On March 21, I asked you for recommendations for the angriest, loudest, screaming-ist thrash metal known to mankind.
http://www.dimensionsmagazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56147
I thank you for your suggestions, and I wish to report my findings, feelings and observations. Here goes:
*My love for thrash is all-encompassing; I am not the same person I was before. There is now life before and after thrash.
*Thrash is like peyote---when it makes me nauseous, I know it's good. When the music is so intense I think my head will explode, it's good. When I can't understand a single lyric, it's good thrash.
*I have spent the last year delving deeply into Opera at Lincoln Center and on radio, and, now, absorbing thrash, I find there are more similarities than differences between the two genres. Death. Betrayal. Treachery. Blood. Drama.
*When you meet another person who is into thrash, it's like meeting a brother or sister. I am surprised, when I tell different people I know that I'm now thoroughly soaked in thrash, that they're into thrash too, or went through a period of nothing but. Some people hide their thrash tendencies, especially those I know who are religious. (That "Hail Satan" stuff, ya know.)
*When I go to iTunes to check out a new band someone has told me about, if it doesn't say EXPLICIT LYRICS, I don't bother. If I click and the song isn't 10,000 miles per hour, I don't want it.
*I have an iPod now with a single band---Slayer. 171 songs. All my other crap is on another iPod. Sorry, Pantera, Megadeth, Cannibal Corpse, others.
*Two weeks ago, I was asked out of the blue join a thrash band as lead guitarist. The people asking me had no clue I was into thrash---they knew me from years ago and I hadn't seen or heard from them since. No accident. After dreaming of Marshall amps, black leather with studs, facial hair, etc, I had to turn them down as I am currently in 3 bands and have no time to learn an entire set of music in a genre I have never played and don't feel qualified to play...yet.
*I've taken up drums after playing guitar, bass and piano for 30+ years. SMASH SMASH SMASH
*I see that life has led me to thrash---that I've always loved speed, velocity, frenetic music. My first band in high school was called "RAGE". No accident. I was just busy with rockabilly---an early form of dangerous, wild, fast, outlaw music.
*Rick Rubin produced the one and only rap album I ever bought, and still own: Run DMC's "Raising Hell." I was pleased to discover he also produced "Reign In Blood", the first thrash album I ever bought two months ago. He also produced Johnny Cash's "American Recordings", another album I played to death.
*Thrash has made me a person who cares less, or not at all, what other people think or approve or disapprove of. It's also changed my concept of what "music" is, and I will never again refer to anything anyone does as "noise." "Noise" and "music" are in the ears of the beholder.
*I have a VERY understanding wife. I had to sit her down and say, "You might hear some strange, loud sounds coming from my office." She's totally cool with it. She doesn't share my passion (to say the least) but, as always, JJ always encourages me to do whatever makes me happy. And that is why Goddess invented headphones.
http://www.dimensionsmagazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56147
I thank you for your suggestions, and I wish to report my findings, feelings and observations. Here goes:
*My love for thrash is all-encompassing; I am not the same person I was before. There is now life before and after thrash.
*Thrash is like peyote---when it makes me nauseous, I know it's good. When the music is so intense I think my head will explode, it's good. When I can't understand a single lyric, it's good thrash.
*I have spent the last year delving deeply into Opera at Lincoln Center and on radio, and, now, absorbing thrash, I find there are more similarities than differences between the two genres. Death. Betrayal. Treachery. Blood. Drama.
*When you meet another person who is into thrash, it's like meeting a brother or sister. I am surprised, when I tell different people I know that I'm now thoroughly soaked in thrash, that they're into thrash too, or went through a period of nothing but. Some people hide their thrash tendencies, especially those I know who are religious. (That "Hail Satan" stuff, ya know.)
*When I go to iTunes to check out a new band someone has told me about, if it doesn't say EXPLICIT LYRICS, I don't bother. If I click and the song isn't 10,000 miles per hour, I don't want it.
*I have an iPod now with a single band---Slayer. 171 songs. All my other crap is on another iPod. Sorry, Pantera, Megadeth, Cannibal Corpse, others.
*Two weeks ago, I was asked out of the blue join a thrash band as lead guitarist. The people asking me had no clue I was into thrash---they knew me from years ago and I hadn't seen or heard from them since. No accident. After dreaming of Marshall amps, black leather with studs, facial hair, etc, I had to turn them down as I am currently in 3 bands and have no time to learn an entire set of music in a genre I have never played and don't feel qualified to play...yet.
*I've taken up drums after playing guitar, bass and piano for 30+ years. SMASH SMASH SMASH
*I see that life has led me to thrash---that I've always loved speed, velocity, frenetic music. My first band in high school was called "RAGE". No accident. I was just busy with rockabilly---an early form of dangerous, wild, fast, outlaw music.
*Rick Rubin produced the one and only rap album I ever bought, and still own: Run DMC's "Raising Hell." I was pleased to discover he also produced "Reign In Blood", the first thrash album I ever bought two months ago. He also produced Johnny Cash's "American Recordings", another album I played to death.
*Thrash has made me a person who cares less, or not at all, what other people think or approve or disapprove of. It's also changed my concept of what "music" is, and I will never again refer to anything anyone does as "noise." "Noise" and "music" are in the ears of the beholder.
*I have a VERY understanding wife. I had to sit her down and say, "You might hear some strange, loud sounds coming from my office." She's totally cool with it. She doesn't share my passion (to say the least) but, as always, JJ always encourages me to do whatever makes me happy. And that is why Goddess invented headphones.
