Current power metal should be just called 'epic heavy metal' or something like that (it WAS called like that once afaik and power metal was something else, I'm not sure how/when those definitions changed so much).

Something should be done with "grindcore", since so many people these days seem to think grindcore is that inhaled vocal/breakdown/girlie pants crap.

Strictly satanic black metal has little to do soundwise with what most influencial first wave black metal IMO. It should be called satanic metal or something else.

Nevermind that the genre is named after Venom's album, eh. Y'all are over-analyzing this!

I'd rename whatever genre Portal plays to Zalgo metal.

I agree with the people that said power metal should be re-worked into different sub genres.
I would rename the euro stuff "Grimm Metal" since a lot include fantasy, folklore etc, as well as elements of folk/classical music. It just seems appropriate to name it after The Brothers Grimm. Bands like Helloween and Edguy would fall in this category.

I'm ok with symphonic metal for bands like Rhapsody but maybe something else would fit those one mislabeled "Gothic Metal", but Im not really sure what to call it.

Then USPM could probably just be left as Power Metal then.

The only one that annoys me is black/thrash when really it's just ripping off Kreator. Raw production and harsh vocals aren't enough to really add that first half of the tag to me, there's almost no black metal influence in Witchaven, Ketzer, Cemetery Lust, Hellcannon, Black Fast, Depremacy, et cetera. I don't know what else I'd call it, but "black/thrash" is honestly just not right for that niche sound if you ask me.

Everybody else in this thread is loony though. Changing black metal to hate metal? Are you ten?

The primary metal genres Heavy, Doom, Power, Thrash, Black, Death, and Folk are fine by me.

The only things I have an issue with is terms like nu-metal which give people the impression that it is actually a style of metal. As well as made up terms like Viking metal or Pirate metal that only describe lyrical themes and not the actual genre. I mean, if a DM band that writes about murder and a DM band that writes about zombies are still both DM bands, why should it be different for anything else?

Hmmm, I'm generally pretty happy with most of the genre names, even when they're not accurate. Power metal could really do with either a total rename or a split beyond "Euro" and "US" to define faggy or not. Gothic is wrong but I think they genre sucks so I couldn't care less.

As for one I'd like, I'd like melodic death metal and melodeath to split into two, something I already do, but I'd like it to become the norm. The former being still very death metal with heavy doses of melodic work, and the later being the totally removed from death metal stuff.

Also, @ MetalheadNorm, Viking metal actually does define a sound, Amon Amarth are not Viking, while Moonsorrow (well in part) are, dispite the former singing about vikings and the later not.

nicely put.

technical doom metal?

Thrash should be renamed to something without 'th', so people stop accidentally calling it trash.

More seriously, I think NWOBHM should be renamed. Some non-metal bands (like Praying Mantis) were part of NWOBHM.

Allow me to release from the weight of uncertainty by letting you know none of those are sub genres of metal.

I couldn't give a rat's arse what category they fall under. They are unworthy of further study.

Djentcore? ha ha that's a new one [to me]

From now on i am going to refer to the melodeath variety of melodic death metal simply as diabetes.

I choked on my popcorn at this. I don't necessarily agree, but it was an unexpected statement to say the least.


Personally, I like the names of the genres for the most part. I think black and death metal are pretty fitting. It could also be that I'm just so used to them I can't really imagine anything else, but.

As for the gothic tag, I believe the gothic metal name fits the genre more than gothic rock fits its name. Atmospheric rock would be a better description for the latter imo, although that term is loosely used for different bands.

Also, shoegaze term always sounded stupid to me. That fucking shoe. It's gazing at you. Dream rock or something like that sounds better. Don't get me started on 'blackgaze'.

I would probably rename industrial metal to "electro metal" or something of that sort being that industrial contains a lot of electronic samples and when someone says "industrial", electronic music doesn't really come to mind.

You realise you're gazing at the shoes, not the other way around, yes? Still stupid though, I agree. I'm also of the opinion that "gothic metal" that isn't really similar to gothic rock could do with a better one, but what?

As for the industrial metal example above, a lot of people use the term "cyber metal" for stuff like Herrschaft, which I can agree with, since - as enjoyable as it can be at times - it's not really industrial at all.

Just so you know, we're not actually the High Metal Council voting a new nomenclature to be enforced from now on. This is a funny, tongue-in-cheek thread where we come up with jokes and/or share our personal pet peeves and rant on about existing names that were coined at some point and happened to stick. Or at least, this is how I see it. If some took it more seriously, they're in for a big disappointment when they wake up.

As for my "hate metal" suggestion, it'd be far more evocative of most music classified as black metal than the non-descriptive tag that happen to be used in reality. Also, just my two cents.

Moonsorrow is just a Black Metal band that likes to take influences from Folk, and write about pagans and war, nothing more.

I really don't enjoy some of the sub sub genre names like National Socialist Black Metal, Depressive Black metal, etc.

NSBM is just refining particular bands for having specific lyrical content but they still play black metal, IMO. I don't understand the separate classification. Depressive black metal just sounds silly to me.

I would take the 'core' out of Grindcore and just call it Grind, because 'core' is derived from Hardcore and there's nothing hardcore about grindcore. Grindcore evolved from punk so I have no idea how the 'core' got thrown in there.

I guess it could've been taken from Hardcore Punk, but I still feel that it doesn't belong. Deathcore because Deathcore bands combine Death Metal riffs and vocals with Hardcore breakdowns.

Something should be said about post-metal. Most people refer to these bands as post/atmospheric-sludge/doom. I listen to a lot of bands in this category, and aside from 4 or 5 bands, most are just sludge to me.

i wouldn't mind if grindcore was called something else ("punkmetal" i suppose would be kinda descriptive, but it sounds pretty stupid...), simply because it's the only genre with the -core appendix that doesn't suck

changing nu-metal to something not containing the word "metal" in it would make the world a better place

also, having separate terms for the specific genre of "heavy metal" (containing bands like maiden and such) and the umbrella term of "heavy metal" (containing all the sub genres; death metal and such) would be nice
the obvious choice would be to have "metal" be the umbrella term, and that would otherwise be fine, but i'm not sure "heavy metal" is particularly descriptive of the specific genre (perhaps classic metal or something)

Grind's label is fine, calling it punkmetal would be ridiculous since metal already has a punk influenced genre.

Nothing hardcore about grindcore?? It evolved from the combination of the most extreme qualities of hardcore punk and metal. Grindcore has infinitely more to do with hardcore than metalcore or deathcore ever have or will. You do realize that the term "hardcore" referred to hardcore punk bands in it's inception right? The bands that directly influenced those early grindcore bands? And that only later did all these modern bands toting moronic breakdowns co-opt the term?

I guess not.

I do realize that, I just think of bands like Terror, Death Before Dishonor, Hatebreed, etc. when I think of Hardcore. And THAT is the type of Hardcore that has nothing to do with Grindcore. I should have specified that I was referring to modernized Hardcore. But I specifically stated that Hardcore Punk was involved.

The 'core' term is thrown around so much these days, we've got 12 year olds in skinny jeans thinking that Impending Doom is Grindcore! That's a fuckin disgrace!!!

So because a bunch of shitty new bands that have little or nothing to do with the pioneers of the genre are calling themselves hardcore now we should change the name of another genre because it doesn't sound like it took influence from those shitty new bands who didn't even exist at the time grindcore started?

How does that make any sense whatsoever?

My whole point is that I'm annoyed with modern teenage posers who think they have to listen to any genre with 'core' at the end of it. I once had a kid come up to me who saw my Insect Warfare shirt and was like "yeah dood! Insect Warfare!" So we started talking about music and it turns out the kid isn't even into IW, he just heard them once on the internet, and his favorite bands were Devil Wears Prada and A Day To Remember!
Grindcore definitely has the right to the 'core' term waaaaayyyyy more than any of today's bands do. I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just saying it would be far less annoying if these kids would stop trying to be so br00tal!

Stop not understanding that Core is a genre, not a time sensitive term that will fade away like some fad.

I understand that, I'm just saying that modern youth has ruined the genre title. I guarantee that if Grindcore had a different title without core in it, all these kids wouldn't show any interest at all. This thread is about renaming genres, so I would take the core out of Grindcore because of the modern scene and its fan base.

Well here we can agree, i actually posted along the same lines earlier in this thread about the unfounded association between deathcore/metalcore and hardcore/grindcore and the fact that it is annoying. Nice on the IW shirt, you should check out the grindcore help thread in the recommendation forum, lot's of good shit in there and relatively regular posts about new shit people find worth checking out.

Awesome! Thanks dude, I'll check that out.

What exactly is the difference between melodic death metal and melodeath? I thought melodeath was short for melodic DM, like tech death is short for technical DM. And there aren't any bands tagged on the archives with "Melodeath".

Edit: Or maybe I'm missing the point. You just want them to be separate terms, with Melodic DM for bands like Amon Amarth, and melodeath for schlock like Arch Enemy. Am I close?

Both of those would be 'melodeath' really. "Melodic death metal" should just be a further descriptor of bands like Vehemence, The Chasm, later Dismember, etc.

Really, this. I personally use the same dichotomy as lord_ghengis, where bands like Arch Enemy, In Flames, and stuff like that which really has virtually zero real death metal influence apart from the vocals are "melodeath" to me, whereas Vehemence and such are more death metal with a heavy bent on melody. It may seem like splitting hairs, but I do it, and apparently others do too.

"Hate metal" just reminds me of that Finnish band, HIM, who pioneered "love metal" about ten years ago or whenever it was, haha.