why is it that the Swedes are so good at metal?
All those months of darkness.
In all seriousness, I read a great interview with the glam-****** frontman from Children of Bodom (and a similar interview with some Norwegian black metallers and Finnish power metallers), but he was saying that so much shred metal comes out of that top scandinavian area (let's say roughly Sweden, Norway and Finalnd) not only due to the darkness, but due to the rich Germanic/Norse mythology of those areas that has not really been diluted (Grim Bros stories are just as brutal now as they were then, unlike a Disney-fied fairy tale book bought here now) AAAAAAND a governmental attitude that places a huge emphasis on 'the arts' as being a culturally valid export/trade. Some of the metal bands from those areas really are 'the biggest export' and this is because people like Ihsahn (incredibly proficient guitarist and frontman of highly controversial, musically technical second wave black metal band Emperor) are friggin guitar teachers in everyday settings! The kids in grade 3 can whip out stunning arpeggios and faultless modal riffs while the rest of us just use a wah pedal to hide the fact that we only know a pentatonic blues scale haha.
The upshot of this is that in these Northern European countries, there are just as many people (proportionally) listening to what the everyday Aussie would label 'extreme metal' as there are 'everyday Aussies' listening Pete Murray or whatever...
Not saying that this is good, bad or otherwise, but it is certainly what I have read and is definitely the anecdotal experience of my friends (admittedly mostly people listening to 'extreme' music of some sort) while touring Europe...the difference in attitutdes and vibe and viability of making a livlihood between musos in Southern Europe as opposed to the quality from Northern Europe is staggering.
Interesting case in point: get the live Candlemass anniversary dvd where they have a heap of different frontmen singing all night - the crowd is littered with people that make their living from music (from various European metal bands) but yet it is a relatively small gig....you are literally unable to accomplish that kind of international cred while still playing 300 people shows in Australia (as a metal band).
Sorry, I'm beyond tipsy and thought I'd offer an opinion on (what I find to be) an interesting topic... :icon_cheers: