In the Fall of 2008, my city was hit by a category 4 hurricane named Hurricane Ike. My mom, uncle, sister, and I evacuated to a small town in Texas that I can't remember the name of. All I remember is that it was small, like it was one of those towns you pass through to top off on gas or eat McDonald's. While there, we stayed at a friend-of-my-dad's-mom's house. She was a quiet, kind old lady who would retire to her room randomly throughout the day for about an hour. We assumed she either took naps or prayed during those hours.

My uncle likes to drink (in the sense that he likes to sample different brands and different types of alcohol), so one day while we were in that town he wanted to go buy some beer. He asked the woman we were staying with if she knew of any good places to buy alcohol from. She proceeded to tell him that where we were was a dry county, and the closest place outside of the county was about 30 minutes away. He told my mom that and she said she needed to make a run to Wal-Mart anyway, so we all got into the car (excluding the lady we stayed with) and drove into the next county.

When we arrived at Wal-Mart we began buying all the things we needed during the small "vacation" we were on snacks, toilet paper, extra clothes, etc. But while we were in the electronics section, something caught my eye. On the CD rack was the band name "Metallica" and the image I saw was of a white background, a broken statue, and the words "...And Justice For All" on the bottom. I thought album looked cool, but just the name of the band brought me back to playing the song "One" on Guitar Hero, and I remembered how much I loved playing that song. I asked my mom to buy me the CD, and my uncle (who knew who they were) thought it was awesome that I wanted that album. If it wasn't for him, my mom might've said no.

When we got back to the woman's house, I was eager to start playing the CD in my sister's old CD player. Yes, my sister still had a portable CD player in 2008. So I went into another room somewhere, I opened up the CD, put it into the CD player, put the headphones on, and I hit play. The build up to the first track "Blackened" was one of the most exciting things I remember about listening to the album. And once that riff hit and Lars started beating those drums, I was hooked. I loved that whole album; the riffs, the pummeling drums, and the harsh delivery of the lyrics were amazing to me back when was young. I read along with the lyrics and was shocked, amazed, and a little worried my mom might want to look at them. Luckily she didn't and I continued to listen to that album for the rest of the day. In total, I probably listened to the entire album about 20 times during the week that were there. I had found the kind of music I liked, and I wanted more.

Once Ike had faded and we dealt with the damage, normal life continued and I kept wanting to listen to more heavy music. Mainly Metallica because that album prompted me to become one of their biggest fanboys when I was a kid. From then on I learned about the thrash greats such as Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, Testament, and much more. When I turned 13 my cousin showed me angrier, punk rock, and I loved all of it. When I entered high school I bought more heavy albums and downloaded as many songs as I could that sounded angry or that had insane riffs. I'm 19 now and ever since those days I've been listening to heavy music. Although my tastes have shifted drastically since my Metallica days, I still find the time to sit and appreciate "my roots" when I hear "One" play on the radio.

Art is what I love, and I've come to appreciate it more and more as the days go by. I don't think I'd be who I am or think so openly if it wasn't for the metal and punk scene. Of course, if you aren't familiar with the genre, a lot of it might sound like angry, serial killer music, but it holds so much more meaning than that to me and to various other people around the world.