Marty Friedman's "Dragon's Kiss" isn't speed metal
While there are clearly speed metal sections on a few tracks, I don't think it's fair to say that speed metal is a primary genre on Marty Friedman's 1987 debut album 'Dragon's Kiss' as there's not even a song that takes that direction for its entirety. It's more of a secondary influence along with progressive metal & heavy metal. Neoclassical metal is the primary sound that ties everything together so I feel that it should be the lone genre tag here at the Academy. For that reason, I'd like to see the the release removed from The Pit & the speed metal genre while maintaining its position in The Guardians under neoclassical metal.
This nomination has been posted in the Hall of Judgement.
I'll go with you on both accounts. I mean, there are plenty of albums that I think need the speed metal tag after RYM went through some weirdass cleansing of supposedly mistagged albums, but they made some mistakes, like taking the tag off Rust in Peace while keeping it on its live counterpart. This is one of those albums I think should be re-evaluated in the tagging department. Honestly, if we're going into other primaries, the closest we'd have would likely be either power metal or US power metal, and I don't really think it fully fits those bills.
I would say that progressive metal would have been the next best option outside of neoclassical metal as tracks like "Saturation Point", "Evil Thrill" & "Forbidden City" all fall into that category. That's not enough to claim it as a primary genre though in my opinion. The speed metal component really only amounts for parts of "Evil Thrill" & "Anvils" too. There's not even a complete song in that style.