Halfway through a co headline tour, Behemoth's Nergal and Dimmu Borgir's Silenoz were asked by Finland's Radio Rock whether they had ever been tempted to compromise for a wider audience.
"Never," Silenoz said. "And I think it's also good that it took a little bit of time to go the steps, because you look at artists that get big overnight for whatever reason. This music is not meant to be for the masses anyway. Metal in general is not. You look at Iron Maiden and Judas Priest and all the big ones, still they're not played on mainstream radio. So I think it's good that it is the way it is."
It is a useful argument because it does not pretend the ceiling is unfair. Two of the largest bands in the genre have spent fifty years outside daytime radio and filled stadiums anyway, which says the route exists and simply does not go through the places pop goes through.
Nergal's contribution was shorter and aimed at the people who write things online they would not say in a room. The In League With Satan tour continues through Europe.