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Well, I'm quite addicted to obscure Metal since my early years, because there were lots of radio shows in my area back in 1991-1996. The most obscure stuff was Black-Metal, yet there were some classical stuff too. There was some kind of good stuff too in the big magazines, each having a demo/UG page, mostly with Black- and Death-Metal bands, those "special Thrash" from Metal Hammer, etc, and some intriguing reviews made me search elsewhere than the local shops that didn't distribute this stuff -or at expensive prices- after 1993-1994. The underground was present, thanks to the popularity of Death-Metal.

And in these days I heard some WASP, and some BATHORY, and even some NOCTURNUS, some MAYHEM, IMMORTAL, and even demos of GRAVELAND and other obscure bands. In the same time I began to be cautious with the press when they began to criticize with shitty reasons some records I worship like Persecution Mania or Twilight of the Gods.

The thing was : there were godly mainstream bands, but there were godly obscure bands too. I still have some chills when listening to this solo on "Call from the Grave", or the first track of Hvis Lyset Tar Oss. And I have a feeling as strong as the previous one when listening to some JUDAS PRIEST or KING DIAMOND tracks.

And then underground extreme music made me find something that was missing in bigger bands : something more, something exciting, something dangerous, because Metal is dangerous music in the end. And all those big tour bands were deeply missing this. Maybe SLAYER is the sole big band to keep being dangerous, because of their shows.

And another thing too: when you're listening to the 15th album from the big band X, more than often, it's not that exciting. So I dig elsewhere.

On the other hand, all this interest for obscure Thrash or Death-Metal, even the lamest of these genres, make me think there's a lot of trends there, or maybe bored older persons that forget new bands to hunt for not-that-good obscure older stuff.

Cool replies!
Two quick comments:
1- Good point about smaller bands being easier to 'connect' with. One can still enjoy 'large' bands, but they lose a bit of their 'charm' (for lack of a better word). Great example; I went to see Epica and Symphony X last week and the place was packed with 20 yr-olds wearing 'vintage' Iron Maiden T-shirts they had bought at Hot Topic (for those not in the US, Hot Topic is a mainstream chain of stores that caters to goth, punk, and metal kids). It's fine and good that younger fans are into Iron Maiden, but when you have thousands of teenagers running around in 'Killers' T-shirts, well, an older fan can indeed feel that they've become just an older face in the crowd of Maiden fans. With smaller bands you don't have that happen.

2- Good question about Piledriver and other 'metalplotation' bands. Maybe I'm a bit cynical, but I questoin how many smaller bands played and reocrded just for fun and how many were really in it hoping to make it big, or at least to be Big Shots in their local scene. Having always lived in places with small/no live metal scene, I don't have much first-hand experience in seeing smaller bands, so I'm not sure ow many do it for fun and how many are hoping to become rock stars.