Seems I'm not the only one who made the transition from youthful heavy-metal enthusiast to grown-up classical-music aficionado: After attending a show by Finnish cello-thrash quartet Apocalyptica, Ontario critic John Keillor exposed his dark roots in "The Ear Wants What It Wants," an essay that appeared in Monday's edition of the National Post. Keillor goes on to explain why everything you've ever listened to with passion has colored and perhaps even enriched your subsequent and present listening experiences.

Keillor's story doesn't exactly parallel my own. I was soaking up classical music — and in training to play it — at more or less the same time I was exposed to metal, punk and prog. (See this recent post for the lurid details). And sadly, it appears that Keillor no longer indulges his passion for the adrenaline high of a good metal show. But I definitely throw horns to him for an idiomatic reference to Cannibal Corpse in what is still in fact a classical critic's piece in a major newspaper. (Hat tip to FJO.)

Playlist:

Slayer – Hells Awaits (Metal Blade)

Leyla Gencer – Arias and Scenes, Vol. 2 (Opera d'Oro)

Nile – Black Seeds of Vengeance (Relapse)

Christopher Theofanidis – Visions and Miracles; Paul Moravec – Morph; Lisa Bielawa – The Trojan Women; Michael Gatonska – Transformation of the Hummingbird – String Orchestra of New York City (Albany)

Obituary – World Demise (Roadrunner)

Morton Feldman – The Viola in My Life I-IV – Marek Konstantynowicz; Cikada Ensemble, Norwegian Radio Orchestra/Christian Eggen (ECM)

Marillion – Brave (Sanctuary)

Fish – 13th Star (Chocolate Frog)

John Zorn – Spy vs. Spy: The Music of Ornette Coleman (Elektra/Musician)

Thomas Adès – Violin Concerto – Anthony Marwood, Chamber Orchestra of Europe (EMI Classics download)

"Deadheads for Obama" (Phil Lesh and Friends with Mickey Hart and Bob Weir) – The Warfield, San Francisco, CA, February 4, 2008 (Archive.org download)

Johannes Brahms – Symphony No. 1 – Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra/Jaap van Zweeden (Brilliant Classics)

Hector Berlioz – Symphonie fantastique – Los Angeles Philharmonic/Gustavo Dudamel (Deutsche Grammophon download)

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 1 – London Symphony Orchestra/Valery Gergiev (LSO Live)

Elodie Lauten – The Death of Don Juan (Unseen Worlds)

Giacomo Puccini – La bohème – Anna Netrebko, Nicole Cabell, Rolando Villazón, Stèphane Degout, Boaz Daniel, Vitalij Kowaljow, Bavarian Radio Symphony Chorus and Orchestra/Bertrand de Billy (Deutsche Grammophon, due June 10; audio samples at ArkivMusic)