Coming from Missouri, you are exactly right. There are plenty of mallcore fans around here, it disgusts me. Its not that they are listening to mallcore that disgusts me, but that they think they are so cool and tough because they listen to it even though metalcore and deathcore are nowhere near what I call "heavy" or "brutal." Even if their music was "bt00tal" it does not make you cool. [/rant]

Essex

I live near san fransisco and have gone to a few shows there, there are usually alot of metalheads at concerts even when its some deathcore or hardcore there are alot of normal people and really tough guys rather than scene kids.

Well, I live in PA and have yet to see any one who is really into metal. There was some guy who went to my school who wore an Immortal shirt once, although I think every other day of the year he wore a COF one. And I don't go to shows, which isn't helping.

To be honest, I don't really mind that there's no one else who listens to metal here that I know of.

i used to live in Chicago,
Chicago has THE best metal scene in the US, it's the most passionate-brotherhood oriented and least trendy

the coasts are TOOOOOOOOOooooooOOOOOooo trendy, i hear weirdness in the Florida scene, loads of rednecks trashtalkers and back stabbers, which is shameful-i know many GOOD people there though

but again, just adding one more log to the fire, Chicago has THE BEST scene.the people there really seem to understand how it works!

Chicago, San Francisco, and parts of Texas have the best scenes in the USA. Sadly I live in neither so I have to post on forums....

If you wanted a lot of friends to listen to the same stuff, listen to crap. Easy enough, just where NC earbuds blasting Painkiller when you go to concerts with them.

Whereabouts in PA?

Whereabouts in Queens? I'm from Queens and I'm a metalhead, I only know a few metalheads, one in Yonkers and one who has other metalhead friends in Long Island.

ABSOLUTELY IT WAS ,,, second coming records ,lamours,,, the ritz,,,,bleeker bob's ,venus,,,,,,,,,,saint marks place,,, the wetlands ,,,,,the 318 club,,,,,fucking list goes on and on

Maryland really does suck.
I live in Potomac (next to rockville) and as far as I'm aware, I'm a stranded metalhead.

No one in my school that I know of listens to metal.
ti's quite sad

Los Angeles has a good metal scene, although a lot of people seem to hate on it. There are quite a few generic death metal bands, but theres a thriving black metal scene and a pretty decent thrash scene. Of course, the large population of people in general means that there appear to be very few metalheads in the area, but we come out of the woodwork for a good show. The Black Castle is a good underground venue with good promotion (Horna, Revenge, Nightbringer, and Inquisition have all played there recently) where there is a show almost every weekend. Of course, there are also a lot of children who complain that its nothing like the European scene (although the idea that any of them have ever been to Europe is dubious at best).

Southeastern Ohio, specifically little old Athens. This area is more punk and hardcore oriented and since I like quality hardcore myself, I don't mind. I don't exactly have a group of strictly metalheads but the group I hang around with most tends to be generally well versed in underground music. We know a lot of the same bands, and we love to hate others. And the closest of these friends is on this forum (and contributed to my joining).

Luckily, we don't have too many nu-metal/deathcore/scene kids... yet. This year I've started noticing more crap shirts than before--Slipknot and Suicide Silence most prominently. On the other hand, my friends and I have spied Ensiferum, Ghoul, Nokturnal Mortum/Nunslaughter (same guy), and Bathory on people we didn't personally know.

Any large city will have a decent sized crowd of metalheads in the area. There is a little bit of a thrash scene in York, PA, close to where I live. Bands like Warhawk, Walkure, and Stillborn are playing out.

My uncle lives in York. In fact he's the one who turned me on to the forum.

muthafuckin' a-GREED.
Boston has its fair share, but not what you'd hope for in a city.

When I went to Gigantour a couple summers ago (the one w/ Overkill, Arch Enemy, Opeth, etc...) the place didn't fill up for a long time and Lamb of God (came on before Megadeth) got the best reception. I had only heard good things about LoG at that time, mostly from people with respectable opinions but their set nearly put me to sleep and they gave shout-outs to "real metal that the radio won't play" like, and I fucking quote "Killswitch Engage"... eewwwwwwwwwww. Awesome concert, but it brought my hatred of metalcore and associated acts to a whole new level, what unbearable hypocrisy.

On that note though, someone told me metalcore originated in Mass, though the wiki article never mentions that, it MAY mean its less of a big deal elsewhere... but that's probably wishful thinking.

Well I lived in MD and I now live in NC and I can tell you both states are a joke for metal. In nearly 10 years I have only ever met one person into actual metal and not metalcore or nu metal.

Black Castle is great, and the Hollywood venues are tolerable at best, but get some good acts like Sadistic Intent and Possessed.

The thing is about the American scene in general, is that many good European bands are not well known and will not be able to pay to tour N. America. That is why some people say the Euro scene is better. I would not even say Euro, but I would say Mainlain Europe, especially Northern Europe.


My main qualm with LA is that there is no central meeting place for metalheads. Amoeba doesn't really have a decent selection for metal(either big bands or trendy shit) and I have not been to Dark Realm so I am not sure how that place is.

No, L.A. has a big metal scene. That doesn't mean that it's any good. I actually go to L.A. a lot and I've never really felt the same sort of vibe as I felt in Chicago. There are a lot of metalheads who show up for shows, sure, but they seem to have terrible taste. Nowadays, there are very few good bands from L.A., not counting one-man black metal projects (although there are plenty of good bands in California). There are, instead, a lot of people who get really excited about mediocre death metal bands in my experience. I have to say that there's good reason for metalheads to hate on the L.A. scene, even if it is, as I grant, better than the vast majority of the country.

My experience with LA metalheads is that they like thrash..... a lot.

I went to a show in LA that had a few thrash and death metal bands, everybody was wearing a uniform. EVERYONE, had a denim jacket with 100 patches. It's cool, but very uncool at the same time. Something about it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. It's almost like metal is so close and dear to me, that it doesn't seem as personal when everyone is into it.

I'm used to being surrounded by zero metal fans in the north.

I say the same thing about the European scene; many good American bands are not well known and wouldn't be able to tour as well. This phenomena isn't exclusive to any one place.

I pretty much play 'spot the metal t-shirt' every day now. I saw a guy the other day with a Behemoth shirt. Somehow I doubt a scene kiddie could have stumbled across a shirt like that by accident. The thing is, I never look remotely 'metal', so they would have no idea I'm eyeing them up.

And most of this thread applies equally to Australia or indeed to any country. You're not going to go anywhere in the world and find some mystical wonderland of metalheads all living together. You'd have to seek them out wherever you live.

But you have Confessor!

Miami really sucks. Hardly a metal scene, hell, not even a punk scene. There is plenty of rap and latino music though. >.<

If I drove three hours north to Tampa Bay, I'm sure I might find something, but other than that, Miami just sucks. The biggest concentration of metalheads I've seen here in Miami are in my University, and even then it's pretty rare.

But yeah, for the metal shirt thing, I've seen more people here in Japan w/ metal shrits than I have in America.

As for the metal shirts, I see alot of Metallica, Iron Maiden, Behemoth, CoF, Trivium and Slayer, but other than that nothing good. Theres this one girl [?] that goes to my school who is really into thrash. I see her alot wearing old school thrash shirts like D.R.I., Suicidal Tendencies, Overkill, Anthrax, Laaz Rockit, Slayer [it's Live Undead shirt is AWESOME] and Kreator...

But I have no clue what that thing is. It/she/he scares the fuck out of me, otherwise I would probably go talk about some thrash with it/she/he.

[I really hope it doesn't go on this forum and see this... -_-]

This is true. The reason that I've always wanted to move to Germany is because it has a stronger community of metalheads. It worked out for Akhenaten, anyway.


It's true, I think, that we American metalheads like to dream of a utopian paradise for metalheads, which we generally place in Europe. However, I will say that, from what I've heard of Germany, there are a lot more metalheads and they've got a great sense of community over there. I've talked to several American metalheads I know who studied abroad in Germany who loved the metal scene there.

Also, I suspect that there's not quite as much stigma in northern Europe as there is in America. In a lot of areas in the U.S., people definitely don't appreciate the metal. While I wouldn't say that I get people preaching at me or 'judging' me all the time for my metal ways, there are definitely regions where I wouldn't be surprised if/when it happened. That said, you're not too likely to get people telling you to stop listening to the 'devil's music' or something like that in a major urban area and I'll bet that rural areas in every country aren't particularly welcoming to metalheads. However, metal has a history of being scandalized in America.

Personally, I think most of Europe has quite a bit of metalheads contrast to America where little are found.

Main spots for metal and metalheads IMO would be; France, Germany, Norway/Sweden, Ukraine, Poland, Italy, and/or Denmark.

-France, you have the great black metal scene.
-Germany is all around, from thrash, to power metal, to black and death.
-Norway and Sweden of course are black and death with a tad bit of thrash.
-Ukraine is known for the pagan/black/folk metal.
-Poland is a good place for black and death.
-Italy has some good gothic metal and even black metal.
-Denmark... I'm not too informed of it, but it seems like a place for doom and sometimes thrash metal, but thats because of hearing Nortt from there and Metallica playing Denmark in the early/mid 80's quite a bit, along with... Annihilator? Which is the Danish thrash band? Also you have the almighty King Diamond, so thats an obvious influence in the scene there.

Compare that to the US. Seems more likely to me to have Europe as the hotspot for metal.

From what I experienced over there being in a band and touring, having an album out, recording, etc (and note I was doing this around 97-98 in the dark times ) is that metal never went out of style where is in the USA it was a trend until about 1991 and once grunge came in it went strictly underground for years. It seemed to never have gone away overseas. Priest and Scorpions were still just as popular in 97' as they were in 82'.

When I was in Sweden recording in 97' another band was recording an album on the offhours and I was amazed at how they were still into metal. Not that there was anything wrong with being into metal back then, time doesn't mean anything it's what you like that counts; but we as NYC scenesters couldn't believe the impact still that metal still had over there. In the US, if you were still into metal in 97' it was almost like a dirty word.

It's not that Europe is behind the times at all, on the contrary...it's that they are actually true to the genres they like and don't allow the media to dictate to them like the US does on the larger scale. England too is a bit like the US in "keeping up with the joneses" but in all due time it shows that it's not about any of that, it's about creating great music period and the minute you hop on trend bandwagons (unless you are in the forefront of course) you may lose out in the long run.

Completely agreed. Seeing as how I'm only 15 and have not left my shithole of a town very many times, I cannot contribute to what you have said about Europe.. but European bands stay true to their sound. Even if they stray off a bit, they are always what they were. Bands progress and go down under alot but they are never gone. Trends in Europe isn't as big as it is here in the US, or like you said, the UK.

And another thing, is America has the potential to grab bands and turn them to shit. The laws, the trends, the popularity, the lifestyle... it gets to them. They can't really stay themself. For example [don't flame me here...] bands like Slipknot or Korn, they once were great nu-metal bands [IMHO] and they had a heavy, dirty sound, but once nu-metal died and they got big, they changed drastically. Becoming big is a big thing for bands.

Of course, it is unlikely many underground bands do that, or even bigger but not mainstream bands. Take Municipal Waste and Toxic Holocaust. They have been the big names in thrash lately, and have been around for about 5 years hitting it from town to town to town and ripping shit up. THEY are ones that stay true to themselves. America has its ups and downs, but to me, I think Europe has it.

I think it has to do with bands becoming successful and not being quite sure once they gain that success what to do with it. Sometimes the right thing to do is to stay true and don't waver. But the fact is, there are big pressures on bands once they go major and sell lots of records. Most bands that are true find out just like the American dream that the "music business dream of being famous" isn't what it's all cracked up to be. Some bands just lose focus within' that time as well. Music history has taught us this across the board, but the important thing is that as with any history, either we can learn from our mistakes or just make the same stupid ones over and over again.

Problems arise when genres become overblown and over-saturation trickles in. This is true of every genre, huge or not, popular once and then again (as we have seen with metal, and many veterans have experienced).

I think Europe has a great scene and always did, lots of music fans. The difference in the US again is the hopping on trend bandwagons in the largest sense. That's not to say that the US doesn't have great underground acts, they do. It's just very trend based period and always has been.

If we are talking strictly metal influences though, I guess I have to side with Europe as being the main influence; but metal's original influences (meaning the innovators such as Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, NWOBHM acts) are not European based for the most part.

I thought there should be a lot of metalheads around the DC area - awesome bands are always heading to Jaxx, even though that venue sucks.

I'm sorry but I have to question your entire opinion's legitimacy with you being so young and having such little experience in the metal scene(s) here.

People like to paint Europe as a Mecca of metal and America as some land where it's either forgotten or bastardized. I think these people don't have a very good grasp on what actually goes on.

Sounds about right. The Rave seems to pull a lot of the scene bands, but they occasionally pull some pretty nice acts. Was planning on attending the Danzig/Dimmu show but missed out on that. Not that I'm adverse to scene shows, I like a fair number of the scene bands. Plus, I always find it fun to watch the scene kids who will inevitably become true metal heads growing into their heritage.

Chicago definitely has the venues for Midwest metal. I mean, they pulled Maiden into Rosemont, and that show was intense as hell. Toronto everyone sat down within the first two songs, and yelled at me for standing up =/ Rosemont EVERYONE was standing up the ENTIRE show, then again, it was one of three shows in America so...

Omaha Nebraska had a decent scene that revolved around Sokol Hall around the nu-metal explosion. Though, I haven't looked into what's been happening there recently. They used to play a fair amount of pure metal making the money on bigger nu-metal bands like Mushroomhead and Mudvayne to fund the smaller shows.

I live in Lancaster.

If I would have said that to someone here, I would be called pompous and bitchslapped back that age doesn't matter. Interesting.

No you wouldn't have.

Actually I have had it happen to me on this board before.

Not on this subject.

Ok.

New York still has Precious Metals (shows every week), The Knitting Factory, Generation Records (wall of metal, basement full of shirts), plenty of good underground bands (Krallice, Hung, Ambient Death off the top of my head, and you get a lot of stuff from NJ too, like Blood Feast), The Europa Club's occasional mini-fests, The End Records, Metal Maniac's HQ (it's a magazine) and the US offices for Earache. It's a good place, if you're over 21.

Mind you, I'm under 21, but then again, I live in Chicago now.