ye i feel similar. i started out with rock bands and metal (first band love was guano apes back then), rode the new metal wave with system of a down and other bands. i still dig limp bizkit's old sound also, man!

but then i discovered psychedelic trance and figured out that that is what i always wanted from heavy guitar music, quite to my surprise. was never into electronic music before.

i make psychedelic trance these days (when i have power for the laptop), but i will always remain a guitarist at heart.

ye i use the focusrite with a laptop, got a not so power hungry one that uses the cigarette lighter thingie, sort of. but man. for recording dry guitar while hearing it wih finest distortion when tracking, that is just the best. i am referring to electric guitar. acoustic recording is fine just listening to direct monitoring.

i have browsed a lot of music also, finding a lot of diamonds everywhere. i feel this will all add up to a more interesting style of psytrance eventually. i just dig the promise of it but it has not yet matured enough, most artists playing it safe and sounding the same which is a shame.

sorry but i got to share, this is one of my all time favorite tracks in psy. it shows what is possible. the whole album is incredible.

as for a more metally feel, i have met people on nighttime dancefloors on full heavy metal outfits having the party of their life to some hightech (one of psytrance's night styles). the gruff looking dude was sooooo happy, had the biggest smile and yelled to me: "this is so much harder than metal!!". it was quite funny ;)

here is a legend from that scene, i can definitely hear the roughness and metal in it ahhaha. and the heart. hiteh trance.

needless to say both are best enjoyed on headphones or decent speakers but you know that. maybe it is a novel experience and can add something to your musical inventory.

will definitely check out converge. thanks!