Thursday, August 11, 2005

Metal Fantasy

I went to work today then when that was all finished came home and read some more of my book (The Power That Preserves by Stephen R Donaldson) then ate some Indian food then went over to my computer, turned it on and began downloading songs by Isis, Behemoth, Enslaved, Finntroll and Naglfar...
I knew another metal phase was coming on because in the last month I found myself looking at Terroriser magazine in the newsagent. Standing there, I would see the magazine and say to myself, there is the Terroriser magazine. I'd look at the cover and see that the free CD that was supposed to be stuck to the cover was not there. Oh, it is not available outside the EU. Well that's not fair is it?
I found myself returning again and again to look at the Terroriser magazine. The CD was never there. It was not an illusion. I would then walk back out of the newsagent in a mysterious fog of dismay.
Then on Monday I was there again, in front of the rack with the music magazines. I saw a new Terroriser magazine, a new issue. Like in a dream I picked up the magazine and almost jumped when I saw that there was a CD on the front. This one had somehow amazingly made it outside the EU.
Clearly it was a sign that the Metal Gods were calling me back to the fold.
Since that time I have been scouring metal websites for clues - obsessively scrolling through Best Metal Albums of the Year pages like a gambler at the track sweating over his form guide. There was also a clue in the Terroriser magazine: Nile - 'Annihilation of the Wicked', the widely proclaimed saviours of death metal! I figured I'd better pick that one up first. Lucky Utopia Records is right below the cinema I go to, so on Tuesday after coming out from seeing The Island, I went down and asked the guy there (the guy who always tells me I have missed yet another Opeth tour) to give me that album. I went got a bus home and quickly put the Nile album on. After a long Egyptian-sounding guitar intro the death metal sounds blasted out and my skin started tingling. Yes! Another sign! For sure now I was on the right track. Throughout the night, whenever the album reached its end, I played it back from the beginning. It was like when I heard Reign In Blood for the first time, or Slowly We Rot, or Blackwater Park (or that Mayhem album). Yes, a true METAL MOMENT. Impossible to think of anything else. The QUEST for the ULTIMATE METAL surging through my bloodstream, it is ALL.
Next Isis!, Naglfar!, Finntroll!, Enslaved!, Behemoth! and yes, Grand Magus! Oh wait, Mourning Beloveth! too!
*zooms around tiny apartment screaming, WIMPS AND POSERS, LEAVE THE HALL!*

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fantasy and metal... be careful Strat, yr parents might think yr getting into "the drugs," you're probably planning to go on a kill crazy rampage through yr old high school as i write... put down that +1 mace and +2 dagger Strat... those kids have rights too you know!! (heh heh)

Stratu said...

"Kill crazy rampage" huh? Hm. I hadn't thought of that. I'm always after new experiences to write about here. Thanks!