My Story About Heavy Metal: Noisy for Others, Inspiring for Me

Okay. I've mentioned so many times about my fondness to Heavy Metal music. That same type of music that many people consider as merely noise. But during those times I haven't got the chance to elaborate it in a form of a written article. With today's invasion of K-Pop, Modern Pop and Rap, Metal is currently the fastest growing musical genre in the world. What most people describe songs with heavy guitar riffs as "Rock", there are many songs that despite being classified in the umbrella term of "Heavy Metal", has their own distinct sounds and melodies.

My first exposure of heavier rock songs came in late 2005, when I was first introduced with Avenged Sevenfold's Blinded in Chains while playing the 2005 racing game Need For Speed: Most Wanted. That song was included in their album City of Evil, which was released around the same time as the game. But my first taste of Rock n' Roll came way back before. I have to say that my mother first got me into Queen, but not their 1976 masterpiece Bohemian Rhapsody, instead played Mustafa Ibrahim. She is also responsible for introducing me to Scorpions, a German Heavy Metal Band. My exploration led me to Linkin Park, by the time when Minutes to Midnight was released. Another band that I was caught by was American Pop-Punk band My Chemical Romance, at that time releasing their acclaimed 2006 album The Black Parade. During High School however, my metal library expanded further with bands like Metallica (thanks to my father), System of a Down, Megadeth, Dragonforce and Guns N' Roses. By the time I was in college, I started to look for new music, and that eventually led me to Epica, a Dutch Symphonic Metal band. I was unaware at that time of what Symphonic Metal is, but after hearing some songs from their 2003 release The Phantom Agony and the 2014 offering The Quantum Enigma, I finally realized that this is my new favorite sub-genre of Metal. Not long after that, bands like Nightwish, Within Temptation, Sirenia, Rhapsody of Fire and Sabaton (the latter two are leaning towards Power Metal) came to my metalhead life. I continued my exploration in the following years, and by that time, I was in my last two years in campus. My playlist at that time consisted of mainly European Metal bands like Germany's Powerwolf, Kreator and Blind Guardian, Finland's Sonata Arctica, Italy's Lacuna Coil, the Swiss Folk Metallers Eluveitie and Sweden's Amon Amarth, my first Death Metal band. Nowadays, I've opened myself for new music, regardless of sub-genres. In fact, I've been contemplating on listening the new Behemoth album despite the supposed "Satanic" brand. Before that the only Black Metal bands that I mostly listen to were Satyricon and Immortal, both are from Norway. Slipknot and Avantasia are two of my favorite bands today, both releasing their respective albums this year, with the former released We Are Not Your Kind just a few months ago, and the latter with Moonglow way before.

There are many reasons why I personally love this type of music. Aside from the complexity of its composition and melodies, the lyrical content is also varied. According to many sources, Edguy's vocalist Tobias Sammet, who is also the one responsible for the band Avantasia, wrote the Moonglow album based on his fascination of the moon. Amon Amarth's entire discography is based on either the Vikings or the Nordic Mythology, with songs like Twilight of The Thunder God, Deceiver of The Gods, Raven's Flight and As Loke Falls, among others. Despite being a Melodic Death Metal Band, their songs are not about a graphic depiction of death itself. Another band worth to mention for its creative lyrical content is Tool. This American Progressive Metal Band is praised for this, aside from their musicianship. They took pretty much everything as inspirations for their songs, including one particular mathematical formula known as the Fibonacci sequence. That formula was used as the base for their 2001 single Lateralus, from their album of the same name. Speaking of musicianship, many music experts will tell you that Metal is one of the hardest musical styles to be played today. Behind the distortions, those fast drumbeats and the loudness, musicians of this genre are required to have immense talent and stamina, and that can only be achieved with years of practicing and perfecting their craft. That's why musicians like Dave Mustaine, Toni Iommi, Kai Hahto, Jari Maenpaa, Maynard James Keenan, Geddy Lee and many more are respected within the metal comunnity because of their talent in music. And finally, these bands are staying true to themselves, putting out original material and constantly evolving their sound. Only original works of art are accepted within the metal spectrum, and plagiarism is heavily condemned (look at the Flaw plagiarism case. Their guitarist, who claimed responsible for such act was subsequently fired).

Metal, like video games and Japanese anime is like my way of relaxing and disconnect from the real world for a moment. Hell, some of those heavy songs are actually my lullaby to help me sleep. Some researches claimed that listening to agressive music like Metal actually helps you with your mental condition, and I couldn't agree more. If you are angry of something, or having a terrible day, just crank up that speaker and blast some of the heaviest tunes these bands has to offer. It might help you to relax for a bit. Overall, unlike many members of the society who pretty much listens to popular music of today, either from America, Korea or other regions and genres, Metal is on the rise, and I can't help but guarantee that this supposed "noisy" music will be rising even further, with new bands, new talents, fresh tunes and heavier distortions. For others, this is just merely noise. But for me, this is peace and serenity.

The Red String of Fate: How an Invisible Thread connects us with The Love of Our Lives

Love. This one word can mean anything in our lives, either as an admiration, affection or a special connection for the special someone. Someday, the destined day will come. And from that moment on, our lives will change forever. It is often said that the destined someone if it is your lifetime partner, we will meet each other either way. In Japan and China, there is a legend that describes that perfectly. This is known as the story of the red string of fate (Chinese: 姻緣紅線, Yinyuan hongxian, Japanese: 運命の赤い糸, Unmei no akai ito). I first became aware of this legend not by reading folklores, but accidentally watched a Japanese anime for some reason. The show titled "Love and Lies" (恋と嘘,Romanji: Koi to Uso) details about a young boy who lived in an alternate time when Japan was known with its lowest birthrate at the time. To combat this, the Japanese government issued a law that stipulated the government-sponsored marriage. Every girl or boy turning 16 years old will be assigned to a partner chosen by the government to be married. He was assigned with a marriage partner while falling in love with someone else. The red string reference is mostly prominent on this show.

According to both the Japanese and Chinese legends (while the legend itself originated from China), the gods tied a red string to each little finger of two people before they were even born. This string can become entangled and stretched by distance, but never broken. And those two connected by it are said to be each other's "true love.” It means, no matter if both of them are separated by miles away, they are destined to meet at some point at their lives. The legend even detailed that the red string connected to the little finger is unbreakable and only connected to one person on the other side, regardless of their circumstances. This can create infinite possibilities. According to one of the stories in the Chinese Folklore, It mostly involved a young boy meeting a deity named Yue Xia Lao, the ancient Chinese God of marriage. The story goes, the boy saw the deity standing beneath the moonlight. He explained to the boy that he was actually attached to a destined wife of his with a red thread around his finger. When he showed the boy the girl in question, he instead grabbed a rock and threw it to her. Many years later, his parents arranged him to a marriage. He eventually discovered that his wife was actually that same little girl that he threw the rock at, with her scar as the result of the occurrence covered by an adornment on her eyebrow. I remember one time when I read a news article about a wealthy Russian man married a poor Chinese woman by the basis of true love, or if we are talking about the Indonesian context of this myth, the story about the 3^rd President of Indonesia, Mr. B. J. Habibie and his wife, Hasri Ainun Besari.

This is perhaps one of the famous stories about true love, eventually adapted into a feature film based on a book written by Habibie himself. Habibie first met Ainun when they were studying in secondary school. They were schoolmates at that time. Their marriage lasted from 1962 until Ainun's death in 2010. Since then until his death on September 11^th, 2019, Habibie had a habit of visiting Ainun's grave at Kalibata Heroes' Cemetery in Jakarta, claiming that he doesn't "want to be far away from her." He was rested at the same cemetery, with his grave right beside Ainun's. This was his wish from long time ago. If we tie this story with the red string folklore, it is obvious that Habibie and Ainun were destined to meet and fell in love. Even with different personal backgrounds (Habibie was an aerospace engineer and later assume office as Indonesian VP, later president, and Ainun was a medical doctor), both of them loved and cared for each other unconditionally until the end. It is safe to say that the invisible red string that attached to Habibie and Ainun's pinky fingers actually would lead them to each other.

Many will say that love is intoxicating. It can be an addiction, it can also cause pain, and more importantly, we learn how to accept, embrace and complete each other. Many still don't believe in this though, but like the myth said, somewhere, there is someone that cares, someone who loves you unconditionally, someone who will accept your ups and downs, and the most important thing, someone who does care and caress you.

I personally thought that this folklore would be irrelevant in this modern era, but the fact that some marriages last longer and people actually cared about their partners makes me wonder if this supposed red string would lead me to someone special, but to be honest, I would never know what to expect at this point. All I know is, this supposed red thread is stretched for God knows how far away, it might tangle to someone elses' and probably would be mixed up with another. But one thing is for sure, that this string would never break no matter how it goes. Love is definetly in the air, and it shows with a long, invisible red string from the ancient times.

Is Pop Music That Bad? (A Look on The Reality of Today's Music Industry)

The last time I wrote about this topic, I was dissecting the Tool VS Taylor Swift feud over record sales and Billboard 200 chart position, and how both fandoms responded to the occurrences. What differentiate Swift and Tool is Taylor Swift's album Lover is classified as a pop record, while Tool's Fear Inoculum fall between Progressive Rock and Progressive Metal. For the last few years, pop music has been the source of heavy criticism from the music critics over how homogenous the songs under the category.

Music as an art form allows the artists to express themselves with various melodical structures and different musical style. But music as an industry is a place where aside from making the best records possible, the artists often compete with each other for chart positions and fame. And more often than not, this lead to a sentiment that music nowadays is all about money and fame. No wonder why some people considers pop music as the least interesting genre of music.

Then why pop music is now considered that bad? There are few factors that contributed to this claim. The first one is how similar every song with the next when it comes to the song structure, composition, and the chord progression. In this technological era, many artists utilize the drum machine to lay down the foundation of a song, which can be altered numerous times to different taste. But inevitably, some songs might use the same drumbeat, even with different chord progression. Let's take a look at Taylor Swift's Shake It Off from her 2014 release 1989 and Pharrell Williams' Happy recorded in 2013. From the title itself, we can conclude that these two songs are entirely different. One is a single from a full-length album, another is a stand-alone song recorded as a soundtrack for a movie. But beyond those obvious facts, if you listen to both songs, there is a catchy drumbeat found in either song. Coincidence? I guess not. It's unclear which one of them that sampled the drumbeat first, but I can assure that the same drumbeat could be used in the future. This also tied with the second reason, which is the lack of instruments used to make music. Since 2010, there are so many songs that utilize sampled beats and synthesizers. Justin Bieber's entire discography also uses synthesizers as the main instrument. Although by using this method meaning that making music is relatively simpler, it kills the diversity and the complexity of the song itself. This is the primary reason why most people would say that pop music "sounds the same."

The next two reasons might have a connection with the first two mentioned above. Some artists might not have the necessary talent in any aspect, whether is singing or the capability of playing a musical instrument. I did mention about one of the reasons why rapper Lil Wayne is hated because of his inability to play guitar, many pop artists are slammed for their supposed lack of talent. Aside from the computer generated beats, some singers of this genre are backed-up with a device called auto-tune. The main use of this instrument is to digitally alter the human voice to a certain note. People often criticize this method because of its prominent, sometimes over-extended use of it. Some singers that can clearly be heard singing with auto-tune are Britney Spears, Drake, Nicky Minaj and Post Malone. And along with it, artists, producers and songwriters are considered to be lacking the musical creativity. Although not belonging to the pop genre, Canadian Rockers Nickelback are slammed and even hated for their supposed lack of creativity by constantly recycle their songs based on their 2001 hit single How You Remind Me from their offering Silver Side Up. Another annoying aspect of this is the presence of millenial whoop. Milennial whoop is a note sequence that shifts between the fifth note on the scale and the third note repeatedly. Most artists use this as the hook to familiarize the tune to the listeners, but overtime, it can be the most annoying thing in the world.

The lyrical content of most pop songs are often disputed, as well as the credibility of the supposed writers. Let me start this by saying that although some artists write their own music, they are mostly backed with another songwriter. As a result, there is a possibility of having over twenty songwriters on one song. Of course artists like Bieber, Taylor Swift, Maroon 5 vocalist Adam Levine and even someone like Adele and Ariana Grande can write their own songs, but looking at the recent trend, most songs are either written or co-written by Swedish songwriter Max Martin. Imagine that you relied too much on an army of songwriters, most song that they wrote will turn to a generic song mostly talking about love, sex and drugs that might contain the stupidest lyrics with meaningless words. By dissecting Charli XCX's song Boys, the only thing that comes to mind is a girl's obsession to the opposite gender. Beyonce's Girls (Who Run The World) is known for the repetitive nature of the lyrics as evidenced by the lyric part "Who run the world (Girls!)" being muttered multiple times during some parts of the song itself. Soemtimes two songs being written by a certain person might result in both songs sound almost identical, like Kelly Clarkson's Already Gone and Beyonce's Halo, both are written by OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder. The most prominent example of meaningless and stupid lyrics is Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball. Not only the lyrics that are considered as one of the stupidest ever written, the music video is also questionable. It involves a nude Cyrus licking a sledgehammer and a part when she swings herself still buck naked with a giant wrecking ball, which is where the song got its name.

Although some of them are not that talented, popstars are often considered role models to the masses, but when I said role models, you should consider them as someone who doesn't really care about their image in public area. Despite being a public figure, these men and women often engaged in questionable behaviours. Few of those examples are Justin Bieber when he spat on his fans from a hotel rooftop, Ariana Grande when she was caught licking a sample donut in a bakery, or even feuding with another musician, as evidenced with Taylor Swift VS Katy Perry feud in 2015. Their songs are often played constantly on several radio stations. It's like when you look for certain music on a certain station, but what you get in return is some or a few songs being played over and over again. This is prominent during a single or an album's first few weeks of release. While it can increase the song or album's popularity, it can also mean that people are subjected with that song or album being played repeatedly to the point that it can be disturbing. I can vividly remember when Luis Fonsi's Despacito with Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber was released. It recieved so much radio play that even hearing a single note from that song makes me want to punch myself in the face.

It looks like with all those factors mentioned above, I can personally say that pop music is really on its lowest point. The repetitive nature of the songs, the artist's inability of actually sing or playing instruments (if there is any instruments to play with), the meaningless lyrics and constant overplaying of some artists is enough for me to consider this genre not as an art, but as a ploy for fame and fortune. Now I know the reason why Rock and Metal is the fastest growing genre in the world right now. When it comes to composition and thoughtful lyrics, look no further than Queen's 1976 Freddie Mercury-penned eternal masterpiece Bohemian Rhapsody, which is known for its lyrical mystery or Tool's 2001 Fibonacci-inspired number Lateralus. Aside from the complex composition, bands like to be creative. Like Epica, Within Temptation, Therion and Nightwish did by fusing Heavy Metal with Classical music elements to create probably one of the most epic subgenres of Metal, Symphonic Metal. I'm not saying that metal is necessary above pop in any aspect, but due to recent trends and all that is happening in the music scene, I have to agree that pop music are on its lowest level.

A Tale of Some of The World's Disliked Musical Acts

Previously, I wrote about probably one of the most hated musical acts in the world, the Canadian band Nickelback. In that article, I explained how their often over-used song formula played the role of their constant hate, mockery and ridicule by the masses. But there are many musical acts that don't necessary have to have generic music in order to be hated. Many musicians are slammed simply because of their unusual way to be famous, their musical inability, or simply because of attitude problems.

In the rock and metal realm, one of the most hated bands besides the previously mentioned Canadians is Limp Bizkit. This American Nu Metal band was responsible for the early rise of the genre, along with Korn. The primary source of hatred towards this band is mainly their vocalist Fred Durst. Durst is known to be quite obnoxious on a few occasions. He even stated that he once had relationships with Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, although both singers denied this. His infamous example of explosive personality happened during their tour supporting Metallica in 2003. After just six songs, Durst errupted in a profane, homophobic tirade after the fans chanted 'f--k Fred Durst' and throwing debris onstage. He was later sued in a class-action lawsuit for not completing the show, evidenced on the fact that he actually threw the microphone and walk out from the stage after the tirade. We also mentioned Metallica, who prior to the release of their self-titled album in 1991 was the biggest Thrash Metal band in the 80s, they even considered as the "Big Four" bands of the genre, alongside fellow Californians Megadeth and Slayer, as well as New Yorkers Anthrax. Since then, they became the most disliked band after the release of the abysmal St. Anger which dubbed as the weakest Metallica record ever, before the hate even escalated during the band's (Mostly represented by drummer Lars Ulrich) feud with the file sharing website Napster and their collaboration album with Lou Reed, titled LuLu, which spawned the "I am the table" meme. The meme itself originating from the lyrics of one of the songs on the album, titled The View. Guns n' Roses also picked up hate based on both the frontman Axl Rose's erratic behavior and their Chinese Democracy Album. Axl is known for his apparent inability to co-exist with is band mates, most notably legendary guitarist Slash, which lead to the latter's departure form the band. He is also a bit temperamental, as shown in one of GNR's concert, which he stopped mid-song, went on a rant before storming off stage. Perhaps the best example of the most hated band in the rock and metal world is British Metalcore band Bring Me The Horizon (BMTH for short). Why are they hated is because of their musical evolution. After the release of Sempiternal, they allegedly gone soft, and considered 'sold out' to the mainstream audience. Their plan to collaborate with various pop singers only made the case worse for them. The metal community considers a band a "sell out" when the band in question release either a single or a full album that targets mainly for mainstream audiences and to attract radio stations to play their songs.

The hate didn't just present itself in the heavy side of the musical spectrum. Hip-hop also has some of the most hated singers and rappers in this genre alone. Two of those in question are Kanye West and Lil Wayne. West's questionable behavior first witnessed during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, which he infamously interrupted Taylor Swift's award acceptance speech for Best Female Video. He even tried to do the same during the 2015 Grammy Awards when Indie Rocker Beck snatched Album of The Year Award. As a result, many other artists condemned and criticized him. He is also declared himself as the 'greatest rockstar' and declaring that rap is the new rock. This statement eventually responded by Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor, quickly shut him down. The last straw for Kanye was when he tried to perform Queen's eternal masterpiece Bohemian Rhapsody during his set at the Glastonbury Festival in 2015, but failed miserably in the process. Nowadays, the husband of Kim Kardashian is also facing backlash for his support for the controversial US President Donald Trump. For Lil Wayne's case, the source was almost similar to that of Nickelback's, with often generic and boring music, his actual inability with musical instruments, most notably guitar, and his lyrical content that overloaded with expletives, women, hedonism and racist speech to white and people of color.

Perhaps the Pop segment of the musical genre has the most disliked singers or even bands. When Justin Bieber released his first big hit Baby back in 2010, aside from praise, the song also garnered hate because of the repetitive nature of its chorus. During the height of his career, Bieber also caught doing the most questionable, often disgusting antics with his entourage, from spitting on his own fans from the hotel roof to actually pee'd on a janitor's bucket. He also accumulated a few driving infractions during his most famous years. Another example of questionable, often violent behavior was Chris Brown when he was arrested in 2009 over an assault charge on Rihanna, his girlfriend at the time. He is also known to be the least friendly with the fans, same with the case of Ariana Grande. Ariana is talented, let's be real. But when it comes to the fans, she confessed that they rather be dead. Ariana is not shy of disgusting behavior, once caught licking a donut in a bakery in Los Angeles, without actually buying it, or a batch of those donuts. One of the problems with artists of the genre is the presence of (often over utilized) auto-tune backed songs. There are countless songs that use this device as the means of improving the singer, and many are hated because of it. In 2011, the people was surprized by the release of the song Friday by Rebecca Black. Black was in turn hated and ridiculed because the main feature of the song is the extensive use of auto-tune, which many claim as soulless and often showed the lack of effort. The same thing can be said for the Internet sensation Jacob Sartorius. From Vines and musical.ly videos to releasing his debut single Sweatshirt in 2016, this 17 year-old American also garnered hate because of mainly his cringe inducing vines and musical.ly lip-syncing videos and his apparently auto-tuned singing voice. Overplaying an artist can also resulted in hatred, as shown by British band Coldplay. They maybe produced some memorable songs like Fix You, Viva La Vida, and The Scientist, but Coldplay has been reviewed as an overrated band with mediocre quality over their live performances. Las Vegas native Imagine Dragons is also hated as a result of constant radio play. The band can produce good songs, as evidenced with the anthemic Warriors used as an official sountrack for the 2014 League of Legends World Championships or the first ever single Radioactive which gained popularity almost instantly, but every radio plays two or three of their songs a little too much. Even the ever outspoken Corey Taylor once stated that they "took Nickelback's baton as the scapegoat of rock n' roll." One of the most known subgenre pop, electro-pop also presents its own case. Former Blood On The Dance Floor (BOTDF for short) frontman Dahvie Vanity is infamously known for his alleged sexual harrassment record involving teenage girls. He is also critisized for BOTDF's meaningless lyrical content, which involves graphic depictions of sex, hatespeech and profanity. The critics were reasonable, because at that time, most of BOTDF's main target audiences were teenage girls between 12 to 17 years old. Perhaps one of his infamous occurrences of questionable behaviour was when he feuded with Nu Metal singer Otep Shamaya over a plagiarism accusation. Otep accused Vanity for ripping off the chorus from her song Rise Rebel Resist and using it for BOTDF's Looking Hot Dangerous from their album Epic, released in 2010. As a reminder, Rise Rebel Resist was included on Otep's 2009 release Smash The Control Machine. Their recent plagiarism accusation rose when fans discovering that the opening melody of BOTDF's song Something Grimm is similar to the opening piano riff of the song The Last Night performed by the Christian Metal band Skillet.

But across all musical genres, people seems to hate an artist based on their repetitive lyrical content, which often features one or two words spoken repeatedly. Lil Pump released his first single Gucci Gang with mixed receptions. Most people will point out the repetitive nature of the song with the words "Gucci gang" being muttered multiple times across the length of the song. Taylor Swift also subjected to massive hate when her single Shake It Off was released. Multiple words and syllables are uttered multiple times on this number. She also made the case worse for her when she announced to apply for rights to own the phrase "This sick beat."

We all know that all these musicians are indeed humans. And just like us, they are subjected to mistakes and poor decision making skills, but many of us also declare hate on one artist only because of their poor decision making. I write this article by saying these musicians don't necessary deserve the hate, but because of so many negative backlash and the reason behind them, I can understand why they are hated by the masses.

Nickelback: The Hate of Comedic Proportions

As you all know, I'm a huge fan of Rock and Metal Music. In fact, I enjoy everything that involves heavy riffs and big drum bangs. But beyond all those noise, there is this one Canadian band that everyone, every fan of every single musical genre seems love to hate. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, probably one of the most hated musical acts, Nickelback.

Formed in Hanna, Alberta, Canada in 1995, brothers Chad and Mike Kroeger along with their cousin Brandon and Ryan Peeke first christened the band as "Village Idiot", later rename it "Nickelback" originally because of Mike Kroeger's job at that time as an employee at Starbucks who frequently said "here's your nickel back". They performed covers of Led Zeppelin and Metallica back then, and released their first full-length album titled Curb. Since then, there were some lineup changes, particularly drummers, but as of today, the lineup consist of brothers Chad as vocalist/guitarist and Mike Kroeger as bassist, Guitarist Ryan Peeke and drummer Daniel Adair. They achieved their first commercial success with their 2001 album Silver Side Up that contained their hit single How You Remind Me. The single itself topped the Mainstream and Modern Rock, as well as Pop charts. But when they released All The Right Reasons in 2005, the tide turned on them. The album was criticized for having "the worst rock lyrics ever recorded". It also only received 41 rating out of possible 100 by Metacritic. One of the singles of the album, Rockstar also became a target of mockery by BuzzFeed while ranking the song at number 2 in the list of 30 worst songs by stating that "If aliens came to Earth and asked why everybody hates Nickelback so much, this song would be a perfect explanation". It looked like the release of the album had their popularity raised for all the wrong reasons.

Despite Nickelback's overwhelming success not just in Canada, but also all the way to the United States, their music generates both praise and critics alike. They were criticized based on three things. First, they always use the same formula on their song structure. When you compare How You Remind Me and the infamous Rockstar from the afromentioned album, you will notice that the scales and the very structure of the song are strangely similar. Most fans will say, 'every band has to evolve', and for good reason. Many bands changed their formula to keep themselves relevant. Metallica did this when they released their self-titled album dubbed The Black Album in 1991. This move genereated a lot of buzz and backlash alike. Slipknot is another band that changed their style to keep up with the masses while still retain their hardness and agression when they put together Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses. The most notable change of the album is vocalist Corey Taylor's more melodic approach in vocal delivery, while their overall sound didn't change by much. Nickelback however, felt really comfortable with their song formula. It's like they constantly recycle their songs based on How You Remind Me in its entirety. The second reason why Nickelback was critisized is the fact that in their entire catalogue, they always write songs that revolve around sex, drugs, alcohol and prostitutes. Of course many metal bands also deal with these subjects, but some songs aren't always about it. While Master of Puppets was indeed about drug addiction, Metallica turned the tide around when they released their single One off their follow up album And Justice For All. With the song One, they described in detail about a man that lost all his limbs, senses, and his ability to survive and pain tolerance as a result of war. There are many metal acts that exclude those topics altogether, instead putting together albums that would actually tell a specific story. King Diamond is a primary example of this case, as their records are about telling (mostly) horror stories. And the third reason is everyone seems to channel the hate towards the frontman Chad Kroeger. As we all know, Kroeger is known as Avril Lavigne's ex-husband, being married in 2013 until their separation in 2015. During that time, this husband-wife team collaborated on several occasions, the latest one being the release of Lavigne's most infamous single Hello Kitty, which was easily labeled as the worst song ever. The music video of the song even got pulled from YouTube because of the negative backlash. He is also known, infamously, to be able to actually performed oral sex on himself when he was 14 years old. But some fans know Kroeger as a childish frat boy who only loves to complain and throwing shades, as he did with Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor.

From those criticisms, spawn hate. But apparently, the hate for this Canadian band has taken the comedic route for many years. One of the famous examples is the "Photograph" meme, which based on the music video of the namesake song. The meme consist of Kroeger holding up a frame, that every single netizen can insert a picture for comedic intentions. The band name also became a target of constant intentional mispellings, from "Nickelsuck" to "Nipplesack", among many others. Every single member of the society loves to pick fun of this band, even the Canadian Police Force. A Metalsucks Article posted on November 29, 2016 (https://www.metalsucks.net/2016/11/29/canadian-police-department-institutes-new-punishment-for-drunk-drivers-having-to-listen-to-nickelback/) actually reports that Kensington PD in Kensington, Prince Edward Island, Canada once posted a Facebook status which stated that they will deal the drunk driving case with criminal charges, hefty fines, suspension of driving licence, and "playing the office's copy of Nickelback in the cruiser on the way to jail". The post even hilariously continued "Now, now, no need to thank us, we figure if you are foolish enough to go behind the wheel after drinking then a little Chad Kroeger and the boys is the perfect gift for you". They are called many things, from 'abomination', to 'talentless'. Even the common music enthusiast disliked them. Hell, even Hollywood once jumped on the bandwagon with the release of a teaser trailer from 'Once Upon A Deadpool', a PG-13 version of the superhero movie Deadpool starring Ryan Reynolds, a Canadian.

As of today, Nickelback is still working on the followup to their 2018 release Feed The Machine which only recorded 47.000 units sold on its first week of release, their lowest so far. Kroeger also collaborate with musician Devin Townsend on Townsend's own release titled Empath, and both of them are enjoying this collaboration work. Despite the hate and the mockeries they received, Nickelback has amassed many accolades, including 2 American Music Awards, 6 Billboard Music Awards, a staggering 12 Juno Awards and 6 Grammy Nominations, among others. Will the hate on Nickelback subsidize? We will never know. All I know is they are a successful Canadian band that unfortunately picked up more hate than any other band. And I thought that Justin Bieber is already hated enough. 

A Plain and Simple Story from a fan of Professional Wrestling

Professional Wrestling is probably the most polarizing aspect of the sports world. It mixes the sport aspect with wrestling, and the entertainment aspect of characters, storylines and a bit of acting in between. There are many big names that came out from this business alone and actually expanded their career to other branches of the entertainment, like Dwayne Johnson, known as The Rock in the Pro Wrestling circuit with WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) who later on would have a successful acting career and Chris Jericho, a household name in both the wrestling world and the metal community as the frontman of the Heavy Metal band Fozzy. I've been a fan since around 2001 when I watched WWE's Tables, Ladders and Chairs (TLC) programming when it was still being broadcasted in Indonesia on the late night timeslot. Nowadays, I always follow pro wrestling info and events through YouTube. But let me assure you this: Even though this is just an entertainment, but executing these moves performed by trained professional without any formal training or just to copy those moves is dangerous and possibly fatal for yourself and others surrounding you.

I've become fascinated with this form of entertainment when I was looking for a good show on television at my grandma's house. Then I came across this sport/entertainment show called WWE, and once I'm hooked, it became clear that this has become my new favorite show. At that time, WWE was in an era where the apparent violence and reckless abandon was in full display, dubbed The Attitude Era. Names like Triple H, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Rock, Hulk Hogan, "Nature Boy" Ric Flair and Shawn "The Heartbreak Kid" Michaels are considered the big guys in the era at that point. Not only the action was in full force, the fans could even draw the line between good or bad. A wrestler can be considered a "face" when he/she has the full support from the fans, often labeled as the good guy. On the other end, the term "heel" is used when the wrestler in question perform an act by the means of bad intention, earning the booing and the overall unfriendly response from the fans. These two terms play a huge role for the wrestler's character development. Many wrestlers change their roles to further develop their own gimmicks, but some are really comfortable with playing either a good guy or a bad guy and stick with that role over the course of their careers. The perfect examples of both of these spectrums are John Cena and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. Cena debuted in 2002 by responding to Kurt Angle's open challenge on one segment from WWE's Smack Down, and quickly establishes himself as the new force of pro wrestling. His earlier gimmick was "the Doctor of Thuganomics" where he mostly raps and tears his opponents' egos a new one while his in-ring action involves hitting an opponent with his steel chain necklace. By late 2000s, he evolved as one of the company's top good guys with the tagline "Hustle, Loyalty and Respect." He is also present during charity programs, mainly with a foundation like Make A Wish, where he granted wishes from kids with possible terminal conditions and disabilities. Piper on the other hand was always known as the biggest bad guy in WWE's history. His main feature was his promo skills, which earned him a segment called "Piper's Pit", which almost guaranteed that it would end in a brawl because of Piper's intimidation or trash talking. No matter if a wrestler is a good guy or a bad guy, some names are praised as they are, without the consideration of their roles. Take Tetsuya Naito for instance. This Japanese wrestler for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) is the leader of a stable called Los Ingobernables de Japon (LIJ for short) who always strife to deliver the best action and best matches for the masses regardless of the role that he currently plays at that given moment. His promo skills also showed that with any role, Naito is always put ethics forward to ensure that the fans gained a genuine experience from his promo and his in-ring action. Others often praised because of their evolving characters like Jericho. In his early years, Jericho was known as the "Y2J", taking the inspiration from the Y2K bug that once threatened the entire Internet back in 2000. The way he works in the business is he constantly discovering new characters for himself to utilize, like the "Painmaker" gimmick, which he used for a feud with "The Rainmaker" Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP (acronym for International Wrestling Grand Prix, for NJPW) Heavyweight Championship, or "The List of Jericho", which he used during his tenure in WWE during 2017 to late 2018. Some wrestlers however only reinvented themselves after being under utilized in a specific company. Cody Rhodes is a perfect example of this. The youngest of two of the legendary "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes finally achieved the height of his career after a disappointing stint with WWE, now currently wrestling under All Elite Wrestling (AEW) brand alongside Matt and Nick Jackson, collectively known as the Young Bucks and former NJPW star Kenny Omega. Others may find success in another career path, like Jake Hager formerly known as Jack Swagger in WWE. After his exit from the company, he went on to become a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter under Bellator promotion, currently undefeated.

Depending on which country a wrestling promotion originated, all fans are subjected to different wrestling experience. In the US market, Pro Wrestling is seen more as an entertainment business, with live programming on television and some standalone shows broadcasted on PPV (Pay Per View networks). The premise of this is to take pro wrestling and make it operate using different storylines or feuds involving multiple wrestlers. It can be used as a pilot for a championship opportunity, a story of a new guy navigating himself through the ranks or just for shenanigans. In Mexico, the wrestlers (known as luchadores, since the Mexican form of wrestling is called 'Lucha Libre') often wear masks, and tend to bring their wrestling persona to real life. It is said that the mask plays an integral part of the wrestler's identity and persona, and ripping off the mask to expose the face of a competitor is considered a disgrace and a humiliation to some, even some wrestlers take pride in their own masks. The pace of the matches in Mexican wrestling is often viewed as "high flying", with moves involving someone executing off the top rope jumping maneuvers. Perhaps the closest thing pro wrestling can be with real life sports league is found in Japan. For the Japanese, wrestling is treated like an actual full body combat sport, where wins and loses do matter in a tournament or for a wrestler's chance for a specific championship belt. They don't do many live shows on TV or employ certain storylines for the entertainment purposes, but instead putting together tournaments for a specific championship or a shot at one. NJPW works better with this format, since those tournaments can be a foundation for a wrestler's future careers.

Although some describe pro wrestling as a dangerous thing to do, in reality, the matches are often scripted, the winners are often predetermined, and the competitors don't actually punching or kicking each other. You may see a wrestler after being punched or slammed into the canvas often convulse in pain, but actually he is "selling". "Selling" is a term to describe a wrestler's move to make him seems like he is hurt from the opponent's maneuver. In a few instances, some even said to be bleeding as a result of constant punishment, but usually bleeding in the head. The practice for make a wrestler intentionally bleeding for the sake of storyline is called "blading". It is often said that blading added the dramatic element to the match, but the practice is banned overtime because of the disfigurement on the wrestler's body it may cause. The storylines, angles and feuds involving faces and heels are also scripted, often referred as 'kayfabe.' This is done in a way that to perceive that pro wrestling is real and had legitimate impacts. Some wrestlers often living "in-character" to further enforce their roles either as a face or a heel.

Speaking of dramatic elements, some promotions offer matches with a certain "stipulation" in place to attract fans to watch. This can be a form of a certain structure to enclose the ring (steel cages or a structure named "Hell in a Cell" in WWE), a certain condition in championship matches where in order to win, a competitor must incapacitate the opponent to the point of not able to respond to referee counts (this is known as "Last Man Standing Match"), a no disqualification match where anything goes, or a match that involves certain items. There are many items to use when it comes to this type of matches. Ladder Matches are often used as a stipulation for a certain championship or a championship match contract, where a competitor must climb a ladder to retrieve the item (either a championship belt or a certain contract) suspended above the ring, while at the same time trying to fend off and incapacitate any other competitor (or multiple competitors) with the same goal in mind. A Tables Match works with the goal to slam a wrestler through a table in order to win. But some can be more extreme than that. "Death matches" are special matches that involve many dangerous items to be used in the ring. The items ranged from light bulbs, neon lamp tubes, barbed wire, thumbtacks, fire and explosives, glass, sledgehammers, bats and many other things. The items can be utilize in many forms, like barbed wire replacing the ring ropes as the boundaries for the match to take place, or a "ring of fire" to trap wrestlers inside the ring with soaring heat.

In normal matches, aside from the obvious types like Ladder matches, tables matches and last man Standing, the winner (or winners if that particular match is a tag team event) is determined by five methods. A pinfall victory is happened when a wrestler pinning both shoulders of another wrestler for three seconds. Submission victories are in effect when a wrestler forced the other to submit (surrender) by alerting the referee with verbal information or by tapping a free hand to the mat or a body part of the opponent with either a choke or manipulation of limbs and joints with the intention to inflict serious injuries. A wrestler can be handed a disqualification win when there is an outside interference not related to the match, but not necessarily to win a championship when the disqualified party is a champion (known as the champions' advantage rule in effect in a championship match situation, but this advantage can be stripped under a certain condition). Another instance of disqualification varies, from the failure to break a submission hold against an opponent who grab the ring ropes (rope break rules) to use of illegal items in the match with normal conditions. When a wrestler is out of bounds (the ring) for too long (the referee will initiate a count to ten to alert the party to return to the ring), the opponent is handed a count-out victory. The last one is the afromentioned method of incapacitating an opponent (knock-out rules). The rules mainly allows one fall for the match, but can be changed to multiple falls match as the stipulation for said match, like the "Two out of Three Falls Match" or an Iron Man match. The former is determined when a wrestler pinned or submitted his/her opponent twice, while the latter uses the most falls earned to win the match over the course of a limited time (mostly 30 to 60 minutes), with all of those must happen inside the ring. There is also a match where those conditions could happen outside the wrestling ring, called Falls Count Anywhere Match. As the name suggests, pinfalls (and submissions, depending on the stipulation) could be counted outside the ring, even outside the arena. Some match types discard these rules altogether, like battle royal style matches. The purpose of the match is to have multiple competitors up to 30 (sometimes up to 50 in some events) in the ring at the same time, and the only way to win is to eliminate other wrestlers by tossing them over the top rope with both feet must touch the ground, with the last man still inside the ring wins. The match can start with those 30, or like WWE's Royal Rumble Match, two competitors start the match with other wrestlers join the battle one-by-one with their entrance order of 3 to 30 decided in a lottery draw beforehand in a 90 second interval. Another type of multiple competitors match, but not necessarily have to be an elimination match (although some tag team matches deploy the elimination rules) is when a match is either a three, four, five or six way matches with respective number of wrestlers involved. The main rule of this type of matches is whoever pins or submits a competitor first, that wrestler is declared the winner. If the elimination rule were in effect, that same method would result in an elimination.

Being a pro wrestling fan myself, I was like everybody else. I might think that the characters that these wrestlers portray on TV are the same persona that they would bring in real life, and that the punches, kicks and those screaming in pain are real. It may only for show, but there is a legitimate risk that these guys put on their bodies each time they went out and perform those moves. Hulk Hogan is one instance where his wrestling career took a toll on his body. Thanks to his signature move "The Leg Drop", Hogan must undergo several surgeries to repair his back, as the force of the impact can spread to the spine. Concussions and neck injuries are another type of injury that threatens a wrestler's career, as evidenced by Adam "Edge" Copeland's decision to retire from the business back in 2010 and Daniel Bryan's decision to do the same in 2018, all because of said injuries. The elaborate nature of some wrestling shows once took a life in the form of Owen Hart, where he allegedly released his safety harness too early while suspending himself above the ring and came crashing down, killing him in the process. But others might say that his death was due to the malfunction of the harness itself.

Either way, the reason we all watch the art of professional wrestling is because of the adrenaline rush it brings, and to enjoy a non-conventional form of entertainment, while still enjoying the competitive aspect of the sport. It may only for show and doesn't offer real fights, but by enjoying this sport/entertainment form is a reason to indulge it deeper. And with that, I can say that I am a proud metalhead while also being a fan of motorsport and professional wrestling. All things aside, I can still enjoy three things at one, can't I?

A Clean Slate: Our Hopes For The Next Five Years

After months of chaos-filled election stages, as well as fending off some ignorant, hard lined groups that claimed to be the voice of the Islamic society, Mr. Joko Widodo (known as Jokowi) and Mr. K. H. Ma'ruf Amin are now officially the President and Vice President of The Republic of Indonesia. The sworn-in ceremony was held on Sunday Afternoon. This is President Jokowi's second term in office, while Vice President Amin is the first VP with the background as an Islamic cleric. They were victorious during the General Election; with Jokowi-Amin amassed 55% of the votes, while their opponents, Gerindra-backed Prabowo Subianto & Sandiaga Uno only got 45%. This was their second battle in the Presidential Election, with the first being the 2014 Election, where President Jokowi was first elected president in 2014 with his vice being Mr. Jusuf Kala, at that time served his second term as VP, previously served with Mr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. According to the Indonesian Election Law, after his second term ended, President Jokowi is outlawed to participate again in the 2024 Elections. The trend of pairing an Islamic cleric with the running candidate to victory wasn't happen for the first time, Current Governor of West Java Ridwan Kamil chose Uu Ruzhanul Ulum as his running mate for the Election last year and came out victorious. 

During his first term in office, President Jokowi is known as the "father of infrastructures", as most of the infrastructures (toll roads, electric powerline supplies, etc) are either being built or already completed under his presidency. He is also known to be the man of the people. He constantly visits every corner of the country for the people's aspiration or just to monitor the progress of the regencies he visits at that given time. This habit has been going ever since he was the mayor of Surakarta, Central Java. Before the precidency, Jokowi was the Governor of Special Capital Region of Jakarta (Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta, DKI Jakarta in Indonesian) with Chinese-Indonesian politician Basuki Tjahya Purnama (known as Ahok). Ahok subsequently succeeded him as the Governor of Jakarta, appointing Djarot Saiful Hidayat as his Vice Governor. Ma'ruf Amin on the other hand is a well-known and respected cleric among the Islamic Society. He is the former General Chairman of the Nahdathul Ulama Organization, the biggest Islamic Organization in Indonesia. He is also the head of the Indonesian Council of Ulama (MUI). As of today, He is the first vice president from the Islamic society. Most of the VPs before Vice President Amin is either a politician or someone with a military background (Habibie is one exception. He was an aerospace engineer prior to be VP).

This duo of Jokowi and Amin are expected to be in the top positions of the Indonesian Government for 5 years, meaning the presidency lasts until 2024. During those five years, they have to tackle many issues circulating among the people. First of those issues is hoaxes and false information surrounding the social media. With the president constantly visiting regions of Indonesia, there is news that is being generated upon that region. Many can be trusted, but there are also some false and untrusted information generated by irresponsible individuals. Hate speech is quite rampant during Jokowi's first term. There are also countless hate speeches being posted on many social media platforms that targets Jokowi and marks him as the tyrant, authoritarian and merciless leader.  Corruption is also a prominent issue in Indonesia. The fact that most of the convicts are receiving less than 5 years of prison time is worrying. There is also a long-running conspiracy that the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is being filled with people that has sketchy track records and prone to misuse their duties. But among many issues circulating today, probably the biggest issue at hand is the rise of Radical Islam. It is a well-known fact that Indonesia aside from being the 4th biggest country in terms of population is also the largest Muslim populated country in the world. Despite these facts, Indonesia is employing a democratic presidential system. This phenomenon is happening due to the rise of ISIS in the Middle Eastern countries. The common issue at hand is the rise of the radical Islamists allegedly affiliating with ISIS. With the disbandment of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), the movement to possibly overthrow the president and to replace the Pancasila ideology with the Islamic Sharia Law is only growing bigger and more coordinated. But fortunately, the Indonesian Police Force is currently working day and night to eradicate these movements.

As one of approximately 249 milion citizens of the Indonesian Archipelago, I send my aspiration for President Jokowi and Vice President Amin as well as praying for good health, good leadership and equality among Indonesians and also the best of luck for the presidential duo taking their places in office. There are countless other issues aside from the four mentioned above, but I have the faith and confidence in President Jokowi and Vice President Amin to manage those issues and upheld justice and truth above all else. Let bygones be bygones, let's not talk about the past anymore, and more importantly, let's hold our hands with the president and help him with the best of our abilities. The future is upon us; so let's take a step further towards a bright and prosperous Indonesia.