HEAVY METAL FOR SENIOR CITIZENS 101



                                  Jacob "The Destroyer" Williams

I became involved in helping my friend Jacob

promote his death metal band. He has a day job like most people while he pursues his dream on weekends and at night. He is very intense in his guitar picking and is the epitome of the agony and the ecstasy of being an ax man.

Death Metal, a sub-genre of metal  is an acquired taste kind of thing.  Either you like it, let it grow on you or you hate it and get ill thinking about headbanging.  I had not listened to very much metal music let alone known the difference between one kind or another and I still don't. I have learned to appreciate the music and the effect it produces.

Being at a live show was more satisfying than just listening to the music a on a cd, mp3 or even watching a video of it. There was an energy I have felt before that is more like communion, a tribal rite. Headbangers were cutting  loose in irratic bursts of intesity in the mosh pit. It was great fun! They were all plugged into the cosmic cable network on that music and  into one another and so was I. The roaring and chanting had us all hypnotized awash in the energy that is Burial of Terra or BOT as known to its fans. 

                                                                                     

Burial of Terra, is a very talented group of young men from Bandera Texas, they play in San Antonio. There are five members in the band ranging in age from 14 to 23. They have been invited to play again at the White Rabbit, a popular venue for the metal genre in San Antonio. I have been documenting their progress as they move through the process of becoming a metal band. Will they go on tour, will they record in the studio? If and when they do I will be there to catch it all for them and posterity.

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=nf#!/pages/Burial-of-Terra/108176269241241




I am utilizing my digital imagining skill to design a cd and dvd cover for the band. I have also made a video of one of their songs.  It is a somewhat crude and gritty production, but it conveys the energy I wished to capture in a more "arty" way. I call it a video painting.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHoxRK8dMi0

Some people say metal incites violence, but you have to admit headbangers bouncing off each other IS kind of comical. The kids don't take it seriously. They think if they get smacked in the head or cut a lip it is even funnier!  Many people do not appreciate metal because they say they can't understand what the singer is saying. I had no problem with that because the beat and the singer's tone told me it was ok to feel primal like a wild animal  and lose control for a few seconds. I yearned to dance with the kids, but I am past my prime. Letting the energy pass right through me and vibrate with the music was plenty for me. It was a virtual thrill from the safety of the sidelines.