JUMPING DARKNESS PARADE: DAATH’S EYAL LEVI ON LISTENING TO NON-METAL MUSIC
We all love metal. That goes without saying. That’s why we all read this site and keep up with what our favorite, and not so favorite, bands are doing. From people in bands to fans, we all pretty much live, breathe, sleep, and bleed metal.
So I guess what I’m wondering is: does it ever get old to any of you?
Do you ever listen to anything else? I can tell you that after playing shows every single night, listening to sound checks from other bands, having a bunch of other bands playing, writing albums, having constant band practice, and recording albums which take months to complete, that sometimes I need something else to listen to.
It’s funny to me when I meet people out in the world who just don’t get that. What I don’t get is how you can listen to a genre that is maxing everything out at all times. It’s almost like you need the variety so that your brain can start to register the differences, or dynamics.
Granted there’s a million genres and sub-genres of metal and a hell of a lot of different approaches to it, but still, at the end of the day, do you guys ever need a break from the machine gun and rocket attack that metal music is? Do you need anything besides metal to chill to? I know I do.
Sometimes late at night when we’re driving after a gig, nothing is better than Dark Funeral or some brutal death metal to get you through the perilous night. Also, we make a point of keeping up with the times and knowing what all these new bands out there sound like. We even listen to the classics a good bit. Rust in Peace has a good place in our van along with Job For A Cowboy, Dark Funeral, Slayer, Opeth, etc. We know our metal and we listen to it.
But there comes a point where enough is enough, and that double bass just feels like knives in my ears and hammers on my brain, and I just need something that’s not so extreme. So I turn to bands like Queens of the Stone Age and Muse and the newer Silverchair. I was just introduced to another great band called Deerhunter. These are artists that put just as much into their craft as any of the great metal bands we listen to. Their emotions are just as real. Their skills are just as refined. It’s just in another genre, but to me that makes it no less real. It’s just different.
Imagine this. You go to the same restaurant every single day for lunch for fifteen years. You have ordered every single item on the menu about sixty times. Do you just keep going back for more or do you seek out new things? What if their new menu additions are just old dishes with new condiments? Would that drive you nuts? Would you keep going always every day religiously or would you seek out new dishes just to not go crazy? Just wondering.
-EL
When you are in the mood for some awesome metal, visit Daath on MySpace.
