I want to share the music I've come across that has a certain quality to it, rare and elusive. The kind of music that moves you so deeply in a way that you can't understand or describe. The lyrics or music or video may make no sense to your brain, but it does to your soul. It's extremely cathartic and inspiring.
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Artist: DevilDriver
Album: The Fury Of Our Maker's Hand
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lg9-MYmSuLuyIjzWRNcghyZitUMAK5lGM
The Fury Of Our Maker's Hand remains one of my favorite metal albums of all time for a few reasons. This is an album in which every song is special, and none of the songs feel like "filler". I also listened to this a lot as a teenager, so the music is deeply imprinted in my mind and brings me back to simpler times. Despite the bias that might give me, I still feel that the music stands on its own.
Looking back, I'm finding deeper meanings in the lyrics where before I didn't pay them much attention. On the surface, the song titles and lyrical content seem to be very dark with themes of death and destruction, which is very stereotypical for metal music. However, when you take the time to really read DevilDriver's lyrics, they're very insightful. Here's a good example from the title track:
I'm just a human being
A mistake made of feelings
With a soul... wrapping in chains
So fragile, full of pain
No one knows why we are here
Giving laughter and so many tears
I will just do my best
To keep my head above the rest
As you can see, there can be more to metal music than a strange obsession with the darker aspects of life. I see humility and a willingness to be open, honest, and personal. What initially got me fascinated with metal was the sound, its raw power, and I didn't pay much attention to lyrics until later on. I like that metal bands aren't afraid to address heavier subjects. We all feel things like anger, fear, and melancholy sometimes, and we have music to reflect that, to help us through those times. It's not good to dwell on those things and perpetuate them, but it's equally ineffective to ignore those feelings completely, or they build up and eat away at you. For me, metal music is a great release of all kinds of frustration.
I also really like Dez Fafara's (singer of DevilDriver) philosophy about playing in a band:
“I’ve never had the desire to be famous. I’ve only ever wanted to do music and travel the world and play on stage. Other than that, I’m extremely anti-social and very private. So fame has no place in my life. I’ve seen it create ego, and when you’re famous and you have ego you can perceive yourself to be above others. ... But if anyone ever wants their photo with me, or they want me to sign something for them, then I’m always happy to stop and chat to them because my heroes always did that for me. My heroes took me out on tour and I never saw ego from those cats. Those are the people that you aspire to be like.” (source)
This is the mindset I aim to always have no matter where I may go in life. Maybe I'll reach some level of fame, and maybe I won't. Maybe I'll live on more money, and maybe I'll live on less. Whether I'm famous or not, and whether the numbers I work with are bigger or smaller, I might live in financial comfort and I might not. I'm thankful for what I have and I want to remember that we're all in this together. We're all just people trying to live our lives in peace. Fame or money don't make you better than anyone. If I get lucky enough to, as Dez so eloquently summarized one of my dreams, "do music and travel the world and play on stage", I'll never be above being real. I don't want the stage to separate me from the audience. I'll still be one of them.
Thank you so much for reading! If you enjoy the music I share and review, please consider upvoting and resteeming; it helps a lot! Thank you for your support on my previous posts!
Stay tuned for more powerful music in a week or two. I realize I share a lot of metal music, because it's what I grew up listening to, so my next post will feature something different!