10 Things Only Old School Heavy Metal Fans Will Understand

10. There Are Many Different Kinds Of Metal... But It's All Rock And Roll

"Heavy Metal" is a catch-all term for a certain kind of music - hard, hard rock - but it's a genre that's just as broad as any other. Some older metal is very heavily based in the blues, while most bands got away from that trend in the 1980s. Which is the best? That's very much up to the specific listener, who can choose from Industrial Metal, Power Metal, Speed Metal, Doom Metal, Death Metal, Power Metal, Thrash Metal, Stoner Metal, Classic Metal, and much, much more.

Still, it's best not to get too bogged down in classification - if it's hard and heavy, it's metal, and everything else is secondary. 

The men who invented metal grew up listening to early rock 'n' roll like Little Richard, Buddy Holly, and The Beatles, and that's what they consider themselves - rockers. If one were to ask Ozzy to explain the difference between Speed Metal and Thrash Metal, he'd probably respond with an unintelligible string of expletives - so just listen and enjoy.