Originally Posted by Obombration

Are you for real or what?System of a down is metal?That is the funniest thing i've heard for a while.Apparently agonist and agony scene are metalcore,according to metal-archives.Your choice of bands to describe the epic journey that is metal disturbs me greatly.Sabbath and Megadeth...my granny could name those.

I personally think 2 things seperate metal from rock:complexity and heaviness.

Proper metal is complex,nuanced music.It has layers,and depth.It is played by skilled musicians,alot of whom are masters,and are peers of master classical musicians. Anybody can play rock,and even make a living from it.There are plenty of rock bands that make it big because of marketability,not talent. Like i said,anybody can play rock,it doesn't take alot of talent,just look at the charts.That's not to say there aren't rockers who are good enough to play metal music,there are plenty i'm sure.But you won't see meg white or the drummer from good charlotte playing any Tomas Haake material any time soon.

Heaviness is probably subjective but i think it is fairly easy to identify.Where you draw the line,who knows.It is blurred now by sub-genres such as post-rock/metal and post-hardcore.I think that is why people use myriad sub-genres to describe music.What is Isis,Tool,Fates Warning,Buried Inside?I call them all metal,because they have all done heavy,complex material,and to call them rock belittles them in my eyes.But plenty of people swear that Tool,Isis and Fates Warning are not metal bands.But to list in the same genre as Nickelback?No thanks.