The thing that hits me about Metal and the aspect that has me going back for more and more and more is the fact that a good Metal track will capture two intense human experiences almost immediately and follow that with other feelings and emotions that we as human beings experience on a day-to-day level. But what is most intense in my listening experience of Metal is the ability of this music to capture and convey pure unadulturated exuberance, a testosterone-fuelled madness (possibly this is why many many bands become lacklustre as they age. Pagan Altar appear to be an exception) marked by the gallopping riffs of Heavy Metal and the pure speed attacks of Thrash, Death and Black Metal. This encompasses for me absolute hope, immortality and spitting in the face of fate, the hallmarks are "fuck authority", "fuck religion", "fuck the government" etc. In its absolute simplicity this attitude is beautiful; full of youthful exuberance and belief in the self. However and very importantly a good Metal track (or if the band thinks slightly more conceptually, a good Metal album) will have the exuberance tempered by a deep sadness, a dark melancholy. This is what Metal is for me: the perfect combination of youthful high-jinks and knowledge of one's own demise. This is how DarkThrone manage to spit in the face of god on their early output but at the same time keep the listener aware that even the overthrowing of a tyrant does not bring eternal joy, on the contrary, it is an occasion to be surveyed with a misty eye. Do not *Nattasja in eternal sleep*, does not *Freewheel burning*, *Wrathchild*, *Orion* and countless other tracks by such well-known and many less well-known acts teach us this lesson: Good Metal in all its facets is a portal to the inner self, bad Metal is just an insult. The perfect Metal track should have you headbanging and crying at the same time.