How to take pleasure in Metal?

Metal is as varied as any genre of music. It's not all cynical in nature. There are a lot of metal songs written in major keys. Its definitely a misunderstood art in the eyes of mainstream media. I appreciate the fact that youre willing to try to understand it despite not really being attracted to it. Most people just think it's noise and lump it into one category because they can't grasp it right away. There are all kinds of genres in the metal scene though. What kind of metal does your friend like? Start by listening to a few of the bands he or she listens to, pick out some of the bands that you may find appealing and kind of go from there. Like any genre of music, there's going to be a lot of bands you hate and ones you like. I tend to like metal bands with a lot of other musical influences mixed in, or metal bands with a really unique sound or thing going on. I like variety.