I know metal isn't for everyone, but we can still try.
Firstly, one needs to understand that there are SO many sub-genres of metal. I don't care for sub-genres. If it sounds good and it's metal, it's good metal.
Having said that, this particular style of metal (progressive metal, if you will) has been on the rise over the past few years. I like to think of it as a grown man's metal. Strange time signatures, odd tunings, technical riffing. It's mathematical and quite complex, musically.
The best part about this kind of metal is that it's so groove based. It will keep your head bobbing from start to finish.
Now I've listened to this song about 40 times in the past few days. It has been on repeat for the most part of those few days and I've analysed it hard.
Let's try this.
Things you will need: Good headphones. An open mind. A head to bob.
If you can read and listen at the same time, this would be idea.
This song is easy to groove to. The beat coupled with the guitars building up into the main riff in the intro is like a warm you up for what is soon to happen.
Now comes the hardest part for most. At 0:34 a huge growl kicks in with the main riff. Now, this is hard to do - This man's voice is so big and powerful, you just get goosebumps as it fades out.
The key to listening to metal vocals is you need to focus on the melody. Screaming is by no means pretty to listen to, but if you listen through the vocal melody onto the guitar you will see how well the 2 work together.
The drum beat is constantly driving in the background, it's never too over the top and keeps a solid beat for you to bob along to.
The clean singing is a treat. His voice is worthy of awards, I reckon. I get shivers at the thought of being able to belt out notes like that.
What's better is the contrasting tones of the screams and clean vocals. Both melodies are really catchy, they compliment each other well. Tasteful!
Just sit back and take it in. Until the breakdown, that is.
The breakdown is the climax of most metal songs. It's heavy, it's catchy, it's groovy and it end things off with a bang.
This breakdown in particular is a treat. Why? Well, at 4:39 you'll encounter a belting high note where the music pauses and drops into the tastiest chugging and riffing, ending the song with you wanting to start it all over again. It's all about that groove, man.
I hope this has given you at least a better understanding of what makes a metalhead such as myself tick. I like a lot of different kinds of music, but metal always surprises me with great things like this.
<3
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Thursday, June 19, 2014
I Promised Myself I'd Write Today
Here I sit in front of a blank screen while Facebook is down, hindering me from work. I'm not too upset about that at in the slightest... I kind of hope it never comes back.
So, writing, hey? It's something I've always loved but lost grip of a long time ago. That, and drawing. Both of which I have slowly been working on again.
Creativity makes life so much more exciting. The things you can add to a blank screen or clean sheet of paper are endless. If it's in your mind you can put it there.
At the risk of boring you with my theories, I'll write something. I'm not sure what it is or what it's about yet, but we'll see when I'm done, right?
HERE WE GO!
I like writing about people. Not in a skinnery, nonsensical way, just as observation.
We are fucking interesting things. We have brains that we think with, most of the time, and hearts that we feel with. You can't feel your heart, but so much comes from there.
We listen to music. Arrangements of noises put together to create something that we enjoy so damn much. I can't imagine what kind of world we would live in if we hadn't discovered music. Again, some of it brings weird feelings in our hearts, the place where you don't feel physically, but you feel.
We write blog posts fueled by flu medication and lack of sleep, hoping people in the world will read them. Throw a link out and see what happens. It could be something great, it could be something pointless. They'll only know once they get to the end, if they haven't stopped already...
We make irrational decisions - "If you don't try you won't know". We're adventurers! Well, some of us. To others adventures and experiences are scary and they would rather stay where they are comfortable. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but with a world of places and people what's not to adventure?
We create. We make things, we use our imaginations to interpret what we feel and experience and make them into tangible things that we share with the world. Some people get it, others don't. None of our minds are the same.
I think as shit as the human race can and has been at times, we are smarter than we allow ourselves to believe. It starts with your mind, once you can master that, there's no stopping you.
Let's discover.
So, writing, hey? It's something I've always loved but lost grip of a long time ago. That, and drawing. Both of which I have slowly been working on again.
Creativity makes life so much more exciting. The things you can add to a blank screen or clean sheet of paper are endless. If it's in your mind you can put it there.
At the risk of boring you with my theories, I'll write something. I'm not sure what it is or what it's about yet, but we'll see when I'm done, right?
HERE WE GO!
I like writing about people. Not in a skinnery, nonsensical way, just as observation.
We are fucking interesting things. We have brains that we think with, most of the time, and hearts that we feel with. You can't feel your heart, but so much comes from there.
We listen to music. Arrangements of noises put together to create something that we enjoy so damn much. I can't imagine what kind of world we would live in if we hadn't discovered music. Again, some of it brings weird feelings in our hearts, the place where you don't feel physically, but you feel.
We write blog posts fueled by flu medication and lack of sleep, hoping people in the world will read them. Throw a link out and see what happens. It could be something great, it could be something pointless. They'll only know once they get to the end, if they haven't stopped already...
We make irrational decisions - "If you don't try you won't know". We're adventurers! Well, some of us. To others adventures and experiences are scary and they would rather stay where they are comfortable. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but with a world of places and people what's not to adventure?
We create. We make things, we use our imaginations to interpret what we feel and experience and make them into tangible things that we share with the world. Some people get it, others don't. None of our minds are the same.
I think as shit as the human race can and has been at times, we are smarter than we allow ourselves to believe. It starts with your mind, once you can master that, there's no stopping you.
Let's discover.
Monday, June 16, 2014
It's What Makes You You.
I promised myself I'd write more. But recently I've had so much on my mind I haven't been able to pin one thing down for long enough to think about. I also think I've started too many posts with "I promised myself I'd write more" or something like that...
Basically, I have recently learned a whole lot about myself as a human and about humans in general.
For a long time I lived as part of a unit. It's something we all eventually want no matter how much anyone may deny it. There will inevitably come a time that you will feel like there's something that's just not making things as great as they could be. Having said that, that thing could be a pet, a hobby, learning something new or even getting rid of something old. Just something.
Having been a lone ranger as of late, I've been exposed to so many new feelings, situations and lessons. Some great, some scary but mostly all new. I have discovered who the important people really are. You'd be surprised where they come from. Some have always been there and I never really gave them the time to let them be there. Others are completely new. People that I had met along the way who showed who they truly are form the start.
Anyway, to the point. This is not meant to be an emo, bluesy post. It's really a list of great lessons I have picked up about us as people through some of my recent experiences. They may not all apply to you, but they all exist.
It's what makes you you.
We're great people. We have our doubts, but they are our doubts. Just because we have them it doesn't mean they exist to others. Those things make us the people others love. No one is perfect, no one is right.
No matter how confused, hurt or alone we might feel, there is always an answer. Our thoughts are our only fears and we are the ones scaring ourselves.
We are beautiful. We all have at least one thing we don't like about ourselves. But that's just what we we don't like. Those things are someone else's favourite things, and if we didn't have them they wouldn't be able to be appreciated. Beauty is merely a matter of perspective.
New things are scary. Think of how many things we've done for the first time that we were once scared of before. We can do it. We have done it.
We are talented. There's that one thing that we can do that someone will completely adore and appreciate to the ends of the world. It's that thing that you're so good at that people are in awe of every time they see you do it.
Why are we sorry? We don't need to apologise to anyone for the way we feel or the things we say. Unless they are silly, hurtful things that were in the heat of the moment, then, yes, apologise. You shouldn't feel sorry for your decisions. What's right for you won't always be right for someone else.
We often forget to take care of ourselves. We worry about the wellbeing of others, and that is great because we care, but we need to direct more of that towards ourselves. Sharing is caring, but you can also share with yourself :)
We make someone happy. Whether it's just by being able to spend time with us or being the love of someone's life, we make someone happy somehow. It's the happiness that counts.
There will be tears. I'll be the first to admit that few things take some weight off your shoulders like a good, hard, wailing cry session. Let it out.
I believe that the smiles always outweigh the tears, even when they feel like they don't. We remember the cries because they hurt more. We must remember more smiles.
We have each other. It's the people we spend our time with that make it all worth it. With the right mix of good people and good vibes there is nothing that can go wrong. We uplift each other through our laughs, our stories and our consumption of substances.
As different as we all are, we all have our simple needs and comforts in our personal life. I have learnt that by respecting each person's way of living, they too will accept you. At times we may not agree, but we still understand each other because we're all people. People are awesome. We are interesting, we are individual and we are exactly who we need to be.
We will feel down and out sometimes, but there is always a pocket of happiness that we know will make us feel better.
Here is a photo of a sleeping cat.
Basically, I have recently learned a whole lot about myself as a human and about humans in general.
For a long time I lived as part of a unit. It's something we all eventually want no matter how much anyone may deny it. There will inevitably come a time that you will feel like there's something that's just not making things as great as they could be. Having said that, that thing could be a pet, a hobby, learning something new or even getting rid of something old. Just something.
Having been a lone ranger as of late, I've been exposed to so many new feelings, situations and lessons. Some great, some scary but mostly all new. I have discovered who the important people really are. You'd be surprised where they come from. Some have always been there and I never really gave them the time to let them be there. Others are completely new. People that I had met along the way who showed who they truly are form the start.
Anyway, to the point. This is not meant to be an emo, bluesy post. It's really a list of great lessons I have picked up about us as people through some of my recent experiences. They may not all apply to you, but they all exist.
It's what makes you you.
We're great people. We have our doubts, but they are our doubts. Just because we have them it doesn't mean they exist to others. Those things make us the people others love. No one is perfect, no one is right.
No matter how confused, hurt or alone we might feel, there is always an answer. Our thoughts are our only fears and we are the ones scaring ourselves.
We are beautiful. We all have at least one thing we don't like about ourselves. But that's just what we we don't like. Those things are someone else's favourite things, and if we didn't have them they wouldn't be able to be appreciated. Beauty is merely a matter of perspective.
New things are scary. Think of how many things we've done for the first time that we were once scared of before. We can do it. We have done it.
We are talented. There's that one thing that we can do that someone will completely adore and appreciate to the ends of the world. It's that thing that you're so good at that people are in awe of every time they see you do it.
Why are we sorry? We don't need to apologise to anyone for the way we feel or the things we say. Unless they are silly, hurtful things that were in the heat of the moment, then, yes, apologise. You shouldn't feel sorry for your decisions. What's right for you won't always be right for someone else.
We often forget to take care of ourselves. We worry about the wellbeing of others, and that is great because we care, but we need to direct more of that towards ourselves. Sharing is caring, but you can also share with yourself :)
We make someone happy. Whether it's just by being able to spend time with us or being the love of someone's life, we make someone happy somehow. It's the happiness that counts.
There will be tears. I'll be the first to admit that few things take some weight off your shoulders like a good, hard, wailing cry session. Let it out.
I believe that the smiles always outweigh the tears, even when they feel like they don't. We remember the cries because they hurt more. We must remember more smiles.
We have each other. It's the people we spend our time with that make it all worth it. With the right mix of good people and good vibes there is nothing that can go wrong. We uplift each other through our laughs, our stories and our consumption of substances.
As different as we all are, we all have our simple needs and comforts in our personal life. I have learnt that by respecting each person's way of living, they too will accept you. At times we may not agree, but we still understand each other because we're all people. People are awesome. We are interesting, we are individual and we are exactly who we need to be.
We will feel down and out sometimes, but there is always a pocket of happiness that we know will make us feel better.
Here is a photo of a sleeping cat.
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)