It's summer, and it's time for festival season. It's going to be hot and to me, summer weather is metal weather! The one event I look forward to is Van's Warped Tour where there's mosh pits and crowd surfers and it's pure, metalhead heaven. However, if it's not festivals you're going to, you have to at least blast metal out of your car.My favorite part about summer is that I get in the car, plug in the aux chord, and turn on Spotify to the BFMV Radio. I've done a lot of traveling so far this summer going in and out of Rockford, I'm even heading out to Schaumburg and Normal at some point this summer as well. What will I be listening to? Metal music of course.

The way I see heavy metal is that it's similar to driving on the highway. If you're driving on a highway and blasting metal, it feels like you're right in the mosh pit with everybody else (just don't hit anything or anybody). Driving on the highways in the summer is the best in my opinion and metal music matches with the atmosphere on the highway perfectly, it's great!

As I mentioned in the beginning, Vans Warped Tour is my favorite festival to work every year because I can always be with my metal family. Other shows this summer is Hellfest and the Chicago Open Air Show.

Summer is also roughly around the same time where metal artists will start dropping ideas for new songs and albums (even though it's usually year round, now is the time to do it). It's pretty great because if you're ever at a show where artists announce that they're debuting a new song right there at that second and it's going to be on the next album, of course, you're going to get excited.

I'm even obsessed with it because, since I have more time in the summer than I do with any other time of the year, I'm able to play bass guitar a little bit. Yes, I am musically inclined at a very advanced level because of prior musical experiences with band and choir, but those can all translate when teaching yourself a new instrument too. For me, the bass guitar was easy to teach myself 5 years ago because I've been playing regular guitar for almost 11 years now.

Anyways, since I have that kind of time now, I can teach myself metal songs on the bass and actually memorize and play them. Believe me when I say to my metalheads and only to my metalheads, you want to play bass for metal music and not regular guitar. Metal isn't just the same three chords over on a loop. Metal is much harder and much more advanced to play which requires more time and practice than normal. Only the most talented guitarists, bass guitarists, drummers, and screamers in the world can do metal at that highest level. But teach yourself anyways! You'd be surprised at what you can do.

My little music lecture aside, that's what I am doing this summer. Nothing but school, work, metal music, and driving on a lot of highways. Rock on my metalheads, I hope to see some of you at the next metal music festival.