Music has been a huge part of my life. Music defined my life in my teenage years. The relationships with my best and closest friends have been build through music. Music has helped me through the worst of days and have accompanied me on the best.
Today I'll be writing about my journey through music. Starting from the early days of discovering Metallica, going through life with hard and heavy riffs, before ending up in present day accompanied by love songs and emotional tunes.
Metallica
It was around the age of 10 that I started to really get into music. My dads Metallica and Linkin Park CDs that he listened to in the car were really influential on me. It was when I myself started properly listening to Metallica it took off. We had limited access to the internet back then and I only had a 128MB MP3 player to listen to music on. I managed to download some Metallica MP3s that I listened to for the longest time. Hit the Lights, Enter Sandman, Crash Course in Brain Surgery and Master of Puppets to name a few. It was less than 10 songs that I listened to on repeat for months.
It was a while later when I got my iPod Nano that I branched out into more Metallica. I got all their albums and I would listen to nothing but Metallica for the years to come. I was in complete awe. All other music became irrelevant.
I was so excited when they released Death Magnetic. I ditched school to wait outside the record shop to get my hands on it as early as possible. The quality of the album can be discussed but at the time I was completely hooked. I listened to it non-stop for weeks if not months.
I wore almost nothing but band shirts. Metallica of course being highly represented. I got pictures to hand on the wall of my room. I watched all the DVDs. Both documentaries and live shows. There wasn't a thing about Metallica I wouldn't consume.
Source: Wikipedia
Discovering through Metallica
When I got to see Metallica live for the first time in 2008 I also discovered Down and The Sword. I slowly started listening to them for a bit. I was of course exstatic to find out that Phil Anselmo, the former vocalist of Pantera, was also the vocalist of Down. That was huge. I was also excited for The Sword as I loved their song Freya from playing Guitar Hero II.
I now had three bands that I really liked, with Metallica being the number one of course. I would slowly get more into Pantera and they would become my number two.
I would keep cycling through these few bands until again seeing Metallica in 2009. I of course had to check out the two supporting bands Lamb of God and Mastodon. I was completely stricken by Mastodons Blood and Thunder and Lamb of Gods Redneck. I was hooked to both bands from the start and by the time I got to see them I knew all their songs. It was amazing.
It was at this time I realized that I needed to branch out. I need to start discovering more of this amazing music myself and not limit myself to what Metallica brings me. I soon thereafter discovered the likes of System of a Down, Rammstein and Rage Against the Machine to name a few. What a world I was stepping into.
Source: Wikipedia
The next big thing
My next huge discovery did however come from Metallica when I went to see them again in 2010. This time I didn't do any research into the supporting bands. The first band, Fear Factory, didn't really catch my attention that much. However, when Gojira took to the stage with Oroborus I was in complete awe. It was something out of this world. It was like I forgot everything about Metallica for the 6 songs that they played. Enter a new age.
My reaction to Gojira was a kin to that of D_Music_Life in this video.
From this point forward Gojira was my main thing. I was in complete awe at how hard, how technical and how genuine the music was. It was really original.
Source: Hardwired Magazine
A life of rock and metal
From then on out it was all rock and metal and I really couldn't see myself listening to anything else at the time. When finally turning 18 I would start going to local shows. Discovering bands both small and big. I went abroad to Hellfest in 2012 for my first big festival. I would return there for the next five years until they started releasing tickets before the lineups. They would still sell out in hours. I started visiting other festivals instead.
Download Paris 2017 was quite special. I finally got to see System of a Down which had been so influential on me. I also got to see Linkin Park which was part of what made me curious about music. It was quite shocking to get the news about Chester Benningtons death merely a month later, while visiting another festival called Malakoff.
I've been quite lucky about seeing some bands and artists. I saw Soundgarden at Hellfest 2014. That sparked my interest for anything Chris Cornell did. I was quite shocked when he died in 2017. He and Chester Bennington were close friends and Chester actually took his own life on what would have been Chris Cornells birthday. I got to see Lemmy Kilmister with Motörhead at Hellfest 2015. He died the next year following a diagnose of prostate cancer. Fuck cancer.
Branching out
In later years, I would say after turning 23, I've been branching out into other genres and I'm so grateful that I did. Music didn't have to be "hard and heavy" anymore for me to like it. I went on a trip through the ages, discovering the likes of Elvis, Johnny Cash and Little Richard. All of whom I had of course heard of before but never listened to or taken a liking in. I started liking the old school blues and rock.
I soon started appreciating other aspects of music. The riffs didn't need to be heavy anymore. I would start listening to lyrics more. I soon fell in love with Biffy Clyro and their love songs and heartbreak. My musical taste started being fueled more and more by emotions and the meaning behind the lyrics. Biffy Clyro has been my most listened to artist every year since.
Taken from my: last.fm profile
I started scrobbling to last.fm in spring 2017. If you take a look at my all time scrobbles of artists you'll see that there's not much of the hard and heavy remaining these days. It's all gotten a lot softer. My most played song since then is in fact Re-arrange by Biffy Clyro. A slow and emotional ballad. The full list of my most listened to songs can be found here.
Present day
These days I'm everywhere when it comes to music. My most listened to band in 2020 was, again, Biffy Clyro due to their amazing new album A Celebration Of Endings. I can't really define my taste in any way these days. I mostly listen to music when commuting to and from work. One day I'll be listening to The Black Dahlia Murder (death metal) on my way to work and on the way home I'll be listening to Perturbator (synthwave). One day I'll be listening to the Bloodborne Soundtrack and the next I'll be all about Bob Marley.
I'm really glad about my evolution within music. It really is a great medium. Whether it be to relax, to get hyped or to set the mood. Music can do it all. Music can cheer you up and music can get you down. There's power in them notes.
I hope you all have a great weekend! Listen to some music and relax. My choice today is Luke Winslow-King and his awesome tune No More Crying Today.
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