Not all metal is about "Anger." Sometimes it can be vaugely beautiful. You should check out Swallow the Sun, ISIS, and Pelican. Wonderfully chill stuff. Uplifting in the case of Pelican.

What constitutes metal then? if it's not all about anger and aggression then wouldn't it be just Hard Rock? is it just when a double bass drum pedal and a tinny distorted guitar are used that it becomes "Metal"? doesn't make much sense to me.

Not just metal constitutes anger and aggression Punk has it, hard rock has it, every genre has some type of anger to it. Let's not forget Glam metal and Christian Metal don't use anger and aggression in their songs, are they not metal because of it? I just think, Metal doesn't have to use the anger no genre NEEDS to have it, but metal isn't the only genre to use it.

that makes sense.... what doesn't make sense is why it's called Metal in the first place. If it carries the same emotion as rock, hard rock, punk... what element about the music makes it metal? the sound? the speed? when I think of "metal" immediatly I hear double bass drum pedal, a very tinny and fast distorted guitar and some guy sounding demonic for 3-15 minutes... is there something more to it that I'm missing?

I guess the reason for it to be called Metal is because the sound doesnt fall into any other sound being made. Like you said the double bass drum is something no other band is doing. I think the sound really defines the genre, just the raw heaviness makes it Metal, Punk is fast with very straight forward lyrics (mostly political), Hardcore is FAST with a minute long songs singing about whatever....I think the difference in sound really defines a genre, not how angry it is because every genre has some sort of anger.

Ok... so by that observation (which is a good one btw) we can say if a band incorporates double bass drum pedal, tinny distortion on the guitars with fast speed on the solo's/rhythm, a sinister sound on the vocals (even when singing about happy rays of sunshine) it is in the genre of Metal? it seems (to me) Metal isn't as easy to group up as Jazz or Classical are... I feel like Metal and Hard Rock can intertwine at times depending on the song.

I guess in a sense yeah it can be that way.




Well, Metal is VERY hard to group because...Well there are about a half a dozen sub-genres to metal, that is what makes it hard. I'm not quite sure the difference between them all but i'm just generalizing.
Hard Rock can overlap with Metal, and the same can be said about Metal overlaping another genre.