musings on metal

Metal is more than just a genre of music. Metal is a way of life. It permeates and extends its influence into so many facets of the metalhead's life. It's hard to faze a metalhead. Any misfortune that befalls him is generally considered very 'metal'. They thrive on feelings of anguish, fear, hatred. It doesn't matter if the said misfortune is something as trivial as getting screwed by your boss or something as grave as breaking your little finger (which is an essential appendage, especially on the fretting hand)- these are all THE METAL THING TO DO. And besides, if nothing else, a metalhead always has the option of going home to spin a lil' Pantera or Anthrax and headbang/air guitar/break stuff to it.

Perhaps the only thing that would ever screw with a metalhead's mind is happy stuff. Happy just not equals metal. Because happy equals gay equals incompatible with metal. To be truly metal is to be homophobic.

Most unfortunately, closely linked to Metal are the Emos, which happen to be public enemies no. 1 of all of metaldom. They share the spandex, piercings, facepaint, the equipment and even the subject matter of their lyrics. But the resemblance stops right there. Emos sound so inexplicably happy despite all that angst. It is for all their similiarities that metalheads hate emos so much. They just cannot fathom how as sacred a subject matter as fear, anger, hatred etc. can be made to sound so frickin upbeat and HAPPY. And what metalheads cannot understand, they seek to destroy.

While I'm on the topic, I was at HMV the other day and saw this really nerdy-looking girl clad in a baby blue t-shirt and berms. Nerdier looking than I am. (and that's really nerdy-looking) She was at the metal section while I was, I am ashamed to say, entertaining myself at the R&B/Pop section. I approached her with the intention to help this poor lost soul find what she really was looking for. Surely it wasn't metal. She couldn't possibly have been ever exposed to the foul, contaminating influence of metal before. Boy was I ever wrong. Not only was she picking up CDs and reading the tracklists, she later picked up a pair of headphones and listened to a band whose band name I cannot even bear to reproduce on this blog. It wasn't just your average metal she was going for, it was BRUTAL DEATH METAL. Stuff like Mortician and..uh goodness knows what else there is out there. The face of metal may be evolving as I speak o_o

On a side note, I'm wondering whether to attend the Megadeth or Linkin Park (oh how we love to hate them) concert. Depends on who's going for which I guess.

To end off,
Don't just listen to metal. Be metal. \m/