Metal is a worldwide phenomonon.

What does the rest of the world think about American Metal ?

We have lots of bands, but how seriously are they taken?

(Any outsiders opinions?)

As far as I care, Death were the premier American metal band.

No more seriously than any other country's scene...

very simple answers... i need elaboration!

this may help:

in Norway... Black Metal is said to be in its purest form.
What does the U.S. Have that is unique to the rest of the metal world?

What other countries are known for a metal-style?

Nu-Metal.

While not specifically metal, Japan is very heavily saturated with noise-rock bands, a style that shares some qualities of extreme metal. Also, Sweden tends to have more prog-metal bands then just about anywhere else these days. Other than that, I can't really think of anything. (( although I suppose I could add that there's supposedly a "British" style of metal that's indebted to blues rock, early pioneers like Zeppelin and Sabbath more than most, and probably some Iron Maiden worship, but I couldn't really cite any new bands of this style. ))

Basically, you'll probably have to wait for the real metalheads to arrive.

I don't know about purest form, but Norway wins in the craziest form category, which is why it’s so well known. You can find Black metal, on every continent. Some scenes are of course, much better than others.

There is a Melodic Black/Death Metal group from South Korea called Oathean, which isn't bad. Even China has an undground scene going on.

Underground Metal in China

My fav American metal-band is WASP.

Thanks, Team Rancho. I was just about to dispute Seba's point on America being known best for nu-metal, I had some ammo going, I scrolled down, and...

*sigh* Seba's right. Death, Cynic and Atheist were top notch as far as American metal goes.

The Bay Area and LA's Slayer held things nicely in the 80's though.

Domination Through Impurity