I can appreciate some of metal. But it's just too *noisy* for me (never mind alot of gruesome stuff).
I don't get much into the "growling" type or the "death-metal" lyrics. I like "clean" sounding metal, the more melodic stuff. More into the mainstream metal and hard rock-anything from Maiden to Poison and in-between. I do like Slayer, though. If you listen to their lyrics they're actually a quite conservative band. "Silent Scream" is a song that is against abortion.