Mandatory Autobiographical Introduction

This is my view of heavy metal as a genre of music which includes several other, sometimes contradictory, elements and sub-genres.

The main point of this blog as a whole is to give a personal, highly subjective view of metal, because that's the one thing no-one else has ever talked about. There are tons and tons of sociological, musicological, whateverlogical studies about metal as a cultural force, metal fans as mental retards or a bunch of angry youths wasted out of their minds (come to think of it, they're pretty much the same); also there are those good studies, made by people who actually understand metal and the reason why it's so popular. Many, many, many books about history of heavy metal have been written - one that comes to mind right away is The Sound of the Beast - but they all focus on the objective sides; these books are very good at what they are, but that is exactly the reason they fail to please the hardcore fans who already know how Metallica became the biggest (although not the best) metal band in the world. If that's what you want, this isn't the place for you and you can leave, no harm done, no bad blood between us. Actually, I'm urging you to do it now.

You're still here? Good, I'm very glad you decided to stick around for at least another paragraph. Now, let's talk.

I'm not a superhuman, but just a 24-year old fan from Finland, so I am not going to give you (the readers, the fellow Metal Hearts) an all-encompassing history of a movement of music which itself is so complex it's getting ridiculous. Instead I'm going to give my personal view on all the possible (new or old as shit) subjects I can think of - starting from a particular sub-genre and it's influence on me as well as all of metal community, and going on ranting about psychology of experiencing music. Because of the nature of this blog, there are three very important things to say before I can even start thinking about writing anything: 1) this is all, 100%, (no?) bullshit included, my personal opinions and views, and every one of you are entitled to your opinions and hopefully we can discuss them in a manner that is not offensive or insensitive towards any one person or a group of people; 2) I do not posses all the information, I do not know all the possible bands that have ever existed, or I haven't heard all the records by all the (important or not) bands, so there are going to be clear holes in everything; 3) because all this is so heavily up to me as a person, I think it's important for you to know who I am, where I come from and what kind of music I have listened at what stage in my life. The third point is the basis of this text.

I found metal at the tender age of 12. My friend handed me a copy of Children of Bodom's Follow the Reaper (then a brand-new record) and ordered me to listen it at home. I was hooked after - actually, during - the first spin. I just couldn't stay there, sit and listen, and I had to do something. So, what did I do? I opened the door separating my room from the living room and shouted, at the surprise of my mother who was doing some cleaning, "THIS IS WHAT I LIKE!" And then I shut the door to her rather expressionless face.

I never backed from my initial reaction to that kind of music. After dwelling into Children of Bodom's very limited discography, I started searching new bands to exploit and I've been doing that now for the half of my life. It never stops, for me: if someone, anywhere, for any reason, recommends a band or an album or a song, I just have to check it out, even in the briefest of ways. This is just the way I listen to music, nothing more than that: always looking for more, never satisfied with the knowledge I have.

After Bodom I found my next (very stereotypic, I know, so just hang on) favorites: Iron Maiden (first metal-show I ever saw was Iron Maiden on their Eddie Rips Up Europe ´05 show in Helsinki), Judas Priest, Stratovarius (very common among my generation of Finnish metal fanatics), Metallica, Manowar, Sonata Arctica... Eventually I found my taste, more specific and unique; by the age of 16 I had been introduced to King Diamond and even to this day I consider Abigail the best record ever made. Nowadays I have over 500 (metal) records - all of which I have listened for the first time while reading the lyrics. I have another blog - in Finnish, tough - where I go through all these records one at a time and write something down. These records include all the important sub-genres of metal from "protometal" of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple to thrash metal, speed metal, first and second wave black metal, power metal, folk metal, grindcore... I'm not (totally, at least) unfamiliar with any the "big" (considering Norwegian black metal as big is kinda funny, you know) sub-genres.

Twelve years of frantic listening of metal has led me here, writing these words down in my apartment in eastern Hel(l)sinki which I share with my girlfriend and our two dogs and a cat... and also my collection of records. But that's not all I am: I also study at the University of Helsinki (General history, if you care), I write fiction (one published novel in Finnish, suck on that!) and try to have a life. This all seems trivial, I know, but for you to understand even a fraction of my opinions, you have to understand a fraction of me, the person behind the opinions. I'm not omnipotent academic genius who knows everything about everything. I'm me, 24-year old bastard from the coldest fuckin' place in the Universe. (This is what I call humor, try to get use to it, you'll see a lot of it.)

There are still several questions about this blog I have to answer (to myself, mostly): am I going to write texts in a chronological order (starting from the endless discussion about the first metal band/record) or am I going to write one text here, one there, and hopefully one day I would have a chance to gather all the writings inside covers and re-arrange them to chronological order. Also, a big question is how often I will publish a text for your entertainment/annoyance - to tell you the truth, I shouldn't have time for any of this, but I gotta do what I gotta do, so there we are.

Some things I know, though. The name of the blog is set in stone: "Life of Heavy Metal" says it all. First of all it's about my life with metal, how I've forced myself as part of the 40-something year old cultural movement and how I view it; secondly it's about the life, the history, identity and being, of heavy metal. Another thing I know is that I'm not doing this for anyone else than myself: I adore metal and I want to write something about it, it's as simple as that. If no-one agrees with me, fine, shit happens, and that won't stop me from listening music, thinking about it and writing these texts.

P.S. Before I forget: I'm going to use the same method of indicating when I'm talking about a specific record or a song or a band. Bands are in normal letters, like this: Black Sabbath. Song is in italics: Black Sabbath. Albums in bold: Black Sabbath. So, just to save confusion: Black Sabbath's song Black Sabbath from their first record Black Sabbath.