http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... d=ITP_AHED

I read this article this morning, and it mentioned the number of metal bands per 100,000 in different countries, citing this website. I find it ironic that most of the "metal" bands talked about in the article aren't metal enough to be included on this website. Nevertheless it was cool to see Encyclopaedia Metallum in a front-page article.

What the fuck, Nightwish, Stratovarius, Sonata Arctica and to use the label metal as loosely as the article, H.I.M. are Finnish. Some unknown bands. Some lack of promotion and commercial success. Sweden has succesful metal acts like Opeth, In Flames and a couple of others, but even if they did collectively have more media attention and commercial success than the aforementioned Finns (which I doubt anyway), Finland isn't exactly far behind. Alexander Stubb is an idiot.

Anyhow, this kind of stuff ought to be posted in the FFA. Even though it's in the tavern, it's used for metal discussion of more random nature quite frequently.

...So uh, Michael Monroe was buddies with that self-important douche Axl Rose?

Well, seeing that the WSJ is a Rupert Murdoch-owned media soruce, did anyone seriously expect that they would give two fucks about, I don't know, actually giving two fucks about metal?

Yeah, you know, because If it was someone else they would totally care mayne!

Was anyone really expecting an upper-middle-class establishment newspaper to understand a largely underground art form beyond the most superficial level?

(If you did, go dope-slap yourself right now.)

What the hell is dope-slapping? Is that some new largely underground art form?

Wow, I didn't realize how much popular metal is in Finland and north east Europe than in North America.

Yeah, wtf is dope-slapping?

While in America government support for metal is unthinkable, Finland's ministries of economy and culture last year spent around a half-million euros (about $650,000) promoting metal bands abroad.

Wow, that's awesome. Come on, America, throw us a bone here.

Slapping yourself while stoned maybe? I dunno.

Took a look at urban dictionary, and it said, "A light "whappp" to the back of the head, done with an open palm in an upward motion."

My sarcasm detector must be malfunctioning tonight. Surely you aren't being serious.

All the scenes in the US are dead man - the European scenes are very strong. I would love to checkout some shows over there to see what the atmosphere is like.

We are not in the 1980s anymore.

Even if it is just a quote, it just about says it all about the mindset of the article.

It talks about the popularity of metal in Finland, Sweden and Norway but doesn't say anything about black or death metal? Not even Pagan or Viking metal?

metal fans are so oddly picky It's not comprehensive, but it's pretty cool that MA was in a media conglomerate like WSJ.

Yeah, my thoughts, exactly... It's hard to detect sarcasm in such a simple sentence with no additional emoticon at all