Tag Archives: Cosmin Rants

Mindful of metal

Sometimes I take a break from whatever middle aged man activities I’m engaged in and… (wait for it… waaaaait for it)… I think. And sometimes, when I’m in this state of grace, I think metal. To be more precise, I think about the rise and fall of metal.

I remember a time when many young talented guys released album after album of pure awesomeness, inventing new stuff every time they entered a studio, when I would listen over and over again to this and that tune wondering how the hell did they manage to put in it exactly what I wanted to hear before I even knew I wanted to hear something like that. Then, I quickly take a reality check, looking for present time equivalents of that. Granted, there still are talented bands around, and I still find new music to rock to, but it seems to me they are fewer and far between. And, to top that, I notice that the assault wave is still led by The Big Four (judging by the concert sales), Iron Maiden and other bands that pack around thirty years of music under their belts. So, decades after the initial storm, things kinda look the same… only with some gray hairs, bald spots and beer guts added.

Maybe it’s just me, my thrashier (mind the extra “h”) background could hamper my judgment, but I still don’t react to new tunes like I do to older ones. And almost every time when I listen to new stuff I get to the point where I feel like “Ummm… Everything’s been going great but why did they have to do that funny riff or that oddball drum break at this precise point?” Not to mention 27/51 time signatures, which I can enjoy for a while, until some damn solo breaks my concentration, I stop counting and get totally lost in the middle of the track… I must confess I wanted to see another Metallica, going from the gutter to the glory with some strong straightforward music (and, if applicable, without flip flops and Armani bags, thank you), but so far I haven’t, and I fear the chances of someone ever repeating that are slim at best.

I am definitely getting old. This has to be the explanation. But so are these guys, and I think I can safely say they have a bit more authority in this matter than I do. You can judge for yourself after hitting the jump.

Lemme introduce myself… Bitch

Well, um… hello there.

After lots of sleepless nights and horrifyingly vivid daydreams of countless hordes of metal fans yelling not-so-nice things about my writing skills, taste in music and my ancestors, I decided to face the challenge Alex has put me in front of (yes, I just wrote that) and join the marvelous group of fine gentlemen running and contributing to this wondrous site.

All in all, if that show about cars, Top Gear if I recall correctly, has a James May, I guess I can fit in here. Sorry about that – had to make an obscure reference from the get-go, otherwise I would contradict and confuse myself.

I reckon all this energy and zinginess has to be counterweighted by a boring old fart balanced approach to this type of music that we all seem to more or less enjoy. My input will probably be sporadic (I can only take so much hate mail), and I’ll try to keep it civil as long as my Xanax prescription is valid. Now that I’ve used all the tricks I know – strikethrough text, parentheses and all that -, if anything else than I have written above appears in this text, know that it’s Alex’s doing.

Hit the jump to see what kind of attitude I’m expecting.