While I have many and various musical tastes, one of my more guilty pleasures is listening to heavy metal.  I owe this influence to my younger brother, who even in his adolescence was already listening to classic metal acts like Metallica, Black Sabbath, and Slayer.

This tale happened one weekend while I was away at college and my brother was still living with our parents and attending a Catholic high school in central Pennsylvania…

One Saturday morning, my dad was using the computer, which used to be located in my parents’ finished basement.  It was early enough that morning that my dad had not yet put on shoes and was clicking away at the computer while his bare feet rested on the carpet under the desk.

Suddenly, my dad then felt something scratch at his toes.  But when he looked down at his feet, he saw nothing.  Moments later, the scratching sensation returned.  This time, when my dad looked down, he saw that one of his toes was slightly bleeding .  And next to his foot sat a mouse.  The mouse had been nibbling at his toes.

After informing my mom and my brother of what had just happened in the basement, my dad suggested setting a mouse trap.  My brother, however, always gentle and caring when it comes to animals, proposed to catch the mouse himself, without harm, and then release it at the nearby park.

My brother made quick work of setting up barriers in the basement, therefore cornering the mouse without harming it.  He then put the mouse in a small box and made way to his car.

Now, this is where the metal comes in.  My brother, at the time, was particularly fond of Slayer and would listen to their music at earsplitting volume in his car at all times.  So, my brother put the mouse-in-the-box on the passenger seat, cranked the Slayer, and drove off to the park to release the mouse.

But when my brother reached the park and opened the box, he learned that sometime in the few minutes it took to reach the park the mouse had died.  What had happened?  He concluded that the most probable cause of death was heart attack caused by the sudden and jarring sounds of Slayer.

That’s right, faithful readers, heavy metal apparently has the ability to kill small rodents.  Death by metal.  What a way to die.

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