I’ve wanted to teach a yoga class with heavy metal music for a long time. It’s the music I grew up with, it’s the music I like, and it creates a weird and interesting juxtaposition of energy when I practice yoga to it.
As soon as this event was announced, I had people asking me what I was going to play. There was concern if I would be playing “the right kind” of music. Would it be real death metal? (answer: maybe, but not a lot)
If you like heavy metal, you know there are many sub-genres. My favorite type is thrash - think bands like Metallica and Testament that took what Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath had been doing and made it faster, louder, and more intricate — and they started to really shred. I chose lots of thrash metal songs for Namaslay because I love them and I’ve seen most of these bands live in concert.
What about the death metal? Death metal takes thrash and makes it even faster, angrier, and the content gets darker. If you like this style that’s great, but there's only so much Cannibal Corpse - Hammer Smashed Face I can handle. However, we’ll sneak a few in, don’t worry.
There are so many other types that would be fun to include - Babymetal anyone - but I want a playlist that can build in energy over time, peak, and then cool off all while having some common thread run through it.
Join me on Saturday and see how this all works out. In the meantime, here is the playlist!