Day 13: Metal

I realize how weird it is to introduce this topic only a short time after devoting a whole post to how much Blink-182 meant to me but that was one band and this is a whole genre. Metal is awesome. There's no way to get more pumped then to listen to some metal. The specific band or song is not usually important. Metal is visceral, almost primal music that speaks to something deep in my old lizard brain.

So, just like how my love of hip hop began with a lot of Christian rap, so too did my love of metal start with Christian rock. As a kid in the 80s who loved rock but was also Christian, of course I listened to Stryper. I also listened to Petra and Bloodgood and some others I don't remember. What I didn't know was that when my mom was gone, my dad would play Led Zeppelin and other old rock that kinda primed me for metal. My dad also played Mark Farner because even though he was the leader singer of Grand Funk Railroad, he became a Christian artist. Don't get it confused, though, both of my parents had music secrets. When my dad wasn't around my mom would play country songs that might not have been entirely Christian, chiefly Garth Brooks or Brooks and Dunn, but that's a separate topic.

As soon as I got a job and money, one of the first things I bought was an Ozzy Osbourne tribute CD filled with covers of his old songs redone by Pantera, Sepultura and others. At the same time, rap-metal was picking up in popularity so I'm not going to lie, I also bought a Limp Bizkit CD. That's beside the point, though. I started working at Hastings and eventually learned about the magazine BW/BK, a magazine that came with a CD every month that was filled with some popular bands as well as up and coming bands. Every month, I learned more and more about the amazing music that I loved. The true turning point for me, the point where I said "Yes, this is for me" was when I went to a concert and actually interacted with other metal fans. It was a wild experience and made me realize that some music has to be experienced live.

I can't really say that metal is the best music. I think music is too subjective to ever say that any one genre is the best. I will say that any song with lyrics growled over wild electric guitars and pounding drums is something that makes some people happy and some people angry but I think that's what really makes any music good. It provokes an emotional response. So, if metal makes you want to punch someone in the face, that's a good thing. Just punch the air, though, so you don't get in trouble, I guess.