Heavy Metal & You
by Christopher Krovatin
Scholastic, 2006
192 Pages
Young Adult (14+)
This book was glaringly absent from many paranormal-horror book blogs, so I will present it here knowing that many horror fans also crave the sonic warhead of power metal fury, the ninety tons of screaming thunder that goes hand in hand with cemeteries, ghosts, dark magic, and Elder Gods.
Heavy metal is like that– your music defines you to the point where you need it. You don’t own an article of clothing without a band logo on it, and your room is plastered with posters of your favorite bands because you need all of that fed into you.
On the back cover, Krovatin mentions that he was born the year Slayer’s Hell Awaits was released. He was only 16 when he wrote this book. Thinking back to when I was 15, the same year Krovatin was born, I had become the second kid in my high school to have his ear pierced just an hour before the Master of Puppets tour, and was embarking on a denim-and-leather journey of spike-studded, head-banging mosh-pits in the midst of the greatest era in the history of heavy metal. The next few years were a blur of Man O’ War, King Diamond, Venom, and Carnivore (the first album).
Alas, by the time I hit college, ‘80s metal was pretty played out, (I refer to Judas Priest’s Parental Guidance and Motley Crue’s Theatre of Pain album if you want substantiation,) and I digressed through a Goth/Darkwave phase (tempered with Ministry and eventually Cradle of Filth). It wasn’t until I hit my late 30s that I finally realized that metal had shaped who I was, and was an inescapable part of my finding meaning in life. (That was about the time Probot hit us all in the back of the head with what we had forgotten.) Needless to say at this point, Krovatin’s story of negotiating adolescence to the unrelenting beat of thrash metal has touched my heart.
This is a love story about a young metal-head, Sammy Markus, who falls in love with what S.E. Hinton coined a “Soc’” named Melissa (a not un-noticed nod to Mercyful Fate). Krovatin’s unique approach to this terrain is how the definitive moments of the relationship are reflected through Sammy’s sharing of mix tapes. The chapters are presented through the passage of time as a musical aficionado would see it, the current flow of events or the “now” (play/fast forward), reflection (pause), and flashbacks (rewind). Their titles are songs themselves.
At first, Sammy gets the “you have potential” talk. (She wants to change him already.) Melissa has a plan, and Sammy is lost in infatuation.
Like, you can be this bright, amazing human being when you want to be, but there are these things that set you back. I think booze and drugs might be some of ’em. I think the violence and attitude thing might me another two. To be honest, I think Brent and Irish might also be in there. Even, I dunno, your obsession with heavy metal.
(Hang in there, Sammy. I got the same talk from my girlfriend. We all did. Despite the attitude, you could always become a successful book blogger!)
As the couple grow closer and get to know one another better, they run into the usual hurdles: a jealous clique of friends as Sammy spends less and less time hanging out, meeting the parents (a bit of artistry that I think I actually learned something from,) and the first taste of each others’ worlds.
Melissa goes to a metal concert, gets licked, and sees Sammy get a little violent. But she handles it. Next up, Sammy has to go hang at the coffee shop with Melissa’s euro-trash yuppie friends. Predictably, at least for anyone who can appreciate this mixture of personalities, Sammy loses it, trashes them all to their faces, and almost blows it with his girlfriend. As a result, he gets some advice from his brother that reflects what we have all been screaming to ourselves inside already. Look inside yourself.
That’s it. That’s all that matters right now. Heavy metal and you. All I really have in the world are my CDs and you. All I care about, all I give a shit about. Heavy metal and you.
The strain on Sammy’s friendships eventually comes to a head, there are punches thrown, (followed by an unlikely discussion with his friends about expressing their feelings…) and then Sammy has a decision to make. A decision he must make on his own, and maybe with some advice from an ex-girlfriend as a guru.
This slice-of-life teen love story is short but, like the relationships it reflects, carries a window-breaking intensity. The writing is accessible to a pre-high school audience, but is probably more appropriate for young adults given the language and innuendo. Guys will enjoy this “relationship story” as much as the skater chicks, especially when they recognize band names like Cannibal Corpse, Sepultura, and Dimmu Borgir… though I am still incensed at the lack of mention for Fields of the Nephilim, my favorite band.
Related Posts:
INTERVIEW with Christopher Krovatin
Gravediggers: Entombed
Gravediggers: Terror Cove
Gravediggers: Mountain of Bones
Heavy Metal and You
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