Metal !!

"Join in my quest to leave life overturned
Spanning the world wave of doom
Spewing out death with the evil i've churned
Awaken the dead from their tomb
Love turns to lust the sensations i've felt
Exploring the pleasures of sin
Making the best of the cards i've been dealt
Adjusting the odds so i win

Unleash all my burning wrath
Potential killing machine
Take down all who block my path
Enjoying all that's obscene...

Born of Fire !!!!"

- Born of Fire, Slayer, Decade of Agression

I've been unusually busy these last three days. I don't even have time to comment on blogs and chat on YM ! Mostly because of the home network thing, which is now working perfectly. Now all my p2p clients can pass through it without being blocked by the firewall. It's unbelievable. That tiny plastic box not only routes but also contains a hardware firewall, a print server and a fully configurable DHCP server.

A few years ago, this kind of multirole capabilities didn't exist in equipment this cheap. Unbelievable. I love technology.

But that's not what I'm really happy about.

I run on music. I love it. I listen to pretty much everything. But when it comes to signifance, there is one genre of music that I really, really identify with. This genre was the music that I listened to in secondary school when I was in my teens. If you look at me, you wouldn't figure that I'd listen to such thing.

Thrash metal. That and all its possible permutations. Grindcore, speed metal, death metal, industrial. Bands like early Metallica, Sepultura, Slayer, Napalm Death, Terrorizer, Godflesh, Morbid Angel, Kreator, Onslaught, Obituary, Morgoth, Carcass, Benediction & more.

I don't look like your typical Mat Metal. Okay, now I have long hair but I don't dress like one. That's how far judging a book by it's cover will take you....

And contrary to what some may say, there is beauty in extreme metal. I thought it was just noise too. It was only after I learnt to play guitar than I began to notice. The melodies, the harmony, the grace buried under all that mutimegawatt cacaphony. The intricacy. The sublime skills and speed of some these musicians.

I love it. I love it's brutality, it's defiance, daring you to think and to visualise forbidden images that you never dared to. I love its layering and arrangement. I love the jackhammer drum patterns, thumping basslines and scorching, face melting solos.

It can be as epic as any classical masterpiece. It isn't just noise.

Why am I talking about this today ? Out of all my thrash metals album, one of my absolute favourites is Slayer's two part compilation "Decade of Agression". I bought it in 1991. I wore both tapes out. I went looking for it years and years.

I just finished downloading it just now. And man did memories flood back....

Ok, I must go. I must finish downloading Napalm Death's Harmony Corruption.

Oh and also install Dawn of War. Nice combo huh ? Warhammer 40,000 AND Slayer.

Waaaaaarrrrrgggghhhhhh !!!!!!

"You cannot hide the face of death
Oppression rules by bloodshed
No disguise can hide the evil
That stains the primitive sickle

Blood Red..."

- Blood Red, Slayer, Seasons in the Abyss