Honestly, being the seventh-best selling death metal band in the United States is kind of like being the seventh-highest mountain in Nebraska.
I am still shocked and stunned to have seen a straight-face Beatles vs. Cannibal Corpse debate. Even for the interwebs, that's just wow. And it's gone on for pages and pages. I reiterate, wow.
Here's the point I think is missing, to put that whole discussion into the proper context:
Art is about communication. The craft of musicianship can be employed in the furtherance of art, but ultimately art succeeds or fails based on how well it communicates the idea, message, feeling, etc. of the artist to the audience.
Now, obviously there are people out there who are quite skilled at their craft but don't reach a huge audience. There are a number of reasons that might be, but, a big one is that in many cases, I think the point of the communication being made through the art is akin to a secret handshake: while there may be subsidiary messages, the primary message is, "Do you think like us? Do you share our viewpoint and values?" I think that is absolutely a huge part of metal from the last couple decades at least. It's whole point is to filter the listening public to identify the small number of people who are on a philosophical wavelength with the artists---and each other, so it builds community.
If that's the goal---and I think it is---you can't compare that to the Beatles or any mainstream pop group, because intentions are so different. The genius of the Beatles was precisely their ability to communicate through their art with a HUGE number of people. They were able to find common elements that almost everybody (of their generation, anyway) could relate to. But if metal bands (who probably feel like outsiders before they pick up their first pointy guitars) are using their art to try to find other outsiders who share their point of view, it's hardly surprising that they are not embraced by the middle-of-the-road majority. That is not, I think, how success should be measured for them.
If for some reason there are metal artists who have a goal of conveying some message to the wide world at large---well, fail. As even the metal fans in this thread should recognize and acknowledge, when you play metal (especially in its more recent manifestations) you start out with aesthetic choices that will alienate most people. But I don't recall anyone taking the position that everybody who likes the Beatles should like Cannibal Corpse because they're just as good. The most I think you can say is that the players are skilled at their respective crafts, and they are effective and delivering the message they want to deliver to the audience they are trying to reach.
In other news, apples are different from oranges, too.
