Being a Metalhead has it’s bumps along the road as the years go by, as you continue to be one in this small faction in society. Especially if you are new to it. I have been part of the faction called heavy metal since I was eighteen. It has been a good two years but things are not always at its best.
You may like something in heavy metal that most of the older fans and some maybe younger that don’t like it while you do like it. This is not always the case however, sometimes it’s the other way around depending on the situation be it a change in band members, change of sound in music, change/choices a certain band member and/or frontman of the band makes that may not be the best choice.
As you can see it’s all about change, now I have spoken of this issue quite a lot directed towards bands like Lordi and KISS since they are two good favourites of mine. But now I’m talking about heavy metal in general; any band counts for this entry. People just seem to be done with bands they love the moment the band makes a choice that they do not like. For example, what inspired me to write this was an article I saw about how some idiot just can’t take Megadeth seriously anymore because of how they have changed and claim it hasn’t been the same since the release of Countdown to Extinction such as the way Dave Mustaine sings, writes songs, sells out stuff or whatever else he does. First off of course there’s change in his voice. That’s what happens as you get older! Songwriting skills; well sometimes people may want to write about something else in their songs for a change even though they have stuck to the same topics for years and want to move on to something else. The final thing: Dave has his own life, he can do whatever he wants with it, everyone makes their own decisions, we may not like them but we don’t let it bother us. That’s what I do, unless it’s something really dangerous like stripping down on camera like Miley Cyrus then I would get concerned. Seriously, if you don’t like what a certain band does now then, instead of ranting about it online for the entire planet to see, just quit buying their records and concert tickets and find some other band that does everything you want. Good luck with that though, cause every band will eventually do something you don’t like if you’re such a negative person.
I take things much less seriously with certain bands I love that lots of people claim to do take seriously unless they are hardcore fans of the band but choose to be supportive through all the changes. Examples: KISS’s change in lineup: Ace Frehley and Peter Criss choosing to leave at the end of the 70’s and then the Reunion tour where they come back and then leave again, Lordi’s constant playing of their Eurovision-winning song “Hard Rock Hallelujah” on TV shows and perhaps their departure from their traditional sound from records like “Get Heavy”, “The Arockalypse” and “Deadache” to what TBONTB sounds like, Megadeth’s change in sound/songwriting/members/Mustaine’s choice to do some things like the way he behaves. Some people view him as a total douchebag sometimes but hey, maybe they’ve only skimmed the surface of the person he is now when in reality there may be more to him than just that. Maybe he’s still a nice guy! That’s what I believe and continue to believe always for every musician I idolize.
Seriously, how can anyone enjoy a band they love when all they do is look at the negative things. We can wish that the changes we want will happen rather than the changes they want to happen, happen. For instance, now this doesn’t relate to heavy metal but it’s the best example I can give aside from the other one which is the changes KISS goes through: I constantly wish that if there are going to be any more Transformers movies that if Bay is going to continue to direct them he should put the Autobots and Decepticons first rather than the humans and showing off the female actresses’s tits and ass. Also even though he did a great job with the appearances of each robot he killed most of them off one by one pretty fast whether it be in the first or third movie so I wish he would let them stay longer. Optimus Prime on the other hand Bay gets him thrown around in the first movie, killed in the second and not revived until the last ten minutes of the film, takes him out of the final fight in the third movie for at least thirty minutes which feels like an hour to Prime-Lovers like myself; who desire to watch him on the big screen the most, and Bay does it by tangling him up in a crane and then gets him nearly executed by chopping off one of his arms, knocking him to the ground, and almost killing him again once he gets back into the fight. Therefore this causes a Prime-Lover to hate Sentinel even though he too is a Prime. So therefore I wish that Optimus was not kicked around like this as if he doesn’t matter to anyone. If I directed the new Transformers movies I would make it all robots and no humans. Maybe people would love it more if it was like that. But the sad unfortunate truth is that no matter how much I wish for these changes it may never happen so I get past it by listening to TF scores, playing War for Cybertron, and gazing at countless photos of Optimus when I’m in the mood to look at how bad-ass and attractive he is for a fictional robot. So therefore, even though Transformers has a done a lot of things these days that I don’t like, instead of leaving it even though I truly wish for some changes that I think would be the best but don’t happen, I still find a way to enjoy being a fan of the franchise! So it shouldn’t be that hard for anyone else who loves their favourite band to the core of their body, and FYI all this shit that I do with Transformers I do the same with metal bands I like as well if there is anything they do that I may not like.
Back to the heavy metal point here. People need to stop taking these changes so seriously over their favourite band. There’s nothing you can do about change. Whether you like it or not, shit happens and the easiest way to ignore it is to avoid leaving comments and enjoy the music. If you can’t do that then maybe it’s time to give up on that band and find another one until once again they do something you don’t like and you can’t get past that. Accept it or go away, that’s all I can say.
-Emily
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