But some context beforehand, before I start this part of the story. As a young boy, I was wildly in love with Iron Maiden - my utmost cherished possession was a denim vest with a number of Maiden patches. I first came across them via illustrations I saw here and there of Eddie, their mascot, though at the time I didn't know this, nor did the band's name mean that much to me. Man, it was all about those Derek Riggs illos, they were like nothing I'd seen before. Dynamic, mysterious, wicked - I couldn't get enough of it. I eventually came to know that this was actually something that was related to a band, mainly through a couple of people : my future godfather, and this older guy who went to school with my brother. For a few years afterwards, Maiden was everything to me. I bought records and tapes and more patches and t-shirts. But as far as metal went... that was pretty much it. I guess I knew some other bands, I remember seeing pictures of bands in music magazines like Bravo, but for some reason I payed no attention to them. Around '88 or so - and because things are truly cyclical - I went back to the same school where I attended 3rd grade - the school where the Maiden nut and my brother also went to - and though it was sort of like coming home again, I returned on the second term and was pretty much an outsider from the get-go. But what is one of the most amazing things you can use to break the proverbial ice? Music.
My class was mostly girls, mostly into pop music, mostly annoying and screeching, mostly super cute and adorable, and I was probably enamoured with them all. Funny thing, some of them I remembered from my 3rd grade, but now they'd grown. They'd grown, and started to fill out. How dare they? I was still a pudgy, tiny speck of a boy, and these girls were already so far ahead of me! And so, this reluctant teenaged outcast sat by himself for a few weeks until the day I came in sporting a Maiden tee, and I was asked this supremely tricky question - 'You like music?' - and so connections were made, tapes were traded, and if not necessarily directly through them, then through their friends and relatives who were into what I was into, I got to know other bands, stuff like Helloween, Accept, Blind Guardian, Flotsam and Jetsam, Metallica, Megadeth, and more in that vein. As far as I knew it then, this was as extreme as it could get.
Cue Valter, the guy who I used to be close friends with. Now, this was a guy with whom I had a lot in common - books, comics, toys, videogames, music, you name it. The thing is, he always was a notch or so above me. Not only was he older than me, some three years or so, he also had access to a lot of stuff I never even dreamed about. I remember the first time I went to this guy's house, and remember, this would have been 1990 at the latest, and he already had hundreds of records - vinyl and CDs, but above all - his tape collection was a sight to behold. In the coming years, I'd try to emulate that collection for myself, though I'd never quite match it. I said this guy was at least a couple of levels above me. Music-wise? Dozens of levels. The amount of bands I got to know through this guy was staggering. I'd never heard of Napalm Death. Or Death. Or Death Angel. Or Morbid Angel. And how to tell these bands apart? Death Angel played Thrash Metal and Morbid Angel played Death Metal. And Death most likely created Death Metal by themselves. And Napalm Death? the hell was that? A 30-something minute record with over 50 songs in it? Some only a few seconds long? What. in. the. actual. hell. was this?
Needless to say, I devoured it all. Granted, I didn't enjoy very many of those bands, and most of them didn't survive that first listen. I know full well what I like, and if upon first audition I'm not (at least) a little bit impressed, I'll just chuck it.
But bands that survived from those very early days in me - and were quite important - were bands like Paradise Lost, Samael, Tiamat and Sepultura.
Sepultura, in particular, were instrumental in defining my passion for extreme music - though here I'll confess that for me they begin and end with that 'Morbid Visions', 'Schizophrenia' and 'Beneath the Remains' trifecta. 'Arise', released in '91, universally lauded as a classic, has always left me a bit cold. Never managed to quite get into it. Everything that came after that I just skipped for the greater part.
I had a TDK tape, a chromium one at that, whose A side was 'Beneath the Remains' and the B side was the 'At Death's Door' compilation, which featured the likes of Deicide, Morgoth, Pestilence, Death, Obituary and others, that I played countless times. 'Mass Hypnosis' was decidedly my favourite, and when I eventually got the 'Under Siege' VHS I absolutely loved the live version, with Max naming the song 'Mass Hippie-Gnosis' on account of his accent.
One day I looked at my bookshelf (singular at the time) and decided I didn't want them tapes anymore. So what did I do? To my kind of but not really eternal regret, everything was binned. Including that very same unopened, crazy pricey tape.
**SIGH**
Possessions are futile...
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