Looks like another episode of Sub-Genre Definition Quagmire, all I know from looking back on the ancient history of my life, the term heavy metal has been around since we had Steppinwolf jammin on the turntable in the late 60's, and the term has been thrown around very loosely since probaly the early 70's, and just about every band mentioned in this thread has had the term thrown at them at one time or another by some some so called journalist, writing for some so called music rag, I've seen it applied to Led Zep, Aerosmith, ( who actually won a grammy for something in the heavy metal category ), GNR, Van Halen, etc,etc, and then in the mid 80's when the sub-categegories, started coming out, thrash metal, etc.. my favorite was the so called New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands, like Def Leopard, which I think every one will agree, is at the lighter end of the periodic table, I think what we need to do is start a Rock Sub-Genre Certification Board, and finally get all these categories in their proper pigeon holes, and the first person I intend to straighten out is my mother, to her anything with distortion is Acid Rock, come on Mom, your 65 years old, you should know Super Joint Ritual, is not Acid Rock!, Well I don't care what anyone thinks, I know for a fact that Chuck Berry is Rock N Roll and not R&B..............BTW, anyone remember "LA Metal"?........