Good Metal music can be challenging and uncommercial, exactly the kind of thing someone who stands apart from the mainstream would find appealing. It's noisier than it ever was and it takes effort to understand it. If you're a Mensa member whose best friend is a book of scientific equations then it's no surprise that you might fall in love with a band whose rhythmic tendencies are the musical equivalent of Einstein's theory of relativity.
A disproportionate number of members in the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth (a body of 120,000 students which represents the top 5% of academic achievement) list heavy metal - or "metal", as its devotees these days know it - as their favourite kind of music.
My African Grey Parrot, Rocky listens to Karrang radio whilst I am at work and he can already speak all 38 plays of William Shakespeare word for work....ok thats not true but the rest here is serious...
Let me give you a few examples of bands that have released albums that are educational as well as entertaining… Mastodon have released an album based on Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Californian band Thrice have written music inspired by the Thomas Pynchon novel V, black metal band Bathory derived much of their music from classical composers …then we have the ever popular Iron Maiden …just listen to Powerslave which includes a 13 minute Rime Of The Ancient Mariner. Most metal lyrics are surprisingly literate.
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| DJ Ashba Glasgow last year |
The lead singer for Iron Maiden is Bruce Dickinson who is also a airline pilot (regularly flying Boeing 757s, published author and almost made the Olympic games in 1992 as a fencer!!
Most of the metal fans I have met are really clever guys (and gals) I am perhaps the exception as I am sometimes as dumb as 12 shy of a dozen but perhaps that’s because I have too much Elton John and The eels in my CD collection ;-)
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