If you grow up in New Mexico, you love heavy metal. Or maybe you hate it. But you’re not going to feel meh about it. Me personally, I don’t just love metal: I consider it part of my birthright alongside killer sunsets and green chile. Metal is responsible for a lot of the major time stamps on my childhood: the first time I saw a kid with the Def Leppard Pyromania tour t-shirt at my elementary school, the girl with the sparkly navy-blue eyeliner and the Dio calf tattoo in front of me in line for fry bread at the State Fair, the arguments over Metallica’s black album in high school (I’m sorry, was that a ballad?)
I’m partial to speed metal and thrash because it never fails to put me in a good mood, and also I have my limits when it comes to the dark stuff. I can do another post sometime on my all-time favorites, but today I wanted to put the global metal scene on your radar because there’s some pretty amazing stuff happening right now, particularly in Asia. Some of these bands mash up metal with traditional folk music to awesome effect; but all of them put a deeply cool spin on the canon. The Asian metal I’ve heard is rebellious in the best possible way—making noise for freedom, equality, and human rights. To get started, check out Babymetal from Japan, Seo Taiji from Korea, The HU from Mongolia, and Bloodywood from India.
The Rookery 