There has been a shitstorm lately on youtube, where it seems like every
single post-metal or experimental metal band I look at there is always
someone complaining about the classification the uploader has given to
the band/song (example. Symphonic Blackened/Deathcore Thrash)

If I had one dollar for everytime I read

"omg, why do people classify subgenres so complex these days"

I would have... one dollar but still



what do you think?

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I remember having fun once, it was terrible...

I love overkilling genre names.

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Last.fm: Mercenarion

Agreed, i absolutely love being able to classify things. especially to an nth degree. it's like

classic Power Metal
Symphonic Power Metal
Electro Power Metal
Electro symphonic Power Metal

you know almost exactly what you're getting with each genre there. I think it's needed to keep all this progressive stuff under wraps.

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"Raise your swords up High!,
See The Black Birds Fly!,
Let them hear your rage!,
Show no fear!......Attack!!!!!"
- Amon Amarth, Drifter

Why not?

I think that in some cases its okay.


But there are a lot of clasification that are so usefull

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Account last.fm: NicolaBd

Genre's are important to give people an idea what the music will sound like (style) and scenes are often based on genres (NBM, FDM,...) But most important is the music itself not the labels given by the bands or record companies. Youtube is a shithole to know more about music because it is full of aloof people and wannabe's. Check the band their pages to get a correct on what they think about their music.

BTW: remove that typo in the poll please

I would if I could

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I remember having fun once, it was terrible...

Genre classification is fine, as long as it's not taken too far. A problem is that it's quite offputting to people new to metal (it makes them look dumb for not knowing what the Hell djent is), and facilitates people that enjoy splitting hairs in appearing as pretentious assholes.
 Separating into subgenres is usually done for the purpose of comparison, as in 'that subgenre is cool' as opposed to the other one which is totally gay. I think that is exactly youtube people's problem, since without the confirmation of others (but not too many, otherwise it is way too commercial), they cannot enjoy music without a form of social acceptance (aren't we all, really deep inside our Stone Cold solitary hearts?). These bloody subgenres are ruining the ol' Manowar brotherhood thingy.

By my books, if it's called more than 3 words + 'metal', then it's not worth remembering. I may use a lot of words to describe a band, but I'm not trying to fit it into strict sub-subgenres.
You should try all types of metal, you might find something you like, even if it isn't the genre you most listen to. There are hundreds of bands that have awesome music out there, it would be a pity not to discover them, because of some genre bias.




By the way, I was talking to Archon the day before:

It seems nowadays the only cool genre of metal is Death Metal, the other kinds are just cheesy and not cool, or even worse: only goth chicks listen to it. Anyway there is always some Enigmatick-like character that has to say something bad about it. But not that old school gay boring ones that only n00bs listen to, like Death; more like Brutal death metal.
Something like Immolation or Necrophagist, or Blood Red Throne.
Yep, nobody makes fun of Blood Red Throne.
Totally heterosexual band, completely serious.

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When in Danger or in doubt,
Run in circles, Scream and shout.

I couldn't agree more

Yeah Blood Red Throne are awesome!

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I remember having fun once, it was terrible...

First of all, I don't care how "cool" a metal genre seems to others and I don't think anybody else should either. If my unabashed love for Iron Savior or your friendly neighborhood corpsepaint-wearing iron-clad DSBM band makes me uncool, call me a faggot all day. I'll still love it. It's not that these genres are "uncool", either- they're just not as trendy as, say, Deathcore, and there's a lot of overlap in Death Metal and Deathcore so that may be why that subgenre seems to get more attention.

And I'd say that classifying Immolation, Necrophagist and Blood Red Throne under one flag is an example of WHY this genre classifying stuff is so useful. Those bands sound absolutely Nothing alike- Immolation's definitely the "oldschool gay boring" band that "these people" you speak of seem to neglect, Necrophagist are a landmark of the modern technical Death Metal scene and are in no way "brutal"- in Fact, if you think they aren't hated, either you're living in 2005 when they were the hot new thing or you need to take a stroll around the internet- I see them get hated on constantly for their lack of balls/being too wanky and flowery. Blood Red Throne, although I'm not that familiar with them, seem to kind of fill the gap between old and new Death Metal, if that makes any sense- they seem to have qualities of both eras.

You might think I'm being a nitpicky twat, but all that these genre tags are REALLY doing when you get right Down to it is helping people find music that sounds similar to stuff they like. I love Immolation, think Necrophagist are tolerable and don't really like Blood Red Throne- but aren't these bands supposed to have a really similar sound? When people say that all metal should just be classified under one umbrella tag like, for example, "death metal" (or even worse, just "metal") it's retarded because, for example, Obtained Enslavement and Ildjarn are Two bands that play in the same basic subgenre and even come from the same scene, yet they shouldn't be under the same general "black metal" genre tag because they sound Nothing at all alike and I definitely wouldn't rec Ildjarn to an Obtained Enslavement fan. Rather, I'd call Ildjarn raw Black Metal and O.E. Symphonic black metal.

Besides, if you really don't want to here these subgenre arguments, just don't read youtube comments- they're the only place anybody seems to care about them on either side of the fence.

PS: Panzer said to "read what the band had to say about their music"- well, Lamb Of God thinks they're a thrash band, Matt Heafy of Trivium has been quoted on saying "fuck metalcore, we're real metal!" and Kataklysm calls their music "Northern Hyperblast"- none of these statements are true. Just listen to the music and decide what it is for yourself.

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If you are a false, don't entry, or you'll be burned and died!

 
Particularly like this paragraph, it has this thread wrapped up in one, simple answer. Sub genres are there for a reason. As Enig touched on, it is there to HELP YOU, the listener find new bands within a sub genre. (Say you're a sympho Black Metal fan. You'd rather have sympho BM in one sub genre then spend hours on End trying to nit-pick the sympho bands from the general BM bands. ) At The End of the day it's their to help you.

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"I Wish I had that AR-15 in here, then I could probably get out.....I don't like being locked up, it's not very nice."

-Martin Bryant, after the Port Arthur