Two Winters Only

After waxing philosophic the past few days, I decided that I wanted to take a rest pummeling your consciousness with my admittedly depressing philosophies of life. I was driving in my car today listening to one of my favorite albums from one of my favorite genres, and it dawned on me that Metal is horribly misunderstood and often maligned by mainstream music outlets, the entire message and reason of its existence is destroyed by the mainstream.

I will attempt to rectify that today.

First of all, most of the music that is touted as "metal" these days, are nothing but the creations of international marketing firms to cash-in on a genre that has, for whatever reason, been viewed as containing nothing but depressed teenagers looking to be angry at something, anything.

This is wrong.

What most people do not know is that the metal roots really lie in deep European musical traditions. The most faithful of metal bands tend to take cues from classical masters such as Richard Wagner. I would go so far as to say that, if the technology existed in his day, Wagner would have been a composer of metal symphonies, for the emotions that metal evoke (and metal is entirely about evoking emotion), and the emotion that Wagner evokes are in the same vein. He just needed a massive orchestral hall to achieve the desired volume, we just need to turn the dial up.

With that of the way, I should now like to narrow down to my personal favorite sub-genre of metal: doom metal.

The essence and raw emotion of doom metal lies in the very core of the human soul, and this why I have an endless well of appreciation for the style and those who create it. A great deal of music these days is just superficial, hypocritical, untalented garbage shoved down your throat by forty-year men in ten-thousand dollar suits. The radio is their propaganda tool. They tell you what's cool. They tell you what to listen to. They tell you what to buy. They tell you how to live your life.

Metal tells them to fuck off.

Doom metal, as an art form, is about romanticism. In a capitalist society that has no sense or appreciation of art, only concerned with dollars and figures, it is a breath of fresh air, it is beautiful. A great many people these days are all too concerned with being happy (whatever that is), that they fail to see true beauty. Don't get me wrong, the calm ocean on a warm day is beautiful, the sunset over the mountains is beautiful - but pain and sorrow are equally, if not more, beautiful . . . if you are willing to open your eyes, and your heart.

This can be shown point of fact with one of the genres most well-known acts, and their song Two Winters Only, a song that holds personal meaning to me, is viscerally and painfully beautiful each time I hear it. I do occasionally get chills down my spine:

What is it you hope for, even though you are dying?
And even though life is closing your tiny eyes
Why did I leave them all?
I should be with them to die in the same place
The pain I think, should go on forever. For always
But no. Not mine. Not now. My life now begins

Call me what you will, but I'll die for no man, at all
My limbs and the life that spreads from them
Cross my path and you'll suffer like no man before, at all
What I hunger for, is the trial of God

For just two winters only did we live for
My God, What have you become? Dear, dear lord

We could have changed the world, had you been here with me
Right now
Held you in my arms. In my arms, my love
Jesus wept so man could life forever on earth. In peace
But my tears, They fall for you. Only you

When Aaron bellows "we could have changed the world, had you been here with me," he is not only delivering an unbelievably strong line, but also delivering what might be considered the common theme in all of doom metal - a blind romanticism on all subjects, not solely having to do with love. To understand the true emotion, you need to hear the song, the music is incredible. Coincidentally, Two Winters Only is not a good musical example of a doom metal song, it is more in line with a ballad.

I will choose another song of the My Dying Bride's The Angel and the Dark River (what I consider to be the doom metal album) as contrast:

Take your own
Sick with fever
And cry out loud
To God
Your sorry own
Will be piled upon me
That I can't see
My God
I've cried for earth
More than once
But rivers still run
With reddest tears
Be lost in me
And I'll never need to ask
Who wants me? Who wants Me?
Be mine tonight. The sight of your light
I'll breathe in you. I'm a fool, just for you
I'm in pain
And I don't know why
Under heavy rain
From darkest skies
We're in pain
The two of us
And I no longer know
Which way to go

Open wide. Let me see
Your bleeding heart cries for me
Look straight up. Look at the sun
This song's for her. Her requiem
Open wide. Let me see
A poisoned soul in agony
Self pity strangles me
I'm lashed by grief
And I'm killing me
Don't fear. My fire is enough
For both of us

This is a much better example of the traditional doom sound, and one of the finest songs on the album. To explain it is really futile, it is dripping with raw emotion, the sort of emotion that I don't think even Hemingway could have transcribed into text. Just listen to it.

There are a great many bands that are making music of breathtaking quality in the doom metal realm these days, not to mention the back catalog of the flagship bands would keep a new fan busy for months, if not years. I am running short of time, so I won't go into the history of the genre, or the other major bands . . . but I would strongly suggest, my highest suggestion even, that you consider conducting a bit of research (or email me) for some new music to listen to.

Turn off the radio and hear real music! Don't keep allowing multi-national corporations to feed you their lifeless, talentless, bullshit music!

Also, a word of caution - if you are new to the doom metal sound, you will not like it the first time through. You may not like it the second time through, or the third. However, I guarantee that if you give the music ample time to sink in, you will be a changed person. This is not passive listening, you need to focus all of your attention to what is pouring out of your speakers.

You won't regret it.