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What’s the deal with metal?

Peter Jones Leave a comment

If there is one reaction I get most often, when it comes to music, is the shock and surprise of others when they find out what I listen to.

It isn’t just because I listen to metal. I mean, come on, loads of people listen to something they call metal. Certain aspects of metal are just super mainstream, and so that isn’t surprising.

No, it is more the breadth and depth of my metal love that shocks people.

And that is what I love so much about metal music. There is a type of metal for every mood, for every mindset, for every occasion. There is metal that is calm, quiet, introspective and sedate. There is metal that is stunningly technical, played by people with just insane amounts of skill. There is metal that just wants to take your head and (figuratively) bash it in.

There is metal that is slow, brooding, moody. There is metal that is fast, furious and just insane above and beyond anything most people have heard.

That doesn’t even begin to touch on the lyricism. Sure, there is lyrical crap in metal, as in anything. But it can be deeply personal, it can address mental illness, loss, heartbreak and pain. It can also be fantastical, science fiction, historical. Really, it is all over the place.

And then add in the different tools and instruments, and you have a complete cornucopia of music. Folk instruments, full orchestras, electronics, bag pipes, and so many others have all found their way into amazing metal releases.

And I sort of love it all.

Traditional, progressive, technical, black, death, symphonic, power, doom, thrash, post, sludge, djent, and so forth, I’ll check it all out. You want some blackened symphonic death? I can find that. You want instrumental progressive post-metal? Got that too.

It never gets boring, it never gets old, and it never fails to put a smile on my face. No matter how bad a day is, I can find some metal that either compliments, or lifts my mood. No matter how heavy, how mellow, how fast, or how ponderously slow, there is something for every occasion.

That’s the deal with metal.

A deeper connection

Peter Jones Leave a comment

I’ve always been a fan of music. I think I got that from my mother. I have vivid memories of her cleaning the house or washing dishes with a big, old set of cans on her ears, a huge extension cord going into the living room where the stereo was.

I remember flipping through records. Billy Joel, The Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson, Chicago and the Moody Blues all stick out in my memory. And Neil Diamond. So much Neil Diamond.

That love of music just seemed normal to me. Now, I find that isn’t necessarily normal. Not everyone has a near constant soundtrack to life playing. But I do.

I moved on from my mother’s music to classic rock. I remember being blown away by Led Zeppelin and the Who. Then I discovered Rush. Something about their music connected with me. They were my first concert in May of 1992. The acoustics weren’t great in the Delta Center, but I was hooked.

Over time I continued to listen to classic rock, but like a huge percentage of the population, started checking out Metallica and Megadeth with their releases in the early 90s. Next was Anthrax and “The Persistence of Time”. Something about the heavier music spoke to me.

Fast forward to the early 2000s and I was in medical school. I stumbled on Opeth’s masterpiece “Blackwater Park”. It took a while for the death growls to grow on me, but eventually they did, and the rest is history.

As I’ve aged my musical choices have tended towards the more heavy. I still love all types of metal and even harder rock. But there is no question that I love the heavy stuff, despite the fact I am now in my early 40s. I guess it’s true what they say, “If it’s too loud, you’re too old!”

Rock on my friends. Rock on.