What Makes a Metalhead?

 

Ya'know, I have a friend who often refers to himself as a "metal guy" who has "a great taste in music", and if he were to spawn a son, he would also have a great taste in music due to his father. Being a so-called "metal guy", I once went to his house to plug my iPod into his computer to add music to my digital library, thinking I would find some decent stuff (and I actually did) but I was disappointed to find mainly two things: metalcore and deathcore.

To put things into perspective, there are seven main genres of metal (traditional heavy metal, thrash, power, doom, death, black, and grind) and then there are avant garde and progressive styles that can be applied to pretty much any of those genres. All of those genres also have subgenres and/or microgenres attached to them. In all, there are over two dozen little genres of metal music out there, and my friend, save for a couple pure death metal bands, only listens to two subgenres of one genre of metal, and those two genres are widely considered within the greater heavy metal community to be total shit. That's not what I would consider a metalhead by any measure. In my opinion, you have to listen to a much broader array of metal to qualify as a true metalhead, mainly because of how expansive the style has become at this point, after all, we live in a world where "atmospheric sludge" is a distinct category.

And how can you as a legitimate music fan be satisfied with such a narrow range of music? Metalcore and deathcore, in this case, are incredibly similar in that one (deathcore) is only a bit heavier than the other (and more painful to listen to in my opinion.) There's so many different textures, timbres and emotional variety in the heavy metal spectrum that it would be a shame to ignore all of it except for two subgenres that are marred with shallowness and stale ideas. And not only is it a shame to focus on all but two styles of metal in lieu of all the others, how about listening to those two genres and NOTHING ELSE? As a dedicated music fan, how can I be content listening to JUST metal, as vast and full of variety as it is? I would be ignoring the sparse soundscapes of Radiohead, the genius of Frank Zappa, the lyricism and dope beats of Wu-Tang, the good vibrations of Bob Marley, and the innovative depth of Miles Davis, and so much more! Taking in only metal would be quite boring for me and I'd long to branch out into new territory. But, to be fair, my friend also has a lot of Christian worship music in his collection, but I believe that it's all part of his devotion to the Magical Man in the Sky, not because he actually likes it. I never hear him listening to it, ever.

But what do you think? Can someone who only listens to metalcore be considered a true metalhead? Why or why not? Leave your comments below, and keep it heavy!