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  1. A few thoughts on music I like

    Sometimes I can be a bit snobby when it comes to things I'm really into. I don't mean to be a dick, I can just be a little annoyingly picky. Like with beer. I know what I like (mostly stouts and porters), and I try to avoid most of the watered down knave-swill that a lot of my friends drink.

    Same goes for the music I listen to. I've managed to find some pearls in the slag heap, but a lot of "modern" music doesn't really impress me. I prefer to stick to the classics as a general rule. This especially goes for Metal, where old school is always the best. So much newer Metal is just boring in comparison.

    Same blast beats with way too much wierd sappy sounding snare and obviously triggered digital sounding double bass? Check. Same incredibly downtuned guitars with way too much reverb? Got it. Obnoxiously low gut-puking interspersed with hissing and or/shrieking? Uh-huh. Partying now.

    Metal is still very special to me. A lot of bands I like do some or all of those things at times. But I've become a lot more discriminating about the Metal I choose to listen to. For one- sick of all the satanic/occult schlock. Tired of one dimensional "Metal Bands" hiding behind computers and keyboards and shit. Do I have something against keyboards? Not at all. Rick Wakeman is freaking amazing. My problem is these guys like Alexi Laiho who use so much in the way of effects that their shit ends up sounding less like Metal riffing and more like fucking nintendo music.

    I'm sick of pointlessly convoluted "technical" stuff that guitar students drool and get hard over. I have nothing personal against Steve Vai and Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmsteen and John Petrucci et al. They are very talented people. But frankly, to listen to them or see them live is like being jacked off upon with a guitar. Either that, or it's completely sterile and has no [B]soul.

    [/B]That said, I had a lot of fun during my heavier years of concert going. Here's as complete a list of every band I've seen as I can muster.

    Tool
    The Melvins
    Circle Jerks
    Lower Class Brats
    Obituary
    Napalm Death
    Morbid Angel
    Today is the Day
    Tiger Army
    Reverend Horton Heat
    Hank Williams III
    Assjack
    Koffin Kats
    Benedict Arnold
    Housebroken
    KMFDM
    Combichrist
    Flogging Molly
    Nile
    Origin
    Hate Eternal
    Arch Enemy
    Slayer
    Hatebreed
    Contorted
    Paths of Possession
    Cannibal Corpse
    Vile
    Exhumed
    Hypocrisy
    Amorphis
    The Faceless
    Warbringer


    That's most of em. Slayer damn near destroyed my hearing. I was front row for 2 and a half hours of feral madness. A twisted contorted churning sea of sweaty bodies screaming with delight. Quite primal, really. Lost hearing in the right side for 3 days. I was about to see a doctor when my hearing thankfully came back. Tom Araya was staring me in the eyes as he played the later breakdown in 'At dawn they sleep'. Every word his eyes got a little wider still.

    The most violent show by far was Circle Jerks/Lower Class Brats. Punk shows are not for the faint of heart. My shit got whipped good at that show. The next morning I was sitting outside in my car before work and I noticed my black flag shirt I wore to the show had a bunch of blood on it. Upon inspecting my wounds I determined that only about half the blood was mine.

    These days I've mellowed out a tad. Been big on Iron Maiden, Swans, Liszt and Handel. Still love death and thrash metal, but totally lost taste for black metal. Never had much of a taste for rap or at all. I don't care how jaw droppingly innovative people try to tell me it is. I just don't go for it. I like some electronic and/or industrial, but like anything else I'm picky as all hell.


    My main goal as a listener is to not be one dimensional. If it makes me come off as a tad snooty, well, whatever, As I said, I just have a pretty good idea of what I like.


    If you were bored enough to read this I hope you found at least some of it fun and/or entertaining.
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