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Music

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Music is a very personal thing. It's so personal and people feel so strongly about it that I'm surprised it hasn't started wars. To me it's way more important than any religion, but not worth fighting over.

Most people seem to have me down as either a heavy metal nut or goth. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't adore heavy metal, especially progressive metal at the moment. I'd also be lying if I said I didn't like a lot of goth music. I like the clothes too and regularly attend the October Whitby Gothic Weekend. People seem keaner to latch on to the idea I may be a goth, probably because goths appear more interesting than metallers, are perceived as being weird and people generally understand them less.

People also seem to have the impression that people who like heavy metal only listen to the really heavy stuff, always listen to it very loudly and never listen to anything else. This of course is a long way from being true.

My passion is rock music, which includes all kinds of metal and goth. It's fairly safe to say that, with the exclusion of the pop they play on Radio 2, I don't listen to much else. But there's such a range to listen too. This morning, for example, I started off with some Deicide, which is some pretty heavy death metal and then moved on to some early Porcupine Tree which is rock based, progressive and quite atmospheric. Not heavy at all.

My favorite band by far at the moment is Threshold. But I keep coming back to old favorites like (early: anything up to Afraid of Sunlight) Marillion, (early: anything up to the incredible Crimson Idol) WASP and Pink Floyd. Can anyone play guitar as well as David Gilmour?

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