Ok, I went and listened to the two examples MM posted. The elements of metal seem present to me in those examples except electric guitars.
Have you ever heard of Apocalyptica? This band isnt metal then because there is no electric guitars?
Surely you jest, AAG.
You can google and find quite a few metal bands that don't use electric guitars. Again, I think I need to reiterate that it is AMPLIFICATION (loudness) that counts, IMO.
Your assigning to me this idea of guitars as if that was the flagship of my argument. I mentioned guitars, in a clear jest ("sometimes they occasionally.."), as a mere
example of
one thing classical music lacks.
Ignoring lyrical & titular content, vocals (though not necessary), modern percussion conventions, song-structure and distortion, yet another thing classical music lacks is metal's frame of reference, which is regarded very highly in metal circles. That is to say, who these bands listen to and where they came from. A lot of times metalheads will consider a band that doesn't sound very metal (like, say, Agalloch, or Velvet Cacoon) to be metal because they rose from metal's frame of reference, whereas a band that sounds fairly metal but came from outside of metal (like, say, a punk band that starts playing metal) might not be included. Classical and metal are as far removed as it gets, in those terms. It may appear vain, but part of metal is the community.
I've heard of Apocalyptica. But you aren't still trying to convince me that metal and classical are one and the same, are you? Because if so, I'm going to have to pray that I don't fall through to the center of the Earth every time I sit down, from now on. Because all the things that I've thought my whole life to be immutably obvious and dependable are now up for questioning.
p.s. I've been digging the
hell out of those 2 tracks arc posted.