Metal To The Grave

Metalhead- An avid fan of the Heavy Metal genre

I remember when I became a metalhead. Age 12, sitting at the computer at my grandmother's house listening to Metallica and Megadeth, but also, listening to the emo music of times. Yes, I was an odditty and I still am one. By the time I was almost 14, I pretty much got sick of emo and was wildly into Classic Rock, Underground Hip-Hop and, you guessed it, Metal. As of this sentence, I'm listening to Blood Insanity by Hellhammer on Pandora. I started my metyal journey with Metallica, Black sabbath, judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Led Zeppelin. I've grown to love and like countless bands including Motorhead, Celtic Frost, SLAYER, Venom, Death, High On Fire, Dethklok, Possessed, and many others. I've heard many genres from Thrash and Death Metal to Metalcore and Nu-Metal. I almost always wear white sneakers, as a thrasher should, I want a new, more flexible metal jacket for almost daily wear, and I plan on buying a few denim vests and an excess of band and leather patches. In fact, the whole reason why I even wanted to pick up a guitar was because of Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, many american blues artists, and Edward Van Halen.

Back to the point at hand. I want to defend my standings as a metalhead and metal in general. Many people see metal as the cause of many problems, including murder, assault, and suicide. To many, SLAYER is nothing but a group of nazi satanists who incourage murder and death. To many, a mosh pit is similar to a mini-gladiator stadium, violent and destructive. To many, metalheads are absolute morons. Funny thing is, these people don't listen to metal, have never given it a chance a day in their lives. The pit can be brutal, I can see why people would have such an opinion about SLAYER at first glance, and the many subject matters in metal do revolve around death. However, any metalhead can tell you that such extreme subjects and lyrics were, at one point, a selling device. Obviously, to keep metal fresh, you would up the ante through either sheer volume, insane lyrics, excessive exercises in speed and brutality, and making the overall product heavier than a fleet of tanks. And yes, there ae many unitelligent metalheads, just as there are many unintelligent political figures, but who more of a moron, the joker or the person who assumes that the joker is nothing but a fool without ever having a full conversation with him? I don't expect everyone to understand why a metalhead would headbang until they caught whiplash, I don't expect everyone to get why many bands rely on the subjects or war, death, sex, drugs, and Satan, and I don't expect everyone to understand why a person would idolize Motley Crue over Michael Jordan, or why a kid would look up to Lemmy Kilmeister instead of Bono. And you know what, its almost better that you don't get it, because metal's not for everyone. Its not for the frail grandmothers, the preppy school kids, the mainstream music enthusiasts, hell, sometimes metal can even be a little much for even the biggest of fans. Metal is not a fad, metal is not a passing scene, metal is a lifestyle. You can join the ranks or you can fuck off, either way, we'll live to thrash another day.

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