Thursday, January 25, 2007

Banging Heads, Revealing Words

He starts to type. He thinks. He is unsure of what to talk about. He is tired, but it is not time to sleep yet. And he is not sleepy. He wants to spend the night spilling his hearts out, but when his fingers touch the keyboard, he still does not know what he should blog about. He is clueless. He thinks. He thinks hard.

And finally he manages to think of something to write about. He reckons he should talk about his love of metal and rock. He is a big fan, and he thinks he should make it clear. He does not play any instrument, and is not a connoisseur of rock and metal, but he loves it much. It is his escape from everything, for just a few minutes. It is his source of solace. The heavy riffs, the guttural voices, the frantic beats. He loves them. But it is not all about them. It is so much more.

He loves metal because of the lyrical diversity and focus of the songs. He admires System Of A Down for being brave enough to be politically charged and observant of world issues. He admires Rise Against for their fast-paced criticism of mankind’s lack of concern for the environment. He admires Jimmy Eat World for voicing out teenage concerns on issues such as heartbreak and school. He admires Deftones for their ethereal qualities and subtle lyrics.

He admires rock and metal for dealing with real issues that do concern people.

Yet rock and metal will always be misconceived.

He knows what people stereotype metalheads as. They see devil-worshippers, senseless lyrics in screaming voices. Talentless groups of people trying to scream their way into stardom. Violent punks that people try to avoid meeting in dark alleys. He understands how these stereotypes come to be, but he feels that they are grossly unjustified and inaccurate.

He has once been a fan of pop, listening to N*Sync and Britney Spears. He has once been a fan of hip hop and R&B, listening to Eminem and Missy Elliott. Yet he is no more. He has been disillusioned by pop, hip hop and R&B. He sees the superficiality of it all. He sees drama queens and self-confessed divas. He sees gangster violence and lyrics that objectify women. He hates the shallowness. He hates the artificiality. He hates it.

And now he is a fan of rock and metal, listening to New Found Glory, AFI, Coheed And Cambria, Bullet For My Valentine, Funeral For A Friend, Lostprophets, Trivium, Taking Back Sunday, Metallica, Blink 182, The Ataris, Trivium, Deftones, System Of A Down, Rise Against, Jimmy Eat World, Billy Talent, Slipknot, Killswitch Engage, Ill Nino, Radiohead, Hawthorne Heights, The Music, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Switchfoot, and many, many more. His interest in rock and metal is obviously not specific to one sub-genre. Emo, Screamo, Pop Punk, Punk Rock, Heavy Metal, Death Metal, Alternative, Progressive Metal, Post-Hardcore, Funk Rock, Gothic Metal, Indie, etc. He listens to them all.

He also appreciates the local metal scene in Brunei. He has listened to [H8], Senjakala, Airholes and Wan Long Kok, and is optimistic about the future of metal in Brunei. He remembers fondly the first gig he went to in Brunei. He remembers headbanging in the moshpit to [H8], Draconaeon, and a few other great bands that performed their hearts out that night. And he also remembers waking up the next day with neck pains, literally unable to turn his neck around because it had hurt so much.

And with that he will end up on a high note.

He signs out

Over and out

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