Collegiate Times

Tech punter Brent Bowden really wants to do something special before he leaves Tech: play the "Enter Sandman" theme before a football game on his guitar.

Related: Brent Bowden shows off guitar skills

"Oh yeah man, that'd be great, the biggest rush you could ever have, man. Just to go out there and play in front of everybody," Bowden said. "I know the whole entire song, the solo and everything."

The redshirt junior was hesitant to say whether he would be nervous to play in front of a packed Lane Stadium, though.

"You'll definitely have adrenaline going, that's for sure. I can't really say, because I know when you play in front of people you do get the adrenaline going, and you start playing a little faster. You know what, even if I were nervous I'd love to do it," Bowden said.

As of right now, the Tech athletics department has no real stance on the issue. A source within the department said that nothing similar to Bowden's situation has been attempted, so they would have to look into the logistics before allowing Bowden to play.

Redshirt junior defensive end and roommate of Bowden, Chad Carlson, has taken notice of Bowden's desire to play the "Enter Sandman" entrance.

"We've always wanted to do that; that'd be so awesome. He's always talked about that. That'd be sweet if he could play the entrance to it while we're running onto the field," Carlson said.

This could also be quite an experience for Hokie fans as well -- when Bowden isn't booming punts, he's often shredding guitar strings.

Bowden, an interdisciplinary studies major from Centreville, Va., has played guitar since the mid-'90s.

"My dad thought it would be a good idea for me and my brothers to play an instrument, so he just signed me up for guitar when I was eight," Bowden said.

Ever since he dived into it, Bowden found that he loved music, but not exactly mainstream tunes. He likes it a bit heavier.

"Metal," Bowden said, "definitely a lot of metal."

Bowden has even recorded his own music, which can be heard on his artist page at members.soundclick.com/bmbowden.

"I've got over 40 demos, probably 10 I consider good recordings," Bowden said. "I have a whole bunch that I still haven't recorded and I haven't had time to do it."

"It's fast paced; most of the time it's fast paced, pretty heavy stuff, lots of double pedal on the drums, a lot of harmonized leads," Bowden said. "Occasionally I'll mellow out and experiment with acoustic or something like that, but most of the time it's metal stuff."

Bowden says some of the main influences of his own music are Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, Darkest Hour, In Flames and Paul Gilbert.

Despite specializing in playing the guitar, Bowden composes all of the music in his recordings, including the drums.

"I've got a program called Guitar Pro that I use," Bowden said. "The drums are computer generated, but they're written by me and original. I write every note of the drums, and the rest I do on my own."

Fellow teammate and roommate Matt Waldron acknowledges Bowden's dedication to his music.

"He's definitely awesome, and you can tell he spends quite a bit of time at it because he's well polished at what he does," Waldron said.

So you can tell why blasting Tech's favorite Metallica tune from his guitar through the Lane Stadium speakers would be more than nirvana for this Hokie punter.

Even if Bowden never plays "Enter Sandman" before a game, he will be content with just playing guitar, as he rarely gets to play during the busy fall football season.

"Every time he gets free time, he's always in there playing guitar, practicing new stuff and working on new skills," Carlson said.