Metal is Making a MASSIVE Comeback
Metal, the world’s largest musical subculture, has never gone away, but like other genres, goes through cyclical ups and downs. And we’re definitely on an “up” vector these days. From Billboard:
Rock is dead, long live rock.
Hard rock, that is. After years in the shadows, metal is experiencing a renaissance on the live front.
“It’s the mid-to-late 90s all over again,” says Cory Brennan CEO/Founder of 5B Artists + Media, the management firm forSlipknot, Stone Sour, Megadeth, Danzig, The Misfits and Lamb Of God, among other metal bands, and producers of KnotFest.
Look no further than the May 13 announcement of a merged OzzFest/KnotFest — with headliners Black Sabbath (featuring OzzFest founder Ozzy Osbourne) and Slipknot — as evidence of a scene that’s seeing renewed prominence in the musical landscape. Already so far in 2016, metal acts grabbed headlines for reunions — chief among them: by Guns N’ Roses, whose headlining slot at Coachella came with word that GNR frontman Axl Rose would step in as singer on AC/DC‘s rescheduled European tour, but also the Misfits at this summer’s RiotFest.
“We announced Ozzfest Meets Knotfest and the original Misfits reunion on the same day and literally the media world exploded,” marvels Brennan. “We were No. 1 trending topics all over the world, and took over every form of media out there. Not bad for what many thought was a dying genre.”
Read the rest of the article here. Does mean that we’re eventually heading for a harder sound for alt-rock? Here’s hoping.
Metal never left. Hard rock ala Guns N Roses may be making a comeback, but real metal has always been doing well. Check out the numbers Iron Maiden has been doing in the past ten years, look at what bands like Lamb Of God and Slayer continue to do, not to mention the underground (and semi-underground of metal) is always self-sufficient.
Metal and rock are not the same and Guns has never been metal