10 metal tracks even non-metal-heads will love (Salon)

Metalheads and non-metalheads can vote... And feel free to post ones that the author may have missed!

Agalloch - Not Unlike the Waves

Probably something by Opeth.

voting melvins

Metal after the early eighties, whether thrash, death, doom or black, is the embarrassing corpse moldering over there in the corner at the pop music feast — the slavering funkless abomination that should-not-be, on the radio or anywhere else. For most non-initiates, it provokes bemusement, horror and the occasional blast of blandly obfuscatory mainstream media exotification. But despite its bad rep, the truth is that there’s more to metal than gargled vocals, ear-splitting cacophony, and dicey politics.

oh and just fuck off

Never been a metal person at all, but love The Body. Drones and female choirs mixed with serious aggression and comically angry vocals.
So goddamn fun.

lol "dicey politics" yes it's metal specifically that has politics problems.

a tiny part of black metal has "dicey politics" and Slayer are supposed to be pretty right wing but of course its easy to tag it as all metal LAZY FUCKING JOURNALIST STEREOTYPES. I'm glad the music writers on ILX know better and avoid that shit.

from the comments

another 3 days ago

Motorhead is hardly metal; it's actually an early seventies prototype, along with Be Bob Deluxe, of the punk wave scene that bloomed later in the decade.

Metallica, some Pantera, constitutes listenable metal. Otherwise the concise definition of metal is indiscriminate melody changes on a lead guitar.

It is not to say that other bands don't also occasionally dabble in the listenable end of the genre's spectrum: notably Killing Joke and Rammstein.

someones heard the early glam pantera then?

we can trust his judgement

another 2 days ago

@kellygreen

You are correct in saying that Black Sabbath is metal. It also sucks, and is why I didn't include it in my category of "listenable," along with any other Ozzy. Blue Oyster Cult is something I might have liked to have listened to if its music wasn't also equally as consistently mediocre. UFO, too. Those were cues to change the station for me.

Are you going to call Bloodrock's more interesting DOA metal too?

You're generalizing heavy rock with the discrete metal. As I'll maintain, like Be Bop Deluxe, Motorhead is proto punkwave. You're seeing the visual trappings of metal in Motorhead without listening to the stuff, its time signatures and cadences.

I don't own any Metallica (or Pantera for that matter, which was lifted from a car--it's like, What can they do?). There are only a few Metallica songs I've heard that really rock, have momentum.

Your observation about the inverse relationship of blues to metal is perceptive.

My wife is now an OM fan thanks to this article. I voted the Motorhead, 'cause how can ya not. Sepultura/Melvins/Drudkh/OM bubbling under ...

Botanist is pretty damn intriguing music. Surprised it made it on here

Be Bob Deluxe

(I knew of him already, no latepass lol)

Watain - "Stellavore"
Acid Mothers Temple - "Psycho Buddha"

Drudkh, “Glare of Autumn”

wait isn't this like the diciest politics

people at salon seriously need to get off their butts and do some actual reporting instead of publishing shit like this
BOO

Metal after the early eighties, whether thrash, death, doom or black, is the embarrassing corpse moldering over there in the corner at the pop music feast — the slavering funkless abomination that should-not-be, on the radio or anywhere else. For most non-initiates, it provokes bemusement, horror and the occasional blast of blandly obfuscatory mainstream media exotification. But despite its bad rep, the truth is that there’s more to metal than gargled vocals, ear-splitting cacophony, and dicey politics. Here then are ten metal tracks for the non-metal-head. Listen and decay — but accessibly.

We could do a whole other poll on which assertion here is the most stupid and false, for me that would be

funkless

because there are lots of metal bands since the early 80s that have had some kind of funk element, and

For most non-initiates, it provokes bemusement, horror and the occasional blast of blandly obfuscatory mainstream media exotification

Idk in the age of music on youtube spotify etc if there's such a thing as 'a non-initiate'. Also wtf is that five-word pileup at the end of that sentence at all

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

provokes horror? GOOD

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