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"Black Metal IS NOT Metal. Many people lump Black Metal into the Metal scene simply because they wear KISS paint. While I can see why people make this easy mistake, Black Metal has next to nothing in common with actual Metal, but it does have a hell of a lot in common with Punk Rock. Black metal is not metal.... it's actually punk rock. The defining feature of Black Metal is KISS paint. As we know, KISS is butt rock which is closer to being punk rock than it is heavy metal. Black Metal features musicians who are barely musicians. They can hardly play their instruments and sound bad intentionally. This is incredibly punk rock. Whereas in Metal typically musicians want to show expertise on their instrument or brutality on it, punk rock has more of an appreciation for noise and abrasiveness. This is what separates hardcore punk from metalcore or heavy metal in general. This is what makes Black Metal more aligned with hardcore than it is actual metal. The theatrics that they use in Black Metal has more in common with the hardcore scene than actual heavy metal. Black Metal uses incredibly stripped down aesthetics at their shows and they avoid a lot of theatrics and get straight to the point... very hardcore of them. They have been known to throw animals guts into crowds... which sounds metal on its face, but does any metal band actually do this? No not really. It's normally hardcore bands that are up to these tricks. Black Metal has activism and messages whereas true metal does not. True metal does not have a message or activism in their lyrics. This is solely a punk rock trait, and one that Black Metal shares in common with punk. Black Metal rebels against authority, commonly religion, in their music which is far more of a punk trait. The depressive suicidal black metal bands are certainly more punk in their lyrical topics. I also hate to bring it up, but NSBM is has far more in common with NS punk than any metal. Quite frankly, metal is an apolitical genre, and when you make metal political, that automatically makes it punk, which is inherently political. So basically, if you're doing politics, you're punk, and if you're not doing politics, you might be metal. Black Metal actually does things in real life. Not only do Black Metal bands have their messages in their music, they actually go out and do something about it. Black Metal bands actually burn down churches and actually kill people when they call for it in their music. If there's one thing about metal, they do not leave their basements except for the occasional show. This makes them far more punk rock than metal. Heaviness is not at the core of black metal. Similar to punk and hardcore, the point of Black Metal is not heaviness. It is abrasiveness. Which is a fine point to have. Clearly, people like it. But this means that it has far more in common with punk and hardcore than it does with metal. I think calling it metal would be a misclassification based on its sonic qualities. So when you break it down, Black Metal doesn't really have anything in common with actual metal. It is clearly a subgenre of Punk Rock/Hardcore so maybe it should be called Black Punk or Black Hardcore. Overall, I would like to see this genre stop being considered a part of metal and reclassified to the genres it actually belongs with. I don't generally like punk rock music which would explain why I don't like black metal but enjoy many actual metal bands such as Godsmack.