Brandon Pender

Brandon Pender — American musician — works in the metal circuit of the United States, in independent bands and projects. Contemporary American metal operates almost entirely outside the record industry's structure. Bands record in their own or small studios, release on independent labels or by themselves, and reach an audience through digital distribution and regional touring — a model consolidated over the last two decades. That arrangement has consequences. On one hand it removes intermediaries and barriers to entry: any band with reasonable equipment can record and distribute. On the other it transfers all costs and all promotional work to the musicians themselves, meaning professional activity requires competences going far beyond playing. It is on this layer that the genre sustains itself in the United States. Bands of wide reach are the exception; the running output of American metal comes from musicians who combine performance, production and management of their own work.