"How did you get into Metal?"

 

 "How did you get into metal?" a young woman at the most recent metal concert I went to asked me this question.... It has been stuck in my head ever since.

How does anyone "get into" the sound that they like? I keep thinking about this question. How are we introduced to different genres of music? Was it Radio? Television? Movies? Friends and Family? Do we just stumble into it one day? That seems to be the consensuses( as I've asked everyone I know how they got into the different genres they listen to). We simply hear it playing somewhere and so many of us don't remember the first place we hear it. What was the first song that got you to want to look for more?

The first few times I heard Poison or Guns & Roses on the radio I just liked them. I really didn't care what genre they were. I didn't need to think about that stuff until years later when I  started buying albums for myself and needed to locate them in a store. How did I get into Nine inch Nails? MTV the Radio I liked what I heard and I went out to buy the album.  

However, I'm not sure that things are quite the same anymore. I'm not sure that the younger generations, the Z's and the Alphas even listen to radio. They listen to playlists and those are really just the sounds they are already listening to. They don't watch the late night shows or Saturday Night Live to see the bands. All the videos being suggested to them are based on the algorithms. It's all more of what the program knows you already like.

So maybe this is a very valid question. How did you find this genre? Maybe this kind of discovery,  in this day and age,  is something much more important than I'm giving it credit for. I would like to think that some of these discoveries are being made by friends and family sharing their love for different sounds and different bands, and that people are really connecting through the music. That would be nice. After all, isn't the point of music, to bring people together?

The sound I searched many years to find.

                                      

     Once upon a time... in the nineties, I had somehow found a Halloween cassette that I found myself really liking and I liked it so much that I continued to play it all year long. (This Halloween tape was the kind that had music and sound effects on it to create background for a haunted house or a Halloween party). I loved the atmosphere that it created as I played it in the background as I went about my everyday business of chores and homework and what not. 

     Unfortunately, I lost that tape and could not remember the name or where I had gotten it in order to replace it. For years, I would buy Halloween tapes hoping that I would come across a tape like the one I had loved so much. I even remember one of my dear friends lovingly teasing me for listening to such "cheesy" or "cringe" music. 

     Well, twenty years later I finally found the sound I was looking for. I had long given up on trying to find a great Halloween cd until I saw one called Midnight Syndicate 13th hour. Taking a quick look at the back of the cd, I had a good feeling that this could possibly be the sound I was looking for. The moment I played it I was so excited. It was indeed what I was looking for all those years. in fact, the album was really very good and I was so happy that I had went with my intuition and bought it. 

     With the name of the cd I went online and researched and found a few other albums that had this kinda Halloween atmospheric sound. I discovered that it is called a few things but I think that the most common ones I saw were dark neoclassical, neoclassical ambient wave, dark ambient, or neoclassical dark wave. 

     I have started listening to these albums and I find this music so relaxing and interesting. I think that I will have a collection of this music in no time. 

     I am including a list of the groups I really like that I have found for anyone who may be interested. I am including albums I think are Neoclassical dark wave and Neoclassical ambient wave . However, my apologies if I have put any of these bands/groups in the wrong genres.

 

Midnight Sanctuary

Nox Arcana

Lustmord

 Danzig- Black Aria (this album specifically)

 

Update : I found the name of the cassette. It is the 1990 version of Pumpkin Time's Chamber of Horrors sold by Kmart in the 1990s. There is supposedly a CD version of this recording but the running times don't match. I think I'm going to try to get a hold of one and see if its the same. There is more information about this cassette on my Recommended links page. Scroll to the bottom to check out the links.

Voodoo Church

Voodoo church

I heard about this band for the very first time this morning. I literally know nothing about this band except for their name.  I have been listening to them on Spotify all morning and I think they are really great. The sound is atmospheric with some beautiful guitar playing. I can hear some grungy sounds that give a 90s vibe really cool since this is something I haven’t really heard in “goth” or death rock music. The lead vocalist has an amazing voice that is both raspy and strong. This is a great band and I’m so glad that i got a chance to hear them. 

Priscilla (2023)

 PRISCILLA (2023)

 I don’t know how I’ve become so oblivious to what movies are being released lately. I just found out about the Priscilla movie and it was soo good. Of course that’s my opinion but I would definitely recommend it. It really made me want to learn more about Elvis’ personal life. I was never really an Elvis fan before but seeing his more private home life is fascinating to me.