I really really hate heavy metal. I don't hate Rock music. But I hate music where the people are literally screaming. You can try arguing that they're not, and if they're not, then they're just awful singers. No talent, whatsoever.
I perfectly understand where you're coming from; me personally, I don't enjoy music where the singers don't actually "sing" either. That's why I usually don't listen to a lot of extreme Metal stuff or Rap.
However, I usually feel the need to intervene when people claim they hate "Heavy Metal", and in the same sentence refer to those "scream-and-growl" bands only, and nothing else.
For in truth, classic Heavy Metal is one of the most melodic genres there are, and those bands who only keep to shouting, screaming and growling really make up only sub-genres of Metal.
Of course you do have your Death, Black and Doom Metal bands, and your Hard-, Grind- and Metalcore bands - and many of those are really popular within the metal scene, make no mistake - however there are also other Metal genres like the "classic" Heavy Metal, or True Metal, Melodic Metal, Power Metal or even Progressive Metal where the singers don't scream around all the time, but can actually sing (and sing really really well at that), and where the music also isn't composed just to "hit you in your face" with brutality and pure and utter "noise", but which has a lot of melodic influences, and also influences from classical music at times. So please, please... before you condemn "Heavy Metal" as an entire genre, you should at least give some of those bands a chance that are NOT extreme Metal bands, but which really have great singers and great musicians in their ranks.
So if you listen to some "true" Heavy Metal bands from the 80ies, like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Saxon and the like, or to "younger" bands who followed in their footsteps and created other more melodic genres of metal, like Blind Guardian, Helloween, Hammerfall, Edguy, Manowar, Rhapsody of Fire, or Kamelot, just to name a few, you will find out that there even are "metal" bands who don't simply live off stupid aggressiveness, but who are really capable of writing decent music and also of playing that music. And if you want some great singers in metal, check out Symphony X's latest album "Paradise Lost" - their singer, Russell Allen, is definitely one of the best singers out there, and the album's title track is the best proof of that. And I could give you a myriad of other examples if you want
Now that being said, I guess everyone can tell meanwhile that I'm a "metal" guy. I mean, I listen to pretty much every genre (with maybe the exception of Rap, which I really can't relate to and don't enjoy), from classical to pop to jazz to oldies to rock to progressive to blues and what not. But at the end of the day, I'm definitely most into (European-style) Metal, and listen to those bands I mentioned above. Of course I'm also in my own little melodic Power Metal band; you (or well, at least I) just can't ever have enough of that stuff, heh.
