A Deadly Community

Death Metal is a community. This group is a much larger community than what people think. What makes Death Metal a community is the fact that there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of people who all have a passion for this genre of music that is slowly on the rise. It's a community because in every mosh pit even though all of us are punching each other in the face and slamming into each other with all the force we have; we all still look out for each other. Anytime a man or woman goes down in the pit or passes out from dehydration everyone stops what they are doing to help the fallen comrade, even the performing band will occasionally stop their song to make sure that people make it out of their concert alive. This group is held together by a shared love for brutality and appreciation for the extreme technicality that all the musicians perform with. As wonderful as this community is, there are its tensions and differences just like any other community. Tensions rise all over the place because of peoples opinions on what should or should not be included within the Death Metal genre and in some cases there are tensions between people who are a fan of old school Death Metal such as "Cannibal Corpse" and new school Death Metal bands such as "Suicide Silence". There are even arguments about what sub-genre various bands belong in.

I feel that I fit in the Death Metal community in multiple ways. One way is that for the last 4 years I have created multiple Death Metal bands, doing either guitar, vocals, or both. I feel that I fit in the Death Metal community because when I'm singing on stage my words affect what the crowd does. If I scream for a mosh pit a mosh pit will happen instantly, if I scream for the crowd to just go completely crazy, I'll drop my microphone and jump in the crowd just to join them. Every single day I listen to this genre religiously, to enjoy it and to study it. The main reasons why I want to be a part of and am a part of is because for one it is a major stress relief for me to listen to this extremely violent music and to jump in the mosh pits and just fight for hours on end, and then after the fights over some how its like me and the other person are best friends (I cannot explain how that works). The main reason for me being a part of this community is because of my appreciation of music, and in my opinion Death Metal has some of the most talented musicians in the world.