heavy metal, extreme styles

[abstract]

hey guys, i'm a big fan of metal and i was curious if anyone on this forum has had any kind of experience with music (any kind) that was essential to assisting them in increasing their awareness. if i had never picked up a guitar six years ago, i would never have met my buddy, r***, would never have seen zeitgeist and would flat out not BE HERE at all. i guess i could say that music played an extremely significant role in my life, even if it was merely a bridge in my life that caused me to connect with a lot of different people. (fyi i am not a zeitgeist junkie or anything but to be serious, it was very essential experience for me specifically)

 

[Johnno]

hey guys, i'm a big fan of metal and i was curious if anyone on this forum has had any kind of experience with music (any kind) that was essential to assisting them in increasing their awareness. if i had never picked up a guitar six years ago, i would never have met my buddy, r***, would never have seen zeitgeist and would flat out not BE HERE at all. i guess i could say that music played an extremely significant role in my life, even if it was merely a bridge in my life that caused me to connect with a lot of different people. (fyi i am not a zeitgeist junkie or anything but to be serious, it was very essential experience for me specifically)

Try something on the subtler, quieter side, try not to get "bored". Brian Eno and Moby's quieter stuff I find useful. Not sure if it increases awareness but it has a sense of settling the centres, for myself at least.

Gurdjieff's music is good too, his harmonium pieces sound like they are drifting on the wind.

 

[Galaxia2002]

This kind of music give me headache and I can´t stand much time listening it. I wonder if that is only question of personal tastes or it have to do with the "frequency" of the person.

 

[eliansito]

Trance music parties with [removed by moderator - please read forum guidelines] in amazing natural open air settings with non existent lights or decorative contamination have helped me on instances, yet you have to choose carefully (substances, setting and company ie size of the crowd)

A trance song is 7-10 minutes and if it is good, it will tell a story, or take you on a trip. your mind will filter its way to subtler and subtler sounds within the song as you concentrate and synesthesia and other phenomena can take place too. With or without the aid of drugs.

I have realized many insights and been able to grasp peoples and my own intentions/fears/masks in those periods of concentration by sheer observation.

That has been my experience.

R

 

[Tigersoap]

Trance music parties with hallucinogen mushrooms in amazing natural open air settings with non existent lights or decorative contamination have helped me on instances, yet you have to choose carefully (substances, setting and company ie size of the crowd)

Hello Eliansito,

The forum rules proscribe any reference to your illegal pastime habits.

Welcome on the forum ;)

 

[Helle]

I'm a fan of metal too, oldschool metal that is :)

I think different music resonates with different people.

I prefer quieter music for meditation though, I'm especially fond of harpe-music, and i hope the Chateaux crew will make more meditation music to come.

 

[RedFox]

Hi abstract

Well, I don't really know enough to know if music could be essential in increasing awareness. My current understanding is that as long as you try to stay objective and awake (observant) anything that happens can increase your awareness.
My understanding beyond this is that everything we accept into ourselves (or resonate with) has an impact on us.....I am a big fan of a rock/techno group called The Prodigy....I got there new album (they hadn't released one for a few years) a couple of months back. It was great (brough back a lot of old memories) but actually quite penorised I realised....it may even have had some programming in....I realised also it was making my moods kinda bad (I was listening to it whilst driving and became quite hostile towards other drivers....not good).
Well a week or so of listening to it I became sick with a cold of some sort.....almost like I'd eaten something really bad for me and my immune system had gone nuts. My current working hypothesis is that resonating with a potentially pathological mass produced (i.e. probably designs that way) album may have caused me to get ill.....this is when I started questioning what impressions I allow into my life.

Don't get me wrong....I know exactly what you mean as music has had a large (and hopefully positive impact) on my life....listening to really angry (i.e. limp biscuit) or really sad pieces of music helped me get my feelings back whilst recovering from depression. I went through a period of using angry music to get out my anger, and sad music to cry away my dispair too.
Music can really get the emotional centre moving.

So back to your original question, I don't think music is essential to increasing awareness.....but like everything else in this existence it can help or hinder depending on your level of knowledge and understanding. Also like art music can be used to convey things (to both the intellectual and emotional centres).....just being aware of what it may be conveying to you (are you observing or just letting it in unchecked?) can serve to increase your awareness, as it does in any situation osit.
:)

Having said that, I tend towards the more lighter rock now (when it comes to rock music, my taste in music is very varied). I bought the new Muse album a few days ago and can say its fantastic!!! I highly recommend it :)

 

[OzRich]

Hi abstract,
I grew up on heavy metal and hard rock (Led Zep, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Zappa ect.) and was fan for a long time until early nineties. Living in Sydney in the eighties I wouldn't miss any major concert. Hey, I even saw first Metallica show in AU with Cliff Burton .

I guess today metal is bit different from yesterday. It's more independent (my guess) and more free with putting the message across - but I may be wrong. Check Inside the Laurel Canyon... and Session 13 September 2009. Dave McGowan pieced together some clues on how hippie music (not just heavy metal) originated, and in September session there is talk about how some music and voice can impact us:

Q: (Joe) I've got a great name for your album: Laura Canyon! (laughter) (L) I think I'll pass on that one. Unless you want to put an echo in so it sounds like I'm singing across the canyon. (PL) So, those bands in Laurel Canyon, those singers like the Mamas and the Papas, those bands that were obviously sponsored, because, through their music, they could put a kind of spell on some listeners, manipulate them, generate some negative emotions...?

A: "Spellbinders."

I'm sure it is ongoing situation with mainstream, sponsored type of music.

I agree with Johnno - I'm not sure if music increases awareness - I think only learning/knowledge can do that.

Try something on the subtler, quieter side, try not to get "bored". Brian Eno and Moby's quieter stuff I find useful. Not sure if it increases awareness but it has a sense of settling the centres, for myself at least.

Gurdjieff's music is good too, his harmonium pieces sound like they are drifting on the wind.

In another thread I described how voice and music of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan has affected me emotionally. Few years ago I gave away almost all my metal/rock cd's - about thousand of them.

Today I listen more to classical, Arvo Part, Gorecki, Garbarek,NFAK and love Gurdjieff/Hartman piano - it's calming to me and "has a sense of settling the centres". Occasionally I'll play Tool.

 

[abstract]

Ozrich, I frickin' love tool! I'm one of those people who "sees" or "feels" colors and different things when I listen to music, tool is definately a favorite. When i listen to tool i usually feel like i'm sensing (use that term loosely) mainly blues or greens, sometimes purple, but never red, yellow or orange. the weird thing about the colors for me is, sometimes i feel like it's colors, and sometimes i feel like in a song i'm sensing sunshine or rainclouds, fog, television static, fire, fresh air, but mostly the colors come up for me. it's not that i actually see colors at all, i just kinda pick up on a vibe. I hate pop music because the color pink comes to mind for some reason, and i despise pink (no offense to you pink-loving people)

Tool is one of those bands that never followed a formula, i think that's why i like them so much.

 

[OzRich]

Two of my favourite ones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw3FTiWRXF8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihAlIDaaxso

cheers

 

[John G]

Bluelamp is actually a song from the Heavy Metal soundtrack though it's not heavy metal. Black Sabbath is on the soundtrack. A music forum hosted by Lisa Robinson was my first online forum and music has certainly added some etherial stuff for me. I read the same Welsh mythology books that Nicks did.

 

[shijing]

Tool is one of those bands that never followed a formula, i think that's why i like them so much.

Tool is pretty unique in that they have a very good blend of songwriting (including some really great alternate time signatures, which I'm a big fan of), performance, and touching on themes that are actually somewhat germane to many of the subjects we discuss here. I think they really need to be listened to with some discernment, since Maynard James Keenan seems to have the equivalent understanding of someone who might be a Newbie here -- lots of interest in the occult and paranormal but not yet highly discriminating (there is another thread in this category that says his inspiration for '46 and 2' was based on info from Drunvalo Melchizadek for example). That being said, Tool (and also one of Keenan's other projects, A Perfect Circle -- I love their third 'anti-war' album with the remake of Lennon's 'Imagine') is pretty inspirational depending on track and context.

 

[Turgon]

hey guys, i'm a big fan of metal and i was curious if anyone on this forum has had any kind of experience with music (any kind) that was essential to assisting them in increasing their awareness.

I would have to say two bands that played a huge role in my development growing up would be:

1. Pink Floyd
2. Rage Against the Machine

Rage Against the Machine, their lyrics, their style of playing fueled the rebellious fire in me. I've always loved their message, and really the anti-establishment attitude they had. All of them are university-educated, smart guys but they see injustice and a lot of things in the world they just ain't right, and they write about it in the music, and express it fully. There is a lot of anger in the music, but it has an aim and purpose to it, not just randomness.

Also Pink Floyd! If there is one band who I owe so much too, its Floyd. Same like Rage, all College/University educated, they never really lived that illusory, self-destructive lifestyle of what a rock 'n' roller is supposed to be. Back in my late teens when I started to discover all about shadow governments, and what was really going on behind the scenes in the world, I wanted to give up, I didn't want to be here anymore, but when I heard Pink Floyd, songs like Comfortably Numb, Echoes, Marooned, etc, songs that were just so amazing, the lyrics, the guitar playing (and can Dave Gilmour write a guitar solo, or what!?) I thought to myself, if people can make music like this, we might not be so bad after all. Their music brought a lot of hope into my life when there was none.

I have so many incredible memories listening to Pink Floyd. I remember one time listening to the Solo to Comfortably Numb and I had this incredible vision in my mind's eye of "God" who was in the shape of a person, but was made out of millions of stars and he/she just scattered apart to become the cosmos, and that was when I realized that God, or better yet the Divine Cosmic Mind is all and everything that exists in the universe, the creator and the creation.

 

[Justin]

I have so many incredible memories listening to Pink Floyd. I remember one time listening to the Solo to Comfortably Numb and I had this incredible vision in my mind's eye of "God" who was in the shape of a person, but was made out of millions of stars and he/she just scattered apart to become the cosmos, and that was when I realized that God, or better yet the Divine Cosmic Mind is all and everything that exists in the universe, the creator and the creation.

I'm a huge fan of Pink Floyd! :D Their music always seems to lift my spirits and make me feel better.

Here's a bit of one of the C's session transcripts where Laura asks the C's about Pink Floyd:

Q: (L) Now, frivolous question number one: Do you guys like Pink Floyd?
A: "Like" is a bit off base.
Q: (L) What would be more 'on base?'
A: Absorb.
Q: (L) Do you absorb Pink Floyd?
A: We are Pink Floyd, and all other facets of your higher consciousness.

 

[987baz]

im a definite metal lover, Tool being my all time favourite, it's because of tool that i'm here, there music started my journey.

As a musician (some of my bands are progresive metal), i find making this kind of music is my release, it's how i get my frustrations out, i always feel a lot more centred after writing a metal track :)