2015 Week 17: Sludge Nap

My Teenage Lullabies.

I feel like I'm on the cusp of a personal metal resurgence. I've been listening to heavier music this past week. It could be due to stress and I don't care what anyone says, metal is the best stress reliever. There's a reason so many of us, mostly awkward teenagers, turned to it when we did. Particularly boys, but that may have just been a sign of the times. I think the gender gap here was more of an imaginary one, imposed by culture, as most gender gaps are. As a matter of fact, my current favorite is Royal Thunder and the singer/bass player is a girl! A girl!! And she's a badass. Imagine that.

Mlny Parsonz of Royal Thunder

I remember I used to get home from school, particularly when I was in high school, which I hated, and would put on Metallica (usually) and actually fall peacefully asleep as I listened. And this was well before "Enter Sandman," which I'm now convinced was about me. These were the best naps of my life. The rage, aggression, frustration and ultimately pain and confusion of adolescence would be soothed by this music that gave it voice like nothing else. We always tend to think every song is about us at that age, so it's refreshing to know that 25 years later, I can still listen to crushing chord and feel understood in some way.

Anyway, this week's Spotify playlist just sort of happened to be heavy and sludgy so I went with it and organized it a bit into something of a journey into one of those naps. Only this isn't a throwback list by any means. And it's not all metal, but the couple lighter tunes I left in kinda fit in anyway. Most of this stuff, I actually just heard this week for the first time. If I had the time for one of those epic naps, this might be playing in the background. And as much as I love vinyl, I wouldn't have to get up and flip the record over at any point. So, turn it up and take a sludge nap. By the way, I recommend playing these in order with a 5 second cross fade if possible.