should we add more genres?

[jimbobhickville]

I'm thinking we should expand the genre list a little. I don't mean adding "boy bands" genre or anything I just mean subdividing it a little more to make it a little more specific. I'm hesitant, though, because I know genres get a little out of hand and really lose their point when only 1 or 2 bands are in a genre. That said, I think Death, Black, and Thrash need to be subdivided because they all have a ton of entries on the site. I would like some suggestions for what sub-genres are most pertinent for those genres.

Thrash has 3 main sub-genres:
Bay Area Thrash
Aggro
Euro Thrash
but I'm uncertain of using those titles because they sound region-specific (as does American and European Power Metal, I'm open to better genre names for those if anyone knows them). Plus, where does Slayer fit? They certainly sound more like Euro Thrash, IMO, than Bay Area, but they are from the Bay Area. Maybe just have "Thrash" (for stuff like Kreator and Slayer, etc), "Melodic Thrash" (for bay-area sounding bands), and "Aggro Thrash" (for Exhorder, Pantera and its clones). Any ideas?

Death's main subgenres are:
Brutal
Technical
Melodic (aka Gothenburg)

Technical is covered by a cross-genre listing of Technical Metal and Death Metal, and I see no reason to add another genre there. Should we add a "Brutal Death" and "Melodic Death"? I know both have been suggested and shot down in the past, but now there are enough bands listed to warrant a split.

I have no idea what subgenres come from Black Metal, except Viking Metal which is already split off.

I think I'm going to add "Avant-garde" to subdivide "Progressive Metal", so all the keyboard-laden Dream Theater sounding bands can stay in their familiar "prog" genre, but the truly adventurous stuff could be labelled "Avant-garde" to avoid confusion.

Also, it has been suggested to split Neoclassical and Shred, and that is fine by me, but I think there aren't many bands listed in Shred then, which is why I combined them to begin with. Does anyone have a large knowledge of Shred guitarists or know someone who does? We could use a little more in that area.

Please reply with your thoughts, even if you think I'm nuts

 

[spaffe]

well it would be a hell of a lot of work to add it to all bands (cd's) but i think it would be really good. what i'm having in mind is some sort of hint what speed the music is played in. there are, as an example, a lot of bands that play viking black metal e.g. mithotyn and månegarm, but with the difference that one of them does it quite slowly and the other and at break neck speed, making them sound totally different. and therefore it feels wrong to label them exactly the same; black metal, viking metal, (don't start whining and say the månegarm also has "folk metal" cause that's not the point right now it's just an example). of course one could simply write the speed of the music in the description but then you wouldn't be able to use it as an option when browsing bands, which could (perhaps?) be implented if we introduced a speed "indicator".

as for the genres i think that if one's not considering the amount of work it would require, the three-split of death metal - brutal, none, melodic is a pretty good idea. i don't think that sub-genres of black metal are necessary since there aren't many, perhaps "norweigan" but that would be taking it too far, imo it would be enough to be able to choose what speed the BM is played in and then viking, death whatever.

(since i'm too tired to read though my post and due to the impossibility to edit the posts there will likely be some errors)

 

[Lutz]

I guess the Death Metal split is a good idea, though a bit of work indeed.

I'm all for adding Avantgarde, I really can't find another label for bands like later-Arcturus and labeling them Black Metal just because they have some BM-elements is kinda wrong..

Black Metal could be split (Brutal Black Metal, NSBM, Black Metal), but it's not really necessary IMO.

 

[PsychoticSymphony]

how about a "Melodic metal" genre? things that are melodic but i cant put anywhere else get lumped in with heavy metal. like pink cream 69.

 

[jimbobhickville]

maybe that should be "gayass metal"? hahahahaha...couldn't resist. It's a decent idea, but I think it could be misunderstood and used for a lot of power metal bands. Is there an existing genre name for that kind of stuff? Is it considered AOR (I still haven't figured out what AOR means except for "Greg Won't Like")?

I've also considered adding some genres like progressive rock, jazz fusion, etc for bands that combine other genres with them or have some metal albums then move into other genres. Like Ephel Duath's new one is hardcore and jazz fusion, or like Thought Industry has moved from technical metal to progressive rock. I worry, though, that that'll lead to tons of non-metal bands being added because the option is there.

 

[Messiah]

What we really miss here is a "poser" genre, so we could easily get rid of all those cool, goffic MTV darlings labeled Black Metal on the site.