Metal Reviews

a paper involving metal? nice, I did one myself for a sociology subject I was doing a few years back, compared the jazz culture early on when it was viewed as being socially deviant, to the metal culture which has inherited this label, it made for a pretty interesting read and I got great marks for it

also WTF? maximum temperature today (according to this cool thing my brother bought for his bike) was 42 degrees C, now it's raining and about 22 degrees this is just strange

The actual moment that got me into academia was having to write a paper in English Composition 103 when we had to write about a subculture. I was debating between PC gaming nerds and thrash metal. Prof looked at me like blank stare and said why is this even a dilemma for you. I wrote the paper on metal as a form of deviance taking what I had learned from Sociology 101 the semester before. He told me to rewrite it with the insight that metal is a working class phenomenon that points to an apathy created by modern industrial society. So I did. Six years later, I get paid to write about that bullshit.

I think its a working class music at its very core. Even beyond permeating from the working class roots of Sabbath, a lot of the thrash bands from DRI to Kreator's whose vehemently anti-fascist lyrics are a testament to social change in the 80's. The same can be said for a lot of bands I like Graveland, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum, etc. who reacted against the massive Christian morality of the time. Of course you have a lot of naysayers who said that they were middle-class kids who had nothing to worry about, but this does little to alleviate the alienation these musicians had to Christian society.

I take newer bands a little less seriously now, but some break the mold and employ the tried and true aesthetic mainly the French and Finnish metal scenes that still carry the torch so to speak. Regardless of socioeconomic variables, I think bands from those areas of the world make greating fucking black metal.

You don't have to be working class to love it or make it, and being working class doesn't mean you'll love it. But that desire to just really bask in your community, I think, is what gives metal and working class culture a parallel. It almost loses its aura when it devolves into bickering about what bands are better. Like I had a total blast tonight jamming out to some thrash, because I wanted to, but also because I liked bullshitting with DW on the stuff. Those are his jams and I totally get why he loves them. Metal is cool like that sometimes.

the coolest thing about metal is even if someone really hates a band you like it doesn't really matter, no two metalheads will have the same taste and we don't give a fuck if anyone else likes the bands we do, at the same time it's great to compare bands, that's what I've enjoyed most on these forums, hearing bands I didn't know about and just thinking holy shit this is fucking awesome, or nah this just isn't for me, I like seeing what other people like and taking anything I can from that

wow, even by my standards (which are extremely high) the beef vindaloo I just had was spicy, this is coming from a guy who gets the spiciest dish on the menu at an Indian restaraunt, asks for it to be made extra spicy then complains because it isn't spicy enough so yeah think a normal person would have steam coming out their ears right now

Worked 15 hours yesterday. Slept for 3 hours and I'm back at work. High on fire, goatwhore, lo-pan tonight.

damn, speaking from experience three hours of sleep is like nothing

I feel your pain. On my third straight 16 hour day.

About to flip my shit because my fucking copy of Sound of the Beast is in Ohio and I need it here. Now. And the library's copy is checked out until the end of this semester.

Shitty, dude. Can't you find a PDF file online?

Tried.

I guess I'm lucky, my uni provides all my reading material electronically so I always have it right there ready to go, unless my computer doesn't work

What did you end up doing, then?

It's for a paper I'm writing so I'll just use other books and fill in the gaps with ad libbing rather than some poignant thought Mr. Christe might have had.

Having a really satisfying weekend so far. Had a delicious spinachy pizza/quiche hybrid last night, then danced to a live band. Slow dance (St. James Infirmary ) made me want to do righteous/naughty things to the girl I was dancing with, but we were in public and she wasn't my girlfriend so that would'nt've been very appropriate. Today I played guitar, clarinet, piano. Walked my dogs to the beach. It was windy which always makes the ocean really beautiful. Listened to a ton jazz, made pasta, stretched. Even did some productive student loan and grad school stuff. Gonna finish the night off drinking and watching Porgy and Bess.

Not having to work must be nice.

I just ordered a second copy.

You're a hoot.

At the show. Goatwjore was awesome live! Fucking intense! Ate Chinese food with the bassist from lo pan. That was cool. We talked music and shit!

I'm ready to fall
Asleep standing up!