ABSTRACT
Metallica introduced Dutch audiences to a new, even more extreme, offshoot of heavy metal music: thrash metal. Cash flows within the metal scene are highly relevant for both the domestic and international music industry. This chapter shows that how the development of Dutch metal ties in with the overall legitimating of the genre. Ever since, the Dutch metal scene has had a track record of providing a warm and welcoming stage for foreign and domestic metal acts. A key event took place in 2001, when Dutch metal music had its mainstream success. In December 2014, newspaper De Volkskrant reported that "there finally is proof of a lively Dutch metal culture". Dutch metal's most successful year—at least regarding new band formations—was 1989. Most bands operating in the more extreme subgenres, however, kept to the "underground" of the Dutch metal scene—an isolation that maybe due to metal's treasured image of being the main musical opponent of legitimate culture.
