Exploring the model of scene-based innovation and scarcity that characterised the 90s extreme metal underground, as eloquently outlined by Keith Kahn-Harris, this paper
seeks to evaluate the extent to which its model of “eclipsed” symbolic capital accumulation is the key not to its success but relative failure to achieve innovation, development and change in metal music. Debating Lena and Peterson’s AgSIT model of genre trajectories, this paper argues such change in metal music have always been tied to the formation and demise of music “mainstreams.” The problem from this perspective is that NWOBHM, doom, power (including symphonic), thrash, grindcore, death and black metal did not mainstream enough (with the exception of some notable bands) to allow the next cycle of musical innovation to commence