Off the top of my head, I can`t think of any groups that I don`t listen to because of the vocalist. I think Axl Rose is a terrible singer but I still listen to their stuff.

I think what matters to you is a choice of your own. For instance, i was talking to someone on here who won't listen to Burzum because he's racist and burns churches and murders people (his words, not mine), even though he doesn't sing about that. It bothers me more that Tom Araya is Catholic but sings about being a follower of Satan for dramatic effect than that Varg Vikernes burns churches - at least he stands by his ideals (whether or not I agree with them) and doesn't just pretend to be a certain way for metal points. I find that to be way more true to metal. It is what matters to me. It doesn't have to be what matters to anyone else. And, as i already stated, their Catholicism is not why i dislike Slayer. In fact... i would go so far as to say that I do like slayer, just not Tom Araya.

Luckily in metal you can rarely even hear the lyrics :) For instance, my favorite band:



I'm not sure if there are even lyrics... I've tried to look them up. I don't think so :D

Well, sometimes a vocalist makes me with I could understand the vocals. You're right about this one though, doesn't sound like there are any vocals. And it doesn't appeal to me at all.

Does it also bother you that James Hetfield sings about losing his sight, hearing, arms and legs to a landmine despite the fact that this has clearly never happened to him?

lol. :p:

Ha - that's funny. Or like ironic at least. How do you figure that Araya is "pretending" any more than Varg (doesn't that mean 'wolf' in some language? What a fake)?
I wager that Araya has a deeper understanding of his own background and religion than wolfman does. Exploration of darkness is the essence of Catholicism - especially for American Hispanic Catholics. Perhaps Varg needs to experience life outside of the liberal 80s Scandinavian politics that spawned the region's fairly ridiculous 90s black metal scene and a posh jail cell before he can ponder what the meaning of 'extreme' is, eh?

If you're just asking why Slayer is a good metal band then here is my response:
Araya screamed with more hardcore punk finesse than any of the other 'big ones', Lombardo played better drums than pretty much everybody since the Jazz greats, and King played ingeniously unintuitive, nonsensical guitar solos that stir the soul more than any xenophobic Norwegian asshole ever has. If you like Wolfie but hate Araya, and this bias reflects in your metal taste, then I doubt you're much of a music fan.

You`ve certainly got a warped viewpoint here. Firstly, Tom Araya probably only writes about 30% of the bands lyrics at most! The groups main lyricists are both Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman and so he sings what he`s given. In reference to the "Reign in Blood" album Tom Araya didn`t write a single lyric on there and that is one of the group`s most controversial releases! Slayer also sing about different forms of violence such as serial killers, warfare and nazism etc ......and I doubt very much that they practice any of these. In fact a lot of metal groups don`t practice what they sing, so Slayer can hardly be called fake in that respect.

If you`re trying to infer that Varg Vikernes and the other Norweigan black metal acts are true metal because they practice what they preach and the other groups like Slayer don`t etc. Then that is complete and utter bollocks and an extremely narrow minded viewpoint on your part.

That`s not really a correct statement is it? With the exception of black, death, various thrash bands and some other genres of metal. The majority of metal has clean vocals with dominant lead singers. If you doubt my word, try checking out other genres of metal and especially power metal. Also remember Dio, Bruce ****inson...................

I don't like much metal but what I do listen to I prefer to know what's being sung about.