For hotshot metal producer Ross Robinson - who has made his fortunes from producing 90s bands like Korn, Soulfly, Machine Head, and newcomers Slipknot and Amen - the whole arena metal experience became soulless. He sees the newer breed of heavy rockers as more honest in expressing their emotions. "The Korn thing created a new sound," he says. "It was real, and it moves me the same way the 70s records did. You would open up the album and feel the soul of the album. Now with that whole Adidas rock thing - when Motley Crue and Warrant and Poison were all blown up - there was no substance anymore. This glam rock thing turned into a circus show, about trying to show your outsides and hide your insides, where before it was the opposite."
While Robinson is pretty new school, he remembers when Judas Priest's *Unleashed In The East* was the heaviest thing around. "To me, the most true, raw form that's coming up now is that brutal, completely out-of-control Norwegian black metal," he says. "Those guys believe in it so much they'll die for it. They burn churches and stuff like that. It means so much to them to express what they're feeling inside. Even though it's misguided, it's real to them and they're showing their feelings."
The reality is that many talented traditional metal bands have been plugging away out of the mainstream spotlight. In many ways, going underground has not been a bad thing given the genre's overexposure in the early 90s. "I think it's a necessary cycle for it to work through," says Jacobson. Indeed, artistic freedom seemingly became stronger once major label dreams disappeared from the picture. Numerous classic-sounding death metal bands have evolved beyond their initial barbaric beginnings, most notably in Europe. Amorphis became an atmospheric, ethnic music-minded group; The Gathering have explored ethereal metal, amalgamating electronic sounds and spaces into their latest record; Tiamat transformed into an atmospheric group flirting with a little techno on *A Deeper Kind Of Slumber*; and Therion have blossomed into a classical metal ensemble complete with a string orchestra and choir on last year's *Vovin*. Would this have been possible if any of these groups were signed, say, to Sony? Jacobson comments: "A lot of this underground stuff was not meant to be in the major label world. It just doesn't work."
That certainly is the case with the infamous Norwegian black metal scene. While the much-publicized church burnings and assaults of the early 90s are essentially gone from that movement, the thunderous yet melodic sounds generated from that region of the world have grown on their own terms, and now melodic black bands like Dimmu Borgir, Emperor, and Satyricon, not to forget British black metal champions Cradle Of Filth, are starting to generate some serious press and sales.
"In many ways, metal in the mainstream is still ignored," says Century Media Records label manager Marco Barbieri. "There's an underground cult following that we've been selling to, even though MTV and radio ignores it. Mainstream friends or acquaintances can't believe that I can make a living doing this because the only bands that they know of are Aerosmith and Pantera. They don't think anything else exists, [yet] there are probably more releases nowadays and more independent labels than there have ever been."
Major labels these days are so concerned with the bottom line that they have shirked artistic development in favorite of the hitmakers-du-jour. While this short-sighted philosophy is corrupting that system further, it's been a boon for the indies. "They're dropping good bands and we're saying 'Come on over!'" declares Rhodes Mason, president of Nuclear Blast America. "Selling 100,000 records is fine with us. If you don't do gold with most of these majors, they won't give you the time of day, you're a baby act. They didn't know how to develop anymore, that's obvious."
The indies do, and their sales are the proof. Stateside, Century Media artists Stuck Mojo and Iced Earth can sell 50,000 and 25,000 units respectively. Relapse's apocalyptic hardcore metal band Neurosis did 30,000 units on their last record. Magna Carta's Rush tribute record cracked 50,000 units, while their Terry Bozzio/Tony Levin/Steve Stevens and Liquid Tension Experiment side-projects did over 20,000 sales, and progressive metallers Shadow Gallery hit 10,000. Deadline's new Quiet Riot release shipped around 20,000 units, and their Alice Cooper tribute received over 25,000 pre-orders in 3 weeks. One wonders why whether the majors don't sign such bands with built-in audiences, which sell far better than the regular failures that they often pump hundreds of thousands of dollars into. One major indie label, BMG-distributed CMC International, has spawned a veteran metal roster which includes W.A.S.P., Saxon, Motorhead, Overkill, and until recently Judas Priest, Bruce Dickinson, and Iron Maiden.
Worldwide the metal sales numbers can be even more impressive. German metallers Helloween have reportedly sold nearly 1 million units apiece of their last two studio records. They are so big in Japan that they have two karoake albums out there. Danish group Royal Hunt boast 600,000 units of 5 albums sold. The last two Amorphis albums have sold over 100,000 each, and Relapse has high hopes for their new disc *Tuonela*. Century Media bands like The Gathering and Emperor crack 100,000 worldwide. The Gathering will reportedly go gold in Holland for the new double album *How To Measure A Planet?* Meanwhile Moonspell's last opus *Sin* shipped 200,000 units globally. Then, of course, are those perennial German favorites, American Conan-metallers Manowar - they only hit 30,000 in sales in America but sell many times that overseas.
Want further proof of sales power? Relativity has been reissuing their well-known Combat titles from the 80s, which includes releases by Megadeth, Exodus, Nuclear Assault, Helstar, Death, and Agnostic Front. Cleopatra Records' Deadline imprint has resurrected Quiet Riot, Bang Tango, Dangerous Toys, and Great White plus released retrospectives of heavier artists like ex-Iron Maiden frontman Paul DiAnno, Motorhead, and Venom. Cleopatra's label manager Brian McNelis follows Soundscan closely and reports that Poison sold a quarter million copies of their catalog last year. According to Quiet Riot's Kevin DuBrow, his group sold 130,000 back catalog albums in 1998. On the live front, the Black Sabbath and Kiss reunion tours have been doing extremely well. The two OzzFests have been major summer draws. Two hair metal tours will be unleashed this summer - Exile From Mainstream and the second annual Rock Never Stops brigade.
While nostalgia has become big again, there are those who unite all factions of metal. The long-running Milwaukee Metalfest, which is 13 years strong, offers both old and new school bands and now can drawn 4 to 5,000 fans. When the promoters assembled an East Coast version in Asbury Park, New Jersey called the March Metal Meltdown, 4500 people reportedly showed up to see bands as diverse as Sepultura, Dimmu Borgir, Puya, Whiplash, and Raven. "The other example of something like that is in Germany, they have the Wacken Open Air Festival," says Slagel. "Last year I was there - they had 20,000 kids there for all traditional metal stuff, no pop metal, no glam metal, no death metal. All the kids had on their denim jackets, with patches in the back, long hair, and wristbands. It was amazing. It was like 1986 all over again." Indeed the European festival circuit, which caters to many tastes, is quite active with Wacken (in Germany), Dynamo (in Holland), Gods Of Metal (Italy), and Metal Invader (Greece) to name just a few.
The media have finally picked up on what's going on. Rolling Stone recently ran a story on the 10 Most Influential Metal Bands, even if the list was extremely dubious. Billboard are planning an upcoming metal special, which was an annual tradition during the 80s. VH1 "Behind The Music" specials have revisited the pasts of artists like Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue, and Def Leppard, while MTV's "1515" news program recently aired a report on the "new wave of metal."