Anger Management
Just 10 minutes ago, my body filled with an irritated rage at the the sounds of Metallica's Fade to Black emerging from my housemate's bedroom. Not because I dislike Metallica, but because HE was listening to them. How pathetic?
Now hear me out, I'm not an unreasonable fella. Nor am I about to crucify eclecticism... but the manure I've had to suffer spewing from this particular gentleman's vocal chords regarding the tunelessness of my beloved heavy metal is the reason I'm currently blasting Slayer at top volume and writing this blog.
It's a problem that isn't isolated to said Jack Wills donning trend follower, Richard West. It is something I've encountered with many a heavy metal nay-sayer. There's something about the popular metal bands that makes them exempt from the umbrella of "your music" (when referring to the noise that pollutes the air of my bedroom) that I cannot fathom - and this angers me. These bands are MY bands. I listen to them. A lot. I listen to them more than playing guitar hero. I pay my hard earned money to buy their records, t-shirts and gig tickets. And more importantly, I stick up for them.
To me, there's very little difference in listening to Metallica's Fade to Black and listening to Anthrax's Armed and Dangerous or Megadeth's In My Darkest Hour. However, because Metallica went on to record the most popular metal album ever 6 years later, their entire back catalogue is exempt from the tarred brush that other metal suffers from the mainstream parasites. Metallica inspired the majority of bands I listen to that released a record after 1983. Metallica still operate in these circles, taking bands such as Machine Head, The Sword and Gojira on tour with them - all of which means they very much belong to the umbrella of metal.
What is it then, that makes Metallica so acceptable? What is it that makes them so different to other popular metal bands such as Megadeth, Pantera and (to a lesser extent) Black Sabbath? Why shouldn't I get angry when I have to defend the talent of my favourite musicians and those of us that favour the angrier music in life - when I hear someone on the other side of the argument claiming one of MY bands as their own?
My blog here probably doesn't make much sense. And that's due to the fact that I can't make any sense of my anger either. I probably look like a bit of a cretin after this, why should it anger me that one of my favourite bands has another fan? It certainly wouldn't anger me if it was anyone but this particular person listening to it. That's why I should probably just forget it and attend anger management. Maybe I'll come out and listen to high school musical songs, and he'll write a similar blog as to how I've ridiculed him for so long... and now I'm listening to HIS music.