The Metal Thread

[Guybrush]

I've no love for genre police either, especially not for the purposes of gatekeeping. The music actually exists. The genre we use to describe it is just an arbitrary construct.

It reminds me of comic book nerds discussing which superheroes would win 1 on 1 fights. I mean.. it's all made up, so a toddler could kill Superman. It depends on whatever make believe you go with 🤷

[robhr]

[Rant Ahead]

Genre descriptions are so asinine to me.

Alt rock, metal and punk communities get so unnecessarily pissy about it. Like, people will tell me that the umbrella of "emo" includes bands as soft as American Football and as hard as Orchid. And yet somehow simultaneously there's absolutely no room under that umbrella for Silverstein or From First to Last or any "mall bands". Those must be strictly filed under post-hardcore, because there's never been any bands that could be described by more than one label in all of history.

And there's so much elitism, particularly on the metal side. Metalheads would mercilessly rip my taste apart if I ever so much as included a metalcore or scene band in a list of favorite bands. It didn't matter that I also loved Slayer and Pantera and Metallica and other "actual" metal bands, if the genre police found my Myspace page and saw that I listened to "poser scene kid metal" like Bring Me the Horizon or The Devil Wears Prada I would be mocked and ostracized.

So all I had was my fellow poser scene kids, and I'm thankful for that.

I usually try not to get angry at these things but today I am getting angry at these things.

I'm just going to go ahead and continue using the correct and original definitions of the genres and if you become personally offended at the fact that my OCD brain needs to do everything the correct way you can just get over it.

You just called me "pissy" in a state of being "pissy" by the way. I assure you I am not "pissy" I just know what the correct usage of genres are. The emo people are not necessarily "pissy" they just know what the correct usage of the genres are.

In a normal setting if you were to use the term "post-metal" I would say nothing, but we were discussing why I put "post-metal" in quotations so I explained why I put "post-metal" in quotations. "Ooohh, he does things the correct way, he probably thinks he's so much smarter and better, I'm mad."

If you want to do things the lazy imprecise way that is acceptable, but do not get angry at people who like proper order.

[grindy]

I usually try not to get angry at these things but today I am getting angry at these things.

I'm just going to go ahead and continue using the correct and original definitions of the genres and if you become personally offended at the fact that my OCD brain needs to do everything the correct way you can just get over it.

You just called me "pissy" in a state of being "pissy" by the way. I assure you I am not "pissy" I just know what the correct usage of genres are. The emo people are not necessarily "pissy" they just know what the correct usage of the genres are.

In a normal setting if you were to use the term "post-metal" I would say nothing, but we were discussing why I put "post-metal" in quotations so I explained why I put "post-metal" in quotations. "Ooohh, he does things the correct way, he probably thinks he's so much smarter and better, I'm mad."

If you want to do things the lazy imprecise way that is acceptable, but do not get angry at people who like proper order.

She wasn't talking about you, like, at all. Just generally about people doing too much gatekeeping about genres which you didn't at all do here.

[grindy]

As for my take, I think genre descriptions are quite useful to be able to talk about music and to know what to expect even before listening to something.
Totally agree though, that people shouldn't be too strict about them, it's all a continuum.

[robhr]

She wasn't talking about you, like, at all. Just generally about people doing too much gatekeeping about genres which you didn't at all do here.

I had just got done being the genre police then she called the genre police "pissy." I was anticipating the next post being "I wasn't talking about you." She was discussing the genre police and I am a member of the genre police. She may not have been deliberately talking about me but she was talking about me.

I'm calmed down now it's fine. I can debate ideas without getting emotional but when people start calling me names I get testy.

When you see a behaviour you do not like and decide to make a comment, you can't just make this comment without realizing the person exhibiting this behaviour is going to understand you are talking about them.

[Lexi Darling]

I had just got done being the genre police then she called the genre police "pissy." I was anticipating the next post being "I wasn't talking about you." She was discussing the genre police and I am a member of the genre police. She may not have been deliberately talking about me but she was talking about me.

I'm calmed down now it's fine. I can debate ideas without getting emotional but when people start calling me names I get testy.

When you see a behaviour you do not like and decide to make a comment, you can't just make this comment without realizing the person exhibiting this behaviour is going to understand you are talking about them.

I was not talking about you. I apologize if my wording made you feel insulted, I meant to refer strictly to the genre elitists I encountered in my teens and twenties, whose behavior I would describe as pissy. If you don't do things like attacking others for listening to "fake emo" then I am not talking about you and you are absolutely cool with me. Again, I am very sorry you were hurt by my post; I wanted to specifically call out the people who acted like assholes or gatekeepers about genre categories, calling out you or any other people who are more strict on genre but clearly not those things was not my intention.

[robhr]

I was not talking about you. I apologize if my wording made you feel insulted, I meant to refer strictly to the genre elitists I encountered in my teens and twenties, whose behavior I would describe as pissy. If you don't do things like attacking others for listening to "fake emo" then I am not talking about you and you are absolutely cool with me. Again, I am very sorry you were hurt by my post; I wanted to specifically call out the people who acted like assholes or gatekeepers about genre categories, calling out you or any other people who are more strict on genre but clearly not those things was not my intention.

It's fine. I was going to say forgiven but I don't need to say forgiven nobody needs to be sorry, it's just a misunderstanding. I'm sorry I had an outburst at you as well. I get a lot of flack for being precise and proper and it gets under my skin.

[robhr]

Oh I said nobody needs to be sorry then I said sorry, oops.

[grindy]

Tasty tech death with juicy bass.

[Meatwad]

Saw Mr Bungle last night. Great little workout jumping around in the pit. 

[FETCHER.]

Saw Mr Bungle last night. Great little workout jumping around in the pit. 

I'm sure they're at festival I'm going to in June. I haven't listened to any of their stuff but I might need to!

I'm listening to machine head for the first time in prep for going as well. All of my friends listen to them so I'll be tagging along. I've been pleasantly surprised by their less heavy albums. So far I've went through The Burning Red, Supercharger and Through the Ashes of Empires.

[Lexi Darling]

I'm sure they're at festival I'm going to in June. I haven't listened to any of their stuff but I might need to!

I'm listening to machine head for the first time in prep for going as well. All of my friends listen to them so I'll be tagging along. I've been pleasantly surprised by their less heavy albums. So far I've went through The Burning Red, Supercharger and Through the Ashes of Empires.

I love me some Machine Head. They were so influential on a lot of the early-mid-2000s NWOAHM/Headbangers Ball kinda bands that impacted me as a teenager.

And as for Mr. Bungle, they're a pretty hit or miss band for me but their first album is my favorite and also the most "metal". I respect them a lot on an artistic level even though I don't really listen to them very much. Plus they were really influential on Korn and Slipknot, who I adore.

[FETCHER.]

I love me some Machine Head. They were so influential on a lot of the early-mid-2000s NWOAHM/Headbangers Ball kinda bands that impacted me as a teenager.

And as for Mr. Bungle, they're a pretty hit or miss band for me but their first album is my favorite and also the most "metal". I respect them a lot on an artistic level even though I don't really listen to them very much. Plus they were really influential on Korn and Slipknot, who I adore.

Kristoffer absolutely loves MH too! He said the rise and fall of them at the time was crazy, they could have been so much more and were on track for crazy heights but they fucked it through drugs? Not sure if I'm getting bands mixed up 😅. But he did say they had one of the best comeback albums of all time. That's why I listened to through the ashes earlier today.

I'll listen to their first album first then, I'm loving Korn just now and slowly listening to more and more slipknot so I'll see how the first goes. Thank you 😊

[Lexi Darling]

Kristoffer absolutely loves MH too! He said the rise and fall of them at the time was crazy, they could have been so much more and were on track for crazy heights but they fucked it through drugs? Not sure if I'm getting bands mixed up 😅. But he did say they had one of the best comeback albums of all time. That's why I listened to through the ashes earlier today.

I'll listen to their first album first then, I'm loving Korn just now and slowly listening to more and more slipknot so I'll see how the first goes. Thank you 😊

Awesome! Korn have been a mainstay in my listening since I first got into them in 1999, they got me through some tough times. Their first album is my favorite, and I saw them play that entire album front to back on the 20th anniversary tour. Crazy to think that was already a decade ago.

It's so wonderful that you can share in the love of heavy music with your partner! In some ways I kinda wish Aaron shared more musical common ground with me, he only really listens to the most mainstream top 40 stuff these days, though I know he had a short goth/industrial phase in the early 2000s.

We did go to see Fall Out Boy at Wrigley Field last year though, it was his first rock show at age 37 and it was a lovely night we got to share.

[Meatwad]

I'm sure they're at festival I'm going to in June. I haven't listened to any of their stuff but I might need to!

I'm listening to machine head for the first time in prep for going as well. All of my friends listen to them so I'll be tagging along. I've been pleasantly surprised by their less heavy albums. So far I've went through The Burning Red, Supercharger and Through the Ashes of Empires.

We had Machine Head and Fear Factory come through the city 5 days ago too so its all happening in our neck of the woods. Didn't go as I had to visit my parents but I would have definitely picked up a ticket if I was around at the time.