Metal Rant

I found this rant that I had written a few years ago. It was from an email to my wife that I wrote during a debate we had over the state of 'Metal' music. In case you didn't know, I'm a fan. A big one and I like to think that I've contributed to 'art form' of Metal in my own, albeit miniscule, way over the years by playing in area bars (anyone remember Studio 1 in Newark?) and helping, again in a very minimal way, to keep the original music scene going.

At any rate, my wife posted my email (if I can find it, I'll post it too) to a thread from, of all things, Jake E. Lee's website forum that asked the question, "Is Metal Dead?". The response to the post was a bit insulting. One commentor in particular (you know who you are) questioned whether I had plagiarized what I had written and, if it was indeed an original composition, I had only offered 'opinions' and nothing in the way of examples to back them up. The following is my reply to said person (I know the formatting is terrible; sue me):

"A statement then.

I think Metal, for the most part, is dead. The "Heavy Music" of today is just an artifice, a pantomime of greater days. I refuse to buy an album from a band that thinks "Phrygian" is a brand of air-conditioner.

The old guard, Ozzy being the most obvious, phones in performances and trades in on their good names to hold on to the glory of the past. Ozzfest has done some good, I suppose, and perhaps it, or something like it, will prove to be fertile soil for Metal's rebirth. Call me cynical, but I doubt it.

Coddled and spoiled, American youth no longer see the world outside of what is pre-packaged and pre-digested for them. From the very cradle, they are shielded from the ugliness of the real world and are spoon-fed ‘causes’ and ‘movements’ created by the advertisement departments of mutli-billion dollar media conglomerates. What does the average ‘VJ’ know about the hypocrisy and stupidity of 'Vote Or Die" campaigns?

What has she experienced other than the peril of choosing the wrong color
nail polish for her prom? Their’s is a culture that worships unmerited affluence and unearned privilege. Popular music reflects and reinforces this ideal.
Wealth and fame are free to anyone with over-sized trousers and cleverly
syncopated rhetoric. Reality shows are rife with images of $100,000 “Sweet
Sixteen” parties, obnoxious brides and programs that exalt fashion above
all else. It is with this latter issue that I take the gravest exception.
There is no greater show of hubris and indifference to the hardships of the
human condition than our cultures obsession with fashion. It is a useless
and idiotic notion. What does it say about youth culture when there are those who go hungry in the world while pampered pre-teens strut about the Disney store wear $180 blue jeans.

Therein lies my point, Metal is dead because anger is dead. Young people
have been lulled from rebellion with the glow of 50 inch plasma television
sets and a vernacular that extols the virtues of ‘Bling-bling!’. Where is the piss and vitriol? Of what mind does the young woman of today not take offense to being called ‘bitch’? Of what mind does a young man purchase an album of a silicone-fortified, tone-deaf mouseketeer, simply because she's 'Hot'?

The mind of a sheep.

Sheep know nothing of rage and rectitude. Sheep are to be led, to blindly
follow.

Metal spoke to those who have no voice, music of today speaks to those who have nothing to say.

Even when Metal spoke of suicide and nihilism, it was
at least aware of it’s surroundings. It said, “I’d rather be dead than
here”. It railed against the nothingness of unemployment and poverty,
screaming when it could do nothing else.

Does Metal yet live? I don’t know. I hope so, somewhere, but it's not in a form that I’d recognize it.

To be sure there are crossbred mutations of stunted rap-rock and pseudo pop punk, all available at your local convenience store, wrapped is pretty
packages and government approved. And yes, each has their industry
recommended amount of profanity and controversy.

How quaint.

All the while, the sheep line up to be sheared.

Me? I'll be sitting at home listening to "Peace Sells", reminiscing of greater days."

I realize that belittling references to Limp Bizkit and similar bands are a bit passe now, but at the time they really pissed me off. "Metal" as I saw it was more about NOT selling out and "it" as a genre, never cared about being popular. Today, there is something of a Renaissance in "Metal", at least in my humble opinion. Songs are heavy again and for the most part, the influence of Hip Hop has been all but bred out of it. Hell, even the guitar solo is back! Shred on, brothers!!

To his credit, my critic's reply was conciliatory and very complimentary. I would post that as well, but for some reason about a week later, Jake himself closed the forums stating that they were being used for purposes other than what they were intended. Other than the lively discussion of Metal, Hard Rock and the state of American Rock and Roll, I have no idea what the hell he had in mind. Maybe we didn't mention all the great work he had done after Bark At the Moon and Ultimate Sin.

A Salary Cap For Government

President Obama's proposed salary of a $500,000.00 cap for executives of companies receiving federal bailout funds is getting a lot of press lately. The cap is to include such benefits as severance pay and any other compensation above the cap will have to take the form of stocks that are frozen until federal loans are repaid. This is all to prevent what the president, himself, called,‘…being rewarded for failure.’


I can hardly disagree with this suggestion, even if it does result in the loss of ‘talent’ in the financial sector. In the final analysis, we may be better off. It is rare to find any other endeavor where individuals can fail so miserably at their jobs and still be rewarded so handsomely.


One such rare exception is government. Year after year, as the budget deficit skyrockets to unbelievable levels, taxpayer money is wasted on special interest groups and government pork and no one is held accountable. According to www.federalbudget.com, as of February 6th, 2009, the national debt now stands at $10.7 TRILLION!! I can’t even conceive of anything that is analogous to such an astronomical number. Yet, here we are on the edge of financial ruin, contemplating how to throw even MORE money at a hopeless situation.


I have a proposal; Let’s put a salary cap on elected officials as well. Ben Franklin first proposed that those elected to government position not be paid at all! You can imagine how well that went over with the people actually elected to office. Initially, members of Congress received $6.00 per day while in session. Then in 1815 this was increased to an annual salary of $1,500. According to http://usgovinfo.about.com/ the salary for a ‘rank-and-file member of the Senate or Congress’ today is $174,000 a year, while the President himself makes $400,000 a year, with an allowance $50,000 for living expenses and the Vice President makes $227,300. When these are compared against the untold MILLIONS spent on the campaigns to win these positions, it is clear that it is not financial reward alone that drives an individual to serve in public office. If they don’t need it, I see no need to give it to them. In fact I’m paid a mere $5 a day to do my civic duty and sever on a jury


Now while these salaries may pale in comparison to the exorbitant annual salaries and financial compensation paid to Wall Street and Banking executives, they are FAR and above what the average American can ever hope to make, yet it is that very taxpayer who is expected to foot the bill.


Now, there has been some speculation that, due to the President freezing White House staff salaries, that Congress may follow suit. Why not go one step further? Why should we not limit that President to $150,000 a year, while keeping his allowance for living expenses intact; limit the Vice President to $100,000 and the average member of congress to $25,000? Each year, barring war or national crisis, that the budget isn’t balanced, Presidential and Congressional salaries will be cut by 20% until, after 5 years, compensation returns to what it was in 1789…$6.00 a day for Congress, while in session and $25 and $30 for the Vice President and President respectively. Each year, the budget is balanced, pay rates increase 10% until it returns to pre-deficit levels. Is there anyone out there that believes for one moment that a single member of Congress, much less the President or Vice President will quit? If so, then I say good riddance to the lot of them.