I grew up just like any other kid out there, watching cartoons and Tamil movies, listening to Tamil songs, Lambada, Boney M, and a few other "disco kaki" hits. As time went on, I got exposed to more popular music from artists like Madonna, Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, Abba, and so many more... Thanks to my parents' cassette collection.
As time passed by, I grew up... entered primary school, and got exposed to urm...This is embarassing...er...How shall I put it...urm...aah Fuck it, Yes, I was into boy bands! Backstreet Boys were the shyt, AJ was the manliest of them all, N'Sync were too cool to be true, 911 were totally awesome okay!?
To make things worse, I kinda liked spice girls too...urm... well, look at the bright side... At least I was heading the right direction! I was attracted to boobies as early as 11...
In the midst of all of this pop bullshit... I was also devoted to Tamil songs (movie soundtracks), until this Malaysian Tamil Rock band called "The Keys", popped out of nowhere in 1994 with their debut album "Akkamage" and started a whole new movement... called "Samba Rock". Key criteria of this genre? - Catchy beat, catchy lyrics that dont make sense, shit loads of guitar riffs, and a whole lot of HEADBANGING!!!!!!!!!!!!
Believe it or not, no other local Tamil album has seen as much fame or got as much respect as The Keys after Alleycats... Big Up for that!
So, yea... this was heavier than anything that I've heard, and I loved em to bits... On the English side, I was still listening to mainstream pop bullshit compilation albums like "NOW 3", "MAX 2", "Mega Hits Vol. 2,542". All they had in these albums were collections of gay-ass songs like "As long as you love me" by Backstreet Boys, "I swear" by this bunch of faggot-y niggas called All For One, "All that she wants" by Ace for Base, "Coco Jumbo" by god knows who... and everything that falls within the same time zone.
I knew for a fact that I was losing interest in pop but there was nothing else to layan! All I had was RTM, TV3, Radio Musik, Radio 4, and few "The Keys" albums. I didn't even know what "AN" Internet was :P So, yea... due to lack of exposure, I had no choice but to stick to pop, until I grew a little bigger...
I was 12 years old...It was just another Sunday afternoon, me in front of the TV, after Kelab Disney Malaysia, after Berita Terkini... waiting for the next show... when TV3 decided to play a "cycle-gap" video... which in a way, changed my life
It was the coolest song I've heard in my life!!!! and it felt... so different... It was love at first sight!!!!!!!!
So the following Sunday, After few days of buttering my dad for 20 bucks...I took the bus and went to Jusco Bukit Raja Klang all by myself to hunt down the MI2 Soundtrack... and Fuck Yeah I found it! Came back as fast as I could... took my Walkman (which was a bigger phenomenon than the iPod by the way), removed the plastic wrapper, put the cassette inside... *click... and a click...* and Voila!~
Believe it or not... Life was never the same again...
For a kid who was once the first child to get whooped by the kindergarten principal, who got a beating of a lifetime for calling a teacher "cibai" at the age of 9, who got bitchslapped by the daddy on a weekly basis for behaving like a total ape... lines such as "Now I know Why you wanna hate me" , " life will kick you in the ass", and "I'm pain, I'm hope, I'm suffer" and all those heavy riffs made me feel so good...Angry music sounded so soothing...So I decided to venture deeper into the heavier side of music, which led to my second trip to Jusco Bukit Raja, ending up with me coming home with another life-changing purchase, "Limp Bizkit's Choclate Starfish & the Hot Dog Flavoured water"... And the first track went,
2 days after the purchase... As I came back after school, daddy throws cassette into dustbin and goes "No more nonsense like this... understood?" Hehe... I just thought "Fuck It", bought a new cassette and hid it :P I mean... come on lah...
And another year passed...I was 13... this time I was walking around Klang Parade... and saw this CD that looked very very interesting...
Title of first song? "People = Shit"... Nyehehehehehehe
And just as expected... Daddy finds the CD cover at the worst time... coz this was during the "Gejala Social terbaru... BLACK METAL!!!!" phase...
Daddy sends CD cover flying to my face... and makes official statement that he has given up...
But it didn't stop my journey into the world of Metal you see...Coz eventually Slipknot became too mellow to my ears... making me wanting heavier shyt as I grew older... And by this time, internet was available already... which made life easier, coz I could just download whatever the fuck I wanted...ranging from mainstream bands like Killswitch Engage, Coal Chamber and Cradle of Filth to heavier stuff like Machine Head,Lamb of God, Morbid Angel and Amon Amarth to legendary metal bands like Metallica, Motorhead and Iron Maiden to darker metal like Rudra, Melechesh, Dark Funeral, Enslaved, Immortal and so many more...
I won't deny that I did take time off from Metal to layan some occasional Rap, Reggae and Trance but then again... they came and went... Only Metal stayed...
"Why Metal?" you may wonder... Simple... I only listen to music that I can relate to... Why the fuck would I like a song just for the sake of liking it? The whole world can go on singing Oasis' "Don't look back in anger"... I can't be bothered... I'll stick to "Voodoo Child"...
I hate the mainstream media, I hate the younger generation, I hate the American way of life, I hate politicians, I hate technology, I hate the television, I hate the way the world is now... Heck, I even hate the way my life is sometimes... so how do I express myself? Lady Gaga? Akon? All American Rejects? Boys like Girls?
As far as I'm concerned... Music is a source of escapism, a way to express yourself... and Metal is the channel for me...
In all, nothing...I mean absolutely nothing can compare to the feeling I get when the hair behind my neck stands, you know... every time after layaning a monstrous riff... Get what I'm saying? ;)
\m/(◕_◕)\m/
