Seriously. Look at the success of metal in 2010 compared to 2000 and it's like a reinvigorated genre.

Iron Maiden's latest album was their most commercially successful album EVER, debuting at No. 1 in 28 countries worldwide and shipping nearly 1 million copies in one week alone. In the year 2000, Iron Maiden's Brave New World album only reached No. 7 on the UK charts!

Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet For My Valetine, Alter Bridge and Bring Me The Horizon have all had Top 10 albums - BFMV have even had a few of their songs on the Radio One playlist. Disturbed and Ozzy Osbourne have both achieved Top 20 albums.

Some of the highest grossing touring bands are from hard-rock/metal, such as Metallica, AC/DC, Iron Maiden and Guns N' Roses.

Even the BBC has had to take notice - over the past two years, we've had a Metallica Culture Show special, a Seven Ages Of Rock series, the "I'm In A Rock N' Roll Band" series, the Heavy Metal Britannia documentary and even the UK TV debut of Iron Maiden's Flight 666 documentary and several live performances.

The genre is not achieving the same level of success in the singles chart as other acts, but then again it never was a singles chart phenomenom. In terms of touring audiences and albums, I would argue that metal is the strongest it has been since the early 90s.

Tbh, I don't think Heavy Metal ever left. Not to me anyway. Totally love it.

I would say there is a lot of good metal about and its doing pretty well, but I thought it was odd that you used 2000 as a bench mark for it not doing so well as a genre.

Was 2000 not the peak of "nu-metal", I sure around that time, Slipknot, Deftones, Linkin Park, Disturbed, Korn ect were doing very well. Infact for me 2000 was as strong a year for metal as any since the 80's.

But generally, when you walk into HMV its very noticable that beside the stacks of Lady Gaga ect, there is a lot of new metal, which can only be a good thing.

:P

Heavy Rock, Metal, Prog Rock,etc. and the relatively recent post-hardcore popularity never really dipped overall taken as a whole (Heavy Rock & Metal).It just splintered into so many sub-genres.You could compare it to electronica which has also splintered into alot of sub-genres
which all have their niche followers.You could say both genres have become over-saturated as it has become easier to keep a following going since the digital age really took off (post 1995 ish).Trouble is not many have gathered a large following since then.But the amount of bands around have increased by x100?(who are actively producing music or touring).

The extent to which the "nu-metal" bands were actually metal though is highly debatable. Their success came at the cost of success of the classic acts, like Metallica and Maiden, who both suffered a commercial slump around that time.

My point was that the 'classic' style of metal is making a comeback. A7X and BFMV's latest efforts sound more similar to that older style of metal than anything else, and even the nu-metal bands like Slipknot are becoming more and more influenced by classic metal.

(BTW just to clear this up that my thread was talking about heavy-metal making a COMMERCIAL comeback. I'm well aware that the genre itself has always produced solid music; indeed, Brave New World, which I used as an example in my first post, is one of my favourite Maiden albums!)

I certainly hope so

No.

That's the last thing we need more EMO.

I wan't Grunge or Punk back.

Please tell me you didn't just call heavy-metal music emo...

I agree, it never really goes away. Metal, in all its forms, dips in and out of success in terms of the singles chart but it has always been an album and live based genre.

In terms of gigs there certainly does seem to be a real up-turn at the moment, virtually every gig I've been to over the last couple of years has been sold out or only a handful of tickets left. One thing I have noticed is there are a lot more teenage girls going to metal gigs now, it certainly wasn't like that when I was that age! If they're getting in to the music, then I think that is a very positive sign.

Fair point, it is striking how much slipknot have moved towards a more "classic" sound. Personally i'm not much of a fan of it, but I know plenty of people that disagree with me.

Its probably worth pointing out thought that if their were message boards in the 80's, it would probably have been full of deep purple and sabath fans saying that Metalica and G'nR weren't actual metal.

That's a good point as well!

I love how metal constantly evolves and reinvents itself. I know I've been talking about the classic sound making a comeback, but at the same time, it's undoubtedly a new, modern sound as well. Avenged Sevenfold's new album is one of my favourites of the year, like a combination of Pantera, Maiden and Metallica!

I bloody hope so mate!

Alter Bridge are my new faves. Off to see W.A.S.P at Rock City later in the month. Love Rammstein (saw them in Berlin earlier in year and also a couple of times in UK). Metallica totally awesome too.

God I wish more people would get into it. These guys are real musicians - they have the real talent!! Not this chart topping rubbish and X Factor bollox!!!

RAR!

Not that into heavy metal - well I couldn't have it as part of a daily playlist - but when you need some stress relief, heavy metal hits the right spot.

TesseracT - Deception, Concealing Fate Pt. 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF_YIiRoRFM

I hope they release an album soon! Fcking love it!

Lets hope not!

It never goes away, it just seems to come back into fashion every few years.

Bands like Iron Maiden just carry on doing what they're doing and suddenly they have a higher profile and are more 'popular' again.

Of course there's always new bands that help push things along a little.

Heavy rock & metal have never had any sustained a presence in the singles chart.I would prefer it to stay that way as well.As for albums I would curtainly like to see more breaking into the top 50 - there have been a few recently, but still not enough to make the general media realise how popular it still is.

The general media love to ignore metal though. It's always been that way, even when the genre was globally dominant in the early 70s and 80s.

For example, did anyone see the BBC article yesterday about the 'lack of guitar bands' in the charts? Even before I opened it up I knew it would only be about indie. It went off on some tangent about how the guitar should now be used to make electronic dub-step because "that's what the kids want"! Screw that crap! The article was awful journalism because it completely ignored the resurgent hard-rock and metal genres. They've never been popular in the singles chart, apart from the odd ones (Iron Maiden singles tend to always make the Top 10), but in terms of global touring and album sales, metal is gaining a real head of steam again

Don't get wrong I would love metal too comeback aswell but the proper version.Not your Slipknot what EMO kids think is Metal.I am talking about the 70's style or the of like Guns and Roses or Def Leppard not that kids shouting like mad drunks who have lost the bus and are angry.

Again they have tryed that with Stone Gods and the Answers lately.

Killing for the company. R.I.P Stuart Cable.

The problem with the mainstream media in the UK, and it has always been pretty much the same, if it isn't in the singles chart, it doesn't exist.

Look at hte attendances for the rock festivals this year as an example...

Download - 106,000
Sonisphere - 55,000 (Sold out)
High Voltage - 30,000

And yet the media reporting of these events was practically zero.


There are plenty of other bands that spring to mind that would fit the bill, though, apart from the obvious lke A7X, etc..

Airbourne
Black Stone Cherry
Black Spiders
Orange Goblin
Lethargy

I don't think it ever went away either. I think fans of bands such as Maiden, Motorhead and ACDC are some of the most loyal fans of music ever, and will buy anything released.

I'd love to see it go back to the glory days of the 70s and 80s. Metal fans are much nicer people too, less superficial and more open minded than the chavs who listen to pop crap. Just IMO, of course.

I must say, as someone who has spent massive amount of time in rock clubs over the years I have met some truly lovely people and some utterly close minded c***ts in rock clubs in round about the same proportion as I've met in indie, dance or chessy pop venues.

I guess I have just been very lucky then! It was a bit of a generalisation I suppose, but I can't say I've ever met a horrible metaller, and I used to frequent many of the clubs.

I've met some relatively nasty metalheads in my time, but no more or less than in any other musical context.

I find particularly at metal concerts, it's an incredibly united experience. You find yourself headbanging with complete randomers all around you, playing air guitar, screaming the lyrics at the top of your voice...

A lot of people don't understand metal, but for me, it's all about one thing - power. The sheer wall of sound at a metal concert is like nothing else out there, it just invigorates your entire body Ian Gillan of Deep Purple was asked once why rock/metal needed to be so loud, and he responded by asking why classical music needed such huge sections when the same music could be played by half the number of people. It's all about volume and engulfing your body in electric energy

There is a certain type of metal fan, the sort of elite-ist metal is better than everything type who look down on everyone that they deem "less metal" than them, and anything that isn't metal is therefore rubbish. They really bug me. As I say, mostly lovely lovely people but theres always a few that ruin it.

I will never forget, on a night out in the Cathouse in Glasgow, I happened to be wearing a joy division t-shirt. Now, to set the scene, I at the time had a hair cut which probably falls comfortably into the "emo" catergory, a large lad, clad in and ACDC t-shirt turns loudly to his mate and says "****** emo kids, bet he doesn't now who they are". He was obviously oblivious to the fact that I had been a massive Joy Division since about 15 years earlier I heard my dad listening to "Love will tear us apart" when I was just a nipper. You get a lot of that from certain metal fans, just because I straighten my hair doesn't make me a moron

Every "scene" has its idiots though. I dont think metal is any better or worse.

Next time I go out, I'll probably meet a right t*** and agree with you! LOL!