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The Frontline / Re: The Problem with Perth Metal
« on: December 04, 2008, 11:31:46 PM »
OK. Lets assume first up that this is not a local WFer with a hidden agenda or a random troller, and I will attempt to reply as if this topic is serious. Let me start by saying thank you for including my band in those that you see as having value, I think so too. 
In a post as long as your there is invariably some shit that is gonna piss people off and some they will agree with, so naturally some points you make actually strike me as having some accuracy, some don't.
Metal WAS once an underground subculture, a haven for the disaffected, the angry and those who didn't feel a connection to society. To some people it still is, or should always be, but that is not the way the world works. We can talk up Metal as being a lifestyle choice or a culture of its own, but as its root it is MUSIC. Music reaches out and touches everyone differently, some hear it as a deep emotional message or an outpouring of rage or indignity. Others hear a wail of despair, a cry for help, or just a way of venting all their rage and frustration. (that's my reason for writing, if I don't vent my hate I could kill someone). Others hear the power, the driving rhythms, the raw unrestrained energy and the feeling of empowerment that comes with it.
And then there is the new breed of metalheads, those who only hear the music itself and not the message behind it, the flesh but not the soul.
To those of us who look deeper into the Metal, who really Believe, we can't identify with these people, it's like we are the worshippers at our church every Sunday while they are the ones who go to church on Christmas day only, they seem hollow. foriegn, halfbreeds, invaders of our realm. So I understand why you find them to be "posers" and "Normals", but we can't write them off as estraneous and unwelcome because we all started off as explorers in this dark new world, time will weed out the unMetal.
The thing is, Metal originally came from working class, downtrodden origins, places where people see themselves being born, living and dying pointlessly. That still is true today in some cases, but Metal is more than an artform, it is a living, morphing organism that evolves and mutates constantly, molding itself to the demographic around it. In one area the raw hatred of the NYHC sound might best identify with the locals, while across town the less angry crowd might be stirred by Metalcore, Metal does not follow rules, it simply IS. You mentioned Slipknot, not your cup of tea - cool with me - but they hail from Demoine, apparently THE most boring city in the US and so it is no wonder they styled themselves as freeks, Metal was and still is their lifeline to a world outside their humdrum existence. Is it Heavy? Not particularly. Is it Metal? If metal is indeed - as you said - an artform, they these guys are art incarnate, and thus Metal as fuck. METAL is not METAL anymore, it is a monster that has grown beyond control and spawned into into coutless genres, sub-genres and sub-sub-genres, we respect and revere its creators and its origins but we have outgrown them and there is NO going back. Adapt.
Why is it concidered so bad, so impure to have commercial success? I am in a band which is so hard to categorise that it seems unlikely that we will ever see any real sucess, and I dream of the kind of exposure that bands like Machine Head enjoy. Music of every kind is marketted to the masses by soulless corperations who care little about the music, only profits, right? Wrong. Talk to Dyson about that, see a bloke who exports, promotes and sweats metal because he loves it and believes in it. He could make more from one 16 year old bimbo with a braindead pop number in a week than he is likely to see promoting metal over the next ten years. Sales mean exposure. Exposure means more sales, and on it goes like a loop. I could give a fuck about the sales but the exposure is invaluable, that is what commercial success is all about. I hate to break it to you, but Disembowlment sold their souls too or you wouldn't have even heard of them. Accept it, there is no way around it.
You have objections with casual conversation at gigs and online because it is irrelevant to Heavy Metal, stop me if I'm misinterpretting things. Let me use Daz as an example: He runs a metal site. He promotes metal bands. He busts his ass to make gigs happen. He manages. He does vocals in a metal band. He goes to Europe annually to drown himself in Metal. He IS metal in this state. Yesterday we chatted... about Star Wars, no mention of metal was made. What I am saying is that Metal is in our blood, it is our secret lover and our musical and artist need, but it isn't ALL we are about, why is wrong with people with a common interest discussing pointless things? I agree that WF is chockfull of irrelevant topics, retarded posts and sometimes incredibly stupid people, but most of us know each other well and have exhausted the realms of metal discussion. I LIKE reading that Nick and Linda have had a kid, or that my mate Haydz has a kid who collects He-man figurines because I KNOW these people, it is only outsiders who find it pointless. Fix the problem, become ONE of US.
Although you might have made a pre-emptive strike on THAT bridge.
I have plenty more to say, check in with me later.
In a post as long as your there is invariably some shit that is gonna piss people off and some they will agree with, so naturally some points you make actually strike me as having some accuracy, some don't.Metal WAS once an underground subculture, a haven for the disaffected, the angry and those who didn't feel a connection to society. To some people it still is, or should always be, but that is not the way the world works. We can talk up Metal as being a lifestyle choice or a culture of its own, but as its root it is MUSIC. Music reaches out and touches everyone differently, some hear it as a deep emotional message or an outpouring of rage or indignity. Others hear a wail of despair, a cry for help, or just a way of venting all their rage and frustration. (that's my reason for writing, if I don't vent my hate I could kill someone). Others hear the power, the driving rhythms, the raw unrestrained energy and the feeling of empowerment that comes with it.
And then there is the new breed of metalheads, those who only hear the music itself and not the message behind it, the flesh but not the soul.
To those of us who look deeper into the Metal, who really Believe, we can't identify with these people, it's like we are the worshippers at our church every Sunday while they are the ones who go to church on Christmas day only, they seem hollow. foriegn, halfbreeds, invaders of our realm. So I understand why you find them to be "posers" and "Normals", but we can't write them off as estraneous and unwelcome because we all started off as explorers in this dark new world, time will weed out the unMetal.
The thing is, Metal originally came from working class, downtrodden origins, places where people see themselves being born, living and dying pointlessly. That still is true today in some cases, but Metal is more than an artform, it is a living, morphing organism that evolves and mutates constantly, molding itself to the demographic around it. In one area the raw hatred of the NYHC sound might best identify with the locals, while across town the less angry crowd might be stirred by Metalcore, Metal does not follow rules, it simply IS. You mentioned Slipknot, not your cup of tea - cool with me - but they hail from Demoine, apparently THE most boring city in the US and so it is no wonder they styled themselves as freeks, Metal was and still is their lifeline to a world outside their humdrum existence. Is it Heavy? Not particularly. Is it Metal? If metal is indeed - as you said - an artform, they these guys are art incarnate, and thus Metal as fuck. METAL is not METAL anymore, it is a monster that has grown beyond control and spawned into into coutless genres, sub-genres and sub-sub-genres, we respect and revere its creators and its origins but we have outgrown them and there is NO going back. Adapt.
Why is it concidered so bad, so impure to have commercial success? I am in a band which is so hard to categorise that it seems unlikely that we will ever see any real sucess, and I dream of the kind of exposure that bands like Machine Head enjoy. Music of every kind is marketted to the masses by soulless corperations who care little about the music, only profits, right? Wrong. Talk to Dyson about that, see a bloke who exports, promotes and sweats metal because he loves it and believes in it. He could make more from one 16 year old bimbo with a braindead pop number in a week than he is likely to see promoting metal over the next ten years. Sales mean exposure. Exposure means more sales, and on it goes like a loop. I could give a fuck about the sales but the exposure is invaluable, that is what commercial success is all about. I hate to break it to you, but Disembowlment sold their souls too or you wouldn't have even heard of them. Accept it, there is no way around it.
You have objections with casual conversation at gigs and online because it is irrelevant to Heavy Metal, stop me if I'm misinterpretting things. Let me use Daz as an example: He runs a metal site. He promotes metal bands. He busts his ass to make gigs happen. He manages. He does vocals in a metal band. He goes to Europe annually to drown himself in Metal. He IS metal in this state. Yesterday we chatted... about Star Wars, no mention of metal was made. What I am saying is that Metal is in our blood, it is our secret lover and our musical and artist need, but it isn't ALL we are about, why is wrong with people with a common interest discussing pointless things? I agree that WF is chockfull of irrelevant topics, retarded posts and sometimes incredibly stupid people, but most of us know each other well and have exhausted the realms of metal discussion. I LIKE reading that Nick and Linda have had a kid, or that my mate Haydz has a kid who collects He-man figurines because I KNOW these people, it is only outsiders who find it pointless. Fix the problem, become ONE of US.
Although you might have made a pre-emptive strike on THAT bridge.
I have plenty more to say, check in with me later.
