death thrash metal alert
Dear Agony Blogers...I'm concerned. In fact I'm deeply disturbed about my 14 year old son and his suddden love of Thrash Death Metal. As a toddler he liked Will Smith....No problem, I can see where that leads and its all good. Later he discovered Greenday, thats fine, I bought him a Ramones box set and smiled like a crazy wise man...He moved on to My Chemical Romance...all good...melodic, tuneful..we even saw the black parade tour, it was enjoyable..however his next step has me anxious beyond belief...he listens to growling shouting men above buzzsaw guitars...He wants to go and see "In Flames"( V bad, just check thier My space page if you dare) at the astoria in October. This would be fine if they didn't have a under sixteens must be accompanied by an adult.
I really dont know what to do....im at the end of my tether...do i let him dabble or do i steer him back to indie pop!
I need guidance.
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Prog metal could just be the half-way house you're looking for..
...loads of RAWK but with intelligent tunes too/vocals that you can actually understand!!
Can you suggest you steer him in the direction of a band some friends of mine are in - Threshold. Labelmates of "In Flames" on Nuclear Blast. You can impress your sprog with the facts that Dan Swanö of the delightfully named "Bloodbath" and "Edge of Sanity" guested on two tracks on their last album and that members of the band have produced Dragon Force and Power Quest...
Check them out on http://www.thresh.net/ and http://www.myspace.com/threshold
Their latest album is called "Dead Reckoning" and a jolly good listen on the whole - as was their previous, "Subsurface". THey're headlining one of the nights of the Summer's End Festival in September.
Get the sprog into prog metal and it's only a short hop to nu-prog like Magenta, Mostly Autumn, Karnataka and Panic Room and thence back to the classic rock mainstream!
Alternatively. . .
You could just say, "No, you're not going and I'm not going to subject myself to that bloody racket just so that when you go to university you can throw all their records away and replace them with those of some Croatian singer songwriter in urgent need of hair conditioner. And that, sonny, is final."
Isn't that what dads are for?
Even better...
...you could pretend to love it, buy a couple of Children of Bodum t-shirts*, say how you're really looking forward to it and can't wait to be down the front with him and his mates headbanging in the mosh-pit, climbing onto the stage and then crowd-surfing to the back of the room.
Demonstrating your air-guitar talents to him at that point and suggesting that you take him to a couple of other Death Metal bands too amy help at this point. Casually throw in references to Arch Enemy, Bleed the Sky, All Shall Perish, Decapitated, Decrepit Birth, Defecation - my personal favourite name there, Gorefest, Knorkrator, One Man Army and the Dead Quartet, Pungent Stench, S.O.D., Statovarius, Success Will Write Apocalypse Across The Sky, Tapping the Vein, and the ACCÜSED (bonus points for unnecessary use of an umlaut). [p.s. - ALL REALL band names!!]
The thought of dad rocking along in front of his chums and embarrassing him may just jump start that appreciation for that lank haired Croatian nose flute player!
* By the way - if you're going to start a (adopts Devil horns pose...) METAL band, why name it after a cafetiere?
Hmmmmm...
...can I feel a "Death Metal Band Names" thread coming on?
just what I was going to say
Trevor speaks the truth.
the fact that you disapprove of his music probably makes it all the more alluring. he's a teenager, that's what they're supposed to do. the quickest way to kill his passion for death metal is to embrace it yourself... (you get to reclaim cool dad status when your son is safely into his 20s)
Let Him Go...
...on the condition his mum takes him along. It'll be a nice bonding session for them both.
He's 14, fer chrissake....
Rule 1: you are no more entitled to like his music than he yours.
Rule 2: Archie, is on the button. He will grow out of it (altho' one suspects a sneaking regard will remain, to be guiltily confessed on this very site in 2038)
Rule 3: Draw the line at tattoos and piercings for now.
Rule 4: Say you will go with him: if that doesn't put him off ("have you seen Tylers dad, dudes*!!!?), you may find it strangely formative. Then he can give you the CDs when he has moved on to Vlad Czyzphrnc and the Split Ends (geddit!). A mate of mine, short, bald, melodeon player, took his 2 teenage daughters to Donington Monsters of Rock some years back. He loved it.
*or whatever young folks say.
Yes, but as a Dad with a 14 year old...
...he's honour bound to complain about it and recite the immortal phrases... "It's all just bang bang bang on a drum" "But you can't hear the words" "What on earth is HE wearing?" "Is that a boy or a girl?"
Sorry to be a pedant
But Thrash Metal and Death Metal are two seperate and distinct genres.Thrash metal is typified by Metallica, Slayer and Septultura whilst death metal is a little more difficult to listen to and is played by bands like Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse. A lot of thrash metal is pretty skillful, melodic and interesting while death metal is more about being as shocking as possible.
Personally I'd much rather my sprogs were listening to something a bit extreme than anything as safe as Coldplay, Snow Patrol et al. And surely listening to music your parents hate is all part of the excitement of growing up.
Can’t work out whether you’re genuinely concerned
or just having a “don’t kids listen to some godawful music” laugh. Both perfectly understandable. What with all the tabloid hysteria about emo (“the suicide cult”) and gangsta rap, I know quite a few parents who do worry quite a bit about the sort of things their kids are listening to and what effect it may be having on them. Fortunately, our little ray of sunshine is more of the TopShop/Primark/Amy’Lily’n’Kate Nash/Big Brother’n’Hollyoaks persuasion. Her idea of self-harm is having to remove her nail varnish on a Sunday night because they come down like a ton of bricks on that sort of thing at school. (You know what Catholic girls schools are like: at my sisters’ one the nuns wouldn’t let them wear patent shoes because they reckoned they doubled as mirrors so boys could look up your skirt.)
We went to Amsterdam last weekend and visited the Ann Frank house/museum. At the end there’s a video of an interview with her dad, Otto Frank. Unlike his wife and daughters, he survived Auschwitz and after the war was intrumental in getting his daughter’s diary published. What he said was interesting though: when he found the diary he was shocked by it. Although he had a good relationship with his daughter, he had no idea of half the stuff that was running round her head. His conclusion was that we never really fully know our children. And that it’s probably best that way.
Kids will go their own way and the best you can do is pack them off with a decent map and a pack of sarnies. Having said that, retro’s right about the tattoos and piercings. Draw the line as and when you still can. One of my daughter’s mates was round the other day and told me that she wanted to be a vegetarian but her mum and dad wouldn’t let her. Haven’t laughed so much in months.
Not making light of it, Richard
In my case the joshing was motivated by pure fear. In ten years' time I'm scheduled to be the dad of two 14-year-olds.
Two four year olds, eh
Two words of advice: piano lessons. I can think of few more worthwhile attributes to meander through life with than the ability to tootle about a bit on the piano. And it’s best to start early. Wish we had with ours. Unfortunately for all concerned she took a shine to the violin. I shudder at the memory.
Only one 20th-century family was not destroyed. . .
by the experience of having a violin-wielding child.
Here's Mr & Mrs Perlman's lad:
The latter
rather than the former. I just dont fancy going to an in flames gig.Im very happy for him to be "into" something, as ABBA once said..thank you for the music.
I thought the whole emo scare was very funny. I first heard about My Chemical Romance through a article in the sunday times which highlighted the cultish elements of their follwing. However they were just a good time rock band with a theatrical bent. By the by." I'm not OK" is a stunning song.
anyway thanks for your help!
I have a 14 year old son
who plays keyboards and jazz saxophone.
As far as listening to music goes....he doesn't!!
His school music teacher told him to go home and listen to some music whilst watching the wallpaper. He chose from my stuff SRVs "Pride And Joy" and Skynyrds "Freebird".
The reason for this choice - Guitar Hero and Rockband.
Video Games
will be the ruin of the younger generation.