A label commonly given by elitists to bands that
define themselves as a metal subgenre they believe is the catalyst of the downfall of heavy metal.
Elitists, or bullies who diss a band they don't
like by using the term, can label metalcore (ex: Attack Attack!, Bring Me the Horizon), glam metal (Kiss, Mötley Crüe),
nu metal (
Korn, the early works of Deftones), alternative metal (the current works of Deftones, Egypt Central), and some hard rock bands—even though they tend to get mislabeled as that—as fake metal.
It'
s gotten to a point where
people have even tried to say that the only true genre is the one that came from psychedelic, acid, and blues rock, common example for that being Black Sabbath, who also paved the way for doom metal by merging metal with classical and more
blues (props to them), and that all these subgenres (thrash for example) are just profit-driven fucks. I think.
Regardless, it's a commonly used term, and there
may be a holy war ongoing.
I'm trying to be as neutral as I can for defining this label, so I do apologize if any bias appears.
Elitist: Nu metal is not real metal, you've been brainwashed by the fucking fake metal! Go listen to Carcass,
Death, or even Nile!
"Fake" Metalhead: All that stuff is way too amazingly talented for me. I think I'm gonna go listen to
Slipknot now.
Me: Who the hell are these
people?!
My friend: Welcome to today's society…also known as the fifth circle of Hell.
Me: I'm just gonna…walk away…and listen to whatever the hell I have in my library…
So I did. And the elitist and the metalhead continued arguing. Christ.
