You're clearly not a metal fan because you can't tell the difference. Blastbeats are not metal exclusive: jazz, grindcore (both metal oriented and punk oriented), hardcore and nu metal (yeah, nu metal is not metal) use blastbeats at times. They originate in jazz, actually. Neither are screamed vocals metal exclusive, I hope I don't have to explain this one. Lyrics? Haha, don't make me laugh, it's as post rock as it gets!:
>I held my breath and drove through a maze of wealthy homes. I watched how green the trees were. I watched the steep walkways and the white fences. I gripped the wheel. I sweated against the leather. I watched the dogs twist through the wealthy garden. I watched you lay on a towel in grass that exceeded the height of your legs. I gazed into reflective eyes. I cried against an ocean of light. >Crippled by the cushion, I sank into sheets frozen by rose pedal toes. My back shivered for your pressed granite nails. Dishonest and ugly through the space in my teeth. Break bones down to yellow and crush gums into blood. The hardest part for the weak was stroking your fingers with rings full of teeth... >It's 5 A.M...and my heart flourishes at each passing moment. >Always and forever.
You'd be hard pressed to find that in metal. The status quo is not always right, most people have no idea about what's the difference between death metal and deathcore, and you expect them to label an adventurous, experimentative band such as Deafheaven correctly? Deafheaven is a post rock/shoegaze band with black metal influences. Since they're not the only one band to play such a style of music (Alcest and Altar of Plagues come to mind), a new genre term has been invented for bands like Deafheaven: Blackgaze, a portmanteau of black metal and shoegaze. Having metal elements does not mean it's metal.
The requirement to be classified as metal is to have the majority of your songs composed of metal riffs. All other things are just fancy additions that can possibly modify your genre tag. Metal riffs are melody based. A melody "is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity". That means the melody has to be the focus of the riff, and that semi-random chromatic movements like Cannibal Corpse also count. Hardcore riffs are rhythm based - that means the rhythm is the focus of the riffs. They are also rare, as hardcore oriented bands opt for breakdowns and other such completely amelodic movements.
Now, what I'm coming to, is that the riffs of Deafheaven are neither rhythm nor melody based - they are texture based, common to post-rock, shoegaze and all kinds of ambient bands. This means that to the musicians, it does not matter what exactly is played, but how it sounds in the end, as opposed to extreme autistic intricacy of metal bands.
I'm not going to convince you like other /mu/ hipsters and Revolver readers, but I like to sperg out about music genres.
