Hard Music Continues Its Reign Overseas
Classic or "old school" metal may be viewed nostalgically by the American mainstream, but overseas it is alive and kickin'. Propelled by a late '90s power-metal resurgence, a burgeoning festival triage and a ravenous fan appetite, Germany has not only become the epicenter of the new European traditional-metal revolution, but it has spread the metal gospel to neighboring countries and provided a haven for American artists shunned by their homeland.
Over the past decade, the role of German artists, and more particularly German labels, has steadily influenced outside markets. For years, Japan and Southeast Asia have provided havens for melodic German giants like Gamma Ray and Helloween and European bands like Stratovarius and Royal Hunt. Furthermore, German labels, with their vast reserve of talented European bands, have started influencing the American metal underground, which is itself potentially poised to make another mainstream breakthrough.
An important factor in this metal renaissance has been the tenacity of the fans, who have embraced a wide range of styles including goth metal, death metal, progressive metal and, in particular, a classically influenced, speed-metal take on traditional headbanging music called power metal. This subgenre has enamored devoted disciples in Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Greece and Japan. Because power metal's practitioners tend to remain true to their roots and sound, their fans have remained steadfast in their support.
German influence began to seep into the American metal world even as grunge, alternative and hip-hop began to command the airwaves and album charts a decade ago.
A year after it was founded, Century Media Records opened a Los Angeles office in 1990. Subsequently, other German labels founded in the early to mid-'80s began to quietly infiltrate America, including Noise Records in 1994 and Nuclear Blast Records in 1996. Younger prog label InsideOut Music and veteran company SPV eventually followed in 1999, the former now distributed through Century Media in North America and the latter, based in Vancouver, distributed through DNA (in the U.S.) and Distribution Fusion III (in Canada). Other American labels like Roadrunner, Spitfire and Relapse also now have German branches or partners.
Looks like those obituary notices were premature after all. "In the late '80s, people said metal was finished, dead, [but] not for SPV," recalls SPV managing director and founder Manfred Schuetz. "Now the situation for metal is really good. We're on the album charts, and metal music is an important part of the German market and in [areas like] Spain and Scandinavia."
A CULTURAL EXCHANGE
German metal labels operating American divisions have found numerous benefits to such enterprises. They can sign American bands to worldwide deals and offer them a local office with which to conduct business. These days, a majority of Century Media's acts are signed through the U.S. office, while on the flipside, Metal Blade Records opened up German offices in 1996 after successfully licensing product to European companies for nearly 15 years. Metal Blade has been using its German office not only for European sales but to sign local talent, including Brainstorm and Sacred Steel, whose recent albums were released stateside.
Both American and European artists have made sales and touring inroads by being signed on two continents. Talented but neglected American bands like Century Media's Iced Earth and Noise's Virgin Steele have found a home in countries like Germany and Greece. Meanwhile, German traditionalists like Nuclear Blast act Hammerfall and European rockers such as Century Media's Moonspell and The Gathering have been given the opportunity to tour America--something which would have been more difficult on a European-only label. Like their American brethren, these metal imports are receiving critical acclaim and reaching a new generation of listeners.
Possessing North American distribution makes a German label more attractive to prospective artists. And for SPV, which is signing more metal bands worldwide via its 15-year-old metal imprint Steamhammer, it's a necessity. "If we sign a band worldwide, then we have to see what's going on in America," says Schuetz. "We don't think that we will have a million seller in the next 12 months, but with artists like Axel Rudi Pell--whose [type of] music is heard all over the world-- we have to bring them to America." Aside from the rock, pop, goth and electro it distributes, SPV has highly vested interests in metal. It distributes Century Media, Noise, Osmose, InsideOut and Metal Blade product in Germany and also recently licensed Sanctuary Records releases for Germany and CMC International releases for Europe.
LIVE MELTDOWN
Part of metal's perennial appeal is the live experience, and Germany has a healthier concert market than the States. Established bands both large and small can make more money on tour there because of a more equitable pay scale. If placed on a good tour, a band that might take a loss touring the States can reportedly at least break even in Germany. And larger bands like Stratovarius--whose recent headlining tour with Rhapsody and Sonata Arctica averaged 1,500 to 2,000 people per night--can generate good income on the road.
Furthermore, the Teutonic festival circuit has blossomed in the last few years, taking its lead from Holland's annual Dynamo festival, which, at its peak in the mid-'90s, attracted 120,000 people. "Even though Dynamo never had huge headliners, it proved that a good combination of interesting acts for a genre as extreme as metal could create a very nice gathering, a Woodstock feeling with a metal texture," notes Century Media founder and head of A&R Robert Kampf. With Full Force, Bang Your Head and, most notably, Wacken Open Air have become important summer festival stops for metal bands, and annually draw an average of 20,000 to 30,000 fans from Germany and neighboring countries.
Smaller festivals can appear in the form of a mini-tour, such as the recent No Mercy Festival, which traveled to four countries and featured numerous Metal Blade acts. The extreme metal event--which featured Vomitory, Hate Eternal, Dark Funeral, Vader, Marduk, Cannibal Corpse, Immortal and Deicide--played to average crowds of 1,000 people every night.
Modern heavy-rock acts have also made it to Germany, and while Sevendust, Korn and Kid Rock can play up to 2,000-seat venues, they are not sales dynamos there as they are at home. "Limp Bizkit is No. 1 in the States, while over here they didn't even reach the top-20," reports Michael Trengert, managing director of Metal Blade Records in Europe. "So that's definitely a big difference. But [Iron] Maiden will hit No. 1. And if they have a good record, Blind Guardian will probably hit No. 1 [with its next release]."
THE METAL MELTING POT
Despite the popularity of power metal, albums of all styles--from extreme metal to melodic hard rock--regularly hit the top 100 German albums chart alongside pop giants; good examples are recent releases by Demons & Wizards (#13), Axel Rudi Pell (#37), Virgin Steele (#58), Axxis (#59), Transatlantic (#66), Destruction (#67), Sinner (#87) and Immortal (#95). German metal fans reflect this diversity. At a typical metal show, one might see lifestylers sporting black leather and long hair alongside more conservative looking business types. Unlike many American metalheads who grow up and mature out of the music, many German headbangers remain loyal to their favorite bands, even if they are not looking the part.
"Sometimes they are working in really established jobs, and that's probably why they don't have long hair," observes Antje Lange, managing director of Noise Records. "But when they go out, they put on their leather jacket and return to their metal life. That's why you see metal handled like everything else in the chain stores. It's there because a lot of people buy it." Proof positive: major music chains and department stores feature metal or "hard 'n' heavy" sections which would make any true American headbanger green with envy.
As in America, metal is not played much on German radio or TV. Print magazines carry the most influence, from established publications like Rock Hard, Metal Hammer and Heavy, Oder Was? to slick newcomers like Metal Heart. Some radio airplay exists on public channels (with continually changing schedules) or limited videoplay via a local access cable show, such as Berlin's "Hardline," which features concert clips from all over the country, proving that hundreds of people are attending shows by the likes of Therion, Iron Savior and Overkill. But very few bands are making videos anymore, as airplay on MTV and its German competitor Viva TV remains nearly impossible to obtain.
The fact is, heavy metal fans are part of a community that, even in Germany, is not considered hip by the mainstream, but that has not deterred their numbers from growing. Accordingly, the Internet has become a unifying force for metalheads overseas. Noise reportedly receives 1.3 million hits per month on its Web site, and its e-mail club now boasts 15,000 members, with 1,500 more joining every month.
Internet sales are also important for labels, because some past albums are not always easy to find. "More and more, the big chains are selling only chart material, and they don't offer a good back catalog of rock music," observes Schuetz. "We see the [positive] results we have with mail order companies and Internet companies." This is also important to Schuetz as SPV is actively looking to reissue back catalog albums from America that are unavailable in Europe.
LONG-TERM VISION
Despite the continued success of metal in Germany, overall record sales are down. Some industry insiders feel that expensive CD prices have encouraged an increased propagation of bootleg CD-Rs and digital downloads have cut into sales. Plus, competition for consumer dollars is obviously getting stronger with the current metal boom. "The kids only have a certain amount of money to buy records," notes Trengert. "And nowadays we have so many record companies that there are about 50 or 60 new [metal] records every month." On the positive side, such a wealth of music implies that the metal market is very healthy.
European and global sales figures for some of these artists are more impressive. Noise headbangers Gamma Ray can achieve 300,000 units globally. Century Media rockers Tiamat have reached 200,000 worldwide, while extreme metal bands like Metal Blade acts Cannibal Corpse and Six Feet Under are achieving European sales of 40,000. One of SPV's first worldwide signings under its new distribution deal, "superduo" Demons & Wizards, has sold nearly 20,000 units in the States after doing 80,000 in Europe. SPV has also had strong European success with recent albums by veterans Motorhead (150,000 units) and Judas Priest (250,000 units).
The potential for even greater North American sales for all these labels is readily apparent. "When I see what we are selling in the States with Gamma Ray and Stratovarius, things that are so European and so out-of-fashion, I'm amazed sometimes," remarks Lange. "Sometimes, Caroline Distribution does not pick [certain albums] up, so we're just selling them through the mom-and-pops alone. And just through that, we are achieving numbers like 5,000, 6,000 and 7,000. There is a market there."
Given the current power-metal boom, the proliferation of new albums and small new labels, plus the number of tours every month, one has to wonder if the German metal market is becoming overly saturated. But the high quality of bands and albums is luring more fans into the scene. "Most of the people who are into it will be into it five or 10 years down the road, so the metal community is growing constantly," asserts Kampf. "There are younger and younger kids discovering it as well. I see 14-and 15-year-olds at concerts along with 40-year-old, long-haired guys banging to a brand new band, Sonata Arctica, and they all know the lyrics. [Sonata's] band members are between 16 and 19 years old. How much better can it get?"
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