Being a Metaller.

[koper]

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.

Absolutely, there is nothing wrong with following ,,the dress code". The point I was trying to make is that from my experience, presenting oneself as a metalhead was still ,,cool" lets say, 25 years ago amongst youth. Now, not so much, but it doesn't matter in the end.

[Eoin McLove]

I wonder if it was cool in general, or just cool to those of us who thought it was cool. Might be the same today- if you're into it, it's cool. If you don't like it then it's not. When I see cool hip fashionable people I think they must have something wrong with them, but I'm sure they think they look terrific 

[hellfire]

Most of us on here are over 35. We'll look naff no matter what we do. Might as well enjoy bring naff.

[Eoin McLove]

Remember Naff jackets that were cool in around 93? That was when the tide was turning around me. Metallers dropping like flies.

[Maggot Colony]

Xworx jeans killed metal.

[Eoin McLove]

  they fuckin did!

[The Butcher]

Xworx jeans killed metal.

With the absolute lathering of brylcreem

[The Butcher]

[StoutAndAle]

Remember Naff jackets that were cool in around 93? That was when the tide was turning around me. Metallers dropping like flies.

Naff Naff Co. 54. Christ I hated them. Mainly because the cunts who wore them would shout shit like "Irun Maid-un" and "Muhtullicuh" at me as I walked along in t-shirt and jeans.

None of my friends were into metal or even rock really. The thing about the local disco really struck with me because I would wait all night for the one Metallica or GNR song and then get my pals to mosh until they got self-conscious. 

I had a buddy whose older brother was the light on the path. He gave me loads of tapes, a few hand-me-down t-shirts, showed me my first chords and riffs. "Enter Sandman" hit the airwaves that summer and he taught me the intro and main riff (which I would play incessantly and upside down because I'm a lefty on a very expensive Fender Strat in Crowley's guitar shop). I sort of idolised that lad because I didn't have any older siblings. He smoked, he drank, he told his old man to fuck off, he got in a fist-fight with his old man after telling him to fuck off and, crucially, he bought that very expensive candy apple red Fender Strat from Crowley's one day and I was there to see it.

Not long after he got into dance music, started going to Sir Henry's, taking pills and lost all interest in metal. Sold the Strat for half nothing to go a rave in England.

I never had very long hair because I didn't want the head yanked off me during a hurling match. Ended up with a Steve McManaman circa 1994 type of haircut - I still remember bringing the photo from Shoot! magazine into the local barbers. The barber (male) told me that I'd have to wait for Una - the ladies hairdresser who worked in the same shop - because and I quote "I do the normal things, biy - flat top, up and under, short back and sides. Una is better at the quare sorta stuff".

I then had to show Una my Shoot! magazine before she clipped my do and said "My Jesus, you're handsome now! Isn't he, girls?" The girls - average age: 67 - all agreed that I was. My mam has photos of me from this period - I look like a middled-aged poetry professor (non-tenured) who found a vial of youth serum.

I suppose it was a bit of a lonely existence but something in me refused to go with the crowd. I really didn't find like-minded folks until I was in college and even then there weren't many - this was the time of Oasis/Blur and Eminem was not far off being about to go large. Usually ended up going to gigs etc. on my own. I was working a boring job at night during college and there was a lad there who approached me and asked if I went to a certain school (I did) and he asked if I used to have longer hair (no comment). Turned out that he was two years above me in school, lived around the corner and into all the shit that I was. He asked if I drank in Fred Zeppelins, I said that I was barely 17 - he scoffed and said "That won't matter!" (Disclaimer: this was in the 1990s - I'm sure it's different now).

That weekend I went with him, his girlfriend and a few of their buddies. This was my Saul on the road to Damascus moment. Except Saul was me, the road to Damascus was Fredz, the donkey was... I dunno... cider and the blinding light was DJ Steve or Barry Bats on the decks or Denis behind the bar blaring out the tunes.

I made a lot of friends very quickly and the next few years were some serious craic. We talked for hours about bands, movies & books and went to seek out those bands etc. listening to records in houses/flats/bedsits. Music discovery as a shared experience. I rarely see any of those people nowadays but we still flash the devil horns at each other if we cross paths.

These days - I have one or two friends who either listen to metal (though death etc. is a step too far) or who will just go along to a gig just to see what's up. As someone pointed out in this thread - with the internet now you can listen new bands daily (or catch up on older stuff that you may have missed) but the thrill of the record hunt is gone.

I still wear the t-shirts/hoodies and jeans - sometimes even to work. Not in a two fingers to the man way or anything - they're just my clothes.

Metallers are the maddest, soundest, funniest bunch of people on the planet.





Wait. What was the question?

[Circlepit]

As I shared a room with my older brother I had to listen to what he listened to - Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Def Leppard and the Beach Boys. Cassettes of course.
He went to America one summer with exchange students my mother has taken in.

Off the at point but at one stage we had Spanish, French, American and German students. Our house was small and we were all squashed in.
Amyway said brother came back with Appetite For Destruction. Landmark moment.
My friends also were into it but if felt like everyone was at that time.

The brother of a fella that lives in my street got me to listen to AJfA. I'd say One made me shit myself. He had Maiden tapes as well but they didn't do anything for me.
My sisters friend gave me a copy of The Real Thing, Puppets and Dirt. More head melting moments.

There was no real metal community in my small town growing up in Mayo, it was a case of a couple of people you would sort of know that were into it.
They few older heads were far too intimidating for me to approach.
In 4th year I was given copies of Covenant, Arise, Individual Thought Patterns and Cause Of Death. Another game changing moment.

Didn't find a metal community it Dublin as I was working all the time but when I moved to Cork I made friends that were into metal and most of them still are. I discovered Black Metal and Hardcore in Cork and was blown away by everything about it.
Fredz was great for meeting like minded people.
I'm on the wrong side of 45 and whilst I'm still metal through and through I no longer  wear black exclusively. My new rocks are a thing of the past and my darling wife likes to remind me of my age when I wear one of my band shirts.
My young fella loves going through my collection of tapes and CDs deciphering logos etc. I live close to a secondary school and I see a fair few Metallica shirts. Part of me wants to approach the young pups and tell them listen to/ have you heard but I imagine I'd be pepper sprayed of the equivalent.

I won't claim that metal has gotten me through dark times or the likes but it has helped keep me on an even keel, it has a calming effect.
I said in a previous thread that my old band are back rehearsing and are knew laying down drums for another ep. That's more for ourselves rather than another crack at world domination.

A rambling post but overall metal still is a way of life for me albeit not in a headband mosh 24/7 type of way.

[hellfire]

Xworx jeans killed metal.

I'm so glad I missed that fad. Jaysus they were everywhere.

[Eoin McLove]

I remember reading Metal Hammer each month throughout the 90s and seeing the penpal pages at the back. It always looked to me like some kind of lonely hearts club for social invalids who couldn't make real friends. The 90s Facebook? If I hadn't been so cool and all knowing at 15 I might have started writing to some of those sad fucks and found out about tape trading and the actual underground! Sherlukkit, I wasn't bright but at least I was a stunner.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

    

[Skott Furys jizz rag]

My two oldest and closet friends are guys I played in bands with as a teenager (lots of Lamb of God and Arch Enemy covers despite me constantly wanting to cover Emperor 😂) currently starting a sludge band with em so craic should be 90. I own a leather jacket which I live in, plenty of band t-shirts, hairs usually long, usually have a beard. Most people are aware I'm into the heavier end of metal, but I also love Tori Amos and Thievery Corporation. It's more part of my identity than the whole thing. The big thing about metal for me was as a shy introverted young fella who had no friends, I made lots of friends who I still talk to. The t-shirts I think help as conversation starters, like I've run over to strangers here because they had a converge tee on 😂 I've made a lot of friends through the art scene as well but I'd much rather talk about Funeral Mist than the arts council being a shower of cunts 😂. If I hadn't become obsessed with music, I'd be a much better artist, all those years on guitar would have been better spent learning to network (lick arse) wouldn't change it for the world though.

[jobrok1]

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