Welcome to an article series on Tempelores where the staff members bare it all for the audience… and by baring all, we mean the origin point of our metal journeys, the singled out, solitary album responsible for being our gateway drug into the boundless universe of metal that in the end became more than just background for most of us.
How I did get my introduction into metal goes back long way. I have been growing up in an area where I hung out with some older children as well as my own age. When times were a bit more easier and as a kid you could be out for hours with friends without the parents being too worried. So then I was invited to party for a friend’s birthday. It was 1995 and I was… eight years old. And far the youngest attending. But since the parents would be along it was all fine. We went to Tilburg to see a show. On the bill was Tiamat. As a support we got to see Sentenced.
I thought they were noise! Sentenced. My young ears weren’t digging it. But, Tiamat I adored. So we went home and when the first of the other children got home , the parents were a bit agitated. They did not realize that we were going to a concert and made a big scene while the rest was still in the car. I then instantly knew I had to bring it a bit easier to my own parents. I think I just talked about a performance and made it sound like theatre. And that we went to the McDonalds. For that was what most of our birthday parties were.
However, the cd’s were bought by my friends, and we listened the music of Sentenced and Tiamat a lot. Of course the classics also, but they meant less to me. The rest of my music taste wasn’t so wild back then. But lucky as I was the parents of my friend have taken me to more concerts. Some metal, some not. And Sentenced pretty much all the time.
Well, I really started loving that band after my second concert on which I got to meet them. Not a word of English I spoke, but it felt all mighty nevertheless. Many shows would follow through the years, as well as meetings and although I was supershy as a kid, I think these moments were really forming me. Around the age of 14 I got to buy my own cd’s and my music. Most of them were compilation discs. I would love them so I could find new music.
I especially remember I did a summerjob at a factory where I met a guy totally into metal. We spend a great deal talking about the bands I listened and still a lot of pop music was in there too, for the message was always clear to me: rock and metal is not acceptable in the daily live. Highschool shows, the metal kids were the lonely ones. But maybe then was the moment I decided not to care so much anymore, for what I like is what I like.
Then, Graspop came. I went and the next year again. Festivals were a thing. The three days of ultimate fun with my friends. Going to signing sessions and ask them guys my questions.
Eventually I got involved in a local scene, a bar I attended regularly had a basement were sometimes bands would play. The place where Tempelores is born. It is not around any longer, but yet got me into writing about bands. And look at me now. About three weeks ago I flew to Finland interviewing a brand new band of the man I probably have seen playing live most in my life and has been there longest: Ville Laihiala’s S-TOOL.
What once was me going to a birthday party ended up in a passion that gets me for life.
