.Editorial - Welcome Back
Metal Reviews

Release year: 2008
Reviewed by Ben

Iron Maiden is the greatest metal band on the earth. The reason I say this is because they have changed my life twice. And both times involve their 1985 live album Live After Death. My first encounter with Iron Maiden happened when I was twelve years old and that can be recounted in my classic review of that LP. A short summation of the whole experience would be that this album was the one that made me realize that my love for heavy metal music would be a life long passion. From that day on every aspect of my life began to revolve around music. If Iron Maiden hadn’t recorded that particular four night run in Long Beach Arena , I probably would be a different person than I am today. I was transfixed by the uplifting, energetic, and aggressive yet melodic music. Dave Murray and Adrian Smith’s guitar work melted my pre teen brain. And to hear Bruce Dickinson in all his glory at the peak of his abilities set the bar impossibly high for other singers to follow. This was when the fire of my being began to burn. I set out to discover the world of heavy music and haven’t looked back since.

I haven’t had a working computer since January. In the interim from then to now I must have read and reread half of my book collection to kill the time. One of them was the Run To The Hills biography that chronicles the tribulations of Iron Maiden. Even though I’ve read it a few times already this time through was different. I saw a lot of founder, bassist, and main composer Steve Harris in myself. His attitude, determination, honesty, and a refusal to ever let anyone tell him what to do with his life or career were traits that I recognized. The only glaring separation between us is that he can play an instrument and I cannot.

In February of this year Live After Death was released on DVD for the first time. I’ve watched that bastard over thirty times now. Even though I’ve heard the audio portion for over half my life I had not seen one second of actual live footage from that night in LA. Just like when I listened to the cd for the first time, I was in a daze. Everything that I loved about the album sonically was transposed to the visual element as well. Sheer perfection on every front, from the way Bruce controlled the crowd to seeing a thirty foot, mummified Eddie burst out of a giant Sphinx tube behind a wall of flame. I was inspired again. I became excited about music in a way that hasn’t happened in a long time.

A month ago I was at my friend Mikey’s house that he shares with his band mates in the indie / prog rock band Casetta. We were dicking around bored and the Halo connection was fried so we had nothing to do. I can’t remember how a guitar came to be in my hands but he showed me how to play the intro riff to Crazy Train. I hate that fucking song. I am so sick of hearing it that every time it comes on the radio, or TV, or anywhere at all I end up muttering “god dammit” and get mad if I can’t change the station. However, the first run through on an actual instrument that my fingers were playing sounded semi coherent. Alright so what if I move my fingers on the frets like this? Ok, this position makes it easier to play, now let’s work on speeding it up. Before I realized it two and a half hours had flown by but I nailed that riff. Mikey then showed me basic power chords and told me to “just listen to what sounds right.” It was then that I realized that even though I know exactly squat about “professional” music theory, listening to it for the majority of my life has given me an ear. I mean I write album reviews, I know what sounds good to me and I know what doesn’t. All of a sudden as I was switching from fret to fret I heard the music for the first time. I could tell what progressions sounded like they belonged and what sounded like a mess. When I learned this basic little detail he told me, “that’s a lot of what your music is based on.” Driving home with my mp3 player on shuffle I almost dropped a load in my pants. I’ll be damned if he wasn’t right. The majority of the songs, no matter who the artist was, sounded the same. Not the same in the sense that they were all rip offs of each other but that they are all based on the same principle foundation. I could hear where the melody would go and it just made sense for the first time. For all of my boasting when I was younger about how,“ hurhurhur metal is the most complex music and therefore the best, hurhurhur Manowar rules!" I was left speechless and feeling slightly red in the face. Was it really this simple all along?

Watching Live After Death (it was probably in the barely legal range of viewings now, hovering between sixteen and eighteen) again and seeing how Adrian, Dave, and Steve played I noticed where they were going on the fretboards during the riffs. I paid attention to how solos were executed, and I leered like a horny old man in front of a high school campus at their picking hands and noticed their technique and form. Out of nowhere a thought shot through my mind, a thought that I believed to have been buried and left behind years ago. “You know, if you kept at it you can play like that.” What the hell? I tried performing music before and it almost killed me. My editorial A New Beginning was written shortly after that disastrous encounter with reality. In 2003 I was deadset on being a metal singer. Never mind I didn’t know the first thing about singing, I was going to follow in Dickinson’s footsteps. I flew out to Virginia to meet up with Jonah and Noah for the first time to record a little demo. Here was my shot at the big time and how lucky was I to have two uber skilled musicians backing me up? Bursting with excitement, I went into the studio setup that their friend Paul had in his bedroom and was prepared to be the next Bruce Bruce. We even decided to cover The Trooper. Oh man, even now just thinking about how that recording came out makes me cringe. Imagine a tone deaf retard that wasn’t even shouting in key. I was crushed but I was also incredibly lucky. My friends and fellow musicians that day, and who I consider two of my dearest friends now, told me straight up that “yeah, you can’t sing man.” I thank them for being that honest with me and not sugarcoating it. Feeling like I just had my skin flayed from me, I was so mortified from that that I just said “fuck it” to ever singing again or learning an instrument. However, I love this music too much to just up and run away from it and that was when I began to dive into the business side of the music industry. I immersed myself into my work here at Metal Reviews. I did so many reviews and so many interviews from 2003 through 2005 that I am very proud of today. I also began to study up on how labels are run, how bands really live and act, royalties, publishing rights, everything. If it was music related I researched it. If I can’t play metal then by god I’m still going to give what I can to it and the path I decided to tread is one that I hope leads me to being an A&R rep.

So, to have that notion of me learning an instrument rear its head again caught me off guard. Why is this thought even kicking around back there in that spongy lump of gray matter? I then remembered all the times I would be staring off somewhere “writing” songs in my mind. Hell, I’d spend hours just thinking of cool solos, or sweet riffs. Eventually it would end up just like when I’d think about what I would do if I ever won the lottery. I’d get frustrated and think, “Cool beans bro, you just wasted three hours of your life because you suck at playing music, so why are you thinking of songs?” Hey. I learned Crazy Train didn’t I? When I picked up that guitar in their rehearsal room I couldn’t play a note of it at all. Now just call me Randy Rhoades baby! Maybe not, but I did learn something that was probably one of the most important musical discoveries of my life. I discovered the secret behind your face heavy metal. Behind your wall of dizzying solos and your orchestration you still have to follow the rules and now I know those rules and fuck you again, I can learn to play by them too. The next day I borrowed my room mate’s acoustic and began banging away. The day after that I went over to Mikey’s and played his bass for over ten hours. I began to write music.

Ok, little four chord ditties aren’t my masterpieces by any stretch of the imagination but that’s more than I’ve accomplished before. When I’d learn a new technique I practice it like hell, (it took four hours of scales but I now have control over my little finger) and implement it into my playing. Slowly these songs are taking shape. I know that I have months, maybe years to go before I get to the level that I want but the simple fact that I am actually getting better at playing guitar and bass is something that makes me so excited that I can’t even see straight. The one thing in life that I thought eluded me is now attainable. Now it’s all up to me as to whether or not I will actually make something of myself as a musician.

I’m ready this time. I’m ready for this war. And to go to war one needs to be armed with the right weapons. When I jumped into singing I was completely in the dark about music other than I loved it. No wonder I got beat the hell up like I did. This time it’s different. I look at what I’ve accomplished and experienced so far and I realize that I am more than adequately prepared. From talking to my friends and peers that have gone on with their careers in bands, (on the local, independent, and major levels) to the many interviews and encounters with literally hundreds of bands, my knowledge of music and the industry in 2008 is light years beyond what it was five years ago. Another shell that I have in my arsenal is personal experience. A five week corner to corner tour of the USA isn’t the end all be all of “life on the road” living but it is more than most of the population and definitely most metal fans have gone through. I know what its like to feel like the loneliest person on earth hundreds of miles away from home and I also know the elation that comes when being on stage. My guest vocals during Hero with Nightrage down in Florida still is the best four and a half minutes of my life so far. By the way, not that death metal is any less hard to do than clean singing, but I actually did decent that night. Everyone on the tour that saw it were genuinely surprised. I guess I should drink more before singing, ha. The wealth of information I’ve accumulated so far is a huge benefactor to me but most importantly, I am now hearing it with virginal ears again. Now it’s just the process of syncing those ears with my hands.

Somehow it makes sense that I would come back to wanting to play again. My whole life has been nothing but music so how could this aspect be left out of it completely? What almost scares me though is that those crazy ambitions of my teenage years are coming again and stronger than ever. If I do anything that I truly love then I don’t do it half assed. I take it all the way and I don’t give up. I’ve interviewed the majority of my metal heroes and at age twenty three I was starting to feel old. If I am going to be serious about learning the guitar (both bass and traditional) then I am going to take it as far as possible. I want to have my foot on a monitor onstage in Madison Square Garden. I want to write that song that makes someone feel better about their life. I want to create something so beautiful, so pure, as a song that gives someone strength. The type of song that gives a kid out there the courage to stand up to his attackers, to go up and ask that girl out, to dream of a life that is better than the one they are living, to make someone believe that happiness is not out of reach and the highway to bliss is paved with my song. Basically, to write a song that affects someone the way that Tobias Sammet, Tony Kakko, Steve Harris, and Glenn Tipton have done with me. Anything less will be a failure.

It may be a few years, or it might not happen for a score or two more than that but this raging desire to create has consumed me so much that I know it will come to fruition one day. A wellspring of creativity has opened up in me that I wasn’t even aware ran that deep. Something like that just does not go away. As this long ass editorial comes to a close, think about the things in life that have inspired you. What have you gone back to that you thought was cast away and now returned? Finally, when this little dream of mine gets a hard product, you’ll know. And if you don’t like it, blame it on Eddie and Iron Maiden

Killing Songs :
Ben quoted
Other albums by .Editorial that we have reviewed:
.Editorial - Horny For Harpsichord reviewed by Ben and quoted
.Editorial - Why I need to take a break from writing for MetalReviews reviewed by Alex and quoted
.Editorial - USA / Germany Thrash Match: Big Four Style reviewed by Ben and quoted
.Editorial - Re: Reissues and Remasters reviewed by Ben and quoted
.Editorial - A Brief Run Through Power Metal (in 3 1/2 stages) reviewed by Ben and quoted
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