Metal Archives 20th Anniversary
metal-archives.com
metal-archives.com
As much as I appreciate Discogs and RateYourMusic, they tackle different things and don't really function as encyclopedias, the former functioning more as a catalogue and the latter as a way to track and list your favourite albums.
Edit: Looks like this post resulted in a hug of death over on metal-archives.com!
But I second your request, I'd welcome links to any electronic and alternative websites that also detail the lore and bios of the band.
I mean, look at the wiki page on subgenres:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_metal_genres
It fills me with awe and giggles.
Nightwish is a good fit except the "power" part.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lita_Ford
Since our tastes are so far apart, I guess we have nothing else to talk about.
A friend of mine at work mentioned around 1988 that I should listen to 10,000 Maniacs--the name sounded interesting, and (I'll probably get beat up here for saying this) Natalie Merchant's Greek Siren-like voice led me down a more, er "primrose path" musically. Peter Tosh, too.
[On a personal note, I might have been able to get the courage to ask Natalie out back then even though she was totally out of my league--like my wife, and I dated a few women like Lita over the years, but asking Lita out? That's a whole other level of courage. Iommi was engaged to her, by the way, for reference.]
I'm 55 and I still listen to metal especially while working, but I stopped trying new stuff in the early 2000's. So the newest I listen to would be Slipknot or Soulfly. My brother tried getting me to listen to modern "Norse Core" or something, but I didn't get it.
I suspect my wife got into metal through the albums of Bon Jovi, but she denies it.
QED
I agree that the community itself takes the genre thing way too far and it often ends up being pretty funny.
Then again, electronic music probably gives metal a run for its money: https://music.ishkur.com/
Some people are in on the joke and some are serious. Sometimes, it's hard to tell the difference, but that's OK, because I like talking with both types of people. It's usually informative and/or entertaining. :)
Cookie Monster (includes Black Metal)
Hardcore (see Pantera)
Metal (see Metallica)
Crap (see Poison)
But what about Pterodactyl-fronted Black Metal: https://youtu.be/UZlZuYp1fZc?t=164
Most of the people included in these genres had no idea they were in them when they created the music (because they didn't exist.) Plenty of them still have no idea, and may not have ever heard of the genre that they "typified."
edit: and since most people who are "experts" on popular music create that identity by just vacuuming up what they can find on the internet, creating a genre in Wikipedia becomes equivalent to creating a genre.
Rush were added probably in the first year or two of the site's existence, so they probably kept them on their for nostalgia.
I often use them to find out if some band I found in the depth of my hard disk still exists, or to help decide what genre to sort some band in.
That said, I don't pay much attention to them usually. It's pretty easy to judge music simply by listening to it but at least the combined percentages can give you a good idea of which album to start with for a given band.
More decades, let's go!
Yes, please stay off my lawn.
That being said, I don't think Viking Metal is too helpful of a genre anyway given the completely different sound of, say, Ensiferum vs Borknagar, or Tyr vs Windir.