Shallow versus Profound

Most music out there, underground or mainstream, has a very shallow nature. I suppose there's nothing wrong with that, there's beauty in shallow music and I'll never doubt that. I suppose why I like doom metal so much is because of its profundity. I mean, of course, my ears enjoy the music, but it just affects me in a much deeper way than silly thrash or death metal. That's not to say that there's not shallow doom metal, and of course, not to say that I don't enjoy a huge amount of it (hello, Electric Wizard).

I can definitely enjoy thrash or death metal for their sheer energy, zest, and balls-out catchiness, but not for their content. You can throw a million tekkie-DM bands at me, and I can tell you that not one of them has any real substance. Comparing death to doom in terms of lyrical content isn't too different from comparing a pulp magazine to Shakespeare. From what I can understand, most fans of thrash and death metal like it for the same reasons I do, but also the musicianship. Which is fine, of course, I can't argue with that, but how many truly feel like death metal has affected their views on what music should be like? How many of them really feel like death metal has done something to them?

This is why doom will always be my favorite. There's something present among all the sustained notes and truckloads of feedback that satisfies me in a way that simple shredability and fast riffs never will.