Horns Up

My alter ego had a chance to run wild this last weekend. I was at the Milwaukee Metal Fest helping a friend out with his record label. He was a co-sponsor and had a distribution table set up to sell his wares. While he was out scouting bands I would watch the table from time to time if his assistant wasn’t around.

The festival had over 80 bands, a veritable smorgasbord of death metal on display. I have always liked heavy metal, the harder, faster, and louder the better. I get chills up and down my spine during sound checks. I can barely contain the built up energy. I just love the way it makes me feel.

Sound Man: "Bass Drum Please"

You hear the drum...*bap* *bap* *bap*...

Then the sound man runs it through the P.A.

*PHOOM* *PHOOM* *PHOOM*

Then the guitars check and when they get run through the PA you feel that first sound wave of shredded distortion hit you and wash over you like a tidal wave of hatred and hostility. But it doesn’t insert those attributes in to you, it rips through you and carries your own hatred and anger away.

There were quite a few bands that stood out, but none so much as Abacinate (check out the radio to the right). I was waiting for them to start playing and was planning on being quite reserved and just enjoying the show and taking a couple of pictures. Wrong. they belted in to their first song and when that double-bass kicked in it practically caved my chest in to my spine. I felt it more than I heard it. The guitars were spot on and I was awash in a death metal frenzy that I wasn’t expecting. I felt like I was 15 again. The riffing was amazing, a clinic on how to shred with the heaviest of the heavy. It practically peeled the flesh off of my bones. And the vocals...man oh man. You can just hear the hate in his voice.

All of this may sound shockingly negative. But in reality it is quite therapeutic. I thought the heavy metal brotherhood had died a long time ago, but it has not. It is alive and well in the underground. I remember the days when you would see someone in the mall with a Metallica or Slayer T-shirt and you each gave a knowing nod. An instant recognition of a secret bond and brotherhood. I see the same thing now, but metal has moved back underground - and it is a welcome change.

This could not have been a better weekend for me. It cleansed me. It washed away all of the pent up stress and bitterness that I have towards work. And it reminded me of my alter ego who would have just as readily given an auditor the middle finger in response to a asinine audit as opposed to a memo. I think I'll keep some of that edge with me for the next couple of weeks. Because as all metal heads know - "Id rather feel like shit than be full of shit".

\m/ - Horns up!

And it got even better because I won this guitar in a raffle. I rule!