This question was posed to me by my brother over the last festive period and although I did answer it at the time as best I could, I’ve been thinking on it further in order to try and give a more articulate answer. But because I’m terrible at setting myself structured deadlines on my personal blog, I’ve been sitting on this/adding to it whenever I remember that this post is in my drafts. Metal is probaly my favourite genre of music but it isn’t the only genre I listen to, I’d say my music taste is fairly eccentric, but maybe that’s another post.

I find Metal music helps relax me weirdly, certain songs and albums have a certain rhythm and pace to them that helps me zone out, I find that the rhythm and pace sometimes get my imagination going as well. I also find it focuses me, helps me concentrate on days where I might need to get things done, it drives out distractions. It’s cathartic to listen to, through the noise it can convey a lot of things. From stories and emotions to fantasies and a few others. Sometimes it acts as a release for when I’m fed up or angry with something.

I find it helps my running as well, stick on something loud and fast and I find myself almost subconsciously driven by it. Like a war drum that signals at what pace things should be happening and communicate a sense of urgency to proceedings. having a pace setter also helps with running, so having something fast paced helps, plus it stops my brain from thinking too hard on why I’m running in the first place.

People who don’t listen to metal struggle to see past the noise, but as with any form of music, if you give a chance you’ll discover the subtleties to it. Metal can convey an awful lot of things if you listen hard enough, it isn’t just loud noise. It can tell a story, taking you on an adventure. Albums can be like a book where the individual songs are the chapters of the story.

The last few years have been a bit of a renaissance of my love of metal music, I’ve discovered so many great groups and artists and an awful lot of great female fronted metal bands, showing that women kick ass as much as the men.

Essentially there are a load of awesome bands out there making absolutely mega music and I wanted to showcase some of it and now I’m learning to play guitar I get to be jealous of these guys while working towards being even remotely on the same level as them.