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The not so fine line between hard rock and heavy metal is the ballad. No self respecting heavy metal band could put out a ballad and tarnish their reputation as a true heavy metal band. When these so called metal bands of the eighties, a.k.a."hair bands", starting coming out with sappy ballads on their albums it immediately told me they were not serious metal bands.

Yes these bands may have had some heavy metal songs, but true metal is hard driving, non-stop mayhem. Take a band like Judas Priest, never have I heard Rob Halford sing about heart break or longing. He sang about raising hell, breaking the law, and pleasure filled pain. The fundamental elements of true heavy metal. And let's not forget the element of Satan. Van Halen may have sang about "Running with the Devil", but they also had some just plain stupid songs like "Jump". Van Halen is definitely not metal! They are a rock band who would dabble in the genre of heavy metal.

If you are in a hard rock band you can get away with playing love songs, and sappy feel-good songs, but this is a definite no-no in metal. Now take a band like AC/DC, metal band, not quite. Although they never played a ballad, their music did not suggest the Satanic overtones that true metal does. True metal is black, evil, and makes your parents send you to a therapist.

Metallica, which is a true metal band, almost fell off the heavy metal wagon when they released their most popular black album. They got pretty close to a ballad with the song "Unforgiven". Fortunately, this song may have had a more melodic sound than any of Metallicas previous works, but this song was not about the regret of losing a hot girl friend, it was a soft metal version of inner torment.

Metal bands who play ballads are nothing more hard rock gone bad. A true metal band will never distract you from the true head banging you seek, with a ballad. So remember if you think you're listening to metal, and an acoustic guitar starts playing and the lead singer says babe, you're not listening to metal.

Learn more about this author, Jeannie Trudell.
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