HARDTIMES.CA

I was going to talk about Heavy Metal and how great it was...I mean is...well really was...let’s take a look at what metal was supposed to represent. Like Punk, Metal was a revolution. The masses united to raise that middle finger to the establishment and say “no we aint goin that way.” And for some time it had meaning. We followed the bands like they were our religious leaders. We prayed at the altar where these priests would stand mighty and superior above us and guide us and teach us and move us through these dark times to find the light. Whatever they preached we did. They became our Gods with the venue our Church and Metal our Religion. But something came in to break the balance and destroy that harmony. Now remember there is a huge misconception about the meaning of Metal. Quite simply Metal was a religion where anyone could be who they truly were and fight for what they believed in. It didn’t matter who you were or where you came from or what you looked like or how you dressed. Metal was a rebellion. Metal was a group of people getting together to express what they truly felt and quenching a hunger that burned deep inside of them. Some say they are just a bunch of angry violent individuals. But what they forget is that anger is a gift to be used wisely. Anger does not mean the destruction of what is around you. It is an emotion that comes from a wrong doing imposed on the individual and those around them. Anger fed the rebel because they saw too many atrocities happening in everyday life and the world around them and so they acted out and rebelled. Remember that anger was not always used violently and expressed through destruction. That anger was used positively. Sadly now it’s slowly starting to play into the hands of the “masses” where corporations have taken it over and now put it into the machine. It now follows trends. It now is a part of a massive marketing campaign. One day one band is the “in” thing the next it’s not cool to listen to it. I’m just really curious when was it ever cool to listen to Metal amongst the masses? You can have a lot of people love a band or a sound but those who loved it, listened to it because it helped them raise that finger. But now it is no longer like that. It’s only for freaks? No Metal is for everyone. But how does that work? To be noticed in the scene nowadays do you have to be part of the corrupt framework? Now you have to dress a certain way to be metal? Sound a specific way to sell an album? We now have straight edge and nu-metal and monkeys clapping while screaming metal? We are pigeon holing styles of metal? What the fuck for? Are they dividing and conquering the metal head so that they now have control over them? Small groups are easier to control. Or are they just simply easier to sell to now? Recently there have been some insane actions and killings and deaths and so on. There are those that believe it is the music of the Devil and those insane people who listen to it were influenced and killed. Yeah there are idiots who listen to metal but then again there are idiots who listen to hip-hop, rock, jazz, house music the list goes on and they commit the same crimes and worse. I wonder what Stalin listened to? Idiocy is not due to music. Some people quite simply are stupid and allow us to enjoy several hours of entertainment though the level has dropped so low we are beginning to strive for idiocy in our society these days just to feel relatively intelligent. But the question is why is Metal always singled out and linked when it can be as the cause of every insane action in society? Do terrorists listen to Metal? How about society itself? What about: the government has placed a majority of its people in a situation where they are not provided the minimum needed to survive in the modern world today? The Anger is being intelligently misdirected by those involved in the industry and corporate world. Blind them from seeing the truth and let them self-implode. Let that anger fester and not be guided as to where it is supposed to be. If we lived back in the day where excessive luxury without substance i.e. education, value and purpose as we do today, this form of insanity would not exist. It’s not Metal that drives one to kill. The individual themselves already made that decision, music is just the soundtrack to their own movie; and that’s part of the issue. Let’s look at that last statement a little closer: Firstly, music’s value has decreased in our world today due to lack of substance and secondly reality and “the dream” no longer have a clear division between themselves. We are taught to chase the dream that is not actually a reality. Overnight success takes 14 years and that takes too long for greed and laziness. It’s too much work to build something with value and substance. What’s even more ridiculous is that we live longer these days so we should theoretically have more time to build and reap the rewards but for some reason we are more in a rush than our ancestors who didn’t live past 40!?! As a side note if you look at the dream a little closer, how it was created and who really helped society progress, you will notice that in fact it was rebels who embodied the true essence of the dream. Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton the founding fathers built America on a Rebellion. You can include so many others in the world who went against the norm and helped us grow like Leonardo da Vinci, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers, Albert Einstein, JFK (I picked names I hoped most people would know). They were all rebels and the true founders of the dream. In today’s world the dream is simply money and the road to this? Who you sleep with, how many you sleep with, sell your soul be a commodity and you will find success. Or just steal it. We now blindly follow. We do not question. We are not taught to build on foundations. We build on air and hope gravity will not drag us down. We hope that we will never have to see the truth. Metal was the ground. Metal helped us build just like Rock back in the 60s Metal was supposed to be the next level. The modern cheap imitation of what the corporate world should be took it over because labels lost something. Listen to the lyrics the subject matter has fizzled out. They aren’t fighting for anything more than profit. I agree it’s great to make money and live comfortably and everyone should strive for that but at the cost of music because some asshole who has lost his balls says so? You are telling me you can’t write Metal that is in your face, rebellious, unique, does whatever it feels like and not be successful? Sure you can! You just have to have the label say: “I will support it.” People will love it. I mean how many shit bands made it due to support? That there is the problem today; it all comes down to how somebody feels that morning and you will succeed or fail. What the fuck is that?!?! In the past if a band made a terrible album the label will still support them and help them grow. Don’t misunderstand something here, since the beginning labels and producers and managers helped create a band, developed their sound and helped them succeed. But that belief and vision of us against the world died. The passion and belief in the music and the band died. Only profit not the message now matters. Metal, well music really, has lost its meaning. Metal has gone out the door because the power has been taken out of the hands of the fans, the bands, and the producers who loved it. They divided and conquered all. You keep a rebellion down by division. As another example Punk is dead! That’s another discussion, but really they closed CBGB. They killed any support to it and only allowed cookie cutter Punk to be heard. Or am I giving too much credit to the labels, major corporations and the government? Maybe we as the fan and the society around us are allowing the idiots to rule and don’t want to rebel and listen to music that has meaning? It’s easier that way. Ignorance is bliss. Living is easy with eyes closed. The argument could be that we don’t have time to think because we allowed our lives to be hectic and want to be spoon fed what we like so the companies are giving us what we want. It is a vicious circle of the chicken and egg syndrome but the truth is that the educated and the ones with true freedom of choice prevent any one from becoming too powerful and corrupting. Therefore keeping them uneducated and with less options to choose from will allow those with the power to keep it. The devil, as so happily used in Metal and associated by everyone with Metal, if you believe such a being exists (I for one think the most popular description of the Devil as we know it is the greatest creation by man with one purpose to control) is among us but “he/she” does not reside in Metal. “She/he” hates it and fears it for Metal will destroy the hold and power “it” has over us. How can they claim that the world we live in follows Gods design in any way? Death, war, destruction, greed, gluttony, sloth and so on, while people listen to music that has nothing to do with Metal! Every new song that comes out has less substance and meaning than before. They glorify the things that all religions ask to be humble and chaste about. They then thank God for their success. I wonder which God won the Great War? And people it’s not religion that you hate it’s the institution. Don’t follow blindly what some idiot said because it sounds cool and helped sell more records, check it out. No my friends Metal was the music of the rebel; a rebel like Jesus maybe? Whether you want to believe in God or not is not the issue. God might not even exist but Jesus as an example, regardless of his religious and spiritual links was a rebel man. He preached against the existing establishment where people would unite and throw their arms up and rebel and say no to what the existing powers are doing. He and his rebels were laughed at, ostracised, killed in the thousands feared and blamed for murders and robberies they didn’t commit. Sounds a little similar to our Metal Heads? Thankfully they are not being killed in the thousands yet, but he taught us to go against what is wrong. I doubt he would have been listening to anything other than the rebels’ music. Metal had a touch of that glory, it was a religion, but now it has become what the Church and all other religious institutions have today: Too many divisions. Infighting, greed, abuse and loss of purpose are the core of what each institution is founded upon. These institutions have killed the meaning of what that religion was trying to do. Well Metal and Music has walked the holy footsteps of religion. The Devil has really won because all that matters is the success of the individual. Can’t we be successful and wealthy and caring and give back to our community without having to lose who we are? Where it didn’t matter what you looked like? Or wore? It didn’t matter who you were? But you gave back to your people and spread a message to unite and fight against the atrocities of the world and the domination of the hate and greed mongers? Isn’t that what Metal was supposed to be? Supposed to signify? No my friends. Metal is dead...but like Phil ;)...it can be brought back to life and Dominate once again when we tear the chains and bonds and rise once more because music and the world we live in really sucks these days and it’s time for a fucking change.