Hollywood Music Magazine (HMM) has talked to several music industry insiders about what it takes in the scene of the new millennium for bands to get to that next level. This is the first part of the series.

For more than a few years, fans and some critics have drawn their own lines about what is metal and what is not. From the early years of Black Sabbath through the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Motorhead it was a general consensus, “Oh that is metal!” In the decade following (1980’s) opinions started to stray.