
The Weird Global Appeal of Heavy Metal - nkurz
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-weird-global-appeal-of-heavy-metal-1455819419
======
kriro
What a strange article. It obviously has appeal because it's amazing and it's
far from weird because the metal scene has always been very international. "I
like Metal" is also similar to saying "I work in AI". There's tons of sub
genres. I enjoy the more "melodic" stuff (Savatage, best band of all times).

What I thought was interesting: back in roughly 2000 the word "Metal" had a
different vibe to it in the U.S. compared to Europe. I think the popular use
of the term in the U.S. tended to include stuff I'd call Rock. My guess would
be that the common mainstream answer to "name a metal band" would probably
have been something like Iron Maiden in Europe and maybe Led Zeppelin in the
U.S. +it seems like Black and Death Metal were much more common/represented in
the European scene. Once again strange because most of the DM bands I liked at
the time (still do of course) are from the U.S. I feel like my view could be
highly distorted so I'd love some feedback on this.

I think it's also interesting that some U.S. bands are superstars in the
European Metal scene or parts of it but seem to be fairly unrecognized in the
U.S. (Savatage, Iced Earth).

South America has a huge Metal scene, too. I think it's mostly similar to the
European one. Don't know much about Asia other than the fact that some German
bands are really popular in Japan (Blind Guardian etc.)

~~~
madengr
Savatage turned into Trans Siberian Orchestra, which does very well in US. Big
Savatage fan though, from the 80's.

~~~
CWuestefeld
And funny that so many people enjoy TSO, but turn up their noses at Savatage
and related power metal bands. I took my wife to see TSO twice - and the first
time was their performance of _Beethoven 's Last Night_, not their typical
Christmas stuff - and she enjoyed it both times. But if I put on _Poets and
Madmen_ or _Wake of Magellan_ , she yells at me to turn off that noise.

~~~
madengr
Yeah, funny. TSO can sell out a 10k seat venue, but Savatage, who's that? Some
of the early TSO stuff is right off Dead Winter Dead and Hall of The Mountain
King. After buying a couple of Avantasia albums, I like them more than TSO,
but not original Savatage.

------
elthran
I take issue with the headline - how can something with global appeal be
considered "weird"?

~~~
vidarh
It has a level of appeal globally, but not enough to be mainstream most
places.

E.g. the top Norwegian death metal bands are amongst the most successful
Norwegian musicians ever, yet they don't sell much at home. Yet they do
extremely well by Norwegian standards because they sell ok all over the world.

~~~
vezzy-fnord
I presume you're referring to Norwegian black metal. Norway doesn't have a lot
of DM, in fact the only band that comes to mind is Vomit from the 80s.

~~~
roryrjb
Darkthrone's Soulside Journey is great Norwegian death metal, not that they
obviously stuck to that for very long.

------
moonshinefe
As someone in the West who often despairs that popular music has moved to
auto-tuning vocals, corporate pop and everything else, this article brings a
smile to my face.

Great genre, great to hear it has spread so far despite the perception of it
being a genre on its way out perhaps these days in certain countries.

~~~
rangibaby
Was there a time when popular music wasn't mostly bad? Before the discovery of
auto-tune, they must have done lots of manual-tune involving lots and lots of
studio takes and other magic.

~~~
hollerith
>Was there a time when popular music wasn't mostly bad?

The 1960s? The Beatles for example were extremely popular.

~~~
cholantesh
As were the Monkees and the Archees.

------
privong
> [Lefutray]’s guitarist, Cristian Olivares, 32, says: “Metal is huge here in
> Chile, and I think that is because of our history—full of violent acts of
> repression and injustice.”

It really is big in Chile. After spending a year here, in Santiago and
Concepcion, rarely a day goes by without seeing Slayer and/or Iron Maiden
T-shirts on someone walking by me on the sidewalk. I've seen 6 year old
children with metal shirts.

~~~
MrGando
As a Chilean, I can confirm. I played in 4 metal bands while being between 15
and 26. And enciclopedia metallum is crazy, even I am there! (And we were
pretty underground)

Today I still play my instrument (piano) and enjoy metal, jazz (which is also
big in chile) and classical music mostly :)

------
elthran
Anyone who liked this should definitely check out the below documentary

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal:_A_Headbanger%27s_Journe...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal:_A_Headbanger%27s_Journey)

~~~
wmat
Or more specific to this article, the documentary Global Metal:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Metal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Metal)

------
Illniyar
Why is it weird?

I mean is pop, rock, hiphop, dance or even dubstep any less global?

Is it weird because heavy metal still has the "satanist' label attached to it
in jurnalist minds?

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madengr
Hell, I'm 44 and wear my Iron Maiden and Dream Theater tour shirts to my EE
job (RF/Microwave circuit design).

Death to all but metal!

[http://youtu.be/yfB7vF7nCdA](http://youtu.be/yfB7vF7nCdA)

~~~
zorked
That description matches dozens of persons I know ;)

------
iagooar
From personal experience I observe that metal has become more present in
society than it was some years back.

One of the personal experiences is that only about 10 years ago, it was
difficult to find metal music online, even on mainstream services. Today, I
have an Apple Music subscription with tons and tons of metal music in it, with
curated playlists and really good recommendations based on my listening
habits. I wouldn't imagine this would ever happen.

Another anecdote is the ever increasing acceptance of headbangers as regular
folks. Yes, with a peculiar musical taste and an unusual lifestyle, but
nothing really suprising anymore.

And as for metal itself, I really love how people from all over the world have
found in this music style something meaningful and special to them. You can go
all around the world, meet fellow metalheads and see their eyes glow and their
hearts accelerate as they talk about their favorite bands and the live shows
they have seen. It's one of the truly friendliest "communities" I have ever
found, way ahead and more welcoming than the tech community.

------
radiorental
This one _weird_ trick to make any link clickbait.

------
rogersmith
2016 - Editors of Wall Street Journal discover heavy metal

------
dimman
Funny that Sweden ain't mentioned there with atleast bands like At the Gates,
In Flames and Dark Tranquillity (I saw some mention of Opeth)...

~~~
berntb
Ten+ years ago, I used to weird out people by telling them about my favourite
technical death band Meshuggah ("It is like modern jazz or something, really
complex and interesting. Just faster...")

Today, it seems that half the kids under 25 know more about Meshuggah than I
do. :-)

As a fellow Swede, this is a bit funny:

[http://www.deathmetal.org/wp-
content/uploads/Metal_bands_per...](http://www.deathmetal.org/wp-
content/uploads/Metal_bands_per_country.png)

What I don't get is why Finland don't have more famous metal bands? If you
check a jukebox in Sweden, typically at least half is factory made pop music
made to sell for money. In Finland, half is good hard rock and metal.

(Edit: For a good take on metal, search for the interviews with the Darkthrone
drummer on Youtube. See both the old and new ones. It gives a strange feeling
how he dismisses everything I like... :-) )

~~~
hrnnnnnn
I think that might be because Meshuggah are the most obvious and direct
influence on a lot of the newer "Djent" bands like Periphery and Tesseract
that are popular with younger fans.

What's interesting to me about those bands is that they took some of the
elements of Meshuggah's sound - the complex time and extended range
instruments - but usually end up with something that's not as heavy or
extreme, often having very melodic sections and lots of clean singing.

For a long time it seemed the direction was a bit one way - bands tending to
get more extreme - and while that's still the case it's maybe going the other
way at the same time.

~~~
algorithmsRcool
Yes there has definitely been a __lot __of experimentation in the last decade
with blending very technical death metal (following Meshuggah 's lead) with
elements of jazz and melodic elements from prog rock and metal.

Gojira, for example has been carrying the Meshuggah sound forward while
Between the Buried and Me, who was born from very technical and chaotic metal,
almost devoid of groove, to extremely proggy and theatrical like Dream
Theater.

Mastodon moved closer to rock from technical death metal and Opeth once a
paragon of death metal, doesn't even use death vocals any more.

For me at least it has been very interesting to see the exchange of ideas.

------
roryrjb
The "globalisation" of metal happened a long time ago, it's definitely not
attributable to the world wide web or the Internet by any means, the explosive
growth perhaps, but not the initial seed in a lot of countries.

------
venomsnake
Why weird? A music with the technical demands of classical music, channeling
the angst and rebellion into unity. A music with power - the brotherhood
adversarial nature of the mosh is something to be experienced - everybody is
doing their best to crush all of your bones, except when you stumble or fall -
then literally 20 hands will pick your up and throw you away to safety. A
music that is good for training, fragging people in Quake, sex or invading
neighboring country. A music with infinite variability and versatility. Why is
weird that it transcends borders, cultures and generations?

~~~
saiya-jin
it's weird to generic shallow pop-infested mind... why is this lad sticking
out of the conformity crowd? he must be weird, right?

(btw that sex part works only if both have same attitude :))

------
ekianjo
They dared to mention Baby Metal, which has like nothing to do with real
metal.

~~~
mirimir
Poe's Law applies to metal.

Is Turbonegro metal?

~~~
masklinn
> Is Turbonegro metal?

Punk.

~~~
mirimir
Well, but they call their genre "black metal".

Is punk metal satire?

What about grunge?

And then there's Kiss ;)

~~~
vacri
Ah, I miss grunge with a fiery passion.

This thread reminds me of the underrated film _Airheads_ , when the band is
asked what kind of music they play - the three members all start saying
different things ("kinda this, but not really") but end up converging on
"power slop".

~~~
cableshaft
_Airheads_ is a guilty pleasure film for me. It's a pretty dumb film, but I
like it anyway, and I think it's aged pretty well over the years.

------
Rudism
For anyone into metal looking for a way to discover new stuff they haven't
heard before, I recently discovered that there's a pretty great selection
available on Bandcamp if you're willing to sift through the various metal-
related tags and/or find some good users to follow. There's a lot of stuff on
there that easily rivals mainstream "big label" metal. All the music there is
available as DRM-free mp3/ogg/lossless often with a name-your-own-price tag.

------
Ras_
This tells everything there is to know about the popular appeal of heavy metal
in Finland:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXhhlYdySqQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXhhlYdySqQ)

[http://noisey.vice.com/en_au/blog/meet-hevisaurus-from-
finla...](http://noisey.vice.com/en_au/blog/meet-hevisaurus-from-finland)

~~~
cholantesh
Honestly can't believe this coexists with Demilich, Ride for Revenge, and
Convulse.

------
Nr7
Here's a related chart from a couple of years ago:
[https://flowingdata.com/2012/04/09/metal-bands-per-
capita/](https://flowingdata.com/2012/04/09/metal-bands-per-capita/)
(Enlarged: [http://i.imgur.com/P5Yfz.png](http://i.imgur.com/P5Yfz.png))

------
norea-armozel
I'm not much of a metal fan, but I'm just glad the Internet has kept a genre
of music alive and thriving. Oddly enough, surf rock has a bit of a global
following. Nothing compared to metal but I was surprised when I bumped into a
surf rock band from Brazil of all places on Jamendo. I think the Internet
definitely has opened more genres to people than radio and record companies
ever did.

------
Udik
Ah, the rebirth of heavy metal. It reminds me of that old Marx's quote:

"History repeats itself - first as tragedy, then as farce"

edit for the downvoters: I've listened to a lot of heavy metal in my teens. It
kind of had sense at the time (late eighties, early nineties) - heavy metal
had evolved naturally from other genres, and probably it's a type of music
that appeals to a certain kind of person in a certain environment and age
range (and that would explain its persistence). Nonetheless, it's a pretty
ridiculous and backwards musical genre, extremely rigid and codified and, in
my view, hardly evolving at all. The sight of the idols of my youth, now well
aged but still dressed like satanists, monks or ancient warriors, and still
singing the same stuff after decades, is a sorry one.

Now you can downvote me more :)

~~~
teps
Did it ever occur to you that you certainly wasn't interested at all in that
music?

I know some people who where only interested in metal because it made them
more rebellious. Their interests quickly fade always as they grew up and now
they are the first to tell everybody how it's a music for teen. I remark that
your souvenir is about your idols and how they acted/are dressed and not that
much about the music.

But some people are genuinely interested in metal and if you happen to be a
bit curious, it's easy to see that it's not more rigid, codified or stalled
that any other genre.

~~~
Udik
There are two comments, yours and another one, that suggest that I might not
ever been a "true listener" of heavy metal. That's the "no true scotsman"
fallacy. Why can't someone who sincerely enjoyed a genre of music in his teens
outgrow it? No, better, outgrow the whole idea of genres.

Heavy metal is (you have to admit that) a pretty rigidly codified type of
music. It requires a certain set of instruments, with few variations (I still
remember debates in the eighties on whether keyboards were kosher). It mostly
deals with a fixed set of themes. It sounds in a very recognizable way, so
it's rather easy to classify songs that fall into it. Performers dress in a
codified way, also easily recognizable. (To all these points there are
obviously a few exceptions here and there, as always.)

As for the richness of subgenres: it seems to me that these subgenres are just
the partitioning of a fixed space of immutable size. The urge to classify them
is another proof of the fact that the rules of the genre are so rigidly
codified that the slightest deviation or emphasis on an element requires (or
allows) a new classification bucket.

~~~
CWuestefeld
_Heavy metal is (you have to admit that) a pretty rigidly codified type of
music. It requires a certain set of instruments, with few variations_

Nothing could be further from the truth. For example, the OP itself talked
about "folk metal", a sub-genre that uses traditional themes, musical styles,
and instruments.

 _It sounds in a very recognizable way, so it 's rather easy to classify songs
that fall into it._

Again, you've missed out (and even claimed that it never happened) a HUGE
amount of evolution. Metal fans love to bicker and debate, and you'll see, for
example, discussions over whether the evolved Opeth, that eschews their older
death metal trappings, still counts as metal at all. In the proggy sub-genres
that I enjoy, there's ample debate over whether a particular band or song is
prog _metal_ or "just" prog rock.

In its infancy, much of metal was dismissed as being stupid, three-chord
performances. It's evolved so that today, it's undoubtedly the most
technically demanding genre within the entire poo & rock oeuvre. Bands like
Meshuggah, or the whole math-metal sub-genre, are performing music so
technically demanding that no high school garage band is going to get near it.

In its expansion into these prog, technical, death, extreme, folk, etc
directions, there is no doubt that the variety of expression covered by metal
today is many orders of magnitude greater than in its younger days.

~~~
Udik
_For example, the OP itself talked about "folk metal", a sub-genre that uses
traditional themes, musical styles, and instruments_

Folk metal is actually well inside the tradition of heavy metal, that spans
from the black/ gothic to the epic and fantasy themes. By the way there's even
a more extreme musical genre called "folk": where people from different
regions of the world perform _actual_ folk songs strongly connected with their
real traditions. Can you imagine, you can actually listen to folk music
_outside_ of the rules of heavy metal? That's _extreme_.

 _Metal fans love to bicker and debate ... over whether ... still counts as
metal at all._

Exactly. A little bit of evolution or variation and people start debating
whether you're still in the group or out. That's silly.

And oh yes, I've listened to my share of Yngwie Malmsteen and Cacophony. Heavy
metal fans are certainly very proud of the raw technical skill (which is, in
fact, just speed) of their players. But it's a sort of pissing contest, who
can play the riff or the solo faster is not a good meter of one's musical
talent or skill.

~~~
CWuestefeld
_which is, in fact, just speed_

Sure, if you're talking about just Malmsteen or Cacophony. But again, you
really have missed the evolution. Things have moved well beyond that in the
21st century. For just one example, the band Meshuggah that I mentioned
requires the performer to shift fluidly between bizarre odd time signatures.
It's debatable how much this improves the musicality, but it's an advanced
skill that requires a ton of experience; some small amount of this was visible
in the era you're referring to, but the evolution has been, well, extreme.

~~~
Udik
Listen, I can understand that for a serious chess player, the style of chess
has evolved enormously during the 20th century. That doesn't make it less of a
strictly codified game. Anyway, it's a matter of tastes..

One last observation. I remember that in the early nineties, a single chord
from Nirvana - I was hearing them for the first time- was enough to make me
say "this is not heavy metal" (I was actually pretty disgusted by that sound
at the time :)). How is it that after more than twenty years (during which I
haven't listened to new metal bands), 3 seconds of Meshuggah are enough for my
brain to categorize them with absolute certainty as heavy metal?

------
peterashford
I think the appeal of metal is obvious: people everywhere are angry at
authority figures. It's music that expresses that anger.

------
thomasdd
A bit offtopic link. Or shoud we all start posting Cats and Food on NH? This
site takes it all :)

~~~
ionised
How is it off-topic?

Anything people might find interesting is welcome on HN as far as I understand
it.

