Hello, and welcome to “Debra Tries…” The series where I review topics and activities that I would not normally take part in on a normal day. For example, I will listen to music, watch movies, TV shows, play video games and even eat foods that lie outside my comfort zone. Today’s topic: hard rock/heavy metal. 

   Those who know me know that I stray away from this kind of music, as I normally listen to pop artists like Taylor Swift, One Direction, Ed Sheeran and Ariana Grande. However today, I am trying something completely and utterly different: heavy metal. 

   Today’s task is pretty simple. A colleague of mine has provided me with four recently made rock metal songs, all that I have never heard of before. My job is to listen to these and provide my honest opinion on how I feel about them. Let’s get right into it. 

   Our first recommended song is “Ordinary Man” by Ozzy Osborne ft. Elton John. The ballad is about Ozborne not wanting to die as a normal man. So…my colleague may hate me for this but it was not that great. It was actually kind of boring. I remember phasing out, thinking about what I wanted for lunch. The whole time he sounds like he’s sick and needs some water. Although it was emotional, which I liked, it felt like he was whining without finding a solution to his pain. 

   The next song is “Straight to  Hell” by Ozzy Osborne. To put this delicately, this piece made me laugh my head off. I don’t know if I enjoyed it or if I hated it but it was interesting, to say the least. It started out with the cover art that scared me a little, which was a screaming woman holding a snake that seemed to be going into her mouth. Then, the whole time Osborne was screaming different ways he’s going to kill listeners. Repeating over and over again how he’s going to take them “Straight to hell tonight.” Not to mention, he kept on empathizing with every syllable in every word, so that got old quickly. I honestly don’t know what to think of it. 

   “It’s a Raid” again by Ozzy Osborne, was special alright. Special because I absolutely hated it with a passion. My first thought was “Oh god, not this, anything but this.” The whole song obsessively screams about god, satan and I think Hollywood. How do people call this singing? I found the line “I’ve been locked up for seven days, never coming out” funny though, mainly because it reminded me of the ‘joys’ of quarantine. Osborne kept shouting about how everybody wants him but the whole time I was thinking “I don’t want you. ” Oh, and this song is not for kids, as I’m pretty sure it would need to be censored every two seconds. What’s the point of this song? Why should listeners care? This song makes my blood boil. 

   I’m so happy I only had one more song. Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, “Signal Fire” by Killswitch Engage proved me wrong. Someone, please tell me why people listen to this stuff. I honestly do not get it. This was non-stop screaming, I could barely understand what the band was singing. I think there was a cool underline theme about fighting society norms, which was lost in the tone of the song. I was left dumbfounded, trying to figure out what it was about and why it was made. My ‘favorite’ part was when they started shouting “ALRIGHT” at the top of their lungs, leaving me wondering if they were okay(which they probably weren’t). This was god awful. 

   Yikes. I regret trying this. This is the polar opposite to what I normally listen too and it shows. The only one I did not hate in a way was “Straight to hell” but was because I was constantly laughing at it. At least I can say that I listened to it, it doesn’t matter if I want to forget that I did though. I could never do this again, not unless I want to rip my ears off.