Blog Post // 2020-10-30

Metalhead Fiction

Growing up at a time when there weren’t many girls into metal meant it wasn’t cool. It was looked down upon by many. I was soft-spoken, my family was pretty poor, I was picked on by many groups of people. I found solace hanging out in the hall associated with musicians and artists (my high school was severely cliquey. Everyone was divided into areas of the school depending on their association. Terrible, I know!). I didn’t find judgment in this hall I hung out in, but when I stepped foot out of this hall some of these myths about metalheads were a benefit to me at a time that I had distanced myself from hurtful people. I literally had a bunch of people scared of me. When I walked down the hall blasting my music, they crossed to the other side.

Here is some of the fiction out there about metalheads:

We are all angry and deal badly with it

I find this to be a bit of a LOL! I am sure you have heard it before “the music is so angry, I don’t know how you can stand it”. I also had a friend tell me that if I had a child I couldn’t play metal around him/her because it is damaging and creates an angry mood.

The reality is that everyone is angry at some time in their life. It is how you deal with it that matters. It is proven to be a release to acknowledge it and let it out. Bottling it up doesn’t mean you aren’t angry.

Screaming has no rhyme of reason

I had a relative say to me, “If you ever want me to yell at you, I can do that, since you seem to enjoy it in your music.”

There is a method to screaming. There are so many ways to scream. Sure, I sometimes think I should just record a screaming rant of mine to the tune of music and it might sound cool. But that isn’t going to last long. If you don’t use proper methodology you will blow your voice out. There are even specific-sounding growls and screams associated with different genres. There are some people that just blow me away with their voice. The way they can sing, scream, growl. It takes technique.

We hate everyone

In every group of people there is some hate. We have all felt it at sometime. But people that embody hate are only a small percentage of people into metal. It is something within them, not the music itself. If you want to find hate you can find it in every corner of this world.

We are a specific type of person - no variety

The idea that you can know a person into metal’s personality is crazy! All kinds of people like metal. The way they look and their other interests don’t matter. The key here is that the music speaks to them.

We hate ourselves and want to die

There is no doubt that the topic of suicide comes up in music. I certainly would never want to encourage those with depressive thoughts to pursue a negative head space. But there can be a cathartic aspect to hearing someone work through the hard places in music. It can actually help people get through dark seasons.

We are evil

I remember I was sick during class in high school and a guy stayed to help me out after class. I thanked him and he was in shock that I was "nice". He basically thought I was "evil" and incapable of talking or associating with anyone. This was weird to me. How do you know anything about me, without ever talking to me? How does listening to a heavy tune mean I am a killer in my spare time?