[soah]

I rarely even hear the lyrics in a song I listen to. I'm a very visual person so in most cases, even if I can hear the lyrics clearly, I fail to understand them because they are very rarely meant to be taken literally. So even if I can hear each word of the song, it's not until I see the lyrics in print that I understand the point of the song at all. In many cases, I enjoy the song more once I understand the lyrics... but it's hardly a priority.

On rare occasions, horrid lyrics can be enough to make me dislike a song... but for the most part, they are pretty meaningless to me since I'm rarely even paying attention to them.

I listen almost exclusively to metal. There are a lot of negative connotations associated with metal. Some of them are well-deserved. The lyrics are often violent or in some way anti-social. Some of the musicians are genuinely horrible people (although they are in the minority). But the music is fascinating. Most people are turned off by its speed, abrasiveness, and atonality... it is certainly not easy to get used to. But it is not just random noise. Just as mainstream music has its own rules, each metal subgenre has its own. It has its own complex rhythmic structures. The melodic elements sound wrong to the untrained ear because they rarely adhere to the major or minor scales that are used by most music. But they do abide by the rules of other musical modes. Another confusing element of metal is that the melodic and percussive elements are so deeply intertwined that they cannot really be separated. With few exceptions, metal songwriters tend to be extremely gifted. And playing the music is no small feat either (I seem to recall Metallica saying in an interview that their change in style was at least partially due to the difficulty of performing their songs).

So I guess I've described the music pretty well... I suppose that doesn't really explain why I like it though. That's much harder. Something about the intensity attracts me to it... there's nothing like taking a nice melody, and then getting someone to play a double bass drum over it as fast as humanly possible.

edit to add: since metal lyrics can rarely be understood at all, I find it interesting to look them up sometimes. Some of them are absolutely hilarious. While morbid lyrics are pretty much par for the course, not all bands actually take them seriously.