Mr. Halloran has taught at Victor as a biology teacher for several years and is well-known by his students for his love of metal. During class, he would play songs you have never heard before from genres you didn’t know exist. Wanting to learn more about it, I sat down with him for an interview.

What makes metal as a genre of music uncharacteristic is the widely known stigma around it. People see it as immature and don’t appreciate the music behind it.  Halloran is no stranger to this stigma.

It had been just as strong when he was in college as it is now.  “There’s too much of a rush of judgement with metal and rock music. People are quick to say they don’t appreciate the genre without giving it enough time.” 

Halloran has continued to keep up with modern metal and who’s innovating the most. Understandably, he couldn’t reduce it to just one artist so he mentioned two. Those being Plini and Animals as Leaders. Animals as Leaders is especially innovative because of the brilliance of their guitarist. “The guy [Head Guitarist: Tosin Abasi] has his own model of guitar where the strings are all at an angle so that he is able to play the speed he needs to play some of his licks,” Halloran explained. “His guitar is not like any other guitar neck.”

Mr. Halloran shares these views on progressive metal and jazz on his podcast, The Anatomy Of. He plans on continuing the podcast when time allows. It’s something that we started during  Covid to talk about music. The most recent few we’ve done we were actually able to do

in the same room because we’re vaccinated, I’m engaged now and a coach in the fall. But we definitely don’t plan on stopping the podcast.”

On the first day of biology, Halloran referred to metal as angry music for happy people.  “There’s a band I listen to called August Burns Red where they describe their music as angry music for happy people. It’s loud, it’s heavy, it’s emotional… the lyrics don’t necessarily have to be negative. Sometimes metal songs are about being sad, but they can also be uplifting.” Judging by lyrics like “open soul, open mind” he’s certainly not wrong.

“Headbanging” is part of the culture of metal concerts. It involves violently shaking your head to the rythm of the music. As someone who attends these concerts, Halloran does headbang, but not in the way you might think. “I headbang but not in the middle of the action. A place with a nice amphitheater is great, there’s a place called the Town Ballroom in Buffalo.” He prefers to be off to the sides, and enjoys the levels that an amphitheater provides.

Mr. Halloran has an intricate music taste that you don’t see every day. His unique tastes spread across rock, metal, jazz, and hip-hop. Halloran even listens to Kendrick Lamar, the first hip-hop artist to ever win a Pulitzer Prize. The interesting view of who a teacher is outside of the classroom is often underappreciated, and Halloran certainly has earned the appreciation.