The American spirit, as defined by Swedish death metal

So we now have a new President, and though I avoid writing about politics I'll throw my two cents into the blogosphere and hope it's worth every penny. Personally, I'm optimistic about the future of our country for the first time in a great while. Certainly there's a long hard road ahead, and President Obama's goals will not be met easily or quickly. Public opinion is a fickle beast, and it will be hard in the coming months for the American public to keep this initial wave of euphoric optimism from crashing against the rocks of harsh reality, but I'm hopeful that better times are ahead of us.

I was listening to some music last night on my luxurious new Sennheiser HD-600 headphones (which I've been meaning to blog about), when I heard my hope for the future expressed in an unlikely medium--Swedish death metal. Specifically, I was listening to the first track of "Holographic Universe", the latest CD by ultra-melodic death metal outfit Scar Symmetry. The pre-chorus and chorus (of the dontcha-just-want-to-sing-along variety) summed up my feelings about the change in the American political landscape quite nicely:

Thoughts that forced discordance away
Once more an era is fading
Whatever dreams we're reaching to claim
Decides the path we are taking

Gone forever
We are done with world views mechanical
None shall ever
Be a slave to thoughts inside their head

--Scar Symmetry, "Morphogenesis"

Congratulations, President Obama, and good luck. Swedish death metal is behind you 100%!