This is an essay I wrote for English 110. It's pretty long, but if you're into metal literature I'd humbly request that you read it. If you're uninterested in metal literature, you're not a metal head (oh wait there aren't any metal heads on this site, I guess my words of wisdom will float unnoticed along with the winds of ages).

Anyways, I'm way more metal now than when I wrote this (bout two weeks ago), I have come to a better  understanding of the things discussed in this essay, but I'm sure it's at least mildly amusing (fyi, this is just the rough draft, I lost the final draft). I'll be writting a better essay, simply for my own amusement and personal philosiphising.

Also I'm going to be conducting a metal head survey for my personal research, so stay tuned for that, I'm gonna type it up in a minute.

Be Your Own God

            Music is all around us, we connect with it and it becomes part of who we are, it is one of the many puzzle pieces of our personality. Who we were, are, and will become is a result of our experiences, our free will, our environment and the people around us. Not only do our personalities develop our taste in music, but likewise our taste in music can develop our personality. Music is a powerful and underestimated force of nature, its influence on the human mind is unfathomable. Music can bring people together, it can heal a broken heart, it can make you want to get up and dance, it can bring about romance, it can bring tears to your eyes, it can make you sleepy, it can make you want to rock out and break everything around you, it can bring about feelings of nostalgia or bad memories, it can make you feel on top of the world or utterly worthless, it can make you laugh and forget your worries, and most importantly, it can inspire us and help us become better people. Some people are more musically active than others, but to most of us, music is a huge part of our lives. Understanding the properties of music, and how to harness this great power is something you have to put a lot of time and effort into, it’s not so much a hobby, but a way of life.

What makes music do the things that it does is not something definite, the possibilities are endless, and what really matters in the end is the interpretation of each individual listener. Music is a theory, 2000+ years of musical evolution has shown that there are exceptions to every rule, and that for it to evolve, we must push the boundaries. This is a recurring theme in the history of music, yet change is not always welcome with open arms. Jazz was born in the brothels of the south, and was rejected by the whites as a form of sophisticated music. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you about rock and roll when it first emerged, and how it was seen as the devil’s music. What seems at the time to be a de-evolution in music by the older generations usually ends up to be a major stepping stone in music history. History tends to repeat itself, you’d think we’d have caught on by now that change and experimentation in music is good, but people have a hard time leaving their comfort zone and don’t take the time to appreciate what just seems to be something strange and unnecessary. Since then, the diversity of music has exploded with the exponential increase in music technology. Ironically, rock and roll was accused of being satanic, with lyrics filled with hidden meanings and metaphors for things that were too inappropriate for commercial music back in day, yet what began the popularity, along with the controversy of modern metal were the shocking lyrics, themes and imagery. Since the early days, it’s always been a competition to “out metal” each other, essentially meaning to be faster, heavier, and more awesome than the last band. With heavy metal evolving to early thrash metal, and thrash metal branching off into death metal and black metal, the 90’s were the pinnacle of extreme music. The public’s attention was caught by the violent acts of metal bands, and since then image of metal has become Satanism, violence, and undecipherable music with guttural vocals. This still remains the image of metal, and it’s the same old story of rock and roll, jazz, blues etc. While these genres of metal are more of an acquired taste (I love em, don’t hate), it’s barely a smudge on the wide spectrum of metal, with countless of genres and subgenres incorporating musical influences and lyrical themes from just about every musical genre and folklore imaginable. With these vastly different subgenres of metal come different metal cultures in different areas, usually isolated from another. As different as these people are, we all have something in common, the spirit of metal. It’s the celebration of who we are, and what we do.

Metal has always been a subject of controversy, even within itself. The music and lifestyle is unique to each individual person, they have their own tastes, their own beliefs and ways of life. Asking someone what makes them a metal head is like asking someone what makes them American. The obvious answer is, because I listen to metal, or because I live America but these are just vague answers, and anything else will differ from person to person. What makes one person a metal head could be completely different from what makes someone else a metal head, because being a metal head is a lot more that just listening to the music. There is a vast difference between someone who is a metal enthusiast, and a metal head. Metal is how we act, metal is how we live, metal is how we think, and metal is who we are. A metal enthusiast is merely someone who’s musical genre of choice happens to be metal. The definition of metal itself could fill a book, yet no one man should define it. No other genre of music has so much controversy within itself, even within what some people may describe as “horrible noise” is a wide spectrum of different musical styles, cultures, unspoken rules, taboos, lyrical themes, instruments and instrumental techniques, historical significance, and most importantly, different kinds of people who listen to them. This makes it a lot more difficult to describe metal culture from a non biased point of view than it is to just throw my point of views out there. It’s not uncommon for another metal head to analyze your argument and tell you that you’re completely wrong and that you have no idea what metal is. The constant trying to out-metal each other is probably the only thing keeping metal alive. The constant debating, song writing, philosophizing, shredding is keeping the fire lit, but it seems like we’re just beating the dead horse on this one. What’s popular now with the younger generations doesn’t exactly gain the respect of the metal elites, and while it might look like music is changing whether we like it or not (rock and roll all over again), the underground metal community is as strong as it’s always been, if not stronger than it has been in the past 10 years.

Town to town, what you would call a real metal head is hard to come by. In other countries, such as Norway, Sweden, Brazil, France, Germany etc., I’ve noticed that metal heads are usually segregated by their genres of choice. Black metal crowd doesn’t mix with the death metal crowd, and they don’t mix with thrash metal or nu-metal (from what I’ve seen, they don’t take too kindly to trendy nu-metal kids in Brazil). America, being the melting pot that it is, has different metal heads of different tastes and backgrounds sticking together. With so many differences, it’s not always easy to get along with such different views on something we’re all so passionate about, but we find our common ground, and come to agreements. It’s through this that we can get a better understanding on what this whole metal thing is about. Out-metalling each other has transcended beyond music and musical knowledge, it has transcended beyond the metal circles, and has become part of our every day routine. It’s a classic tale of survival of the fittest, an homage to the brave warriors of ancient times. Even though we don’t have battles with swords or axes any more (yeah its lame I know), we still prepare ourselves for the battle of our everyday lives. If you have to write some long English essay, you don’t write a mediocre, boring essay, you write an essay that’ll make the reader beg for more. Even if you’re absolutely horrible at writing essays, you put your all into making it as great as possible. It is through our passion for metal, we begin to develop a standard of excellence. We strive to be strong individuals, for glory and perfection, we are proud of where this music has taken us and who we have become because of it.

Metal isn’t necessarily a choice between black and white, or being the wolf instead of the sheep. Metal, although stereotypically Satanic, is often viewed as a sort of religion. We live for metal, we fight for metal till the day we die, and we live life with no regrets. If you look at it like that, yes metal can be compared to religion. The difference is, in a religion you’re listening to man who claims to have knowledge of or contact with a higher intelligence, with metal, the person who decides how to live your life, and what you believe in is you. If you’re a devoted Christian, and you still like black metal, there’s even Christian black metal (it’s completely ironic, but yes it exists). You might be looked down upon by 90% of the entire metal community, and not to mention your fellow Christians, but who cares? You do what you want to do, if that’s really your thing, then don’t hold back, show them what you’re made of. Metal is the mastery of yourself, and what role you want to play in this crazy little flea circus we call Earth. Rather than spend your one life you get searching for answers to the great mysteries of life that will be probably answered after death anyways, enjoy your life to the fullest,  be in control of yourself, and make decisions rationally based on strong personal morals and standards. Don’t compromise, don’t settle for less, you are your own god. Make the world know your name, and carve it into history.