I listen to metal demos and hear all the commonplace guitar and drums sounds, vocal deliveries with chronic throat damage sounds, lyrics that don't even mean anything 'cause there is so much of this stuff around now that I am totally numb to it.  
It now sounds like muzak to me.  
 
There is no more shock value or coolness to it.  When someone says check out my new "metal" song, I do and find it completely boring, uninspiring, dreadfully like other metal tracks, and overall just done for the sake of saying "I wrote a metal tune".  OK, good for you but what does it mean to you other than just doing it?  Is there any purpose behind your look, style, music or are you really just on the popular bandwagon of this short term era?  
 
What really gets me is when the metal artist asks for honest opinions of their work.  Does the mix sound good?  Do you like my vocals?  It seems to me that if you were really into it, you wouldn't care what anyone else thought.  Rebellion does not want to be approved of by the status quo right?  Anger, hate, tension, crudeness, defiance, etc.  are feelings that come from true experiences in life.  Just because someone tats themselves up, wheres a beeny (?), and squawks into a mic over distorted guitars does not mean they really are that type of person or have anything worthy to say.  I think most of it is to get attention and feed the young ego.  Does music have to have something worthy to say?  Sometimes.  But when you are a hardcore rocker, you believe in it and what it stands for.  Who cares what others think?
 
I can appreciate any form of music as if it feels real.  It doesn't have to be played or sung well.  It just has to be honest.  What I don't like is music done to just draw attention for the sake of trying to be cool when in reality the artist is not.  Look at me, look at me, look at me!  OK, now what?  What do you really stand for in life?  
 
So that is why metal is sounding like muzak to me.  They can play it in elevators and in grocery stores and it would be just good background music for the masses.  I really do hate.  I really am dark.  I am so with it like millions of fans out there.  Gee, I cold make some money at this!  It's become pop music.  I think that sucks.
 
Rimshot
 
 
 
 
 

Hmmmmmmmmm.
 
At least you've expressed yourself.

Can I stop looking at you now?
 

I grew up in the 80s, and family was more country-focused. In high school a friend who plays classical music mentioned Iron Maiden's "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" during an English class topic of this and even gave a copy to the teacher. I personally never even gave this group a chance simply because of the cover.

Then next week he lent me "Live After Death"... I traditionally am a massive critic of live performance so listened to the entire album twice to find errors. To my utter shock it was an impressive album, with nicely done harmonies! It gave me an instant respect for " speed metal" (which I previously assumed was just another way to say "rubbish").

In hindsight, if that album had the same errors I readily recognize in " live" albums, I would have closed the door on that genre forever, but my friend is a classical musician ( so I was surprised he even had it). To my own surprise I went from low expectations to impressed.

I think I've recently become an old geezer, officially.
 
There's an entire generation out there who just doesn't have the heart, they just didn't have to earn it. They grew up with absolutely decent affordable beginner instruments, every amp model and pedals available at the touch of a button, gazillions of video tutorial for everything, devices that slow down the playback w/o altering the pitch and repeat passages as needed.
 
The web is infested with videos of 14 years old playing Rhoads and Van Halen and Malmsteen. Technically, they are sometime rather impressive. But how empty and heartless those performances are. 
 
They probably learned that stuff a lot quicker and are technically a hundred times as proficient as I was at their age. But all those hours we used to spent trying to learn solos from vinyl and tape, using crappy guitars that didn't stay in tune, sometimes with a missing string or two, plugged into the most unlikely substitute for an amp, all those hours, they did much more than just teach us technique - they built a relation with the music, it fed that fire, gave us that hunger.
 
Like Rocky - we had "the eye of the tiger". :P
 
I wouldn't want to be a kid today. They have no one to really look up to, except their parents heroes. Musicians are boring and unglamorous and the naivety just isn't there anymore. There's no room for magic.

This happened to me last year Christian;
I was hired to sit in for a lead player that couldn't make a gig. About a minute before down beat the bass player hollered "I forgot my tuner!" I looked at the keys guy and said " Give him a note". The bass player panicky said "But I've always used a turner". It took over 5 minutes for him to tune by ear. It's like that with all the guitar players here too.
Everything you said is true and so very sad.  

Maiden is classical music really with heavy guitars with lyrics ripped off from popular literature. That's why it works. They are still as good as ever and they are never boring because there's so much milage in this, plus they still seem to enjoy what they do.

I actually had a young guy say to me "To play like you I would have to practice 4 hours a day". His attitude was it  wouldn't be worth it for him. He had a better rig than I had too. My thought was it takes me 8 hours of practice a day. I get depressed when I hear local bands now. 
 

bayoubill
This happened to me last year Christian;
I was hired to sit in for a lead player that couldn't make a gig. About a minute before down beat the bass player hollered "I forgot my tuner!" I looked at the keys guy and said " Give him a note". The bass player panicky said "But I've always used a turner". It took over 5 minutes for him to tune by ear. It's like that with all the guitar players here too.
Everything you said is true and so very sad.  

I always played rawk so I never worried too much about tuning. 

craigb

bayoubill
This happened to me last year Christian;
I was hired to sit in for a lead player that couldn't make a gig. About a minute before down beat the bass player hollered "I forgot my tuner!" I looked at the keys guy and said " Give him a note". The bass player panicky said "But I've always used a turner". It took over 5 minutes for him to tune by ear. It's like that with all the guitar players here too.
Everything you said is true and so very sad.  

I always played rawk so I never worried too much about tuning. 

I'd never used a tuner before my first session in a recording studio. To this day, I still hate them. Most of the time, I tune by memory - I only need to think of that bell at the beginning of Ozzy's Center of Eternity and I got my E. Or the choir - an A.