Being an Irishman these guys are probably Ireland's biggest Celtic/Folk tinged black metalesque band and from what I can gather they're pretty popular in mainland Europe and the US but here in Ireland there is very little interest in them which is both hugely surprising and extremely annoying, Ireland doesn't produce many biggish bands so it would have been nice if we actually celebrated them but you would not find their CD's in any shops only some underground ones and they don't play here as often as you'd expect. Now the do have a fanbase(me being one of them) but it's sparse. Can anyone give me any insight into why they are popular elsewhere and not here. I have one theory about their lack of popularity is that we're just sick of Irish music being tacked onto just about anything you can think of but it's very good in this case.

Lyricwise, the stuff they're handling seems more appealing and, let's say, enigmatic, since I for one don't know that much about the history of Ireland.
I wouldn't be that interested in a band that sung about the history of Finland.
Taking music into account, I've no idea. That's just stupid.

I wouldn't say it's specifically a Primordial thing (at least, I'm guessing not). I'm from Scotland and the metal scene there is very weak - I wouldn't be surprised if it was similar in Ireland. Since moving to the Netherlands, I see that metal is far more vibrant on the continent. Because of the bigger population, I suppose.

I know in the US they are pretty popular. I was surprised to here that they are not big in Ireland, I wonder if Waylander and Cruachan are just as over looked? I persianlly love all three bands and I think they all represent Ireland in a very positive way.

Sometimes things just happen that way. A similar but non-metal example is Mr. Big wasn't popular in the USA but but 5 out of their 7 albums went Gold or Platinum in Japan and has released over 5 live albums all set in Japan.

Maybe Primordial just have to do their version of "Come Out, Ye Black and Tans" or "Provos lullaby" and then they can get it big? (Joke)

Very sorry for posting something not relevant to the actual thread, but I'm absolutely jealous of this sentence.

What gives you the impression that they are significantly more popular elsewhere, like in the US?

Bands like Primordial are only popular worldwide if you use the term very loosely. They're not a mainstream or commercially successful band and so I guess they can't be hyped all that much locally.

They're a kickass band but would be considered underground by most people. There are plenty of bands like that, or more popular than Primordial, who are totally under the radar. In my area, Voivod would be a great example. These guys barely get any local coverage and recognition, ride subways and hang in bars just like regular folks. Such is the way of most metal artists except the ones at the top of the pyramid.

A mainstream music shop is unlikely to stock music solely based on bands being local. They may have a small local section but will probably focus on accessible artists.

Primordial are sort of a strange case for me. When I first discovered them it was like love it first listen, but the more I've listened to them the less I find myself impressed with them. Sure, the vocals are consistently impressive, but I feel like the rest of the music often takes a backseat to the vocal and lyrical drama and their albums suffer for it. I feel like each album tends to have a handful of really amazing songs like "Empire Falls" or "The Coffin Ships" and these tend to be the ones where the instruments receive just as much attention as the vocal lines.

Anyway, I think the band has a fairly large fanbase here but only relatively speaking.

Care to elaborate?

Well judging by what I've seen on this and many other forums and the band themselves saying it that they are much much bigger elsewhere than Ireland and to that poster who mentioned Cruachan and Waylander, very much the same thing as Primordial.

Yeah, it's nothing to do with Primordial, it's just the nature of the scene here. It's small and not terribly involved. I'm not terribly into it myself but I do go to a decent number of gigs. From what I can tell, Primordial do have one of the better followings of the Irish bands. They can draw a much better crowd than pretty much anyone who plays Button Factory, and I would say are only really beaten by acts who play larger venues such as Vicar Street-- and that's your Opeths and so on. But yeah those crowds are not a patch on what you'll get elsewhere. There's a reason so many smaller acts can't afford to come here-- most of 'em just lose money.

I'm sort of notorious for writing ridiculously long complex sentences, and this one is longer than most of mine. Nothing bad, I mean it as sort of a joke.

Also more on topic, I think this is not an uncommon phenomenon - many sort of "half-underground" bands (as in having a certain status within a genre but of course zero mainstream popularity), metal or otherwise (e.g. prog bands are often a similar case) have this kind of thing that they're often more appreciated abroad than in their home country. Poland is kind of a strange country in this aspect, as some bands have managed to get some sudden bursts of popularity from very various sources. Vader is of course pretty widely known in metal due to their overall status, but then Behemoth even got some mainstream attention due to all the "satanic" bullshit; on a completely different note, Riverside has managed to achieve a pretty surprising level of popularity and they have even kind of drawn attention to the prog rock/metal scene (which grows kind of rapidly). But then, on the other hand, I've seen bands that play concerts for 20-30 people here, while I've seen fans from South America ask them stuff on their facebook...

This is a pretty random thing, hard to find a rule here.

@TheLiberation I just read my OP and wow the sentences are long glad to have taken your crown would the likes of Vader, Behemoth, Decapitated etc... be popular in Poland?

@ForNaught we used to have a decent scene before the fucking recession. Cork even had some excellent bands coming over but now has fuck all.

Well like I said Vader is definitely very popular within the metal scene but not that much outside, Behemoth similar to Vader but with some very strange kind of mainstream attention (which has sort of faded), Decapitated is definitely pretty well recognised within metal as well but I guess less than these two. But if I had to think of metal bands that are well-recognised in Poland, these would probably be my first three ideas, along with Acid Drinkers maybe (but that's a weird band ).