Metal...just that.

A lot of people say that you should live life in such a way that when you are done and dusted you should have no regrets about the way you went about it in the first place. Well I say thats impossible, because there is no chance in hell that you'll not have regrets. Face it, you WILL have that nagging sensation at the back of your mind for not doing some thing or the other. But the point is :: Why am I writing all this in the first place ?? ... maybe its a way to give vent to my regrets... or maybe its because I have nothing else to write about. Anyway my biggest regret (yeah wiseguy I DO regret certain things already even if im only 19) is missing the Iron Maiden gig in Mumbai a few months ago. Yeah you could say that I can attend some other concert but then again in India metal gigs aren't exactly dime a dozen especially of the calibre of a Maiden gig. Now I can well imagine what you must be feeling... "whats so great about metal ?" ...you know how I know that... well thats the exact question all my family and a lot of my friends ask me... "why metal..? its just noise !!"

Before going any further Id like to say :: NO ITS NOT "JUST NOISE" !!!!!

If you ask me, metal cannot really be explained... you need to feel it, you need to get to know it, you need to let it flow through your body, through your veins, through your blood,... and THAT is what metal is and that is what it stands for. It is music that needs to be not just heard but to be lived, to be understood. As any metal fan, or metalhead, would tell you, there is no feeling equal to the arenaline rush you get when you are headbanging to a good metal song. Metal is something that stays with you, its always there for you, especially when you are sad, depressed or just generally mad at something, it gives you company and makes you belong. It is music that is about YOU, yes you,its about individuality, its about your fears, your desires, your questions, your feelings, rather it BECOMES you. So the next thing you ask is "what about the guy screaming into the mic ?" . Well I ask you, "why dont you listen to him for a change ?". Most metal songs have intense and thought provoking lyrics. As mentioned in the documentary "Metal : A Headbanger's Journey", metal confronts what we would rather ignore, it probes that which we'd rather forget, it challenges things we fear and shy away from and maybe...well, and maybe thats why metal will always have the tag of outsider in the world of music. You know, if you dont get that particular feeling, if you dont feel those goosebumps, that thrill, that exhilaration, when you listen to metal, then probably you will never understand it but... know what? Thats okay.

One point id like to make, before anyone gets started here, is that there are metal songs that are not worth listening to, then again you cant expect it to be all hunky dory, i mean even Shakespeare wrote some quite average stuff. But then its again all about opinion and as a wise man once said, "Opinions are like ass-holes, every person, however dumb, has one"...But even if you dont like metal as a genre, Id suggest you watch the documentary "Metal : A Headbanger's Journey" at least to get to know a bit about this misunderstood and often maligned genre. One more point Id like to raise is that you see news headlines like "Metal fan kills 5", why this discrimination against metal, what about why the guy really flipped ? Maybe that guys favourite computer game was Age of Empires, and favourite food was say, Chocos...so why not "AoE fan kills 5" or "Chocos eater kills 5" ?? Anyway see the documentary, cuz though its not 100% informative or accurate (cuz again its the documentary makers opinion), atleast you get the general idea.
\m/ metal forever \m/