What Have You Learned From Your Time At Metal Academy?

So come on, what have you learned from the Metal Academy?  Seems only fitting that a site named after a location for specialist study or training should have a thread to chart progress of it's members.

For me I have expanded my previously thought fixed genres through the discoveries made via the site.  I have become more open to "core" genres and also have managed to rekindle some affections for the alternative/nu-metal/grunge side of metal via the Gateway.  Add to this though the fact that I have really had my eyes opened to some great bands within my well-established listening genres of death metal, thrash metal and black metal.  I have even found a few albums/artists in the more traditional heavy metal field that I had not come across before during my 30+ years of listening to metal.

Also, for the benefit of doubt, this is not a thread created to go off on a tangent about anything we think is wrong with the site.  Positive vibes only is the intention here folks.

I've discovered some great music through recommendations, reviews, clan challenges, feature releases and playlists that I would probably never have come across otherwise. All these have come from members of the site whose opinions and musical knowledge I respect enormously. A particular aspect of the site that sets it apart from all the other metal sites I have interacted with is the lack of snarkiness and one-upmanship. Though we may be small in number, I think we  make up for it with a huge love and enthusiasm for the music and a great generosity in sharing that love and enthusiasm with others, whilst respecting the fact that, whilst others may hold differing opinions we are all "Brothers in Metal".

More specifically, I have regained an appreciation of and enthusiasm for good old heavy metal that I thought I had largely lost. Yet at the same time I have probably dived further down the extreme metal rabbit hole than before. The Monthly Feature releases especially have been instrumental in widening my listening scope - I never thought for a minute I would ever enjoy a Trivium album, yet there I was back in March enthusing all over In Waves! I have been directed to a number of albums that have since become firm favourites, becoming firmly ensconced in my all-time top twenty, forty, fifty or whatever. Of particular pleasure is the huge number of more underground 80s / 90s thrash I have listened to, in main it must be said thanks to Daniel's prolific recommendations.

But mostly I've learnt that even after 45 years of listening to metal, I've still got plenty to learn.

I've certainly learnt a lot during the few years Ben & I have been administering the MA website. The most impressive function of MA is its ability to draw like-minded people together in an open, judgement-free & artistically invigorating environment & I genuinely look forward to seeing what everyone has to say about their music as I hold so much respect for the group as a whole. I've always been open to all types of metal & like to think that I hold a pretty rounded taste profile but I think it's fair to say that the more extreme end of the metal equation has always been my preference so it's been great to see my horizons being expanded through the monthly feature releases & playlists. In fact, the expansion of those two features into a more collaborative clan-based function has given the site a whole new dimension & seems to have created an increased level of engagement & interest for everyone. I've definitely been opened up to more new releases than I might otherwise have been & have been thrilled to find that the modern metal scene offers as much quality as it has in decades. 

I've really enjoyed digging into the history of a lot of these subgenres and different Clans thanks to the more curated recommendations and featured albums rather than going blindly into a subgenre I probably won't like too much to begin with. I've learned so much more than I would have previously about the beginnings and driving forces of the major metal genres that aren't necessarily the massive heavy-hitters that everyone knows about. Going through the 1st Decade Black Metal challenge was an arduous but satisfying process that was definitely worth it in the end since it gave me a ton of new perspective. Plus I'm starting to really pinpoint my biases and preferences when it comes to more extreme styles of metal as well as the genres I'm more familiar and comfortable with. The Academy has also really helped my review process and, even though I'm not as consistent as some of the others here, it's helped to push me to have each of my reviews be higher and higher quality the more I learn about metal in general. While listening to metal is far from the only thing I do, I enjoy "mastering" things that I care deeply about, so The Academy has been a serious resource in filling in the holes in what I don't understand or know about in this vast section of music. Plus it gets me to listen to older/classic albums way more than I would normally, since I primarily go towards current year albums during my day to day. 

Quick little update on my part. I was a busy bee during most of 2020 when it came to listening to new music. Not all of it is metal, but I did find myself listening to a lot more than I had in previous years. One of my go to YouTube channel's for discovering new metal music went off the air at the end of 2019 and I feared that beyond that, metal would take an even further backseat then it already was at the time. This has certainly not been the case, thanks to the Metal Academy.

In the last year and a half I have been exploring outside of my clans more than I ever anticipated thanks in part because of the monthly featured albums. Sonny's nominations for Fallen albums have been a treat up to this point, the Revolution releases have been mostly enjoyable; both in Andi's nostalgia being similar to my own, and Daniel's blend of classic metalcore/mathcore, and even though Death Metal is nowhere close to a forte of mine, I have listened to quite a few adjacent albums that peaked my interest, most notably thanks to a mountain of critical acclaim for Ulcerate's Stare Into Death and Be Still from last year.

I have enjoyed exploring genre's outside of my comfort zone such as death metal and mathcore, and hearing how the sound has evolved over time, even if I may be listening to these albums out of chronological order. It does make for some more unique takes on records that may be considered classics, and can hear the influence in later records by other artists.