Post: #1

http://www.metalsucks.net/2014/05/13/vik...-symmetry/

I remember when I was full into metal (still like the music a lot but no longer follow as obssessively as I did when I was younger) it was all about loud ass music, singing about un-PC topics that guaranteed your still would never get played on anywhere on the radio and the like. Since when did it become all about holding hands and growling Kumbaya?

Post: #2

I'm going through the comments and it's not any different from what you would see on some Reddit page or HuffPost comment section. Wow the scene has really changed since the early to mid 2000s.

Post: #3

I'd say that it's a case of a very vocal minority. Metal will almost certainly always be a very macho, blue collar kind of genre. The point is though, that 90% of metal heads aren't going to have the time or inclination to go online and engage in social activism. As with many other issues, this is a case of a very vocal minority hijacking a culture.

Victory goes to those who show up. Progressives show up. Thus, progressives win.

Post: #4

There's a million different sub-genres of metal. Pick your poison.

Post: #5

The metal 'scene' doesn't exist per se. It's quite fragmented and usually is just a group of nerds who get together and drink beer. Metal Sucks is a hipster blog based out of Brooklyn and metal has been trending among the hipsters the past few years. The last untapped bastion for irony to invade: listen to aggressive satanic music while being a peacenik socialist. the SWPL/hipster types generally listen to stoner/post-metal. The knuckleheads and cult nerds have death and black on lock. Suburban scene kids love their over-the-top brutal stuff. I notice these caricatures and divides are more extreme in the US than in Europe. Europeans are much more casual about metal; they can listen to it like it's pop music. I've met some 'Abercrombie' Swedes who listen to crazy shit.

I stopped following all music media. I'll simply check wikipedia or something similar every 6 months and see what was released. If it's a band I like I check it out. If it's new but seems interesting, I'll give it a whirl. If I like it, I keep, if not next. As for the state of the media, Mr. Zappa said it best:

"Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read."

Post: #6

Metal is dead in the US. It's huge in Europe, Japan and South America however. Sweden has government sponsored rock and metal festivals. Believe it or not.

Post: #7

(05-13-2014 07:39 PM)Parlay44 Wrote:  Metal is dead in the US. It's huge in Europe, Japan and South America however. Sweden has government sponsored rock and metal festivals. Believe it or not.

A big problem in the US is the venues ripping off the bands by taking 30% of their profits in addition to giving them shit conditions to work under (nevermind the band usually having to foot transportation/food/shelter costs which means they can just about break even at the end). Doesn't help that there's always visa issues for foreign bands. It's logistically easier to tour other places where you're welcomed with open arms instead of suspicion.

There are dozens of festivals all over Europe in the summertime, with Germany and Czech Republic hosting many of them. I wish I had the entire summer to check out even a few of them.

Also the hottest metal girl I ever met was Belarussian with long red hair and wore heels and a miniskirt. No tats, no piercings, completely unassuming. It was amazing how under that sweet exterior she had a taste for Gorgoroth...

Post: #8

Metal is better overseas than in the US. Here you only have a few huge bands touring on all the same old shit they've been playing since the eighties, elsewhere metal is not a dead language.

Post: #9

(05-13-2014 07:39 PM)Parlay44 Wrote:  Metal is dead in the US. It's huge in Europe, Japan and South America however. Sweden has government sponsored rock and metal festivals. Believe it or not.

Sweden has government sponsored pretty much anything

Post: #10

I'm sorry, but Iron Maiden and Megadeth just toured together. As long as Dave Mustaine is singing Peace Sells, and Symphony of Destruction, Metal ain't dead. Fuck the new bands.

To be fair, you're probably right. The fact that metal is the biggest in Scandinavia means that SWPL banter would enter into the music.

I always said that some of the best lyrics are poetry were found in metal. Even Cradle of Filth has some incredible songs, but that might have been the last good band...

Post: #11

(05-13-2014 07:35 PM)unbowed Wrote:  The metal 'scene' doesn't exist per se. It's quite fragmented and usually is just a group of nerds who get together and drink beer. Metal Sucks is a hipster blog based out of Brooklyn and metal has been trending among the hipsters the past few years. The last untapped bastion for irony to invade: listen to aggressive satanic music while being a peacenik socialist. the SWPL/hipster types generally listen to stoner/post-metal. The knuckleheads and cult nerds have death and black on lock. Suburban scene kids love their over-the-top brutal stuff. I notice these caricatures and divides are more extreme in the US than in Europe. Europeans are much more casual about metal; they can listen to it like it's pop music. I've met some 'Abercrombie' Swedes who listen to crazy shit.

I stopped following all music media. I'll simply check wikipedia or something similar every 6 months and see what was released. If it's a band I like I check it out. If it's new but seems interesting, I'll give it a whirl. If I like it, I keep, if not next. As for the state of the media, Mr. Zappa said it best:

"Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read."

Thanks. I had no idea MetalSucks was a hipster blog since I've been out of the scene so long. That'd explain all those SWPL comments I was seeing. Back in the day I would read Anus.com and Teufels Tomb (and also Satan Stole My Teddybear which is kinda hipsterish too but no on where as in your face about it as I'm seeing these days with all the Tumblr types infecting everything) to keep up with what music was coming out and these sites were no where like what you would see on MetalSucks. Now that I think about I did have a roommate back in undergrad that was super into metal and he had a lot of progressive inclinations so I guess these people have always existed but I just never noticed since I was reading about Norwegian black metalers burning down churches and espousing Nietzsche-sque ideas which are pretty much as far as you can get from progressive ideals.

Last time metal was mainstream in the US was in the 80s with the thrash explosion - unless you consider nu-metal to be metal. It'll always have a thriving cult following that keeps it going but you'll never see the days of bands getting gold/platinum records on the regular again.

Post: #12

I think (thankfully) metal will never totally cater to the PC/yuppie/SWPL/politically correct crowd, simply because it doesn't have to. Most mainstream music is about love, relationships, god, etc. where metal is usually outside or directly against things like mainstream religion, consumerism, and trivial concerns like relationships and dancing around that are normally covered in pop music. Therefore, you're never really going to have a large enough audience to need to cater wherever the cultural currents are at the time, because metal is a niche audience that comes for the music itself and not trends or fashions. This is why most metalheads can appreciate Black Sabbath and Judas Priest just as much as bands that have only been around for a few years. Great metal doesn't really come and go, its greatness is always appreciated because of the music itself and not because of whatever cultural ideology is in favor at the moment. It's actually very similar to classical music in that regard.