Why do YOU like metal music ?

[Bryant]

We are all here because we like oldschool metal.... but even discarding the "oldschool" element from it..... we all love metal music. Why do you like metal music ?


I will wait until there are replies before I make my reasons why I love metal so dearly.


Bryant.

 

[poundingmetal74]

Sense of community (the metal community is quite diverse and exciting), the sonic aspects to it (ie. the music itself), the musicianship, lyrical content, diversity of the music (ie. celtic metal, symphonic metal), etc.

 

[Bryant]

I don't believe you. This reply sucks !! I don't feel your heart. Does Poundingmetal have a heart ? I am dead serious. You wrote this reply with your mind...... not your heart.



Bryant

Sense of community (the metal community is quite diverse and exciting), the sonic aspects to it (ie. the music itself), the musicianship, lyrical content, diversity of the music (ie. celtic metal, symphonic metal), etc.

 

[poundingmetal74]

I don't believe you. This reply sucks !! I don't feel your heart. Does Poundingmetal have a heart ? I am dead serious. You wrote this reply with your mind...... not your heart.

......What? Perhaps you wanted a longer answer? Fine, I'll provide it.

The one thing I truly love about metal, maybe even more than the music, is the communal aspect - the fact that anywhere you go, you see someone else with a metal shirt, and you're practically brothers (or sisters). At shows, it's very easy to talk to more than a dozen people and after 5 minutes of chatting, you feel like you've known the person for years. It's a great way to meet people, and a number of my lifelong friends are with me as a result of metal.

In regards to music, I love with metal it almost forces you to think. Both about the composition and the lyrical content (ie. Queensryche). It's very intellectual and often introspective and maybe a touch spiritual. The sonic elements are brilliant in that regard.

Metal for me is not a wise financial decision. The thousands spent on CDs, T-shirts, Magazines, Concert tickets... and the thousands more spent on creating 2 metal albums of my own... Clearly I do it for the love of the music and people. In that regard, my love for the music is not rationally driven at all, but rather almost pure emotion.

Oh yeah, and it's great to work out to.

Like Wyvern said below, I couldn't imagine a life without metal.

Bryant what,s with your don't have a heart comment, simply because I gave a quick answer? I had written a longer answer but between the save button not working and getting logged out, it was lost.

 

[Wyvern]

The damn server fault on me while I was making the post , anyway, here it goes:

Great thread Bryant, you have outdone yourself!

Why do I love heavy metal? Actually I was thinking about it while listening to some doom and driving two days ago. Why I found this slow almost depressive music appealing? Why actually is uplifting for me? Why I change from listening to easily available radio/TV friendly pop to heavy metal 25 years ago? Why I take so much time, money and effort in getting music on CDs instead of just downloading the flavor of the week (pop, hip-hop, rap, reggaeton, whatever).

I guess is part empathy, part energy canalizing. I feel heavy metal music is empathic with me, the melodies and harmonies ease my soul, the lyrics make me think and philosophy about life and existence (or sex and booze ). I know I chanalize a lot of anger and frustration through the music (especially good thrash), anger that otherwise will be discharged violently upon others (I have anger management problems).

I know a lot of people say that they love to speed when driving and listening so some whiplash neck-breaking metal, but for me is a way to vent off the rush hour madness, to ease up, to relax. I like to go to sleep and listen to some metal as a lullaby, I love to exercise in the gym while singing along some good metal, I feel I have more energy while doing so.

Why I found so many positive things in metal?, I don't know. I do know it changed my life, maybe by making me different an outcast to some (elite IMO ) I avoided smoking, drinking (alcohol) and drugs. I studied hard at the university while listen to metal, I work hard in the laboratory for both my thesis with heavy metal, I concentrate happily on a task at work if I can listen to some metal (not very much these days, lack of privacity ).

Heavy metal sustained me when my father died, it had given me strenght to carry on being a depreesive person. I like to laugh with heavy metal, cry with heavymetal, dream with heavy metal. Heavy metal has been there from me when I lost love, when my work sucked, when my body aged, when I lost friends, when life spit on my face. It never betrayed me, it never turned its back on me, it never had a headache , it never say no to me.

Maybe some (or all) of you think that I'm being silly, full of clichés, but I can't conceived my life today without heavy metal, it's maybe a drug an addictive one. Maybe, but I rather be addicted to this than to something lessening to my health.
Moreover how many friends I have made through metal forums, would I have done so listening to something else? Would I have been so welcomed and cared for when I attended PPVII?

Why I love heavy metal? Because I do, because I can.

P.S.

I live each day, like it's my last. I live for rock and roll, I never look back
I'm a rocker, Oh oh Do as I feel as I say. I'm a rocker, Oh oh, and no one can take that away - Judas Priest

Nobody's gonna change my world. That's something too unreal, nobody will change the way I feel - Black Sabbath

I win the brilliant victories & the golden glories, I keep on running to the immortal future, now Forever! And never ending in the hell, Heavy Metal is my way! – Metalucifer

 

[poundingmetal74]

Great post Wyv. Very introspective.

One thing that Chuck Klosterman in Fargo Rock City wrote that always struck home with me (to paraphrase):

"Metal doesn't judge you. When you come home after a shitty day at school or work, your CDs are always there for you. Your heroes always have something to say and are a way for you to vent off steam. Metal is like an old friend that you can vent to, vent with. When you put on a CD, you're among friends. For most metalheads, it kept us away from drugs and crime and kept us sane in an insane world."

 

[Wyvern]

Great post Wyv. Very introspective.

One thing that Chuck Klosterman in Fargo Rock City wrote that always struck home with me (to paraphrase):

"Metal doesn't judge you. When you come home after a shitty day at school or work, your CDs are always there for you. Your heroes always have something to say and are a way for you to vent off steam. Metal is like an old friend that you can vent to, vent with. When you put on a CD, you're among friends. For most metalheads, it kept us away from drugs and crime and kept us sane in an insane world."

I like that a lot, it summarizes very well what metal means for me and why I love it. Thanks for bringing it up.

 

[muzmaze]

I love metal simply because of the intensity, variety, conviction, dedication, emotion, and loyalty that is displayed from the bands, thier music and of course the fans. No other style of music comes close to metal in doing this.

Though I only have a select group of metal bands that I like, I can appreciate other metal bands / metal styles and recognize thier talents, even if I'm not thier biggest of fans. You can't really say this about other genres.

Does this make sense? Guess what I'm trying to say is if you take ten metal bands, and you really like four of them, your still to a point going to like and probably listen to the other six metal bands. If you take ten country, rock, rap bands or whatever, and you only like four of the ten bands? You won't even think about the other six, because they'll let you down or just plain suck.

 

[SoundMaster]

My love for metal is dictated by the fact that, IMO, it most accurately portrays ALL of the elements of the human condition & experience, and the wide range of emotions felt by mankind, both lyrically AND musically. And I've stressed the 'ALL' for a reason.

Various forms of pop music have, over the years, mostly focused on the 'happy', or 'carefree' elements of life. And while those are highly important emotions, they only represent a part of what we feel and who we are. Metal, typically, refuses to cower from the 'dark', or the 'ugly', or the depressed, or the agressive. It embraces ALL of who we are. And this includes the positive, happy element of pop. 'Tis why I can enjoy bands as diverse as My Dying Bride, Faster Pussycat, Death, Dream Theater, Emperor, Whitesnake, and Kings X on any given day. Metal, IMO, is most broadly defined by its sense of dynamics - it's grandiose use of 'light and shade' (to paraphrase Jimmy Page).

Additionally, metal offers the fantastic - an escape from reality when we want to 'get away'. It's reality; it's fiction; it's who we are.

Humans are not the hapless, braindead, automatons that, IMO, the mainsteam pop view of the world seemingly believes us to be (although, sadly, perhaps some folks are as such).

 

[zeppelin]

Why Metal:

For me it’s like a second profession and more so an addiction. I’m a professional music listener, what I do is, I put a record on and then I listen to it from start to finish, as much and as often as I can.
No, seriously I think when I first discovered it, almost every album I bought just blew me away, I mean I couldn’t wait to get home from school just to listen to WASP and Skid Row over and over. We debated it and worshipped it pretty much the same way my friends and I still do today.
I must say that very little albums lately do that to me, but I’m still on an endless quest for those “highs”, I’m a junkie when it comes to Metal.
Sometimes, weather it’s a new release or discovering an old classic, I still get that “wow” feeling and then everything for that brief moment is just perfect.

The other thing is, the day I first picked up a guitar and tried to make it sound like anything, I really got a new found respect for these guys.
Heavy Metal is the peak of craftsmanship as far as guitars and drumming goes, if it didn’t exist at all I probably would have listened to Classical Music.
It’s beyond me why everybody doesn’t listen to it, I mean why listen to the guitaring of James Blunt if you can listen to Tony Iommi for instance, just doesn’t make sense. Don’t get me wrong, of coarse if everybody did listen to it, it wouldn’t have been half as cool, I just think they don’t know what they are denying themselves.

Thirdly there’s the live shows, what’s better than that exact moment when your favourite band strings the opening cords of the show you’ve been waiting forever to see, and you’re right in front amongst 20 000 other Metal fans going “Fuck Yeah”!!? You know what I’m talking about, they’re there right in front of you, playing the same guitars and wearing the same sort of clothing that they do on your posters and in the videos you’ve seen, and suddenly you’re a part of it all. That’s probably as good as it gets and if you haven’t experienced that yet, I strongly suggest that you do.

Then of coarse there’s the community, and the brotherhood, the sense of greater understanding and exclusivity, you walk down the street and see someone wearing a shirt of a band you really like and you almost feel like you know that person, plus the beer tastes so much better if you have Accept blasting in the background.(you know what I mean)

I mean, seriously, you can’t lose.

 

[chrissie]

I'm writing only a short answer, because my English is not sooo good!

I like Metal because...

...it's the only music that makes my heart beating very loud with the rhythm of the sound and gives me a prickling feeling in my stomach.

 

[DarkOne]

Pretty simple for me: It speaks to me.

There's lots of other music I like, and I'll listen to things on the radio that are decent. but nothing else hits me the same way.

Short and sweet.

Steve in Philly

 

[Bryant]

Hey trust me..... I was only picking at you. You have been on this forum for quite a bit. I was only trying to provoke a longer response. I certainly didn't intend it to hurt your feelings in any way. I got what I wished for and it was a great reply. I could have put a smiley at the end of it and made it clear I was just f'''king with you, but I like to keep people guessing occasionally.


Bryant

......What? Perhaps you wanted a longer answer? Fine, I'll provide it.


Like Wyvern said below, I couldn't imagine a life without metal.

Bryant what,s with your don't have a heart comment, simply because I gave a quick answer? I had written a longer answer but between the save button not working and getting logged out, it was lost.

 

[Bryant]

Great reply. I am not going to quote the whole thing. We only have so much server space here. >~ As far as outdoing myself. The problem is that most of us have been here for TOO LONG. This was almost like a noob question/post. That is why we haven't had a post like this in a while.


Bryant

The damn server fault on me while I was making the post , anyway, here it goes:

Great thread Bryant, you have outdone yourself!



Why I love heavy metal? Because I do, because I can.

 

[Bryant]

That is a great perspective on it. To further iterate, life would be easier (in some ways) say if we were dogs. We would like to eat, sleep, bark at noises, get pet, sniff butts and pee on stuff. Yes I am going somewhere with this......It is a little more demanding being a person. While I don't "always" listen to metal, I would say it is more than 95% of the time when I "choose" to listen to music (the radio in the shop at work notwithstanding.) I have metal music that fits just about every mood I could possibly be in. It is like an old friend.

Bryant

Great post Wyv. Very introspective.

One thing that Chuck Klosterman in Fargo Rock City wrote that always struck home with me (to paraphrase):

"Metal doesn't judge you. When you come home after a shitty day at school or work, your CDs are always there for you. Your heroes always have something to say and are a way for you to vent off steam. Metal is like an old friend that you can vent to, vent with. When you put on a CD, you're among friends. For most metalheads, it kept us away from drugs and crime and kept us sane in an insane world."

 

[Bryant]

Nice answer. We have many here that English is not their first language. There are a few posters who learned much of their English from this forum.


Bryant

I'm writing only a short answer, because my English is not sooo good!

I like Metal because...

...it's the only music that makes my heart beating very loud with the rhythm of the sound and gives me a prickling feeling in my stomach.

 

[CAlexanderParra]

I like metal because it sounds cool. Haha

 

[Wyvern]

The problem is that most of us have been here for TOO LONG. This was almost like a noob question/post.

Damn true, we sometimes get to a stagnation point. Glad that you come with this one, again you have bring a breathe of fresh air to the place. I guess sometimes we try to be too serious to show how civilized we are at UMOS, maybe we need to loosen ourselves, lighten up, joke a bit more, ask "noob" questions. Because metal in the end is about fun, the fun of being alive, if you don't love fun how you're gonna love metal?

 

[Alteredmindeath]

Im not going to sit here and yap just to impress people that want to read epic posts. Of course metal rules, metal pisses off the old lady, it has heart, wit, skill, and balls. You need a better answer, go blast some metal in your car and look at the expressions of peoples faces. Those are some reasons why Metal kicks ass it shocks the unhealthy mildly mannered. Metal is about rebellion, breaking rules, spitting in authorites face. ITs the reason why life is worth living besides a piece of some hot ass.

 

[sumairetsu]

Why do I love Metal?

This is the only form of music that can make the ringing in my ears so loud that people hear it from blocks away.