How To Be A Metalhead - How Can I Dress Like A Metal Head?

In my first article about How to be a metalhead, I gave you the 7 easy steps to follow to be a metalhead. In this article we're gonna focus on one of the 7 steps, which is how to dress Metal. 

If you haven't read my first article, go ahead and read it first before you proceed on this article. Click this How To Be A Metalhead? 

Dressing like a metalhead is not easy as 123, compared to hip hop and pop fashion. You cannot simply wear the latest trend in fashion out there. You need to follow some set of rules. Metalheads has a culture of being anti-fashion and anti-commercialism. We don't want to follow the "In-thing". We just want to be different from the rest of guys in the mainstream. 

How To Be A Metalhead

  The Metal Look In The 70's And 80's

During the 70's and 80's, Rob Halford (Judas Priest Vocals) popularized the biker look which is more on leather jackets, black band T-shirts, belts detailed with silver, black boots, black jeans, and of course long hair. 

The Metal Look In The 90's

There was a little change during the 90's. A lot of meatalheads cut their hair and they preferred short haircut instead of long hair. Short hairs with massive goatee were the metal thing during this time and of course black t shirt, black jeans and all that stuff. James Hitfield of Metallica is one great example. 

Metalhead Look Today

There are 29 Heavy Metal Subgenres (Wikipedia) and today how to be a metalhead and to dress metal would depend on the subgenre that you are in. Becuase there are many heavy metal sub genre and has various style of clothing, let's just focus on this 3 Metal Sub Genre.

Trash Metal - Leather jackets, denim jackets, skinny black jeans, black boots or black leather shoes, with sleeve or sleeve less black t shirt. The common stuff was skinny jeans and black t-shirt. The "Big Four" bands of thrash metal are Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax

NU Metal  - Many Metalheads would insist that NU Metal is not part of Metal but let's face the truth, one of its core music component is from heavy metal. Basically it is a fusion genre which is a combination of alternative metal, grunge and hip hop.  NU Metal style clothing has a touch of hip hop, like loose fit jeans, big t shirts, rubber shoes, and hats. NU Metal bands - Korn, Slipknot, many more.

Black Metal - Common theme of black metal is anti-Christianity so they are portraying satanic ideology and images. Black metal fans usually wears make up, long hair, leather wrist band with silver spikes on it, belts detailed with silver, black leather jackets, black boots, black jeans, Sleeveless black shirt. Black metal bands are Venom,  

Mayhem and Darkthrone.

There is also another metal subgenre called Unblack Metal which is the opposite of Black Metal and its main theme is Pro-Christianity. Famous unblack bands are Horde, Antestor, and Crimson Moonlight. 

The Common Gear in Metal

Though there are a lot of metal genre and ways of how to be a metalhead, but one common thing in all subgenre is black t shirt. So if you are going to a metal concert and not sure what to wear, just grab that black t shirt in your closet and your good to go. Just remember that metal is not about fashion but PASSION. 

It doesn’t matter if you really look metal yet do not understand, appreciate, and respect metal. The thing here is that don't pretend. Just be who you are and don't wear those stuff if you are not comfortable or else you'll be labeled as a poser.

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How to dress Metal

I'm sure there are other style of dressing metal that I haven't covered here but more or less this is the basic foundation on metal clothing which part of the process on how to be a metalhead.






Photo thanks to rinkjustice under a creative commons license

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Where Do I Find An Online Acoustic Guitar Tuner?

Finding a good Acoustic Guitar Tuner Online is a pain in the ass, isn't it? I know, because I've been there too. You bang your head on the computer for several hours and end up disappointed because you can't find a really good online guitar tuner. 

Most of them are crappy and not accurate. Some notes are flats and some are sharps. Which is impossible for you to play perfectly in tune. 

Other online guitar tuners will have you click through several web pages and then at the end will surprise you with a shopping cart (What? I thought it’s FREE!). 

Well, worry no more because I found a simple solution for you!

After several hours of surfing the net, I finally found one good free online acoustic guitar tuner and it is the guitar tuner tool available at www.jamplay.com. 

You can locate the free guitar tuner app on their tool tab but you can also access it directly by clicking this link here JamPlay Acoustic Guitar Tuner 

Online Acoustic Guitar Tune

Just a friendly reminder, you can't rely on any free guitar tuner online so don't expect too much on it. The tuner at JamPlay.com is sometimes not perfectly accurate because this may depend on your mic and input/output hardware configuration. 

But the good thing is that it's more accurate than any other guitar tuners out there in the internet. 

Anyway it's free and it's a good value to help beginners get started and rock on. You can always purchase a high quality electronic guitar tuner as you go along in your guitar journey. 

Why you need a guitar tuner?

Basically, you need a guitar tuner to achieve fast and accurate tuning. If you are a beginner, your learning rate will also increase as this will enable you to tune the guitar quickly and accurately resulting to have ample of time for practice. 

Guitar tuner is not only for beginners because most of professional guitar players are using guitar tuner for accurate tuning and avoiding delays during concerts.

Guitar tuners are available for both acoustic and electric guitar. However, on this article let’s focused on the acoustic guitar tuner. 

There are several ways of tuning your acoustic guitar. But these five below are the most common methods being used by most guitarist today.

• Harmonics
• Pitch Pipes
• Electronic Tuner
• 5th Fret Method
• Tuning Using a Keyboard or Piano

Basically, these methods above are ways of tuning the guitar by ear except for the electronic tuner. Tuning by ear is one problem that you might encounter when you are just starting out. 

Don't worry too much if you can't tune by ear properly in your first few attempts. This is a common problem that every guitarist will experience and you can add me on the list. 

Slash and Kirk Hammett might have the same problem with you before they became guitar heroes.

So if you are a beginner, your best option is to use an electronic guitar tuner rather than tuning it by your own ears. But I would recommend that you would also take time to learn how to tune using your ear as this is a very important skills that a guitar player must have.  

Why you should go for an online guitar tuner?

There are lots of electronic guitar tuners available in the market today at very affordable prices. But before spending you precious bucks on them, I would suggest that you use a free online acoustic guitar tuner first. 

It is a smart move to try a free tool first before spending money, doesn't it? 

I can't stress this enough, it's better to see for yourself. So why don't you head on to www.jamplay.com right now and give a try this cool Acoustic Guitar Tuner.

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How To Be A Metalhead?

How to be a metalhead is a long way of discussion but let me give you 7 easy steps that you need to know to be a real metalhead. 

1. Love Metal - this is the most important factor that a metal head should have. If you don't love metal and just pretend that you love the music because your friends like it too, then you are considered as poseurs. 

Poseurs are fake! It might be a fan or an artist who just pretend to be metalhead but do not understand the philosophy or values of the subculture. 

You want to be a metalhead? Then love metal first and be sincere about it. Being metal comes from the heart.

2. Get to Know Metal - If you know the history of metal you'll understand the music and people that surround it. 

You don't need to know the very detail of every heavy metal music sub genre. But by knowing its background you'll know the reason why you would want to be a metalhead. 

I highly recommend that you watch  these two documentary films Metal: A Headbanger's Journey and Metal Evolution. Sam Dunn (the actor) travel around the world to explore the long-misunderstood art form and to dig down the history of metal. On these documentaries, you'll be able to learn where heavy metal came from, the musical style that influenced metal, and how the metal evolved through decades and came up with new sub-genres.

3. Listen and Appreciate Metal - First, listen to different Metal sub genre, from Old school metal like Black Sabbath to modern metalcore like Killswitch Engage. 

Then next figure it out what subgenre you really like the most and give your full support on it. Don't just listen to the vocals but also be aware of the whole key components of the band. Appreciate guitar solos, bass solos, and drum solos.         

4. Support the Music - Attend local metal concerts and feel the music. Buy albums and avoid illegal downloading and piracy if you can. In this way you’re not only helping the artists but also helping the Music to be alive in the next coming years. 

Hangout with other metal heads as they can also give you tips on how to be a metal head.

5. Play the Music - Metal heads exist because of music. It is the core component of being a metal head. And 7 out of 10 metalhead wants to actually play the music rather than just listen to it. It is a plus factor if you know how to play metal. 

Playing some heavy riffs or perhaps kicking off that double pedal is just an amazing feeling of power and masculinity. Learning music now a days is much easier than before because of the internet. You can even get PREMIUM metal guitar lessons for free if you just be serious in digging the net. However, you don't need to be a musician to be considered as metalhead. As I said it's a plus factor but it is not necessary. 

6. Dress Metal - Metalhead clothing evolved for decades. In the 70's and 80's, Rob Halford (Judas Priest Vocals) popularized the biker look which is more on leather jackets, black band T-shirts, belts detailed with silver, black boots, black jeans, and of course long hair. 

But in the 90's lot's of metal heads cut their long hair and one good example is James Hetfield (Metallica). 

Today, metal fashion depends on the heavy metal music sub genre. Metalcore is more on black skinny jeans and black metalhead band t shirt. While Nu metal clothing is influenced by hip hop. It's up to you what to follow whether the 70's style or the modern one. 

It all boils down to the metal sub genre you are interested in. This is a very long topic so I'll discuss more about it in my coming post as a supporting article on how to be a metalhead.

7. Stand On What You Believe - Other metal heads may tell you, don't listen to NU Metal because its crappy hip hop. Or don't listen to Metalcore because they’re gay. Well I tell you, DON'T listen to these close minded people. 

Every music genre is unique and deserved to be respected. Be true to yourself and listen to your inner voice.  Don’t go with the flow, stand to what you believe and most of all, enjoy Metal Music. 

Aside from the key points mentioned above, there are a lot of factors need to be considered. 

But just follow these 7 steps and you'll be fine because these are the basics and very important steps you need to know on how to be a metalhead.

Photo thanks to MarkScottAustinTX's.

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