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What is metal for you?


Holy Terror

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I'm happy to answer questions. I have no peripheral vision at all. The central vision I do have isn't great. It also takes me a while longer then normal adjusting from light to dark and vice versa. If an area is very poorly lit I won't be able to see at all. The condition is degenerative and will eventually lead to total blindness but as each case is different there's no sure fire way of determining how long my sight will actually last. I think knowing that makes me appreciate my sight more.

 

I totally get where you're coming from with regards to metal. It's what draws me to funeral doom so much - there's powerful emotion behind that music.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Something perhaps slightly odd in this topic but "metal for me" actually points to specific places.  Kind of hard to put into words but a lot of the time when I listen to metal I think of the streets around where I used to work.  I would spend most of my lunch hour sat in my car reading metal mags and listening to metal, therefore they are images that (oddly) play through my mind when I listen to metal.  Also my parents house, where I first discovered metal sits in my head a lot when I have the music going.

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Nostalgia's great, innit? I have nearly the same experience, although it's more about specific moments for me - walking through Chinatown on a hot summer day blasting Satyricon's "Rebel Extravaganza" and looking at faraway buildings through hazy air; a specific (productive) day in my first life drawing class at college with "Still Life" on the headphones; rounding a corner on elevated train tracks in Queens, surrounded by the empty tops of residential buildings, with Voices' "London" seeming like the perfect backdrop. Laying on my couch in my old apartment the first time I heard the "Various Failures" edit of Swans' "Why Are We Alive", I felt like I was floating. 

I really miss having more free time and privacy to enjoy music in that way. With the exception of "London", I haven't had the right combination of environment, mood, and musical atmosphere in years. 

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I don't get a lot of that in my music generally. The times when I do tend not to be positive either tbh. It's why I tend to avoid the dsbm scene - it puts me straight into the mindframe from the very worst periods of my battle with depression.

 

Having said that the other day walking through the city whilst Maiden's 'The Prowler' was playing - pretty cool.

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  • 10 months later...

I'm going to necro this thread, cause it's such a good one. 

I think that metal is one of the greatest music genres in existence. While most other music genres is very much restricted, metal can just be about anything, or almost any play style. Different metal sub-genres has the ability to inspire, and make you feel a wide range of emotions, be it inspiring, happy or jolly, sad or melancholic. 

I can't imagine my life not listening to metal. Metal has been there in hard and happy times and it has helped me come to terms with anger and sadness. I regularly listen to metal, pretty much every day, and if I go over extended periods without listening to metal I can get pretty grumpy and negative.  

 

"Without music, life would be a mistake." Friedrich Nietzsche
 

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  • 3 months later...
  • 2 months later...

Before I was introduced to metal I had heard a ton of music. Rock, hard rock, jazz, pop, country, classical, even rap..... But none of it spoke to me and entered into my soul. When I heard my first distorted power cord I felt something, like I had finally found someone who spoke my language. I felt my heart skip a beat and time stopped... I was in Love.

Now 10 Years later I am still on my heavy metal journey and I get a thrill when I meet fellow brothers and sisters in metal. I feel Like a child tasting candy for the first time whenever I find a new band. I do not like driving, but heavy metal makes it awesome! I'm not a workaholic, but heavy metal makes me want to work harder! I'm was never an outgoing individual, but metal makes me get out there and want to experience life! Metal is the juice to my Battery. Heavy Metal is not just my music, it is who I am.

 

\m/

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On 2016-2-14 at 10:33 AM, FatherAlabaster said:

Nostalgia's great, innit? I have nearly the same experience, although it's more about specific moments for me - walking through Chinatown on a hot summer day blasting Satyricon's "Rebel Extravaganza" and looking at faraway buildings through hazy air; a specific (productive) day in my first life drawing class at college with "Still Life" on the headphones; rounding a corner on elevated train tracks in Queens, surrounded by the empty tops of residential buildings, with Voices' "London" seeming like the perfect backdrop. Laying on my couch in my old apartment the first time I heard the "Various Failures" edit of Swans' "Why Are We Alive", I felt like I was floating. 

I really miss having more free time and privacy to enjoy music in that way. With the exception of "London", I haven't had the right combination of environment, mood, and musical atmosphere in years. 

This. 

As pointed out in my Top 10 History Metal post in the 'Top 10 of Any Given Genre' thread (check it out), what metal offers me personally is something much more than music, and even something more than a great atmosphere. It's often a connection with an existing interest I have, like history, or partying, girls, or philosophy. That's why the lyrics of any given album/band are important to me too because they reinforce this vibe. 

As far as places and music going together - big time. I've been lucky to travel around a bit (I've been the wild rover for many a-year, and I spent all me money on whisky and beer). Highlights include listening to Norwegian black metal while on a boat in the Norwegian fjords; walking around the streets of Oporto and Lisbon listening to Moonspell (The 'Sin/Pecado' album is exclusively good for this with its strong exotic feel), and climbing the ancient Israeli fortress Masada (besieged and eventually conquered by the Romans) before the dawn listening to Fleshgod Apocalypse's 'Labrynth' album - something I'll never forget. 

Metal sounds great by itself, but it really complements 'life' as well. 

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I have to say, although I don't want to sound overly dramatic or whatever, metal music is really an important pressure valve for me. It helped me a lot of times in my life to overcome things and find the strength when other stuff didn't work, and it still does. I also have to create metal music because that's the only way I can vent myself and clean my head from frustration and anxiety, gives me the release and satisfaction that I really can't find somewhere else and it really helpes me to think healthy and live my life in a healthy way. So, it becomes more of necessity rather than just having fun. I mean, it's fun, but it's also more than that. I'm really happy that I found something like that in my life. 

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  • 2 years later...

I like (and love) a lot of non-metal music as well, to the extent that it can get me into ecstasy, but with metal (especially black metal) there is often a sensation (maybe a realization, or maybe just an illusion) of a deep understanding on a level that unites both philosophy and emotion, which I seldom have with other music.

An attempt at self-reflection: I'm a person who, confronted with a problem, or even just a task that needs to be done, always starts with giving a synopsis of everything that possibly could go wrong. By doing this, I have all these possibilities off my chest and they don't bother me afterwards, but other people often find this very annoying, and seem to think it is like inviting bad omen (which I find ridiculously superstitious). Maybe this is why I feel so connected with the alleged negativity in black metal...

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  • 2 weeks later...

What metal and horror movies are for me is entertainment, fun and an escape from reality. Something I enjoy and takes my mind off my everyday worries/problems.

 

I know that may not sound like much but our tastes are a big factor in what defines a person. I have very specific tastes that are unpopular. None of my friends are into metal or horror movies. I'm also one of those people who hates almost everything new. I can't talk about entertainment with anyone I know and I'm really nerdy about it.

 

Also I'd say that metal is masculine, not because of lyrics, or growled vocals etc but the distortion itself. Just think, something like Mariah Carey is obviously very feminine. Not that there aren't women into metal, of course there are but I've always seen it as kind of a guy thing like an 80s action movie. You know how men always have their own guy thing they are into be it sports, videogames etc Mine has always been metal.

As weird as this is, I find it really hard to bond with other guys if they're not into metal or horror. Not much to talk about with them. And all of my friends are into rap which I do not like at all. Most of them I met through drinking and drugs even though I am sober now.

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  • 1 year later...
On 2/13/2016 at 5:38 PM, MacabreEternal said:

Something perhaps slightly odd in this topic but "metal for me" actually points to specific places.  Kind of hard to put into words but a lot of the time when I listen to metal I think of the streets around where I used to work.  I would spend most of my lunch hour sat in my car reading metal mags and listening to metal, therefore they are images that (oddly) play through my mind when I listen to metal.  Also my parents house, where I first discovered metal sits in my head a lot when I have the music going.

I have always been quite fascinated with the mental images that come flooding into my mind when playing certain albums and certain bands. Most older familiar music takes me back to very specific places in my head. School corridors, former workplaces, friends' houses and many of the houses and apartments I lived in when that music was new as well as being in the car cruising the streets around them.

Bands like the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel and Dylan take me right back to mom & dad's living room sitting in a kitchen chair pulled up next to the high-fi and record cabinet reading lyrics and scrutinizing the album covers circa the late 60's. That was the first rock music I was exposed to as a young child.

Rambling Man by the Allman Bros puts me in the kitchen having breakfast with my family before school with the radio on as my dad got ready to leave for the train station.

Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd's WYWH and Physical Graffiti put me right back in the middle school corridors and the lunchroom when I was 13/14.

Molly Hatchet, Skynyrd, ZZTop's Deguello, Heart's Bebe Le Strange, Umma Gumma, first two Van Halen albums, Taken by Force, Back in Black all put me right back in my university dorm room '79/'80

Albums like Practice What You Preach, Sonic Temple, Taking Over, And Justice for All, Circus of Power debut, and for some reason the song Sultans of Swing these take me back to my first apartment I lived in briefly in '88 - '89 when I got married the first time. 

Bands like Celtic Frost, Slayer, Sepultura, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Exciter, Candlemass, Social Distortion, Mercyful Fate, Sisters of Mercy, Piledriver, White Zombie, and the albums Master of Puppies, the Black album, Horrorscope and I Hear Black put me back in the house we rented from '90 to '93 when my daughter was born.

Paradise Lost albums Shades of God and Icon put me right back in my '83 Pontiac Grand Prix in those months after my wife had left when I'd cruise the streets aimlessly at night for hours after work with those two albums on either side of a 90 minute Maxwell tape on loop, blasting them as loud as I could stand it over and over. My therapy I guess.

 

Alright that's enough, TMI, I'll stop now but thanks for indulging me.

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2 hours ago, Hungarino said:

Literally an addiction that seems to release metal-enjoyment endorphins into the blood stream. Pressure release, a middle figure to life's frustrations and a celebration of mortality and a way to rage against and embrace the absurdity of the void. 

You forgot Satan. He's going to be upset.

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Well, none of the above.  Music in general for me works on a deep psycho-physical level and provokes emotion rather than evoking memories of places/times, except when I am analysing it which activates a different part of my brain.  Metal does all of this, more intensely and directly than most other music.  But I don't always want to be emotionally engaged, so then I will listen to abstract composed music or ambient music.

 

And this, for those unused to Thatguy, is the kind of wankery I typically indulge in.

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20 hours ago, Thatguy said:

Well, none of the above.  Music in general for me works on a deep psycho-physical level and provokes emotion rather than evoking memories of places/times, except when I am analysing it which activates a different part of my brain.  Metal does all of this, more intensely and directly than most other music.  But I don't always want to be emotionally engaged, so then I will listen to abstract composed music or ambient music.

 

And this, for those unused to Thatguy, is the kind of wankery I typically indulge in.

Having trouble imagining you being emotionally engaged T-Doc. You seem far too rational and low key and stoic for that. Navy as well, he's pretty calm and low key. Hungarino though that's another story, I could totally see him getting exceedingly emotional on the regualr.

I would agree though that music provokes a strong emotional response, that's mostly why we listen to it. I was just saying that certain bands or albums from decades past have the ability to stir up a strong nostalgic response as well. But as you know, 90% of what I listen to is from the current calendar year or from the last few years and for this music there is no nostalgia attachged so no transporting back to the 70's or 80's, new music is pure visceral emotion. 

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2 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Having trouble imagining you being emotionally engaged T-Doc. You seem far too rational and low key and stoic for that. Navy as well, he's pretty calm and low key. Hungarino though that's another story, I could totally see him getting exceedingly emotional on the regualr.

I would agree though that music provokes a strong emotional response, that's mostly why we listen to it. I was just saying that certain bands or albums from decades past have the ability to stir up a strong nostalgic response as well. But as you know, 90% of what I listen to is from the current calendar year or from the last few years and for this music there is no nostalgia attachged so no transporting back to the 70's or 80's, new music is pure visceral emotion. 

My range of emotions are fuck yeah, fuck you, fuck it, and let's fuck. Metal (and music in general) tends to satisfy all of them. So I guess that's being emotionally engaged. I think I'm in the same place as TG, but I just do not have the prose to describe it that way.

And Hungdog Millionaire - the big guy says all is forgiven. Just 27 goats and 50 lashes this time. He was in a pretty good mood.

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I'm sure there's been psychological papers and armchair analyses of this, but I think suppression and oppression makes you appreciate highly emotional culture more. We Scandinavians aren't the most emotionally expressive people (that's what alcohol is for), no big flourishes or dramatic outbursts generally. So I think metal, being extremely dramatic and emotional, is indeed as a pressure valve for many of us. Same with the fervor of enthusiasm that South American and east Asian fans are known for, both regions with very strong societal or religious pressure of conformity. Sure, I'm generalising, but I think you know what I mean.

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