Bangladeafy’s Jon Ehlers Finds Solace in Metal Despite His Hearing Disability
(Editor’s note: Here at MetalSucks, we pride ourselves in wanting to give artists a platform to share their experiences as artists and as human beings. As such, here’s Bangladeafy’s Jon Ehlers describing his very personal experience with his hearing disability and how it plays into his musicianship.)
As a hearing disabled child, I knew that metal was something special upon hearing palm muted guitars for the first time in an early 90’s beer commercial. This ended up being what I believe to be “Enter Sandman” played over a Coors Light-sponsored Metallica concert advertisement. Before that, music was mostly a static thing to me. It was something I was not biologically designed to take any interest in as my impairment did not allow it. I can’t pinpoint what it is about the sound of a palm muted guitar, but perhaps it’s the sharp spike and quick decay in the bass frequency that enticed my weak ears. Shortly after, I moved to headphones and continued to favor the chunkiness of palm muting as i’d wait for K-ROCK to deliver a beefy single amidst boring power chord ether.
We all know that children can be mean, and my experience wasn’t any different as a kid with hearing aids. Attending a sports-centric school on Long Island meant conforming to a macho attitude or else you’d get dragged around. With a metal fandom, I was able to find a group where I finally fit in without fear or judgement, despite being a less-than-athletic kid with hearing aids. Were it not for this gateway into friendship and culture, I think I’d have found myself down a very different and perhaps bad path.
Then came the 808 in metal. Once Fear Factory, Meshuggah, and Strapping Young Lad started surfacing on metal compilations and soundtracks, metal gripped me completely. As a hearing disabled adult, I’m only listening to metal regularly on headphones. Those who take the time to spread out the frequencies stand out far more than those who just dial in a loud master.
Some modern metal band releases that really stand out to me today are from Oranssi Pazuzu and Genghis Tron.
During the pandemic, Oranssi Pazuzu, from Finland, put out an album called Mestarin kynsi. I remember describing it to people as “Marilyn Manson for grown-ups”, which made sense to me at the time but obviously caused a few people to challenge me. I can defend this comparison because much like early Manson albums (Antichrist Superstar, Portrait of an American Family), Mestarin kynsi offers textural depth that is creepy and satisfying, but without the goofiness of Manson’s persona. The vocals are somewhat traditional in terms of black metal – raspy and almost character-like. It lends itself well over a band of multi-instrumentalists who do not step on each other’s toes. There’s no one musician trying to outplay the others, which I can appreciate. I suppose a better description is Pink Floyd if they were a black metal band. I heavily recommend listening to this album on headphones.
Genghis Tron made a brief and seemingly successful comeback in 2021 with Dream Weapon. It’s a mature departure from their earlier sound of post-hardcore screaming meets techno, but will still please the older fan. In headphones, the synths gurgle in perfect form as they are supported by live drumming, my idea of a perfect pairing. In fact, the drum production on this album is something to be studied. The guitars are percussive in nature making this very much a beat-driven record, provoking approving stink-faces. Higher register synth textures appear in unexpected ways that makes my arm hair stand on end, essentially becoming lightning rods. Again, mandatory headphone listening.
