Tin

note: this was written last week, but haven't had the chance to finalize and post till now.

Digital Rotation
Megadeth: Rust in Peace

I've been getting into metal again, each day spiraling more tightly into the mind-obliterating abyss embodied by a rebirth in every heavy chord progression. I end up looking more deeply for the message between the lines, conscious of my perceived treading into the supposed last stronghold of the maladjusted white male in America. I hold that that's more the boardroom than the pit, and feel like I belong in this melee just as much as anyone else. The dark galloping powerchords of my youth - the one music that I truly grew with as it grew up and out of fashion in the early nineties.

I've been listening mainly to early nineties-era stuff - Testament, Megadeth, Exodus, Annihilator, Anthrax, etc. This revisiting of musical legacies past was launched off, in part, by lended music, from an old friend who I found out had his own windows into the metal world. It's interesting how many people have their own stories of how they have been part of this uneasy brotherhood. It's actually more interesting how in some strange way - it was more a brotherhood than a lot of people on the outside understand. I still feel like I was on the periphery of this outsider group in high school, but I guess at least with the music, I felt more at home within this group than the new wavers (ie: preps in our school system).

I remember that first period of true revelation as I fondly recall past music crazes. Nowadays, I don't usually consume music as soon as I have access to something new - but this habit was much more pronouced in the past, and came from the formative years of high school, when I went from Appetite for Destruction into Iron Maiden, Metallica, and everything else. The worlds of new music (most of which had been released years prior to my exposure to them) seemed the perfect escape to get away from everything around me and to finally delve deeply into something of my own. The intricacies of the music and lyrics, and the histories and pedigrees of players. The love of music is a wonderful thing - the immediacy of tracing rock and other geneologies only a tape or CD away. I've used my library memberships, close friendships, music television, odd college radio programs, and music journalism to fill out the different, distant corners of this personal sonic universe.