More formally, a 'Heavy Metal Elitists', are members of the
Heavy Metal community/fan-base, usually
aficionado, whose long term experiences with Metal music has often led them to develop a sense of passion that is frequently interpreted as stubbornness or arrogance.
Often times their knowledge of heavy metal not just limited to knowing lots of bands. Most are familiar with the musical characteristics (scales, theories, etc.), attitudes, history, people, and social issues relating to heavy metal.
Usually Elitists shun people new to metal because the
noobs are unable to cite knowledge from those aforementioned topics to support their statements about a band.
One misconception is that they do not listen to any other music besides Heavy Metal and some will even restrict themselves to only particular metal sub-genres. While it is common practice to adhere to only a few sub-genres within their taste of Heavy Metal, however outside of Metal, many do have diverse tastes in music. Although they may detest
mainstream music like
pop or
hip-hop, most are often fond of other music such as
jazz,
blues,
classical, and
punk, since these types of music are highly influential to Heavy Metal.
Another misconception is that they think Heavy Metal is the most superior music on earth. Most Elitists will admit that the skills and novelty in the some compositions of
jazz and
classical marvel that of Metal.
