Sausagechrist, Sausagechrist, Sausagechrist, Sausagechrist.

Every once in a while I trip back to those days gone by and revisit my tastes from the past. I don't mean put on a pair of way too tight jeans, grab my leather jacket (which I still have in a box BTW, I case the metalhead in me decides to come out and play), and grow my hair down to my ass, but I do trip back in music tastes. Recently I've been listening to all that music that I was into in that golden age of music in the late 80's and early nineties. I was a card carrying, leather wearing, Head Banger. God, I still think that term sucks ass. I'm going to blame this recent resurgence of metal in my life on Sausagechrist (this will be come clear in time gentle reader), and I am not sure if it is a good thing or not yet.

I am not one of those folks who is at that stage in life with music where "everything made in the past 10 years is garbage", and I hope never to be at that stage. I still discover new stuff weekly that appeals to me, but there is something to be said about finding that old mix tape you made in your senior year of high school, digging out that Ghetto Blaster that you have been storing in your attic for some unknown reason, and dropping it in for a listen. Of course, last time I listened to the afore mentioned tape I was probably drunk somewhere professing how I would never cut my hair or get a nine to five job instead of wondering how I was going to pay my bills, and whether or not I should do my taxes early for a change. Strange how things turn out isn't it...

So I'm listening to all this classic stuff (just for background, here is the partial list, Slayer, Metallica, Nuclear Assault, Megadeth, Testament, etc.) and remembering how much I grooved on it, and still do I might add. I also remember the whole metal movement of the 80's and 90's. I wasn't into the mainstream "Glam" metal, but into the speed metal, or thrash stuff. It was a strange time, because there was a whole clique of people who were all into the same thing (metal), but the sub-cliques (see above) absolutely hated each other. It made for very awkward Xmas moments..."thanks for the Poison album distant relative who doesn't know me"...off to the garbage that went.

The worst thing by far was the appearance. Mind you, the stuff I was into had a pretty simple uniform. Jeans, T-shirt, usually with the name of some band you were into, high tops or boots, and leather jacket. That was it. Pretty hard to screw that up. Then there was the other side of the coin...and these cats bothered me. A lot. The big hair with 4 full cans of hairspray in it, lipstick, eyeliner, Leather pants 2 sizes to small, some frilly shirt barely closed. Oh, just for you folks who weren't around, or into music yet, this was the Guys wearing this stuff. I shit you not. And, too add insult to injury, they were even getting laid occasionally. How the hell did that happen?

The weird part is, they thought that the look they were in was going to stick around. I still see the odd kid wearing a rock shirt and jeans, but not with big poofy hair and lipstick...Time is one horrible bitch isn't she.

In this state of remembrance, I went out and found a copy of "The decline of western civilization part 2: the metal years" and watched it tonight. I laughed, and laughed, and laughed some more. I forgot this movie really heavily concentrated on that Glam version of metal. I laughed at the clothing, but laughed even more at the kids in it. I think partially because they looked so ridiculous, but also because they seemed to think they were the first generation to be rebellious. I know I was also guilty of this growing up, but like all things, it had to end. The creepiest part was watching some guy saying that "if my band doesn't get famous, I might as well kill myself, because I don't know how to do anything else". Well, I've never heard of that band since...Guess that's one less make up wearing freak to worry about...

And again, all things must come to an end. I cut my hair off, realized that I have to do something, got a job and plodded into work everyday, but you know what...the mindset never left. I still have a lot of that same 18 year old kid inside my head, and that's the magical bit. I still carry around that attitude...I still play my guitar everyday...and I still think that guys who poof up their hair with hairspray and wear makeup are friggin idiots.