For the past five years, I have had the privilege to fulfill a childhood dream of becoming a lead/rhythm guitarist for a heavy metal band. It all started at an unfortunate band practice in 2005, as my guitarist friend and I were looking to form a group covering Iron Maiden and Sepultura classics. The band came full circle when one of the drummers we've jammed with years before brought along his friend who was the vocalist of their previous band. We all gathered and talked about jamming some of their songs until eventually, we shifted from their sludge metal sound to a more thrash, speed metal direction. It was at this point that everything fell into place. We composed a couple of songs (basically aping the twin-guitar melodies and tremolo picking that mid '90s Swedish metal was heralding) and practiced them for a month before getting booked to nearby gigs here and there to fill out the slots. The first gig we played was at Purple Haze, Marikina and we performed at 3:30am in the...
Ramblings rescued from the great deep
