To Quote Pantera: "It's Where You Come From".

While I like to think my tastes in music are many and broad, the meat and potatoes of my musical diet is the various flavors of metal.

Up until age 16 or so, I had no real music preferences of my own. I just sort of listened to whatever my parents and sister listened to. Mostly Bob Seger and Menudo. I love The Seger, but once can only hear Old Time Rock and Roll so many times before physical illness sets in.

Then, one day, a local high school started broadcasting an all-metal station out of their basement. Good old 88.9, V-Rock. It was awesome. To this day, it was the only place outside of my winamp playlists where I've been able to hear Sabbath, Gwar, and The Misfits played back to back. I heard bands on this station, became interested, then bought something by them. The station also played a lot of local music, which was what ultimately led me down the path of musicianship. This was back in the early Napster days, so that only added to my musical explorations.

Not only did V-Rock lead to the discovering new things, but there was something more profound among the listeners. Most of us were teenagers and in high school, going through all the bullshit teenagers go through. The more I look back on it, the more I realize there was very few of us who were in the "popular" crowds. We were all the outcasts, the weirdos...but we had V-Rock.

Maybe it was just a matter of teenage rebellion, or teenage angst, maybe it was the want to belong, or the desire for one's own sense of identity. Maybe it was all of the above. Maybe it was none of these things, and something else entirely. The fact of the matter remained; we had something to call our own. We had a community.

As time went on, the community only became tighter. Yes, there were cliques and some beefs, but those were in the minority. If we were driving down the street and saw someone on the sidewalk with a V-rock shirt, or a shirt for one of the local bands, we'd lean out the window, throw the horns and yell "V-ROCK! WHOOOOO!" to which the other person would throw the horns and respond with a "WHOOO!" of their own. It was silly, but sometimes it's the little things that get you through.

Something else: a large percentage of the programming was local bands. If you sent in yoour bands CD or demo, they'd play it. If you were 16, and playing your first show in some hole in the world dive bar, all you had to do was call the station and give them the particulars. They'd advertise for free on the air. Again, this only strengthened the community.

However, all good things come to an end, and V-Rock was no exception. Shortly after the shootings in Columbine, several of the local religious and parent groups suddenly became incensed that a high school was broadcasting such corrupting devil music from its basement. Why they hadn't taken umbrage in the time since the station's inception three years previous was anyone's guess.

Long story short, there was a lot of pressure put on the school board, and they caved. They gave the station a choice: a change in format, or go off the air. They chose the latter. The saga of a a tiny radio station in rural Ohio came to an end. The concerned citizens went back to snorting coke out of the ass cracks of altar boys, or whatever the hell it is they do on their high horses when they think no one is watching.

The school is once again broadcasting a radio station, with the same frequency and call letters, but it's "The Alternation" now, not V-Rock. Where once there was something different, there is now just more of the same old radio crap. It just isn't the same.

I learned a lot of things from our little band of headbanging, mosh-pitting brothers. I learned the value of a good friend. I learned what it really meant to give someone my word. I learned that sometimes, when the world piles insane amounts of shit on your shoulders, all you can do is give it the finger, drop your head, and fucking charge.

As I proofread this, I can't help but laugh. This was originally going to be about the albums which were my first forays into the heavy metal world. The V-Rock thing was supposed to just be a little footnote. The footnote then became a tangent, which then in turn became the whole topic. Funny how things work out sometimes.

I guess with all the things going on the past couple of weeks, I was feeling nostalgic. Pay no mind to my little trip down memory lane. :)