This is a question I've wondered much about. Where exactly does one draw the line between a dedicated metalhead or someone who just likes some metal?

I know I made a topic like this earlier (True Metal and True Metalheads) but I wanted to discuss this in a bit more detail. Would it depend on how often you listen to metal or how much you have?

Personally, I'd say that a great deal of my library isn't metal and that there are many famous and influential metal bands that I don't care for. However, I listen to metal more often than any other genre partly because it helps get me pumped up when exercizing and because there are many songs and artists that I love.

Quite recently, I've began to look down upon other genres (namely pop and hip-hop) and have wanted to listen to metal instead. I know many metalheads look down upon the aforementioned, but I'm not doing it to fit it. I do it because I always hear some terrible Chris Brown or Pitbull song in the gym and think "Man, if only I could show them REAL talent, like Judas Priest or Annihilator!"

I've also began to try and move away from metalcore.) It doesn't help that my sister sent me a Killswtich and Atreyu shirt for my birthday) I don't know if it's because I've been adopting the metalhead attitude or just because I long to explore other sides of metal.

I have a close friend who says she loves metal, although she claims to listen to everything. When asking for what death metal bands she'd reccomend, I got Whitechapel, Suicide Silence, Impending Doom, some other deathcore band and Necrophagist. When it comes to this, I have the urge to correct her and say that deathcore may or may not be considered death metal.

Anyways, that was more of a rant than expected. But feel free to put in your input. Does it just require love for the genre, or does it require knowledge, concert tickets, band shirts or anything else?

Hard question to answer. I suppose I am Metalhead because I listen 99% metal only. Its easy to look down on other genres because most dedicated Metalheads, myself included, think Metal is the superior genre, which it is.

By the way Wing, you need to educate your friend on what Death Metal is. Play her some Immolation or Suffocation.

This topic has been beaten to death and I dont think anyone can call themselves a Metalhead if they listen to other genres more than Metal.

Hmmmmm well there are many people who call themselves metalheads and listen to other genres. After all, how else could be have Symphonic Metal, Jazz-Fusion Metal, Folk Metal, Neoclassical Metal and tons more? A great deal of metal bands are influenced by jazz and whatnot.

And yes, I've given her several melodic death metal bands plus a Septic Flesh song, which I believe she enjoyed. I'll try sending her more songs though. I'm trying to find away to communicate the difference between death metal and deathcore. (I've corrected her sister when she said Attack Attack was metal.)

How can you call yourself a Metalhead if you don't predominately listen to Metal?

Thats like me calling myself Fijian because I have Fijian ancestry.

What I meant was people who listen to mostly metal and have secondary genres.

Give her some Cannibal Corpse and the Death Metal problem is solved :D

But yeah, I think it does require some knowledge to an extent to call yourself an actual metalhead. Which by the way is not in anyway hard to find these days.

In terms of classifying bands in whatever genre, I think it's getting ridiculous, we've gone from HEAVY METAL from the old days to A MILLION FUCKING SUB-GENRES. Too me, if it sounds heavy and has crushing riffs, melodic riffs, etc...it's Metal. Who the fuck cares if Metalcore has some sort of Hardcore influence. If it sounds good in terms of Metal, then it's Metal, fuck the people who say otherwise, obviously not all Metalcore bands are good but there are a few that stand out!

Anyways that's my two scents!

Or two cents perhaps??? :D

Death, you beat me to it. I'm pretty quick to point out spelling errors. lol

And yes, Neme, I've sent her some death metal and I plan on sending much more. Also, I agree that there are way too many subgenres. I mean, within Death Metal, we've got old-school DM, technical DM, brutal DM, melodic, DM, thrash-DM, gothic-DM, symphonic-DM, blackened-DM...should I go on?

But I think that there should be a clear divide between hardcore and metal. I remember the same friend telling me she went to a metal concert. I gave a listen and it sounds a lot more like hardcore! I understand what you're saying, but some of my friends will say that anything with distorted riffs and screaming it metal, even if it's A Day to Remember, Attack Attack or He is Legend!

It's kind of Ironic when you consider how big a role Hardcore played in influencing Extreme Metal in general and yet nowadays it has to get lost in the shuffle in order to be heard.

Well excuse me if my first language is french!


But anyways, It's like most people won't accept the fact that HARDCORE/Punk band influenced alot of Metal bands in some sort of way, I mean look at how many Misfit metal covers there are, there's a fucking ton!

Really? I actually never noticed.

Then again, there are quite a number of metalheads who also like hardcore punk. After all, that's how Crossover Thrash was born.