The Police is not Metal. Neither is Foster The People. Or BoC. Or 70s Zeppelin (Zeppelin was hard rock, Sabbath was metal).

As for me, no. For one thing, HTTK doesn’t match any actual Classic NWOBHM metal albums in true quality. Killers, British Steel, Holy Diver, Heavy Metal Maniac, etc are all better than HTTK. HTTK if anything more so mirrors early 90s NWOAHM than it does Classic Metal. Not to mention the biggest issue, it straight up copies riffs. I’m on board with the idea of a tribute album. But there’s a line that separates a tribute from a ripoff. And HTTK goes over that line for over half of its runtime.

I love Classic Metal. Maiden, Priest, Dio, Ozzy, Diamond Head, all that is shit I love. But HTTK isn’t that. Even if I prefer “real Metal” to Metalcore, I’ll still take a creative Metalcore album over a “real metal” album that reeks of rehash.