It's the usual vapid mainstream bullshit, tied in with the usual vapid prog nerd inability to comprehend basic music theory. This dork probably wanks it to Opeth.
And yeah, the statement about metal being 'improvisational' was merely the most obvious of a series of bullshit statements. There was always a tension in rock music between the directionless, improvisational spirit inherited from jazz and the unidimensional focus-grouped polish of commercial pop music. In breaking with previous generations of rock, metal, ambient music, industrial, some hardcore and, to a certain extent, the early generation of 'alternative' rock all made end runs around this dichotomy by making music that was at the same time complex and multidimensional, but also deliberately composed with a certain effect or intent in mind, rather than just being jammed out in the studio. Instead of heaping praise on dumbass postmodern hippies like Steve Vai and Zakk Wylde, the article should have focused on artists like Atheist, Morbid Angel or Seance, who borrowed tonal and harmonic elements from jazz to enrich their expressive lexicon without getting caught up in the more defective elements of jazz (i.e. the emphasis on improvisation over rigorous composition). But, of course, this was written by a douchebag who thinks video games lead to musicianship, so, we don't get anything so useful.
