Welcome back to the Randomizer!
So…it hasn’t been easy thinking up different subjects to
talk about. It feels like a blank room, just a blank room where nothing comes
up. Anyone else feel like that? So I should probably make a little list about
what I should do for next time, or if anyone has any suggestions for the
moment, message me and let me know! But for the moment, I’m going to talk about
a passionate genre of music, Heavy ****ing Metal.
The thing about Heavy Metal, and perhaps Rock in general, nowadays
is that it’s not appreciated as a mainstream thing. For many, it’s an
indecipherable mess of screaming, unimaginative guitar riffs, and perhaps just
as annoyingly called, “noise”. Not something comparable to the likes of Zayn
Malik, Beyoncé, and…(prays for forgiveness to Odin)…Justin Bieber. It seems a
difficult genre to have much respect for.
But just because something isn’t mainstream doesn’t mean it
isn’t cool. Indeed, Heavy Metal and Rock has always been a popular genre since
it first spawned as a delicate little thing since Elvis, or The Beatles, or
Black Sabbath, depending on where you start. I’ve gone into a little detail
about the history of Heavy Metal in one of my old pieces, GET DRUNK AND LISTEN
TO FOLK METAL, and though the history is important to mention, that’s not what
I want to talk about in full. What I want to talk about is understanding how I
love Heavy Metal, and perhaps convert you to the ways of the Heavy Metal Gods.
By talking about how Heavy Metal is a passion for myself,
maybe similar reasons to what other Metal-heads have, it shows what there is to
appreciate, not just in music but in lyrics, how these songs affect us in ways
that perhaps make us feel human and more relatable to each other, transcending
to another plane of the world altogether, and thus we become a community all of
our own, unique and united against those who would harm us, bully or terrorist.
So read on, and take delight in what the world of Heavy
Metal is about, and why I’m very passionate of this beautiful, particular,
world…
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| Need to do that at some point... |
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The easiest place to start with when it comes to finding our
definitive music tastes is in our childhoods. My first experience with rock
music came in the form of Eric Clapton and Don McLean (the latter which will
not be mentioned so much due to recent events, I’m sorry to say) from my dad’s
side, listening to the energetic ‘Layla’ and the equally enduring ‘American
Pie’ in the car for days on end. If dad wasn’t bored with listening to them of
course.
As I grew up into such a charming teenager toward the middle
of the 2000s, I listened to the likes of Busted (they had guitars shhh),
Slipknot (just Wait and Bleed mind), Green Day (American Idiot), a lot of Queen
(favourite band at the time), The Darkness, Coldplay, HIM, Limp Bizkit, and quite
importantly Linkin Park, who become a quick favourite, especially with the song
‘Crawling’, and their second album Meteora, the first real album I brought,
which I loved more than Hybrid Theory for a good while, . But most importantly also
I had a bit of Rammstein thrown in ever since I saw the film xXx in the cinema.
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| It was the flames that did it |
To hear that kind of music was just so awesome, the only
thing that really bugged me was that it wasn’t the same tempo in the original
song as in the film. But I did enjoy taking in that more heavier style to my
ears, such beautiful sounds to my ears. In fact, I’d dare say that Rammstein
was the band that brought me into the Heavy Metal world in the first place.
It’s not hard to see why, hearing Feuer Frei for the first time.
However, there are three bands I vividly remember sticking
out to me before I left sixth form. The first was a Dutch symphonic band called
Within Temptation, and their song which I found on Scuzz many eons ago,
‘Angels’. My god, what had I discovered? The meaning of life! No not really,
but to hear the vocalist Sharon den Adel’s angel-like voice at the time and the
heavy guitars seemed a master stroke, of well-rounded perfection.
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| Within Temptation in 2004 (I think) |
The second? A Finnish band I first heard in 2006 while at a
school friend’s house, a year after their main vocalist for over eight years
had left and presumably were having a break from their touring schedule. A band
that made me turn and think ‘this is actually pretty good music’, and still has
a little spot in my heart for continuing to deliver such good music, even if
I’m not always a massive fan of some of their songs. I refer to, of course,
Nightwish. For a good few years, I thought of them as my favourite band, but
now I’m not sure they can really take it.
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| Nightwish back in 2005, with former singer Tarja |
This is where the third comes in. I remember Live 8 very
well, remaining in the house we rented all day watching in the living room and
my brother’s room, watching the bands come and pass. Until that is, before half
past eleven, a famous band came together for the last time to play in the time
for charity, my first time seeing them at all and even hearing about them, and
funnily enough I was into them just about from that moment on, just when something
ends, especially as they became perhaps rather fitting for them, after all the
egos, the arguments, the controlling…comfortably numb?
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| The one image of them not at each other's throats |
I will admit I haven’t heard all of Pink Floyd’s songs, not
even their last released album ‘The Endless River’, but from what I have heard
in the past decade, they are a great band to listen to. Just listen to one of
their many 70s albums, that was effectively when Pink Floyd ruled the world,
especially with their overall considered magnum opus, Dark Side of the ****ing
Moon. I may have added that series of asterisks, but there’s no question, it’s
a gorgeous album to listen to. Such beauty in simplicity…there is a reason why
this album was in the charts for 741 weeks.
I don’t mean to sound a hypocrite, but imagine for next
Christmas Number One…just to send a message to our beloved government, and to
any poor sods out there that have no taste :P. Though on the other hand, whose
going to remember Justin Bieber in a few years…anyway moving on.
It wasn’t until my college time (06-08) that I really fell
into Heavy Metal Music so properly, thanks to the influence of the creature
known as ‘Mibs Bayliss’, to look up different bands to listen to. So over those
years I listened to so many other bands, like Iron Maiden, Enter Shikari (just
the first album), Paramore, Lordi, and getting into a few folk metal bands like
Cruachan and Eluveitie etc, that kind of taste just increased forthwith. Bar
Iron Maiden, I haven’t been a big fan of bands listed later stuff, I get a kick
out of listening to their first two albums released in England.
That taste eventually culvinated with the holy mother of
Rock and Metal festivals in England, the only real place we can come to and
call a second home, Download Festival, formally Monsters of Rock in the 80s and
90s. I went in 2008, 09, and 10, seeing many of my favourite bands upfront and
in person for the first time ever. It was an amazing experience, and if you
ever went yourself I would seriously suggest being part of a group. You'd have
more fun there, you'd feel safer, and you'd probably have just a better
experience. But the music there is just as important, because it's bringing
many people together.
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| Here we are at the Download Festival, where the goat is about to be sacrificed to appease the god....Lemmy |
As well as those great experiences, Download introduced me
to bands that I still enjoy from those great weekends, like Judas Priest (^_^),
KISS, Rage Against the Machine (one of the best Christmas Number One bands
ever), Motley Crue, Aerosmith etc. Of course, I got to see many bands I loved
live, like Within Temptation, Halestorm, Disturbed and a little smattering for
Slipknot in 09, the last festival in England I think with Paul Grey, the list
goes on and on.
I will admit there were bands I wasn't really into that were
massively popular with others, like those with screaming vocalists, such as
Killswitch Engage. At the time I was like, 'why do you need to scream into the
microphone? You clearly have a voice to sing during the chorus, why bother?' I
kind of still feel this way because it feels silly, and it may put off other
people that think, 'woah this music isn't for me'. One reason I read was it
helped expressed your anger, but I don't know, you've already written it down,
shouldn't people know that's how you're feeling? Plus, screaming vocals may not
always be the best way. I’ve talked about this quite a bit a couple years ago
in my ‘Is Rock/Metal dying?’ article, so if you want to look that up, by my
guest.
For a few years, my heavy metal credentials dropped off a
little from university work and finding another part-time job. But thanks to
digital radio, I found some radio stations I could really listen to, Planet
Rock Radio, and the now internet streaming Team Rock Radio, the latter which gave
me an expanded range of Heavy Metal of all sorts, going back to the Heavy Metal
family tree for a moment. That radio station brought back to listening to Metal
a lot, and introduced me to new bands, some of which I'd definitely wouldn't
mind listening to again, like In This Moment. Sadly from what I had heard,
there wasn't so much expansion listening to other bands around the world, but given
where credits due they did have a midnight slot to showcase new bands, now they
have an on-demand service on their website.
One final band that absolutely grabbed my attention for the
moment, thanks to a friend who posted it on Facebook, was BABYMETAL, an odd
mesh of Heavy Metal and Pop. Yes, I joke not. A three piece girl pop group with
a heavy metal backing band, that has steadily grown in popularity
internationally since they were formed in Japan in 2010, me included because
they are great to listen to, having got the original Japanese self-titled album
released in 2014. This is the first song I heard, MEGISUNE down below. I have
heard that Andy Copping who runs the Download Festival will not book them for
Download, because he sees them as a fad, which is a proper shame because it
would be a good sight to see, I’d love to see that.
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| Go onnnnnnnnnnnnnn |
Nowadays, I only listen to what Heavy Metal and Rock Bands I
have on my phone, iTunes, Spotify etc, while rediscovering what other music I
loved to listen to for a time, ecliptic taste so to speak. There have been a
few bands who have caught my attention, Black Veil Brides, Five Finger Death
Punch, Bullet For My Valentine, and that is a bit of a problem because when you
get quite wrapped up with writing and stuff, you should find time to enjoy a
lot of things. That’s something I should look into, especially with Rock and
Metal music as one prospect of leisure, because that passion is still there,
especially with Download 2016 coming up to give that a good deal of thought.
So that’s a bit of my history with Heavy Metal for the
moment. I think it’d be fair to say my tastes range, like my music, all over
the shop, mostly aimed at the international way, more European then American
style, with a bit of Asian thrown in. Sounds like a complicated ancestry tree
doesn’t it? Complicated to take away at first for those who don’t know Heavy
Metal music very well, and giving you a headache for reading and thinking ‘who
are these people?’. You can see to a point as well what influences there are on
me, and others, that lead to loving this kind of music, unabashed,
mind-boggling, and passionate, that brings us all together as one community to
share and sing (or scream) along, and eventually get into a mosh pit to express
our love for the music by knocking into each other PLAYFULLY, and NOT BEATING
THE SHIT OUT OF ANYONE, emphasis on NOT.
So if you’re still reading this, yay! Now we do come on to
the next question: Why do I, and others like me, love Heavy Metal and Rock
Music?
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| That's one reason ;) |
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1.
The compositions
The way some composed songs I like leading up to being
played in studio or live are just superb. These people who take time to write
and play the instruments, to make their careers or out of passion, can be
considered great writers of their work. Like Tuomas Holopainen of Nightwish
composing mostly all of the band’s lyrics, I consider him to be a good
craftsman of music, he just rises to a different level of awesome. It’s the
same with Pink Floyd, perhaps more with their 70s stuff thanks to Roger Walters
but daft to ignore David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason’s contribution.
Their music is that great to listen to as I’ve mentioned, timeless and
powerful. It’s not hard to see the passion written in there.
In fact that’s why, as a thought, I get annoyed at some rap and
R n B artists, because from what I have heard many times they don’t compose
their own songs, they just take samples and jig them up for their own purposes.
It’s just not creative, it’s plain easy to do. I hope every rapper doesn’t do
this, it’s a great disservice to music.
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| LOL |
For being biased, I do remember for a time, I was fonder of
listening to European bands then those from America. Just something about the
compositions of Nightwish and Within Temptation did feel more appealing in tone
and arrangement, then those by Avenged Sevenfold and Killswitch Engage, because
partly I had heard little of these band’s music (I had never heard of Avenged
Sevenfold until I heard about The Rev’s death), but when I did hear their music
I felt like the composition were quite jumbled, everything felt misplaced, because
it felt like they were lost all over the place.
Nowadays, I admit I do like Avenged Sevenfold’s new stuff a
bit, and I like Killswitch Engage a little bit, I like their stuff. I have
listened to some more American stuff by and by, and some compositions have
grown on me because they do sound very good. I don’t know if that’s because
they’re moving toward a mainstreaming kind of sound, like Metallica did back in
1991, or I just like that particular composition. But I don’t think the former’s
necessarily a problem, each to their own. I think it’s more how they have been
composed then due setting standard.
That said, in conclusion I like those particular written
compositions.
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2.
Meaning in Lyrics
For some songs I have looked up the various meanings behind
them, as a means of really putting down what they are about, because I wanted
to better understand what they meant. What I have discovered is that there are
so many opinions on internet threads, my own included though I don’t really
post, that it becomes uneasy to decipher and be aware of what’s really being said.
For example, ‘Killpop’ by Slipknot has had many interpretations, my own too for
a specific moment, yet from what I’ve read, the song is about the relationship
Corey Taylor has with the music industry. It’s still a really good song because
of that, but to have other interpretations of what song lyrics mean is
interesting to pick up on.
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| This is about bread...crossiants to be more specific |
But I do think there is something powerful in the lyrical
content for Rock and Heavy Metal music, ranging across a wide spectrum of
subjects of war, substance abuse, domestic abuse, relationship problems, social
issues, mythological worlds, demons taking over the world, emotional strife,
the list goes on and on. It’s something you don’t hear about properly on Radio
1’s chart shows nowadays, not just because what’s mainstream, but also when
could be the last time you heard anything relating to similar lyrics be
anywhere in charts? It’s a strange thing to see, but maybe that’s what makes
them more unique, they don’t need charts to be popular. They are relatable enough
to find standing amongst Metalheads alike.
Metallica for example have written many songs on such
subjects, like Master of Puppets is about substance abuse, Nothing Else Matters
was originally about James Hetfield’s girlfriend at the time, but now it seems
open to interpretation, one idea now being it’s about their fans. The God That
Failed is about people relying on religion for all problems, inspired by
Hetfield’s mother refusing to take medication for cancer under belief that God
would heal her. Marked as being anti-religious, it’s really about blaming God
for contributing to meaninglessness of life. These are examples of many other
similar songs out there I’m sure, but they can also relate to a point what may
or has happened in our lives.
That’s probably why I like Heavy Metal lyrics, they are
powerful because they can relate, help us to express ourselves so much, a
chance to yell at the world and say ‘We love Heavy Metal, this is who we are,
we know people like this in our lives’. Different opinions on song meanings or
not, these lyrics help reveal what we are, compared to the many pop songs out.
They’re like the world itself, all feared to a point, all relatable to a point.
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3.
It brings people together
Definitely a big yes, without it I would perhaps not have
close with the people from college I have known for many years. It’s a unique thing
when you have a group of Metalheads to hang out with, to laugh with, and enjoy
arguing with about who the better band is after a few too many Black Russian Cocktails.
I haven’t had that conversation, but rest assured it will come one day. It’s
always a good thing when you find common ground with someone to make friends
with, you just feel right at home, and argue until the cows come home.
It even helps to show them a band you have heard of that
they haven’t yet. I did that with a good friend of mine, got him into Within
Temptation. Unfortunately he has yet to get me into anything, but you never
know, many things can change. It may also help too to find what bands you do
like together, create a rapport with each other, and then create a mosh-pit out
of the awesomeness you both have created. Me and Mibs should probably do that
sometime!
By coming together at festivals and such, even if there will
be the inevitable dicks that may spoil it for some people, we all come looking
for a good time, and make sure many others enjoy the same things, by not being
dicks. It’s important we all do stick together, to keep ourselves safe from
those who do harm us, and show that we are who we are, to be what we want to
be, and nothing will stand in our way. I am proud to be a Metal-head myself,
and if anyone says otherwise, I am turning my music up to drown out people’s
words, and hope things won’t get so far.
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| Miley Cyrus is in there right now |
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So without further ado, that’s pretty much it. I am proud to
be part of a special community of unique people, who all have common ground to
love a particular type of music. Sure we all have our different tastes not just
in metal, but other music too. I’m a fan of some pop, folk, rap, and electronic
musicians to different points. But there’s always a little spot in my heart for
heavy metal.
Heavy Metal is a beautiful genre that can take many forms,
some I agree is not to everyone’s taste, though if I have managed to convert
you, thank me with a drink if you like. It’s something for many to understand how
the world works, how we all come together through many means. I think we are a
beautiful community bar those dickheads who mess things up, where we do
consider one’s safety, and put across our passion at the music on show for us,
giving many an opportunity to get involved and listening to something a little
different.
That’s Heavy Metal, a little different, a little awesome.
I will see you all next time. Take care, and Randomizer out!
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