Non-metal bands that actually claimed to be metal?

Numerous bands have been labeled as metal by journalists or fans from about the times when metal was created. Now, it's also known that a lot of metal fans get pissed off by this, labeling a lot of such bands as posers. Still, as far as I know, most of those bands were saying stuff like "We're just a rock band" - even some that actually are metal (or were, at some point in their career), like Motorhead, Sabbath or Def Leppard, thought of themselves as rock bands and disliked people labeling them as metal.

Now, I'm wondering, is there actually any band that claimed to be metal even though they weren't, thus kinda justifying being called posers?

Yeah, I know it's not really a big deal, but I'm just curious.

 

Saxon is light AOR, similar to Richard Marx. Scott Waters agrees with me on this.

All bands but Manowar.

It's a silly topic. I'm an inclusionist. I think everything is metal. And all metal is just rock music. And what rock music is, it's just a subgenre of pop music.

Hell, I even think Van Halen is metal. Thing is, though, they're not. But to me they really are.

QuothTheRaven wrote:

 

Pretty much! We all know that bands like Leppard had no problems calling themselves metal when it help record sales. After the Pop/Glam Metal Bubble burst, then all of sudden they were just a "rock" band.

thejokeriv wrote:

QuothTheRaven wrote:

 

Pretty much! We all know that bands like Leppard had no problems calling themselves metal when it help record sales. After the Pop/Glam Metal Bubble burst, then all of sudden they were just a "rock" band.

Yeah, but Def Leppard never called themselves metal; the fans did. Getting lumped into the NWOBHM scene is not something any band would protest. It would have been stupid; but I don't recall them ever calling themselves a heavy metal band.

In fact, check out this interview from 1981. Listen to the whole thing or jump to 3:35.

I remember a long time ago the guitar player from Loverboy called their music "Heavy Metal".
I thought it strange that Sammy Hagar had a song about heavy metal (heavy metal noise? maybe?). But things were jumbled back then too, esp here in America.

allthingsmetal wrote:

I remember a long time ago the guitar player from Loverboy called their music "Heavy Metal".
I thought it strange that Sammy Hagar had a song about heavy metal (heavy metal noise? maybe?). But things were jumbled back then too, esp here in America.

Good call with Hagar; that song has always been a source of irony for me because "metal" and "Sammy Hagar" contradict each other wildly. Dude had no idea what he was talking about. Anthem my ass.

corplhicks wrote:

allthingsmetal wrote:

I remember a long time ago the guitar player from Loverboy called their music "Heavy Metal".
I thought it strange that Sammy Hagar had a song about heavy metal (heavy metal noise? maybe?). But things were jumbled back then too, esp here in America.

Good call with Hagar; that song has always been a source of irony for me because "metal" and "Sammy Hagar" contradict each other wildly. Dude had no idea what he was talking about. Anthem my ass.

That song was the title track to the film "Heavy Metal" (the fantasy magazine), thus the title.

S.D. wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

allthingsmetal wrote:

I remember a long time ago the guitar player from Loverboy called their music "Heavy Metal".
I thought it strange that Sammy Hagar had a song about heavy metal (heavy metal noise? maybe?). But things were jumbled back then too, esp here in America.

Good call with Hagar; that song has always been a source of irony for me because "metal" and "Sammy Hagar" contradict each other wildly. Dude had no idea what he was talking about. Anthem my ass.

That song was the title track to the film "Heavy Metal" (the fantasy magazine), thus the title.  

No I knew that; which is also what tripped me up because of all the artists they chose for the title track it was him...

But he never claimed to be heavy metal therefore he has nothing to do with the subject of this topic.

007 wrote:

But he never claimed to be heavy metal therefore he has nothing to do with the subject of this topic.

True. I'm just saying the guy wrote a song attempting to define heavy metal in explicit terms and his music was far removed from everything heavy metal, regardless if the song was written for a movie with the same name.

Black Veil Brides are metal, everything before them are just crappy old man music!  

corplhicks wrote:

007 wrote:

But he never claimed to be heavy metal therefore he has nothing to do with the subject of this topic.

True. I'm just saying the guy wrote a song attempting to define heavy metal in explicit terms and his music was far removed from everything heavy metal, regardless if the song was written for a movie with the same name.

Settle down, chubs. The song was released in 1981. Guess what was considered heavy metal back then? Yeah, that kind of music.

Eyesore wrote:

thejokeriv wrote:

QuothTheRaven wrote:

 

Pretty much! We all know that bands like Leppard had no problems calling themselves metal when it help record sales. After the Pop/Glam Metal Bubble burst, then all of sudden they were just a "rock" band.

Yeah, but Def Leppard never called themselves metal; the fans did. Getting lumped into the NWOBHM scene is not something any band would protest. It would have been stupid; but I don't recall them ever calling themselves a heavy metal band.

In fact, check out this interview from 1981. Listen to the whole thing or jump to 3:35.

I recall someone here said they remembered reading a book that quoted interviews with them, and at least one band member labeled the band's music as "metal" at one point (this was from an early 1980s interview). Perhaps one band member considered them metal and the others didn't? That's my best guess; I never read the book he was referring to.

Eyesore wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

007 wrote:

But he never claimed to be heavy metal therefore he has nothing to do with the subject of this topic.

True. I'm just saying the guy wrote a song attempting to define heavy metal in explicit terms and his music was far removed from everything heavy metal, regardless if the song was written for a movie with the same name.

Settle down, chubs. The song was released in 1981. Guess what was considered heavy metal back then? Yeah, that kind of music.

I can understand that, but to my ears all the NWOBHM and Priest and so forth that was circulating back then was truly heavy metal. Sammy Lightfoot's attempt pales in comparison.

"Say my name." "Chubs." "You're Goddamn right."

Priest in 1981. I don't hear much of a difference.

Priest in 1980. I do. 

My introduction to heavy metal was the K-Tel classic Axe Attack and it featured quite a few bands that I would later consider to be 'not metal' Aerosmith, U.F.O, Ted Nugent, Montrose, Rainbow (Bonnet era) but at the time none of that mattered, it was just great rock music and metalheads dug it. Maybe it was because they were all waiting for the internet to be invented so they could start arguing about it.  

Yes, back in the very early 80s it was very much like today when nearly everybody played stuff between hard rock and black metal. Back then, around 1980/1981 metalheads played SLADE, RAINBOW, MAGNUM, URIAH HEEP but also JUDAS PRIEST, MOTORHEAD, or MAIDEN. Later when glam came out and thrash then people started to listen or only to glam or only to thrash, or death etc...
Just check out our playlists on this forum. Nobody listen to only thrash metal anymore, or only heavy metal. It goes from hard rock glam sleazy till thrash metal and from death to black in some other cases. Back in the mid 80s or even early 90s this was imposible for many people. Thanks to internet i think many people started be more open minded.

corplhicks wrote:

Hell, I even think Van Halen is metal. Thing is, though, they're not. But to me they really are.

VH is definitely heavy metal.

Would KoRn qualify?

I do know that despite the fact that they like some metal music, and have toured with many metal bands, they are not and never have been metal. Jonathan Davis, KoRn's lead singer, has stated on multiple occasions that he is offended when he hears people categorize KoRn's music as metal. The band stated on multiple occasions that they requested to be disassociated with metal.

However, at one point (and this came after KoRn first requested people to stop labeling their music as metal), I remember reading about one of the members (the bassist, if I recall correctly) referring to their music as metal. He could have just been joking around or trying to get some attention.

Again, it's only one band member, and at least one band member very strongly disagrees with him (unless he was just having a sense of humor, I do recall him having a sense of humor in interviews), so I don't know if this would count.

Korn is metal, whether they or anyone else says they aren't. Call them nu-metal or alt-metal, whatever, they fall under the Metal umbrella.