Are only German bands eligible for the Neue Deutsche Härte tag? (answering a Twitter poll for those who don't have Twitter)
https://twitter.com/themetalacademy/status/1557231601775349760
Excellent question, Daniel. Well, given that Neue Deutsche Härte is basically just a German (sometimes Austrian) take on the more alternative style of industrial metal, it wouldn't be right to give a band or release from a different country that tag. I honestly think of Neue Deutsche Härte as more of a scene than an actual subgenre, in a similar way to NWOBHM and NWOAHM belong to their respective countries. NDH is mostly from Germany and, other than the German lyrics and deep male vocals that compete with Peter Steele's rich bass (vocals, not guitar), it's not much different from some of the more mainstream alt-styled industrial metal bands out there. With that kind of mainstream sound and German lyrics that's hard to understand for someone living half a world apart, It's harder for me to get into Neue Deutsche Härte than standard industrial metal and cyber metal, so I might not ever be up for bands like Oomph!, Rammstein, Megaherz and Eisbrecher. I think I can get used to alt-ish industrial metal better in bands like Deathstars, and considering which album Daniel is hinting out, I know where there is heading...
Interesting thoughts Andi. My perspective is a little different to your own. See both Ben & I have problems with what we call "locational genre tagging" Andi. The NWOBHM & US Power Metal scenes are prime examples of that given that there really isn't an easily identifiable sound they're encompassing but instead envelope a wider cross-section of different sounds. Unlike yourself though, I'm very much of the opinion that Neue Deutsche Harte is a well-defined sound that's clearly differentiated from your conventional industrial metal sound. The reason I feel this way is because I was responsible for programming the playlists for The Sphere for years & every month those tracks stood out like a sore thumb. Now that brings us to the question of what subgenres are really for. In my opinion they're to help people to identify music that they are likely to enjoy & I don't see how an artist's location or the language the artist has chosen to deliver their lyrics in fits into that. If you have one band from Germany who have a specific sound & then another band from another country with almost exactly the same sound (I'm not referring to anyone in particular at the moment) then why shouldn't they have the same subgenre tag? They absolutely should as far as I can see. My feeling is that we should have a harder look at how we use this subgenre because I'm not comfortable to separate like-artists based on location at the Academy.
My own take is that it depends on whether you count it as a genre or not. A genre isn't restricted by location: there's nothing preventing a band in any country other than Germany from sounding just like Rammstein or the like. But there are also attributes of music beyond the genre (like the band's location itself), and if NDH is one of those, then it could be restricted to German bands only.
So if NDH is an actual genre, it isn't restricted to one location. If it isn't, then it can be.
Oh also, side-point: that Twitter poll could definitely do with rephrasing: it asks "Should NDH be applied to a Swedish band or only German bands? Yes or no?", so it's not clear what we're saying "yes" or "no" to.
To clarify my intent with asking this question on Twitter, Andi is correct. The discussion was brought on by my bewilderment at how Deathstars' "Termination Bliss" managed to get lumped in with Industrial Metal when it doesn't contain any of the main attributes of that sound & the only answer I could come up with was that people needed to find somewhere to stick them due to not them not being German enough to qualify as Neue Deutsche Harte. I've seen evidence of that being discussed online since to partially validate that theory too.