One of my favourite examples of the Pixies embodying that idea is Tame off of Doolittle.

Tame is flippin' mighty, it has to be said.

You're the only one, sorry.

I said they all showed INFLUENCES from Punk / Metal & Noise bands.
I never said they WERE metal bands.

Good.

Hence the alternative metal?
I don't see how who they went on tour with varies directly with what genre they are.

Helmet has influenced the likes of System of a Down and other current artists.

Heavy grunge?

They are grunge, but they are also heavy metal and alternative metal


You talk like there's shame in being labeled metal. If they aren't metal, what are they? Enlighten me.

I'd call the Melvins grunge, which in itself implies a heavy metal influence anyway.

qft.
Melvins are Grunge, and like Piss Me Off said Grunge itself mixes metal into the sound. Bands like TAD are Grunge and carry over a metal type of sound, same principal.

Nah no shame in being metal. I am one of the few people on this forum that is actually old enough to have experienced heavy music in the 80's. In the mid-late 80's I was a huge metalhead. All I listen to was metal.
Kreator, Sodom, Destruction, Slayer, Celtic Frost, Bathory, Anthrax, Metallica, Megadeth, Exodus, Sepultura were metal.
Come the early 90's and I discovered bands like Helmet and The Melvins. They were very different. Still heavy but with a different attitude, which fit in more with the punk/alternative rock scene. They dressed differently, their lyrics were very different, they didn't care about guitar and drum solos they were much less flamboyant and theatrical.

These days the lines between metal/hardcore/punk/alternative rock are much more blured. I struggle to hear the difference between many so called hardcore bands and death metal. But back then the lines were much more defined. Metal bands were METAL bands, the others were either punk or heavy alternative rock. The term grunge I think was a name invented to cash in on the whole early 90's alternative lifestyle and the punk rock explosion that went with it.

Actually Mark Arm coined the name while he was still in Green River. The name came about about 2 or 3 years before the explosion....Maybe longer.

I have to say, that actually was a very well constructed argument, even if it's against mine. But I still hold Melvins and Helmet as metal. 80's metal and 90's metal were just worlds apart.