It makes me lol when metal heads proclaim to have a broad taste in music:
"I like death metal, power metal, dance metal, melodic death metal, black metal, speed metal, true metal, metalcore.....etc etc"
Listen to some music. 
As for noise, my concept of noise isn't very complex, I was just being an arse.
I was using the word noise in the sense of sound pollution.
Noise is incoherent sound.
Noise as a genre is simply experimental music made up of one or more noises.
Sonic Youth's 'Providence' from their album Daydream Nation would be an example of noise used in music. I believe the noise used is the sound of a tube amplifier cooking itself 
Guitar solos are all about 
in front of people.
I like noise guitar solos, because it isn't so much about the guitarist masturbating. The singer/guitarist from my metal band added a momentary off switch to his axe, and used it in his noise solos. They were not musical at all, following no tonality. They were just noise.
I enjoy more than just metal as far as music goes, it is just the genre I choose to advertise listening to more than the others due to its ability to repel people and get overlooked. It is also what I play on guitar most of the time. As far as bands outside of metal that I enjoy, there are plenty like Alice in Chains, Primus, RHCP, Radiohead, and a host of other alternative/grunge bands from back when I started playing guitar (14 years ago). I also enjoy classic rock and have plenty of that on my iPod as well. Usually when I am listening to music I hit shuffle and there is an equal chance of hearing metal as is there to listen to classical or jazz. When I am hanging out with my drummer friend in my car or wherever its usually metal as it is the type of music we are writing. I have listened to every form of music at one time or another. I even had a time when I was listening to Bluegrass lol.
Noise is not a big deal to me either way as long as it fits in context with the song itself. Noise as a genre is fucked because the songs are mostly comprised of noises. Noise is anything that can't be expressed on sheet music technically.
Guitar solos are just a solo on yet another instrument. I like keyboard, bass, violin, sax and drum solos too. A solo is showcasing a particular instrument of course. I don't understand the problem with guitar solos, they can be quite expressive and interesting. There is nothing wrong with agressive displays of technique and speed as far as I am concerned. I love CoB's back and forth keyboard and guitar soloing. Necrophagist does similar things with 2 guitars and a bassist whose solos and play off of eachother.
I am not a big fan of Sonic Youth, they are ok but nothing special. Their songs are relatively simple with plenty of noise. They are overrrated. Fuzzy music that is both slow and simple. Everyone has heard someone burn out a tube amp at one time or another if they have been playing music long enough.
Your guitarist was trying to be like Tom Morello by having the off switch and doing noise solos all the time. Having no tonality is funny, but gets anoying after a while. Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead does his fair share of noise solos. Trey from Morbid Angel does a ridiculous amount of weird ass noise soloing. Vai has done his share as well. While I do enjoy outside of the box playing, I tend to like melodic scalar and modal playing more. Same goes with any instrument.
Didn't you dog metal because it is supposedly a bunch of noise? Then you advertise bands that use noise as a central theme or gimmick in their playing.
