Why metal matters to me

Why metal matters to me – by P-Dismal

I watched the documentary “A Headbanger’s Journey” tonight and am now inspired to write a few words about what metal means to me. First of all, I would like to commend the creators of this excellent documentary. It takes a wide approach and looks at metal through multiple points of view. But in the end maintains the collegial and “us versus them” mentality and feeling that metal fans all can share.

Most accounts explaining the importance or influence of a certain type of music or art or event start at the beginning, at the first point when the thing or person or place became important to the writer or speaker. Choosing not to eschew such an easy technique, I will start there as well. The first sort of “metal-ish” album that influenced me was probably Rage Against the Machine’s self titled album. After borrowing it from my brother, I recorded the cd onto a tape and listened to it over and over on my walkman as I trudged home from school in seventh grade.

Even at a such a young age I was struck by the power, and the feeling it gave me when listening to it. This band was putting so much energy into their music that I couldn’t help but feel this same energy surge through me. I remember playing “Killing in the Name Of” for one of my friends. I rewinded and played back the “F**k you I won’t do what you tell me . . .” portion of the song three or four times for him and looked at him excitedly. Let’s just say he did not share my enthusiasm. But it wasn’t just the swearing in the song that excited me. It was the adrenaline rush it gave me. I would sing it (without swearing of course) and somehow all the problems in my life, all the stresses, all the day to day trauma a 12 year old kid goes through, were just lifted away. Each time I shouted the lyrics along with Zack I felt liberated from all the distressing details of my life.

I soon sought the same type of feeling from other bands as I branched out into other forms of hard rock and metal. Megadeth, Primus, Soundgarden, Living Colour, Kings X and Metallica were early favorites. But soon my love for metal was placed in the background and in high school I was swept up by Punk music. Punk still holds for me a lot of the same values and ideals as metal. Punk bands often sing about alienation and about rebelling against mainstream society and about communion with other fans. Not being anything close to a musician I would often ponder how different punk and metal actually were (it seems bands such as Suicidal Tendencies and Motorhead seemed to play with this distinction as well). There’s a certain energy and camaraderie at punk concerts that definitely resembles the feeling at metal concerts.

Soon, however, I realized I needed something more musically complex and I began to delve more and more deeply into my previous metal roots. In late high school and beginning in college I began to expand my metal branches deeper and farther than I ever thought I would and started listening to the older metal bands such as Motorhead, Iron Maiden, and early Megadeth. I will admit I started listening to Motorhead and Maiden more for the novelty and fascination with Hessian and metal culture than I did for the actual music. But eventually, this fascination turned to a deep love.

Maiden was the first band that forced me to love guitar solos and ballads. Previously all I cared about was cool/heavy guitar riffs, not the boring solos in the middle. But as I put more and more time into the Maiden catalog I realized that metal is much more than just power, aggression and adrenaline. Maiden forced upon me a sort of beauty.

Reviews often describe them as having soaring guitar solos, and operatic lyrics. Both of these elements were somewhat foreign to me as I was still listening to Hardcore bands such as Snapcase and Hatebreed with their guttural shouting and powerful breakdowns. A band with an “operatic” singer was initially difficult to embrace. But Maiden’s music seems to be more of a celebration than a rebellion. Maiden seems to take a different approach to music than say Slayer. Slayer wants to dig up difficult topics and force people to acknowledge the ills of society. Iron Maiden, at least in my view, seems to want to tell a complex and intricate story, and in a way that not only takes you outside of present conscious life, but also displays some of the layered beauty available to us.

Each have their distinct value, however, and depending on my mood I like listening to both at different times. Lately I have delved into so many different types of metal including stoner rock, crust core, drone, black metal, death metal, and melodic death metal and I could not be more happy with the results. Years ago I often thought that there weren’t that many great metal bands, that I had found all the ones I needed to by simply listening to the original American thrash bands and a few English bands. Now I realize that the world of metal is expansive, diverse and rich. I keep finding more and more metal bands that I love as I explore these genres and artists.

Metal has given me so much joy over the years for so many different reasons. It’s the music of a group (metal fans) that’s very diverse but also very unified. For the uninitiated going to a metal concert is one of the most uplifting, frightening, exciting and cathartic events one can ever experience. Metal is not my music, it’s our music. Seeing a young metal fan headbang helicopter style for an entire Amon Amarth song gives me a rush of brotherhood which cannot really be duplicated by anything else in my life. Listening to metal cannot be replaced by anything. To me, it’s the true outlet from everything, instantly. I’m not thinking about anything but the actual sonic blasts coming into my ear when it plays. I recently went snowboarding and on the way home I listened to High on Fire’s newest album and I went completely crazy headbanging in my car. I don’t do this with ANY other type of music, or really anything in my life. My life is subdued 90% of the day, until those few minutes when I listen some truly great metal. Again for the uninitiated this may be foreign to you. But to those in the know, you understand completely. Metal grabs your brain, and your mind and your heart and your body, shakes it up, and completely invigorates your being. And that, to me, is why metal is so important.