Improve your Metal Health

So, I've been listening to metal for years, and I can understand why it might be an acquired taste -- however, it's always just felt kinda hardwired into my brain. Back in college, one of my roommates (JMills) was also a fairly serious metal-head. One of our other roommates, Brian, is a pretty mild mannered guy, and generally into lots of mainstream music and Christian rock -- certainly not a metal guy (Linkin Park is amongst his "Angry Music" iTunes playlist).

Well, during our senior year; between either JMills or I regularly blaring some sort of metal for half the campus to hear and late night bouts of Rock Band, Brian became intrigued. He would start asking about the bands we were listening to, or we'd catch him humming the tune of "Run to the Hills" while brushing his teeth, or something. One day, he mentioned to me that he was "starting to get into metal" but some of it he just couldn't handle.

For the last months of senior year, I attempted the immersion technique with him. We listened to metal constantly. When we drove anywhere, we were listening to metal. When he drove anywhere, we made him listen to metal. Lazy Saturday afternoons, studying for finals -- blasted metal. I think it helped a little, but we had only scratched the surface.

After graduating and starting work, I had some time to think about this. I realized that I didn't jump straight into insane, ear-splitting guitar solos or guttural growls. Actually, up through the age of 10 or so, my favorite bands were Matchbox 20 and Hootie and the Blowfish (don't judge me -- fuck you!). And as damning as it may be for a metal-head to admit, what many people call "nu-metal" (specifically Korn) was the music that got me started down my own, personal highway to Hell. From there, I fell in love with classic rock/metal, then death, thrash and every other debatable genre in between.

Several months ago, I came up with the idea to create an ultimate heavy metal primer. It would be a several CD set with the intent to slowly ease someone into digging metal. I realized it might be a fruitless task, as it took me years of listening to hours upon hours of different types of metal to get me to the eclectic place I'm at today. However, I'd kinda been craving a mini project to work on at home. So I began scouring my music collection for a broad range of metal tracks. I decided to split the selections up into groups by ease of n00b-listenability, potential radio-friendliness and intensity.

I came up with four fairly distinct sections (categorized in the vein of GH/Rock Band difficulty settings): Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert comprised of tracks spanning the metal scene (as well as the globe). I've also mused that each category could be seen as a year of college -- Metal College! (yes, I know I'm lame). Each segment is spread across two discs, like semester classes, 101-402. Additionally, I added a two-disc Prerequisites set that is filled with an assortment of the types of things that most assuredly influenced metal (classic rock, punk, ska, blues, classical, country/southern rock, doo-wop, rockabilly, etc.).

After much deliberation, I have compiled ten discs worth of material, and gave them to Brian as a trial run. I asked him to listen to each disc twice through and in order, from Prerequisites to Expert. He reports that he's currently on the Medium set, and that it makes him speed in traffic. This warmed my heart. I can't wait for him to get to Hard (my personal favorite).

I'll be uploading the tracklists over the next several posts. I would love some feedback on them. Tell me what to add, omit, or rearrange. All suggestions welcome. If Brian is successful and I get some good feedback through this blog, I may try this on some other people.

"Bang your head!

Metal health will drive you mad."