Ode to the Rockstar!

He's over the guitar in angelic pose, hallowed. Is that a shadow cast behind him? He screams into the mic. This is the modern-day archangel. From the centre of the Earth, from the bowels of the accumulated Hell between his burdened wings, he exhorts through those beautiful lips a howl of expression, a rebellion against the Sky! Against the Blackness that extends like a sea of hungry creatures before him, the audience in wait. Let it out, I want to tell him. YELL!

Oh, rockstars! Male rockstars!

I love them!

Now the sweat drips, holy water from his face, slipping from his skin onto the stage. He reaches up again, stretching his long long legs. Jump. Leap. Then howl again. He throws his body into a fit. Let it out, I want to tell him. YELL! Sooner or later, he might fling that guitar like a rejected weapon across the stage, spinning like a boomerang towards the curtains, is if to say the battle is over. He won. He destroyed the void of silence panging into his ears LOUDER than any noise in the world. He conquered the madness swimming within him, a torrent tsunami again and again ravaging the shores of his beautiful soul.

He was born here, into this. He was dropped like a seed onto the soil of existence--nameless, homeless. In a blind wandering, he's searching for love. He's searching for redemption. But all he has is this damn microphone! This damn space that grows daily within him, the emptiness.

This profound love. This intense compassion. This violent truth. This sweet offering.

It sounds like a war cry, yes. The drums pound. The bass thrums. He shreds the air with his vocals. But he is love personified. He is a God, daring to challenge the pain within with this bold standing ovation of spirit. I WILL NOT FALL TO YOU is in every spasm, every launching full-throttle into the air, every shuddering growl that rips into the tune chanting him on.

Yes, this is love. This is a grand refusal to bow down to the corruption, the pain and suffering of this world, and assert with prowess a soul unconquered by hate.

Let it out, I want to tell him. YELL!

The photos are:

1. Chino Moreno: Deftones

"Cloud, come shove the sun aside."

2. Sully Erna: Godsmack

"I'm doing the best I ever did, now go away!"

3. Michael Trent Reznor: Nine Inch Nails

"My whole existence is flawed. You get me closer to God."

4. Kurt Cobain: Nirvana

"Oh no, I know I dirty word."