Death Metal Review

For the last couple of weekends, Leland has been playing a lot of shows with his death metal band, Throne of the Wretched. When he started this band, I told him that I would probably not be going to a lot of his shows. Not because I don’t want to be supportive, but because I do not like death metal music.

I went to his first show, well, because it was their first and a lot of our friends were going to be there…so I basically went to hang out with my friends, not to support my husband.

Last weekend Leland played two shows. Again, I wasn’t planning on going, but the singer quit so Leland had to step up and do the vocals. If you didn’t know this by now, Leland is a bit of an egomaniac, so I just HAD to go to the shows and see him as a front man. He did an awesome job, but my intentions aren’t to stroke his ego.

The death metal scene is unlike anything else I have ever seen. At both shows this past weekend, I was one of maybe three women at the venue. I am assuming the other women were also wives or girlfriends of members of the other bands that were playing. The members in all four bands pretty much looked the same. They were all wearing some sort of death metal t-shirt, several of them were promoting Satan with sayings such as Who needs a God when we have Satan? Leland was wearing a t-shirt from a band called Carcass, and other guys were wearing t-shirts from bands called Cannibal Corpse, Maggot Twat, and Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza. Death metal is high class, isn't it?

All of the guys there must have been trying to look metal because they all seemed to wear the same scowl and looked as though they were just waiting for the chance to eat someone alive. If I had encountered any of these guys on a dark street, I would definitely be reaching for my mace and brass knuckles. But I wasn’t on a dark street, so what did I do?

I talked to the scary guys.

As it turns out, they weren’t scary people and didn’t want to eat my face off. Some were soft-spoken and shy, some were friendly and outgoing, some just wanted to talk music. None of them were scary and no one tried to get me involved in any weird Satan worshipping rituals. They were just interested in playing heavy music and supporting the death metal scene.

I found the whole night to be sort of funny. For some reason I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw Leland playing and singing…well, death metal singers don’t really sing, they growl. Leland’s fingers were moving faster than I had ever seen before, and though the music is as far from mainstream as music can possibly get, their musicianship was more technical than I have ever seen. No, I still don’t like the music, but watching the members of all four bands play really made me appreciate death metal.

But not enough to enjoy it when Leland BLASTS the music in the house and in the car.