Franck Michaud, Editor and founder of The Metal Mag, talks about the changes in the Metal scene in an interview

“What I saw was that in 1990 the game changed. Until then we had Hard Rock, Glam, Heavy Metal, Thrash period.. it was simple. Hollywood decided to stop signing contracts for Metal bands and the big labels, EMI, Capitol records… got into Rap and boys bands. Small labels appeared as Earache records and so on and the evolution of Metal went from Thrash to Death and the extreme underground bands Black Metal and Grind came out of the cellars.

Little by little the bands had to change their music to continue to exist, Metallica made us a very sweet album that won over people who until then hated Metal! Kreator has changed to Gothic Pop… the “fusion” bands emerged (fortunately this didn’t last but there was worse with the numetal in 1995) in short, the sound has technically changed and it is digitized to bring very different bands (Fear Factory, Machine Head). Thrash disappeared very quickly and people looked at the extreme music that is now widespread as the Metal sound.

Metal has gone through a phase of deterioration today in which we put everything in one bin, from gothic, rock, pop… there is no identity. But the good thing is that Germany has for the most part been the reason for Metal’s survival. It is so important because heavy and thrash bands and vinyl remained. Eastern countries have taken back the flank we had left behind. Even America sold itself for money more than for music. Sweden has reinvented the Metal of our youth and Spain and Italy have started to do it even if it is late these countries have brought back the very sounds of our musical identity. There are so many bands to follow now.”