A new english essay 2

Will Laffoon

Music has been one of the largest influences in my life. I was raised on a little bit of everything. In my years I have grown to appreciate an incredibly wide and open view of music, from metal to rap to country, I have an appreciation for just about all of it. Although there has been one genre that has made an "above any other" effect on me since I developed my own personnel taste in music.
This genre of music is metal, which is my current favorite. Metal itself, though, is just the collective title of that genre. It branches out to much more. There is such a large amount of metal music in the world that people just say its one thing, satanic. I beg to differ though, because I listen to multiple bands that are Christian metal bands. A few examples of this would be the following bands; Underoath, As I Lay Dying, and Demon Hunter. The band “As I Lay Dying” is currently my favorite band in all of metal. They were the first concert that I ever went to, and a teenager’s life is emotionally changed after their first concert. After seeing them live and feeling the energy that came from them it finalized my decision to start my own band. We are a group guys that love music, and I incorporate my beliefs and religion in our songs, the way “As I Lay Dying” do. “I am able to bring you nothing that isn't already yours” is a line out of the song “Behind Me Lies another Fallen Soldier” by As I Lay Dying. Referring to how you can’t give anything to God that isn’t already his.
Metal to me though is just one way of self expression. It can explain the way you feel in a way unlike anything else by using metaphors and rhetorical questions, giving insight in ways you wouldn’t expect. It has opened me to many ideals that people wouldn’t expect. “You cannot kill what you did not create” is a line from the song “Duality” by a band named Slipknot. It tells that you can’t stop something just because you dislike it unless you were/are the person or people that created it.
Metal is also the type of genre that will accept you for you and not care what you look like. So many bands look like what today’s society would consider “freaks” and “psychotic misfits”. Basically they are not agreeing with the way you look because they don’t know or understand you for you. I’ve been to several concerts and at everyone there are people there dressed like me or dressed real nice but they are there for the same kind of music. Everyone is accepted, and bands show that you can be different and still talented. Bands like Slipknot and Mushroom Head wear masks and are both very amazing and talented bands. The band Mudvayne, at the beginning of their career they would dress in very unusual styles of clothing. And a final example of a talented band that is accepted in the metal world is GWAR. They wear massive costumes and masks and claim to be aliens from another galaxy.
So no matter what aspect of metal I use for an example, it describes how I can be myself and still fit in. Metal, even at its strangest, is a place for all to gather. It is a very open community that expresses itself and shows the world that you don’t have to be “normal” to be yourself. And that no matter who you are or where you’re from, individuality can be shown in a number of ways.