We would like to once again welcome UFC superstar DAN HARDY to Metal Army. It is an honor to have him writing here. To keep up-to-date with Dan, check out his Twitter! -Editor

Music… To some it is just a word. Throw it in a sentence with any other words and it wouldn’t stand out to them above the others. To some of us though, it gets put in the same category as oxygen, water and food. The first thing I do in the morning is turn the record player on, before I even put the kettle on! The last thing at night, guess what… I turn the record player off. The iPod goes on as I leave the front door and goes off once the CD player in the gym is switched on. I’m sure by now you get my point about how important music is in my life, and I’m sure, yours too.

In my last blog I introduced my summarized record collection to you, this time I want to talk about some of the records I listen to a lot during training camps. Right now I’m starting training camp for my fight at the end of March and I find myself listening to some records a lot more frequently that others. These records then become important to the structure and progress of the camp, I use them to trigger emotions close to the fight. Whether I need to relax, do visualization about the fight or get fired up for training, I have an record to do exactly that.

Right now, I’m sitting on the sofa writing to you guys after a five hour training day. I’m pretty worn out and its almost time for bed so I’m listening to Abbey Road by The Beatles. I was discussing this with my lady the other day and I have decided that this record is (in my opinion) the most important piece of art that any human has ever created. It is such a magnificent piece of work that has inspired countless people to go on and create more amazing music. It will undoubtebly be the record I listen to when I’m relaxing and trying to get a break from the fight. I get sucked in by the lyrics and then the melody just carries me along until the record player clicks off and slaps me back to reality. I think you could honestly lock me in a room and play it all day every day and I would still love it. I can’t even pick out a song that I favour and I think this is the only record I’ve never skipped through the songs to find a particular one.

Obviously, I can’t spend all day in my apartment listening to The Beatles, so I have other records that get a lot of play before and on the way to training. They are the ones that I listen to backstage at the weigh-ins and in the warm-up room before the fight. Before I left for training this morning I had one of my Sick of it All records on, ‘Sick of it All – Live in a Dive’. I picked it up at Amoeba in Hollywood about a week before I headed back for Xmas and never got a chance to really give it a listen. I’ve seen them a bunch of times and they are always awesome, I always want to be in the Octagon when I’m at their shows!

If I’m in a hurry, which I usually am, I stick on side two while I’m packing my kitbag and drinking my tea. It kicks off with Scratch The Surface which is just an epic piece of Hardcore. I remember them playing this at Rock City in Nottingham a few years ago, I was right in the middle of the pit when Lou Koller separated it down the center and told us to run at each other when the song kicks in. Awesome. A few tracks later I get to Sanctuary, followed by Maladjusted, Goatless and Stepdown. By this time I’m heading to the door, training bag over the shoulder, knuckles white with tension and the image of my opponent in my head.

To keep the mood stable in the car, I have a bit of River Runs Red by Life of Agony. It’s aggressive enough to keep my mind on my opponent, but not too crazy where I start ramming other cars. If you ever see me in the car on the way to the gym with a weird look on my face, I’m probably just trying to sing “maybe I’m just a bad seed…” as low as Keith Caputo. Once I’m at the gym and I’m starting to warm up, I have Chaosphere by the mighty Meshuggah, hammering through my headphones. I find it generates a real calm and calculated mindset, probably because its such technical music. It keeps me wound up but focused at the same time, which is great for sparring sessions.

After the sessions I have to calm myself down because my mind will be racing. For this, I have an old Reggae compliation record, with guys like Desmond Dekker, Jimmy Cliff and The Ethiopians. On the way home I try to focus on the beat and it chills me right out. Then I can start going through the session in my head, remembering mistakes I made and things that I had success with. This will be the record I listen to when I’m relaxing between the weigh-in and the fight. It keeps me calm but focused on the fight, rehearsing gameplans in my head and getting a few extra mental reps in. If ever I have a few minutes of quiet anytime during the training camp, I can play ‘Pressure Drop’ by the Maytals in my head, and my brain automatically starts rehearsing the gameplan. This is usually when you see me shadowboxing in public, like when the lady is trying on clothes and I’m standing around waiting. I don’t even notice I’m doing it!

Towards the end of the day, I find myself right where I am now… Half asleep, laying on the sofa, listening to Abbey Road. I have a cup of tea, a bag of the good stuff and ‘Here Comes The Sun’ trying to drag me away from reality. Once again, thank you all for working your way through my ramblings. Until next time, get right, rock out and love life. One final thing, my recommends for this blog.

Numero uno, ‘Abuse’ by Wormrot. Just a word of advice, its wise to warm yourself up with some early Sepultura or a chainsaw, before you listen to it. Secondly we have ‘This Years Model’ by the always cool, Elvis Costello. ‘Olivers Army’, I think, is one of the wittiest songs I’ve ever heard. I won’t explain what the song is about but if you like the track, look it up, its worth a read. Finally, we have ‘Abraxas’ by Santana. It’s good for chilling out to and makes me wish I was driving down Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, in a black 1968 Pontiac Firebird… ssshhh, just picture it for a second…