You never forget your first...

You never forget your first.

I was 15 years old. Was that too young? I didn’t care. I wanted it badly.

I was nervous. Had no idea what to do and how to act. Mind you, all I knew was what I learned from watching videos.

Had I seen enough to experience it as I imagined it?

As the night progressed I started to get more comfortable. After a bit of awkward fumbling, I quickly learned what worked and what didn’t.

This was going to be an epic night for this 15-year old boy...

Slowly together we worked up to the pinnacle of the night. Arousement reached an all time high. By the gods we both wanted this. Hands went up. Sweat dripped. Hairs entangled with each other. Our voices got hoarse from panting. Electricity shot through our bodies. Just a little bit more. Just a little bit longer. 

As if we were in perfect sync with each other we let out one final scream as we reached the climax...

“Yeaaaaahhh....”, we screamed from the top of our lungs, as Children of Bodom entered the stage and blasted off with “Silent Night, Bodom Night”!

You never forget your first and I’ll never forget mine. It was 4 May 2003. Children of Bodom was supported by Shadows Fall and Soilwork. They blasted the roof of the 013 in Tilburg, the Netherlands. And it absolutely set me up for a lifelong passion for metal.

My parents were reluctant to let me go with a bunch of 18-year old kids from the neighbourhood to a concert that, in their minds, is fuelled by aggression.

Although they may not be wrong about what fuels the music, the atmosphere during the concert was anything but aggressive.

I have never since then met a more wholesome, friendly and welcoming group of people as I did when I set my first steps into that concert hall on that warm, faithful day in May.

All the aggression took place on stage. Never off stage. I felt comfortable. Welcoming. Warm. Like we all knew each other. There was a sense of camaraderie with total strangers. A collectivism that I have never encountered before. A feeling of belonging. Of coming home.

I have been to countless metal concerts since then, ranging from geeky Power Metal to dark and extreme Black Metal and everything in between. 

That feeling I experienced for the first time as a 15-year old boy during the Children of Bodom concert? It was there, every single time.

Metalheads may be a collection of misfits and weirdos, whether you like to admit it or not. But we are awesome misfits and weirdos.