Countless times have I stumbled onto a band with high expectations and ended up disappointed and eventually just cranked up some Metallica or GnR just to wash away the pollution caused to my ears. But, a few times I have gone back to the same band and was pleasantly surprised to find that either my taste had changed or the band had totally reinvented themselves into something I wanted to play over and over again in my car, at work, on my iPod, and as my ringtone. Now, a lot of you musically enlightened people will put a label on a band after hearing them for the first time, that label being either “THIS FUCKIN ROCKS!” or “IM GONNA HURL THIS IS SO BAD!”- Well don’t. What I’m trying to say is always always give a band another chance, go back down the line and check em out again.

Why? Well because down the line you might actually discover that the same band you hated in college is now your favorite band of all time.

This can happen as a result of the following:

• Over the years all humans, well, most humans will mature and change and develop new tastes for things like food, lifestyle, sex positions, and of course music. Now if after all that change you are still a hardcore rocker/metalhead and haven’t moved on to whatever that hot girl in the office next to you is listening to, then you have a decent chance of listening to the same songs you heard and hated way back when and falling head over heels in love with their music. For example, I would have serious stomach issues whenever I heard a Red Hot Chili Peppers song way back in the day and now I just can’t get enough of the other side. Doesn’t mean I’m not into most of the stuff I used to be into anymore, just means I added to my extensive repertoire of things that rock.
• Bands can reinvent themselves, a while back I gave a band called Mastodon a chance and nothing they had really blew me away, I wasn’t bothered by their music but they weren’t that awesome, then just a few weeks before writing this post I decided to give their new album “The Hunter” a go, and I fell in headbanging love with every song. I thought maybe I had changed with time, so I went back and listened to the old stuff and still had the same reaction I did back then. So they changed up their riffs a bit and went that next level of darkness which really was quite awesome. So in my opinion Mastodon reinvented themselves whether they were trying to or not. Point is they are now on my list of bands to be reckoned with.

So all you awesome headbangers and rockers out there, remember to give those bands you didn’t like much in the past a few chances before you totally write them off, oh yeah! And don’t judge a band after just listening to 2 songs, go through an album or two before you pass judgment…e.g. don’t listen to “Beautiful Dangerous” then say that SLASH sucks on his own, listen to a large collection then say he sucks…and then go back later on and check it out again.

Peace, Keep your heads bangin
\m/r