For Whom the Heavy Metal Tolls

What is conveyed by the lightning-fast picking, double-bass drumming, and high-pitched vocals that seem to push the human body beyond its critical limits—the very hallmarks of heavy metal?
For what purpose, and why must they go to such lengths?

Learning to play any instrument reasonably well is a difficult task to begin with (to put it mildly, I was a half-baked amateur at every instrument I touched).
In particular, these techniques require an enormous amount of time to master. There is no way to learn them other than through steady, repetitive practice, and there is no guarantee of a return commensurate with that effort. Moreover, most of these skills have almost no use outside of heavy metal. (Mrs. GREEN APPLE doesn't play 16th notes on the bass drum during their choruses, right? If they do, I apologize.)

It's bad. The cost-performance is desperately poor.

With very few exceptions, people must earn money to live. Of course, heavy metal players are no exception.

Thinking rationally, the choice to make a living through heavy metal is quite reckless.

If your child were to say, "I'm going to make a living playing heavy metal!", you should probably throw them out of the house for a moment to let them cool off.

When Dave Mustaine of MEGADETH was asked, "Any words for young musicians?", he replied, "Quit!" and "Go to college!"

It is hard to tell if he was joking or serious, but there is no doubt that making a living through music is a thorny path. To live through heavy metal, which is by no means commercially advantageous, is to say—even when putting it as mildly as possible—that you have "given up on a normal life."

In fact, it is not uncommon in the industry for even well-known bands to work part-time jobs while they perform.
Success stories like Metallica or IRON MAIDEN are outliers among outliers. Most metal bands cannot possibly make a living on their own.

Yet, they still set the metronome ticking today.

Play slowly.
Once you can play it, increase the tempo slightly.
Play it again.
They repeat that simple act for years.

They continue to practice in a way that is maddening because it is so simple, and which earns them almost no money.

What drives them to such lengths?

In a word,

"Because there are backs that can only be supported, and feelings that can only be delivered, through words and figures spun in just such a way."

That is it.

It is not just rationality that moves people.

Of course, logic is necessary. But I believe that what ultimately moves people is the passion that cannot be fully explained by logic, the clumsy but desperate urge to convey something, or, to use a common phrase, the "heat."

Products adjusted to reach more people inevitably create centrifugal force.

If you make something truly for only one specific person, it won't be profitable. Therefore, it is commercially important to make many people think, 'This song is about me.'

However, the audience is sensitive.

Contrary to the creator's intentions, they sniff out the scent of business behind it. And the inhabitants of heavy metal have an especially sharp sense of smell for this.

For those who couldn't quite make it into the mainstream, what matters is,
'Is this aimed at us?'
'Are we invited to this "party"?'

In heavy metal, fast picking, double bass drumming, and high-pitched vocals function as a protocol for passing this authentication.

Because these techniques are so irrational and so unrewarding, their very existence serves as proof that 'this is made for heavy metal fans.'

That is why they practice again today.

Not to reach a million people, but for someone who couldn't make it into that million.

Fast picking that pushes the limits of the human body, double bass, and high-pitched vocals are not merely displays of technique.

They are the creator's declaration that 'we go this far precisely for your sake,' and an undeniable promise to the listener.

For the sake of those who couldn't make it into the million, they practice silently alone in their rooms again today.

They know exactly who that sound is aimed at.