Music genres like metal, grindcore, some forms of punk (like horror punk, hardcore punk, street punk, crust punk, etc), hardcore, industrial, harsh noise, and hardcore techno (like gabber, speedcore, breakcore, etc) have a niche following, sound aggressive, and gets hate by the casual music crowd. What do you think these types of genres should be called? Exotic music? Aggressive music?

Um, there is an umbrella term for metal. It's called 'metal'?

I think he means things that encompass metal, hardcore, harsh industrial, or in general heavy music....

Which I call heavy music.

Underground music?

I call it whatever it is, because there's never been a reason to lump all of those genres together in a conversation.

Let's call it Steve!

Well, "alternative music" used to be a viable umbrella description until a shitty wimpy subgenre of radio rock stole and slaughtered the term.

I generally use the term "dark music" when describing my tastes to include the darker/extreme forms of metal, dark ambient, industrial noise, old school goth, neofolk, ritual/occult etc. I sure as hell wouldn't include ALL metal in that umbrella.

Just call it extreme music and be done with it.

An umbrella term for extreme music from a variety of genres? Why do you feel the need to lump them all together? It's fine as it is...

Just call it extreme music if you really feel the need?

Extreme music sound good to me.

yeah I'm pretty sure "extreme music" is a pretty widely used moniker

Fuckin' A, AST.

Back to the topic, I think Thiestru has the most blatantly obvious and reasonable answer. It's called metal, so let's call it metal. It can't be that complicated. Most of the time, if you are trying to explain to a non-metalhead what you are listening to, you're better off just telling them it's metal rather than blackened funeral doom or avant-garde post-thrash, or whatever the hell you're listening to. If you're talking to a metalhead, then you don't need an umbrella term because they know what you're talking about. It really should be that simple, but I guess it's not.

Also, extreme music can be used to describe stuff that isn't even metal most of the time, like deathcore. So it doesn't really work.

Besides, 'extreme' is very pretty broad generalization. Venom were described as extreme back in the day. Nowadays, I'd hardly consider them so because we have bands like Suffocation, Sadus, Psycroptic, etc. that are much more extreme. What may be extreme to someone, is very well child's play to another. Just another reason why I think the umbrella term 'metal' is more appropriate and reasonable.

^But then that wouldn't encompass powerviolence/hardcore/other non-metal harsh music. I think that was the point of his post... Even though I still just say heavy music is a fine label.

Ahhh, I should've read the first post more carefully. I assumed it was about metal since this is a metal forum.

In that case, I think heavy music works fine.

Extreme Powerfisting.

What practical purpose would this umbrella term serve?



Well, I am known for being "Too Extreme!"

I honestly can't think of a single instance where it would be appropriate.

Say you're running a brick and mortar store, a venue, or hell even a blog that covers this respective spectrum of music. It's useful to be able to say you specialize in "extreme music" over saying you specialize in "extreme metal, hardcore punk, grindcore, powerviolence, crust punk, industrial, harsh noise, gabber, speedcore, etc"

If you run a record store that specializes in all of those, then it would likely be better to offer more detail than to use one term. "Extreme metal, punk, and electronic music" would cover all of those reasonably well. It's very hard to group all of those together though, because they don't naturally go together. It would likely take four people to be sufficiently acquainted with those styles, as someone with an extensive knowledge of extreme metal/punk/electronic music would likely have some knowledge of the other styles, but not a vast knowledge of it. It's likely that someone who knows crust/grind well would know some death, thrash, and maybe some other metals, but it is very unlikely that they would know a whole lot of heavy/power/speed stuff that you would want in an underground metal store, or the various black metal scenes on the non-crusty side. Would H/P/S even fit into "extreme music?" A store specializing in industrial would need to vary a bit as it crosses over into goth, electronic, and metal a lot.

So, it's neither practical to find a use for the term nor to create a term for it.