‘Eavy Metal

Metal Monday: spandex and the devil

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Moving along to the “V” in our Heavy Metal alphabet, two bands spring to mind that are almost as different from each other as you can get within the metal genre: Van Halen and Venom. Van Halen, the American band of Dutch origin was the first big Hair Metal band, making metal mainstream, while Venom was the founding band of the Black Metal subgenre, which revels in satanism and shocking the bourgeoisie. Both are bands I like a couple of songs quite a lot of, while the rest of their oeuvre leaves me cold.

So, which songs do you think about when Van Halen is mentioned? No you pervs, not “Hot for Teacher” but these two:

Jump:



And “Running with the Devil”:



Venom has never been a, well, a very good band; it’s more the sort of band you put on to shock your mother.

Calvin and Hobbes

Yet the band does have a certain charm and attraction, as shown here in “Welcome to Hell”:



“Countess Bathory”:



Metal Monday: U is for umlaut

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After a one week break Metal Monday is back and this time it’s “U”‘s turn. There’s little to choose this week: the ülaut might be important in heavy metal, but there are few bands with a name starting with “U”. From the list at BNR Metal Pages there are only two bands I know and like: UFO and Uriah Heep. Neither is what I’d call properly heavy metal, or even hard rock, though they’re both certainly on the heavy side for rock bands.

UFO is of course best known as Michael Schenker’s breakthrough band; Schenker was only 18 when he debuted in UFO. Over the years Schenker has developed a reputation as a petulant manchild and troublemaker, but there was a reason UFO wanted him, as shown on these tracks.

Doctor, Doctor:



Rock Bottom:



Uriah Heep is an English band in the mold of Led Zeppelin, one of those bands that to me define seventies rock. Not very innovative, but straight up rock done very well, a little heavier than most. They’re not a band I turn to when I’m in a heavy metal mood, but I do like them a lot just because they’re so nicely seventies. Case in point: Traveler in time.



Or Sunrise:



Or Sweet Lorraine:



Metal Monday: crossing the T

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From feast to famine… Too many bands starting with an “S” to feature them all, but when it comes to “T” it’s another cup of it altogether. Two possibilites, Testament and Therapy?, though undoubtly fine bands both I’ve never really gotten into, even if they’re probably the best known metal bands of the lot. There’s also Thin Lizzy, though I’m not sure I would classify that as hard rock, let alone heavy metal, as the BNR Metal pages have done. Still it gives me an excuse to feature one of my favourite sing along to the stereo turned up to eleven songs:



Moving on to a slightly more embarassing band to like: NWOBHM influenced hair band Twisted Sister:



Brainiac begs to differ — You can stop rock ‘n roll — with a caravan!



After that particular brand of naffness, let’s go for something a bit darker. We all thought we were oh so edgy for liking Type O Negative, not just for its anti-Christianity and slight aura of e-ville but also because they supposedly broke the ultimate taboo of using nazi symbols….



Christian Woman:



And in remembrance of lead singer Peter Steele, who died this april — Everything Dies:



Metal Monday: you slay me

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Four bands today: three old favourites and one newly discovered old veteran. To start with the last, Saxon is an old unrepentant New Wave of British Heavy Metal band, of whom I got a couple of albums but which was never a true favourite. Until I rediscoved this:



S.O.D., Stormtroopers of Death on the other hand I’ve always liked. A side project with several of Anthrax’s original members, they don’t really take themselves at all serious. Some of their ballads are on the long side however:



Slayer is one of the Big Four of Thrash Metal, together with Anthrax, Megadeth and of course Metallica. They deserve two songs/ First up, South of Heaven:



And this is their most evil song: Dead Skin Mask:



Then there’s Sepultura, another giant of Thrash Metal, with Dead Embryonic Cells:



Metal Monday: R is for ummm

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Plenty of metal bands starting with “R”, but none that I actually like all that much. Rainbow? Rush? Not my cup of tea to be honest. The only band I actually got music from at the moment is Rammstein and personally I always think of that as industrial rather than metal, though I do have a fairly personal definition of industrial, true. So what the hey, let’s have some Rammstein anyway.

The band is actually named after that US Airforce base, Ramstein, which you may know of that horrible airshow disaster back in ’88. Their self-titled song on their first album Herzeleid refers back to that disaster:



As per usual when any German band actually sings in German, goes for a heavy sound, goes for militaristic looking outfits and dark lyrics, they’re accused of glorifying nazism or terrorism. To be fair, Rammstein does like to challenge their critics, with songs like this:



Actually one of their less offensive songs about (homo)sexuality and such — Buck Dich:



And let’s end with two videos for the (old) superpowers — Amerika:



Moskau