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Subject: Heavy Metal
When I was in the final year of primary school (Grade 7) my friend came to me with a Judas Priest tape (remember tapes?) and said "All the kids in Jr High listen to metal, so we should get used to this." It wasn't true, but we played the tape anyway.
I don't recall my first impressions. I don't think I liked it, but I do seem to recall forcing myself to listen to it a few times, and gradually I did learn to like it. From there I got into a lot more Priest, Iron Maiden, AC/DC and W.A.S.P, plus a little KISS as well. By the time I got to Jr. High I was a bit of a metal head. I really didn't like dance music, though I confess at school dances I really didn't mind much of the 80s pop we listened to. There was no way I'd admit it though, and outside of school I was all metal, all the time. The mellowest I got was probably Def Leppard's Hysteria album.
By the time I was in Grade 11, Metal was wearing out. Not necessarily for me, but because there were no new metal releases. There was nowhere to go - Judas Priest wasn't releasing enougn albums, and Iron Maiden had forgotten how to rhyme. My sister was big into dance music but I still couldn't get into it, until I heard The KLF. The White Room album was brilliant, and I really got into the beat. From there I went completely contrary and started listening to Enigma. I had inherited a very nice stereo and some great speakers and I totally got into the bass. From here it was a very easy step to Front 242, their hard-ass industrial techno really scratching an itch for me.
I was also into Japanese and German music for a while. Bz and X-Japan, as well as Die Toten Hosen were about all I listend to for a few years after graduating.
Metal though took a serious departure from my listening queue. For a very long time there simply was no metal. I was stuck listening to pop rock bands, but I could never really get into that flavour-of-the-week crap. I missed grunge entirely and kind of stuck with synthetic dance/techno stuff until about 2005. SO we're talking of a ten year gap where I just didn't have any new metal. The first taste of new metal that I got was probably Rammstein, which I adored. Then came Machinae Supremacy, a Finnish band that did hard rockin' covers of video game themes.
Just before coming to Australia from Japan I discovered Nightwish, and recently I've been a serious Ensiferum fan. Also In Flames did a few good tracks I enjoyed.
But, and this is my point, for a decade there was no metal in my life. No one I knew listened to it, there was no metal scene, no new releases. For all intents and purposes it was a dead genre. It was a shock to me when I'd hear a car go by blaring a 5-year-old Judas Priest song. I felt like I wasn't the last metal fan after all.
But now there's a lot of metal. Everyone I know is into metal. How did it disappear for so long? Was it where I lived and the friends I had, or was it global?
Long live the new metal generation. =D
I don't recall my first impressions. I don't think I liked it, but I do seem to recall forcing myself to listen to it a few times, and gradually I did learn to like it. From there I got into a lot more Priest, Iron Maiden, AC/DC and W.A.S.P, plus a little KISS as well. By the time I got to Jr. High I was a bit of a metal head. I really didn't like dance music, though I confess at school dances I really didn't mind much of the 80s pop we listened to. There was no way I'd admit it though, and outside of school I was all metal, all the time. The mellowest I got was probably Def Leppard's Hysteria album.
By the time I was in Grade 11, Metal was wearing out. Not necessarily for me, but because there were no new metal releases. There was nowhere to go - Judas Priest wasn't releasing enougn albums, and Iron Maiden had forgotten how to rhyme. My sister was big into dance music but I still couldn't get into it, until I heard The KLF. The White Room album was brilliant, and I really got into the beat. From there I went completely contrary and started listening to Enigma. I had inherited a very nice stereo and some great speakers and I totally got into the bass. From here it was a very easy step to Front 242, their hard-ass industrial techno really scratching an itch for me.
I was also into Japanese and German music for a while. Bz and X-Japan, as well as Die Toten Hosen were about all I listend to for a few years after graduating.
Metal though took a serious departure from my listening queue. For a very long time there simply was no metal. I was stuck listening to pop rock bands, but I could never really get into that flavour-of-the-week crap. I missed grunge entirely and kind of stuck with synthetic dance/techno stuff until about 2005. SO we're talking of a ten year gap where I just didn't have any new metal. The first taste of new metal that I got was probably Rammstein, which I adored. Then came Machinae Supremacy, a Finnish band that did hard rockin' covers of video game themes.
Just before coming to Australia from Japan I discovered Nightwish, and recently I've been a serious Ensiferum fan. Also In Flames did a few good tracks I enjoyed.
But, and this is my point, for a decade there was no metal in my life. No one I knew listened to it, there was no metal scene, no new releases. For all intents and purposes it was a dead genre. It was a shock to me when I'd hear a car go by blaring a 5-year-old Judas Priest song. I felt like I wasn't the last metal fan after all.
But now there's a lot of metal. Everyone I know is into metal. How did it disappear for so long? Was it where I lived and the friends I had, or was it global?
Long live the new metal generation. =D
BLEARGH
Does the enjoyment of the song as a harmless dance tune negate the intent?
'I'm the Man' is one of those cases where the live performance of the song was where the intent became clear, during the tour with Public Enemy. Of course, you had to be there to see that all the black kids sat on one side of the theater, and the white kids on the other side. But you're right, I'm probably overreaching there by some margin.
This post was edited on 2007-11-06, 14:12 by 