I'd say straight death metal is among the most difficult. I had some issues with it myself until the recent arrival of some new (By that I mean recent bands, albums ,and with good production) death metal that has all the brutalness of the older stuff but with some new twists on it. The thing that makes it the most difficult is just the straight up onslaught of sound with most of them, and I know that glutteral growls are sometimes able to put people off of the music. Either way, Obscura, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Abysmal Dawn, Hour of Penance, Blotted Science, and more are starting this really good influx of good death metal.


Notable mentions:

Deathcore and Metalcore.

If you are 13 you most likely already listen prominently to these two genres. And by that I mean the garbage that prevents them from being amazing.

Deathcore - I enjoy the heaviness and stylings of it, but this genre (Save a few bands) has been almost entirely ruined by terrible bands. All the ones that try and do what good deathcore bands do (Vocal stylings , pig squeals, breakdowns, etc) but proceed to do them horribly and look like total scene kids in the process(Suicide Silence,Chelsea Grin, BMTH, etc).

Metalcore - Relatively the same as the above. There are some good bands in this genre (As I Lay Dying(unwarranted hate for these guys IMO, All That Remains, Becoming The Archetype, The Human Abstract, Unearth, Oh,Sleeper's newest album) and it is bands like that which are the epitome of the genre. Any other bands I see tend to feel like cheap ripoffs to me and I cant tell the difference from one to another. They all look like these long haired, 13 year old, girl jean, scene kids and have to ensure every song has a 'br00tal' breakdown at some predictable point. It is worsened IMO with the addition of synthesizers and techno music they like. Keyboards/pianos (Like in Melodeath) are fine with metal but synthesizers are definitely a no go in my opinion. If I wanted techno, I'd listen to techno.

Wow, it only takes a guy 3 posts in a day to look like a completely ignorant elitist. Well done, but you still haven't beat ponderer's record.

Written by Troy Killjoy on 07.01.2012 at 23:17

Wow, it only takes a guy 3 posts in a day to look like a completely ignorant elitist. Well done, but you still haven't beat ponderer's record.

I just read that whole ponderer issue... what a ___________.

Written by @gent_-_orange on 20.10.2011 at 17:04

I would say Funeral Doom, The way Funeral Doom is makes it inaccessible... long and crushing, I think it takes a lot of focus to stay with the songs and not just zone out.

I agree with you. After succeeding in getting into black metal, Funeral Doom seems much of a harder challenge. Sure, I can get into individual songs of this amazing (Amazing, but not my thing) genre, but albums are still hard for me. ATM I'm getting into Esoteric's latest song-by-song, not in a single go.

I honestly think black is the hardest, it took me a long time to get over the production and the vocals.

Ambient black metal and drone genres are probably the hardest for me. I just really haven't been able to delve into those enthusiastically yet. If anyone has some recommendations that might help me out with getting into those genres just send me a pm.

Progressive metal is the most difficult for me. To really get into a band, id have slowly go through it album by album, song by song, but once I get into it, I love it. Its not the music that deters me, but the length of the songs/albums. I find Im just too fucking lazy to make myself sit through a 100+ minute album . But once I get past that barrier, the band sticks with me forever.

Hardest one for me : Doom Metal.

Black is the easiest one. Also got into Sludge, Stoner and Death in the past years so those are alright. I always keep myself away from heavy metal though, just not my cup of tea. But Doom I always wanted to get into, tried so many bands but just can't.

Written by The Turbanator on 10.07.2012 at 02:09

Hardest one for me : Doom Metal.

Black is the easiest one. Also got into Sludge, Stoner and Death in the past years so those are alright. I always keep myself away from heavy metal though, just not my cup of tea. But Doom I always wanted to get into, tried so many bands but just can't.

Same goes for me, I'm into death and black and the only doom bands I was able to thoroughly enjoy were Candlemass, Katatonia and Faal, while Ahab and 40 Watt Sun leave me with mixed feelings. Esoteric scare me away every time I try listening to them. I've started listening to their latest album sometime back in February this year and I still have one track to finish it, also with mixed feelings. Maybe that's because of the 95-minute length...

In high school it took me a while before I understood extreme metal vocals. Opeth and Immortal kind of eased me in (with Immortal, mainly the riffage). Now I have more trouble getting into metal bands with clean vocals because: A. It's really easy for clean metal vocals to sound cheesy in a really bad way, B. When you can understand the lyrics, their quality becomes a lot more important, C. When clean metal vocals are cheesy and the lyrics are really stupid it can really ruin the music, even if there is a sweet metal riff behind it.

I am constantly struggling with the band Andromeda because of this. I love their riffage and guitar work, but they constantly have the cringe moment where you just feel embarrassed even if there's no one around. The strange thing is, if they just had unintelligable screaming or growling it would just sound better, no matter what the lyrics were. Between the Buried and Me, for example often has really awkward lyrics, but you hardly notice because they're hidden behind growls and screams. Cephalic Carnage takes advantage of this fact and makes incredibly interesting and powerful songs with intentionally goofy or nonsensical lyrics. It just works.

With clean singing the bar for lyrics is much higher. On the other hand, I do think that good lyrics can make up for a cheesy sound, but they better be damn good. I can't think of a great example off the top of my head, if I do I will return.

Oh wait, that was a tangent, hardest genre to get into you ask? For an outsider probably still anything with extreme vocals. They're like a superb whiskey. No one has any idea why you love this crap, who could possibly enjoy someone screaming in their face, making ugly noises, or a drink with such an intense presence of alcohol. Some people may never understand. Once you do, however, it's like a switch, suddenly it's the greatest. But consistently, not only with myself, but it seems with people I introduce to metal, the extreme vocals are the most difficult part for them to understand.

Written by Oaken on 10.07.2012 at 03:18

Written by The Turbanator on 10.07.2012 at 02:09

Hardest one for me : Doom Metal.

Black is the easiest one. Also got into Sludge, Stoner and Death in the past years so those are alright. I always keep myself away from heavy metal though, just not my cup of tea. But Doom I always wanted to get into, tried so many bands but just can't.

Same goes for me, I'm into death and black and the only doom bands I was able to thoroughly enjoy were Candlemass, Katatonia and Faal, while Ahab and 40 Watt Sun leave me with mixed feelings. Esoteric scare me away every time I try listening to them. I've started listening to their latest album sometime back in February this year and I still have one track to finish it, also with mixed feelings. Maybe that's because of the 95-minute length...

erm yeah same here. You might wanna check out Anhedonist though. Their latest album is pretty good. Doom/Death. I think that's why I can get into it easy. It has Death influence in it. Anyway, check it out :

Im gonna go ahead and say: death metal

well for me it was, i recall locking myself in a room, headphones turned up to maximum, and just sitting there listening to it, no matter how much it hurt my ears. after listening to it so many times, i started to like it. that's how i got into it. (crazy i know)


but i mean it's the hardest for a number of reasons:


#1: it's loud and agressive, meaning when you first listen to it, it's gonna hurt your ears and give you a headache guaranteed.
#2: unintellgible lyrics, somebody i knew said "oh you listen to that screaming crap,that's not music that's just screaming" he fails to understand the point of the screaming as others might, (usually the screaming is a idiom of anger, a representation of one might say,) and the lyrics (that you can understand) usually are metaphors for something, i mean every song has a background.
#3: connection to satanism, death metal has about as much to do with satanism as a priest has to do with science, it's all for entertaiment,shock value and so on. christians, as soon as they hear the name, they start praying. and parents feel it'll corrupt their kids, (IT WON'T.)
ronnie james dio (who invented the devil horns) said the devil horns were a good luck charm against evil. = proof that christians will believe anything.
(OMFG im googling the quote i heard and it said "ronnie james dio was revered by satanists" LOLOLO)
#4: society, most people think metalheads are low-lifes or people who are crazy. (no offense,brothers) so the heavier the music, the more crazy and weird people will think you are. what im getting at is that, people will think bad of you if you tell them "oh have you listen to the Deicide new album?" point closed.

so i think you get my point,

Written by axelx666 on 10.07.2012 at 15:59
when you first listen to it, it's gonna hurt your ears and give you a headache guaranteed.

You shouldn't guarantee something based on your one experience. When I first listened to death metal I didn't enjoy it, but I definitely didn't leave with a headache.

Quote:
the lyrics (that you can understand) usually are metaphors for something.

Not necessarily. I highly doubt Cannibal Corpse make use of the gore theme to reference breakup angst or sociopolitical events.

Quote:
ronnie james dio (who invented the devil horns)

You should Google that. You might be surprised to find out he did not in fact invent the devil horns.

Quote:
point closed.

Maybe the average person who isn't open-minded judges the average metalhead according to their taste in music, but I find most people these days don't really care what other people listen to. In fact, I think metalheads are probably worse for belittling others for their taste in music than the other way around.

Of course, you have every right to believe it's a difficult genre to get into. After all, different people have different opinions on this subject... your explanation seemed strange, though.

Written by Troy Killjoy on 10.07.2012 at 16:45


Maybe the average person who isn't open-minded judges the average metalhead according to their taste in music, but I find most people these days don't really care what other people listen to. In fact, I think metalheads are probably worse for belittling others for their taste in music than the other way around.

Probably depends on area too.
You know that I agree with you on the second part, since we had that convo before but here where I live, I do get a lot of shit for listening to what I do (well actually I don't ACTIVELY but whenever it comes to music, I can see people think I'm some weirdo and most people around do not even tolerate any metal that has ANY harsh vocals). When I go anywhere in a metal shirt people look at me like I was some sort of alien from a small planet near Betelgeuse.
I know exactly ONE person that I know from real life who shares most of my music taste. I did encounter some metalheads though, but VERY few.

Written by Uldreth on 10.07.2012 at 17:06
I did encounter some metalheads though, but VERY few.

Even here I haven't really met any metal fans. I mean, there's a ton of metalcore fans and deathcore fans and like... one or two people who listen to either black metal or death metal (mostly the popular bands), but I'm assuming the ones who listen to similar stuff like me are the ones who don't look like they sit at home during all their spare time digging up underground extreme metal from every corner of the Internet.

Still, it sucks that people judge you for your taste in music. I don't listen to music to please anyone and I form my opinions for myself, so if other people take some kind of offense to that then I don't really consider them worth the time to worry about anyway.

Well, I'm intentionally saving doom, sludge, drone, industrial and the likes for when I get bored of the stuff I'm into now. I don't want to get bored of all metal at once.

Written by Troy Killjoy on 10.07.2012 at 16:45

Written by axelx666 on 10.07.2012 at 15:59
guaranteed.

You shouldn't guarantee something based on your one experience. When I first listened to death metal I didn't enjoy it, but I definitely didn't leave with a headache.

Quote:
.

Not necessarily. I highly doubt Cannibal Corpse make use of the gore theme to reference breakup angst or sociopolitical events.

Quote:

You should Google that. You might be surprised to find out he did not in fact invent the devil horns.

Quote:
point closed.

Maybe the average person who isn't open-minded judges the average metalhead according to their taste in music, but I find most people these days don't really care what other people listen to. In fact, I think metalheads are probably worse for belittling others for their taste in music than the other way around.

Of course, you have every right to believe it's a difficult genre to get into. After all, different people have different opinions on this subject... your explanation seemed strange, though.

ok where to start: about the experience: well did you listen for hours on end? i mean that will definitely give you a headache!
metaphors: true, lol obviously the lyrics don't mean breakup angst or political events..i was aiming more for anger toward a person or something
devil horns: i know, he got it from his italian grandmother and she got if from -- - - --
i wrote this explanation at 6:00am my time. so i was probably half asleep, that's why it sounded strange!

Written by axelx666 on 10.07.2012 at 18:54

well did you listen for hours on end? i mean that will definitely give you a headache!

I don't think many people lock themselves into a room and force themselves to like death metal, so that's probably where you went wrong. Most people I know either loved death metal from the first time they heard it, or [like me] they didn't like it at first and moved on to other forms of metal but then eventually evolved into liking death metal over a period of months or years.

Quote:

devil horns: i know, he got it from his italian grandmother and she got if from -- - - --

And I don't think he was referring to Dio creating the devil horns (or Malocchio), but that Dio was not the first person in music to use Devil horns; he was just the guy that popularized the use of Devil horns in the music industry (especially in metal)...

You can read this for a little more in depth education about the Devil horns...

Black metal: it took me a good few years to get into it. I find I often listen to metal as a form of release (heavy, chugging riffs or something that makes me want to hastily bang my head). With black metal's introspective approach and atmospheric style I never really apreciated it. It's only when I started to take an interest to its provacitive nature that it started to make sense.

I got drawn into its grim, frost bitten nature slowly but surely. Soon, the unconventional structure, long running time and even gritty production values started to make sense-helping to add to their vision. With these properties soon the main issue of coarse vocals was seen as just accompanying/adding to the abrasive flare that made this music special. Thus, the final barrier was overcome.

Like any form of music, it's just a manner of where and when you want to listen to it. Lying in bed or going for long walks by the coast on winter mornings gave it extra clarity for me, rather than using it for the gym!

Written by The Turbanator on 10.07.2012 at 15:13

erm yeah same here. You might wanna check out Anhedonist though. Their latest album is pretty good. Doom/Death. I think that's why I can get into it easy. It has Death influence in it. Anyway, check it out :

I actually enjoy death metal with doomy dirges like Autopsy. I will check out Anhedonist, thanks!

Black Metal: The poor production ( i mean piss poor...do some of these bands even try or do they just do a blind live take once through via their laptops webcam?) and lame hail satan shtick just ruins it for me, though I am getting more into bands that take Black Metal and meld it with other genres (Windir, later Emperor, Borknagar)

Grindcore: I hope this is self explanitory. But now Im loving Pig Destroyer and Cattle Decapitation.

Written by Boxcar Willy on 08.01.2012 at 01:37

Written by Troy Killjoy on 07.01.2012 at 23:17

Wow, it only takes a guy 3 posts in a day to look like a completely ignorant elitist. Well done, but you still haven't beat ponderer's record.

I just read that whole ponderer issue... what a ___________.

Is there a Ponderer rant on this thread? Which page number?

Written by M C Vice on 18.07.2012 at 06:21

Written by Boxcar Willy on 08.01.2012 at 01:37

Written by Troy Killjoy on 07.01.2012 at 23:17

Wow, it only takes a guy 3 posts in a day to look like a completely ignorant elitist. Well done, but you still haven't beat ponderer's record.

I just read that whole ponderer issue... what a ___________.

Is there a Ponderer rant on this thread? Which page number?

I don't know if there was or if I read one somewhere else, I can't remember :/

Written by Boxcar Willy on 18.07.2012 at 06:23

Written by M C Vice on 18.07.2012 at 06:21

Written by Boxcar Willy on 08.01.2012 at 01:37

Written by Troy Killjoy on 07.01.2012 at 23:17

I don't know if there was or if I read one somewhere else, I can't remember :/

Looked right through and couldn't see any. Saw 2 of Oaken's old profiles, though.

Written by M C Vice on 18.07.2012 at 11:25

Saw 2 of Oaken's old profiles, though.

Hehe

Written by Oaken on 10.07.2012 at 03:18
Same goes for me, I'm into death and black and the only doom bands I was able to thoroughly enjoy were Candlemass, Katatonia and Faal, while Ahab and 40 Watt Sun leave me with mixed feelings. Esoteric scare me away every time I try listening to them. I've started listening to their latest album sometime back in February this year and I still have one track to finish it, also with mixed feelings. Maybe that's because of the 95-minute length...

Instead of trying too hard with music that is obviously way too much to swallow at once (have no idea why you would try a 95-minute album knowing you aren't really ready for it). It would be much better to try doom that is mixed with the genres you know and like BEFORE trying more extreme and/or more pure kinds of doom. I personally would have had a hard time liking Funeral Doom if I didn't try on Death/Doom and Black/Doom first.

If you say that "I actually enjoy death metal with doomy dirges like Autopsy" then you should go from that and try "doom metal with death dirges"... Like I don't know... Disembolwement.

Written by X-Ray Rod on 18.07.2012 at 15:24

Instead of trying too hard with music that is obviously way too much to swallow at once (have no idea why you would try a 95-minute album knowing you aren't really ready for it). It would be much better to try doom that is mixed with the genres you know and like BEFORE trying more extreme and/or more pure kinds of doom. I personally would have had a hard time liking Funeral Doom if I didn't try on Death/Doom and Black/Doom first.

If you say that "I actually enjoy death metal with doomy dirges like Autopsy" then you should go from that and try "doom metal with death dirges"... Like I don't know... Disembolwement.

You're right, and because I'm not ready, I stopped listening to Esoteric, but I'll try them again after a while. I've also heard of Disembowelment before and might check them out when I can. Thanks!

I change my answeer to drone, the face melting (as Lucas would say ) atmosphere definately takes some patienceto get into.

Written by Boxcar Willy on 18.07.2012 at 15:51

I change my answeer to drone, the face melting (as Lucas would say ) atmosphere definately takes some patienceto get into.

More like drone doom, but amazing and very easy to get into:

For me it would have to be either Drone or Black, but I could just never get into Black before then one day it just clicked.

Now it's my fave