Metal Mixtape: Iron Will #1

Over 15 years ago, Henry Rollins wrote an essay called “The Iron”. It remains the single most influential text for my life. Its point is simple: a pound is a pound. If one must measure oneself by an external reference point, iron is as stable as it gets. Friends can fail you. Family can fail you. Even metal – as Slough Feg’s Mike Scalzi points out – can fail you. But iron does not. It always tells the truth.

Metal and iron are both big parts of my life, so I naturally try to combine them. That often doesn’t work. I am not of the “just throw some loud music on” school. Bad music shuts me down. The wrong sound at the wrong time shuts me down. What works for an album on a listening level may not work on an iron level. I skip through countless records when I work out, simply because they serve up some ballad or extended jam that kills my concentration. I am a big fan of “the zone”, and of music helping one get there.

So I’ve put together a mixtape to help me – and you – get there. It is paced for a workout: a warmup, complete with Rocky Balboa quote and motivational jams by Rollins Band and AC/DC before gearing down with Alice in Chains (stretch during that time). Then come three “sets” of about half an hour each, separated by interludes by Imperium Dekadenz and Karl Sanders. (Use this time to re-rack or get a breather between sets.) The first two sets are organized by key; I’ve found that staying in the same key helps keep my mind in the same “groove”, which is essential for reaching “the zone”. I’ve put this mixtape together through hours of field testing, and it works. Of course, you don’t have to work out for its almost two-hour length. You could just listen to it – but don’t be surprised if it makes you want to lift heavy objects.

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DOWNLOAD: IRON WILL #1 [249.15MB .zip]

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WARMUP

1. Rocky Balboa – It Ain’t About How Hard You Hit
2. Rollins Band – Shine
3. AC/DC – T.N.T.

STRETCH

4. Alice in Chains – A Looking in View

SET 1

5. Black Anvil – Dethroned Emperor (Celtic Frost cover)
6. Lair of the Minotaur – Let’s Kill These Motherfuckers
7. God Forbid – Better Days
8. Behemoth – Conquer All
9. Judas Priest – Hell Patrol
10. Amon Amarth – Free Will Sacrifice
11. Dark Tranquillity – The Lesser Faith
12. At the Gates – Suicide Nation

BREAK

13. Imperium Dekadenz – The Descent into Hades

SET 2

14. Entombed – Full of Hell
15. Denial Fiend – Return to the Toms of the Cursed Blind Dead
16. Burnt by the Sun – Inner Station
17. Madball – Revolt
18. Prong – Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck
19. Belphegor – Der Geistertreiber
20. Arch Enemy – We Will Rise
21. Grand Magus – Iron Will

BREAK

22. Karl Sanders – Temple of Lunar Ascension

SET 3

23. Fear Factory – H-K (Hunter-Killer)
24. The Haunted – Bury Your Dead
25. Rotting Christ – Eon Aenaos
26. Insomnium – The Killjoy
27. Burst – Fourth Sun
28. Isis – In Fiction

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