I always keep getting surprised by how much music is in the world, how versatile and different it is, and how many people are creating music. Sometimes I turn on some random track on Spotify for the mood, while driving in the car to work, and Spotify starts to pop up new songs for you, trying to find something appealing for your taste. Usually, I just click through these suggestions, but this time I got a song Running Out Of Words. And look how sonorous the band name is - Sons of Silver. I literally got stuck on this song - listened to it again and again until I arrived at work, and then for the whole next week. There is something in these guys, that attracts me, so their music keeps living in my head even when I get out of the car, or take off headphones.

However, it was not a trivial task to find any good information about that group. At the beginning, I found almost nothing. No wiki pages, literally nothing. AI helper from Google, of course, generated a couple of generic sentences, but being my reader, you might have guessed already - it’s not that interesting to me. And finally, I’ve found a short interview with these folks, and the puzzle started to come together.

To start with, they are not such young guys, as I called them. They are quite grown-up men and one woman. The founder - Pete Argyropoulos - was born in California in the family of musicians of Greek descent. There is a family legend saying that Pete was almost born on stage, while his parents’ band performed. Of course, there was a lot of music played and listened to in their house in the 70s. Pete has almost no chance to be someone else other than a musician. I think he’s not regretting it.

Pete founded his first cover band already in high school. His music career was quite successful until it became way too sweet and predetermined. His group, Last December, was rocking well, they had a good label contract and all other attributes of a Californian rock band. Not sure if something happened, or it was just Pete who decided to take a step aside from the familiar and understandable path. I do not know it for sure, nor does Wikipedia (which luckily has an article about Pete). Anyway, the history of Last December came to its end, but the story of Pete was just about to start.

For a while, he worked as a sound producer, helping other musicians to do recordings in the studio. Sometimes, he quietly plays something by himself in Santa Monica’s studio. And maybe it could last forever, if not Brina Kabler, whom our hero Pete hired as a sound recording engineer. It is a woman who can see, figure out, and help reveal a man’s talent. She hears how Pete plays something for himself on breaks, and motivates him to make his own music again. She will become his wife.

A couple of solo projects later, Pete invites Brina to perform together with him. But their rocker’s souls are not satisfied with it and, finally, Sons of Silvers got started. Pete calls up his old friend, and he brings up a couple of other friends, and they manage to compile a surprisingly lively, complete, and united team. They write songs together, Brina plays keyboards, and Pete sings with his charmingly deep, velvety husky voice. And all this, grown up in California, inspired by beaches and palms of Santa Monica, seasoned with salty winds of the Pacific Ocean, becomes something almost sacral, in my opinion.

After all, it is the most genuine and valuable things that are usually not advertised and hard to find. But if you’ve felt it - you got it inside forever. In this music I feel the strong hands of good friends, the voice of an adult beside you, love in life. And, at the same time, - hard life experience, endless miles of roads travelled, boundless ocean, salty wind of losses, and even ironical pragmatism.

Probably, this is what hooked me from the very beginning - some kind of maturity. This music has energy, but doesn’t show off. It got hot subjects, but without maximalism. It got a lively view on life, which might be sad sometimes, or ironic. And all this is seasoned with the electrified sound of guitars. Sons of Silver might remind you of Stereophonics, but without that desire of hopelessness. And also they slightly remind me of my favorite DogStar (that band, where Keanu Reeves plays bass guitar), but Sons of Silver are deeper and have more interesting music. Anyway, what’s the point of comparison - just listen. If you are tired of everyday life routines, probably Running Out Of Words song is what’s needed now. And I’m exactly about to run out of words.

But still got a couple of those. Our heroes - Pete and Brina - had a son. And this happened during the period when the band’s album was almost ready, Brina was in the process of mastering. There was a plan to complete it before the kid’s birth, but life has its own vision of people’s plans. Album mastering was finished by another producer, and their son, I believe, already knows what he’s going to do in life. At the very least, he will star in the video for the already mentioned song.

This year, I received one of the greatest presents for my birthday (better was only my daughter's birthday, which happened about 10 years ago, almost on my birthday). My beautiful wife, Susan, gifted me an opportunity, a kind of inner self permission to enjoy something my way - a Vinyl player. Susan knows me well, and instead of buying something, wrapping it in lots of paper, and making a thing out of it, she just told me. We walked along the ocean coast at midday, very sunny, she took my hand and gently told me that there was something she wanted to get for me, but doing it without my participation would not be so good. She took my promise that I will make it. The very next month, I spent choosing the right model on a budget. Now every time we visit a shop like FNAC, we end up buying one or two Vinyl Discs. Together. One of such purchases was Coldplay's double disc - Everyday Life.

Of course, I knew and loved this thing very well before. But the Vinyl Music Experience opened up a new, or you might wanna say revised, way of it. Instead of buying something new or finding something new on Spotify, you buy something you know and adore. It gives you the opportunity to hold a disc envelope and enjoy looking at it, read short notes or lyrics, printed up as they are handwritten, stare into photographs carefully selected for the album. When the disc turns out to be colorful, not just normal black, that’s childish delight immediately! And finally, you put a disc on the player and turn it on. The disc is spinning, you feel vibrations, and you cry. I have started to listen to music consciously again. All those are small things, you can live without them, or can’t you?

The very first time I met this Coldplay record was when they released a double YouTube video from the live session in Jordan, where they presented the album. Imagine a rooftop in the middle of ancient Jerusalem at sunrise. The sun has just started to rise slowly, everything is still quiet from the night, but you can already hear the sounds of small things of life - dogs barking, carts moving, pots clinking… Roof top is filled with wires, instruments, and musicians. You see Coldplay members, trumpet orchestra, Stromae, African singers… They start to play, and you feel how the energy of music is mixing up with the energy of the city and nature, all delivered straight to your soul without any barriers of a sound recording studio. They play the first half of the album until the sun is not high and not burning yet. The second half is played at sunset. Watch it sometime, it's better than I describe it.

Years after, when I bought a Vinyl disc with this album, it was somehow different. I felt that the voice was kind of dark and wadded, too much bass sound in the first part of the album, at least. Maybe it was just an issue of the exact batch of discs, but I started to think, my imagination went totally crazy. I recalled that video of the album presentation and imagined that the whole recording was made right there, with all musicians on the rooftop, with sounds of the city’s everyday life. That would make total sense to me - the quality of such a recording won’t be perfect, but it would carry energy and vibes of people. They gathered together, talked about how they gonna perform, invested tons of energy into making it happen. They gave it all to make good, kind sounds in the heart of Jordan. Of course, it’s hard to master a good, balanced sound in such an environment!

Truth was a little different, but still exciting. In fact, they did record this album in an alternative, unconventional way. That time, Chris Martin, the band leader, lived in the USA, while the other guys stayed in Great Britain. It was not easy to work together on music every day. Instead of staying in a boring studio in one place for months to just make a recording, or flying to each other many times, Coldplay decided to go travelling together. Their producer created something like a mobile recording studio, and they set off. The guys spent some time in Los Angeles, stayed in a villa in Tuscany, visited a couple of studios in London, travelled to Johannesburg in Africa, … Every place inspired recording in its own unique way, every town has given them some people, voices, instruments to enrich the music. Listen to Arabesque - African musicians with trumpets and saxophone, song Broken - amazing back vocal, many other sounds and inclusions into the main mix of the whole album made the recording totally outstanding to me.

Probably, what you hear in the YouTube video of the rooftop concert is an exact recording of the session, but of course, the disc is a result of mastering in a studio after all the recording on the road was completed. When I read it, I was sad for a minute. My theory was proved wrong. But at the same time, the real story is even better and fulfilling! By the way, a mobile studio is not something totally new - I bet you have heard the Smoke on the Water song of Deep Purple, the whole song is about how they recorded it with a mobile studio. The plan was to use the equipment of another band and a casino stage, but the whole building caught on fire during the concert, and Deep Purple, forced to fulfill recording label obligations, found a small, empty hotel and recorded with a mobile studio. One might say that this recording was not the best, not the purest, but it’s one of the most successful in the world! Sometimes, a simple, cheap, and not fancy way might lead to a better result, which is full of feelings and energy.

To me, the whole Everyday Life album is about the same - little things or small people that matter. Dad and son relationships - Dad playing with his son could transform his life forever. This is what song Daddy tells you. You don’t need to be perfect, or winning, or whatever. Your loved ones need you here.

Critics say that, with this album, Chris Martin has finally touched on political topics. But to me, not about politics. It’s about regular people and events, happening every day and usually passed unnoticed, unless someone made a thing out of it. When a policeman exceeded his authority, or when your friend is in trouble, or when Dad forgot that today is his son's birthday. But also, when someone shares love, a kind deed, or a sincere smile. Life is full of small things, like a recording mix is full of small sounds. Take it out - it’s still music, but now it’s insipid, straight and flat. When big events happen, when politicians say big words on camera, it’s regular people, heroes of everyday life, who are going on with their lives. They keep dancing when the lights go out. Hold tight for everyday life (c).

Same way, my loving wife, Susan, did a small thing, which might be unnoticed or even silly from the outside - she held my hand and said words about the present. But this opened up a whole new reality for us: time together, lots of talks, memories, and sounds in the morning. When we wake up some days, I put a Disc on the player, and the rising sun starts to shine brighter.

Back in a while, I wrote about a documentary - Headbanger’s Journey, filmed by Canadian student Sam Dunn. This film is hard to find; it is being constantly removed from YouTube. The idea is - a young student from the faculty of anthropology, being a fan of metal music, decides to make a film as his diploma thesis to explore the roots of metal music, its history, and popularity. He would travel the world, meet musicians, and ask questions. It shows musicians from a completely different perspective, rather than what we are used to seeing from concert halls. When I watched this documentary for the very first time, I was deeply touched by meeting Ronnie James DIO, a famous heavy metal singer, well known as one of the ancestors of heavy metal as we know it, a symbol of honorable power metal style with its knights, swords, and dragons. And also, people know Ronnie as the everlasting opponent of Ozzy Osbourne. To my deepest regret, Ronnie DIO left this world back in 2010, but I believe he is still alive in the hearts of many through his songs. Let’s remember today this kind and constantly smiling guy.

Ronnie was born in the family of Italian immigrants in the US. Despite many other musicians whose parents were point-blank against music, Ronnie’s dad insisted on the musical education of his offspring. But in church. Ronnie boy played trumpet and sang in the church choir, experiencing a full-scale Italian catholic upbringing. At the same time, musical exercises were easy enough for him. Opera was frequently played at home, and Ronnie sang along often, which helped to train his voice. But his heart wanted something else.

What always made me sympathize with him is this visionary desire to be different, not like everybody. It is a pretty standard thing for that age - every teenager declares that he is special and want to be different. Which is true, but at the same time, all such kids behave like thousands of other kids, just following current generation trends. In the 60s, musicians played rock and jazz to be different. But Ronnie started that long before it became mainstream, when rock was just about to start being hearable. Ronnie ditched the trumpet, since there were too many trumpeters everywhere, and applied his creativity towards rock-n-roll, which was radically new by that time.

Ronnie was always into books, especially into fantasy stories about knights and fights. This was the main theme of his songs since 57s, when he formed his first band. They worked hard till 72 and wrote many songs, which would please lovers of Dungeons and Dragons and all fantasy books. The band name got several changes, with the last one - Elf. What surprised me, it is on Spotify now! You can search it on Spotify and find the album Elf with artwork picturing Ronnie in an image of a cruel elf with long ears. It has 40K active monthly listeners! What a successful heritage! You see, Ronnie put a lot of hard work into that music, which led to an important meeting.

In the 72nd, a couple of musicians, Ian Paice and Roger Glover, from Deep Purple, already a famous hard rock band back then, pop up in the performance of the Elf band. They liked the performance so much that they decided to help produce their album. This led to having 40K monthly listeners after more than 50 years.

Here we can turn the page to the second chapter of this story - friendship and work with Deep Purple. They did several projects together and then boom - Deep Purple broke up in 75th! Band leader, Richy Blackmore, starts a new project called Rainbow, Roger wanted to start something own and they both invited our hero Ronnie to join! He decided to join Rainbow, which is why early Rainbow is so good! I listened to Rainbow back in school and was not able to understand why the first couple of albums are good, and then, not at all. This is because of Ronnie.

He left Rainbow in 79th when Richy decided to change repertoire to softer love songs. This led to a beautiful project, Blackmore’s Night, but this is a separate story. Back then, it was against what Ronnie loved. Ronnie leaves the band but not with empty pockets - now he is Ronnie James Dio! Dio means God in Italian. But, of course, this is also a mock of some famous mafia boss.

What’s next? Here, the story of Ronnie Dio starts to cross over the story of Ozzy. In 80th, Black Sabbath fired Ozzy Osbourne. And look at this - Dio is available! They started to work together, and that was something great! Ronnie gets into writing songs, and Black Sabbath gets a new life and glorious album, Heaven and Hell! Ronnie’s catholic roots and his spirituality always influenced his music significantly. To be honest, and probably critics won’t agree with me, Ronnie reached the top here. He indeed became Dio of heavy metal. Heaven and Hell is one of the best albums! It is heavy, beautiful, and spiritual in a way. This music possesses a lot of power, honor, but it is also controversial and impressive. It’s hard to stay indifferent. I have goose bumps all the time I hear it… literally, even now.

The lover of life’s not a sinner
The ending is just a beginnin’
The closer you get to the meaning
The sooner you’ll know that you’re dreaming

It goes on and on and on
Heaven and Hell

They say that life’s a carousel
Spinning fast, you gotta ride it well
The world is full of Kings and Queens
Who blind your eyes and steal your dreams

It’s Heaven and Hell, oh well
And they’ll tell you black is really white
The moon is just the sun at night
And when you walk in golden halls
You get to keep the gold that falls

It’s Heaven and Hell

When I was a very young kid and heard complaints from adults, like, what is the song if you cannot comprehend the words? How can we listen and get it? Back then, I tried to tell that music translates meaning and feelings even without words. I believe in it even now. But my perception became much, much wider when I started to understand the lyrics. Heaven and Hell song, to my vision, is about millions of contradictions in life. And even having a black and white song name, I hear about life and world ambiguity in it. I hear that everything in life, every person, thing, or event might have both good and bad. Everything has both Heaven and a little of Hell in it.

By the way, you might not be a metal fan, but you do know a famous gesture - sign of the horns - when you do goat horns with fingers. It is Ronnie who popularized it! IN my memory, this sign was always associated with something cool and demonic at the same time. What’s it in reality? This is again Italian heritage. Ronnie told this story to a Canadian student, who filmed a documentary about metal music, that this sign was constantly used by his Ronnie’s grandma. Imagine this - early 50th, Ronnie boy walks with his grandma somewhere in New Jersey. He imagines that a stick in his hand is a sword and he’s crushing goblins. His old granny walks nearby with a basket of veggies from the nearest Italian store. They walk along the street, and granny points her horn fingers at every stranger. She believed that this sign protects her and her grandson from the evil eye, following the old Italian tradition. How cool it turned out! Ronnie showed this sign on stage, maybe to get rid of evil critics, and the whole world started doing it!

What’s next? Dio and Back Sabbath were like a match - they burned bright, warm, and very short. Only two years passed before conflicts in the band led Dio to leave and start his own project. He named it DIO, and this project existed for quite a long time. Later, in 90th, Tommy from Black Sabbath offered Ronnie to record an album together. Dio agreed, and that was beautiful again. The guys remembered how they worked together, and after the album recording, they kept working together for a while until another intrigue. At some point, Dio got to know about the band's intention to play a gig with Ozzy. Ronnie left the next day because he understood - they would reunite after the gig, which exactly happened. There is no place for two kings on the same stage.

It was a lot of breakups and reunions in this story. Ronnie always knew the right moment to leave. And always kept the doors a little open, and relationships kind and friendly. Which helped him later to reunite once again with Tommy and work couple more years on music under the familiar label - Heaven and Hell.

How do you think what kind of man he was after all that? A man who played and sang with his powerful voice those metal arias. He was quite short and skinny man with curly hair, reminding elf prankster. He was always smiling and kidding, even if he expressed resentment toward someone. He always showed goat horns - even to his cat. He hugged that Canadian student, filming a documentary, and invited him to own house. He was an endless source of light and warmth around.

Usually, I don’t see a lot of sense in listing musicians’ projects, but here - just look - Dio literally worked with the same people all his life. Projects were named differently, and people rotated sometimes in cycles. He always got back to his roots, trying something again and again, like in his song Heaven and Hell - it’s on and on and on…. like he tried to finally find something out. Did he? I don’t know. Maybe even now, after his death, he is playing his eternal Heaven and Hell up there.

Time passed, but I still keep thinking abiut it. It still has not been shaped into some story. Too controversial. I’m talking about Ozzy Osbourne.

I was always intrigued by Black Sabbath. Such deep music. Such an impressive name for a band! Their image and performances were always frightening and creepy. I considered it cool at times. I always wanted to look deeper into their dark story, while looking at their posters, listening to these measured, hastiless heavy notes, which leave sticky stains of fear in the deepest corners of my soul.

In spite of their overall demonic look, and even more demonic music (heard about musical tritone and divols note?), the band's foundation was quite ordinary. And it’s not a surprise anymore that it happened in 68-’69. Something special was in the air in those years. Something elusive, yet strong and motivating creativity across the globe.

So, a couple of guys - Tommy Iommi and Bill Ward - decided to start a band in 68. It happened in industrial Birmingham, Great Britain. This very fact might have been a reason, in fact. While adults were busy at harsh factory jobs, young lads, as the new generation, had time and the possibility to look at all this from the side and figure out that it’s not their way of life. Anyway, that place was blooming with creative personalities. Tommy and Bill notice an ad in the local music store - OZZY ZIG Needs Gig – has own PA. They called him and started a band Polka Tulk Blues Band. Guys decided that the talc brand from Poland, which they used to see in households, might be a good name. They spend some time writing songs, experimenting, and renaming themselves to Earth. What didn’t stay for long either. At the same time, they didn’t have a main direction yet. While looking for it, Tommy decided to drop the band. And not just to some other band, but to Jethro Tull! It’s like transitioning from a startup to a corporation, in modern terms.

But he didn’t stay long there. Literally a month, and he decided to return because of management, which was not aligned with him. I see it like he got some direct hints about the necessity of making efforts. He brought this main output - need to push to achieve something good - back to his band and started to work. Some time later, walking in the streets of Birmingham, band members saw this picture - an enormous queue of people waiting to get their cinema tickets to watch an Italian horror film under the name…. Black Sabbath. That’s when the Pandora Box got opened. Our heroes understood immediately what draws people’s attention, what people want is what makes them scared. You should agree that it also gave a great sound name to the band! Scary, intriguing… What’s left to do - write a couple more songs and bring a turned cross to the stage to make all clergymen shit their pants.

Seems like they had caught the success train, just keep writing songs one scarier than another, and that’s it. What makes me wonder till today, how deep their songs were, and how… spiritually correct they were! Christian Rock with prayers is not even close to the most spiritual (truly) song, War Pigs. Looks like the whole noise with scary looks is needed just to attract people, but the seeds of truth, pure vision will fall into the ears and sprout there sooner or later.

Set aside topics of alcohol and other substances, but also keeping in mind it was the 60th, for a record, time of hippy and anti-war sentiments in the world, let’s read the words of the War Pigs song. This song says that wars are started not by people, but by generals, like witches on their black messes. Evil minds that plot destruction, reading spells of death, but staying aside by themselves. Brainwashed people take the bait of politicians and fight for them like chess pawns. But God sees all. Judgment day will come, the world will stop turning, and darkness will swallow this world. War pigs will lose their power and crawl on their knees begging for mercy for their sins. Satan laughs and spreads his wings; he has enough food now.

Lots of scary words, demonic mood, yes, sure… but what’s the essence of it? Truth of life. Satan laughs because he got what he wished for - sins. Souls. And God sees all; nothing would escape his attention. If you live like a pig, the end will be piggish as well. Per se, this is a very kind song with a promise that all bad guys will go to hell, latently asking you to live good lives with fewer sins. Why is Black Sabbath considered a vicious band?

However, they have other songs following the same pattern, slow rhythm, same sticky sense of fear, dripping sticky sweat down your spine, in times of a nightmare. By the way, Ozzy, if I remember it correctly, used a lot of his nightmare images as plots of songs and performances. One of his memorable nightmares - a dark figure standing in his bedroom - became the main theme of one of his songs.

What’s next? Prince of Darkness, how Ozzy called himself, stayed in the band for ten years and got fired. I don’t even want to look for a particular reason. Most probably, the official reason was alcoholism. But 60s and 70s, musicians being drunk was considered normal. How knows… That was not the end of his career, just a step further. Next level. Year after year, Ozzy made his music, sang his songs, gave performances, became a media person, started a family, got filmed on MTV, and died recently.

It’s almost impossible to find a person in our Western world who has not heard about Ozzy Osbourne. At the same time, it’s just as hard to find someone who actually listened to his music. Being a Black Sabbath admirer, his whole solo career just passed me by. But early Black Sabbath albums are frequent guests of my playlist. I listen to those songs again and again, finding more and more. Remarkable.

At the sunset of his life, literally in the last couple months, Ozzy gatherd a big farewell (literally) gig, which was supported by original Black Sabbath band members. It has not happened since their breakup in 70s. Ozzy appeared on stage sitting on a huge demonic black throne. He could not walk by himself anymore. But he was still able to sing. True spirit and conductor of spirituality. Fearsome on stage, and smiling in life (as far as I can see, of course). Rare artists have a chance for such a spectacular farewell with the audience… and with the whole world. Contradiction is that not satan lovers should be fans of Ozzy and Black Sabbath, but truly religious (believing) people. God lives in his songs. Interestingly, has he already gathered a cover band in Heaven?

A couple of weeks since the previous post, but it feels like an eternity. Many life changes are in progress, thoughts, reflection time, new books, new working habits… But music is still there, around us in every heart. When I’m listening to something special, something inspired, I can touch a little bit of those energies that electrified music author to write it. It’s like a radio wave and a radio receiver - when you, as a radio, hear something clearly, you are set to the same frequency as the source of that radio wave. You can feel it, vibrate the same energy, if you will. If you know it, you can use it vice versa and tune yourself a bit with the music.

Anyway, today's music column is about one of those hidden gems, which might look like nothing special until you are tuned in to their wave precisely to hear them clearly. When I heard them for the first time, I was totally out of tune and decided (very superficially) that it was yet another Rammstein Cover Band. Now I cannot even understand why. But I liked something - strong vibes, music was hard and heavy, pushy, but very lovely and supportive at the same time. Like when a huge ogre gently holds your hand with his pinky while you are crossing a dangerous, shaky bridge across a mountain river.

Later, I figured out that it’s a Danish band, formed by a guy named Michael Poulsen. He was raised in a family of music lovers and was exposed to jazz and rock-n-roll all the time. I could imagine, even that level of freedom back then was not enough for him, so he left his home by the age of 17 in search of something heavier. So, he ended up in Copenhagen, where he found a band. Death metal band.

There is not enough info about that period of his life, but I can imagine that Death Metal was loud enough for him, but also boring. So he dropped that band, but didn’t drop music. Result of it - what we know as Volbeat now. Loud, but full of love and support.

Feel the power of the warrior is playing in my headphones at the moment - such a song is a clear choice when you need to overcome something. Great music in hard times, even better in times of change when nothing is clear and you might feel lost, unguided.

What’s it like, you ask? It is springy and resilient. Your mind can touch the music waves, feel its gentle tension. Wave bends and responds immediately. It’s harsh sometimes, but just in a way to show off. It flexes muscles, but it would not beat you right away. It’s not a backyard bully, it looks more like the old br

other who has a tattoo, a black bike, but also a huge, kind heart. He is one to appear out of nowhere and beat those backyard bullies.

If Creedence Clearwater Revival went to the gym in the morning and played heavy metal in the evening with Billy Gibbons on backing vocals, it might look a little like Volbeat from my view. This band and their music are very manly in a good way. It’s not the early Accept with their Balls to the Wall, and not Slaughter to Prevail with their growl and epatage. There is no reference!

And that’s why I bet you have not heard of them. Their best streaming count in Spotify is 1000 less than Coldplay's. But I am so happy they exist in the world. When you need a strong man's hand to support you - and you probably won’t find one nowadays - give a chance to Volbeat.

Music experts use to compare some artists to meteors - they light up the sky at night, fly across it, obscuring the stars, and vanish in the morning glow. Their presence was short but bright. For sure, this is a true statement for Tokio Hotel.

I've seen them for the first time in 2005 on MTV using normal television. The Internet just started during that time, and I used to buy a card for accessing 100 MB of data per month. But TV was firing, and I used to watch MTV sometimes. This way, I met many interesting musicians, including Coldplay and Tokio Hotel.

Of course, they were rotating their most popular song - Durch Den Monsun. Imagine the music video with faded colors, starting with a rocky-looking (too) young guy, who snuffs out a black candle which he holds in his hands with black coloured nails. Wow, it was too much of dark emo vibes even back then. And I couldn't stop looking and listening even though. At the end of the video, there was a catharsis by rain starting to fall from the sky to these young guys playing wet guitars with messed up wet hair. All elements of a good teenage vibe.

Songs are written in Deutsch, so I didn't get a thing. But come on, it's pretty obvious something about love, of breaking up, or parents' problems, rebellion... put your best topic from teenage time there. But there was something else. They kinda knew how to do it in a good way. I'm listening to this song right now, and it is still good! I feel the guitar, which is interesting, but not annoying. I hear a good bass rhythm. And not too bad voice. Yeah, it's a very childish voice, with a little fleur of smoked up life experience.

It is important to say that it was very shameful to officially say that you liked or even listened to Tokio Hotel among my friends during that time. Shameful, because it was neither true rock nor heavy metal, nor weird Japanese rock. Nothing that can give you at least a little bit of pride. Just snotty pop from German youngsters. So when I bought their CD, I didn't tell anyone. Interestingly, I somehow managed to buy it in the center of Berlin during a bus trip across Europe with my parents. I entered the music store and saw that CD - vivid orange cover with a deep black CD surface. I have not seen anything like this before, not after. Just a velvet black surface! Amazing! I had very little cash, no cards, and very entry-level English, so my conversation with the shop assistant was short and weird. Probably I was afraid to seem unwilling to buy it, that's why I got it for 20 euros. The next day, I got another 3 random CDs on sale for 1 euro!

But the truth is - they are indeed very talented. Even if you have not heard about them at all before this very moment. The band was started by 2 tween brothers, Tom and Bill Kaulitz, from Leipzig in 2001. They were 12! Of course, not everything was bright and shiny in their life. There was a parent's divorce, which, though, led their mom to a new guy, who was a rock musician and taught Tom to play guitar. They played their own songs in a local pub. They produced the first album by themselves, burned 300 copies of it on a computer, and sold them in the pub! They got noticed by a famous music producer, and a new life began - label, contract, more music contests, videos, and popularity. Tough life...

They shone bright until the singer's voice changed (hello, Robertino Loretti). With the voice change, they also changed a style, moved more into synth pop... but the sparkle has gone. Their time to shine was short but very bright. Maybe, there won't be a lot of people who know them like people know Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd. And I guess, it was very hard for them to face the decline of global popularity. But at the same time, there will always be a bunch of people who grew up with them and experienced their first exciting or frightening feelings with their songs. These songs would always be a ticket to those moments.

Again and again I want to start a column by recalling when and how I first heard that song. Not today! It just appeared one day with a great recorded Cabin session. The band decided to record a mini concert without listeners, they went into the wild as far as they could with the equipment, settled in a Cabin with a view, and played to camera. Quality of recording, though, is something incredible! especially for the indie group. I literally feel cold and the loneliness of that place, fresh air, the smell of burned wood in the fireplace, the dimming autumn light, and the smell of dry grass. I want to get outside and walk there until my feet get cold, return back and sit beneath the fireplace till darkness.

This band is not something grandious or outstanding. It was an indie solo project by Icelandic girl Nanna. At some point, she decided to try her music in an Icelandic music contest and invited other guys, including one called Ragnar. Good name, huh? Ragnar means the wisdom of the army, but I wouldn’t say that by his looks. Anyway, they attended and won that music contest in 2010. Next year, they already had a label signature and US rotations, still preserving the look and feel of an Indie project. Something genuine and authentic.

If you ask what music is about, it’s not riffs and energy, nor wise metaphors of the world and war. No politics (at least to my ear). This music is more about the state of mind, some kind of meditation, which might be too hard to achieve for an adult. It reminds me of my very early years. I was about 7 or 8. My parents owned a small cabin in a lonely, remote village. That place was related to Mom’s family roots. Her parents lived there of very close by, before moving into the city with the Industrial Revolution. We went there on the weekend in summer and sometimes in autumn. The cabin had a wooden oven, and firing it up was my duty and the greatest thing for me as a kid. I sat for hours in front of the fire, looking into it, putting wood there. The next greatest thing was to wander around by myself. Nobody looked for me, I was free to go anywhere. It was nothing there anyway, except a couple of oldies and hills covered with unmown wild grass. I walked for hours, imagining different stories of monsters and men.

The Dirty Paws song, one of the most famous of this band, is literally my state of mind back there. Nothing exact, everything is imaginary and not really related. Bees could be an army, birds - travellers, a giant wasp - monster, a lizard - a dragon, nettle - magic poisoned grass… By the way, one village lad taught me - if you’re not afraid of nettle, it won’t sting.

If you read about this Dirty Paws song on the internet, there are lots of logical theories of what Nanna meant. Including that it’s a song about her cat, how he jumped, she let him out, and then he returned with dirty paws, meowing her stories of where he’s been. Who knows, maybe… But is it really important? What really matters - what feelings are brought up. Breathe and listen.

Stereophonics appeared in my playlist for a while around 2018-2019 for no particular reason. I guess they just released something, youtube showed it to me while I was looking for some music for work, and here we go. I remember some songs, which taste I liked - Indian Summer, Graffitty on a Train… Researching the band materials today, I realised that it was just a tip of the Iceberg; these songs are only a couple of their latest works from 2013. Turned out that this band has a long, though very classic, story.

3 friends decided to start a band back in ‘92 in Wales. What could go wrong? Not exactly liked that. The true story began in ‘86, when Kelly Jones and Stuart Cable started hanging out in Kelly’s dad’s garage, played drums, sang, and had fun. Turned out, they could do it well enough, and soon, after inviting other friends, they were able to play in local clubs. The story between Kelly and Stuart is not clear, they probably had a fight and stopped talking to each other for a while. Then, after enough cooling down time, they occasionally saw each other somewhere, waved each other back, and decided to give the band a chance. It was called Tragic Love Company.

They gained some popularity locally and played consistently in local pubs and clubs. But nothing else until another occasional thing happened - they got noticed by Wayne Coleman in London after playing in some club. He wanted to organise bigger concerts for them… if they change the stupid name. The guys didn’t let Wayne ask it many times, and soon enough, Stuart came with a manufacturer name of a gramophone, "Falcon Stereophonic". The band agreed to name themselves Stereophonics, which we know it.

Pretty soon after good concerts in Wales they got popularity in Great Britain and worldwide eventually. I didn’t follow the whole story about them, but I guess it was full of tours, recordings, label changes, songs, videos, and everything else.

What I want to talk about a little is the taste of that music. At least, that's what I’m aware of. To me, it is still Tragic Love Company. Look at the horrible video for a song In A Moment if you dare. A man digs himself in the sand near the shoreline during low tide. It means he will be under the water without a chance of digging out… by his own choice. What would make one think of such if not a Tragic Love or, I don’t know, losing all your life in gambling… Even more, he asks another guy for help in that… lots of social dilemma for what?

That tragic love sense is dragged across many of their songs, even if they sound happy, chill, and relaxed, I still fell some kind of sore taste. Some kind of being tired of life, solving problems and dealing with people. Desire to escape everything, stay out of troubles and don’t face it… Maybe I’m wrong, Maybe tomorrow I’ll find my way home.

Maybe this is just a reflection on a society and living by expectations versus living one's own life. This topic gets more and more important every day. People have their own opinions of everyone else’s lives but forget about living their own life at full, forget taking time to reflex and think deep, breathe deep. Maybe Kelly sings about that… open question

p.s. they have a funny, outdated website, which says about UK tour in 2020 - stereophonics.com . Take a look, this is a special experience, similar to opening a rare vintage vinyl.

One of Portugal's national deserts is called Pão de ló, or more exactly - Pão de ló húmido, which means literally - wet bread. This traditional Portuguese cake has deep roots in the XV century. I tried it very occasionally, when I needed to spend some time around, dropped by a cafe for a cup of abatanado (a local variety of watery espresso), and instead of pastel nata, the symbolic thing here, I pointed my finger to this new thing for me. I didn’t know what it was, but I enjoyed this compound of limp sweat bread and eggs. The second time I took it - I understood that this is a Portuguese version of Limp Bizkit inspiration!

Back in 1995, when Fred Durst started a band, he wanted to make the whole appearance of it (including its name) to bring some kind of disgusting feeling to people. His idea was based on a goal to have only those fans, who do pay attention and are interested in a band. Probably, not the best ever marketing, but look at them! So, they hung out, smoking some herbal medicine, and one of the band members said - my brain feels like a limp biscuit. That was it!

I have known this band for ages since school times. To me, it was one of the holy trinity of crossover bands (they were not called this way back then) - Linkin Park, Papa Roach, and Limp Bizkit. I listened to them, it was loud and cool! I didn’t get a word! I just felt some kind of destruction energy in their songs, rebellion, desire to keep away from all that social shit. What else do teenagers need?

When I was researching Fred and Limp Bizkit now, I noticed so many similarities between them and Korn. Of course, they sound very different, but the idea, a little bit of disgusting feeling, oversimplified logos, artwork, and overall appearance. Both are either lucky sloppiness or well-thought artwork, too deep to understand from a glance. Soon I found out, that the very next week after Limp Bizkit recorded a first demo on a cassette (yes, such things were common back in 1995), Korn played a gig in the local club, where Limp Bizkit often played! It was inevitable they met, got drunk and Fred almost did (or did?) a tattoo of a corn on the back of Korn’s leader. Among many of Fred’s interests, he was also a tattoo master. Not very good, maybe.

So, the communication happened and in the middle of the party, Fred gave a cassette to Head (from Korn) trying to pitch him a demo. It was shown to Korn’s manager, and nothing happened right then. But they kept in touch and after a while another demo was more successful and Limp Bizkit found their label and played some gigs with Korn.

What about music? Probably, I’ve already told max of it in the beginning. It’s cool and loud! This is one of the first attempts to merge rap and rock, which led to such energetic projects. Rock music, heavy riffs, fast rap, a little shrilly voice of Fred and the crazy appearance of their guitarist did a thing. Teenagers liked them a lot. It was new voice of rebellion. Look at that:

It's just one of those days when you don't wanna wake up

Everything is fucked, everybody sucks

You don't really know why

But you wanna justify rippin' someone's head off

No human contact

And if you interact, your life is on contract

Your best bet is to stay away, …

It's just one of those days

I guess, everyone remembers that feeling being 15-16. Fred just put it to words, instead of making faces at his parents (or maybe alongside with it). It’s is pure extraction of teenage feelings of the world around.

Probably, this is just a little part of the whole big Limp Bizkit art. Maybe. But with every song of theirs I got the same feeling - stay away, don’t touch me, It’s just my way and I will prove it to everybody around. Interestingly, their guitarist Wes Borland started to wear crazy makeup, masks, and outfits on stage for exactly the opposite thing - to attractan audience. During the first gigs, some people went to there just to see Wes.

This feeling was great and well supported by Fred’s songs at the age of 15, and slowly faded away with the years. Life’s changing, Limp Bizkit - almost not. Fred plays these songs on a big stage looking like Adam Sandler at an Oscar ceremony. Of course, there is a point in it. But I believe, they both already made it years ago. Time to move on.

On the final chord of this limp note, I just remembered that I once almost saw Fred on stage live! It was 2011 I think and I went to the huge rock fest in Russia. Imagine a vast green field in summer, full of people with brains like limp biscuits! I’m not kidding, 600K drunk people look terrifying! Fred Durst and Limp Bizkit were the headliners and they were closing the whole day of loud music. The cherry on a cake - it was all free! No entrance fee! Festival made money by selling super expensive and super awful beer, while forbidding to bring in any food or drinks. So, the day faded away, it was getting dark, 600K crowd of drunk people was waiting for Fred to come on stage and I understood - that if I did not leave now, I wouldn’t make it to the bus. I might be just trampled. I started to move to the gates in the company of other not-so-drunk people. At some point, I heard loud guitar riffs and glanced at the big screen in the middle of the field - It showed Wes Borland, guitarist of the band, in full white makeup, wearing a glowing mask.

p.s. Next year they invited Rammstein and the festival was banned.

Some people in music history are so big and everlasting, whose impact is so vast, that any words about them might sound inappropriate. I mean musicians like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, or Tom Waits. But how else can we understand something at least for ourselves rather than verbalizing?

Probably, the main and only reason I never was really into Bob Dylan’s songs - the fact that English is not my first language. His main thing - meaningful songs, rich of words and metaphors. For me, it took years to start understanding at least something, I need to admit. But it turned out, I liked some of his songs, even not knowing it’s Bob Dylan’s. Because they are covers. Probably, the best example is Knocking on Heaven’s Door. I first heard this song at the end of the same-named movie from 1997 with Til Schweiger. I even had DVD with that film and watched it many times. Probably this was a way to realize that life is going on right now and stop putting it off until later. Tell me somebody - what is that song about?

Another thing, there is a film about him in cinemas now, which I have not watched yet. Let’s see how my perception is different from the cinematographic one.

About Robert Zimmerman, which is Bob’s Dylan original name. Turned out he is a grandson of immigrants from Odessa! He was raised in a Jewish family and escaped from home looking for his musical destiny at 19 years old. From one perspective, going to New York with guitar only doesn’t sound like a safe plan at any time, from another - it was the beginning of the 60th with music everywhere. I guess, he managed to get by. His natural talent and outstanding ability to look deep and write good songs helped him to get noticed and do what he loved doing.

What I know from his history is that he tended to change style and music direction quite strongly from time to time. Seems like he just got bored of doing the same thing, and started to make it somewhat differently. That’s what researchers say, but it’s hard for me to say the difference, to be honest. Like in his song - times they are changing. If in the 60th taking an electric guitar to sing a folk song was something rude and even vulgar, now I don’t hear how it was different from his first songs. I mean that famous incident, when after singing a couple of songs on stage at Newport Music Festival, Bob invited a band, plugged in an electric guitar, and kept singing. Organizers tried to turn him off without success since he was defended by the audience. There is a guitar, words, Bob. Yes, some drums and rhythm stems appeared, but the essence remained the same to me. Why would they be so negative about it?

Bob still keeps changing the way he writes and plays music. He’s 83 now and still up and running. He created so many albums with countless songs, that would be enough for 10 bards. He still shares his vision on life and people, politics and feelings. Bob proves the thesis that music is a projective material. Listeners can find a lot of personal experiences in his songs. Think of It Ain't Me Babe. For most it is a straightforward song about relationships, some would even find there a typical pattern, when a man escapes relationships and responsibility, but other people would find a more general theme about having his own way, his own opinion if you will. Ones who have power would try to manipulate you, and tempt you with something, but what if you have your own way?

As Dylan had his way. He wrote songs, drew pictures, and even received a Noble Prize in literature for poetic impact on American song tradition… and didn’t come to an award ceremony. He received the prize a year later. I’m not really sure if this matters to him at all. This raises a big question, and forgive me if this is not related to Dylan’s story at all. I gonna use this story as my projective material. How cool you should be to not give a … about anybody else’s opinion including the Noble Prize? How strong your character should be? Sustainable ego. Strong will. Knowing what you do and why you do that? In real life people often ask themselves - why do something if this is not giving them an award or appreciation? And look at Bob - the whole world including a bunch of rich Sweds gives him huge appreciation… that’s fine, thanks, I’ll take award next year. Gotta go now, the next song won’t write itself. I wish I had at least 5% of Bob’s self-confidence.

What about music? How to put it… It’s like a warm wind in spring fields somewhere around the full-flowing river. You stand on a riverbank, looking at the waters. There is no ice, even though you see some grey snow here and there under the bushes. Everything around is ready to bloom. You breathe, feeling the light sense of sand and soil in the air, as well as the moisture of fresh grass. All the answers are blown in the wind… Music is just right. It’s not pretending to be super cool, super beautiful, skillful, artistic, or whatever. It is not pretending. It just exists in its truth. Same as a person, who lives a simple life, beautiful in every little routine day.

If you ever watched the American TV series The Middle, a sitcom about the life of the average American family in Indiana, there was a character - Reverend Tim Tom. Christian priest, who traveled between towns with a guitar, singing songs to kids at schools. He would sing a song for any problem of a teenager - friendship, envy, love, parents - he would just sing something, put words between notes, and the listener felt better soon. Bob Dylan is like such Reverend Tim Tom to me. I don’t fully understand all his songs, nor do I think it’s the best music. But I feel better. And I truly believe the world is better with his songs.

If you ask anyone from a Russian-speaking context what kind of heavy music you know, they will probably say Rammstein. Why is that? Why is this band so deeply related and appreciated in post-Soviet society? Probably the answer lies in the very question - because this is the band of post soviet society, but based on the context of Eastern Germany, GDR, before the wall was broken. I don’t claim to be a Rammstein historian but wanna share a couple of facts about them.

Probably, you know that Till Lindemann, band leader, grew up in eastern Germany, and by the time he was offered to sing for a new heavy metal band, Till was just a normal carpenter and basket maker. No matter how weird it sounds these days, that was a thing back then. Times were hard, Till lived under the Iron Curtain with his family. Everything fun was across the wall. Relationships with his parents were not good. But his father was quite a figure back then - he wrote many books and poems for children. The problem was, that he put more love and care into that, rather than into his kid. That’s my guess only, but it could be. Show me at least one successful music group, whose members had a great relationship with their parents. Till’s parents got divorced when he was 12 and his sister was 6. Still, there is a school named after Till’s father.

Till’s history and the fact that he’s the frontman and Rammstein leader is somewhat known. But people usually don’t mention Richard, Rammstein's lead guitarist, who in fact is a true band founder. Richard also grew up in Eastern Germany and struggled with misunderstandings between him and his mother. In contrast with Till, who just went with the flow, Richard wanted to be a musician for a reason. Once Richard went to Czechoslovakia with students and brought back a guitar. Such musical instrument was quite rare in GDR and Richard simply wanted to resell it and gain some money. But somewhere on the road back, he met a girl, asking him to play guitar. She was very insistent and even though he couldn’t play, Richard started to make some guitar noises for her. History doesn’t tell what happened after, but Richards's enthusiasm for learning how to play guitar increased enormously.

This passion (for music) led Richard to study at Jazz school and eventually, he became the one and only Rammstein team member, who did have a musical education. He moved to Berlin to pursue a music career. Nobody thought it was a thing. Not his parents, not the government. Eastern Germany in those times would prosecute you if you didn’t have a job, and music player was not a job. So Richard made some silly souvenirs for selling just to clarify his living for the government while practicing guitar and drums in his small rented apartments.

Long story short, Richard played in several bands, which were not firing a spark in him, but gave him good contacts with future Rammstein team members. The missing part in the story is - I don’t know how they met with Till. But after Till’s father passed away in 1993, Richard already knew Till and came to his place giving him a strong friend’s shoulder. Lindemann worked as a carpenter, sang occasionally during work, and had some minor fun experiences in a punk rock group. Richard made and offer, which changed everything in their lives.

Why I’m telling this? Apart from it’s interesting to me personally, and I sometimes feel something relatively similar in my childhood in a small town, it explains precisely why most of the Russian-speaking people, who like music, know about Rammstein. Because they all inherit the same post soviet heritage, good or bad. The heritage, which doesn’t require any explanation as to why music can be banned.

What’s next? There was a Rammstein! They started purely but gained traction quite fast. It wouldn’t be a thing if not for Richard’s musical talent and if not Till’s boredom on stage. He sang, but it’s not so fun for him. So Till started to do fireworks, through firecrackers and such. After years it transformed into what we know as the Rammstein show, which has hundreds of staff members, dozens of trucks with equipment, and millions of visitors.

What about music? This is hard to hear when the band brings a huge sham penis to the stage. The whole perversion theme hides quite a lot. People usually just like the whole vibe, they feel energy, masculinity and that’s all. Especially if you don’t know the German language. If you treat lyrics straightforwardly, that’s terrible and doesn’t deserve living. But let’s not forget this is some kind of art. And what art does? Art shows various sides of society. It is some kind of a mirror to show what else weird is happening in our world. It doesn’t agitate you and is not supposed to provoke you for bad things. But there are bad things in the world. And Rammstein can show it. The way how it is shown is shocking. And it should be, otherwise, you won’t pay any attention to it.

The problem here - it is not just made up in Till’s twisted mind. Sometimes it is real stories like the song Mein Teil, which is about a real story that happened in Germany. One guy ate leg or smth else of another guy by agreement. That’s what is scary, not the song itself. The way how they present it on stage, dark and steamy and loud, this what attracts people. This is how people can live through some emotions, which might be hard to realize in the real world. Like problematic child-parent relationships, misunderstandings, lots of inner hate and anger of unwanted child (hello, Mutter song)… Or sometimes, it is an artificial representation of inner metaphorical drama between lovers. Take a look at a video, made by Till and Zaz. They are playing lovers, who love and kill each other. What’s a psychological process in real life is shown like physical violence in the music video. How else you can show it?

Rammstein is not scary or disgusting by itself, what scares me is the fact that the world needs Rammstein.

It turned out there is nothing about music in this story so far, let’s try to fix it a little bit. Of course, early works are great, but they sound very harsh to me. I would even name it a coarse sound. It moves air intensively, you can feel it even with earplugs. Guitars are sharp, drums are strong, voice is minimal, and shouting. This was a period of getting the crowd together. And there is a true gem - Seeman. Great song. I love bass guitar here because in this song bassist actually plays fingerstyle. He touches each string with different fingers, making a melody, not just a bassline. Incredible.

The second album brought more industrial electronic sound, giving birth to the eternal Du Hast. Nobody knows what the song is about, but it’s sound moves you to shake your head hard! The true finding there is Engel. Especially the concert version of it, with the girl, singing from the bird’s cage. It has Richard’s whistling, tender woman vocals, punchy guitars, and electronic sounds of the future… all together it paints a very interesting picture. Lot of projections to put on.

The third album (did you notice that each album had originally 11 songs) brings a painful German war theme with Link 234, an even more painful child-mother thing in Mutter. Ich Will screaming out loud- hear me, listen to me, I’m here and alive…

So on… probably each album deserves its own story. My favorite album is Liebe ist für alle da - Love exists for all. This one was somewhat getting to the top of music-making for Rammstein of that period. And right after that - 10 years of no new things….

to be continued…

The last couple of weeks were quite intense for me. It might be hard to distinguish between information and noise, noise and music. To focus on things, I’ve skipped writing a column for this guy, whom I consider one of the most off-the-beaten-track musicians, working in the Russian language. If you google Noize MC and open a resource like afisha, they would label him as the most politicized raper. I don’t think life is so simple. I always felt there was much more under the hoody of this street-battle winner. Dear my friends, welcome Ivan Alekseev aka Noize MC. Let’s catch up previous week's thoughts and music.

Of course, there is much about politics. But there is also so much life and love in his texts and music. He started to play guitar and sing while at school, which he completed with the best marks and the Gold Medal. This means he needed to work hard at school, be smart, and know when to say what. I guess, he got so tired of that, so when he got to university, the only logical way to survive for him was to start a band and participate in rap battles in the streets. This was quite successful for him, I need to say. Ivan even made it to compete in one of the top underground battles in Moscow… which he failed because of personal problems. Or maybe he already proved to himself he can do it. I cannot say for sure.

What I value in this man, is that he knows how to feel and express it. Sometimes it is visible and affects his life heavily. Sometimes it forces him and his family to move out of the country to stay alive and free. Whatever it means. These feelings about life are the main engine for creativity and music projects. I have not valued, nor understood any rap or hip-hop projects before Noize MC. These all were just noise to me, but Noize MC is more than just noise… sorry for this ugly quibble.

Most people know him for quite popular silly songs like Из окна (out of the window), or Песня для Радио (Song for a radio). Fun, light, and some humor - all good there. Or this thing - Устрой Destroy. Sarcastic, but also psychologically correct song, returning your responsibility for life. But he also created gorgeous love songs like Вселенная Бесконечна (Universe is infinite) - no matter how many reality variations could be, I will always love the same person no matter where and when. Букет Крапивы (Nettle Bouquet) - again about love. It says that all that you do is for the exact person you love. The person you are trying to find in every crowd, the person you are connected to without a cellphone or internet.

Or imagine what - hip-hop opera! I am not sure if he was able to make some money from it, but overall it is a great idea with filigree implementation. Think about Orpheus and Eurydice in hip-hop style. Orpheus is fighting to win a rap battle in Olympus with such opponents as Spartakus, Prometheus, Narciss… But the real battle is happening inside - can he stay himself or does Lady Fortuna get his heart and separate him from beloved Eurydice? From one point of view, it is a modern reading of classical Greek myth. The main idea is told with modern language and style. But I think the real topic of this opera is how you can deal with fame and success. What’s more important - money and prosperity, or staying with loved ones? How to keep yourself and not get mad in a modern demanding world? How to live and do what you were born for, but not sign the bloody deal with Hades? Think about it - everyone meets this at some point in time.

Oh… my heart started to beat faster now. To wrap up on a positive still reflective note - search for a song На вершине мало места (There is little space at the top) - Ivan invited another MC for this song. It is fun, cool, easygoing, and still making a point.

The text is getting bigger, but I only coming to the most interesting and deep topics - the study of classical and modern poetry. If you remember, Russia came through a lot of crises starting from the end of the XIX century. The revolutionary period and post coming Soviet Union gave birth to lots of poets - Mayakovsky, Brodsky, Mandelstam, and others. Noize MC researches this poetry in his texts and songs. Some of his songs are exact tributes to these poets, containing quotes and reworked pieces of that poetry. Why is that so interesting? It’s world heritage, it’s tribute and respect to the poets, who were perceived as politically acclaimed figures back then. These people probably would want to live a normal life, but they could not change themselves and couldn’t lie to themselves. They preferred to write and read their poetry about what was really happening. Poetry gave a little chance that not-so-smart people would just not notice it. And those who are deep-minded enough would be able to share these feelings. The whole thing was to say something by not saying it directly. Some poets like Brodsky were forced into exile for that. This way, poets of the 20th of the XX century were kind of modern rapers, if we talk about intelligent ones.

Breath out. Let’s calm down shaking hands a bit. I’ve started with my disagreement that Ivan Alekseev is the most politicized paper. But it turned out - there are lots of politics there. Or not? Politic is when you want to achieve something. But how to name a state of mind, when an artist just shares his vision of what’s happening outside? I once heard a saying - social valve. I’m not sure if this is a thing, but it has a very deep volumetric shape in my mind. Social valve to me is an artist, who expresses people’s feelings when they have reached a temperature too hard to maintain anymore. Maybe this term fits a bit better.

Year after year, I keep following this musician and every new creation of him surprises me and helps to separate noize from important things in life. Listen to this piece - Светлая Полоса (Bright Streak). Cool example of deep lyrics, nice music, and great talent. Everything is gonna be alright.

If you open any Heavy Metal Magazine and read articles about different bands and their music, you will inevitably notice, that almost every author considers it his debt to trace music inspiration of one band in songs of another one. They compare music and songs to write solid phrases like - Sir Lord Baltimore (a heavy metal band from the 70s) was heavily influenced by Cream as pioneers in metal music. If you had a chance to ask this question to band members, they would just shake their shoulders and smile. Hard to imagine a metalhead musician sitting in his basement filled with empty beer cans and comparing which music group to take as a reference and source of inspiration. They just created music as they wanted because it was cool and loud. One out of a thousand would make it to success and gather stadiums. The rest just spend a good time with guitars and beers.

At the same time, there is a known path of getting mastership in any area - select a reference and repeat it. If you want to become a visual artist - find an artist whose works you love and try to draw it. In music - find some musicians you like and try to reproduce how they create music. In other words - start a cover band. It is not just my words, some sound producers and beatmakers say it. The next step - alternate it, remix it, or make it in the style you like. This is how Bloodywood started.

Initially, Karan Katiyar, a musician from India, just had fun by making music parodies of popular songs from Bollywood and uploading them to YouTube. In 2016 he met another musician - Jayant Bhadula - and they leveled this up. They set a mission - destroy pop songs! Their recording of a cover of the Linkin Park song Heavy gained some traction and the band started their path to eternity. Interesting, I didn’t find this cover in the modern YouTube. Maybe the legal God of copyright won, maybe something else. That’s a pity, I want to take a look!

Anyway, it’s an Indian Heavy Metal band! They did some parodies to show different sides of songs through new sounds, screaming, and powerful delivery. Soon enough they started to write great music with an unforgetabble taste of Indian ancient history. Traditional instruments and historical motives swung with heavy metal guitars and growling. To me, it is very appealing and makes Indian culture available to a wide audience. I don’t mean they sing songs with scenes of Mahabharata or Kurukshetra. Their texts are quite common - they touch on inequality, man and woman problems, bravery, politics, and cold feet of ones with power. But accompanying native instruments, Indian drums, traditional singing, and with dancing goddess Kali in the video footage - it is leaking with history and tradition. How interesting, these guys hide from their parents what they are doing in the beginning, but to me they are real ambassadors of Indian culture and tradition. It is impossible to hide this ancient energy, spirit of Kali!

If you don’t know who Kali is - she is one of embodiment of Shakti, wife of Shiva. It is very important in the Indian culture. She appears when the inner feeling of injustices overcomes fear. In history of Shiva and Shakti, she transforms to Goddes Kali to destroy all the evel creatures. But she is so furious in it, that cannot stop. She wears a huge necklaces of skulls of her defeated enemies. Indian cinema shows her image very well, as well as Bloodywood video in the bottom of this post. Furious lady with blue skin. Take a look.

What about the music itself? It is fast and heavy. It is bit hectic sometimes, like anything in India. Level of loudness is comparable to average Indian wedding. Music is very solid and has deep foundation. It stands on principles of kindness and truth. I like how they use traditional instruments. They are not dissolved on the background of heavy metal guitar. Instead, music is kinda swinging between fast and furious heavy metal and slowed down native motives with flute, giving way for crazy indian drumming on tabla. When Jayant starts to sing in Hindi traditional Punjabi, it all comes together - indian traditions and metal culture seep into each other and dance together, like Shiva and Shakti, in endless heavy metal dance.

The knowledge about traditions supports us, this is why the Bloodywood album title, Rakshak, means “protector” in Hindi. It reinforces themes of resilience, power, and unwavering guardianship.

It is interesting and exciting to watch how they evolve. I appreciate that they keep Bollywood tradition when it comes to history, even though Bloodywood was designed with a mission to destroy pop songs. If you ever would want to try watching some Indian films, try Mahakali. From one perspective this is a solid Bollywood film with all necessary attributes - long scenes, great tension, long passionate pretentious dialogs and lots of flaws and cheap visual effects. But from the other perspective - if you scratch that Bollywood dust from the surface of the story they trying to tell, it is a great immersive dive into the traditional Indian story about Gods, Shiva, Kali and how they interact.

Same about Bloodywood. They might seem to be full of stereotypical things, but if you peel it a little, beauty of eternal divine culture shows itself brightly and furiously! Like Kali.

Everybody needs a space to whine about stuff.  Some make it a professional action. When you watch documentaries about music, especially heavy metal, people usually tell how music helps them to overcome difficulties of life, feeling of being different. So, if you simplify it - people whine about life. But instead of complaining to their friends, they turn on some music to listen to how a big strong man does the same with guitar and mic, looks awesome and makes quite a cool impression.  This indeed helps! If Ivan Moody from Five Fingers Death Punch can complain about life to the whole stadium, can’t I do that? Five Fingers Death Punch, lady and gentlemen, the most brutal self-reflective American band.

Of course, I’m kidding a little bit. But just a little. Turn on a song Wash it All Away. The music video for this song on YouTube is gorgeous, brutal, and cool! It provides an image of a successful manly man who drives a red Dodge Viper and plays a red electric guitar. Who wouldn’t want it? But the song itself is a prayer for somebody to come and help.  Something might be twisted here. Yeah, Ivan sings about society's problems, a social disease he calls it. Too much pressure and demand for stupid not-needed things. I get it. But why wait for somebody? You are a big boy, you can rule your life.

Anyway, the music is amazing, to be honest. It is powerful and mighty. It fills up the whole space around and lifts you almost physically. 10 years ago I considered it too heavy and didn’t listen except a couple of songs. Now I can handle it very well. Musicians are very professional, they know how to keep a balance between brutal loud distortion and beautiful melodies built into the main theme. They know how to give the vocalist space, but not shut down the music. And they look manly! Not scary, but manfully.

When I heard it for the very first time, I thought - nice project. I didn’t know anything about them, but they seemed to be a crafted project to me. I mean, some groups weren’t born naturally but were found by producers specifically to play certain music and fill a certain niche in the music area. I imagined Five Fingers as one of those because they did music very professionally. How they look and how the play is not combined in my head till today.  It’s like a homeless person who crafts the best-ever restaurant dish. It is possible, but who met it in real life? 

This feeling is not too far away from the truth. The band was formed by Zoltan Bathory from Hungary, former guitarist of another metal band, in Las Vegas. This Hungarian is crazy about Kung Fu martial arts. There was a legend that a master of Kung Fu could defeat an enemy with a single Death Punch. This was a reason for such a weirdly unique name for a band. Zoltan says in an interview - We started in 2005 and I recruited the rest of the members. Unlike other bands, we didn’t know each other before we started the band. I specifically looked for people who could fulfill my musical expectations. To me, this is how a good successful company could be started. There is a positive team dynamic, based on skills and common interests, rather than old-time friendship.

I heard a story about how their vocalist joined them.  He told it in a video. Zoltan was looking for a vocalist and called Ivan after watching him at some music fest. The night before the audition he spent in a bar, got drunk, and ended up in a bar fight. One of his rivals took a razor blade and cut Ivan several times in the face and belly. This way, covered with plasters, he showed up for an audition in the morning. There was an offer, but the band insisted on stopping bar fights.

I started by talking about legitimate whining. But this band is much more than that for sure. I greatly respect their songs dedicated to military people. The band somehow touches the feelings of such people. Especially when they are dismissed from the service without reason to live and with all the ghosts from the past flying around. It is a really hard topic. You can blame military forces for anything, but when it is about the real people who just did their jobs - it's not so simple anymore. Listen Far From Home song. The very first time I almost cried. I believe, lots of nomad people now would find something familiar in it, being far from home.

Who knows what kind of problems these musicians face in real life, who they deal with being celebrities, tough tour schedules, lots of fun, glory and I guess hate and jealousy as well. About a year ago number of concerts were canceled because of the health issues of a vocalist. Some time after that a new song about alcohol addiction was released. Draw your conclusions. At the end of the day, no matter is it whining or not, Five Fingers Death Punch is about self-reflection to me, no matter how ugly it could be.

I bet you know Sting, a famous British musician who wrote Shape of My Heart and Englishman in New York. But did you know he is actually Gordon Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner? Many journalists called him Gordon in interviews, to which he replied usually - My children call me Sting, my mother calls me Sting, who is this Gordon character? I was never called Gordon. You could shout 'Gordon' in the street and I would just move out of your way.

I knew his music since I don't even remember when. It was always popular and recognizable. The same about his voice. Sting once told - God didn't gave me good voice, but recognizable one. His manner, depth, honor, and gentlemanliness are retained in all his songs. To me, he is one of the examples if you talk about quality music. And he deserves that, since he was always obsessed with music, and performed jazz for a living during summer breaks of his college. He knows how to make good music, for sure.

In 2017 I had a work trip to Houston to meet my colleagues. One of them - very good and kind guy from Indonesia - lived in Houston for work while his wife and kids were in Thailand. We worked together and went for lunches and such. At the very beginning of that trip he told me, he's got a ticket to Sting's concert, but cannot go. And he gave me that ticket! Oh my God, I was super happy. Especially because, it was not a stadium concert, not a festival with millions of people too happy from consuming beer. It was a concert hall, specially built for musical performances and theatre. Sting played there with the help of some Mexican band, which I don't really remember. I have a seat in about row 10, on a side. I got there in advance, took a seat, and listened.

If you ask me which songs he performed that night - I wouldn't remember. I was too busy looking at his fingers playing bass. It is incredible. You know all these modern bands thriving to get better instruments, 5-string basses, 6-string basses, 8-string guitars to play better and more interesting music... But they are just kids smoking a first cigarette while hiding behind the shed compared to Sting. He plays so naturally, so easily. I think he can play the whole thing with just one bass guitar. And you will recognize a melody and won't feel it empty and boring. His Fender Precision Bass just feels like a continuation of his body, when Sting stands on stage, touching strings gently, without hurry.

I hope you did notice the jazz section in Englishman in New York. I don't know for sure, but I bet he wrote it right before buying a penthouse in front of Central Park in NYC. Song expresses himself as a Proud British character very well - a noble gentleman, who feels like an alien, but no matter what he would keep being and behaving like a man of honor. The jazz section and overall classical jazz vibes in the song is all about it. Then he steps on the asphalt of New York streets and here is when the drums bridge is played - booms and bangs of drums look like metal barrels rolling on 5th Avenue. But noble man from British Island can survive that and remain himself, so that jazz vibe is closing the song.

But the pure gold to me is Sting's album of folk songs called If on a Winter's Night. He gathered a bunch of Christmas and winter-themed songs mostly written by others, including folk songs, madrigals, and religious hymns from past centuries. He performed and recorded it with orchestra. They even had a great performance held in the old Church. It's very nice to listen during the long and snowy winter. Especially I like a prayer song Soul Cake. It looks like a very simple song, not many notes, nothing special. But it is something like old time hallelujah - cold and broken prayer for being well.

But why Sting, not Gordon? He played jazz on weekends and college breaks with other guys and he had a habit of wearing something recognisable. Quite frequently it was a black jumper with yellow stripes. It made him look like a bee, a wasp as other musicians called him. This wasp has transformed into Sting quite soon.

I don't really know how to start this one, because it is gonna touch tough moments of musical area, which unfortunately are not rare. Many musical groups change members quite often. But some keep playing in the same set of musicians for years. Until something happens. When Chester from Linkin Park died, the band stopped existing for a long time. I wrote another story about it. But they found strengths, regrouped, and started over again under the same name. I respect this, but I don't think this is the way to be. It's simply impossible to keep doing the same stuff after such a loss. It's too hard.

When the leader of Korol i Shut (I also wrote a piece about this Russian punk rock band) died in 2013, the band stopped existing. It was a final. Yeah, they did bunch of concerts in memory of this guy, they even had some legal issues between another band leader (King) and the family of a dead guy (Fool) about who's gonna have the band name as a trademark. But nobody ever said that Korol i Shut band keeps going. Because this is the truth, it's like a body without a soul - it can exist, but without that spark anymore.

Instead, the full set of people who were there started a new band and called it after one song - Northern Fleet (or Severny Flot in Russian). These are people, who worked together for a long time, they overcame lots of difficulties, they grew up together. It was impossible for them to stop being with each other. In lots of interviews, the new band leader (Renegade) told this story hundreds of times, that even though they have the same people, they cannot keep the old name. It doesn't exist anymore.

They turned the page, which is respectful by itself. But the music quality is noticeable as well. It became heavier and more misanthropic compared to the previous band. Instead of scary tales, it is now brutal heavy urban punk. Lots of songs were written in memory of the previous leader. It's not obvious formally, but you can feel it quite easily. I understand it - God knows how much time is needed to overcome that tragedy. Music really shows it - all the grief and sorrow is there, every little drop of it.

From the band that gathered stadiums, they turned into a small squad playing intelligent heavy music in small clubs. Who knows, maybe that's even better. This is the way musicians can explore their feelings and express them honestly, instead of just providing what the crowd wants. I don't have an answer. Time to turn the vision into the inside and process life events. This is how I would characterize the first, second, and third albums of this new band - concentrated focus on inner self.

Maybe they didn't need to start over at all. Who knows. I read in a book of James Hollis - Jungian psychoanalyst from the US - many people write letters to him asking how to become a psychoanalyst. But in fact, 99% of them just want to figure out themselves. Maybe Northern Fleet band members had similar desire - understand who they and how to live on. But even if they did it only in respect and memory of their friend - it already makes sense!

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Dear Readers,

I am happy to share my writings related to music bands. I did that for about a year mostly in a small working space. I am software engineer and music enthusiast. I started adding small notes for each spring in our team on weekly basis just for fun. Eventually it became something else for me and I would like to share it with you.

All the stories are purely based on my musical experience and feelings. I always wondered what moved musician to write this or that song, what happened in life of Chester that he became such sensational Linkin Park vocalist, but could not hold on in the life. How background and surrounding nature influence music. And the main question - why I like exactly this music, but don’t feel anything about almost the same band nearby?

I believe if people like the same music, there might be something similar in their context or childhood. I explore this in my stories trying to find roots… Most probably this is some kind of self-reflection and learning about myself. You know, one famous psychotherapist James Hollis told in his book, that after each new book people write emails to him asking how to become psychotherapist. But in fact, they do want to figure out themselves, look into own traumas. This is what I’m doing in my weekly column.

I might be wrong and I might say something which you won’t like about music you like. Don’t take it too seriously.

I welcome everybody to join, read and share your thoughts.

p.s. all text are written in old fashioned way, no AI used. Images in turn are AI generated.

I cannot imagine a music band, which is more American than 3 Doors Down. Of course, there are number of other cool authentic American rock musicians, this country is very fruitful in this field. How else can it be, if both iconic electric guitars - telecaster and les paul - were created in US and still exist in their original form for 60+ years... Why 3 doors? Because of Kryptonite I think.

This band was formed by 3 people - Brad, Matt, and Todd - in Mississippi around 1994. They became known very soon because of the Kryptonite song. This song blew minds the same way as Superman's story did. I guess, the Superman story is one of the embodiments of the American Dream. The one who look and behaves as very ordinary can save the world. The one who started from the very bottom without anything can become very successful. There is always somebody strong, powerful, and wise around to save you and the whole world. This is something I'm having a hard time understanding, but it is definitely a piece of a cultural context around the Superman movie.

The main song of 3 Doors Down is about Superman, in detail up to the moment when he caught the girl, falling from the skies. The whole sound of it, with an intro in acoustic guitar, a bit brutal and smoked up voice, a lot of energy and desire to sing along, quite expected rhythmic part. The electric guitar sound can be heard in the beginning as increasing tension, something like a trembling air beneath the power lines. It happens when the guitarist stands close to the sounding cabinet and puts the guitar right in front of it. At this moment the amplified sound affects the guitar strings, causing more sound, which again affects the guitar strings. Interference it is called. This tension rises until you start to hear rock riffs and feel a certain relief because of that. And you sing along, simply cannot resist.

But why? It is quite a simple song, to be honest. This is what I've been thinking about the whole weekend while listening to this and other songs of the band. Weirdly, I don't remember many of them. But my Spotify thinks now this is my favorite band. Paradox. Though, I like Away from the Sun song. And Loser song, which reminds me of Radiohead Creep. Here I started to dig in and found an interview with the band's guitarist Chris, who joined 2 years later. Tough childhood, parents divorced. Mom worked 2 jobs and Chris was growing up by himself mostly, which caused some problems for him. We listen about bullying and abuse at schools now and how everyone wants to prevent it. Which is pretty important. But current abuse in schools cannot be compared to what happened to Chris back then. He mentioned horrible stuff, which affected him a lot. Since 13 he lived with his father, but even though lacked life guidance. He was not able to go to college, and since his father was in the army, he was put into navy service for 12 years. This part was not too bad, since he got some real-life skills.

Interestingly, he was always into music and around instruments. His older brother was playing classical music. More precisely, Chris didn't like that music but was fascinated by instruments. So, when he ended up with the navy, having the skill to play guitar, he heard a Kryptonite song. The band just started, they were looking for one more guitarist, and Chris contacted them successfully. I don't know his full story, but I feel this move was the best thing he ever did.

I don't know the story of the other band members, but people are usually united by similar traumas, so I believe they were through similar problems in childhood, which brought this music together when they grew up.

When I listen to it, even Kryptonite, to me it's all about the need for a good parent, who can hear you and guide you. It's all about having family as it should be, and not in the streets. I might be wrong, and there are plenty of other topics in their songs, but I believe the main theme is about the father, both as a human being and as super superpower. Probably, there are other people in US dealing with the same.

Let's finish on a funny note - what does the band name mean? They just started and had a very first tour outside of home town (didn't have a name yet??) and while 3 band founders walked through the city they saw an old signboard, part of which fell. What's left was - doors down. Since they were 3 guys, they thought it might be cool to have 3 Doors Down as a band name. And people will guess the sacred meaning of doors in their lives.

Once upon a time, Dwarf, Elf, Man, and Wizard decided to start a band. Elf wanted to sing classical opera, Wizard wanted to write texts about the honor of ancient warriors, Man wanted to play heavy metal guitar and Dwarf brought his own drums and hammers. They started a band and called it... Blind Guardian!

It's a joke, of course, but with a drop of truth. Blind Guardian is an old band, formed in 1984 in Germany. Initially, they played another kind of music, speedy and heavy. But eventually, they turned their attention to fantasy stories and tales, which became a turning point. In fact, they are considered the founders of Power Metal—the sort of heavy metal music with plots about elves and dragons, wars and warriors, honor and valor.

Specifically, one of their albums is Nightfall in Middle Earth, fully based on J.R.R. Tolkien's book Silmarillion. It is a history tutorial for the Lord of the Rings characters. It tells tales and stories of ancient times, preceding events of the main book. The album is a powerful representation of what rock opera could be. Some songs are literally mini intros or bridges of the whole story when the minstrel tells how he feels on stage between the audience, or when the main antagonist Morgoth says his line.

I was introduced to this music exactly because their Lord of the Rings fleur - my brother brought it to me in times before internet telling - I might love it. I shelved it for a while but later I found it and enjoyed it the most.

The whole energy from this music is the same as from the book and movie about elves, dwarfs, and men - it's all about being worthy. It's about evil which desires only power, about the weak who want that piece of power too, but forget that one who has power doesn't share it. And about small ones, rogue ones who doesn't want to possess the power, but have enough will to handle it. Paradox of our world, isn't it? Who is the true leader - the one who wants it or the one who can handle it?

I cannot remember how many times I actually watched the movie. Probably 6 or 7. And will watch it again several times at least, since it reminds me how to be a human. Sometimes the atmosphere of that world is not fancy, in fact, it is rough and scary. But there is always hope. If a handful of people hiding in a stronghold surrounded by thousands of enemies still has hope so do I. Compared to that, any of my troubles are easily solvable.

This time I'm very happy to watch it with my wife and small daughter together. She became old enough to treat things right and actually understands what happens apart from fights, as well as she's appreciating so much great natural scenery in this film.

What about Blind Guardian and the music? I put it for the New Year's week because it's so hopeful, beautiful, and epic, it brings me the feeling that everything can be handled and is alright. This music reminds me that there is something bigger than me in this world. There is a big endless story, in which I'm participating. What I need to do is just walk along my road and not turn away from it.

What's the nature of human feelings to something or someone? Do we feel love because the person is absolutely the best? Or do we like something because it suits our needs? From what I heard from competent physiologists, it works totally differently. We feel love when the person fits well into our inner issues and traumas. This way we can deal with it. Or simpler, You love some badly done dish not because it's good, but because your mum might have done it this way in childhood. It feels familiar hence good. Same with art.

Almost every week during this year I was writing a small post about some music band. Sometimes it's a band I know really well from a long time ago and there is a personal story about it. Sometimes it was just a band from Finland, since I've been living there and researching the Finnish musical stage. And some days like this week it's just a music I occasionally heard and liked, but didn't quite understand. In such cases, I take the whole week to listen to it while walking or working, check out some interviews and wiki pages about them, to get a better view. Dear my friends, welcome - Korn!

It's so funny actually. Lots of people think that touring is an easy thing for musicians - good cars, beer, wine, fans, shows, beers, girls, fancy hotels, etc. People who know the drill would say - it's a terribly hard exhausting job - changing places, super tight schedule, tension before shows... What Korn says in the interview - is they like touring because of lots of beer :) They probably kidding, but... They are light and easy in a way. Even though, their songs are heavy in emotions and are painfully reflective. They bring that rebellious kid spirit with their art and music.

Korn looks like they took a strong position in the heavy metal stage, event though they claim they are not heavy at all. I would not agree. Some songs sound like there is a ton of really heavy metal chunks being mixed by a gigantic metal spoon in an enormous cup. It's hard for me to describe this sound well, but it usually reminds me feeling of being helpless and hopeless. It's like when you try to say something, but the adults around you don't listen. You either stop trying at all, or you scream and do crazy things to get a drop of attention. Korn is a second case.

If you have not heard about it before, it's a good story of how their logo was born. Usually, music groups want to have the name sound powerful. So that the fans could chant it - Skid Row, Skid Row.... Rammstein, Rammstein, .... In Flames... But not Korn. They wanted a stupid simple word and close that question once and forever. Like Apple. One of the team members said - let it be corn. But corn is not cool! We will make it cool said he and drew a logo using his left hand and creepy childish writing style - this way we have KoRn with backward R now. Of course, their producer said NO. But Band insisted - either this way or no way! I think we all did such a move at least once in our lives before reaching 7-8 years old. What's next? The band put that writing into a copy/printing machine and made a ton of stickers out of it so that they could stick it everywhere in the streets. No explanation, just a creepy written word Korn. In times before developed internet that was a great mystery and people were intrigued by that.

What I found out during this week of Korn songs, I do like their covers. When they covered Pink Floyd - oh my god, this is how it should sound! Real heavy rebellion, we don't need no education. The Korn way of saying that is amazingly good! Or their version of Wicked. I can feel it, shivers all over my body. But their own songs - they are good, you know. Some are extremely good - Twisted Transistor, Freak on a Leash... Really, I like it, but It is hard to listen. It's not fun, it's more like being drowned in someone else's nightmare about suffocation.

At the same time, I do like Linkin Park, which, frankly speaking, is about the same problems - being not like others, being not heard and not understood. The difference is in reactions. If the Korn kid starts to crush and destroy everything around them, the Linkin Park kid shuts his mouth and goes down his corner in misery. The first case might be even healthier, but both are hard to bear.

This leads me to the beginning of this post - why do we like something? Probably, I was not capable of crushing things around when could not get someone's attention as a kid. That's why my inner patterns of traumas are more like linking park fan, not Korn. But It's extremely good that both music groups exist and help people to reflect on their feelings, even though it's a hard thing to do.

p.s. whatever I say here, I say with a great respect to each musicion as an artist and especially as a person. I trully believe that any kind of art makes the world better and exists because someone needs it.