A farewell from our beloved metal columnist, Lochlan Watt.
You may have noticed the absence of my column for the last month, or you may not have – either way, this is my first time writing for a while – and my last.
Let me explain.
On the 15th of February I suffered a completely unexpected seizure that left me with an injured spine, tongue, and hospitalised for four days. Turns out I have a tumour of the ‘ganglioglioma’ variety that is sitting right in my temporal lobes. While after an initial scare it proved to not be cancerous or malignant, it most certainly has shown itself to be disruptive, and in the coming months I will be preparing for and undergoing straight up brain surgery to remove it. Pretty crazy how the pace of life can just change in an instant.
I have spent most of my life writing about music in some form or another, with many, many years involving some kind of weekly column or regular opinion pieces. I think I’ve long been quite in touch with my own mortality, and these thoughts I’m about to detail are ones I had already been stewing on for a while. Such a brush with death and the subsequent new light really puts things into perspective. Cliché, I know – but it is what it is.
I’m convinced that heavy metal is indeed the closest thing humanity has to a fountain of eternal youth. This is a culture where the spirit of a rebellion that begins in one’s teenage years is eternally espoused and celebrated. However I am 31 now, and while I certainly have more opinions on more topics than ever before, I feel perhaps less compelled to share them, and seeing them published doesn’t really fill me with the same rush that it once did. Maybe I’m just increasingly aware of the futility that is the void of reality that we all find ourselves yelling and screaming above each other into.
In being honest to my self-awareness, I am choosing to bow out from the weekly obligation of having to piece together a metal column, rather than to force it along with the knowledge that there is someone out there who is either younger and/or less experienced, or perhaps simply just more passionately opinionated, who could really benefit from being put in charge of an ever-decreasingly available opportunity in legitimate published music journalism. My instincts are leading my focus into new horizons and broader opportunities within this field – radio, label, touring company, new band, brain surgery – I’ve gotta make some room on my plate. Hail Satan, and thanks for reading.
