Music has been probably my greatest passion since I had discovered it. And I mean since I discovered real music. I’m talking about heavy metal, or more specifically melodic death metal. I haven’t stopped listening to the bands I discovered a few years back. I don’t listen to the next big radio hit of the month and then ditch that artist/band altogether when the next big hit comes along. I think metalheads are definitely the most loyal fanbase in music.

I transitioned from generic radio rock to metal when I was watching a World of Warcraft PvP movie. An Undead Rogue by the name of Eryx had a series called Endless Sacrifice. I downloaded number 4, his most recent at the time. The music was decent, I thought. Later that day one of the songs in the movie was stuck in my head. This happens to everyone right? That’s because mainstream radio songs strive to be catchy. But this song was catchy in a better way. I actually rushed to my computer, opened the movie and found the song and downloaded it. I continually listened to it pretty much for the rest of that night, on and off. The song was Trigger by In Flames.

That was the first song that led me to discovering more songs, and more bands over the past few years. Eventually I had stopped listening to my playlist that consisted of mediocre rock radio hits and transitioned into a full time metal listener. And since then, I have found a great appreciation with this music. I enjoy the mysterious and inspired lyrics. They are far from simple and can stick in your mind because of how powerful they are. I enjoy the music as a whole because I’ve learned to love guitar/keyboard solos, fast drumming, etc.

Does that make me close-minded because I now only listen to metal? Hell no, most of us metalheads are incredibly open minded for giving this incredible music a chance. Most people hear growling/harsh vocals and are immediately turned off. That’s understandable of course. But I learned that what these “screamers” (pro-tip: if it’s metal it’s probably not screaming. Growling takes a great amount of skill and unlike what ignorant people say, only people with a great amount of skill can pull it off successfully.) were singing were brilliant lyrics. It wasn’t just “DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH FIYAH DEATH DEATH!” But I’ll be honest, it took me probably 3-4 months before I got into the more deep growling (the stuff people usually won’t understand most words by ear). Trigger (the song that started it all for me) has harsh vocals, but it’s somewhat a mix of clean and harsh at the same time which is probably why I liked it so much.

It’s funny to look back before I got into metal and sometimes I’ll think to myself “Wow, what would I have thought of this song before I transitioned into metal?” I don’t think I would have appreciated much of the songs, because like most people I would be thrown off from the vocals. But transition was key for me to appreciate all of the music that I love so much. It wasn’t like I forced myself into liking the harsher growling or anything like that. Simply said, it grows on you. It takes more than a couple listens to get into it in my opinion. But now, there is nothing else I’d rather listen to, or want to listen to, because I have discovered the best (in my opinion, of course) music there is.

So here is a big thanks to Eryx of Frostwolf, for introducing me to In Flames, Dream Theater, and Symphony X, and beginning my musical taste transition. I am not bragging here, but now when I listen to music, I appreciate all of it. Definitely moreso than people who just listen to generic radio rock/pop/whatever. I take it all in, it connects with me emotionally in a big time way. When people that are new to metal read or hear Melodic Death Metal they just focus on the “Death” and figure it is just people screaming. They should focus on the “Melodic” instead. To me, the melodies these bands create are timeless and will be in my mind forever. Discovering (melodic death) metal was one of the best things that ever happened to me, and if you think that’s sad, I’m guessing you’re not a metal fan.

Here’s the Trigger video. If you read this post and it connected with you at all (and assuming you’re not already into metal), then I urge you to view the video in it’s entirety. It was the chorus that stuck with me and caused me to later download the song (and helped begin my musical taste transition).