what's a band that people say is metal, but you just can't hear much metal in it at all?

for me, it's ghost. okay, they have a few growls sometimes and some kinda heavy riffs, but let's be honest, they're progressive hard rock with metal elements. i'm not saying they're bad, i just cannot hear enough metal in it for it to be considered metal

This is such low hanging fruit of an answer but for me its Sleep Token. The most metal thing about it is the occasional djent break. Most djent bands fall into this category for me though. Sleep Token is just the "token" example of this (punintended). A lot of metalcore sounds more hardcore than metal but the specific sect of melodic metalcore bands I will make exceptions for, specifically those that pull influence from melodeath bands like early In Flames and At the Gates.