Can't be that hard to understand, and the "everybody else says otherwise" argument really makes you sound like you're not thinking for yourself here. Which you should.

OK, that's a whole different aspect, so I'm not going to meddle. Maybe contact one of the Mods to get a better response? PM Diamhea for instance.

Don't encourage him....please

but i have also seen many Doom Metal bands labelled "Epic" as well.

One band labeled "Epic metal" would have been nuked if it was just alittle more hard rock.

That reminds me of that "Legend" band from the US who released "From the Fjords", who pretty much fit that description (though they are at least labelled "Epic Heavy Metal"), and sounded more like "prog rock/heavy metal" or something, at least to me.

The band that almost got nuked was Revenge from Italy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMU8V4hVrSs

That sounds pretty decent for what it is, though no idea where they got the "epic" from

One band labeled "Epic metal" would have been nuked if it was just alittle more hard rock.

Are there any Power/doom bands? what about blackened power metal aside from demoniac? Symphonic thrash metal aside from al'virius? Epic Thrash Metal?

Have there been any screamo (real screamo, like Orchid or Rorschach) influenced metal sub genres?

Epic doom metal is sort of trad doom + power metal sensibilities. You can listen to bands like Candlemass, Solstice, While Heaven Wept or Atlantean Kodex and hear the mix of genres. There is legit power/doom though, keep in mind that doom doesn't equal slow though, there's plenty of fast paced trad doom like Pentagram or Iron Man.
Power doom:





Black power is pretty rare, melodic black metal can be seen as being near that definition though as it's often including trad metal influences.
Stormlord from Italy is blending symphonic power with melodic/symphonic black. Kind of decent.

I'm still fairly new to metal (only been listening for about two years, much less time than most people on this site), and I keep hearing about "Slam Death Metal". If this is a real thing, can someone give me an example? I want to know what it sounds like.

Any melodic black metal bands you can recommend me?

There's plenty of explanation of it in the appropriate threads down there in the "Suggestions and Complaints" section. Some Mods even provided explanations.

Basically it has to do with those band's music being based on groove rather than death metal, and being that they're fundamentally melody-driven, like anything categorized as "melodic whatever", they're classified like that. Think of it like this, if there are no death metal riffs but instead a bunch of groove-ridden chords/riffs being played then why would you call that death metal in the first place. For a band to be classified as melodic death metal it implies that they at first play actual death metal, and then the basis of the way they play it is... melody.

I have heard the claim multiple times that a couple of the admins dislike Scar Symmetry and have retained the "groove" label as a detractor on the band's page - something I'm finding continuously easier to believe, as they've never refuted my explanations.

is 'southern metal' a real genre?