it's been a while since I've posted a new blog, and I have to admit I've come to write this specific entry for very selfish reasons. Naturally, there are probably far more important things to blog about than myself or my personal achievements and crap like that, but I really wanted to mention this in a place where I felt I had at least a shred of credibility in an online community.
My band recently recorded and released a professional EP. We have made it available for free download - you don't have to pay for it. All that we ask is that you visit our myspace at www.myspace.com/seventhgearmetal - you can find the link to download it there. If you're going to download it, we're very grateful and we would love it if you added us as friends on Myspace or if you joined our group or fan page on Facebook. We're not picky, but any of them is cool. And if you like our music, we'd ADORE you if you told your friends about us. (And if you are doing anything like that, let me know or tell us on myspace and we will shower you with praises and gratitude).
I know this is such a selfish thing to blog about but I really badly wanted to share my tunes with you guys. I mean, I know the music isn't for everybody, but I feel like it's silly to record it and spend huge bucks on it and not share it, y'know?
Anyways, more thoughts will be coming soon. I'm thinking about going a different direction with this blog now - I'm considering writing about teenage issues and how I feel we should be reacting and combatting them instead of reading the news and writing rants once in a while. Thoughts on that?
As always guys, you all rule and thanks muchly for reading. Keep in touch.
Well, I know it's February, but it's taken me that long to complete my list for the top 10 albums of 2008. I don't think anybody expected me to write a blog on this, but the inner critic in me really badly wanted to, so here goes nothing.
The first three albums are in order of first place, second and third. But the last seven are in no particular order. Coming up with a list like this is darn near impossible, and I can't decide beyond my top three.
1. METALLICA - DEATH MAGNETIC
So, anybody who knows me well saw this coming. I'm a Metallica fanatic - more so than almost every other fan out there. I enjoy every album - I can even find things to like in St. Anger. Not because I buy the commercial crap from their label about how great all their records are and what they are meant to be and all that, but because I dig their artistic visions. Every album from them, for me anyways, is a statement. And Death Magnetic was a giant "we're still able to play thrash!" statement. There was only one bad song, and that was the Unforgiven III. The individual efforts from Hammett and Ulrich may not be what they used to be, but dang man, when Hetfield starts throwing out riffs, they're unbelievable and gorgeous. Every song is memorable. They don't run into each other. That alone gives it ten bonus points. The fact that it's got their most complex, biggest, meatiest arrangements since ...AJFA doesn't hurt them much either. Overall, it was my favourite release this year and my playcount shows it. Now, if they could finally get off their butts and put out another album before 2013.
2. MESHUGGAH - obZen
Quite possibly the heaviest release of the year - a sledgehammer to the face with production that doubles the impact - this was Meshuggah's best release in years. I've hated everything I heard from Nothing and Catch 33, so this was an awesome change. The riffs are mind-blowing and the drumming is pretty incredible all-around. Combustion was one of the best Meshuggah tracks I've heard yet - so was Bleed. Everything on here just felt like a destructive sledgehammer, and is original to boot. And producers should take note: this is the way any sort of death metal should be produced. it's the way any sort of thrash metal should be produced. This is how music should sound. A mind-blowing release that's highly recommended.
3. TRIVIUM - SHOGUN.
Please don't hate me for making this my number 3. This band may not be the most metal thing out there, but they finally found a unique sound (or as close to unique as they've found yet) for their fourth studio output. This is everything their first album should have been. They have room to expand. They have room to grow. Their production sounds more balanced than ever before. Their stellar bassist was let out of his cage a little bit more often (about time!). The guitar work is, as usual, incredible, and Heafy upped his vocal ante for sure. He's still not the greatest singer or screamer, but the dude is showing some potential. Almost every song is worth keeping. My only problem is that a couple songs sounded too similar to each other for my liking. But as far as a Trivium record goes, this exceeded all of my (very low) expectations.
That's it for my top 3. The others are in no particular order and will have shorter write-ups.
DEATH ANGEL - KILLING SEASON
An original release with a heavy does of thrash and groove from some of the Bay Area thrashers in the 80s. In my opinion, some truly awesome work going on here. Really catchy, well-produced stuff. Nick Rasculinez seems to be the producer to work with these days.
THE RACONTEURS - CONSOLERS OF THE LONELY
It felt like White Stripes worship at times, but nothing wrong with that. Highly recommended alternative rock album that I'm not too well-versed on, but very much in love with.
TESTAMENT - THE FORMATION OF DAMNATION
Can you say old-school meets new-school meets carnivorous raptor killer? That pretty much sums up my opinion on this beast of an album. Solid guitar parts, solid drum work. The only problem here is, as usual with Testament, the vocals. Guys, get a new singer or start writing some really interesting instrumentals. Otherwise, a really fine, heavy release and one of the best from the old-school thrash bands still around.
THE SHOWDOWN - BACK BREAKER
Talk about a band on fire. I mean, Temptation Come My Way was good, but this release was heavier, faster, and altogether sounded like somebody lit the band on fire and told then "play music to unleash the pain". Holy smokes, what a smack in the face. It sounds a little like metalcore-meets-Pantera-meets-Metallica-meets-a-fr eighter-train-at-80-miles-an-hour. Intense record. This record and Temptation Comes My Way are both recommended.
AMON AMARTH - TWILIGHT OF THE THUNDER GOD
While the band claims not to know what Viking metal is, that describes this album. And what a Viking metal album it is. Heavy, melodic, fast, and brutal. Sounds a little like old-school In Flames, minus the 10,000,000 pounds of melody (which is ironically what this band is still lacking a lot of). More melody would be nice to hear on their next record, but this will make for a strong jumping point.
SLIPKNOT - ALL HOPE IS GONE
Why? One reason: Corey Taylor. The dude is one of hard rock/heavy metal's greatest vocalists ever, and he absolutely propelled this album into the top. Corey: ditch your eight other musicians and find a band that will make really good modern thrash metal a la Shadows Fall or something like that. And join them. Be sure to write a couple killer ballads and I'll be happy. Check out Snuff, Gematria, Psychosocial, Sulfur, and All Hope is Gone to see where this band is going and where it is right now. Download/buy the album to experience the vocal performance of the year, hands down.
UNEARTH - THE MARCH
It's Unearth's best release yet. Heavy, melodic, and less -core than anything else they've done (but trust me, it's still there). Worth getting to here metalcore's best offering of the year.
So anyways, after the last election, Canada was in the same state as before the election:
The Conservatives held the most seats, but still had a minority government. The Liberals had the second-most seats, followed by the NDP. Together, the two parties have more seats than the Conservatives. Finally, the Bloc Quebecois are the last major contenders in the House of Parliament with fourth-most seats. They, combined with the Conservatives, easily form a majority government in terms of numbers.
But politicians being the babies they are, got all pissed off with Stephen Harper for winning. I mean, Stephan Dion was so horrible that his fellow Liberals weren't going to vote for him, so I'm not sure what made him think he would win. Jack Layton, NDP leader, thought he would get more seats than he did. And the Bloc Quebecois, well, they just like their position of power and decided this was a good time to abuse it.
So, immediately after the election, Jack Layton gets this idea. he won't ever rule Parliament by attaining the vote. Neither will Stephan Dion (who was supposed to resign after losing so badly, but probably won't at this point). And of course, the Bloc like their power.
And Jack being the bright monkey-look-alike that he is decides that this is a great opportunity. What if he formed a coalition? That's right, a coalition, ie, a super-party group of other parties. Basically, he negotiated for the past six weeks with the other parties and he, the Liberals, and the Bloc plan on joining to form a coalition party. This automatically gives them the majority in the government.
This means that the election last November was pointless, because the Liberals become the new leaders of Parliament. Stepan Dion would be Prime Minister, and Jack Layton would be Vice Prime Minister (a position the coalition actually created; Canada's never had this position before).
SO HOLD UP!
Hold on a second. Essentially, this is three parties coming together to overthrow the government. Good God. Really? To OVERTHROW the government. Let's consider this a moment. This is actually perfectly legal in Canadian government, although, from my knowledge, doesn't have a historical precedent. But they're usurping power from the elected man and giving it to themselves.
This the most undemocratic thing I've ever heard in my life. I mean, I know that most governments are slowly taking away our rights, but really, this is disgusting. So, everybody who voted in November - their votes are worthless now. All the billions we spent on the election are wasted.
And another thing: this is a time of global economic recession. If this government gets usurped, that means new leaders have to be sworn in, new Throne Speeches (Parliamentary tradition) have to be said, offices need to be moved, and a new budget plan needs to be drawn up. Which sets us back MONTHS, essentially leaving us open to economic recession while these pansy politicians plan their new government.
Oh, and did I mention these people don't have a plan? These three leaders don't have any ambassadors in mind, no plan for finance or education or medicare, nothing. The three of them have such different agendas they probably won't be able to reach a compromise. It's all about power.
So here we go. This is the sort of thing that happens in undemocratic countries. This is what happens when your vote is worthless. And we Canadians only bring it on ourselves by not voting (we have one of the lowest voter turnouts in the world). And more people will never vote again if this happens, and who can blame them when their vote is worthless?
But if nobody votes, then a government can declare themselves an Empire and a kingdom. Say goodbye to democracy. This is the start of a slippery slope.
The only hope is that the Queen of England (still the head of Canadian politics, actually) throws the country into an election instead. And then everybody NEEDS to be voting Conservative. Because clearly, there is no place for three power-hungry narcissists in Canadian politics. This past year has been disgusting for all parties, but this is especially gross.
The way I look at it, it's stripping our right to vote. It's stripping our right to choose an elected leader. It's stripping away our democracy, piece by piece. Soon we won't have one if this keeps up.
And all the three Opposition leaders can say: "We'll be better than the Conservatives".
No, no you won't.
What disgusts me is that everything the Opposition has said about Harper over the past couple years - American butt-kisser, power-hungry, opportunist, etc. - is everything they are right now. Our system with two main parties would be very American. Obviously the leaders are power-hungry, narcissistic opportunists.
But nothing will change. The Canadians are too passive as people.
But if any of you are Canadian and you're reading this, I urge you to do the following, as I am going to do:
- visit 570 News' websites.
- get the Governor General's (the Queen's representative in Canada) email address from the site
- write a email explaining your anger to the Governor General.
It's simple and takes only a couple minutes. We can change things. Thousands have already done what I've just described. Don't let the government strip more of your rights from you. GET ANGRY. GET PASSIONATE. GET OFF YOUR BUTTS AND CHANGE THINGS.
Scream "eff you!" from the tops of the Canadian mountain tops and give the finger to the opposition, because they really, truly shouldn't be given this power.
Canada, now more than ever you are determining your future. And if you sit by and do nothing and this country goes down in flames, which it will if you don't, then i'm going to be moving to the States. Or England. Or...anywhere but here. It's time to cause change.
And don't whine about the future unless you voted! Otherwise, you deserve what's coming. But that's an entirely different blog.
And that's my rant for now. On a separate note, I've decided I should start blogging here again. So I return. I won't be blogging regularly, but I will blog about issues that concern me. Sorry for my long extended absence!
WRITE THE GOVERNOR GENERAL AN EMAIL! LET'S GET PASSIONATE, CANADA! Save your country!
Let's start with this: I am Canadian. I say it proudly. I love my country. Like every country, I believe some things could be changed, but I don't have many complaints.
Although I can't stand political leaders.
So, check this out. Earlier this year, Canada's Prime Minister (Mr. Stephen Harper) created a new law that essentially meant that like, the United States, Canada would have an election once every four years after the election date. This meant that a majority in Canadian politics would not be allowed to overstay their welcome or call an early election because the opposition is weak (a dirty trick that is employed more often than I would like). That being said, if the government was in a minority position (ie less than half the seats in Parliament were held by the leading party - there are four major players in Canadian politics), then the opposing seats in the House of Parliament could still force an election by voting down the party with the most seats in a vote of non-confidence.
Now, Stephen Harper was Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative party (who I have supported since the Liberals started misspending our money on frivolous vacations and big-screen TVs for their leaders in many widely-covered scandals). Stephen Harper created this law, and less than a year later, breaks his own law to call an election because he thought the Opposition was weak and he believed he could get a majority government. In essence, he was saying to the Canadians "I know I changed things, but I changed my mind and just broke a law. And I'm not sorry."
That was a bad move. Harper won the election in November, but mostly because of that one bad move, he did not get the majority he wanted. The other parties were very surprised, indeed, ANGRY about his victory because they believed they would make better leaders. This only proves that they don't understand Canada.
The reason people stuck with Harper is because he's been saving Canada from an economic recession. Yes, we're hurting a little bit, but we're the envy of the world right now because we're still pretty fine. We're okay. Far better off than the U.S. So, he's been doing a good job and the people knew it.
Jack Layton, leader of the NDP (New Democratic Party) is a moron whose spending plans would cost billions of dollars a year and are unnecessary. He also lacks an appropriate understanding of the health care system present in Canada, which basically means he doesn't have a chance of winning.
The Liberal leader, Stephan Dione (who is French), is also a fool. He never answers questions properly, and most of what he says is "The Liberals would be...be...be...be...better than the Conservative government". He speaks poor English and is basically a temporary leader for the Liberals until they can find somebody better.
The final leader, Gilles Duceppe, is the leader of the Bloc Quebecois, a Separatist party in Quebec. What his party wants is to separate Quebec from the rest of Canada and form their own nation (essentially a stupid idea since they would still depend on Canada for all their needs). However, his party has a high approval rate in Quebec (nobody living outside of Quebec can actually vote for them) - high enough that he gets enough seats in Parliament to become a major political power. Ironically enough, his party usually decides what laws get passed when the NDP and Liberals gain up against the Conservatives. If they side with the NDP and Liberals, they can outvote the Conservatives. If they side with the Conservatives on an issue, they can outvote the opposition. This is ironic because a Separatist party who can only be voted for by a minority of the population of the country controls our policies. It is considered bad form to try and align your party with the Bloc Quebecois in politics because of the fact that they are Separatists.
Read Pt. 2 for the rest of my rant, because it's going to get interesting!
The world is the strangest place. It's really kind of funny. And sad too. Some of the stuff we all laugh at is stuff we do ourselves. Take for example, celebrities. We watch the tabloids and we celebrate every time one of them slips and falls. It's ridiculous because if we were watched by poparazzi 24/7 then we would all realize that we're the same as the celebrities are - we keep sinking lower and lower until we're jumping on chairs during our interview on Oprah (Tom Cruise, for those of you who don't get the reference).
Really, though. Think about this: how many people do you know that are drug addicts or alcoholics or, frig, maybe even both? Maybe you're like that, I don't know. The point is, all of us know that Tom Cruise. He was the class clown in high school. We all know that Avril Lavigne. She was the slut in college. So really, we're not all perfect and we should stop acting like we are.
Does anybody even understand why celebrities are the way they are? Does anybody understand why people do the crazy things they do? I can tell you: we do what we do to find fulfillment. It's the pursuit of happiness, one of your three all-important American liberties that a lot of Conversative Christians hold as dear to them as the Ten Commandments. People have this hole in them that they need to fill up, so they go looking for any way possible - sex, drugs, alcohol - to fill that whole and then they wonder why they still feel so empty this morning. (I'll give you a hint - it's NOT because you were puking that alcohol back up last night).
It's honestly because we're all fallen. We're all fools. We don't have any sense of morals and wonder why we can't seem to make ourselves happy. We fake love, money and ourselves. We don't know how to be real anymore. We get lost in the shuffle. We just feel plain lost. Maybe if people started going to church instead of the mall on Sundays, they'd find some happiness. They would find some fulfillment.
How low will you go before you realize that you're only sinking in your own wetsand?
Why do I play guitar? I guess that's the million dollar question. It's something maybe I should have blogged about a long time ago. I don't think I ever really thought about. The thing with me is that I've always liked music in general; I never said "I can't play this instrument because you can't make good music with it". At the same time, I never said "I have to play that instrument because I love the music you can make with it". I've always done what I wanted to do with music for alterior motives.
I've had training with many instruments, but the three that I stuck it out the longest for are trumpet, piano, and guitar. I think I picked up the trumpet because I was already learning piano and the trumpet was shiny and available at my elementary school. And it was loud. I like loud music; if I'm listening to classical music on my stereo, it's gonna be loud. I probably started playing piano because my family decided that I should play piano. It was the first instrument I really had an experience with. I stuck it out with that until I began grade six piano work, and then I quit. Looking back, quitting may have been stupid. But I was tired of it. At that point, I wanted to play more than classical music - I wanted to do something contemporary. But my teacher wasn't very good - very classically-based, which isn't good for a child - and didn't really endorse that. So, about a year after I started playing guitar, even though everybody told me not to, I quit learning piano.
I can still play piano, but I just didn't continue taking lessons. This was around the same time that I started to solely focus on the guitar - in grade nine. I'm in grade twelve now.
But what led me to guitar? Like I said before, I started playing guitar a year before I started playing piano. But I had wanted to play guitar since I was a child. We have a photo in my house of me playing a broom like it was a guitar when I was about three years old. In the photo, I'm sitting in this white lawn chair in our backyard (before we moved to where I'm living now, I believe). And I've got this broomstick in my hand, and I'm holding the stick part like it's a fretboard and the bottom of the broom - the part with the brush - served as the body.
At the time, I don't know if I had heard much music.
And around grade five, a few of my friends started playing guitar. I think one of them tried to teach me how to play a G chord. I thought he was a great player, but all he knew was G, Em, D and Am. I was a little jealous.
One of the things I suppose you have to know about me is that (although I don't admit it) I probably have a problem with jealousy. But it's not really about objects so much as talents. If I see somebody doing something and I decide I want to be able to do said thing better than he/she can, I'll set out to do it. I have this natural drive to be the best at everything (except schoolwork, because somewhere in the back of my mind I decided it doesn't matter).
But I didn't learn guitar after I saw my friend playing. No, it took another couple years. In grade six, I went camping with a friend and I saw a teenager playing acoustic beside a campfire.
I went home and told my parents I wanted to play. I convinced them I was serious, so they bought me a guitar. I didn't practice much for at least a year to a year and a half, so I'm lucky to be where I am today with it.
That's the reason I started to play. Really, it was just to be better at something than somebody else. It's not necessarily a good thing - it's led to some ego issues, I admit, and it's led to an inability to take compliments well because there's always one person who's better than me.
You can't be the best at anything. It's impossible.
I'm going to make a prediction: my aspiration will be the death of me. My aspiration to be bigger than Metallica will drive me into the ground slowly, piece by piece, until I die of starvation or live on the streets. All because I can't handle a little jealousy.
I feel like I've written too long. Have I written too long? Maybe you're thinking I'm going emo - I assure you I'm not - but I have a lot on my mind at the moment.
On Thursday, I'm heading south from snowy Canada and going to Florida for a week. I'm very excited. If I see a Macbook when I'm in the States, I'll probably purchase one. I hope I see one on my travels. Wish me luck, and if I don't speak to you again for a while, I wish you all a good Spring Break!
Forgiveness is a somber subject. It's not just something you can jovially discuss. Obviously, the rule "forgive and forget" generally comes into play whenever forgiveness comes up. But is there an exception? Is there ever an exception? Is there a reason to not forgive?
I don't have the answers to these questions.
But don't you just get so freaking angry when people don't understand how hard it is for you to forgive certain people? "I went through the same thing and I forgave people". Good for you. You're not me.
I have a problem with forgiveness. Well...that's not really true. I have a problem with four or five people and forgiving them. But I don't want to talk about why. I don't want sympathy, I just want people to understand: I can't forgive certain people! Deal with it!
Forgiveness kind of goes hand in hand with the Art of Balance, or what I call the Art of Balance. It's what I call the juggling act in life between happiness and peace-keeping. You have to sacrifice a little part of yourself by forgiving people. But forgiveness is a double-edged blade. You're unhappy about forgiving people, but unhappy if you don't. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Confused? So am I. Life is the Art of Confusion. Have you ever had one of those days where everything's going right, but yet your relationships feel so...wrong? How is it that one day, somebody can be your friend, but the next, avoid talking to you? I don't understand. What did we ever do, right? I'm beyond confused. I don't understand people anymore, and I'm tempted to let go and not try.
These days, I take solace in heavy metal (what else is new?). And to be honest with you, heavy metal is perfectly describing how I feel these days. Aggressive, confused and hypocritical.
I like to think my blogs are unusual because they like to give you the answers to life's problems. But not today. Today my blog is average, because I'm describing what I don't understand. If you get it and feel like sharing, please do. I am confused.
For those of you that do not know of the Dimbag Darrell Abbott, allow me to
briefly fill you in: he was a heavy metal legacy and a guitarist who appeared
on no more than twelve records and was the sole guitarist for Pantera,
Damageplan, and Rebel Meets Rebel. Those of you that listen to my music
or have read my profile know that I am a metalhead, and Dimebag is one of my
favourite guitarists. He was shot and killed on December 8th, 2004 by a
crazed fan Nathan Gale. Please read this entry on Wikipedia to gain a
full understanding of the murder of Dimebag Darrell (just read the part about
his death): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimebag_Darrell
A follow-up criminal investigation went on
to reveal Nathan Gale was a paranoid schizophrenic who believed the band
members of Pantera "could read his mind, were stealing his thoughts, and
laughing at him" (Wikipedia).
This was a tragic day in music history, regardless of whether one was a fan of
metal or not. Rarely is a musician assassinated, let alone one who had
influenced as many people as Dimebag Darrell had. Vigils were held.
People mourned. The metal world had not experienced anything like this
since Cliff Burton (of Metallica) suffered a tragic death in November 1986.
To add insult to injury, an arts critic named William Grim posted an article on
the Internet called "Aesthetics of Hate: R.I.P. Dimebag Abbott, & Good
Riddance". To save you the tribulation of looking up this article
yourself, here’s the link: http://www.quickrob.com/weblog/?p=1074
This article inspired Machine Head's song
"Aesthetics Of Hate" from their 2007 album The Blackening.
Seeing as this article was published three years ago, I know I am a little late
to offer my two cents. But, you've read this far and I assume you'll read
further to see my personal opinion of the article and of William Grim's
prejudism.
Grim makes many legitimate points, believe it or not. I agree with him
that rap isn't really music anymore. And Dimebag Darrell was no Bach or
Mozart, and I can easily acknowledge Bach as perhaps the greatest composer who
ever lived. His music is timeless and perfect. Mozart, on the other
hand...I'm not saying I can do better, but apart from "Requiem", most
of his work is full of fluff; that is to say, it leaves something to be
desired.
Despite the fact that Bach and Mozart are both better writers than Dimebag, I
still find Pantera much more entertaining than either of them simply because
the music is faster-paced, easier to swallow, and more fun for me to personally
listen to. So perhaps I am biased, but Dimebag Darrell was no abhorrent
piece of filth like Mr. Grim claims.
Let's take a look at the two things I consider to be most offensive in this
article - and if you appreciate any form of music or social liberty, you'll
more than likely agree with me. First of all, Grim lambastes heavy metal
and its fans and plasters the genre with every stereotype the Conservatives
have thought up for it over the year, none of which are true. Here's some
direct quotes:
On heavy metal music:
"The squalor, inhumanity, filth (both in the metaphorical and hygienic
senses), depravity, ugliness and ignorance of everything that heavy metal
represents..."
"I cannot use the noble term music in a description of heavy metal."
"Haydn and Beethoven are numerous steps further along the evolutionary
trail than Dimebag Abbott."
"It would be wrong to ignore Mr. Abbott's complicity in contributing to
the soul-deadening culture of death, ugliness, depravity and inhumanity."
On Dimebag Darrell:
"He was an ignorant, barbaric, untalented possessor of a guitar and large
amplifier system. Freakish in appearance, more simian than human, he was the
performer of a type of "entertainment" that can be likened only to a
gorilla on PCP. Lacking subtlety, wit, style, emotional range and anything
approaching even the smallest iota of intellectual or musical interest, Mr.
Abbott was part of a generation that has confused sputum with art and
involuntary reflex actions with emotion. "
"The murder of even a semi-human barbarian like Mr. Abbott..."
--The other quotes I have already listed also fit Grim's description of
Dimebag.
On heavy metal fans:
"As far as I am concerned, those who advocate a dumbed-down liturgy and
schlocky pop music substitutes for Bach, Handel and the masses of the
Renaissance, are as offensive as the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church
and his perverse sexual politics."
"If we ... don't teach [our children] to realize that Johann Sebastian
Bach is superior to Dimebag Abbott, we have failed as parents and
mentors."
"It was an assemblage of ignorant, semi-human barbarians who were filthy
in attire and manner, intellectually incoherent and above all else, hideously
ugly to the point of physical deformity. Here is a definite case in which the
outer appearance of these "fans" accurately represented the
hideousness of their souls. That the physical deformity of their ugliness was
self-inflicted makes the spiritual tragedy of their misspent lives all the more
tragic."
I suppose I'm an ignorant, semi-human barbarian incapable of forming any kind
of thought sincerity or any kind of abstract art. May my parents be deeply
saddened by the ugliness I possess, and may I forever misspend my life
listening to Metallica instead of Britney Spears and Kid Rock. My
children will be as uncivilized and barbaric as I am. I will end up
teaching them how to hunt with a club and a pre-Mesopotamia-era knife-like
weapon. I am covered in warts and my long hair makes me uglier than the
filthy dog that roams my neighbourhood at night.
And yes, that was all sarcasm. Ironically, the man who wrote this article
wears elitist sun glasses and black golf shirts to disguise the fact that he is
actually obese. And he is balding. I'm not joking; look up his
picture on Google images if you don't believe me.
Clearly, I am quite capable of thought. I am intelligent and open-minded
(poor Mr. Grim only possesses one of those two qualities). I don't drop
the f-bomb every time I open my mouth, and I am far prettier than Grim. I
definitely have more hair. Perhaps Grim forgets that most
metal fans are teenagers and therefore are ugly, acne-covered slobs. Grim
probably doesn't remember or doesn't want to remember, but I bet he was just as
pimply when he was a teen. And how much do you want to bet he listened to
Deep Purple or Aerosmith back in the day? Heaven forbid teenagers me
teenagers and listen to a music for the young. Please Grim, forgive us
for lacking the civilized manners and ideology you seem to possess.
Not only that, but Nathan Gale, as mentioned previously, killed Dimebag because
of his schizophrenia. It had nothing to do with metal music
"encouraging murder". That is both close-minded and uneducated
of Mr. Grim to claim.
Dimebag Darrell was also much better at guitar playing than Grim believes,
perhaps one of the greatest guitarists on the earth. He won practically
every guitar contest in Texas
and was asked to be a judge for them later on. His music earned
international acclaim. This is an affront to his life and certainly a
disgusting way to insult him after he's buried. It's insulting to the
music community as a whole.
The second thing that Grim claims is Conservatives need to be imposing their
views on their children. That's disgusting. You cannot force a
child into believing anything, especially not their parent's views.
Children are meant to create their own opinions, whether they are right or
wrong is neither important nor acknowledgeable. It is through these
opinions that children gain life experience and begin to show maturity.
In fact, if you as a parent believe your children are your clones, then your
children are either lying to you or you do not know your children at all.
They will rebel on purpose because every prior generation is seen as a travesty
to children. Let your children know your opinion, but to impose said
opinion is an abhorrence to mankind. It's the precise reason why
Christianity is a hated religion and exactly why teens invest their time and
money into drugs, alcohol, and sex.
Some other things I have problems with: education does not teach you to
appreciate fine art. That is something you must discover on your
own. Education is there precisely to teach you how what you'll need to
know as an adult and as a parent. It is there to give you more knowledge,
not treat you to art galleries and classical music.
Also, metalheads are not stupid. We are highly intelligent, and our music
often is as well. If you look beyond the commercial metal bands and go
deeper, you discover bands that are deeply dissatisfied with the way things
work and sing about it: their anger covers politics, murders, rapes and general
travesties of mankind. Many metal bands exist to generate anger, but that
anger is supposed to be aimed at close-minded people like Grim and politicians
who have failed their country and the world (need I say Bush?)
Attributing something as common as metal, the third-best selling musical genre
in the world (after rap/hip hop and country), to something as common as
ignorance or ugliness is like saying that all serial killers wear sneakers and
thus sneakers influence serial killers. We all are intelligent enough to
understand that what we wear on our feet does not make us smart or
stupid. It is rather our education and how much work we put into it and
how much time we take to learn during our own private time.
Also, there are many unintelligent people who don't listen to metal.
Consider politicians: most politicians, including Bush and his current members
of Congress, have no idea what to say unless it's been prepared for them by a
speech writer and written plainly on the screen in front of them. And
yes, many metalheads are unintelligent because they are TEENAGERS.
Teenagers do not have very many years of life experience and thus cannot be as
intelligent as a forty-five year old man like Grim. Does Grim even have
children of his own?
Finally, in comparing heavy metal to classical music, Grim proves he does not
listen to the music - otherwise he would know that metal is closer to classical
music than any other genre in existence. For a metal guitar player to not
have a good understanding of classical music is suicide. So, metal can be
considered classical music on steroids.
In closing, it’s obvious that Grim’s
article is a plain attack on heavy metal, its fans, and perhaps even modern
music itself.His ignorant views make a
bad name for Conservative Christians everywhere.
Hey guys! I know this blog isn't serious at all, but it's a good way to get the word out!
I've just recorded a new song! It's called Surreal Skies! I was hoping you guys could check it out and tell me what you think! I recorded it in one take and I didn't have a good mic, so all the vocals sounds like garbage. On the other hand, I think the guitar part is pretty sick for one take, and I also think that it's a kicking song! I'm not going to write out the lyrics for you, but it's all about how we as humans are killing each other for nations that don't care about us and how the world has "Gone down in flames". It's about how we try to keep ourselves up, but ultimately fail because we shoot each other down with machine guns all the time. Enjoy the song! Please comment!
PS. This song has not been finalized by the rest of the band, so be specific with your comments and tell me what you think of the song - the best and worst parts, etc. Thanks a lot guys! This means a lot to me!
A wise man once said that "Music, next to silence, comes closest to expressing the inexpressible." How true these words are! Every solo conveys a meaning, every word used in the lyrics are important, every beat made by the drummer conveys some sort of emotion. The value of music in today's society is, I think, something that is constantly understated, and for good reason: today's music still sucks. (That alone explanes why music sales have plummeted).
The stagnant rock scene and the emptiness of hiphop and rap are destroying music. There's no progression. Things are moving backwards. Things have been moving backwards since 1980. (Actually, they've been moving backward since MTV first debuted Motley Crue, but that's a different story). The last time a band acted like a 4-piece unit instead of a platform for a god-awful singer most people don't care to hear anyways was the late '70's. Of course, that is debatable, because there have always been good bands in the underground. However, the underground does not effect music because it is underground - hence its name. What effects music and consequently culture is the mainstream music. And when people like 50 Cent hit the number one spot on Billboard, I get worried about the current state of our world.
I think it's important to understand that music is not something that predicates what will happen in society. Music is a reflection of society and cannot predict our society's future. So when somebody has a number one single and it's all about "slappin' them hoes", maybe we need to adjust our priorites accordingly. Because the point of life isn't about "gettin' laid every day all the time, every night all the time I'm gettin' laid". Not a wonder the world is so sex-crazed and utterly stupid.
We have no forward progression. When we have a culture that's moving backwards, we end up having a government that's moving backwards. If you don't think the current American government is moving backwards, look at the Homeland Security Act - which gives the American government the right to essentially spy on its people. Or look at the current Presidential candidates - many of which believe that a President does not need to consult Congress before going to war.
If that doesn't sound like a tyranny, I don't know what does. In order to achieve a dictatorship, there are two necessary powers that the ruler needs to achieve. They are as follows: 1. The power to declare war. - We are definitely moving towards this. Currently, the American government can declare war and does declare war (quite regularly, if you haven't noticed - dictators declare war regularly to keep their people in check as well). If Hillary Clinton wins, I doubt she'll consult Congress before attacking another country. In that sense, she'll have achieved one third of what is necessary to become a dictator. 2. The power to create and enforce new taxes. - Interestingly enough, the American Constitution has been invalid since income tax was declared as an emergency tax during wartime. Of course, as you all know I'm sure, income tax was never removed and thus has become a fixated part of the American culture, even in peace times. This voided your Constitution and essentially gave the government (i.e. the President) the power to create and enforce whatever new tax he or she will. Justification, thanks to the power of a euphenism, is no longer necessary.
If that doesn't frighten you, maybe this will. In an article written by Larry Chin for The Intelligence Daily, Larry had this to say: "The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive,
signed on May 9, 2007 declares that in the event of a 'catastrophic
event', George W. Bush can become what is best described as 'a
dictator': 'The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government.' " You can read the whole article at http://www.inteldaily.com/?c=172&a=2073.
What's my point? Why do I go to all of this trouble to tell you about two qualities a dictator must achieve? If I really wanted to get into this, I could go into how a dictator achieves these powers, but the fact of the matter is that does not pertain to this blog.
What does pertain to this blog is that the American political state is hurting. The United States is bleeding. The people are crying all over the world. We need to help them. I am by no means an activist - my sole purpose is to make people think. I don't care to be an activist either. I want to make you think and reach out to one person who will feel led to do something. I want to get something started and let somebody else finish the revolution. I exist as an idea generator.
Here's an idea: fix the current music scene. You probably consider me to be a bloated fool at the moment. "Here he is talking about how many problems there are in the world and he wants to fix music?" That's exactly right. The world needs to be united under an idea. And if music generates those ideas (and it does, because it expresses the inexpressible), then I think music is the most powerful tool at our disposable. Let's harness it! If we can reflect society with our music, reflect the parts of society that need to be fixed. We need to avoid this now-common theme of killing somebody because they slept with our girlfriend (I'm looking at you, Maroon 5) or making a ton of money off of drug dealing (hey Fiddy, that's you!), and we need to especially avoid pointless killings in our songs (hey Eminem - how many times have you killed your whole family now?)
We need to write morally strong music with a thematic element of hope for the hopeless and the conquering of evil. As cheesy as it sounds, I think it's our one remaining hope for peace on earth and goodwill towards man. You can criticize this all you want, but you can't deny that as long as music moves backwards, so does society. If society moves backwards, that leads us to dictatorships and anarchy. We essentially return to the Dark Ages. Is this a problem? Yes it is. We need to avoid it.
Look at today's society. The middle class is slowly fading away. We are seeing two classes start to dominate culture now: the utterly obscenely rich and utterly obscenely poor. Look at the world around you; not your own neighborhood. In today's world, the utterly obscenely rich is everybody in North America and Western Europe. Compare your wages to those of an African family, who could take even one percent of what the average American citizen makes a year and live on it for thirty years. There are two classes. Previously, there were three classes: lower, middle, upper. The middle class, the one most predominantly responsible for instituting democracy across the Western nations, is fading away. We are slowly returning to the way of the Dark Ages.
Let's fix this. Use music. Do what you can. Don't say you can't do anything, because you can always reach out to just one person. If you've changed one person's life for the better, you've done what God put you on this blessed earth for. God be with us as we finish the first decade of the new millenium. I pray we last another.
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Nathan_393's blogs, last updated : July 25, 2009
