Heavy metal is a world of its own and even critics who grew up

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Heavy metal is a world of its own and even critics who grew up listening to AOR such as Led Zeppelin and Quiet Riot seldom maintain a serious affection for the stuff. Rock intellectuals invariably prefer punk, alternative, even hip-hop and their disdain rankles the metal faithful. The phallic narcissism of metal has few parallels outside of toilet art, X-rated movies, and (oh yes) rap.

As one of those rock intellectuals, I remain unconverted. It never seems to occur to metal enthusiasts that metal's reverb-drenched, melodramatic strain is precisely what rock-and-roll was put on Earth to save us from.