Guest Post

Support Is Everything A Young Scene Needs To Grow

8 years ago Admin

Did you know that genres gain rep by the numbers they pull? No? You didn’t!?

Did you also know that you’re the reason people don’t take your music seriously? Worse yet, you’re the reason you won’t see your favorite band play live, ever!

A metal scene is an important building block of metal as a genre. It is here that most metal musicians are brought forth for the bands of the future. Indeed, even your favorite guys began playing in a basement, then proceeding onward to an endless string of little clubs before they ended up becoming popular. They also needed support from their scene then.

They needed honest-to-goodness, dedicated metalheads that come to every shitty show, bought mixtapes recorded in garages and made a lot of noise about it too. And it is that help that got them to where they are, your favorite band.

Most of our bands are not privileged to make high-quality music and it’s so unfair using that as an excuse to ignore what they are trying to do. If you want to listen to them with the high-quality sound you must take steps to support them and hope they will evolve since that’s what they need, help. Not condescending comments when you compare them to the guys who make millions a night.

This might not be a popular opinion, but I am very passionate about it. If you have listened to tonnes of metal bands, I am talking about gigabytes of core, black, death, sympho all that shit; but you haven’t seen any live band on stage, you my friend are a poser, and I can prove it mathematically.

It’s called live music son, implying it is meant to be played while you watch it live being played, get it? No? Why would you? You’ve never seen a real set. Why should you bother with your scene if you’ll ultimately gun for international acts? If this argument sounds somewhat silly to you, then you likely don’t have a decent understanding of what it truly means to be part of a community. Since that is what the scene is: a community.

There are clear advantages to being part of any community. One is its resource for a wide range of help. When something turns out badly –even something in your own life – your metal amigos are there for support. There’s help even in just knowing you have guys you can depend on. Generally, a sense of belonging is easy to get with your fellow freaks at the moshpit or while smoking a joint in the dark corners.

When our community becomes sustainable we will surely have the time of our lives. Bands we never thought would play here ever, they’ll come. And not forgetting we have among the most vibrant metal scenes in Africa in terms of the number of bands though lol not turn out at shows. We could be the “metal central” of the most brutal continent, Africa \,,/

Overthrust from Botswana played Wacken and toured Europe because they have a dedicated scene of metalheads back home.

When it’s all said and done, what have you done for your scene as a real metalhead, or are you just a poser.
It’s a scene that needs to be nursed for it to be legit.

Written by:
Lawrence Muchemi