"Then I recall that the point of a lot of "avant-garde" art is not for the artist to express a feeling but rather to say that the audience's perception of the experience is what is important. The former requires an artist to demonstrate a certain level of creativity and expression while the latter is little more than just presenting information."

Very nicely put. I'd only change the last part to "is little more than lazy charlatanism."

I'd be curious to see more lists like that.

While I can agree that not every single nu-metal fan bought an early CoF album, I do not think a lot of them moved to extreme metal. Usually those that jump into commercial trends either stay within those boundaries are jump from one another. Most of the nu-metal fans jumped into the metalcore or deathcore trends that were in tone with nu-metal than what CoF played. CoF became outright mainstream with Nymphetamine. On Midian and Damnation they were still pretty extreme and not quite accessible. It was the song Nymphetamine that brought hordes of posers into this band' fan-base. There were far more popular bands and trends back then compared to the level of commerical success this band or Dimmu, or In Flames got.

The demise of any trend, like I said, comes from the birth of another trend. Nu-metal went down, metalcore started to noticed and even post-grunge.

I guess I'm just confused because I've never associated prog metal with hipsters before, at least none of the ones that I know... I haven't been paying attention, I guess!

Your perspective on Metal is both comprehensive and inspiring and I cannot thank you enough for the contemplation you've made me have over this conflicting and frustrating genre and its multiple add-ons. Your lists are truly beautiful and you should be proud of yourself and I sincerely mean every word I say here even if it does sound like I'm just kissing up to get you to acknowledge my presence. You are truly awesome and I salute you.

P.S. I commented on your nu-metal list as well in case you didn't notice.

You are welcome!

Why did you disable the comments on your albums per year list? Hilarious stuff.