RESTLESS AND WILD
\r\nIt must have come to your attention that some of the media on the subject of metal music, magazines, webzines refer to bands having no relation with the kind of music they examine. To be more spacific, there are articles about Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine, Dead Kennedies, Sex Pistols, Ramones etc. They refer to bands that not only don’t have anything to do with metal, but they used to be in opposite sides at times.\r\n
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\r\nPunk for example in the 80’s was an adversary kind of music and there was a pretty intense contrariness between the fans of the two kinds, mainly from the punk fans. Nirvana were the prime movers who changed the facts about hard sound and as a result metal music went through its bigger crisis.\r\n
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\r\nThe new situation affected metal music, on one hand by the creation of more extreme currents and on the other by adding hard core/punk elements to the compositions of the american bands mainly. Given the new situation, a new generation of metal fans appeared, who took up metal music in the 90’s, when the propositions were different from those of the 80’s, and as a result the approach of metal was essentially changed. As the years go by, this characteristic becomes more and more profound and the definition of metal more and more complicated.\r\n
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\r\nSo as if the inner confusion that has come up in metal music wasn’t enough, there were also some foreign interventions, like metal media being occupied by bands that have nothing to do with metal music. The most impressive thing is that metal media aren’t so interested in metal bands of the past as they are in bands like those prementioned. We stand before a really weird situation for which I’m not sure there is an explanation but there is definately no reaction from the metal fans, and that’s the whole point.\r\n
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\r\nThis "fraternization" of different kinds of music has led to the disorientation mostly of the new funbase of the scene and has also created "leaking channels" of music lovers with motley preferences as far as metal is concerned. As a result there is an even bigger confusion among the musicians of the scene and also among the fans. Nowadays, the style that sells has nothing to do with Heavy Metal and what sourced from the past compositions, and I’m not refering just to the musical part of the issue but to the feeling anyone was getting and still gets listening to those songs of the past despite the repetition and the time passsing by.\r\n
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\r\nIt’s obvious that the metal audience has been renewed since the 80’s and, to some degree, there is a reasonable difference met, but the fact is that, as the years go by, metal seems to stray from its roots for the sake of marketability and maybe of survivor, too. Supposedly that 90’s metal music, what metal it’s called in present, had the same style as metal used to have in the 80’s, would less people listen to it today?\r\n
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\r\nI remember shortly after Crunch burst there was the feeling Heavy Metal was dead. That was in the begging of the 90’s, when this change of "hard" music coincided with the release of the mass media in Greece with more radio stations, more TV channels and , as a result, more influence from the inside. Crunch as a new music wave managed to make "hard sound" more acceptable and changed the precedent in the american music scene. Bands like Soundgarden (whom by the way nooone talks about anymore) were referred to as a metal band. Pearl Jam, Tea Party, Primal Scream etc. were among the most popular bands of the metal scene. I reckon that the only solution in order for the real hard sound to be distinguished was the turn to more extreme metal forms which finally made clear what hard sound is. Black and Death Metal wielded the sceptres of metal music during a difficult period and brought back the missing order in the music stardom. The outbrake of Black and Death Metal was a pretty revolutionary music proposal directly proportional to the outbrake of Heavy Metal at the end of the 70’s.\r\n
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\r\nRecord companies though didn’t intend to support the rebellious part of this new music style and, as usual, they created a commercial clog around metal music. During the last years, due to the crisis the international music scene is going through, big music channels are selectively occupied with metal bands and they throw to highlight specific bands. In the same context, magazines and webzines insist to promote the same bands without having any benefit at all. The fact that the media are interested only in the most "powerful" ones doesn’t have to do only with music. It’s a very common virus of the media that unfortunately determine people’s choise.\r\n
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\r\nWe live in the era of information, we have the ability of immediate access to thousands of sources and news, we can listen to thousands of cd’s with zero cost but still we watch the same news and , even worse and closer to our interest, we listen to the same cd’s or the same few bands, who just happen to be promoted by the metal media. The treat that seperated rock and metal music from all the others was their "discreet" marketability that ensured a level of quality. I think everyone remembers the buttoned up approach towards Metallica after the release of the "Black Album" or the case of Iron Maiden with "Somewhere In Time" where the synth guitars during the tour of the album were enough to create the feeling that Maiden were sold out. These incidents, common even among the first class bands, kept the scene to a level and that is in advantage of the fans.\r\n
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\r\nThe truth is that a big part of the present metal community has an expiration date, something that was happening all along. People who listen to metal music today, it is very likely that tomorrow will not. The situation is controled not only by the companies and the magazines but also by the new fans who will be the buying force in the next five years. On one hand the magazines and the companies aren’t so interested in the scene but in the profit and, on the other hand the new buying force doesn’t have the necessary knowledge so that it will have a discerning mind towards the errors. This is where some who have a more distinctive presence in the field, those who are more qualified to judge the discords, guys who finally are mocked by the "sly" who call them "metalheads" in order to annihilate their "malicious" intervention. Realizing though that they can’t do anythind to open the eyes of those past improvement, "metalheads" step back and keep their knowledge and experience to themselves. Finally we end up having metal fans who ike Nirvana more than Grim Reaper or Rage Against The Machine than Cirith Ungol. I will not forget the experience I had at the 2005 Rockwave Festival where Accept and Slayer played at the same day. While Accept were on stage a big part of the audience was starring indifferently, anxiously waiting to listen to Slayer. Nevertheless, there was a positive thing about that concert. Punk and metal fans coexisted friendly!!!!!!!!!! \r\n
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\r\n\r\nKostas "PurEviL" Kyriakakis
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\r\nTranslation in english: Barbara Karpodini
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