BUFFALO SABRES Defenseman Loves His Metal 'Louder And Heavier'

Buffalo Sabres defenseman Toni Lydman recently spoke to The Buffalo News about the "victory music" that he plays in the dressing room, which has his teammates cringing or running for the showers. An excerpt from the article follows:

Lydman is one of the most evenkeeled, reserved guys around. He'll sit at his stall and slowly, methodically deadpan a one-liner or two, his voice staying at the same low decibel level from beginning to end. Then he'll leisurely retreat to the back room.

The music in which Lydman immerses himself is the exact opposite. Think loud heavy metal, with screaming guitars and wailing singers. Then think louder and heavier, with more screaming and wailing. It's the type of music that might make hard-core rockers like METALLICA and GUNS N' ROSES recoil and blush.

"All the other stuff, it's just missing something, I guess," said Lydman, who carries a three-game point streak into tonight's meeting with the Colorado Avalanche in HSBC Arena.

Lydman's journey into amplified mayhem began when he started school. Children in Finland go to first grade when they are 7 years old, and until then Lydman had heard only the genteel sounds played by his parents and brother.

"There was a guy in my class that had long hair, and I thought it was really cool," Lydman said. "He was listening to '80s metal bands like W.A.S.P. and TWISTED SISTER because his big brother was a huge metal guy. This guy made me a cassette, and that's all I was listening to. . . . Somewhere during the teenage years, I slipped into the even heavier stuff, like ANTHRAX and SLAYER, TESTAMENT, bands like that.

"It was so different from what my parents heard on the radio that I just thought it was amazing. The sound of electric guitars, the little distortion. As a little kid, that was great."

Read the entire article at The Buffalo News.