Hah! Thought I was going to say some rightwing-stuff, eh? Well, too bad. You're tricked, ya monkey!
Now that you're reading this, might aswell read on.

I do wanna raise a point, but its solely to two fictious characters.

GTAIV is a top notch rockin' game, loved it all the way.
Now with the Ballad of gay tony up, they said its like GTASA.
What does my brain come up with?
...Tony's hero and CJ both are...*dun dun dun* African-American!

I smell a conspiracy.
I think Rockstargames wants to avoid any chance for charges of racial discrimination
by letting all the black people have the biggest adventures...

Well, damn right they should!
If having a black leading character means
I will have a top-notch gaming experience and a wild ride through Liberty City,
I say: Bring on the invasion, "homies"!

Disclaimer: I myself am not African-American.
If this blogpost were to shock anyone, they can chew some gum, because I didn't write,
nor intended to write any racism in it, and if you are offended,
I won't care much, and you shouldn't be playing any of the games I mentioned.
P.S: IF you are offended, let me know. I LOVE offending small minded people.

Hey, I don't think I've said here that I'm actually a full-fledged Heavy-Metal fan-and-enthousiast.
Perhaps even to the extend of abit of Chauvenism when it comes down to it. But thats typical Belgian behaviour:
Fries, Beer, Chocolate and Chauvenism.

If I'm right, Chauvenism means that you prefer the party that has more related to you then the other.
This can be applied for national and international soccer. Don't you prefer the soccerteam of your town wan over the other, even though the National team has people from all sorts of teams? Thats Chauvenism, and if its a healthy ammount, its something you don't need to be ashamed of. ^^

Back on topic, I have been a self-proclaimed 'Metalhead' since 17 'Rocktobre' October 2007.
So of course I had to get Brütal Legend, THE Metalgame that isn't Guitarhero/Rockbandish (I'd be bad at that anyway-
And of course: JACK BLACK!!!.
Funniest idiot ever. And I say idiot in a Chauvenistic way.
Read: I'm a humble idiot. (Where's your DENIAL phase now, huh? )

Like I said, 17/Oct/07 is a special day. I've just had it around a week ago.
Sadly, I didn't do anything special. Well, I hardly do anyting special on my birthday, so I didn't care that much.
Its a day to look forward to, not a day to exactly celebrate when it happens.

I say self-proclaimed and not "discoverred Metal",
because I actually had discoverred it long before that. I was 18 by the way.
I count Hard Rock (and some normal rock) amongst my Metal flavor, because they form the roots of Metal, and one should always honor where their favorite things started from. Just like honorring the good ol' Atari for bringing us the xBox 360. Atari didn't develop it, Microsoft did, but Atari helped (or was responsible for) making consoles popular.
I honour them, so we all know that, just as the tire came from the wooden weel, we should never forgot how we evolved, in order to be able to evolve further, correctly.

This might be a long blog-post, and might mostly be about Metal. So skip this blogpost now if thats not your fancy, because its not gonna change. Its either here, or its in the review of BL that it'll stand.

My path to Metal started at the age of twelve. I've been fairly ignorant of how Metal has been in my life, until the very day in octobre 2007.
I watched ALOT of movies at the age of 12-13. Belgian channels always had a movie at noon, usually it was moderately violent, not really bloody, generall acceptable. And of course, English. Helped me develope a love for the English language real young. I my mothertongue is Dutch by the way, I'm flemish.

And of course, the toughest of movies with deadly action had a good-rockin' tune to them.
I always preferred them more then the others.

Age of 16 was a mark to remember. A close friend, my best friend back then, had a copy of Rammstein's CD 'Mutter'.
I got the CD as normal sound files on my PC, and put them on my gigantic Mp3 player of 20GB.
(imagine it as two chocolate-bars next to eachother, the weight of that size in Lead, the screen type like the first Gameboy and a button system abit similar to the iPod nowadays, only less easy to use)
I am telling you, Rammstein is still counted as my favorite, having around 20 favorite songs of them on my Mobile phone (serving as my Mp3-player very well) even today.

2003, month unknown. The TV plays the movie named The Matrix.
Long coats, cool shades and a badass attitude. I have been obsessed with this Trilogy for a long time.
The base obsession revolving around the long coats. Trenchers is, for lack of a better comparison, 'kickass' to me.

2005-2006. At Highschool, a rare case where no Musicflavor has conquerred the playground and such (no bullies either, lucky shot), a man arrived who carried with him the scent of Heavy Metal. I know you might be able to predict how this will go further, but stick by, its not exactly like that.

Introduction was...friendly. A group of people, Metalheads, which I found agressive and hostile, were actually less hostile then one would believe. My eyes were opened to how powerfull and abusive Media can be.
For example, those school shoot-outs with kids with long coats, I couldn't STAND they made references to games and Heavy Metal. Everybody needs a scapegoat, but nobody wants to think they FAILED to HELP the poor lad doing this horrible stuff. No man is born evil in my opinion. Other bad people make a bad man. Simple.

I was friendlier to all people I otherwise felt suspicious to.
Skinheads, generally seen as pioneerrs for racism, if you get to know them, you realise that they are people like you and me, with a different opinion. The one side of an arguement, an arguement like Jelly VS Peanutbutter, but off course of a more serious nature.
I am politically and religiously pretty much A-based.
No picking sides, no fighting sides, just observing, and laughing when one side does or says something stupid.
Mostly these would be contradictions of past-statements.

Septembre 2007. This person, now another good friend, became from Goth Metal to Cyber Goth (or something like that, I lost track). But nonetheless, I didn't mind. I was exploring metal by then, listening to a few songs of them. Of course these were more extreme genres, and it scared me a little at first.

I met a group of Metalheads. They were like a big family, but not as rustic as a would-be vampire pack, but not as small-minded as a real family either. A group of people that care and defend eachother asif they'd be brethren.
I had discoverred the song Archetype by Fear Factory. It started it. I liked it, but Fear Factory had other songs that were more Antichrist. And I just don't like being involved in a mess like that.

Octobre 2007
I discoverred In Flames, through another friend, and they were my first favorite group.
Their song The Quiet Place totally sold me on the 17th of Ocotobre, and I decided to get me a trenchcoat, something I've wanted years before that, and I self-proclaimed me a Metal-head. I was about to get a de-greening from the lads, but that got cancelled since our 'pack' disbanded.
I later on discoverred Dragonforce, and so on...

and as of writing, I am fan of Children of Bodom, Metallica, Rob Zombie (TWISTED!!!!) and, of course, Rammstein. + I am still discoverring more and more, and I don't see myself stopping anywhere soon.

The Personal effects of becoming Metal were almost visible to me the first weeks.
I had thrown myself in the arms of the Electric Guitar, and I was sold.

I felt like I had an army supporting me. I had a boost to my self-confidence.
Before, if I listened to music in public, this shortly was rap (just Eminem, tbh), techno and other genres I shamefully look back on, I would feel shame, afraid if anyone would hear what I was listening to through my earphones.
With Metal...none of that. The Music was put up loud and if anyone had a problem, they could always see my longest finger for an answer. (rude, but thats how I felt about it).

2009, I've cooled off. I've discoverred deep bits about myself. Metal has let me discover myself, find myself, truly.
I have done my best to make up for atleast a part of my long youth of ignorance. I have tried to learn what I can about the Legends of Rock this planet has seen.
I feel like I am in place. If I were to die tomorrow, I would find it a shame, but I would die, knowing I had found myself.
Something some people at the age of 60 still envy me for.

Metals are generally seen as a group of people that bring conflict.
This is true, to a point.

Many genres hold a hostile standing towards us. And when 'the **** hits the fan',
(again for the lack of a better wording, and to use profanity to properly describe the seriousness of this point)
it will be us who is pointed the blame.

I have a hostile standing towards Hip-hop myself, no matter I briefly listened to rap.
Its one thing to have beautiful women in your video's, but if you treat or call women like garbage, you've lost my respect.
Hiphop, to me, has too much of an AlphaMale type to them. Sure, we Metals have a similarity, but in a healthy extend.
There's no throne, no the-strongest-gets-all-respect mentality.
Do know that this hostility is limited to the biggest Music-creators of said genre and their way of life.
I do not hate the individuals who chose to listen to this music and dress like it.
Some can't help it. My very own cousin is a victim of this peer-pressure people of said genre can give to one-another.

I'm also against the Emo-culture which is, in my opinion, to blame for the many suicide-counts in Western Countries.
Emo-music is depressive music, and its another factor that helps teenagers cross the line to something they most likely will regret. I am also a fullworthy protester against Tokio Hotel. Its got to do with their looks and the fact I still can't distinguish wether their lead-singer is a Male or Female.

If you reply on this blog-message, defending your hiphop friends or whatever:
Please, don't bother. You probably haven't seen what I've seen. Been through what I've been through.
Your life in times of High School can be tough, even if not everything happened IN High School.
I won't change my mind. So don't bother.

Ahhhh, two more weeks and Brütal Legend will be shown to the world.

I'm really looking forward to it.
Some may know that I'm a Heavy-Metal fan to the grave.
Hearing what groups were going to be included in there... I just had to have it.

So I pre-orderred it, three months too soon I think.
Heh.

Finally a game worthy to keep the soul of Metal alive amongst the gamers.
(well seeing from the reviews from TV and magazines and, heh, Gamespot.)