To any Toronto Hessians, Metalheads, Heshers, Headbangers, etc.

[Helmholtz]

Hails.  To any Toronto Hessians who are interested, we, the Toronto Neoclassical Metal Group are beginning meetings and dicussions on metal as a genre.  The below is the constitution that so far we have written for the group:

Neo-Classical Metal Group Manifesto
We believe that metal is something fundamentally negative which hasn’t yet reached that degree of maturity to apply its essence to itself – to grow.
We believe that metal, even when it manifests itself as a purported break from society, is a continuation of the western cultural tradition (without which metal musicians would be living in caves) and thus needs to be aware of these if it to be of merit.
We believe that the metal community is home to a minority of highly intelligent and otherwise talented individuals who at some level are not happy with the current state of society though they have not yet been able to wholly articulate their emotions besides in music.
We believe that culture (defined as those institutions enabling individuals to reach their potential) and morality (defined as a life led in service of values) are the most important things humanity has. We recognize that we have begun creating a sub-culture.
We believe that metal music was interesting and flourished when it first made its public appearance in the 90s. We know that this music has recently attracted a number of parasites or individuals set on profiting from our music. We publicly state that these people are not welcome in our city`s metal scene since profit is popularity and culture a celebration of the unique and gifted individual where popularity is not a measure of merit.
We recognize that there can never be an objective definition of art and, consequently, good art; but we celebrate some and discriminate against other forms of metal nonetheless since the current cultural level of humanity is of low quality- part of our task is to determine this, even though it is apparent to any noble and sensitive mind. 100 years from now people will be of the same opinion. We respect people who disagree with us on this and ask them to respect us.
We act on what we believe and say instead of debating on it for the sake of debating – thus there is no point in emotionally criticizing us.
We attempt to understand metal culture.
We do not value music for its novelty but for its contribution of our understanding of the above.
We support all talented individuals who believe they can contribute to our cultures evolution and believe they should have a place in society besides that of hobby musicians. We believe that it is the responsibility of local venues to make this happen by supporting them instead of making a small number of randomly selected international bands fat like pigs and as detached from reality as popularity seems to like it. We discriminate against venues that fail in this task.
We reject the internationalization of our scene since each country and each people are entitled to their own self-determination if this world is to remain interesting.

We recognize that metal seems to attract emotionally unstable individuals. These individuals should be recognized as such and not be given leading intellectual roles within our scene.
We believe that art is an end in itself and a positive celebration of life.

If you are from the Greater Toronto Area, and are interested in participating, message me.  Plans so far are to organize monthly meetings with discussions, readings, and listenings of topics, books, albums, etc.

[Helmholtz]

Hails again.  I wanted to write an update post on the status of this group.

So far, the NMRG (Neoclassical Metal Research Group as the name has far come along) has had a number of meetings involving rather fruitful discussions and plans for the future.  We once again wish to let anyone living in the Greater Toronto Area on this forum that we are more than open to welcoming further people, to contribute to projects and create their own.  This all has the added benefit of so far being a rather good social gathering, for those who feel culturally isolated as Hessians.

So far, discussions are currently ranging on qualitative analysis of metal, various directions the genre's ideologies can take, and we're currently working on a sort of promotion group for our area that supports only quality acts as opposed to being a merely profit venture.  Admittedly these things take work, but a challenge should never be shirked.

Generally, so far, the common binding values we share as a group and ask any prospective members to share are the understanding of metal as an artform, the willingness to explore metal further as an artform, a recognizing of metal as a separate culture, and openness to discussion.  From these starting values we move onward in our discussions, attempting not to presuppose too much, but attempting to reach truth.

We do have future ambitions and plans of action, ranging from healthy recreation activities to plans of how to more properly represent the better metal artists of the day.

If anyone is interested, PM me.  Many thanks.