Stop and Listen to the Music

Last Thursday my husband and I went to a Sonata Arctica concert. We’d snagged tickets on Black Friday ($12–and only $18 even with the ridiculous ticket fees) and so we made the fairly last minute decision to go.

And, oh, it was glorious. Small, intimate venue, music so loud I couldn’t hear properly for approximately 12 hours afterwards, a small crowd of music lovers who braved the below freezing temperatures to come hang out in a tiny venue without proper parking…

But it was really the music that made it great. Sonata Arctica is a Finnish power metal band, and they were touring with Leaves’ Eyes (multi-national symphonic metal band) and Omnium Gatherum (Finnish death metal band).

(My husband: Is all music in Finland metal?
Me: Probably.)

(For those people who are like “There’s genres of metal music?” here is a description of the various ones.)

Omnium is not really my taste, so we missed the beginning of their set, but there was a point during Leaves’ Eyes’ set where I came back into my self and realized–that probably for the first time in a long time–that all my stress had fallen off, that I was content, that all the things that I worry about day in and day out had, for at least the moment, disappeared.

As you can imagine, it was quite freeing.

Symphonic metal is my favorite music genre, and I’ve found it to be very useful writing music as well, especially when I’m doing high or epic fantasy (my brother-in-law, a music teacher and fan of metal band Dragonforce, calls it “fantasy metal,” which is especially true of bands such as Rhapsody of Fire, whose songs include titles like “Emerald Sword” and “Power of the Dragonflame”). But I’ve been so wrapped up in the more left-brained portions of writing for the past few years that I rarely get to sit and listen to music while I’m working.

I guess I’ve missed it.

So, if you have activities that are freeing to you, whether it be listening to your favorite music or playing a certain type of game, maybe it’s time to add it back into your life if it’s been forced out. As Siri said last week, your sanity may depend on it, especially through these stressful times.

To end things, here’s a Leaves’ Eyes song for you: