MetalHead Hockey Players

Being a huge hockey fan, I found this story to be rather interesting. Brann Dailor, drummer for MASTODON recently penned a blog about metalhead hockey players in the NHL. Here is how the blog reads.

"I’ve had a chance to meet several hockey players in the past few years and it’s always really cool to spend some time with them and compare stories about our lives as musicians and their lives as hockey players.

That’s another reason why I am excited that I can go to the All-Star Game in my hometown to see so many of these great players on one stage.

I’ve met some of the Thrashers, although it can be hard because they are so busy with their season while they are here and we can be busy with touring or making a new record. But, we did that thing on Inside the NHL with Atlanta defensemen Garnet Exelby and Mark Popovic and that was pretty cool. They’re both fans of the heavy music, so that was a lot of fun.

I’ve also recently hung out with Drew Stafford and Toni Lydman of the Buffalo Sabres. They had a Sunday game down here a little while back and they got in on a Saturday and we had them over to the house to hang out. My wife made lasagna and I picked their brains about being hockey players and they picked mine about being a musician.

They live a really cool lifestyle, but I’ll still take playing the drums. Their season seems like such a grind with all the games and everything. I guess they are compensated well for it, but I’ll still take being a musician.

They also came by our practice base, too, and hung out. Drew actually jammed with us. He plays the guitar and he is pretty good. He knew our song “Wolf is Loose” off our latest record, “Blood Mountain.,” so we played that. And, he had this pretty cool song of his that he presented to us and played and I got some drum tracks to go along with it and we just jammed. He was really good.

I had met Toni Lydman before at a music festival in Finland. We were playing this festival and he came up to me after the show. I had no idea who he was and we were just chatting and then he asks if we are ever going to play in the Buffalo area and I’m like, What do you care? That’s when he told me he lived there and played for the Sabres. I was like, “Oh my God!”

There seems to be a lot of hockey guys that are into the heavy metal music.

I feel that style of music totally fits the sport better than anything else. It’s like total speed and just, you know, people getting their heads bashed apart.

And, the level of skill you need to have to play heavy metal is like the level of skill you need to play hockey. I think some of the most skilled musicians are some of the death-metal and speed-metal guys out there, you know?

Well, as I mentioned yesterday, we have a couple of shows to play with Neurosis in Brooklyn tonight and tomorrow night, but we’ll be back in Atlanta for the weekend. Stop by tomorrow and I’ll give those of you lucky enough to be heading into Atlanta for the game some of our favorite haunts in the city."

Go here to read more.

As a fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins, I'd be curious to know how many of them are into metal. By the way, GO PENS!