Pursuits

Heavy Metal Rocks in Europe's Cruise Market

Tour operators try specialty runs to revive Europe’s soggy market

The music lured about 2,000 metal fans to the “Mein Schiff 1.” Most were first-time cruisersPhotograph courtesy TUI Cruises

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By Richard Weiss

May 24, 2013 at 12:26 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

BusinessWeek Cover Image (13_22, portrait_2x)

This article is part of the May 27, 2013 issue of businessweek.

Miland Petrozza, the front man of German thrash metal band Kreator, is used to his fans wading through mud and sleeping in tents. Rarely do they arrive at his concerts after an afternoon of shuffleboard. Yet when he shrieked the lyrics “let there be darkness, let there be blood tonight” across the decks of luxury liner Mein Schiff 1 in early May, the passengers of Europe’s biggest heavy metal cruise gladly left their deck chairs behind for the chaos of the mosh pit.

The Full Metal Cruise is one of the more unusual offerings of Europe’s $48 billion cruise industry, in which tour operators increasingly target special-interest customers—from gourmets to nudists—in an attempt to broaden their client base. Operators are seeking to rebuild trust following the grounding of the Carnival-owned cruise ship Costa Concordia off Tuscany in January 2012, which led to 32 deaths.