You make sense and I agree with pretty much everything you said.
As I mentioned I was partly venting because I had just been through a period of listening through a lot of stuff doing the judging for the Australian Metal Awards and the WAM Song of the Year (you do realise the public voting had nothing to do with determining the category winners, right?) and there was plenty of stuff in both that was just plain shit and stuff that has diverted way off the track into gaysville. Thankfully there was also plenty of quality stuff as well.
You hit the nail on the head about it growing further and further away, but that is a shit thing. I don't have a problem with people listening to other stuff, or experimenting.. just remember, they're adding metal elements to something weaker, and creating something not as good, and it isn't metal anymore. It isn't adding other elements to metal and watering it down. You can't dilute metal - whatever the other creation is, the intention determined that it wasn't metal from the start.
The reason metal has stayed around for so long is because it is ageless and people that are into metal know that is it more than the music, it is the attitude as well.
Noone said metal can't have clean vocals or keyboards. It isn't what is used to create the music, it is HOW it is done.
As long as it is done with the right attitude, and doesn't piss over tradition and conventions of what made metal great in the first place then it's all good.
Evolution in metal is good, but there are points when it gets too far away from the right bloodline, and that is when natural selection needs to kick in and kill those off, before they get to breed.
This isn't a debate. It's just a friendly situation with me telling it how it is, and an
odd few not listening and making excuses.