What are some metal bands you feel are mislabeled or misunderstood by the metal community?

In that I mean bands that usually are faced with unjustifiable negativity from the community or have been lumped into a genre in-which they do not fit within.

The type of bands the community loathes on reasons unrelated to their music but if you showed them that band's music but presented them with different band name and a band photo of gnarly looking brutal long haired cavemen the community would accept them with open arms and think they kick ass (not knowing it's that band they said was "lame")

I think a good example of a band who once was mislabeled and misunderstood is The Black Dahlia Murder. I remember for years the community would lump them into being a "metalcore" band even though they never had elements of metalcore within their music. Metal elitists used to cringe at the thought of listening to TBDM but now over time the community has seen that they are not a metalcore band but a melodic death metal act that just got mislabeled due becoming popular during the height of metalcore. Now TBDM are well respected.

Some bands that I think are currently mislabeled or misunderstood though are,

Disturbed

I think the community never even caught on with this band due to their nu-metal origins. If you give their discography a fair chance though you'll easily see that after their debut album they completely dropped the nu-metal sound and just became a straight up heavy metal band (bordering on power metal at times). If you got rid of their debut and gave them a NWOBHM looking logo people would have a completely different outlook on the band

Examples:

Avarice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtQWeauQB_0

Asylum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzQiidY4agg

Between The Buried And Me

I feel like this band is always lumped into the category of "metalcore" when really they're more of a progressive extreme metal band or progressive death metal. I think a big reason for this has to do a lot when the band become popular (during the height of metalcore's popularity) and the fact that they're aren't your typically metal looking group of dudes (long hair, cannibal corpse shirts, etc). If you change their band name though, give them a brutal logo and change the band members to look like brutal death metal guys with long hair and band t shirts with brutal non legible logos and I guarantee you more people within the community would give this band a chance.

Example:

Mordecai
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNZaLgvKEaU

All Bodies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjug7xyyQ7I

Disturbed sound reasonably connected to metal to me, but I never really liked the singer or his annoying vocal spasms (all those "oom ah ah's" and the "och's" ) But without all that stuff, and without that weird rhythmic chanting kind of singing thing he does, he does have a good voice. Oddly, the best thing that band ever did was the Simon and Garfunkel cover (in my opinion.)

As for other bands- I dunno, it's all a matter of opinion. You could make the case for any number of bands to be included (or excluded.) I tend to go with what the website says just to avoid argument, truth be told there are a few other bands I personally would include here and a few I would exclude but that's about how it goes with most people.

Disagreed on BTBAM. I haven't heard anything after The Great Misdirect, but in my eyes that album and everything before it is just metalcore with varying levels of proginess. They did have some death metal influence, most prominently on Alaska and some of The Silent Circus, but all in all I would consider them metalcore before anything else. Anyway, it's not like they're received that badly anyway...like all bands they have naysayers, but back when they were on the site they had generally pretty good reviews (I think Colors in particular was at 85% with well over 20 reviews), and were generally pretty well respected.

As for The Black Dahlia Murder, they might have become melodeath over time, but according to Trevor Strnad himself, they started out playing metalcore. Just check the breakdown at the end of that song...yikes . But yeah, while it's true they are more of a melodeath band, it's undeniable they had (and probably still have, to an extent) a huge presence in the -core scene, and were one of the most influential and defining bands across all of metalcore & deathcore, despite never really playing it themselves outside a few early demos & EP's, and whatnot.

Maximum the Hormone from Japan is often called a Japanese SOAD, even by me, but they are more than that. Plus they don't hate each other.

Nevermore often gets mislabeled but then again they are a hard band to label.

A friend of mine likes to describe them as death metal with clean vocals. I sort of agree with that depending on the song.

Yeah I'm sure people would objectively love these bands if they "looked metal"

Well that really has been a thorn in TBDM's side for most of their career. The aesthetics have always been all wrong, the band name is like four words long, the merch has always been very colorful and reeks of metalcore stylings, when they came out they were loaded with guys with short hair, thick framed glasses, and gauged ears, they absolutely did not look the part for the first half of their career. I know everybody likes to pretend they're above that shit and judge music purely on its own merits but lets not kid ourselves, it put a bad taste in a lot of metalheads' mouths and either turned them off or tainted their perception before they ever really got a chance to have that clean-slate listening. It certainly didn't help that they absolutely slotted into the metalcore scene very comfortably thanks to those aesthetic quirks, and being that they play melodeath, metalcore kids were basically just hearing As I Lay Dying without breakdowns or clean vocals (and with very disgusting and horrifying lyrics) and just thought it was the most brutal shit on the planet, not realizing that that style had been pretty well codified by like a decade at that point. In a perfect world TBDM would have introduced metalcore kids to actual metal, but instead they just blew their minds without piquing their curiosity and wound up alienating a bunch of metalheads in the process.

Now, in recent years they seem to have finally shaken that stigma. Apart from Trevor being something of an ambassador to the mainstream for death metal and never ever ever turning down an opportunity to talk, they've mitigated some of the image problems with looking the part a bit more nowadays and having more "metal" album covers (the technicolor nightmare that is Deflorate aside), and I can't say I've heard them called metalcore since around the time Ritual came out. I did finally listen to their demos for the first time about a year ago and yeah, there's no denying that they did actually start as a metalcore band, but it's really misleading to call them as such because that sound lasted for only like a demo and a half before dropping the breakdowns entirely, completely upending the lyrical focus, and streamlining themselves to just high speed At the Gates worship by the time their first full length came out. It's such an insignificant part of their history that it feels extremely petty to hold it against them when they've been pretty well distanced from it for their entire career. It makes about as much sense as judging Darkthrone as a death metal band, and even then that's not a great analogy because Darkthrone stuck with their original sound long enough to put a full album out. Imagine the absurdity of Soulside Journey only being a demo and yet people still insist on calling Darkthrone a death metal band. Imagine the even further absurdity that most people probably never even heard that hypothetical demo and just assumed as much because ya know, why not.

Twisted Sister really isn't a hair metal band. The Stay Hungry record is full of great metal songs like the title track, Don't Let Me Down, The Price & Burn In Hell. The imagery, the time and the couple singles really grouped them in with a bunch they didn't belong in.

BH has a point there. It's definitely a thing for bands to have the "wrong" image and look quite out-of-place among their peers, and I've definitely noticed this and have let it influence me before, but I just have no patience for people who come along to defend certain bands and try to make it sound like the only reason people don't like them is because they don't look this or don't say that and make sweeping generalizations about detractors, rather than the music of the bands they're trying to defend. Sure, there's plenty of people who will irrationally hate on something based on solely the image or the fact that they are -core, but I don't feel like most people who post on here are like that.

Great choice. WASP got saddled with the hair band tag a lot too.

I'm not sure what you're talking about. I wasn't holding anything against them, obviously their entire career & legacy can't be defined by the way they sounded on their first demo (if that were the case Ulver would be fucked ). I was just pointing out that the band do indeed have roots in that scene beyond just aesthetic reasons - however insignificant in the long run, I wasn't trying to belittle them in any way. I'll admit it's not really my style, but they're a great band & one of the hardest working bands in the entire scene. Their passion & strong work ethic is really something to be admired, and it also helps a little that Trevor is actually a fan of my band (generic Suffocation/Cannibal Corpse ripoff that released two albums on a defunct indie label and never toured...the fact that he even knows us, is proof he's the real deal).

Nah, they're not prog death. I'd say they're about 60-70% metalcore and 30-40% progressive metal at their core with a bunch of other elements occasionally mixed in in small doses.

Alice in Chains.

I see alot of people just pass them off as another Seattle Grunge band, failing to see that they are indeed a heavy metal band for the most part.

Ratt. They get the shaft just because they were lumped with glam (which isn't a bad thing), but really, every single record had the heavy bottom and metal riffs, even utilizing drop D on "Invasion Of Your Privacy". Hell, they didn't even do an infamous power ballad AT ALL until the '90s on Detonator. Not one! Yet, they somehow aren't even considered metal to some people, which is absolutely laughable. It's just because of the look, much like the aforementioned WASP and Twisted Sister.

I'm gonna say the groove era of Overkill is another one, just because of the tag, people are turned away, when really, they had some smash songs in the '90s!

I really know practically nothing of Ratt, but it definitely just isn't their look that lumped them in with the hair bands. Round and Round, literally the only Ratt song I know, is very hair metal. Whether they belonged with that scene or not, that song put them there, and not just for the video.

I really got to question whether Cradle of Filth would have become known as the ultimate poser metal band had they never been lumped in with black metal.

That song definitely is, but plenty of heavy metal bands busted out "hair metal" songs at one point or another. And whether it is hair metal or not, there's still no denying that that main riff is a metal riff. It's got the heavy bottom, hard distortion, and palm-muted guitar rhythms. Also, Pearcy's voice is incredibly unique. Find me one singer that has that same aura and clean echo on the higher notes.

I know that the german Black/Doom Metal/Punk band Fäulnis gets constantly labeled as DSBM while simultaniously receives a lot of hate/negativity because the songs are "not depressive" or "too positive/life-affirming" which is kinda ridiculous... They never liked being labeled dsbm, because they simply don't play dsbm and aren't even aiming for a depressive sound...

This is the first time I've been told about any nu-metal origins. I just assumed they always were the boring rock band that they are.

I love Nevermore, but yes they were a weird one to pin down.
Paraphrasing a friend, regarding their middling reception during Gigantour: They were too heavy for the melodic fans and too melodic for the heavy fans.

"Closer to My Heart" from Invasion of your Privacy was a power ballad IMO. Same for "I want to love you tonight" from Reach for the sky.

Pretty much any band in the mid-2000s with a name more than three words long and at least one dude yelling was guaranteed to be grouped in with metalcore whether they deserved it or not. See also 3 Inches of Blood.

Everyone and no one got wrongly tagged as hair metal. It was never a real genre and it doesn't have an actual specific sound. There is so much diversity among the bands who got that label.

It wasn't directed at you specifically but I do admit that I sort of instinctually get condescending whenever "The Black Dahlia Murder" and "metalcore" share a sentence simply because I've been hearing that sort of flat out willful wrongness for like fifteen years now and it drives me absolutely bonkers. Sorry!

Early Sepultura being mislabeled as "Death Metal".

I never got that, to my ears they were always a pure Thrash band. Just because they were on Roadrunner and had artworks from Michael Whelan?

It's off-top but I never understood why Whitesnake aren't on MA? We have Deep Purple and W.A.S.P. here but Coverdale & Co aren't so heavy for this site? Their 1987 and Slip of The Tongue sounds heavier than hard rock.

As a longtime S&G fan, I hate that cover so much. They took away almost everything that makes it great (the delicate, wistful vocal harmony) and turned it into a cheesy bombastic power ballad with lame orchestral additions. Sure, he can sing it, but what's the use when the real core of the song is gone?

Anyway, when i read the topic title I iinterpreted the thread rather differently. I honestly didn't expect the OP to be just another reflection on "core" bands that aren't on the site.

So, I know they're well liked and everything, and many bands list them as influences and people I know consider them to be one of their favourite death metal bands, but I sometimes feel that Autopsy is misunderstood a bit, or dismissed by people who just figure they're another old uS death metal band. I mean, sure, they are, but there's so much swagger, melody and rock looseness to their music. They sound like a bunch of stoners from the 1970s who were told about death metal and decided to make music based on what they think it should sound like, and that's pretty cool. i feel like more people from outside the "death metal community" could enjoy them if they really gave 'em a chance. then again, their music still sounds really sick and twisted and would probably be too much for a lot of "outsiders".

Agreed, Abominatrix. That cover is miserable. Also agreed on Autopsy, but the real primal DIY punk in their sound is also an important factor that really set them apart from a lot of other death metal.

First thing that comes to mind for me is Neurosis. Tons of people lump them in with other post-metal stuff, but I think that not only is their influence on later post-metal bands like Isis and Pelican completely overstated, but also is just kind of a total misnomer as I don't really hear any post-rock in Neurosis at all. To me they were just a weird, artsy sort of sludgy hardcore band that slowly added in more influence from stuff like Swans and Godflesh.

I dunno Bestial Devastation is one of those ultra primitive death metal before death metal was a defined thing sounding records to me. Plus between the music and Max's vocal delivery they always had a darker more brutal quality than most thrash, always felt Arise was borderline.

Morbid Visions too, that album is 100% death metal.

Closer to My Heart is definitely a ballad, though a far more tasteful one than a lot of other ballads at the time.

Early Sepultura is at least death/thrash for sure, but that never turned me away from any of the early output.

Whitesnake is definitely one that I can somewhat see why they aren't here, since their earlier work was mostly blues rock and the glammier ones only have metal riffs here and there. Big fan of them, but I get why they aren't here. My gripe with Ratt being absent is the fact that every one of their '80s albums are for the majority heavy metal, they just happen to be corny sometimes, with pop metal numbers here and there. I do agree with TheGreatDuck though, "hair metal" really isn't a real genre.

I'm also gonna add Trivium to this, while they're widely branded metalcore, they're part of the 1% of metalcore I do enjoy, because it's heavily based in thrash and has far better songwriting than most bands with that tag. So they're another one that I don't understand the hate.

I wish Trivium ignored the backlash from The Crusade and kept pursuing that sound. Metallica ripoff? So what? Metallica's latest at the time was St. Anger, which should have been proof enough that they weren't capable of returning to their old sound even if they wanted to. Heafy should have just kept going and remove all traces of pop-punk/metalcore from his voice and they could have been the next big thing.

No matter how heavy you make hard rock, it will still be hard rock.
And what about WASP is not metal?!

When Hard Rock becomes Heavy, isn't that called Heavy Rock?

To me, there are (is?) rock and hard rock. Then you can put different descriptors to them, but that doesn't make them separate genres.

No matter how heavy you make hard rock, it will still be hard rock.
And what about WASP is not metal?![/quote]

When Hard Rock becomes Heavy, isn't that called Heavy Rock?[/quote]

Perhaps I went nuts but W.A.S.P.'s Last Command and Whitesnake' Slip of the Tongue are on the same level of heaviness, aren't them?

Heavy doesn't make it metal. That goes for a lot of genres.

The closest companions to "stone age" Sepultura I can think of are Sodom - In the Sign of Evil / Obsessed by Cruelty and Sarcofago INRI, and I would never think of any of these as DM.

I never understood why Cradle of Filth was lumped into the black metal genre. They were always more Their own genre than following any. Like them or hate them, few bands really sounded or sound like them; closest comparison would be Ancient or Hecate Throne maybe early Moonspell. Plus, COF been firing on all four the last few albums and are still going strong which you can’t say that about most BM bands from the 90s.

It's true they do have a varied sound, incorporating all kinds of influences but still, I'd say their 90's output, most notably Dusk, could fairly be labelled as 'black metal'.



To me, it's more like Seven Churches + The Return.