Tending the Fires of Hell

So, today, my cousin came downstairs wearing my black armwarmers. The ones with the spikes and chains, that I loved so much when I bought them. I don't wear them so much, anymore, but still love them. No way can he keep them, but he can have them until I finish crocheting his fingerless gloves.

Now, I didn't start wearing armwarmers, until I was about eighteen or so. And I only have two pairs, one of which is MIA, somewhere in my house. I love wearing them, though, especially in winter, when it's cold, and my hands and arms become corpse cold, unless I do. But this isn't about my love of armwarmers. This is about what it meant, that my cousin was wearing them.

My cousin is nine, this year. He's a good kid, and he's currently staying with us, because of family problems. I've watched him with music, and he loves pop, rap and - hold on, are they still calling it hip-hop, like they were, when I was younger? I don't know, anymore, what they're calling it. If I ask him, later, he, like all children, will look at me like I'm a drooling idiot.

But he's been showing more and more disinterest in these genres, from what I've seen. Which means, not only is he growing up, but that he's looking for something new. That's a great thing. That means cousin DG gets to pass on the torch and introduce her cousin Boog (I always call him that, because he's a little booger.), to metal.

Now, how to go about it? I mean, my favorite band is Cradle of Filth. Not only are they far, far from appropriate for a nine-year-old boy, but the rest of my family would murder me, if I even let him have a listen. Especially his older brother, my half-cousin, who just about wet his pants, when he found out I liked them. The guy's scared to death of them, the big baby.

No, I had to go through my collection, and find clean tracks. A few Nightwish tracks, and some other miscellaneous stuff. Not much at all. But that's just what's on my MSI Wind netbook. I have yet to copy the Ozzy stuff I have onto my old, busted laptop, and move it to the Wind. But when I do, I know there's some clean stuff in there. It'll definitely give him more to listen to. Hell, even my mother likes Ozzy. And coming from her, that's a lot. She hates Cradle, though she was very kind, and bought me a copy of one of their albums for... I think it was my twenty-third birthday? In fact, most of my family hates most of the metal I listen to. But there are a few that like it. And I'm hoping Boog will get to be one of them.

See, one of the things people, especially the groups that really hate metal fail to realize is that it's not all as extreme as Cradle. And there are a lot of different sub-genres. It's not all just "metal". I learned that, when my best friend started introducing me to it. It started with Ozzy, after I heard him on the radio, early one morning, on the local rock station. I hadn't yet heard him, even though my friend had been pushing. He'd also been pushing me to check out Cradle. After getting into Ozzy's music, I dove in, though most of what I listen to is still Ozzy, Cradle, and Nightwish. I'm picky, what can I say?

But yes, for those just getting into it, or wanting to introduce it to someone young, like my cousin, clean metal does exist. You just have to do a little bit of digging for it. Whole albums will only very rarely (if ever) be clean, and sometimes it'll just be maybe one or two tracks, if the album has any clean ones at all. But, you know what? That's okay. Save the rest of the stuff for later. For when you're ready, or when the kid is mature enough to handle it. After all, not everybody can just dive right in, like I did.

And another thing: If or when you're introducing a kid, like I am, don't force it. Not every kid will like metal. And if Boog doesn't like it, that's cool. I'll pull it off his MP3 player and be done with it. He might change his mind, someday, or he might never like it. Still cool. I'll try things like country, folk, and even opera, to help him find out what he does enjoy.

Who knows? He might be like me, and like a little bit of everything. I know that's how I am, now that I'm not quite so obsessed with showtunes. Maybe he'll outgrow that obsession with hip-hop (Are they still calling it that? God, I'm old!), and end up loving traditional African music. I just don't know.

But I know one thing. I'm getting older, now. I'm twenty-five. I have no kids, and I'm not yet sure whether or not I ever will. Boog is the closest thing I have, right now, to a kid of my own to teach and help mold into a good, well-rounded guy. And introducing him to different forms of music, especially metal, will help him be more open-minded toward them. I want the kid to learn there's good and bad in everything. If he learns that's true of music, there's a good chance he'll grow up knowing the same thing is true of people.

Still... There's a lot of people who tell me that I'm going to go to Hell, for loving metal, and introducing a kid to it. I like to laugh in their faces. See, I'm not Christian. I haven't been, for years. I'm not of any particular religion, but I lean toward the Earth-based stuff. And I tend minor wounds, etc, with medicinal plants. Folks think I'm a witch. If they want to think that, then fine.

But you know what? If I end up in hell, I'll at least have lived my life as happily as I was able to. If I'm evil for just being myself, maybe I deserve to be there. And I'll happily stand next to Satan himself, and help tend the fires.

ETA:

My best friend, after reading this, pointed out that clean metal is not hard to find. My experience, however, comes from mostly shopping for music in local thrift stores and a few secondhand stores. The thrift stores are Christian-based, and most of them will throw it away. And it never lasts long enough for me to get ahold of it, in the secondhand stores. So, for me, metal itself is hard to get ahold of. Which is partly why I have such narrow tastes.