Being a Metaller.

[Bürggermeister]

You're bang on. The kids were wearing the mullets and taches on weekdays, too. They live it, no doubt about it. It was cool to experience but it just felt odd. It was like looking at a past I was a part of, or an attempt to re-live an interpretation of that past. These kind of scenes are almost denying the future, there's a start date and and end date which they are trying to exist between, and that goes for the bands too. There are borders they choose to live within.

But back then, the future was open and you were excited about what was to come next. That part is missing. Not saying it's wrong, it's just the bit that's really missing for me. After all the old bands and intentionally retro young bands, Watchtower came on and I remember, during their set, thinking they still belong to the future. Despite being from back then, they still existed at a point in time the rest of us haven't caught up to yet. Mind you, the rum was cheap and plentiful too   

[Carnage]

Those days were great in fairness, you put in the work in terms of discovering bands, taking a punt based on an album's cover or label (remember when blind buying an Earache album was usually a safe bet?), copying tapes from/for your mates and all that.

With me it was an older cousin who was into hard rock and some metal, he gave me a few tapes when I asked him what it sounded like - Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, and the one that made it stick: Iron Maiden. I never looked back from there.

I was very lucky in sourcing tapes too. I live in a small town in the wesht of Ireland but we had a market on Saturdays, which featured a tape seller. Legit, not the shoddy copies you usually get at such things. Anyway, he had all of the Maiden albums and I bought one every couple of weeks 'til I was up to date (Piece Of Mind's backward cover was a revelation! (pun intended)). He'd get in stuff if requested and also had a nice line in T-shirts, badges and patches. Most of my Metallica, Megadeth and W.A.S.P. tapes came from there.

On top of that, the local grocery shop had a fantastic metal selection in their music corner, complete with a massive Death poster (Spiritual Healing). I got a great education in thrash and death metal from just picking through the shelves there - I also got my Metal Hammer, Kerrang and Metal Forces magazines in the same gaff.

There weren't many of us who were into rock and metal then, my best mate and I had a big interest in Guns N' Roses (it was always huge when one of us picked up a new bootleg on a trip to O'Connell bridge) but he went in the Bon Jovi, Poison etc. direction while I got into the heavier stuff.

Another lad went headfirst down the rabbithole and is still a mad collector, tour follower etc. I remember his graffiti for Naplam Death, Megadeath and Morbid Angle. A few lads in school broadened my horizons a bit, an older lad brought me to my first gig at 14 (Maiden 1990).

Nowadays it's all there on the internet and the effort and subsequent reward is gone. It seems a shame.

[Eoin McLove]

You're bang on. The kids were wearing the mullets and taches on weekdays, too. They live it, no doubt about it. It was cool to experience but it just felt odd. It was like looking at a past I was a part of, or an attempt to re-live an interpretation of that past. These kind of scenes are almost denying the future, there's a start date and and end date which they are trying to exist between, and that goes for the bands too. There are borders they choose to live within.

But back then, the future was open and you were excited about what was to come next. That part is missing. Not saying it's wrong, it's just the bit that's really missing for me. After all the old bands and intentionally retro young bands, Watchtower came on and I remember, during their set, thinking they still belong to the future. Despite being from back then, they still existed at a point in time the rest of us haven't caught up to yet. Mind you, the rum was cheap and plentiful too   

Yep, that is an interesting observation and entirely true. I think you find with these retro kids, their interest shifts over time, but if their foot is in the door and they are putting bands together then we are laughing. There'll be the ones pushing things forward too.

[The Heretic]

I was the only metaller in the village, and I loved every day of it!

[son of the Morrigan]

I was the only metaller in the village, and I loved every day of it!

 
So was I, and still am. Around here its as if metal doesn't exist.
Was the only clown with long hair up to a few years ago too.

[Sworntothecans]

I was the only metaller in the village, and I loved every day of it!

Still am. Although I fucking know there's a few of the locals that maybe be sitting on a bunch of classic 70s/80s metal records & tapes!🤣

[hellfire]

I always thought it was great to see all the young lads getting so enthused so young. I don't think the kids and their intentions, abilities and attitudes changed that much over the years, just media and the world around them did. I think every generation drops a few into the underground and leaves them there. There won't be concerts in a few years if you were waiting on lazy old bastards like myself to attend.

[koper]

Being a metaller from my generation (born 1983, initiated around 1995) is great nowadays. Thanks to the internet, one has access to limitless number of rabbit holes and a single lifetime isn't enough to explore them all, even when it comes to the eighties alone.

There wasn't a better time to be a metalhead in the history of metalheadery. Records from around the world are are at our fingertips, the gigs are aplenty and as for the ,,metal comradery" its exactly the same, as it used to be: some people are in this for the love of music, some are for the love of their self-image.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Alongside metal I was always into music that was dead and gone and similarly alternated between dressing like a metaller and dressing 70s style. Speaking of which, and tying back to the original post, when I was 20 and Blow came out, I thought the scene where Depp is strutting through the airport to the sound of Black Betty was the coolest thing ever  Either way, as a result it doesn't surprise me at all to see young lads dressed up like it's the 80s or 90s, since in the 00s and even 10s I was often dressed like it was the 70s.

Didn't know anyone who was a full-on metaller growing up; you'd be more likely to see a punk or a hippy than a metaller round my way. Had a few friends who were into the music and we'd go into town sometimes and trawl SoundCellar, but we were never drawn to or socially assertive enough had we been to get talking to the heads around Central Bank. First experience with a crowd of metallers was Cannibal Corpse in the Mean Fiddler, think I was 16 and we all had to queue up outside. The three of us 16-17 yr olds simultaneously felt and felt we obviously looked by far the youngest there. But nothing about that experience made me want to be more of a metaller. There was a lad wearing a Strapping Young Lad shirt which provoked a heated discussion in another group of heads, absolute eejits, about whether they should beat him up for being in a SYL shirt. Then there was another lad in an Impaled Nazarene shirt with a huge backprint of JESUS IS THE CRUCIFIED WHORE. I was still deeply enmeshed in fundamental christianity at the time, but already beyond taking offense (I was at a Cannibal Corpse show, after all). Just seemed as childish as the parts of church life I was beginning to tire of. Gig itself was deadly, Krabathor and CC both blew me away, but between what struck me as childishness in the queue and then the lad during the concert with the foolscap page of CC song names that he was shouting out for in between every song for laughs (and it was funny), there was no appealing "aura" of dark metalness to the event. In retrospect, CC was prob the wrong gig to be expecting that at  I was well into my 20s before "being a metaller" started to become a fixed idea in my head, but even then I regularly had difficulty with the cliquishness of it, certainly also related to the profound mistrust of in-group behavior I'd developed in breaking away from the church. The irony   

Anyway, metal is the most important musical genre to me, the one that in a sense I hear all other music "through", and I do love that. What were we talking about again? 

[hellfire]

Being a metaller from my generation (born 1983, initiated around 1995) is great nowadays. Thanks to the internet, one has access to limitless number of rabbit holes and a single lifetime isn't enough to explore them all, even when it comes to the eighties alone.

There wasn't a better time to be a metalhead in the history of metalheadery. Records from around the world are are at our fingertips, the gigs are aplenty and as for the ,,metal comradery" its exactly the same, as it used to be: some people are in this for the love of music, some are for the love of their self-image.

Well put

[Eoin McLove]

I think that both things can be true at the same time. Love of the music is what gets you in the door and, presumably, keeps you there. Presenting a self image around metal is cool too, and a way to keep old traditions alive if that's what you want to do. I don't really see that as being any more or less ridiculous* than dressing "age appropriately". If you dress down as you get older that could equally be interpreted as presenting a self image to impress the public. It really just boils down to whatever you are comfortable doing.

*unless you're wearing New Rocks at 40. Then it's straight you jail, do not pass Go, do not collect €200.

[The Butcher]

Absolute shite talk incoming - Born in 86 - my initial experience of heavy music was mainly through my brother who was into GNR, grunge, Metallica. Early teens in the 2000 onwards there was the CKY/jackass skater type scene that lasted about 3 years, the "goths" at central bank and of course nu-metal which was still rampant towards the end of the MTV era. I thought the likes of Marilyn Manson / NIN / Korn were the cool/anti-mainstream types judging from da telly and I lapped it all up I remember feeling stupid buying a bootleg of a Deftones gig from some store in town thinking it was going to be a proper recording. Wearing the black hoody in school (ah ya rocker!!) felt like having a proper identity that stood out from the "sheep" so to speak and I always had that mentality, not to blindly follow, not to go with the crowd etc. I remember have a proper hatred for all things pop and manufactured boy/girl bands, what wasted energy  Fond memories of swapping albums in class, getting copies of mix CDs and doing the same for others, trying to convert whoever I could - remember a friend saying about a Korn mix CD "Eh this is wayyy too heavy/extreme for me." Hearing Eyesclosed on Phantom fm when it was still a pirate radio station made me realise that there is actually a local metal scene. Secondary school let us put bands together to play and I remember getting a black ibanez and playing it through a terrible phillips 2 tape cassette radio. In between songs I would play 'Whenever I May Roam' or the 'Sad but true' guitar riff to see if anyone would nod/recognise it.

It was only hitting 17 onwards did I start to hear more metal and identity with that more and realise it was a different thing entirely not just heavy music, hearing about Iced Earth from people that came into my 5th year class after skipping transition year, thinking the chugging riffs were the fastest thing ever. Dantes Inferno song blew my mind. Internet coming into full swing with the likes of Napster, first song I downloaded was 'The Trooper'...hearing Misery Path by Amorphis and thinking now THIS is different, realising there's such a treasure trove of metal to explore. Heading into town after a weeks pay from a summers job, using my money to buy random albums based on the artwork and the song titles, some working out really well (My dying bride) and some not so much (Iron Maiden – Virtual XI). There was no one to guide me - just trying to figure it out myself up until joining a band.

The thoughts of actually being in a band was great, I remember seeing A Distant Sun in the voodoo lounge and thinking it was so cool to see/hear keyboards along with metal. Playing in my friends shed in Palmerstown talking about what new stuff we've heard and the end goals 'wouldn't it be great to support the likes of Old Season?!' Must have played 'The Claw' off their myspace page a few times during rehearsals. We were lucky enough that our first gig happened to be Mass Extinctions EP 'Creation's Undoing' and we were very green but some experience I'll never forget and was overwhelming considering it was my first proper step into the local scene. Some great years of gigging, to the full shows to the no show gigs playing to 2 aul lads at the bar giving you the pity clap  or cringing at the thoughts of our complete drunken skunk of a guitarist trying to explain to lads in Mael Mordha on the bus home after a long day about the debut album lyrical concept for one of them to go "but sure that's just Dantes Inferno" which completely bewildered the chap and stopped him in his tracks

We got the taste of the pre-internet world and can compare/contrast our experiences but I'd agree with the other poster saying things changed from 2012 onwards (proper smart phone usage + social media) to the new generations coming up, they probably feel that they aren't missing out at all and what we are saying about real life experiences doesn't bother them in the slightest. Gaming has taken a large chunk of the audience, back in the day on my silo'd non-internet PC I'd be playing Quake/Doom type games but I'd be blasting metal along with it and fit so so well. Now you are connected with friends chatting away - no need for music, you are listening out for every movement in the game, being hit with dopamine every 2 seconds, who needs music when you've got this level of attention grabbing? Some games with Hollywood level story telling and sometimes, even better than that. Youtube/social media has paved the way to new ways of achieving "something", this is the new experience they are wrapped in. Likes/comments/view counts are way more powerful than the anxiety of playing terribly with others in a room and trying to get songs/gigs sorted. Why waste time/money/effort playing to no one in some shitty pub when you can gain an online audience by shitting out guitar riff videos sent on to Ola Englund? Or perfect note by note covers or jumping on board some on trend memes?  Makes me wonder how long does metal have left? 20 years still in the tank?

[jpm4]

Being a metaller from my generation (born 1983, initiated around 1995) is great nowadays. Thanks to the internet, one has access to limitless number of rabbit holes and a single lifetime isn't enough to explore them all, even when it comes to the eighties alone.

There wasn't a better time to be a metalhead in the history of metalheadery. Records from around the world are are at our fingertips, the gigs are aplenty and as for the ,,metal comradery" its exactly the same, as it used to be: some people are in this for the love of music, some are for the love of their self-image.

Completely agree - it's weird Metal is completely vanished from the mainstream but it's never felt as healthy to me. Every album you ever wanted is at your finger tips, Dublin is probably having it's best year of metal gigs ever this year, and we are clearly in some sort of golden age as regards great metal festivals in Europe. It's all good! 

[TheRuts]

I got into metal in 2002 at the age of 16. I was certainly aware of bands like Limp Bizkit, Korn and Linkin Park but I regarded those as pop acts as they were fixtures in the charts at the time. It was a mate playing me Sabbath that made me realise what the big deal was. He also introduced me to AC/DC, Motorhead and Guns n Roses so that set me on a certain path until I discovered the underground (specifically, Jesu and Municipal Waste) and then I was set for life, meeting likeminded types and hearing lie changing music.

I've seen a lot of people drift in and out of "the scene" for nearly 20 years now and, in Belfast at least, it always seems to be in a state of becoming. A shame as there have been some excellent bands who deserved more

[leatherface]

It was  80s and early 90s for me, seeing a massive 'Seventh Son of Seventh Son' poster in the local record shop, seeing 'Can I play with madness' on TV, HOOKED. Going to school and seeing the older lads with longer hair (older to us) come in every morning with their canvass army bags covered in meticulously drawn band logos. Morbid Angel, Kreator, Sepultura.. et al, it was an education. Going to the Sound Cellar and gawking at the walls, maybe buying something if we had money. There was a place in Dun Laoghaire that sold second hand albums (forget the name), you could get tapes cheap. Going to Record Collector and buying bootleg gig recordings (in day glo yellow sleeves), because you couldn't go to the gig. Being in an a schoolmate's house and sneaking into his older brother's room where there was a massive Bolt Thrower 'War Master' poster ( what is that I thought) and where I made copies of his tapes on hi speed dub while he was out, better when he was out of the house. Getting Kerrang! and Metal Hammer issues and lending them/ getting a lend of them.  Going to friend's gaffs and watching recordings of headbanger's ball on video. I miss some of my mates that I don't see anymore.  All of it seems like yesterday. Time flies-