Music For the SouL

The Transition from Pop to Metal has been a long journey for me and also the most exciting one...

It has taken almost 10 years for me to progress into these different genres of music and understand them...I still remember the last years of school, where the only genre of music i listened to was pop...and i loved it....Be it Michael Jackson, Moby, Ronan Keating , Backstreet boys- Boyzone (hell yeah!!) and even the likes of Britney,Kylie and JLo...Music for me was limited to them...and also some crazy love obsessed bollywood shit!....Never realized that there was a much better music beyond that waiting to be discovered...

It was during my early junior college years i had my first encounter with rock...a friend of mine suggested me some songs namely; Hotel California by Eagles, Californication by Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Nothing Else Matters by Metallica...i went home and downloaded them instantly (not literally...it took me 1 hr to download 3 songs as i had this crappy dial up connection at that time)...and i immediately connected with them...The lyrics were just brilliant and i couldn't get them out of my mind...

So close no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
And nothing else matters...

Soon i acquired the entire Metallica discography...It was my favourite band then and will always remain as my all time fav-band...heard each and every song of theirs...had the lyrics memorized...humming and air-guitaring the song tunes 24/7...the more i listened,the more i grew in love with them...Hetfield, Hammett and Ulrich were my idols...!!!

There was no turning back....Nirvana, Red hot Chilli peppers, Joe Satriani,Ozzy Osbourne,GnR,Black Sabbath,Judas Priest,Manson,Korn,Megadeth followed soon....And of course Iron Maiden with those awesome Bruce Dickinson vocals and fantastic rhythm guitars....In fact the first rock tee i bought was Maiden's 'Best Of The Beast' (i still have it).... I started growing my hair, started attending Rock Shows, became a master at HeadBanging n Moshing....Was one of lucky ones to attend the last 'I-rock' aka 'Independence Rock' at Rang Bhavan in 2003 because the place closed for any more shows after that...

As i progressed through this ladder,Classic Rock was always prevalent....Floyd was GOD!!(or rather GODs)...who hasn't heard of 'another brick in the wall'!!... its become almost a cliché and is played at almost every gig these days....Legends like Deep Purple,The Doors(hail Jim Morrison),Scorpions,Queen,Led Zeppelin,Ac/Dc and Jimi Hendrix will always remain in my heart...no matter what...

I personally feel that Rock/Metal has its beauty and power in its lyrics and can portray any range of emotion....be it joy,sorrow,sadness,hate,betrayal and even love....It doesn't judge me and is always there for me....

Metal has always been stereotyped and misunderstood...It has been associated with drugs and doping...but trust me u don't need drugs or alcohol to get high on music...The words like 'rocker' and 'heavy metal attitude' have been totally degraded by shows like Indian Idol (referring to Suhit who recently got kicked out of da show...anyways he cudnt sing shit!!)...Rock/Metal is more than wearing black tees,growling,howling and noise as it as been always been described....Think outside the box and u'll realize the real beauty and the potential of it...Its a lifestyle and not a passing trend..

Heres an excerpt from Sam Dunn's 'Metal - A headbangers Journey'

Y is metal always stereotyped,dismissed or condemned..??

metal confronts what we rather ignore..
it celebrates what we often deny
it indulges in what we fear most
and thats y metal will always be a culture of outsiders..

u either feel it or u don't
if metal doesn't give u that overwhelming surge of power and make the hair stand on the back of ur neck,u might never get it...


Proud to be a MetaLHead
Gaurav.