Hard rockers struggle to find mainstream success

By Todd Martens

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Shadows Fall may be the latest hard rock band to jump from the indie world into the major label system, but breaking out of the metal genre and winning a mainstream fan base won't be easy.

Bands like Mastodon on Reprise and Lamb of God on Columbia may have had their largest debut weeks of their career when they joined the major label ranks, but sales, while respectable, have not yet catapulted the bands to new heights.

"That's going to be the case until one of these bands writes 'that song,"' Relapse head Matt Jacobson says. "It may never happen, but if it does, there's a system in place to push that along."

Mastodon's 2006 effort, "Blood Mountain," has sold 96,000 units in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and has not yet surpassed the act's 2004 effort for Relapse, "Leviathon." Meanwhile, Lamb of God's "Sacrament" got off to a fast start, but the 2006 album's 197,000 units seem on pace to match 2004 major label debut "Ashes of the Wake," which has sold 292,000 units.

Century Media president Marco Barbieri says there may be other factors at work. His label nurtured Shadows Fall, and believed it was on the verge of a breakout smash with Lacuna Coil. But the Italian band's 2006 effort "Karmacode" has sold 162,000 and not yet shown signs that the group will find a fan base beyond the 271,000 units sold by 2002's "Comalies."

"The reaction to the (Shadows Fall) single and video wasn't what we had hoped for," Barbieri says. "It was the same as the last two singles had done. We had hoped to get out of this metal, subgenre box and get some more mainstream play, but we were relegated to (MTV2's) 'Headbanger's Ball.' "

He continues, "Our goals have always been Rolling Stone, MTV and commercial radio. But it's tough to talk to those people. They have opinions and stereotypes, and a lot of what goes on in this country is reacting to what's already considered cool."

Such stats don't faze Shadows Fall vocalist Brian Fair, who is happy that bands like his and Mastodon are being embraced at all by the industry at large.

"A band like Mastodon is not going to be top 40, but there's a whole audience out there of kids who want this progressive, insane, scary music," he says. "So instead of f---ing with what they do and trying to make Mastodon fit in on a major label rock format, Reprise let them go nuts. Mastodon responded by making one of the scariest, darkest records ever on a major label. It's a pretty awesome time."

Reuters/Billboard