The beauty of playing in a Metal Band isn’t just about the artistry we get to unleash and depict in pure, unadulterated intensity… It took me a very, very long time to come to grips with the reality – through unrelenting hardship, tragedy, spinal tap like moments, drama, melodrama, many line up changes- that everyone gets into the music biz for a variety of reasons. Evident as that may seem it’s still amazing how different all those reasons are from person to person. You all remember the great words of Dave Mustain who in the early Megadeth years was quoted many times saying ‘I wanted to play in a Metal Band for the drugs and the pussy’. It’s a rainbow with a pot of gold: gold being a metaphor for fame, success and glory. It’s also a way to combat social norms and conventionalism, it’s about evoking awareness about apparent indulgences and obsessions that are consuming the world of its light, life and beauty. It’s a vehicle to make a statement; a Fuck You to those who deserve it (and in very rare cases perhaps they don’t), it’s a warning to those who will heed it and it’s simply bloody genius art which is abrasive, abstract and angry with deep philosophical insight. Some people just like to test reactions and push people so a response may be triggered.
But one thing every mother’s son and bastardized leather neck shares in common; be a hippy or a pagan, a Black Metaller or a Progressive Metaller, a Hard Rocker or an Extreme Death/Gore Metaller is the fact that Heavy Metal is their escape from pseudo-realism to a gritty, flesh wrought in bone, dark menacing, unimaginable sexual sin filled world which very often is Reality. It’s just that while world powers and administrative bodies that largely monopolize the wars, crimes and social degradation on many levels have forcefully settled as the pulse of the people, therefore becoming the silent voice of logic and sensibility of and for the people… Painting and masking the world with idiosyncratic nonsense, impractical bliss and chaos so people will be occupied. An occupied child will not cry, whine or pay attention to anything else. Society makes us self obsessed characters that really don’t have any concept of freedom. We are programmed, processed and pushed to be a cog in the almighty wheel. To fuel, feed and shed our blood for the machine. So the rich could get richer and the poor can suffer the sins of all humanity. So although Heavy Metal is the anti-thesis to organized ‘control’ systems, the rage against the machine or so to speak… It also endures, utilizes and endorses certain elements from society itself in order to identify and assess the river before building a dam for it.
Heavy Metal is our ultimate catharsis… It’s our gateway to a world where imagination has no boundaries, where salvation and sin jive together (sorry… mosh together) and it’s our alter-ego… our closest friend that stands by us whether we live, fuck, sin are saved or die. It’s therapy and that’s the bottom line. Take this factor away and then you’ll have the external factors that justify why many of us choose to play Metal or Rock or whatever they call it these days.
We had a client over to our new residence/office/rehearsal hub yesterday and while having a chat she mentioned that she isn’t a Heavy Metal fan but she said she was in absolute awe at one of our gigs because she felt like she was at a church and all the people were in a trance, praying in a different way. I thought ‘My Fucks…’ I never really thought about it that way. You see to me it’s about pushing the envelope of everything we do. I just love extremity and the fact that in Stigmata there isn’t a single day we can relax and take a break. I told you guys the new track ‘Nothing’ is complete and we are hoping to nail and debut the motherfucking killer at ‘The Black Alert’ on the 23rd March at the Zetter (in Sri Lanka) where we have teamed up with Goth/Doom Rockers ‘Karmic Sulphur’ and unique semi Industrial/New Wave Metallers ‘Powercut Circus’.
You see we’ve more or less surrounded ourselves and played with the same Bands for awhile; for many reasons really. One thing is the convenience factor because having done so many gigs together they all share the common enthusiasm to promote the concert like hell and to professionally see that everything falls into place. The other things is there’s a sense of chemistry now between Paranoid Earthling, Sword of the Spirit, Ritual, Tantrum etc that makes the entire concert ebb and flow rather nicely.
Sometimes people put together concerts with no consideration of the end result and in hindsight realize that they’ve paired certain artistes together where it’s like fire and water. They could be fantastic musicians, but still the styles could prove to clash and not really gel together. So we’ve made a conscious effort to perform with a lot of versatile artistes because it’s a risk worth taking and also it’ll help us perform to a new segment. What to do… we like to keep scaring strangers. Hee hee hee.
When you’re really passionate about something you won’t be afraid to take calculated risks, and honestly speaking its fun to play with different musicians because as we always say there’s something positive and negative you could learn from anyone. There is a big difference you see between loving your music and being willing to suffer and die for it. There also is that unspoken universal truth that despite oddball redneck racists, skinheads and troublemakers a good majority of Rock fans will always stand by their own… through anything. I’ve seen it. I’ve been there. I am still here. And unless someone decides to end my existence I am going to continue being a Metal Head with no sorry ass exceptions. There is a human aspect to all of this. And it’s underrated and overlooked very often by bias, prejudice anti-Metal campaigners. The fact that Rock fans can identify and relate to each other and the fact that we know that some of us are outcasts because we choose to live and fight hard for what we love and believe in – makes the bond even stronger. And we know there are many who will stand with us. Musicians, Peers, Fans, Rock Enthusiasts, Friends and Family.
I’ve not seen any other genre of music that has that. People gather and pop pills and jiggy like ducklings on fire, they get drunk and bounce all over the place in their baggy pants like bloated cattle, they lay their expensive mats out in an open green and pretend to be mystified by jazz that really isn’t jazz and then there’s the pop fans of today who love to shit where they eat. They’ve mixed the two functions up you see. But after they go their separate ways… they go back to their sorry ass, generic lives and re-adapt while society deconstructs, they mime, mimic and live their lives in the shadows of who they are supposed to be, never who they really are… sad fucking scene.
Before I get blacklisted, shitlisted and my blog receives countless comments on how this is better than that and arguments how some genres are superiorly more sophisticated than others… once again keep in mind that these are my personal points of view, it is my blog and hence I write what I deem fit. I love a lot of different kinds of Metal, Rock, Celtic, Folk, Classical, Blues, Jazz, Funk, Industrial, 80’s Pop and even Eastern Music. This post is a critical analysis of what Metal means to people and their behavior sequences as a result of their passion and hunger for the music. So it isn’t a genre bashing contest folks… Sorry.
But I have no fear, remorse nor will I extend any apologies for anything said here. I mean every word I’ve said here. I am in it for a lot of different reasons… There are good things and bad things that come with it. I try not to complain but take it as it is, for what it is. I respect Heavy Metal too much to ever turn my back on it. Because even I have questioned the point of existence and sought to steer my ship to the point of no return and guess fucking what - Nevermore’s ‘Dreaming Neon Black’, Tool’s ‘Aenima’ and Anathema’s ‘Judgment’ saved my ass from doing anything redundant or incredibly stupid. Flashback to many, many years ago and a confused, shaking teenager lies crouched in the darkness of his room fed up of everything. Nothing’s going right, no one seems to understand and what’s worse is that emotional and psychological pain before you learn to channel it can be merciless. And between the choice of killing myself and just listening to some music, I opted for a soundtrack to my ruin and I just kept listening to the Nevermore and Tool over and over and over again. I realized that through art we are able to be whatever we want to be, that it’s a doorway to a very special place and I knew then that there were many who looked at the world, pitied it and even hated it the same way I did.
Fast forward to 2008 and I think I’ve learnt to control my rage (except when I let it go berserk on stage… Meooow) and got rid of my hate. Because hate is what’s destroying anything that’s pure anymore. Being angry at someone and hating someone are two very different things. The music has taught me that there are great people; visionaries who suffer at the hands of unfortunate tragedy like Dimebag Darrel, then there is he who made incredibly, thought and mood provoking music while having a brain tumor; Chuck Shuldiner of Death & Control Denied. From Hendrix to Zeppelin, from ACDC to Def Leppard, Opeth to the Doors, Aerosmith to Decapitated and Metallica to the Grateful Dead… Everyone’s had tragedy and trouble along with the usual tribulations and disasters. But many have pushed on and continued to etch their legacies in time while the legends remain as relevant and monumental as always.
Heavy Metal is the mirror. Heavy Metal is the voice. Heavy Metal is the bastard child that will not wear a mask and change the way it thinks and feels. Heavy Metal is salvation. It’s also sin depending on who you ask.
Come Taste My Therapy.
Come Revel in My Precious Salvation.
Come Unmask My Sin.
