Simon:
Welcome to the club! As for musicial tastes, you'll find a big contingent around here that loves Grateful Dead music (including me). Most of the members are bass players, but there are some guitar players like us. As far as Alembic guitars for the types of music you mention, keep in mind what Adrian posted above: Alembic's are known for their clean, clear sound. This is very good for jazz. Metal, however, may be another story. Personally, metal has never been my cup of tea and I have always preferred a clean, non-distorted tone. Such a tone is usually not associated with metal. If you want to use an Alembic guitar for metal, you'll probably wind up using a pedal or some type of signal processing to get the type of grit and crunch associated with metal.
Bill, the guitar one