Metal in a paper cup

Listen America…

You hear that? That faint ringing of a distant bell?

“Don’t ask for whom the bell tolls” for it tolls for the American metal scene, and it’s all your fault in the end.

Why? Because I say so, and I am always a dead ringer for the goddamn truth.

You see, I have a big fucking problem with the American metal scene in general and the way it is being marketed in particular.

Metal was always kind of exempt from the top 40 mentality that ruled all marketing decisions and strategies that have applied to all other musical genres throughout history, because metal was just that… metal. Plain and simple… Metal fans had integrity and stamina and could be trusted to pick and choose their own poison and stick by it through sickness and health, for better or for worse… Metal bands were given the time and space to grow and evolve and thus also binding their fans closer to themselves. It was a win/win situation. Bands prospered, labels prospered and the fans were the happiest of all…

Well… Those days are gone.

Now we are being served a PC correct grey mass school cafeteria brand of MTV metal that has been scientifically and demographically developed and lastly solely approved and marketed by the powers that be; the labels. The American Pied Piper is playing his tune and now the metal rats are following to meet impending doom.

It’s the nu brand of metal, metal in a paper cup if you will, and you are the sucker downing it and asking for free refills.

The music market in general changed in the US in the 90’s as we all know. With the power of MTV now in full force the labels told you what to like and what to buy. Since the metal heads didn’t much subscribe to the theories of grunge that at this time happened to be the “new thing”, they pretty much crawled under a rock and stubbornly listened to old Megadeth and Slayer albums instead.

Once the grunge thing was over and metal started coming back, it only came back in the shape the labels wanted it to. By the very absence of an active metal community the market started over with a blank slate. A simple, predictable format with bands that were safe to sign on a short term basis, manageable, shapeable and easy to sell to a starving metal audience. You, being the sheep you are, bought whatever the stores stocked in the “New Arrivals” section thinking you were doing alright with the new Drowning Pool album.

“Wow! The metal magazines are all promoting this new soundtrack OUT NOW with the same bands all over again doing songs from upcoming albums COMING TO A STORE NEAR YOU SOON! This can’t be bad! I gotta buy it!”

Record labels and movie companies are now doing soundtracks and movies to a point where you don’t know which was spawned to promote what. Gone is the sake of music for music’s sake and movies for movies’ sake.

“Metal” journalists consider themselves “metal” because they got promotional copies of the new Killswitch CD and they once got sucked into the moshpit while trying to walk from the bar to the men’s room at some Hatebreed gig they unfortunately had to cover. They then feel licensed to write up any of the nu-metal bands on the magazine’s “approved list” and can sleep peacefully knowing that the advertising labels’ hands nestled around their balls are firmly in place but not squeezing too hard.

So whose fault is this?

In a very small way you can say that it indeed is the labels’ fault for marketing an inferior product dressed up as hot shit while offering no variety or backup roster of exciting bands.

In a likewise small way it is their fault for thinking in such short but financially safe terms that they force creative and talented bands to conform to the instant gratification formula and involuntarily become the next Slipknot or Lamb of God in order to get any recognition whatsoever. These bands are too blinded by the fat advances (that come out of future royalties) and the prospect of a slot at Ozzfest dangling in front of their eyes to fully realize that they are shooting themselves in the foot in the process since their band will be dropped like a dead cat after the first album has been milked out of them.

But hey… C’mon… What do you expect from labels? They are in it to make money, not for any greater love of music. Have you ever sat down with label people? If you didn’t know who they worked for you would guess they were selling fertilizer or deck chairs. There is no interest or passion whatsoever lurking behind those razor smiles, so except for the lack of long term planning we can’t really blame the labels for what we are being served today.

Labels no longer want to play Russian Roulette with a new band, closing their eyes and crossing their fingers, hoping that by the third or fourth album the band will have established a new style or a new sound that makes them icons for future generations to come. Labels are no longer interested in a new sound unless it’s happening right now this very instant.

No major label would sign bands like Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath today. They don’t have the hit element and they don’t have the looks. Those bands are like cheese that have to age and develop texture. Who’s got time for that? You wanna make money you sell Kraft American Singles. There you go, move along… Next!

Metal has for all its original claims of untouchable integrity still ended up a sacrificial lamb to the top 40 slaughter as well.

So, who else then can we blame for these unfortunate circumstances?

Is it the music journalists’ fault for not critically reviewing the scene from an international or a grass root perspective, comparing, recommending and introducing new and exciting elements from abroad or from the underground. Is it their fault for featuring the same damn bands over and over and over again in the pages of a magazine that has a standing rotating schedule for who’s going to be on the cover this month? Where is THEIR integrity? When did Metal journalists become such lame asses?

Look at Revolver. It’s a fucking joke of a magazine that holds only interest for people who are looking to add yet another Jonathan Davies feature story to their clip book. The goddamn reviews are months old and only deal with CDs everybody already bought. They (and pretty much all the other mags with them) only serve as glossy ads for the labels.

Is it the radio DJs’ fault at the hard rock and metal stations that are few and far in between? They always claim with stiff necks that they don’t get “encouraged” or “compensated” by the labels to play certain CDs (who would have thunk it?) so I guess that they just like to play the shit out of bands that all sound the same and all happen to be all over the billboard charts and in the latest issue of whatever glossy mostly-pictures/no-substance metal magazine.

Are they to blame for passing up on a superb opportunity to breathe some life into a stagnant scene? Radio used to be where you heard all the new stuff since most metal bands didn’t have a video (that wouldn’t have been played on MTV anyway - and that was kind of the point).

Is it the record stores’ fault for only stocking what immediately sells and very little of anything else? Why are they so afraid of employing the right people with an interest for what they sell? Why are record stores so damn “corporate” these days? If you are big enough to boast “50’000 CDs in stock” you are big enough to employ at least one guy who knows metal. Every other branch in the commercial industry has their experts, why should record stores be any different?

If you walk into FYE and ask for the new Time Machine album they look at you as if you just asked for directions to the rings of Saturn. Not only don’t they know WHAT you’re asking for, they don’t even know WHERE to look it up for you. Does your local record store have a metal section? Do they even know what something like Black Metal is or do they give you a copy of Body Count’s self titled CD?

Or is it YOUR fault?

YOU… the blissfully ignorant metal buyer banging away to whatever is on the bill for Ozzfest this year?

Yes.

Of course it is…

Ultimately it is YOUR fault because you have the opportunity in these enlightened internet times to find everything that is out there but you choose to be lazy and let media and stores and labels sell you whatever they want to sell you.

You’re like the dumbass that wants to buy a new car and walks into the auto mall with 30G’s and leave in a white Toyota Camry. You could either have bought a classic cherried out ’68 Camaro SS or a loaded Alfa Romeo for the same money and thus have made a statement about who you are and what you stand for. But what…? They didn’t have it at the mall? You got a better warranty deal on the Camry? You gotta work for it man. It is not like it used to be where everything was right there for you to buy whenever you wanted it. The metal market is not on your side anymore. It sold out and so did the fans.

Contrary to what you believe metal did NOT belly up and die in the 90’s. Grunge and MTV only killed it over here… It has been alive and well in the rest of the world all this time and is often reigning supreme in the live circuit in Europe where bands like In Flames and Helloween play stadiums, not clubs, and where American bands like Iced Earth and Symphony X are recognized for the quality bands that they are. You see… Metal didn’t go away, the American fans closed their eyes and their ears to it because it wasn’t presented to them on a silver platter anymore.

The reason there is no real underground metal movement in the US anymore is because YOU chose not to be a part of it. And with underground I mean metal that does not sound like what’s being played on Headbanger’s ball this week, even though that brand of extreme nu-metal is hailed as “underground”.

When was the last time you, yes YOU, took a chance on a CD that you were just intrigued by and knew nothing about?

When was the last time you went online to read the reviews on the countless independently run metal sites that daily list tons of new CDs you will never ever find at Tower Records?

When was the last time you did shit to find something new that wasn’t handed to you?

Next time you sneer at the 12 year old kids who think Ashlee Simpson is the shit, take a good look at yourself in your baggy black pants, Slipknot hoodie and Disturbed hat. You really think you will listen to that when you’re 50? I can honestly say that every band I listened to at 20 I still listen to today and I will still be listening those very same bands throughout the rest of my life.

Today’s metal scene is just another side of the Top 40 charts that everybody else in all other genres so easily embrace because they are not looking for consistency or longevity. Just a fun filled or trendy distraction to kill boredom for a few minutes. The same way Ashlee Simpson won’t be around next year, the same way Lamb of God won’t… Not as long it’s the same type of fan listening to it.

So it's about time you fucking stand up for yourself and your integrity! The metal is out there. All of it. All you have to do is read up on it, explore it, take a few chances and open up your fucking eyes.

We live in America, the greatest fucking country in the world, the epitome of free enterprising and the very application of the supply/demand theory. It’s easy… If you demand nothing, the market will supply nothing. Start demanding and you shall be supplied, and if the market won't supply you, supply yourself. Don't be a sheep. Don't be a follower. Don't be a rat following the American Pied Piper's tune...

Unless you start making informed choices that you reach on your own we will never again have any Led Zeppelins, Maidens, Priests or Metallicas…

Stick to your guns kid, metal needs you to.