Band (continued)

After a rather disastrous performance at Culture Day, Rodrigo (guitarist), my brother (bass), and I (lead guitar) wanted to continue learning songs and jamming at my house. There was one problem though; We didn't have a reliable drummer. The previous drummer Paul, who played with us for our first performance, didn't own a drum set. The trio that remained continued meeting at my house for jam sessions, where we would practice our favorite songs and gain cohesiveness. This is when we started to narrow our sound to one specific genre. Our first cover song "Reptilia," is considered alternative rock. We liked the song, but we wanted something heavier and more distorted. We gravitated toward a more metal sound, focusing on bands like Metallica and Black Sabbath. In fact, the first couple of songs we learned were strictly Metallica, because the songs had dual guitar parts, and cool bass lines for my brother to play.

The first song we really mastered was "For Whom the Bell Tolls." The song was heavy and sounded awesome. Another bonus was the tempo of the song. Most of Metallica's music tends to be fast-paced with complex solos courtesy of Kirk Hammet (lead guitarist - Metallica). This particular song is a lot slower, with the song parts broken into manageable sections for us to practice. Even the solo is simple in comparison to other Metallica songs, which allowed me time to really prefect it. All three of us began to sync our tempos with each other, and the song would sound just like the original recordings. As a result we began attempting harder songs such as "Seek and Destroy" and "The Four Horsemen."

Even with the three of us getting a lot better, we still lacked a drummer who could complete our band. The newest class of freshman in 2009 also included a guy named Cody. He owned a drum set, and we approached him to see if he would like to play Metallica covers with us. Coincidentally, he also was a huge fan of Metallica, already knowing how to play some of the songs we were practicing. With the inclusion of Cody, we actually had a real band. We practiced long and hard, and put on a couple of shows. We reattempted the annual Culture Day performance, performed for the school's talent show, and played at an off-campus venue for a friend's senior project. After a while, our schedules conflicted too much, and we pretty much went our separate ways. I'm still grateful for the experiences, and if I ever got the opportunity to join another band, I would not hesitate.