Saturday 27 February 2016

Why do I love Rock and Heavy Metal?



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…


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.

 
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.

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.


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?


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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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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