November 15, 2011

How I got into metal

I reckon some of you who've known me a long time are wondering what mental change I underwent that makes me now submit myself to such barbaric music.

The spark that would eventually ignite into a love affair with heavy metal was lit by thrash metal band Metallica. When I was in junior school, my sister and I used to watch a lot of VH1. There was this montage of clips from rock videos that would play, and the intro track was Enter Sandman by Metallica. One day I realised that I really liked this song. It took a few more years after that before I got into metal. I consider a friend of mine to be the second heavy metal spark - he was (and still is) into metal, and would often have it playing in the background when I happened to be at his house. I always used to ask him to turn it down, while resenting him for playing music that was such an aural abomination. Eventually, I decided to give some of the music on his ipod a go. I thought, ''If he thinks metal is so wonderful, I might as well try it.'' At the time (around 2009) I was starting to get into Metallica, Iron Maiden, Saxon and other older bands. I then created a station on internet radio site Jango.com for the heavier subgenres of metal, and my liking for metal has continued to grow since then. I now have about 7 metal stations on Jango!

It was the guitars that first drew me to metal. When I hear a beautiful, well-executed riff or solo, I am moved. I feel motivated to grab life by the horns, and that there is always a light hiding somewhere in the vast darkness that life sometimes seems to be.