I’ve just come across this link (click the post title) via a friend on Facebook and it got me thinking. When I say “thinking” it tends to mean my piss is boiling with rage over some insignificant issue that normal, well-adjusted people merely shrug at but in this case I think it’s more a case of jaded disappointment
The popular opinion of Metal is one of patronising bemusement; it’s treated like the senile grandparent at a family gathering who’s just called everyone a bastard before shitting himself, “aww dear, poor old man, he can’t help it”. Now this is partly the fault of Metal itself. The 80’s brought along terrible bands clad in spandex, mullets and an array of spiked cod-pieces. Who can blame people for thinking Metal is a joke? The release of the ever-popular film “Wayne’s World” further reinforced the stereotype of the Metal fan as an underachieving, scruffy, unwashed yet dimly loveable adolescent who is yet to grow out of a phase. The problem is that this stereotype has stuck and given the nature of Metal and its fans, it’s a stereotype that has proven incredibly hard to shift; for every Metal fan that can be taken seriously there’s some drunken douchebag head-banging around the room to Pantera whilst crushing cans on his head before going to work in a petrol station the next morning.
Of course I’m not suggesting here that Metal should lose its sense of fun but generally anyone who bemoans the state of Metal and its many dumb-fuck fans gets labelled a dour elitist, ironically in a genre of music that often proudly holds itself loftily above all other forms of music with its nose firmly stuck up. Therefore I think it’s time Metal got its face caved in with a nice reality check and a strong dose of weary venom, because quite frankly I’m finding the Metal scene to be pretty fucking tiresome.
Over the years I’ve been to countless Metal gigs and I’ve gotten to the point where I just can’t be bothered with it anymore. I’m sick of the Metal uniform (long hair, leather jacket, obscure t-shirt, black jeans, boots) and the juvenile way in which you’re judged at every concert you go to. I used to be like that, every Metal fan has been at some point or more often than not, still is. The issue that grates with me is when you stay that way. When you’re into the infant years of your Metal loving life you tend to think you’re the only true Metal fan on the planet, you’re almost like one of those awful born-again Christian types, a blind zealot that will get to the gig as early as possible to get a place on the front row to spend the entire gig head-banging wildly, throwing the horns and screaming “METAAAAALL!!!” at every opportunity. I’m not saying there’s a particular way in which people should enjoy themselves at a concert but as soon as I got tired of that I just wanted to simply enjoy the music I’ve paid to see by viewing it from a bit further afield, not flailing everywhere and just having a good time by appreciating the performance. The problem lays in those double standards of Metal though; if you’re not wildly going mental at the front you’re a snobby elitist and there’s no possible way that you can be enjoying the concert, I mean, how can you listen to music without trying to break your spine? It’s such an infuriatingly black-and-white view and one that has put me off going to all but the most special, not-to-be-missed concerts.
It gets worse when you chose to review the concert. Your opinion is often instantly dismissed due to you having not spent the entire concert in the crush at the front. No in fact I was actually stood a bit further back actually fucking listening to the music and appreciating it. With hindsight I find that if you’re going mental at the front your enjoyment is more about the fact you’re going mental with your friends than the music being any good. So many bands get away with creating mediocre, generic music because their stupid-ass fans will go blindly mental at the front no matter how bad the music is.
Anyway back to that link at the top of this stupid article. Said NME (yeah that well-known authority on Metal and not at all that fucking rag of a magazine that regularly masturbates over some jingly-jangly Morrissey rip-off whilst calling them the next big thing before they fade away a year later after the hype has gone) article seems to think the music in the world of Metal is in a dire state. You could be forgiven for thinking that if your only exposure to Metal was through that annual vacuous twat-gathering, Download Festival, but how can someone writing for a supposedly well-respected music magazine be so ignorant?
Metal, like all genres, is awash with mediocrity. There’s an endless supply of Cannibal Corpse, Darkthrone and At The Gates clones and it can take a bit of effort to sift through all that shite but it’s certainly worth it in the end. There’s so many wonderful bands such as Deathspell Omega, Agalloch, Drudkh, Negura Bunget, Blut Aus Nord, Fen, Wolves in the Throne Room, Riverside, Sunn O))), Glorior Belli (before their latest effort, which was utterly, utterly dire), Enslaved, Morgion and so on. Of course given the nature of pricks reading an article I’m sure I’d get endless morons telling me why those bands are shit, what bands I should put in, what I should take out, how I’m a “faggot” and so on. Fill your boots. Anyway, the point is, you can’t bemoan an entire genre like some jaded veteran when your only experience of said genre is quite possibly the most mainstream tip there is without completely leaving the genre. Look a bit harder than the pages of that fantastic ass-cleaning product Kerrang! Magazine and you’re sure to find something great. The same issue goes for Metal fans though. Often the same people who will rabidly shout “elitist!” at you have been listening to the same three bands for the past ten years and either can’t be bothered or flat-out refuse to leave their comfort zone to explore other sub-genres, or even other genres of music all together. In the past year or so I’ve found myself listening to far more Drum & Bass, Classical and various other bits and bobs from all kinds of musical styles than Metal. Not out of any dislike of Metal but simply because I’ve bothered to branch out and sample as much as I can from elsewhere.
I’ve completely lost what was left of my point now and can’t really be bothered anymore. In fact I think this never really had a point. Fuck off.
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