I think the secondary factor -- which really hit home for me during QR -- is that when the country is at war, Replicans are in the major offices, and the Dems are busy bowing down to celebrities and the music industry, the time is ripe for heavy metal. The more intelligent of these groups are, and have always, advocated revolution. They aren't endorsing a political party -- they are talking about rioting in the streets and the stupidity of government period.

I think that is part of what attracted me to the music in the first place was that some of the groups had a real message or feeling of rebellion and dislocation. Think that rings a bit truer right now in a post 9/11 cold war type world.