Replying to you cause tagged.

I can definitely confirm this article's thesis from my own experience. Metal, heavy metal and hard rock are huge in Armenia, where youth culture is exploding at a rate that is exhilarating to see, youth movements and social/political activism would be booming more and more every time I would visit in the summer. It all peaked last year during over centennial of the Armenian Genocide, when System of a Down put a stage up in the central square of the capital city, shut everything down, and rattled up the largest collective youth gathering in the capital's history for a free and fucking incredible show in a fucking rainstorm.

I once helped organized a music festival, the first of its kind in Armenia, where proceeds would go to fixing up the school building of the nearby village, who's residents supplied us an open field on top of a hill, and whose children came in droves twice a night carrying barrels of homemade pomegranate wine. The festival grounds' view of the mountainous Armenian landscape and a cavernous valley below–- even the nature around us screamed metal. I didn't handle the booking of the bands, but even if I did it was clear that the only bands around were fucking metal. The one band who came up with acoustic instruments? They did Led Zeppelin covers. Black Dog was the quietest performance of the whole weekend.

I think it's about frustration, power, and the enabling of a socially and culturally oppressed youth to start pushing shit around with the help of these bands who tell them, "Desperation is still an opportunity."

I guess my point is, I don't understand the metal sub-genre breakdown enough to know what counts as heavy metal, but listen to System of a Down. :D