Originally Posted by **Jester**
Novembre I wouldnt even class as metal, even though it has all those metal influences and blatently sounds really heavy in parts. Have you noticed there is no fans here who disregard any type of music...like there is people here that love radiohead and sigur ros, even farther stuff from metal than that. We probably all love klimt 1918 and room with a view...that type of music would be detested by most metalheads i am sure. Novembre is the same, its not metal enough for metalheads....and it is those pure metalheads sadly that make bands popular and which kind of limits creativity in the genre I think.
I think you are generalizing a little too much here... of course there are metalheads who are unable to like any other genre but I believe that most of them are intelligent persons who can also appreciate good music when they hear it, may it be metal or not. It is a much too simple argument to just say that a band gained popularity only because of the stupidity and/or naivety of the mass. I've heard too many people discreditate others by calling them retards. If you think about it a moment, nobody considers himself as stupid, yet everybody at some point will feel like someone else, or a group of persons, are of less intelligence. Let's not fall into this fallacy of calling others inferior, because it is not true. What really differentiates people are divergences of tastes, interests and priorities, but rarely intelligence.
There are actually many factors that played a role in the growing popularity of Opeth. In my opinion, the main reasons for their "success" (they're still not Iron Maiden) are their constant work and their music that is more accessible to non-metalheads than most death metal bands.
They have been working very hard over the past years to become what they are today. They are constantly touring, and after touring, they write new material. It is a full-time job and it is completely comprehensible that they want to get as much recognition for their work as possible, it is what every worker is aiming for. They have come to America countless times now, they have been to Australia, Europe obviously, they've done gigs around the world, festivals, they give interviews, etc. It is not so simple to become famous when you play heavy metal. When they came to America the first time they weren't very popular, but still they came and by doing so they got more attention. They've kept on writing music and do even more touring, and now it pays off I think. On the other hand, Novembre does not tour so much, and I still don't see the day where they will go across the ocean to play over here. Sometimes fans like to know that someday they will be able to see their favorite bands live, but if it's never to happen there might be some loss of interest, even if the music is the same.
I consider Opeth's death growls to be the most "metal" aspect of their music. Each new album leans more toward prog than the one before, and Damnation clearly shows that the band is comfortable with the 2 genres. This is a particularity that most bands don't have, and it is what makes people pay more attention to them. To the non-metalheads, they are not simply "another death metal band", they are real musicians who like to try out all kid of stuff. I have seen reviewers in famous newspapers talk about Opeth and recommend this band to the public, even though most, if not all, of their readers are not really into heavy stuff.
Now, for Novembre not being so "metal" neither, I do not completely agree, altough I must say that I still haven't heard Materia because I promised myself not to download it, and people say that it is probably their least metal labum to date so maybe my opinion is flawed here. But I always considered Novembre to be a doom metal band, especially because of the harsh vocals. However, I seriously believe that they could get famous in America (and in Europe for that matter) if they were more present on the music scene. People simply don't listen to them because they have never heard of them, not because they don't like their music as you seemed to pretend. They could become quite big if they were given more exposure, and this comes with work from the band, the promoter and the label.
