Well, my little spot to put “About Me” is a little to small to post what I really want to say, so I thought I would post a blog about my musical background.
Musically, I would have to say it all started way back around 1980 – 81. I grew up with a brother 4 years older than me and he was a Kiss fanatic. The member specifically in Kiss he was a fanatic about was Peter Criss. Not only was it Kiss, but Led Zeppelin (John Bonham), Black Sabbath (Bill Ward), Rainbow (Whether it be Gary Driscoll, Cozy Powell or Bobby Rondinelli) & Deep Purple (Ian Paice) You can probably see where this is going, my brother wanted to be a drummer and a drummer he did become. Listening to these bands constantly and consistently playing either in the forefront or the back ground solidified the type of music I was to fall in love with. Around 1983 the local Library in my home town of Broadview,Ill. was to become a home away from home because of two things – 1) I discovered the Apple II c computer and 2) all the music they had on tape cassette and vinyl I could rent. The hours I have spent with my childhood friend, Allen, working on the computer learning to program, playing games, writing our own stories and meeting new people who we were able to copy there big old floppy disks to expand our collection was the pinnacle of my youth. While their I discovered bands like Journey, Thin Lizzy, Styx, AC/DC, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Metallica, the list can go on and on.
It wasn’t until 1986 that I purchased my first 2 cassettes – Krokus – Alive & Screamin’ and Megadeth – Peace Sells…. But who’s buying. Holy crap these two bands changed the way I was going to look at music forever! This isn’t to say that I did not own my own music at this time, but this was the first two I purchased on my own. From this point on the flood gates opened and I found bands like Alice Cooper, Pretty Maids, TNT, Cinderella, Warrant, Motley Crue, Dokken, Fire House, Skid Row, Queensryche, Dream Theater, Scorpions, Poison, Y&T, Guns N’ Roses, Danzig, Dangerous Toys, Lizzy Borden, Slayer, Fates Warning, Manowar, ________________ (Insert any and all Glam metal / Hair Metal / Heavy Metal / Thrash band here). I was to find and absorb anything Metal. I was also absorbing the local Chicago metal scene at the time – Radakka, Holland, Defcon, Syndrome, Stonehenge, Enuff Z’ Nuff and hundreds of others. My brother was already a pretty darn good drummer in a band called Wicked Rhyme and played shows at the Thirsty Whale and a little dive called the Corrall constantly so I was exposed to a lot of local bands as well as big name bands who actually came through and played at these venues.
It wasn’t until the early 90’s that my musical ear lead my in a darker and heavier direction. Here I discovered bands like Venom, Bathory, Benediction, Resurrection, Dark Throne, Bolt Thrower, Samael, Cemetery and hundreds of others. These bands with their dark imagery and lyrics fascinated me to no end. You can probably imagine all the various bands ranging from Proggressive Rock/glam metal/hard rock to extreme black/death/brutal metal that I have that could fill the gaps between these generes.
Today, specifically right now in 2008 I’m currently listening to a lot of progressive metal. I have an ear for each and every musical instrument and I marvel at the precision and talent from a lot of these bands. The fore runner of course (and probably the originator of this sub-genere) being Dream Theater. I get a real kick out of reading online reviews for new bands and how people constantly compair these bands to Dream Theater.
I’m just a person who can never get enough music and will always be on the search for new and exciting music and bands.