Metal, light, might, electricity, ...uh...
Posted by Michael at 10:00 on October 12th, 2009.
My name is Michael Mills, and I like heavy metal music.
When I was a boy my brother came home with an AC/DC mixtape and we listened to Hell's Bells turning the lights off and shining a torch under our faces to look all evil and shit. Then one day my other brother came home with Iron Maiden's "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" and so then I asked my sister to buy me "No Prayer for the Dying" by the same band. I was in the 7th grade, and no-one else at my school even cared for music, let alone heavy rock. So they all went to the football oval, and I walked around the school by myself dreaming about becoming a rock star.
By the time 1993 came around, all the kids my age suddenly "discovered" music and started listening to Nirvana and Rage Against the Machine etc. I found it all so negative and depressing, and I already had major self-esteem problems by this stage, I needed music that uplifted me, not made me want to put a gun to my head. There was only one other kid at school who listened to stuff that I liked. He was into Motley Crue and the hair metal of the late 80's. Songs about scoring chicks and driving cars and having a ball. I went to his house once, and his room was plastered from floor to ceiling with 80's metal band posters and semi-naked girls. This guy was officially my hero.
My cousin came to my house one day with two CDs in his hands, one by Pantera, and one by Helloween. I thought the Pantera one was cool, but the Helloween disc "Pink Bubbles Go Ape" really struck a chord with me. For the first time (that I'd heard at least), heavy music could also be funny, uplifting, inspiring, and very, very melodic, all at the same time. Not long after, I started to get into all sorts of bands like Manowar, Yngwie Malmsteen, Dio, etc. All this stuff that had sort of "run its course" in a way, the mid 90's was pretty much over-run with grunge and alternative music. Don't get me wrong, I still thought Pearl Jam, Radiohead and Soundgarden were cool too, but I didn't have the same connection with those bands.
In 1994 my best friend Ben (the Crue kid) was riding home from his job he got at a service station. I'm not sure if he wasn't wearing a helmet, or he just lost control of the bike, but he collided with a tree and broke his neck, and he was found dead on that Monday, barely 15 years old. I was pallbearer at his funeral, and I didn't know what to say to his parents when I saw them. So you know what I said?
"It's gonna take you a while to get all the posters down off the walls! There must be hundreds!"
So I guess the point of this is, I wouldn't have gotten through that year alive if I were listening to Nirvana, Blind Melon and the like. I guess some people need music that reflects how they feel, others need music to change how they feel. It's just lucky that a lyric like "Like a man is a mountainside" ("Mountains" by Manowar) made more sense to me than "I'm better off dead" ("Prove Yourself" by Radiohead)
My name is Michael Mills, and I like heavy metal music.
(and He-Man)
