but I'm not going to hate a person just because they're not into metal and like stuff I'm not into..I have a friend who sometimes puts on 90's pop music which I largely despise but its not worth ruining the friendship or anything.

Also I listen to a lot of black metal and much of it isn't related to that kind of stuff at all, unfortunately there's been some of that within the genre but it's hardly representative of all the bands or fans.

Peoples point of reference are different...to some Death metal started in Florida and is represented by bands like Autopsy, Dark Angel, Obituary, Death, Cannibal Corpse and others. This is late 80's early 90's. The gothenburg stuff like At the Gates, Entombed, Opeth (before they sh*t the bed) is all ripping stuff and ahead of it's time. Again, points of reference. Don't let the "metal head elitist" pukes get ya down...it all comes back to Sabbath, Purple, Venom, St. Vitus, Hellhammer, King Crimson, Palmer era Genesis, and Yes.

Forgive me for asking, but what do Yes and Genesis have to do with metal? Like, I know progressive metal is a thing, but I never actually thought that progressive rock had an influence on metal as a whole.