It has a level of appeal globally, but not enough to be mainstream most places.

E.g. the top Norwegian death metal bands are amongst the most successful Norwegian musicians ever, yet they don't sell much at home. Yet they do extremely well by Norwegian standards because they sell ok all over the world.

I presume you're referring to Norwegian black metal. Norway doesn't have a lot of DM, in fact the only band that comes to mind is Vomit from the 80s.

Darkthrone's Soulside Journey is great Norwegian death metal, not that they obviously stuck to that for very long.

We are definitely more known for our "true norwegian" black metal, but we got some other stuff too...

http://www.last.fm/tag/norwegian+death+metal/artists

http://www.last.fm/tag/norwegian+thrash+metal/artists

Quite possible - I don't listen to any of it, just going by memory of mass media articles.

Wasn't even aware of them. My favourite is probably Chton, though their work after Chtonian Lifecode has been spotty at best.

Speaking of Norwegian DM from 90s I think Cadaver and Fester are quite great.

It's mostly a male, working class dominated genre in terms of audience, so it's ignored and ridiculed for not being glamorous enough to fit mainstream media's mindset.

That's a good thing because they would slowly change it if they got their hands on it. Sony buying Century was disappointing but there's alternative labels. Metal should stay underground to protect itself from the people who see it as 'weird'.

The mainstream do try do do metal, but its ends up crap, like Nickelback.

I've never heard someone try to say Nickelback is metal as a serious argument. I have heard arguments for Evanescence. I usually toss Nightwish their way instead.

I was wondering the same. Does "weird" in this instance mean that the phenomenon does not begin from marketing departments of large IP owners?

It's weird if all you know is pre-packaged mass-consumption pop music

It's literally like they are fulfilling the Portlandia "Weirdo's" sketch: http://www.hulu.com/watch/758287

That headline is saying it's the global appeal that's weird - not the 'something'.