‘Eavy Metal

Metal Monday: Queen of the Rÿche

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Okay, so heavy metal is a deeply silly musical genre at the best of times anyway, two parts pretension and juvenile angst to one part cock rock, with the best metal bands deeply aware of how silly it all is. But when you mix progrock influences in it, that’s when it gets really bad. And by bad I mean good, if you’re not too embarassed by bands taking themselves a little bit too serious. It helps to have a sense of humour and irony about these things, though not too much or you’re just another goddamn hipster tourist. If you want to enjoy a band like Queensrÿche, you need to embrace them wholeheartedly, no matter how uncool they are.

Because they can be a mite over the top and given to concept albums. Especially on Operation Mindcrime, all about a junkie rescued from the gutter to be a political assassin and how he breaks his brainwashing…. From the album came the livetour, which was as much a stage play as a proper concert. It was during the local radio station’s annual metal top fifty countdown (“Vara’s Vuurwerk Vijftig” if that means anything to y’all) that I first heard this and I was immediately sold. What can I say: I’m a sucker for properly done bombast and bathos.

“Kill Her. That’s all you have to do”.
“K-kill Mary?”
“She’s a risk. Oh, and get the priest as well”.



Next message saved Saturday at 9:24 p.m.
Sorry, I’m just
It’s starting to hit me like a um…
Um…two ton heavy thing



Anybody Listening?



Jet City Woman — always reminds me of Bubblegum Crisis which I had discovered at the same time:



Metal Monday: Dooomed

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What better way than to work through the disappointment and frustration of losing the Worldcup final, the late breaking news that Harvey Pekar has died as well as more personally, having S. back in hospital yet again, than with some slit your wrists Doom Metal? Luckily we’re on the “P” in the metal alphabet, which stands for Paradise Lost and there’s nothing more Doom Metal than them. Like so many of my other favourites I discovered them in the late eighties and early nineties. They were the first band I know that was so heavy and slow, that didn’t attempt to pack as much sound in as small a time as possible, but extended their music, slowed it down, while dropping the usually high pitched vocals an octave or so lower. The end result is a type of metal that saps your strength, slows down your heart beat and turns you inside. No quick adrenaline rush here, but you do get a rebound in energy from their songs, much like a collapsing star can get a gravitational rebound when it crosses a certain limit…

Below are some of my favourite Paradise Lost songs.

True Belief:



Embers Fire:



As I Die:



P also stands for Pestilence, another great Dutch Death Metal band, but they didn’t really fit my mood today. Some other time.

Metal Monday – reports of my death

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O is for Obituary, another Florida based Death Metal band, who first got together in the eighties — and really what else there was to do in Tampa Florida in the eighties? They played around for a couple of years before releasing their debut in ’89, but what a debut. Slowly We Rot was a masterpiece, one of those records you have to play loud on headphones to get the sound reverbing round your skull and the bass guitar echoing on your ear drums for days after. The title song especially was great, starting off slow and doom laden and then the song speeds up for the vocals and the hall erupts. I dare anybody not to start moshing to it:



From their second album Cause of Death comes “Find the Arise”, another personal favourite:



Only found two good videos this week I’m afraid; more next week.

Metal Monday: N is for Nuclear Death

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Two bands today representing the letter “N”. First up, Napalm Death, the UK grindcore/death metal pioneers. Influenced by punk and hardcore like so many other metal bands getting their start in the eighties, theyt took it further than most. In the first video, if you blink you miss their record breaking song “You Suffer”:



They got a bit more “mainstream” later on in their career. Here’s an example of their later style:



The other “N” band is Nuclear Assault, which you could call an Anthrax spinoff as Danny Lilker, ex-Anthrax bassist was a founding member. They of course play thrash metal with their earliest records having a decidedly apocalyptic flavour. No wonder considering the band was formed at the height of the Reagan era, when it really did seem like the missiles would start flying any minute now. Now unlike James Nicoll, who watches Threads as escapism, I still get nightmares thinking to much about nuclear holocaust and some of their songs I just cannot play therefore. This is “Game Over”:



And this is “Critical Mass”:



Metal Monday: M.O.D., Manowar, Mucky Pup Oh My!

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Quite a few good metal bands are filed under “M”: Metallica of course, as well as fellow thrash metal giants Megadeth, M.O.D. (Billy Milano’s jokey follow-up to S.O.D.), Manowar (power metal for fantasy readers), My Dying Bride, Motorhead, Morbid Angel, Mercyful Fate and Mucky Pup. Yes, Mucky Pup, the band which shot to fame through a Bloom County song writing contest Burke Breathed ran for Bill the Cat’s then band (don’t ask). This was the result:



Bonus appearance by Adam Curry. Mucky Pup was actually the first hardcore band i’d ever heard, through my brother, who had taped their 1989 album A Boy in a Man’s World. Still can recite most of the lyrics by heart, though the tape was lost years ago and I’ve only recently found a copy of the record again. Fun band, fun music. Moving away from Mucky Pup’s happy hardcore, My Dying Bride with its synth laden, slow, slow doom metal could not be more different. Again introduced to this by my brother, I like them as much as I like Mucky Pup, evne if their musical styles are diametrically opposed:



This goes on for over twelve minutes in the album version… From their 1995 album The Angel and the Demon, this is “The Cry of Mankind”. Love to play this late at night, when it’s dark and all the old fears are waiting at the window… Some people may find it all horribly overblown. A chance of pace now, get ready for some hi-octane NWOBHM courtesy of Motorhead, featured in the best episode of one of the best sitcoms ever, The Young Ones — here’s “Ace of Spades”:



Now some naff metal. Manowar is a band dedicated to fulfilling all the cliches about metal listening, Tolkien reading geeks and their fantasy life, with their songs about awesome adventures and sword fights and heroes returning from the death and motorcycles and stuff, but I can’t help but like them. Especially this, the first song of them I ever heard, during the annual top fifty countdown the sole Dutch heavy metal radio show at the time did. This is “Battle Hymn”



Morbid Angel is the third most selling Death Metal band in the world, which must in part be because they found a winning formula early on and never varied it much. This is one of the better early songs, “Blessed Are the Sick”:



Let’s end with a bit of Megadeth, Beavis and Butthead style:



Eh-heh heh eh heh heh.