Quote:
Originally Posted by Funky Fly
They are metal alright. Just not particularly great metal.
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Anthrax may not be great in a level of greatness similar to Priest or Iron Maiden, etc; but among the "thrash" bands (ie: Slayer, Metallica, Testament, & Anthrax), Anthrax is my favorite (primarily due to the best vocals of those four). Be All, End All is a brilliant song, and every time I end up in a traffic jam or some crowded situation (like holiday shopping) the first thing that comes to my mind is the song Mad House playing in my head.
There are a bunch of bands that I sometimes see classified as metal, such as Van Halen, Scorpions, and Def Leppard. With Scorpions, the arguement can be made that they are metal - well, they are way closer to metal than Van Halen, lets just say that. Leppard began as a metal band, but shifted into more of a rock/pop-rock band.
Metal is just too diverse with variety and sub genre. It really has to do with context vs other bands. Priest and Sabbath, Maiden, etc are metal, but having attended Priest with Slayer, then Priest with Queensryche, then Priest with Heaven & Hell (aka Black Sabbath with Dio), if you were to judge "metal" as being Slayer, then Priest look more "hard rock" (and definately mesh much better with bands like Scorpions than bands like Slayer).
I like to think of the "pure" definition of Heavy Metal as being represented by bands like Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Queensryche, Iron Maiden, Saxon, etc
- bands that have a heavier tone and more intricate guitar work than rock music, but have vocalists that actually sing. All the drop tuned guitar / horrible sounding grunt/screaming stuff are sub genres, not pure "metal".
Priest and Scorpions are my two favorite bands