[Ahriman]

Personally, I love metal. As a kid, I would hear Ozzy and Metallica on the radio and think it was some pretty awesome stuff, and when I was 12, I bought Metallica's album "Master of Puppets" and an Ozzy "Best Of", The Essential Ozzy Osbourne. I played those albums whenever I could. I soon discovered Megadeth, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden, all of which I loved. Then a bit later, I discovered harder stuff like Slayer and Slipknot. I once fell asleep while listening to the Slayer album "Reign In Blood", not because it's a boring album, but because by that point, I was so used to hearing heavy music that I found it relaxing. Then I discovered death metal, with bands like Death and Cannibal Corpse.

At first, the harsh vocals were off putting, but I grew to enjoy them. It was around this time I was growing envious of my cousin's large CD collection, and sought to amass a large collection of my own. I then bought hundreds of dollars' worth of albums from Amazon, something my cousin thought was foolish, and in hindsight, it was. I had started playing guitar when I was around 14, focusing on learning metal riffs. By the time I was 20, I had pretty much given up on guitar, as I wasn't seeing any real progress. I used to own a beautiful natural wood color BC Rich, with an MSRP of $1,000. I sold it for a measly $150.

When I was around 15 or 16, I discovered a Canadian musician named Devin Townsend, and his then-active band, Strapping Young Lad. I loved that band. My cousin loved them too. I wrote "SYL" on my jeans. I saw them at Ozzfest '06. I soon discovered Devin also had a solo career, with many fine albums. One in particular, "Ocean Machine", struck a chord with me. It's a beautiful album, and in fact, my favorite album to this day. In the present day, I listen to metal all the time, modern stuff as well as the classics, and I know I will continue listening to metal for the rest of my life. It's a part of me. Going to metal shows was the highlight of my life, I had so much fun.
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