One of the things I find fascinating about metal is this development of different sounds from country to country. You're right to say that Norway came along very early, as did the South American scene with its more thrashy interpretation from bands like Sarcofago, Sextrash, Vulcano, Mystifier, etc. I hope that regional aspect isn't lost (or lost already) with the interconnectedness of the internet, but on the whole the internet has probably had a massively positive effect on music in general.
And your country had a small but interesting death metal scene too! I am fond of Conscious Rot, Regredior and Ghostorm and even have a few old demos from those bands.
Yes, I agree with that. There are countless of interesting, unheard bands on the Internet from all over the world, not some clones of most popular bands, like it was usual in earlier days. Even Youtube offers some gems on random playlists from time to time.
"I am fond of Conscious Rot, Regredior and Ghostorm and even have a few old demos from those bands."
Wow, I'm surprised you know these bands, they are not widely known by younger "metalheads" even in my own country. Ghostorm was the all-time best metal band from Lithuania imho. Sadly, metal scene is virtually dead here nowadays..
I would argue that Norwegian scene gets attention because it was among earliest (or even the earliest?). I'm sure that if you asked your favorite older bands from Greek or Czech they would cite Norwegian BM as their inspiration. Personally I'm not a fan of Norwegian BM as well and prefer French (Peste Noire, Amesoeurs, Pensées Nocturnes, Mütiilation, few LLN projects) and Polish scenes (Medico Peste, Batushka, Behemoth). Also, talking about BM, I cannot not to mention favorite band from my home country - Nahash.
P.S. honestly, I'd never imagine a discussion about black metal here, on HN. Nice.