The Cold Metal War Map

 

This map show the metal genres dominance of countries and territories, and their relative size, based in the total number of released metal albums (only official LP studio metal albums). The data do not included EP, live albums, singles, compilations, demos, videos or other redundant material, and is taken from the Encyclopaedia Metallum. 

Each country appear in the color of the preferred genre that dominates its territory (per LP studio albums).

Death metal (Death Axis): red
Black metal (Black Axis): black (of course)
Heavy metal & NWOBHM (Heavy Kingdoms): light gray
Thrash metal (Thrash Allies): medium gray
Doom metal (Doom Allies): yellow
Progressive metal (Progressive Allies): green
Gothic metal (Gothic Princedom): purple

Neutral Nations: white

Among other things, in this map we can see the current geopolitical metal state in the world.

By 2016, three genres seem to dominate the metal world:

Death metal: With its capital in Florida, it spans most of America, Central Europe, Oceania and Southeast Asian. Canada, United States, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Indonesia, Malaysia, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Finland, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and the Czech Republic are some of the death metal nations.

Black metal: With its capital in Norway, it dominates mainly in Eastern and Southern Europe. Russia, Norway, Ukraine, Greece, Italy, France, Portugal, Belarus, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Turkey and Iceland, inside Europe, are in the axis of evil. In America, only islands like Cuba, Jamaica and Puerto Rico have chosen the dark side. Meanwhile, in the Middle East and China the black dominates widely. Also, it is the preferred genre among the international bands.

Heavy metal: With its capital in England, their old domain only remains in some traditional metal nations, like United Kingdom, Hungary, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Argentina, and Uruguay.

Apart from these genres, other genres dominate in some nations of very little relevance for the metal world.

Thrash metal: Widely popular among the few bands of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, Madagascar, French Polynesia, Isle of Man and Paraguay.

Doom metal: Widely popular in Azerbaijan, Montenegro, and… Uganda.

Progressive metal: Strangely it extends its dominance for Tunisia and a long number of small islands around the world (Åland Islands, Faroe Islands, Mauritius, Maldives, Trinidad and Tobago, New Caledonia, and Guam) due to the work of some solitary entrepreneurs.

Gothic metal: The most popular genre in the Principality of Liechtenstein.

In the other hand, stand out amog the neutral territories (without dominance of any genre), Bulgaria and Honduras, which soon should fall into one of the three big axes.

Another version of this map, show the dominance, in a plain normal world map.

 

 

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The True Metal World Map (Alternative Version)

 

This map is based in the same information than the previous infographic, but in a vintage cartographic style. The shapes in this case are approximate, rather than exact, so that the map remains not easily outdated, and it is possible appreciate in a more realistic geographical way the data.

The map reflects the relative size of all countries and territories of the world based in the total number of released metal albums (only official LP studio metal albums). The data do not included EP, live albums, singles, compilations, demos, videos or other redundant material, and is taken from the Encyclopaedia Metallum.

One more time, note than the square island in pale gray above and to the right of Canada belongs to the International and Unknown bands, not to Greenland.

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The True Metal World Map

 

This map show the current status of the heavy metal world, in both, musical and geographical terms. Like the previous maps, reflects the relative size of all countries and territories of the world based in the total number of released metal albums (only official LP studio metal albums). One more time, the maps do not included EP, live albums, singles, compilations, demos, videos or other redundant material, and the data is taken from the Encyclopaedia Metallum.

I have included this map in a separate set, since that this decade it is still in process.

Then, by 2016 we have the following partial data:

95303 LP metal albums were released until 2016 along 5 continents by metal bands of 139 countries and territories.

Top metal nations until 2016 (per LP metal albums)

1. United States (20982)
2. Germany (9391)
3. Italy (4718)
4. Russia (4151)
5. Sweden (3954)
6. United Kingdom (3650)
7. France (3561)
8. Spain (3061)
9. Canada (3043)
10. Finland (2927)
11. Brazil (2886)
12. Poland (2371)
13. Japan (2200)
14. Australia (1742)
15. Norway (1705)
16. Czech Republic (1647)
17. Mexico (1631)
18. Netherlands (1616)
19. Argentina (1417)
20. Greece (1333)
21. Austria (1056)
22. Chile (1007)
23. Indonesia (975)
24. Ukraine (975)
25. Switzerland (953)

Note than the square above Canada belongs to the International and Unknown bands.

In this map we can see the great advance of Russia, Italy and Indonesia in the last years. Overall, the map shows the same dominance of Europe and America above any other continent, characteristic of all the metal evolution shown in these maps. Now, the metal it has expanded to almost any civilized place on earth, albeit in modest numbers. There is even a black metal band listed in the remote archipelago of Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean. However, Africa and the Caribbean, still seem nonfertile territories in extreme for metal music, which gives rise to several questions not politically correct.*

*However, note than the source, is not a static database and than these numbers can grow in the future, with more than possible future additions to the Encyclopaedia Metallum.

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The Metal Evolution Maps

This set of maps reflects the relative size of all countries and territories of the world per total number of released metal albums (only official LP studio metal albums), decade to decade, from 1990 to 2010. In order to reflect the proper metal capability of each country, the maps do not included EP, live albums, singles, compilations, demos, videos or other redundant material. The data for each map is taken from the Encyclopaedia Metallum, the trve online archive of metal music that lists only trve metal bands, and provides some background by listing their subgenre, country of origin and in some cases, reviews of each album.

To my knowledge, it is the first attempt so far to make a map of this kind, which says much about the interest from metalheads for mapping.

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The first map of this set is the 1990 metal world map. Only until 1990 we have enough data to make a global map of metal (by the way, until 1980 we only have 190 LP metal albums listed in the Encyclopaedia Metallum, and really the real genre of these albums still quite subject to controversy).

So, by 1990 we have the following data:

3673 LP metal albums were released until 1990 along 5 continents by metal bands  of 55 countries and territories.

Per continents:

Europe* (1879)
America (1462)
Asia (283)
Oceania (45)
Africa (2)
International (2)

*Including Turkey and post-Soviet states.

Top metal nations until 1990 (per LP metal albums)

1. United States (1121)
2. Germany (477)
3. United Kingdom (458)
4. Japan (224)
5. Canada (128)
6. Sweden (108)
7. Italy (98)
8. Spain (98)
9. Brazil (94)
10. France (91)
11. Soviet Union (73)
12. Netherlands (65)
13. Finland (49)
14. Switzerland (49)
15. Belgium (47)
16. Mexico (43)
17. Australia (40)
18. Poland (40)
19. South Korea (37)
20. Yugoslavia (37)
21. Argentina (35)
22. Austria (32)
23. Denmark (30)
24. Czechoslovakia (23)
25. Greece (17)

Most popular subgenres and fusions until 1990:

1. Heavy (2292)
2. Thrash (940)
3. Rock* (736)
4. Power (522)
5. Speed (392)

*Hard Rock/Heavy Metal fusions, mostly.

The most significant fact about this map is the virtual absence of metal outside Western Europe and North and South America, and of course the relative large size of Japan and South Korea. Africa and continental Asia appear only like two little islands.

Another fact (not so obvious): in 1990 the extreme metal is quite marginal and like the most popular genre remains the traditional heavy metal.

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By the end of the century, the things change a lot, but the metal world map in 2000 continues very similar in appearance.

By 2000 we have the following data:

17254 LP metal albums were released in the 20th century along 5 continents by metal bands of 99 countries and territories.

Per continents:

Europe* (9756)
America (6081)
Asia (1093)
Oceania (282)
Africa (33)
International (9)

*Including Turkey and post-Soviet states.

Top metal nations in the 20th Century (per LP metal albums)

1. United States (4363)
2. Germany (2221)
3. Sweden (919)
4. United Kingdom (900)
5. Japan (619)
6. Italy (534)
7. Canada (478)
8. Russia (443)
9. Brazil (432)
10. France (429)
11. Spain (429)
12. Poland (416)
13. Czech Republic (399)
14. Netherlands (398)
15. Finland (373)
16. Norway (358)
17. Australia (257)
18. Argentina (239)
19. Mexico (228)
20. Austria (213)
21. Switzerland (192)
22. Hungary (187)
23. Denmark (168)
24. Greece (151)
25. Belgium (147)

Most popular subgenres and fusions in the 20th Century:

1. Heavy (5400)
2. Thrash (4350)
3. Death (4003)
4. Rock* (2158)
5. Power (2141)

*Hard Rock/Heavy Metal fusions, mostly.

Now, the primordial metal demographic change is the relative growth of Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, and the slowdown of the islands of the United Kingdom and Japan. Another facts: Russia (the previously Soviet Union) is by the end of the century the eighth metal nation. The Czech Republic and Norway enters the top 20. The traditional heavy metal and the thrash remains very popular, but the death metal appear now very close.

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Finally, in 2010 the growth of the metal production rise to the clouds, and although traditional metal areas remain in shape (Europe and North and South America), many small islands appear around.

By 2010 we have the following data:

59293 LP metal albums were released until 2010 along 5 continents by metal bands  of 130 countries and territories.

Per continents:

Europe* (34082)
America (20530)
Asia (3276)
Oceania (1096)
International (165)
Africa (144)

*Including Turkey and post-Soviet states.

Top metal nations until 2010 (per LP metal albums)

1. United States (13492)
2. Germany (6645)
3. Sweden (2674)
4. Italy (2647)
5. Russia (2204)
6. United Kingdom (2165)
7. France (2152)
8. Canada (1794)
9. Spain (1774)
10. Finland (1767)
11. Brazil (1686)
12. Japan (1618)
13. Poland (1533)
14. Czech Republic (1237)
15. Norway (1114)
16. Netherlands (1106)
17. Australia (971)
18. Mexico (927)
19. Argentina (876)
20. Greece (726)
21. Austria (693)
22. Hungary (650)
23. Switzerland (634)
24. Belgium (560)
25. Ukraine (493)

Most popular subgenres and fusions until 2010:

1. Death (16603)
2. Black (12338)
3. Heavy (11944)
4. Thrash (11458)
5. Power (6039)

Now, in 2010, Europe seem consolidated as the continent of the metal. Another facts: Africa and Asia are still small islands. United Kingdom and Japan, once large metal producers, fall in the list. Italy and Russia enters to the top five of the metal nations. Indonesia presents perhaps the greatest anomaly of the map, looking like the only place in Asia where the metal has grown exponentially.

On the other hand, the genres preferences has changed dramatically. The extreme metal has surpassed the traditional metal, and the death metal is the most popular metal subgenre, followed by the black metal.*

*Note than the source, is not a static database and than these numbers can grow in the future. However, the general form of the demography should not change essentially, despite possible future additions to the database Encyclopaedia Metallum.

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