Quote:
Originally Posted by The Batlord
Three albums from a very short period of time when a single metal genre was commercially viable, at a time when gateway bands like Motley Crue and Iron Maiden were also popular enough to allow bands which would have otherwise been ignored to have some kind of success.
That time period ended with grunge, and barring another brief moment when people thought death metal was a novel concept, there hasn't been a time since when the public cared about any metal worth caring about.
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The popularity of musical genres in general run a short time span. Yes the high mark of metal was definitely in the 80'a but nu metal & metalcore on the have been fairly successful genres.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Batlord
People who don't care about metal do not talk about these albums because they are thirty-years-old. People who do talk about Bonded by Blood, Pleasure to Kill, and Speak English or Die about as much.
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People still talk about those albums because they are endearing classics that have stood the test of time, the same way AC/DC's Back n Black, Black Sabbath's Paranoid, and every other notable hard rock and metal album.
And the one thing they all have in common, is they were all signed to major labels. Heavy metal isn't a genre riddled with socialists who wanted to preach politics like punk. It was made by guys who wanted the rich rock n roll lifestyle so long as they didn't have to sell out.
There are no classic metal albums on indie labels that can rival the big names. Your not going to hear people rave a about the latest Windir album 20 years from now. "Hey! did you check out that awesome riff on the classic Windir album? "Ya I heard it was made in some guys basement in Finland,"
Metal has
always been a niche market because there are only so many people willing to listen to it. If there are brief periods where it pokes its head above ground, they are just that. Brief. There's a reason why Slayer is the only band you first mentioned who don't have a platinum album: because there are far fewer people who are willing to listen to
Reign in Blood, and yet it is respected just as much, if not more than
Peace Sells and
Master of Puppets.
I do not want metal on major labels if it means my favorite bands have to release **** records like
The Black Album instead of awesome records like
Reign in Blood. The nature of underground metal means that it can only be so "true to its roots" before it has to "shape up or ship out" in order to sell, and if you think that "educating" the public on how to listen to metal with watered down crap is going to bring them over to our way of thinking for longer than six months then you're kidding yourself.[/QUOTE]
Whether you like it or not Slayer was on a major label, as were every other notable thrash band during the 80's. Yes Slayer is respected because they didn't sell out their sound, but they still had the corporate backing of the major labels to front them money, put them on tour and try to make them as big as f'n possible. Just like Metallica, Maiden, Motorhead AC/DC ect.
You have to have some commercialization & mass marketing to make it appealing to enough teens, or it will simply die over time.