What is so rare about that? I listen to Manowar.
@Yula: Too bad about the metal scene in Argentina, don't people buy many albums there? Usually sales is what motivates labels to get on the market... If not, any labels from other countries to sign up the bands? Though, album sales don't exactly bring much money, but offers some means for a band to record a new album.
I think it is the same problem that other countries have (shitty music genres being mainstream and not the really good music), but worse =S
We have been having a big economic crisis in the last 20 years so people prefers to buy a pirate album instead of buying an original one; the price difference is pretty big. (4-8 pirate albums= 1 original album). But this does not apply just to metal, this goes for all the genres.
Metal has very, very little followers here. People sticks to the old argentinian rock legends (that worked hard to become big) and to whatever the media sells them. And even said rock legends are starting to lose fans.... the new generation's attention is in Lady GaGa and reggaeton; the 40+ people like shitty folklore groups and melodic singers or not listen to music at all.
When Madonna, Coldplay, U2, McCartney and the Rolling Stones came here, the media was all over them. When Queen and KISS arrived here, they got some attention. Metallica, Megadeth and Iron Maiden (who came here every year in the last 4 years) had concerts here too. People from all over the country went to see them. Did ANYONE in the media care? Nope.
Carlos 'Indio' Solari is the biggest rock artist now. Some of his followers are adults who started to listen to him in his first band(
Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota,awesome band) and also listen to Skay Beilinson, the other founding member of that group..... but most of them are idiots that listen to him because he is a rock icon; and it is the only thing they listen to (and completely ignore Skay's work). There are no 'music listeners' in the last generation, if you get what I mean.
. And of course, only his old fans actually buy his records, so he is not super rich.
Metal bands have to do what they can with very low budgets working with very small independent labels. Major labels/International labels only hire the bands that are already big, so many artists just give up or stay in the underground forever.
Almafuerte ('huge' metal band) does not get even the half of the attention it diserves. And since recently his leader, Ricardo Iorio, appeared in some interviews totally stoned and saying a lot of retarded bullshit, the media started to make fun of him (talking about him like he was some unknown random musician), his music, and metal in general like anyone who listens to metal is an idiot and thinks that what he said is an absolute truth.