What Thrash Icon Thinks Actually Killed Metal in the ’90s (It Wasn’t Grunge)

One common narrative about the ’90s is that the birth of grunge killed metal, but Kreator‘s Mille Petrozza is not buying into that idea.

The German thrash band were five records into their career when the scene began to shift and during a chat with Kahler Guitar and Bass Bridges (as viewed below), the singer-guitarist pushes back against the notion that the rise of grunge was responsible for metal’s decline.

Why Does Mille Petrozza Think Metal Declined in the ’90s?

While admitting that times got tough, Petrozza does not lay the blame on the rise of a new form of heavy music. Rather he feels there were people in places of power that were keeping the metal form down.

“There’s certain metal bands that always go, ‘Grunge killed metal.’ I don’t think so. I think what killed it was maybe certain people in the industry that didn’t want metal to be there anymore,” explained Petrozza.

But the singer-guitarist feels that there are now measures in place that would keep that from happening again. “Nowadays with everything being more global through the Internet though, through your own social media, you can do so much more,” he reveals.

“We still need some of the industry, of course, and nowadays people who are working in record companies are metalheads,” Mille explained. “Back then there was mostly businessmen that didn’t really know about music unless it sold a lot of copies. So nowadays it’s a lot cooler because the scene created itself. There’s people working in the industry that actually love the music, and you don’t have to rely on people that just love whatever sells the most.”

WATCH: Hair Metal Musicians Reacting to Grunge

Reflecting on that period when metal was pushed to the background, Petrozza recalled, “We were all terrified at the time. I mean, it’s not that I thought it was over. I remember in the ’90s, I tried to sell one of my Jacksons at the time. Nobody wanted to buy it. [Laughs] Everybody wanted Les Paul or Fender, like a traditional … I’m so happy that the ’90s are over.

Kreator’s Mille Petrozza Speaks With Kahler Guitar and Bass Bridges

Who Else Pushed Back on the Idea That Grunge Killed Metal?

Petrozza isn’t alone in his sentiment that the ’90s grunge explosion wasn’t responsible for metal’s downfall in the ’90s. Ratt‘s Stephen Pearcy also argued against it.

“A lot of people think grunge had a huge impact on us, but at that point, it really had nothing to do with what happened to Ratt. I mean… we can claim partial ownership for the music that came out of the early ’80s, but by the time the decade ended, and Detonator came out, the scene was totally flooded with cookie-cutter bands,” the singer told Goldmine.

“That was as big of an issue as anything,” he contends, “It got to the point where people were like, ‘You have to dress this way, move this way, sing this way,’ and all this fucking shit.”

He continued, “The whole world was filled with mini-Motleys and mini-Ratts, and it just got to be too much. And so, things went from being amazing to being the absolute worst very quickly. When everyone is making the same music, using the same producers, and the same video directors, you’re going to have a problem.”

“So, I don’t blame it on grunge as much as I blame it on all that was going on in that era,” Pearcy concluded.