It often occurs that the genre indicated on many bands' pages is incorrect.
The "report" fonction is an incomplete option because there is no discussion; just a post and a mod.
I suggest we use this thread to discuss and debate over genre errors.

To begin: Bombstrike is listed as brutal death metal, but it is a mixture of black metal riffs / atmosphere and straigt-up crustcore. Nowhere near the indicated genre.

etc...

I have started to create a text file on all the bands whose genre needs to be changed some time ago... there are some; Heidrain, Utarm and also Moloch Ukr when I remember it right.

I have written several reports on the issue some weeks ago and nothing has happend so far.

That's what I'm talking about. It is sometimes hard to trust blindly the "reporter", and I can understand that mods have no time to lose to listen to extracts.

I support the idea.

Two small tips:
1. Whenever possible provide either samples or a few links to reviews. Sites like Myspace and Youtube are preferred over full albums on Rapidshare, because it's faster for a quick listen.
2. Try to have a grasp of the band's whole career first. What seems to be a flat out wrong genre description might be simply outdated.
3. Don't use this space for nitpicking, such as " Band X is not death metal, it's brutal death metal!".

It's true, there ARE 3 types of people...

Would saying a band is melodic death metal, not death metal, be nitpicking?

No, it wouldn't. Despite the similar names, those two genres are miles apart from each other.

There are also a lot of bullshit genres out there, like "melodic metal" and "traditional metal" which are adjectives rather than actual genre names. One time I even came across "melodic traditional/classic metal" or some horrible thing like that. It's "Heavy Metal" or "Power Metal", dammit!

Modern Extreme Metal was one of the more idiotic ones i've seen lately.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present the stupidest one of them all:

Pelican.

"Progressive Melodic Drone Sludge/Post-Hardcore".

I mean, seriously. That goes a bit too far.

Sudden Death (US). I don't know about their first effort but Unpure Burial is in no way related to heavy metal or thrash metal.

MA page: http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=6623

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/suddendeath6

This is definitely more towards groove/metalcore than anything else.

Reports for Protest the Hero


March 1st, 2008
Posted at 23:37

PTH should probably be labeled "Technical and/or Progressive Metal" rather than metalcore. I can see a *little* hardcore influence, but most of their influence seems to come from thrash, speed, death, and progressive metal (especially on "Fortress"). Calling them metalcore is not only limiting; it's somewhat insulting.
----

This only to demonstrate, how to leave the genre tags mostly in the hands of users would lead to hell.

The band in question is technical, but to give them the same genre as Fates Warning or Dream Theater.

Besides that, their punk/hardcore fundament is clearly hearable. The Fortess is their most metal album up to date, but that is it.

So please, report only genres that are completely and utterly wrong.

http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=11102

- Contemporary Rock?

This is obviously a side project, but still I cannot imagine anything under such genre tag.

Quite right. The tag should not fit what the listener wants to read, but reflect the music. If metalcore it is, (even if "insulting") then it's Metalcore.

But right now, as for the utterly wrong tag, we have Bombstrike "brutal death", actually crustcore with black metal influences (or crust/black, or whatever seems fit.)
Myspace here.

To me it seems like regular crustcore, not particularly metal based.
Maybe it has some likeness to crossover thrash, but the Punk / Hardcore tag on their myspace seems to be pretty fitting.

It would be useful to get an opinion of more mods on this, especially if someone remembers why it was accepted.

Especially why it was accepted with a Brutal Death tag...
Otherwqise, I've no problem with them being on the site. (Oh and if you can, listen to Dodens Utstrackta Hand, you might see some BM influences. Maybe.)

My thoughts exactly!

I can't remember the band, but sounds like plain crustcore with some really minimal metal influence. I think that would be a fun band to see live, like most good crust, but doesn't belong here.

I only listened to two tracks, though.

Well, it's not Brutal Death Metal at all, that's for sure!
Crust is a damn tough genre, when it comes to defining it's metalness. I do see (hear) why they could fit here, but it is basically very punk-influenced. I guess the argument for keeping them here is how they're comparable to old school grindcore, which is also included here to a certain extent. Personally I don't have a problem of keeping them (well, after a genre change at their profile), but then it also opens the door for several others.

If we go strictly by the numbers, there is a rule that states, that at least one album by a certain band has to be clearly metal to be accepted. I doubt Bombstrike has an album/release that fits that descrption to it's full extent.

Agreed.

It's up to the mods, then.

This time I have to side with Witcher, there's hardly any metal moment to be found on Bombstrike. I didn't hear any BM influences on that song that was pointed out by Aurvandil either. I googled for their first album as well, and all references in the web describe it as crust punk.

As a result of all this, I have deleted Bombstrike and they will be placed on the rejected list.

Is there maybe a simpler way of saying this? What's the site's policy on saying "various" for a genre? Because as that stands right now, I don't think I've ever seen such a confusing and self-refuting genre tag. Drone in metal is generally either a)nothing but one or two very slow riffs with a lot of sustain or b)a few drones without any song structure. When you break it down like that, it's clearly never melodic and nearly impossible to be "progressive" in any sense---there can't be complicated, linear, non-cyclic song form, so that definition doesn't work; there can't be a lot of time changes or a lot of difficult techniques, so that won't work either; really, the only way it would be conceivable for drone to be "progressive" is if you consider progressive to be synonymous with "pushing the limit," in which case saying "experimental drone" would make far more sense.

And that's just the drone part, the first three words of a six (!!)-word genre tag.


Maybe the mallcore principle applies here? As in, it's easier to stick with a short but vague/contentious term rather than "extreme groovy post-grunge?"

Well, I don't see why they can't follow Isis and be labelled 'Atmospheric Sludge', or perhaps 'Melodic Sludge'. Alternatively, one of those early/later things would work:

Sludge(early)/Post-Hardcore(later).

That would also work quite well, but 'Progressive Melodic Drone Sludge' is retarded.

i always thought isis, pelican, cult of luna, etc. were post metal

Post-metal is an empty term, which actually means nothing.

It could only mean something like post-punk, namely bands, that have retained something from punk aesthetics, but cannot be called as such anymore - usually they were early alternative rock or gothic rock bands.

And to use something like that in this connotation here - as bands which were orginally influenced by metal, but have moved away from it- would bring many serious problems.

'Post-Metal', in my mind, is more about referring to the fact that it's a mixture of post-rock (mogwai, gybe, explosions in the sky etc.) and metal. It is an empty term, though.

Sombre Colère
Here is the entire album
http://sombrecolere.free.fr/SOMBRE%20CO ... 202008.rar
(sorry for the broken link; not my fault though)

The music is hardly Ambient Black Metal, but rather Funeral Doom. It reminds me on Until Death Overtakes me, but without the keyboard parts in the background. As there are some ambient interludes I suggest the following:

Funeral Doom/Ambient

Opinions?

Does it matter if the genres of some bands don't have "metal" where it would be, like for example "Melodic Death" instead of "Melodic Death Metal"?

Also, does capitalization of genres matter? I noticed a bunch are written in all lower-case, like "melodic death/metalcore."

A minimalistic description like Progressive Sludge/Post-Hardcore could work for Pelican.

Funeral doom/black metal?

I can live with that...

edited my error out.

Nope.

Nope.

By the way, please keep this thread for bands with obviously misplaced genre tags, instead of discussing what's the most accurate way to describe a certain hard-to-pinpoint sound.

I'll give Pelican a deeper listen later, though.

Heirdrain
http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=106412

genre: Black Metal

Smell the Stench DIY label:
Heirdrain - " Darkness Hopelessness Grimness " - CDR Limited to 40 copies
( Canada - Down Tempo Ambient Black Metal )

Heirdrain - " Pathetic Human " - CDR Limited to 40 copies
( Canada - Black/Harsh Noise )

No. 241 - Heirdrain - " The Long Road To Death "
( Canada - Black Noises/Harsh Noises/Dark Ambient/Trance )
Download Here
edit: a new release:
Heirdrain - " Purity of Death " - CDR Limited to 40 Copies OUT SOON
( Canada - Black, Violent, Agressive, Harsh Noises )

So...Experimental Black Metal/Ambient/Noise?

Yes, something that includes all of these different facets of the band's music. There is an additional release announced on the site of the label; see my edit.

I would not go so far to call them 'experimental' though.

Any mod opinion on the matter?

I changed Heirdrain's genre for now, but are you sure this band should even be on the archives? I didn't hear any BM on "The Long Road to Death".

I changed Pelican's genre based on the comments in this thread, the reviews on the main site and their Myspace.