Are you thinking it might be at it’s cycle-zenith at this point? I was recently surprised at Megadeth and Shadows Fall being on Jimmy Fallon. Not sure if it means we’ve hit a peak, or if it’s popularity is continuing to grow.

But to me it doesn’t matter. I stay a fan regardless. There are always new bands out there that keep me interested. I don’t care if it’s popular. Don’t care if it’s “underground” or not. If it’s good music, it’s good music. \m/

Long winded, I know, but peace.

Please please please no more copycat bands.

Or christcore either.

AX7 can disappear too.

Metallibrarian, I can see your point (clearly AND I can empathize) and I share your position against illegal downloading, but you should know that artists don’t make much money off of their album sales these days, unless you buy their album directly from their merch booths at shows. Album sales count, but not like they used to. Bands buy their own albums from the labels wholesale and anything they make after breaking even from selling them at their shows is theirs. Also, the most revenue they see from their work is from ticket sales and merchandising. [Thanks to a certain someone in the know for setting me straight on that.]

And should you decide to make time to attend shows in Colorado, hit me up and you’ll have a ready-made concert buddy. :)

that may have been a rant…sorry :P

My very first exposure to metal would have been the 80’s glam metal movement. I remember being 8 years old, checking out the cover of my older sisters’ brand-new copy of *Look What the Cat Dragged In* on vinyl, and telling them the chicks in their new favorite band needed to shave under their arms. Through my older sisters, I eventually fell into listening to bands like Def Leppard and whatever else was on maximum rotation on MTV that week – to include, of course, Poison. In retrospect, it’s amusing to me that my parents mostly trusted my older sisters and their friends (all of whom welcomed me to hang out with them at all times and treated me as an equal, albeit one who required a little extra looking after; they were uncommonly generous for their age in encouraging a little kid to tag along all the time) to be the responsible judges of what I should or should not have been exposed to. They were generally great about it, but being adolescent themselves they were of course less intimidated by Warrant and Nelson than by Guns N Roses and Metallica, so guess who I wasn’t allowed to listen to? You got it. I had to sneak around listening to *Appetite for Destruction* for the first few years after it came out. (*GNR Lies,* too, for that matter. *Use Your Illusion* was more palatable, so my sisters actually took me to buy that one.)

Addiction experts talk about “gateway drugs;” connoisseurs talk about “acquired tastes.” I learned to drink watered-down American pilsners before I could appreciate Guinness; also, I acquired a taste for wine by starting with white zinfandel. (I wouldn’t touch white zin NOW, but stick with me for the analogy for now.) Most people can’t say Metallica was on their radar before The Black Album and I’m not ashamed to admit I’m one of those people. *Appetite for Destruction* and The Black Album were less “gateway drugs” and “acquired tastes” for me than aural mother-fucking NUKES, but the effect was much the same: a whole new world revealed itself to me. But despite the impression those two albums left on me, I couldn’t fully appreciate extreme music (metal, hardcore, thrash, grind, all the cross-pollinations in between, you name it), the sentiments expressed within or the aesthetics associated, until after I served in the military. Once I went looking for something that could channel the depth of rage and the wealth of all other emotions I had uncovered, I discovered there was more to metal music and its community than I had been exposed to previously; specifically, that it had plenty to offer me in terms of expression and understanding. I had merely skimmed the surface in the years prior, and in the years since I’ve been like a glutton making up for lost time and culling through sites like this and many others in order to get the best picture possible of what all is out there for me to check out and, hopefully, make a connection with.

So while I’m relatively new to the process of mining the genre *as a whole* in order to discover all it has to offer, elements of it have been on my radar for longer than a minute. For some people, Winds of Plague, 5FDP, and Attack! Attack! will be their “gateway” acts into metal or other forms of extreme music. Those bands will capture their imaginations for a time, and then a few will do some investigating and find that there is more out there. Maybe they’ll decide to stay a while. For others, they’ll try on that music and the procumbent aesthetic like the latest fashions, only to discard them for another trend once the novelty wears off. (Although, to be realistic, plenty of people originally thought the popularity of bands like Disturbed, KoRn, and Slipknot would wash out with the tides, but those bands are still giants in our branch of the industry.) It never fails to surprise me whenever I’m presented with evidence to suggest that the majority of people seem to regard music as a product to be consumed and discarded at will, and are perfectly happy to allow the corporate world to make their tastes by presenting them with options A, B, and/or C to choose from. Predictably, the music they tend to get behind is often just as disposable as whatever other trends, fashions, interests, or values they’re subscribing to at any given time.

Metal having been around for more than 40 years and enjoyed varying levels of mainstream success and popular interest, I would still say it’s perhaps more relevant today than ever. Given the paltry and shallow options the mainstream continues to offer us, those of us who need more substance will always look to the underground to provide us with sustenance. I should clarify here that I’m not necessarily of the school of thought that anything that’s popular and makes it to the mainstream is shit. Just look at Mastodon – proof positive that hard work, persistence, musical chops, and, this is key, fearless creative abandon can occasionally be accepted by the mainstream. Mastodon and others of their caliber making their way into commercial acceptance seem to increasingly exceptions to the rule, though. This was illustrated to me a few weeks ago: to make my roommate and her fiancé happy, I sat and watched the VMA’s (just to be sociable, don’t you know). That was 2 hours out of my life I will never get back, and all I got out of it was the illustration of just how far outside the mainstream my musical tastes are and a few freaky looks from my friends when I laughed derisively at the assertion that Beyonce is the hardest working woman in the music industry for having performed 60 or so live shows in the last year (Seriously, 60?? THAT’s hardworking???), at every lip-synced performance, and at the overall absurdity of a bunch of people getting together in a room and congratulating each other on their mediocre talents. Even Muse’s performance felt plastic that night and I seriously hated the world for that. And God, I hate those emo twits… [End of tangent] Back to my original point, which was … What was my point again?

Oh yeah, metal! So long as the core faithful remain, so will the genre and the music will continue to evolve as we need it to. I expect the popularity of metal to wax and wane with the times, just like it always has, and while I find it hard to conceive of metal ever actually being popular or of real metal (no hard-and-fast classification to offer you as to explain what I mean by that) ever truly leaving the underground, I’m not overly concerned by the rhythms of metal’s relative acceptance to the mainstream; however, I do concede that maybe if I were attempting to make a living out of metal, my interest would likely be perpetually piqued. I do the best I can to look after my favorite acts and promote the scene as much as possible, but I don’t have the sort of missionary zeal to attempt to force our music on anyone who can’t truly relate to it to start. If we’re going to stick to the traditional model of the fanbase of our genre typically being composed of outsiders and outcasts (or those who perceive themselves to be), I don’t expect our music to ever truly leave the underground and, as such, most of the bands who manage to make the jump to the mainstream will continue to be regarded as suspect.

To bearbomb, I can afford to go to shows. It’s not a money thing, it’s an effort thing. I have adult responsibilities like a career, friends & family, so I can’t go hang at the local clubs all the time. That’s a choice I’ve made, but it doesn’t make me like the music any less. I support the artists by BUYING their music, and telling other folks about stuff I like so maybe they’ll buy them too.
Maybe if you downloaded fewer albums, metal musicians wouldn’t have to hold down day jobs (sometimes more than one, see Ben Falgoust) to pay their bills. Just sayin’…

justin666 metal forever

@Eyal I was actually thinking about that today. I hope it doesn’t go underground entirely, but last time it came back fresh Ideas that lased almost a decade.

But thanks for the reply :-)

also, DAATH FUCKING SUCKS NOW, THE HINDERERS WAS A GREAT FUCKING ALBUM AND YOU GUYS THREW IT ALL AWAY FOR A SHITTY RECYCLED BULLSHIT METALCORE SOUND. I HOPE YOU’RE PROUD.

/cruisecontrol

…Am I the only one who feels this way?