Reflections of a Lifelong Metalhead | Hacker News Reader

Reflections of a Lifelong Metalhead

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76 pointstintinnabula58 comments

Despite being one of the senior engineers at a Fortune 100 company, I wear an Iron Maiden shirt to work almost every Friday. Screw em..

Despite the 90’s sucking for metal, at least it filtered out all the hair band, and some really good bands like Dream Theater gained traction.

Maiden is back to selling out arenas. Unfortunately never heard Ghost until they opened for Maiden this summer; reminds me of old Mercyful Fate, with some late 80’s Voivod.

Relatively, we work in a pretty open/accepting industry. There are plenty of Fortune 100's that probably have a shit culture, but there are plenty (literal tons if you move outside the F100) where this wouldn't be weird.

I like to show up in a Skeletonwitch/Ghoul/Toxic Holocaust shirt every now and then.

Funny you should mention IM... was in 3 different stores last weekend, and three different guys (upper 50's) had Iron Maiden tour t-shirts on.. Being in that age group myself I wanted to high 5 them.

I have this hilarious photo from the last tour. I call it the Sea of Baldness.

Metal isn't dead. It just goes to bed earlier.

Dunno man, the 90s brought us Death's best work, the good Cynic album, Nile, some cracking (and cracked) black metal... lot of dross too, of course, but it's the last seven or eight years that've proven a wasteland for me.

Amen. Death's Human and Cynic's Focus are on my favourites list. I will add:

Opeth - Blackwater Park.

Slayer - Seasons (1990).

Megadeth - Rust in Peace (1990).

Fates Warning - A Pleasant Shade of Gray.

Spiral Architect - A Sceptic's Universe.

Dream Theater - Awake.

Emperor - Nightside and Anthems.

Soilwork - Chainheart Machine.

Morbid Angel - Domination.

Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane.

Gorguts - Obscura and From Wisdom...

There is always nostalgia for the ground broken in the 80's, but the 90's yielded many great bands' best.

I would also pull in

Ulver - Bergtatt

In Flames - The Jester Race

Meshuggah - Destroy Erase Improve

The 90s hold so many good and interesting directions for metal!

Destroy Erase Improve is indeed killer. I also love Amorphis' Tales From the Thousand Lakes.

I would also pull in:

Dark Tranquility - The Gallery

At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul

Edge of Sanity - Crimson

> Despite the 90’s sucking for metal

Not a death metal fan eh? 1990-1994 is generally considered a creative high point for death metal and starting about 10 years ago there was a huge trend toward reviving that 'old-school' sound, which involved a lot of blatant aping in particular of early 90s Swedish bands.

Probably not, but one of the first albums (records) I bought was the first Celtic Frost album. Never really liked all the grunting. I really like Kreator, Slayer, King D. & MF, but that’s not death metal.

I never liked the vocals all that much either actually, but I was singularly obsessed with death metal from about age 12 onward into my 20s. I don't keep up with it as rigorously anymore, but for anyone curious I would recommend bands like Infester, Disembowelment, Wormed, Demilich, Pyrrhon, Orchidectomy, Gorguts, Flourishing, Sect of Execration, Diskord, Immortal Fate, Pustulated, Stargazer, Incantation, Wicked Innocence, Miasma, Imprecation, Corpsevomit, Atheist, Fallen Christ, The Chasm, and more to get a picture of how musically varied and interesting death metal can be.

I thought the 90s were great for metal. Bands like Enslaved, Ulver, Opeth, In Flames, Ensiferum, Children of Bodom producing amazing records, that still inspire new acts and whose material stand as pillars of many new genres.

Same, I work for a Fortune 20 and wear my metal shirts to work nearly every day in HQ too - I’m often seen with Maiden, Blind Guardian, Helloween, Nightwish, Dream Theater shirts, amongst others.

Turns out a lot more developers in my org appreciate me wearing those shirts than I expected, although the preferences vary.

> Despite the 90’s sucking for metal,

Pantera best albums came out in the 90s and they are some of the best metal records ever

One or two of them, maybe. But nu-metal is essentially their fault.

I found out about Ghost indirectly via my favorite band, The Birthday Massacre. A TBM fan group had a subset of members who were talking about Ghost, and I got into them through that discussion. Totally different sound and feel between the two bands, but as the article says, that's the great thing about the metal/hardcore scene: There's enough variety for everyone.

> Despite the 90’s sucking for metal

Define metal? The hardcore scene was on fire in the 90s.

Everywhere i've worked, people would have been far more accepting of me turning up in an Iron Maiden T-shirt than they would have been of me turning up in a Britney Spears T-shirt.

90s: Blind Guardian, made up for the death metal and thrash crap.

One of the few times in my life when I felt the most relaxed was when I fronted a local noise core band. The crowd thought I was demented based on my act, but really, the screaming and acting out felt like a release valve for all of the anger and anxiety. All of it. At the end of the night, I would just feel super happy and mellow.

I love when I can yell and scream for a little. It's half the reason I go to concerts I think, cause no one cares if you just holler your heart out. It can be tough to find times to just viscerally yell at the top of your lungs in NYC.

I'm not even really particularly angry or anxious, I just feel great after letting go of literally everything and letting my heart and soul and voice and mind rip for a few minutes.

Sometimes you just want to yell, I understand why it's weird to do so in NYC and it'd be terrible if people felt more comfortable doing so, but god damn does it feel good to let the chest soar, the voice yell, and the entire body become one with that very ephemeral energy.

On the surface sounds a bit like Primal therapy[1] --which is a bit passe these days, but maybe it just has some screaming in common...

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primal_therapy

It's refreshing to read comments from engineers who aren't afraid to be who they are and that there are large companies with minimal dress code policies.

It's Gojira for me

The irony of loving a band that's name seems to proudly encourage the use of our issue tracker is not lost on anyone

Gojira is Godzilla in the original Japanese.

The issue tracker was named for Gojira, because it was going up against Bugzilla at the time.

Also, Bugzilla was built for Mozilla, called such because it was codename for Netscape, an upstart against the incumbent Mosaic browser - so Mosaic-killer.

Rabbit hole goes deep!

I honestly thought that was a joke but it's not [0].

[0] https://confluence.atlassian.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageI...

Okay first thought here, YouTrack and Rage against Machine's song Bombtrack - right there is also DevTrack...

The actual article: http://marchshredness.com/indefenseofhairmetal

What is the long term plan for my ears and being able to hear well? Any thoughts on this from fans of loud music/concerts are appreciated!

I bought some "hearos" earplugs for concerts. They try to attenuate the sound flat across the frequency spectrum. This is impossible, but they're much better than normal earplugs at keeping things sounding good—Normal earplugs end up blocking the high frequencies almost completely but letting lots of bass in which results in a really terrible low midrangey-boomy sound. The hearos are reusable (I wash them after each use) and you can kind of adjust the volume (and the equalization) by pulling them out/pushing them into your ear canal.

I find the sound with them in to be acceptable, and afterward my ears do not ring or feel muffled like they used to. One positive/negative is that with them on I can usually hear the singer better. This is either a good or bad thing depending on the band and how well the singer can actually sing. Also, because they do attenuate higher frequencies more than lower ones, shoegazer type stuff loses a lot of its impact. Shoegazer is probably the worst thing that's ever happened to my ear-health (but I love love love it). I usually take the earphones out for at least 1 song (usually the closer) just to hear the whole spectrum unimpeded.

Thanks, will check these out. I can't stand normal ear plugs so have always avoided them, but my ears are taking a serious beating as the years progress.

Buy some custom earplugs. Foam plugs ruin the sound, heroes don't fit well enough for most, go custom. I'm a drummer of 30 years and have been to hundreds of live shows. Here is an example: https://www.64audio.com/product/EP-Custom-EarPlugs

I've read good things about these (Etymotic ETY-Plugs High Fidelity Earplugs) at a $15 entry-level:

https://amzn.com/dp/B0015WJQ7A

Is there anything recommendable between the $15 and $200 ends?

The Etymotic earplugs are the same thing as Heroes. For me they don't fit well and thus don't reduce the sound levels as much as designed. For some people they probably work well enough, depends on the shape of your ear canal, where it bends and to what extent. You can get custom in ear plugs for $200 including the molding process (though a bit tough - you have to wait for sales).

OK, can I deviate from the main subject a bit? What is it with women's fashion today that everyone's dressing like '90s metal bands?

Faux-leather jackets, or fliers; trainers; skinny jeans, torn at the knees; and even band t-s. I was in H&M's (UK) the other day and they had Metallica, AC/DC and _Iron Maiden_ tees. Maiden tees. With The Number of the Beast. What the hell!?

I used to dress like that when I was a teen (and, er, later) and I enjoyed how it marked me out as a mosher and so on. "Yep, I'm not a fashion victim like you, ha". Now everyone's at it. It's giving me a huge sense of cognitive dissonance, you know?

Also, seriously. Metal tees with gucci handbags? Come _on_!

It's just the fashion industry digging through the trends and fashions of the past 60 years for things to recycle. It doesn't have to make aesthetic or semantic sense; it just has to sell. Leaning on existing fashion from the past lends a certain sense of legitimacy to whatever trend they are pushing, so it's a tried and true tactic to reintroduce them — conveniently stripped of any social classifiers associated with it (but they do look great on Instabook).

That said, today's teenagers wearing Nirvana T-shirts may smell like teen spirit, but I doubt any of them has even heard a single song of that band. It's a bit weird.

The Nirvana t-shirt thing is very weird! I'm glad I'm not the only one who's noticed that.

My daughter is 6 and has a couple of band tshirts she saw at Target. The rule was she had to listen to a couple of the songs before we bought them. Landed on Nirvana and Pink Floyd. Loves those bands now.

> I enjoyed how it marked me out as a mosher and so on. "Yep, I'm not a fashion victim like you, ha". Now everyone's at it.

This slap in the face of nostalgia is part of growing up I guess. Don't get me started on all the coders nowadays and dudes sitting with laptops in cafes, why & how the heck did my beloved edgy late-90s youth-hood "non-mainstream"/decidedly-perceived-as-freakish-by-society-back-then identity become hijacked and something seemingly every jock and Chad adopts! Guess it all started with Zuck..

Thank you, you just made me feel so old :)

It's a cycle that keeps happening. Emergent art becomes tokenized and commercialized. The challenge is to keep staying edgy and onto new things.

Yeah, it is weird. Coding got reappropriated as hip once it became clear th adults had ruined lots of other jobs. What I wonder is whether the people who decried it as nerdy in the past have any sense of cognitive dissonance about holding it in esteem now.

My guess is no, because pop culture is ahistorical.

True metal chicks wear the metal studded wrist bands. I remember on the school bus, a metal chick wrapped it around her fist, then punch another gal in the face. Metal chicks can be vicious; never seen a metal dude do shit like that, or even fight.

Wasn't it if they didn't fight they were "poseurs"? Ahh, cliques and otherness.

Ha ha, yes, poseurs.

Ouch. Come on.

The studs fad was a few years ago. I don't think it's completely over either. I still see people going 'round with studded leather handbags or high heels, or some other items less frequently. I've seen a few mens' sneakers with studs also.

And at least one totally not a mosher girl with a neck leather band with nickel studs that'd probably make Gaahl bat an eyelid.

I should have stated, I was talking about 30 years ago.

People are very strange these days.

Are they Tees of 3/4 length sleeve "jerseys"? ala 80s-90s?

Mostly tees, but I've seen those 3/4s also. With white sleeves too.

It's cultural appropriation, I tells you!

I grew out of metal. And so should you.

My condolences

"I have a highly refined musical palate and I believe it makes me better than you."

Put that on a t-shirt and I'll buy it. :-)

I grew out of dismissing whole branches of an art form. And so should you.

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