Our brother to the north is kicking our butt!

There has been a recent influx on hard rock and heavy metal acts coming out of Canada; and they are not all that bad. Which begs the question; is there better A&R in Canada for such acts, or are there better artists coming out of Canada?

Roadrunner Records reigns supreme in Canada. If you take a look at their line up it is evident to see that they have a main focus on hard rock / metal, and a lot of them are from up north. So are other primary hard rock labels such as Eleven Seven not sending folks up to the great white north? It seems as so, but who knows.

What I do know is this; for the last few months I have had 3 artists in heavy play rotation all from Canada. Theory of a Deadman, Danko Jones, and Hail the Villain. Although all not new to the scene, they have all put out stellar albums that deserve a listen too. When I dig even deeper into my iTunes library I see RUSH , and Three Days Grace; both hailing from Canada. Is it that our brother to the north holds more of a blue collar mentality than we do? Or am I a Canuck at heart? I really hope that it is not the latter.

Don't get me wrong, the US hard rock / metal scene is still very strong; however when it comes to A&R it seems the bands are doing most of the work. Case in point; Black Veil Brides and their use of social media to gain attention. They were not discovered in a club, or in some dive bar; they were discovered on YOUTUBE. Now I am sure that there are plenty of A&R guys running around looking at acts, but in the same token it bothers me that more crappy pop artists are getting signed than hard rock acts. Is it that labels are so driven by what makes them money rather than what is talent? (That is a rhetorical question; we all know the answer.)

Maybe it is just that we bled the LA scene so bad in the late 80's and early 90's that we have given up and just figured the scene was perpetually dead. Maybe Canada just has more hard rock / metal in their blood. As I said before who knows. I do know that Canada is pumping out new acts in these genre and I wish that the US would show a little more effort.