Well I never label myself. Ever. I don't even refer to myself as a "metal-head". I only dress in any black for about 30-40% of the time. I listen to jazz, funk and classical music on top of heavy industrial and just about whatever takes my fancy. I never label myself not because I'm a non-conformist (but I kinda am in a way
) but because I would personally defy those labels just by who I am. If you called me a metal-head I'd show you some of my Preston Reed or some Gustav Holst CDs.
It's as Desecrated said (in his infinite wisdom
), it's just a handy label that works from time to time. I'm "Straight-edge" or whatever, yet I don't listen to hardcore music or care much for punk. As for the whole drawing-Xs-on-the-back-of-your-hand crap that the likes of Bleeding Through do, I'm not at all interested. As I said, it's a label. I don't want, or need, to label myself. It serves no purpose.
I mean, are we expected to call Opeth "progressive-death-metal" when asked about them? Labels serve no point other than to get slightly more accurate descriptions. Even if we were to call Opeth that we still wouldn't have covered their whole sound spectrum because there are some folk, melodic-death and classic rock influences. The genre terms would get very long and unwieldy
very quickly indeed.