Fuel, Fire, that which is desired….and that is ACTUAL METAL!!!

One of the biggest controversies in the metal community is not an event, death, or an accident…it is a band, and that band is Metallica. For almost all fans Metallica has betrayed them in the worst way possible by not only selling out, but attacking the fans themselves. There are many fans that say otherwise and that Metallica was nothing but justified in their filing of lawsuits against fans and their “musical direction” if you want to call it that; they never sold out, they just experimented with their musical styling and were trying to be more creative. I have one thing to say to that….bullshit!

Metallica are more or less professional rip-off artist. They have released entire albums (namely Garage Inc.) that are nothing but covers from bands that no one had heard of at the time, which granted catapulted those bands into some money, but Metallica still takes all the credit due to their egos. Their first album was nothing but leftovers from their ex-guitarist Dave Mustaine (Megadeth).The two albums up till ride the lightning were nothing but the shit left from that shit. Honestly the current line up did not start writing their own material until the black album, which is when old school fans got pissed and said to hell with it, were just going to follow Mustaine’s career instead.

The ultimate stab in the hearts of the faithful Metallica fan was, of course, the Napster incident. What kind of self-righteous prick sues the people who gave them money and put them where they were to begin with? Lars Ulrich, you fail at life! Fans of Metallica already were backstabbed with the direction the band took, but to add insult to injury they became complete hypocrites. They used to hand out free demo disks during their shows, and now they decided to sue people for doing the same thing they did before they were established? Even when James Hetfield used to tell them to get their hands on their records by any means necessary, whether it be stealing or buying bootlegs? I say we stick to the original plan.

Metallica did do some good, though as little as that good may be. They killed glam metal, but….that is pretty much it. At this point they are just milking their act for every penny its worth, and more. They play for everyone and anyone and have worked their way into most people’s musical preferences. People think what they play is real metal, but if you want real metal, check this out, and if you like it, THEN you like real metal. As for Metallica, I am afraid the only hope for them is if their fans teach them to quit making them bend over and grab their ankles.

Sincerely,

Bane

Motörhead at the Ritz in Ybor September 15, 2009

He enters and leaves the stage with the same phrase, "We are fucking Motörhead!” The person I refer to is none other than Lemmy, one of the gods of metal. Some may wonder why he is considered a god of metal, and it is quite simple…because he is old as dirt, and he has yet to lighten up his sound at all. He invented the genre of thrash metal (though if you mention that to his face you may want to run, because according to him he plays rock’n’roll) and is still, after 4 decades of music, still putting on awesome shows.

I had the honor to see this god onstage along with about 8 of my friends from the metal club here at USF. Seeing his fan base was unbelievable. You have old school punkers with denim vests, metal studs lining the hems, and covered in sewn on patches of all sorts of punk bands (Motörhead started in London with the punk scene, hence the heavy influence on his playing style.) 60-year-old bikers were all over the place with silver hair and harshly done prison tattoos. Old groupies with gigantic fake tits and saggy tattoos that riddled their bodies were everywhere. Most amazing of all were all of the younger kids who I would think hated this genre of metal were all over the place. Last but not least, and most fascinating of all, was when an older biker about the age of 50 came through, with his son who was around 30 who had brought his two kids who looked to be about 10 or 12. As they passed me the 30-year-old said, “It amazes me that 20 years later you still drag me to this shit.” Motörhead has spanned over 4 generations, and is still in high demand.

After Reverend Horton Heat, the opening band, left the stage and Motörhead came out, everyone went berserk. It was rather weird since no real moshing took place until at least half of Motörhead’s set was over. Everyone seemed to be in awe of seeing the god before them as he wailed into his microphone while ripping into his heavily distorted bass while blowing out our ear drums in the process. The energy level was incredible, and as they kept playing I watched all of these older fans that surrounded me went from being complete strangers to my peers in less than 3 songs. Beer was thrown, as were people, and of course, metal horns galore throughout the entire show, especially during songs such as Overkill and their trademark song Ace of Spades.

During shows the females get very frisky as well. My friend Francheska and I were standing there during the show and an old cougar (an actual hot older woman that still looks good for her age) walked by and grabbed her ass and groped my balls. This was not the end of this, however, as that cougar’s friend later propositioned my friends Mario and Jeff as we attempted to leave the venue after the show, which granted is hilarious, but is also kind of creepy at the same time. After all of us made it out the front door in one piece, we did the traditional metalhead thing…went to sit and bullshit in a restaurant for an hour or so. Perhaps one of the greatest things we all realized at that point is that all of us were not going to be able to hear a thing the next day, which is proof to us we had just seen one of the greatest men in the metal genre.

Some say that change is good, which I will agree, it is, but when you are creating art, it is better to stay true to yourself. Lemmy is one of the few musicians in the industry nowadays, of any genre, that people seem to forget about that sticks to his guns still to this day. Record companies and the constant change of guitarists to their lineup have always tried to make him refine his sound and he refuses to yield. That is why metalheads hold him on such a high pedestal: refusal to conform, and as Motörhead’s motto states,”Everything louder than everything else!”