Give it chance!

 I'm not going to lie. I started this blog with no vision of where it's going to go. No plan, no format, no specific ideas in mind. I just wanted to write about metal and how it fits within my life. So that is what I'll do.

 It's a trope that young metalheads are always told "it's a phase, you'll grow out of it". This is of course false. For some it may be true. No two people are the same. Just like any other aspect of life a person's tastes can, and often do change. Sometimes this means you begin to desire a thing less. Sometimes it means your desire becomes deeper. Maybe it broadens and becomes more complex. Maybe cheese pizza is still delicious but you find that you frequently crave something more.

 That's a bad analogy to be honest. But it does represent my ever expanding taste in music and the desire to experience more of it. After my initial dive into metal and all it had to offer I became content with what I had discovered. It wasn't a conscious thing. I didn't decide one day that I had heard enough. But I did get stuck in a rut of listening to the same bands and the same songs over and over. I rarely gave a new band a look let alone the chance to win me over. A new song was just a new song. A lot of times I would turn it off or switch to an old standby. Now there is nothing inherently wrong with this. I think most people have a tendency to quit exploring and stick to what they enjoyed when they were young. I won't fault anybody for that. But as I started to grow as a person and experience more that life had to offer, I realized I had let contentment get in the way of one of the most important aspects of my life. I had graduated to pepperoni pizza. But there was so much more out there I hadn't experienced.

 So in the midst of a bout with depression I resumed my dive into the pit that is the heavy metal genre. Searching for new bands and discovering artists I had never heard proved to be a type of therapy for me. Discovering music I enjoyed, often more than anything I had heard before, became an addiction. I had been of the opinion that rock and metal were dead. I thought there couldn't possibly be that much I was missing. I was dead wrong. Not only did I finally give black metal a chance during this time, which introduced me to things sonically that I hadn't really experienced for all that they were before. I began to appreciate some bands that I never gave a chance. 

 Slipknot was one of these bands. To be fair to myself and them, it wasn't their music that had ever turned me off. I had honestly heard very little of it. What I had heard I liked alright. It was the fanbase that was the problem for me. Their meteoric rise meant everyone was listening to them. "Normies" were sporting the Knot's merch. As I was, and still am, prone to shying away from anything popular, I just couldn't bring myself to give them a fighting chance. Years later back on my dive into metal I finally did. Turns out I love Slipknot. I also realized why it was they got so big so fast. Sure they were lumped into Nu-Metal. And sure they have some of those qualities. But they are so much more. There is a little bit of everything worked into their music. Throughout an album you will find pop like sing along choruses slapped between riffing verses with death metal style vocals. A little black metal influence will be followed by a straight up hard rock section. Some songs were a brutal assault while some were catchy with hooks you could scream at the top of your lungs. Everyone had something to hang on to, and it exposed everyone to something they may not have been otherwise.

 I look at this as an important life lesson. Give things a chance. Don't just assume something is a certain way because of its image or outside opinions. Don't judge people by how they look, who their friends are, their religion or lack thereof. Had I turned off Slipknot the moment it got too poppy, I would be missing out on some great music, and some of the experiences in my life that have come about because I had them in common with another person. I in no way think any person will like everything they hear, listen too or experience. I'm simply saying give it a chance. Maybe you don't like one thing but it leads you to something that turns out to be important to you.

 Just like Slipknot introduced me to new bands. The lesson I learned from giving them a chance has taught me to give many things in life a chance. In turn I have been able to use metal, and new experiences in life as a way to ward off depression. It's made me a happier and more level headed person. Because I learned to set aside my prejudices and take a moment for what it is, I find myself genuinely happy more often than I had before. A good conversation at the bar with someone I will never see again can be the highlight of my week. An act I never would have engaged in had I not taken another dive into metal and learned to appreciate something I thought I hated. I'm nearly at supreme pizza now.