I was about 14 when I discovered heavy metal. My friend Crip (who disappeared and no-one seems to know where he went. If, on the off-chance you are reading this Crip, 'Hello') gave me another tape, this time of Live After Death by Iron Maiden and I was transfixed. Again
Heavy metal, as a genre, seems designed to appeal to teenage boys. The key ingredients (at least of classic heavy metal) are The Devil, War, Murder and violence. All the stuff that your average teenage boy thinks is really really cool. Look at the covers of any Iron Maiden album for example - they have a big ol' zombie on the front for Jebus' sake. How could any self respecting 14 year old not love that?
Plus, the music is loud, aggressive and generally unappealing to anyone over the age of 20. It encourages tribal behaviour in much the same way as football does and there were, at least in my circle of moshers, no girls allowed...
This isn't, by the way, me being dismissive of metal as a genre, I'm just listing the reasons that I loved it so much. Iron Maiden were a perfect gateway drug into the black lands of Heavy Metal - their albums looked like the Dungeons and Dragons books I was reading, they knew that war was simultaneously horrific and totally cool (Growing up in the 70's and 80's, I was surrounded by films like Dambusters and The Guns of Navarrone, reading Battle Action, Commando and Warlord comics)
Plus, suddenly, my Mum was telling me to 'turn that racket down', I got to wear tight black jeans and t-shirts with monsters on them. It was everything I needed.
Iron Maiden were the prefect band to obsess over - their lyrics were full of literary, historic and cinematic references that spotting made you seem cool, Their record paintings were full of tiny little details that meant you could spend hours poring over, just to spot the Blade Runner or Dr Who reference
Musically, they had all the moves that metal heads love, but everyone else can't stand. The pseudo-operatic song structures, the 'widdly widdly' guitar solos that made me want to learn how to play (and then quit shortly afterwards when I realised I was never going to be as good as Dave Murray) and the 15 minute songs.
Pandora's box was open, my hair was growing longer and I was now a mosher...
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