Head Blown Off, Face Down :)

I was thinking back on my "rainy day" blog and when I talked about how music has so many great interchangeable mood enhancing properties. Music can be there for a sad rainy day and a cup of tea just like it can be for a sunny day offering heavier pump-up tunes to get you through a self-hatred-esque workout followed by supplying the will for a bone-chilling-freezing-cold shower.

I've been rereading the book "Heavy, How Metal Changes The Way We See Things" by Dan Franklin, so that was also half of the inspiration for this. Especially when he mentions Soundgarden's and Thou's take on Black Sabbath's "Into The Void". He describes Thou's version as sounding "like a jet engine cratering out of the bowels of hell", and I thought that was a great depiction. While I prefer Soundgarden's version featuring a lyric replacement speech from Chief Sealth or "Seattle" as one of my favourite pump-up tunes in my gym playlist that's also riddled with Sabbath originals. Listening to that again made me think of the songs that cause me the most frequent blood pumping supercharges. These songs aren't always the heaviest I know and that's talked about a bit more in the book from Franklin, because songs can be heavy in their own ways by how they make you feel, not always by the sludgiest guitar riff and deadliest scream imaginable. Bands like Alice In Chains offer such a heavier sense with lyrics and portrayal than some "heavy" bands do. I think of "Nutshell". "Bad Religion" by Godsmack gets me so amped to lift things up and put them down every time, yet it seems so simple in comparison to other tunes. "Turn It Out" by Death From Above 1979 has a similar effect all thanks to that episode of Shoresy. Much like how "Expendable Youth" by Slayer can nearly cause me a neck contusion and my foot to be permanently stuck in a crater in the ground by the opening riff alone. "Threshold" by Slayer does a pretty good job too. "Lucifer's Rocking Chair" from Cancer Bats is sure to help crush your PB or enemies. "Learn To Live" by Bad Wolves, "John The Fisherman" From Primus, "Waiting Room" by Fugazi, and "Y'all Want A Single" by Korn are all so different yet offer me the exact needs to get the bones shaking in their own unique ways. "Prison Sex" by Tool leaves you with such an intoxicating feeling that makes you want to dance groovily yet thoroughly beat shit up. It's so amazing and captivating that music has the prerequisites to do such things to you. It can be used as a therapeutic tool (no pun intended) to encompass your current mood, bring amongst nostalgia from the right time or offer up just what you need to mend a gloomy day.

I'll talk about all these heavy songs and go listen to some Simon and Garfunkel later.