Hello everyone... Well, tonight I thought I would give the chat rooms a whirl and seeing as how I enjoy metal, I thought I would check out a room called #MFMetal. Seemed pretty straight-forward to me, I like metal; these people like metal, right? WRONG! Alas, it was not to be because the minute I entered the room, I'm asked to list which bands I listen to. I thought they were just making conversation, but I came to find out that anyone new to the room is basically asked the same thing and God help you if you mention a band they don't approve of because it's the beginning of the end of your time in the room. I made the fatal mistake of listing some bands that were deemed too 'generic' by the room and that's about when everything started going downhill.

I didn't think too much of it, but the next thing I know some person is talking about banning me from the room. I'm thinking, "Wait a second, what is going on here? I wasn't rude to anyone, or an asshole, and I can't think of anything I could have done in the past 5 or ten minutes to deserve getting banned". They claimed they weren't going to ban me when I asked them directly, but they claimed that I wasn't paying enough attention or something and the next thing I know I'm kicked out of the room. I thought they were trying to be funny or were hazing me, but no - they apparently banned me right there, for no good reason I could think of. I wondered if there was something in their rules that I missed, but suffice it to say I read through them and can't find anything to explain why I deserved a banning, this is from the #MFMetal room rules: [link]

"Don't Be Stupid" - I was not 'Stupid'. I love metal in many forms (yes, perhaps 'some' of the metal I like may be considered generic but certainly not all of it) and the subculture that goes with it, I NEVER once said metal sucks, period. Saying metal sucks is heresy in my book.

"Don't Be a Dick" - I was not a 'Dick'. I did not engage in bullshit of any kind, taunt anyone, tease anyone, etc, etc.

"Don't Be Illiterate" - I'm not 'Illiterate'. I pride myself on my grammar, punctuation, word usage, and spelling among other things. Sure, I may say 'Lol' as much as the next person but I don't resort to gibberish to communicate with people.

Ranking - True, I did ask the room how this worked when I should have just looked at the rules. I assumed I was lumped into "Power" because they thought thats the type of music I listened to, which was not the case but at no time did I ask to be promoted.

So there you have it folks, I genuinely can't find a good reason for the way I was treated and what happened. I guess it's not a big deal but I get mad when someone calls my metalness into question, like I have to jump through hoops to prove it to someone who really doesn't know me at all. But for those whose interest is piqued, here are a few reasons (of many others) of why I'm metal.

- Getting a tattoo (of something pretty metal AND naughty) at the tender age of 13 years old, which was done by a friend (the hard way). And no, I didn't have my parents permission. When my father discovered what I had done, he damn near beat the shit out of me. In Public.

- One of the first times I entered a mosh pit, an altercation occurred between myself and this dildo with a spiked gauntlet, because said dildo didn't know how to crowd surf. Needless to say, I can protect myself, but this guy managed to swipe at me with it and caught me right in the fucking eye with a spike = Bloody eye, scared bystanders, I'm pissed off and dildo is lucky the crowd dropped his ass to the floor after that. Seriously though, I'm lucky I didn't lose that eye.

- I helped a guy sneak a cooler of vodka over the fence (and yes the area was crawling with security people) to one of my first Metallica concerts (Old Metallica). I didn't know this guy whatsoever, but he was cool and also going to the concert. To thank me for my troubles, we split the vodka and chatted before the concert began. Did I mention I'm allergic to alcohol? Needless to say, I was totally loaded and it was a great concert - pretty good times considering I was only 14 at the time. And yes, I'm much much older now, thank you very much.

So here's the wrap up - first metal tattoo at the age of 13, damn near lost an eye to a gauntlet at a concert, and did all kinds of naughty and illegal things at the Metallica concert when I was 14. There is much, much more than these events from my past but hey, I told you I was metal so stay tuned and maybe I'll tell you more another time.

- Dethkock Out