Oh, I love metal. Love. My sister once said she didn't believe I loved it. She thought I just listened to it to irritate people around me, or for macho posturing. Though I'm pretty sure I made the next part up, I tell folks I was listening to Cradle of Filth on headphones when she tried to speak to me once. I took the headphones off and she could hear it, and was horrified to learn I listened to that crap even when nobody knew.
If it's not true, it should be.
Now, I do a lot of cardio in the form of swimming and "running" on the elliptical machine. I also used to run for real. I also like cycling, both for fun and transportation. And lastly, I lift a good deal of weights.
Now, there's a company that sells a waterproof iPod shuffle. There are also waterproof headphones. I suspect this gear is in my future. I'd love to have music to listen to while I swim, and the added bonus of something keeping water out of my brain would be splendid. In the meantime, though, I listen to the inside of my skull get wet when I swim, and not to music at all.
Also, at the gym I go to, the elliptical machines are in a room covered in TVs. It's really hard to zone out with music in that room because the TVs are so distracting. And I hate watching the TV because it's so insipid. So instead, I watch Jackass on my iPhone. If I gotta watch something, it might as well be my something.
That leaves real running, bicycling, and weight lifting. The absolute best music for those activities is played by a band called Kamelot. [iTunes, Wikipedia]
There are other bands that play great music for the gym, but they all share characteristics Kamelot has in spades.
Kamelot's music falls under the power, progressive, and symphonic metal genres. I debated with putting Wikipedia definitions in here, but instead, I'll try to write how Kamelot sounds.
They play complex, wall of sound music. I don't want to hear the idiot dance/pop music the gym plays through my earbuds, so the music has to be thick and dense, which Kamelot is. The tempo is typically slow, a lot slower than your standard Anthrax or Slayer. Or, on the songs with the fast tempo, the vocals seem to soar over the top of the music at about half speed, effectively slowing things down, since my brain tends to focus on lyrics when I can be bothered to focus at all.
This is important because lifting weights or running really depend on keeping an even pace. If I move frantically trying to keep up with Megadeth, I get all out of sync with myself and fall over dead, something my wife finds supremely irritating. But slowing it down and thickening it up makes for a sonic brew I can really sink my teeth into, as it were.
The singer is important, too. Bands I listen to while gymming are not the bands I listen to while driving fast out in the countryside or when I'm writing. Gym vocals need to be in absolute control. They need to own the song and be so good they don't need to show off. Kamelot's Roy Khan is such a singer. His style is muscular and emotive. If I want to sing along in my head, I can. But he's also so competent that within the framework of a song, I can ignore his words and just hear his voice as another instrument. That's key, because being able to ignore my music is, weirdly, of huge importance. I need to be able to focus on counting reps, focus on getting up the hill, focus on keeping my breathing even and deep. Good luck doing that listening to Judas Priest.
I used the word emotive. That's important, but on a whole different level. I love those songs dealing with loss and injustice. I love the songs about betrayal and mourning. They really give me that "life's not fair" power needed to yank that stack of iron to you one last time.
Actually, now that I'm typing all this, it occurs to me that the other band that hits the nail on the head perfectly is Pyramaze, but only the album on which Iced Earth's singer, Matt Barlow, sings. I recommend that album, Immortal, to any metal fan of any type. Their music with his vocals is a powerhouse only Kamelot can compete with. Talk about emotive. Holy cow. Not even Barlow's home band, Iced Earth, is as good as Pyramaze. [Immortal: iTunes, Wikipedia]
As I said, there are plenty of other bands that fit this nitch. It's not like I can just sit there and listen to two and a half hours of Kamelot while lifting weights, after all. I mix in other stuff like Tim Owens, Helloween, Edguy, Blind Guardian, Nighwish, Stratovarious, and Sonata Arctica. I also occasionally throw some thrash and punk in the mix. It mixes is up and keeps things from getting stale. Bad Religion and Rise Against are great punk choices. But progressive symphonic power metal is home base.
Further, I tend to be an album listener. I like the continuity. I don't like it on random. Random makes me worry about what's coming up next. I keep thinking about what I put on my shufflepod and what song I'd like to come up next. No, taking the choice away, making the songs be an album, that's the ticket. Knowing what song is next makes it so I don't have to think about what song will be next. And I hate thinking when I'm exercising. That defeats one of the major purposes of exercise.
So that's music and the gym: mid-tempo, complex, wall of sound music with confident, muscular vocals.
I'd love to know how you listen to your music when you work out, and what you prefer to play. And you read that shortlist of bands I like on here. I'll be happy to take your suggestions, too. Thanks for reading.
