Why Does It Have To Be So Loud?

The perennial cry of the metal widow.

The question was first asked by Fritz Spiegl of Pink Ployd in the 6os and still exists on a clip, stored in the BBC archives, that pops up from time to time. Roger Waters gives the best, the only, answer; the answer that poor old Fritz can't understand.

"We like it that way".

At which point Fritz witters on about how he was brought up on string quartets; while Roger says, well, he wasn't.

There is no necessity, no compulsion, no rational argument that requires you to burn your eardrums off listening to the Floyd or the Zep or the Ramones - and the latter particularly can play quite happily at modest volumes. But sometimes you need total immersion. Intellectual appreciation of fine nuances is all very well on occasion - but sometimes you want the energy rush and the emotional involvement. To feel the power chords. It's a bit like incense in church - it's not suited to all occasions and some folk can't do with it, but an extra sense can be brought into play - with loud rock it's touch (you feel it).

And if you think it isn't like worship, you've never seen the Darkness or the Quo or the Zep or the Floyd live (the Floyd seem to use the elements, I'm told). And you've missed something. Surround sound? This is "all through" sound. Poor old Fritz.

Glenn Hughes has a fantastic new version of "Nights in White Satin", by the way. A review of Trivium's album will follow (maybe).