What are you listening to now?

I disagree, Andra Toian. I think I get what you're trying to say, but you just can't compare David Bowie to any heavy metal band. David Bowie is not set to a specific genre of music, while heavy metal bands are set on making one specific genre - yup: heavy metal. It's like comparing Frank Zappa to Def Leppard. (I have the utmost respect for David Bowie as a musician, but his venture into hard(er) rock with Tin Machine sucked, in my opinion.)

That said, heavy metal in the 80s is so different from today's. Nothing sounds like Iron Maiden, Anthrax or Megadeth anymore. A band like Slayer is still recording and touring, and allowed their influnces by punk music to have a more prominent place in their music. Bands like Fear Factory, Ministry and Nine Inch Nails insprired bands to allow "electronics" to be incorporated into their music.

Then, there are several musical cross overs: Sepultura kinda was ahead of its time, and younger bands such as Ill Nino followed mixing more traditional music from their homelands with metal. Ice-T, for example, showed others that rap and metal mix well with his band Body Count.

I am certain that I'm leaving out a lot of other important bands/artists, but these just pop into my head as I'm responding to your post. And, I admit: I did more than just listen to heavy metal, as I've played guitar and did backing vocals in a band which was heavily influenced by "Therapy?" (That was fifteen years ago, tho...)

Edit: I just remembered. A band like TOOL (one of my fave bands of all times), how do you define a band like TOOL musically? They're not exactly metal, they're not grunge, but the music and lyrics are very intense: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=07pLGIgyfjw

Uh... Wow.

First off, Andra Toian, my previous response was in no way meant to diss you nor offend you. Just to get that straight, eh! (Pun intended.)

I've never been a fan of death metal myself, as the lyrics were often sung unintelligible. That said I went to a concert in the early 90s, in a small venue. And the opening act had a female singer, who could grunt (that's how that type of singing is called) like it was nobody's business! Needless to say, I was very impressed. Several years ago I heard Kittie on the radio (a Canadian band - and very much unlike any girl band you've heard/seen): http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=n3W7qyGtHeg

Pavor sounds tight! I understand they don't want to produce any commercial music (integrity is also very important) but signing to a record label doesn't mean you'll be selling out. I mean, Sarah McLachlan is a pretty well known artist. She signed to (a then small) label called Nettwerk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nettwerk The label has expanded considerably over the years, but Ms. McLachlan said in past interviews she's lucky to have signed up with them, as they never pressured her to write songs that didn't reflect her as an artist. Or show more T&A in videos... Sorry, I digress