If you don't like Maiden you're a f***wit. Plain and simple.

Fails:

Alice in chains 3rd album cover.

Limp Bizkit especially.

The entire nu metal genre.

Metalcore.

Deathcore.

Cradle of Filth.

Dimmu, after For all Tid.

Anyone who says "you can't dislike a band for selling out." yes i can, its metal not a f***ing popularity contest.

Slipknot. They are nu metal, get the f*** over it, scene kids.

People who don't know the difference between black and death metal.

The people who think knowing the difference is petty.

Kids who think death metal was invented in 2006.

People at DM shows who havent heard of f***ing morbid angel,m for f***s sake.

Pantera.

Everything post-Arise. Roots was nu metal, Max somehow got away with that.

Melodic Death Metal.

People who think hardcore bands are metal.

People who don't like sabbath, preist or maiden. maiden especially.

Rammstein. THEY'RE NOT f***ING METAL!!!!

Biggest of all....

Cold Lake. Nuff said.

Oh sorry I kinda wrote a whole list of things that f*** me off

1. How is selling out a stupid term? Also mainstream is a very good term. There is always the publicised mass-produced crap, and an undergrounf alternative, within any form of the arts.

2. St. Anger really is unexcusable. Still better than ReLoad, now that truly is a s*** album

because there such an elitist/obnoxious type of comments.

selling out, or being mainstream doesn't automatically mean the band is bad.

hell if we follow the definition of selling out, you could argue that the greatist bands, metal or otherwise are sellouts.
iron maiden are sell outs as are, slayer, black sabbath, judas priest, pink floyd and basically every single major or slightly major band.

and actually in reflection, mainstream is a even worse term.
seriously WTF being popular is bad? making music that lots of people enjoy is bad?

Not really, selling well is okay because a great band will sell well. f***, i'm a maiden nut.

Its when a band consciously changes its sound to be more in tune with current trends purely to sell records that its selling out.

And all of those bands have become big by doing what they do, really well. I mean, i'd be pretty f***ed off if Maiden made a pop record to capitalise on their Brit success and sell a few more albums.

that's one form of selling out, but so is using a studio, which clearly practically all bands do.

using maiden as an example, they use studio and studio sound engineers to alter their recordings to smooth out blemishes and to generally improve the sound (although some people disagree)
that's blatant selling out
"changing ones sound to sell more"

but frankly so what, its no big deal.

All of those bands you mentioned are indeed sellouts. Metal is not about pandering to the lowest common denominator.

metal is about music, not some silly elitist ideals.

you either like a piece of music or you don't, disliking a song or an artist not because you dislike the music, but just because you dislike that they "sold out" or went "mainstream" is incredibly sad and vain.

when i listen to music, i either like it or i don't, "selling out" or "mainstream" doesn't factor in.
im not going to sit and listen to song thinking "hmmm that's song sounds good, shame the artist is a sellout, i guess the song actually sucks then"

I just said what Metal is about and you misrepresented it. Popularity doesn't influence what I like to listen to either. I listen to earlier albums from Black Sabbath and Maiden and Metallica, but when their later music becomes uninteresting and boring, it gets thrown away. I'd rather have intense peaks of experience rather than just bob my head up and down with some boring noise playing in the background.

Selling out is when a band changes their style and overall sound solely in order to appeal to a larger audience.

Lots of bands sell out. Most popular ones do. But Maiden? Never.

using a studio with professional engineers, is changing the sound.

may not be a major change but its still change, for purpose of selling more albums.