Good work, npearce.
I want to bring together two separate pieces of text I've read recently. The first is from npearce's interview with Watchmaker, and the second was written by Jay from metalreviews.com (which I actually found on the Exit to Eternity site):
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WATCHMAKER:
Beside the mighty island nations of Japan and the UK, Germany seems to totally rock. I just bought every Accept album I could find recently, and have been in full Deutsche fist-banging mode ever since, so I am kind of biased towards this country right now. But besides Accept, the fact that real metal like Kreator, Sodom and Destruction never, ever went away in Germany, just goes to show that they know what is going on. I even buy new Helloween CDs, so Germany is the place for me.
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It's really quite refreshing to find that 'extreme' musicians can still appreciate all sorts of music like this without fear of what others think. I'm sure I don't have to spell it out, but there's way too much discrimination in the metal scene when it comes to what others listen to. Goat forbid that you listen to anything with a tune, or something that you can have a laugh with, singalong, and get drunk with your buddies at a gig and have fun in a crowd, etc. Not everything has to be about killing Jews, killing God, or killing oneself. I respect this guy for saying that he has no problem with Helloween, for example.
OK here's the other article excerpt, and I think this guy is so on the money, it's not funny. Hey, that rhymed...
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When traveling in Europe, it was amazing to me that a short five hour train ride often leaves you in another country with a different language and culture. There is such homogeny in terms of our national culture. Its hard to find different influences when 290 million people have the same experience. This is one reason why German metal is different from Italian metal is different from Finnish metal. American music is also more rooted in blues while European music has its roots in classical and folk music. Classical requires a much higher skill level to play well than blues does. Additionally, blues based music is much more repetitive than classical is.
Europe has always been more receptive to fantastic lyrics and fairy tales. If you ask random redneck Joe what he thinks of Manowar, Bal Sagoth or Helloween, you'll hear that they're "gay." Welcome to the American culture of machismo. Men are taught that they have to be men. They can't be pussies and listen to "gay" music. The social stigma of being labeled as unmanly is a tough one to live with in our nation. This stupidity prevents many people from getting into music they'd otherwise love. This is one of the reasons nu metal appeals to people here. The lyrics deal with being manly, masculine and tough. If they could only see that nu metal is marketed to play into the insecurity of not being man enough. Nu metal is simply packaged revolution; all the rage and angst without the fear that you might actually get hurt. The innocuous nature is so insipid that most people can listen to it without even realizing it. It is a corporate perversion of real metal in it's most marketable incarnation.
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I mean, that is it in a nutshell, right? Fucking spot on if you ask me. Maybe I can attest to this difference just because I'm a European living in the USA, but I'm glad that someone in Watchmaker (of all bands!!) can be seen as an exception to the norm. *hat comes off*
Note: I'm not saying that all Americans abide by this, and neither am I saying that all Europeans listen to fantasy metal etc, but the generalization is a good one IMO.
