Metal is often stereotyped as an angry, aggressive, pessimistic and dark genre.

And while I won’t disagree with the anger and aggression found within many subgenres of metal, I must issue my dissent against the claim that metal is pessimistic and dark. If you wish to make that claim, you must first separate metal into its various subgenres, as each has its own tone, style and philosophy.

It’s arguable that Black Sabbath was the first metal band, and many artists within the metal community claim that most things done by the genre in the last 30 years have already been done by Sabbath. But that’s an argument for another time, and I’m only using Black Sabbath as a means to introduce the various subgenres the band spawned, such as death metal, doom metal and black metal.

Out of the many, many subgenres of metal, these three are where you will find the darkest, vilest, most pessimistic and anti-humanity lyrics. In other words, these are the genres that have created the negative heavy metal stereotype, and the bands within them are most likely to embrace this reputation.

These genres also touch on religious — or, rather, anti-religious — lyrics and imagery, particularly within the black metal genre.

Black metal features higher-pitched, growled vocals and a raw sound. Many bands of the genre, including Mayhem and Emperor, take an anti-Christian stance by featuring Satan as a protagonist.

Doom metal also features lyrics with religious connotations, but the genre is mostly noted for its overly pessimistic world view through the lyrical themes of suffering, depression and death. One such example is Eyehategod, a band whose lyrics touch on suffering and self-mutilation as examples of the troubles faced by humanity.

And on the subject of suffering, death metal is a genre filled with bands focused on the worst that humanity has to offer, such as disease, necrophilia and other violent and socially taboo acts. It’s a genre that uses low, guttural vocals and thundering drum beats. It arguably has the most violent lyrics of all the genres.

A prominent name in death metal is Cannibal Corpse, a band that features song titles such as “Necropedophile” and “Addicted to Vaginal Skin.” The band takes inspiration from some disturbed people in history, including serial killers and rapists, and uses these characters as the basis for lyrics. It’s a genre that is overwhelmingly negative in its view of humanity, and the lyrics present the worst the race has to offer.

Death metal emerged from a genre that is less dark and somewhat less violent: thrash metal. While song tempo is similar in the two genres, thrash metal presents a much more optimistic view of the world.

While the genre does touch on the topics of murder, violence and rape, like its death metal counterpart, thrash metal lyrics typically don’t explicitly describe these acts. Instead, this genre uses the topics as a medium for social criticism.

Whereas death metal presents and describes the most extreme forms of violence on a personal level, thrash metal takes these topics and applies them to larger social constructs, such as violent actions by governments, and then questions them through their lyrics.

The result is a genre that is more like its punk roots, in that it questions the actions of government and large social structures while presenting the hope that people have the power to change these evils in the world.

And speaking of power, let’s move forth to power metal, which focuses on achievement, mysticism and human progress.

It focuses on the powers that are above human cognition, rather than the evil things men do with their worldly power. The grandiose sound and uplifting guitar work is backed only by epic themes of human progress and achievement.

Metal expands in multiple directions with various thematic focuses, and yet it’s still subjected to a stereotype of negativity and pessimism.

So the next time you are confronted by a person claiming that metal music is all negative, all pessimistic, all the time, simply explain to them that you cannot confine metal into a standard, one-size-fits-all classification.

Write Michael at [email protected].