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The Weird Global Appeal of Heavy Metal
- Ras_ 11y agoThis 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-finland http://noisey.vice.com/en_au/blog/meet-hevisaurus-from-finla...
- cholantesh 11y agoHonestly can't believe this coexists with Demilich, Ride for Revenge, and Convulse.
- iagooar 11y agoFrom 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.
- rogersmith 11y ago2016 - Editors of Wall Street Journal discover heavy metal
- dimman 11y agoFunny that Sweden ain't mentioned there with atleast bands like At the Gates, In Flames and Dark Tranquillity (I saw some mention of Opeth)...
- Narishma 11y agoIt is mentioned.
- dimman 11y agoSearching for 'sweden' on the page gives me one hit, which is the context of old bands like Opeth. What am I missing?
- berntb 11y agoTen+ 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_country.png http://www.deathmetal.org/wp-content/uploads/Metal_bands_per... 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 11y agoI 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.
- Udik 11y agoAh, 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 :)
- fsloth 11y agoThis is quite a surprising view. "Not evolving" bit especially. As a factual example of evolution in the non-satanist non-warrior sense Nightwish's latest album 'Endless forms most beautiful' "was primarily inspired by the work of naturalist Charles Darwin". [1] Pun intended :) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endless_Forms_Most_Beautiful_(album) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endless_Forms_Most_Beautiful_(...
- vacri 11y ago> still singing the same stuff after decades, is a sorry one. I imagine you consider classical music backwards, then, and look down upon it. It's stayed the same for centuries...
- ta0967 11y ago> It's stayed the same for centuries... that's _seriously_ wrong.
- gaius 11y agoThere are plenty of new genres since then, power metal, space metal, pirate metal...
- venomsnake 11y agoCan you explain the non evolving part? We have so many new subgenres and bands with excellent technical capabilities?
- ekianjo 11y agoThey dared to mention Baby Metal, which has like nothing to do with real metal.
- orblivion 11y agoThere are so many derivatives that are accepted. I don't see why not this one. I would understand if it were watered down or something. Could you elaborate?
- PlzSnow 11y agoAnd so the "it's not real metal" arguing begins...
- ekianjo 11y agoWell in Japan the whole pop music scene is a farce - putting idols together just to grab the massive otaku market, and trying to make music in different genres (electro, hip hop, and now metal) just to differentiate because the girls are all underaged and unable to sing anyway.
- rangibaby 11y agoRegardless of how vapid Japanese pop music is, I had the "metal-not-metal" argument enough times when I was a teenager to know that it's nothing more than an easy way to waste 30 minutes. When did Metallica stop being metal? Was it "Metallica", "Load", or St. Anger? Were they ever metal? Does anyone over the age of 16 care? (the answer is yes).
- CWuestefeld 11y agoI guess it goes from both ends. From what I understand, Marty Friedman (of Megadeth and Cacophony fame; there are few metal guitarists better than him) is now playing J-Pop, not even pretending to be metal.
- mirimir 11y ago
- elthran 11y agoI take issue with the headline - how can something with global appeal be considered "weird"?
- raverbashing 11y agoIt's weird if all you know is pre-packaged mass-consumption pop music
- vidarh 11y agoIt 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 11y agoI 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.
- r721 11y agoSpeaking of Norwegian DM from 90s I think Cadaver and Fester are quite great.
- werid 11y agoWe are definitely more known for our "true norwegian" black metal, but we got some other stuff too... http://www.last.fm/tag/norwegian+death+metal/artists http://www.last.fm/tag/norwegian+death+metal/artists http://www.last.fm/tag/norwegian+thrash+metal/artists http://www.last.fm/tag/norwegian+thrash+metal/artists
- roryrjb 11y agoDarkthrone's Soulside Journey is great Norwegian death metal, not that they obviously stuck to that for very long.
- Illniyar 11y agoWhy 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?
- privong 11y ago> [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.
- orblivion 11y agoA coworker once told me that when he visited he heard about an Iron Maiden cover band called Ron Maiden.
- MrGando 11y agoAs 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 :)
- kriro 11y agoWhat 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.)
- cjslep 11y agoJapan has weird taste in metal. My friend Jake in Aether Realm has a picture of a Japanese chart that had their album at the #1 spot for a week. And they are a small NC band.
- _asummers 11y agoJapan has weird taste in punk too. The Fat Wreck band Hi-Standard plays one show a year, in Japan, where they sell out a baseball stadium. It's so popular that from what I understand, there's a lottery for the tickets.
- madengr 11y agoSavatage turned into Trans Siberian Orchestra, which does very well in US. Big Savatage fan though, from the 80's.
- moonshinefe 11y agoAs 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 11y agoWas 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 11y ago>Was there a time when popular music wasn't mostly bad? The 1960s? The Beatles for example were extremely popular.
- cholantesh 11y agoAs were the Monkees and the Archees.
- Futurebot 11y agoThe 1990s had moments of unexpectedly good, non-traditional music that brushed the mainstream, with stuff like the more "eclectic" grunge bands (Soundgarden, STP, Alice in Chains), metal (Tool), Industrial Rock and Industrial Metal (NIN.)
- venomsnake 11y agoWhy 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 11y agoit'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 :))
- elthran 11y agoAnyone who liked this should definitely check out the below documentary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal:_A_Headbanger%27s_Journey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal:_A_Headbanger%27s_Journe...
- wmat 11y agoOr more specific to this article, the documentary Global Metal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Metal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Metal
- radiorental 11y agoThis one weird trick to make any link clickbait.
- madengr 11y agoHell, 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
- thomasdd 11y agoA bit offtopic link. Or shoud we all start posting Cats and Food on NH? This site takes it all :)
- krylon 11y agoKeep in mind that the Internet was primarily created to share pictures and videos of our feline overlords. Everything else is just a sideshow.
- coldpie 11y agoIf it has an intellectually interesting component to it, sure.
- thomasdd 11y agoCool my karma droped from 21 to 19 with this Comment :)
- ionised 11y agoHow is it off-topic? Anything people might find interesting is welcome on HN as far as I understand it.
- Nr7 11y agoHere'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)
- roryrjb 11y agoThe "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.
- norea-armozel 11y agoI'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.
- Rudism 11y agoFor 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.
- peterashford 11y agoI think the appeal of metal is obvious: people everywhere are angry at authority figures. It's music that expresses that anger.