When most people think of metal, popular heavy metal groups like Metallica or Black Sabbath come to mind, or simply some anonymous death metal group that consists of burly men. A lot of people will spend most or all of their life wondering exactly what the appeal is of these styles of music, and for a while, I was one of them. I couldn’t really hear anything noteworthy in the music other than the obvious technical ability required, which I found a bit contrived.

Part of this problem is peoples’ limited view as to what metal is, which I reflected on above. Many view it as this testosterone driven, nasty, loud, over the top style music, which can be considered true for some of it. In these cases, that’s the appeal, and not buying into that is understandable. However, there’s a lot of metal, especially in recent years, built around subtlety, melody, and beauty.

Much of this has come to be dubbed “hipster metal” by elitists because of its appeal to people with a background in indie rock and post-rock, but let’s not mind that. Much of this metal takes existing metal genres such as black or sludge and infuses them with shoegaze, post-rock, folk, and drone to create a spacier, more melodic sound.

The go-to “entry level” hipster metal album seems to be universally considered to be “Sunbather” by Deafheaven, which I find to be an interesting choice. While some interlude tracks are mellow and slow-building, the meat of the tracklist still belongs to scream and blastbeat driven metal tracks; something it took me a while to warm up to.

I personally did not even touch metal with a 10-foot pole until my senior year of high school. Already a fan of a lot of shoegaze, post-rock, punk, and post-hardcore, it would have been a perfect time for me to become woke to “hipster metal,” as I tried to find enjoyment in the progressive folk/black metal album "The Mantle" by Agalloch to little avail because of the vocals. I actually first found appeal in the doom metal band Electric Wizard.

Doom is a type of metal I strongly recommend to people trying to get into metal. It structurally resembles progressive rock and hard rock, but with really slow, down-tuned and guitars that are fairly non-abrasive. From here, I was able to find appeal in Boris’s “Pink,” which creates some pretty fun but powerful stoner metal jams by adding elements of shoegaze and drone and a very melodic vocalist.

Boris helped me then help me build an appreciation for drone, doom, sludge, and noise rock throughout their varied discography thanks to their emphasis on simplicity and post-rock-esque builds. Upon returning to “Sunbather” a bit after, I was finally less bothered by some of its harsher elements and enjoyed it quite a bit. Since then, a plethora of genres such as atmospheric black metal, atmospheric sludge metal, blackgaze, doomgaze, dronegaze, avant-garde metal, and so on have come to bless my ears.

I think metal is so beloved because it is one of few genres of rock that can be as grand and nuanced as it is. Metal may be dense, angular, and heavy, drawing from jazz, math-rock, and hardcore punk, or it could be gorgeous, spacious, and melancholic, drawing from modern classical and dream pop.

Some metal music is among the saddest and most emotive music I’ve ever heard, not even requiring lyrics to induce these feelings due to its emphasis on composition and creating textures.

I strongly encourage you to put any cynicism aside and give metal a shot. There are loads of “beginner’s guides” out there that will compile what I’ve mentioned, plus much more. It won’t click the first time, but if you keep giving it a shot, I promise something will stick. Then, you’ll find yourself open to some really incredible music that too often goes ignored.