Heavy Metal #2

Those Satanic clowns don't believe that BS. It's shock value and stupidity. They just want to make money.


It's like when the guitarist from Scruffy Tearaways gave me a tape of Cannibal Corpse back in '92. I turned it off in two minutes, man - grindcore, and death metal - pack it in, already.

I know a lot of musicians, great players at the same level of skill as Alex from Children of Bodom, but like them they can't write a
decent song. So you see all these guys at Wacken with ride cymbals that cost $350.00 each and the band can't make a CD worth a damn.

Or like when Layne Staley of Alice in Chains came onstage opening for Sabbath in '92 he looked like such a poser, just going thru the motions. He had a ridicuous looking chain, going from his ear to his nose on the left side of his face. His vinyl looking, fake leather pants and coat didn't fit his short, skinny frame - he looked like 10 minutes before the show, his tour manager walked him thru Hot Topic. Layne couldn't sing live, he was not into the music, never head banging and he looked like he did not want to be there.

Of course, later on - Danzig with Chuck Biscuits banging the drums and Sabbath with Dio came out and proved who the real pros were.
Those were the days the club scene and small theatres were the best places to see Thrash and Gothic Metal bands, like Lacuna Coil doing the Comalies tour. Fantastic. Lacuna Coil could rock the House of Blues with the best of them.

Do you remember the first time you heard 'Damage Inc.' in the 1980's ?

It was like "Whoa man, dude. That was killer !"

 

Yup. I've always gotten a good laugh out of their silliness but I find it impossible to take them or their music seriously. I mean, prancing around stage with severed pig's head - c'mon...

There was a shload of great music coming out in the 80's, and you're right - the small club scene was awesome in the 80's. There was a little dump I used to frequent in Richmond, VA where groups like Megadeth, Soundgarden and alternative acts like the original Red Hot Chili Peppers (with Hillel Slovak) and Bad Brains used to play. Hardcore was really big in Richmond back then, so groups like The Rollins Band used to pull through there and play with local bands (I wish I could remember all of their names because some of them were pretty good). My ridiculous friends from GWAR came out of that scene and the dudes in the original line-up who actually had some legitimate musical talent left and formed a crazy fusion band called the Alter Natives, which signed a record deal with SST Records. GWAR never made any decent music after that, but they were probably the biggest hard rock act that came out of Richmond until Lamb of God came along and totally dwarfed their success.

So, yeah, I'm old enough to remember when "Damage" came out (and Kill 'Em All before that). Heck, I'm old enough to remember when Sad Wings of Destiny was released, UFO cut its first album with Michael Schenker and about the closest thing you could find to groups like Metallica was Motörhead. That was around the time when Ulrich Roth was still playing with the 'Pions and Black Sabbath was swirling the bowl (ugh). You might say I was in that first generation of Metal heads back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

 

Wow. What a trip. Cool story.

I didn't get into Sabbath until I bought the heavier sounding Dio records like Live Evil, and although I had the classic Diary of a Madman LP, my friends and I considered Ozzy to be not so hot, esp. live when the Master of Puppets tour opened up for him. After that, the No More Tears 'farewell' Ozzy tour was basically Blizzard of Oz live, but at least the concert performances were now good, even if Zakks solos were awful, and he strutted around as if he were too cool for school, my old drummer buddy bought me a free ticket. His idol was Ian Pace and Ian Gillan. He was a heavy, old school Bonham style, small kit drummer. Awesome.

The guys from Wayne, Macomb and Oakland County all had the latest Thrash records, Voivod, Ride the Lightning and Exodus Bonded by Blood shirts, by then Priest, Ozzy, had gone commercial with Turbo / Shot in the Dark but were selling out arenas to newer audiences, but Metal fans like our circle had written them off as part of the new pop rock Glam hairspray and spandex wave, like the Kiss revival look was altered, since Gene Simmons was seen spitting fake blood in the 1970s shows to shock everybody. Now, Dummy Burger does the same thing as Simmons, (aka Dimmu Borger), and it's lame.

By the time I heard Sad Wings of Destiny in 1985, Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King were the best, most intense thing going, with Hell Awaits and Haunting the Chapel, and Dave Lombardo is still considered a god for Chemical Warfare and other classics, by Thrash Metal people and Slayer fans, even though we can't see his face behind the huge kit riser at live shows. I, and probably a third of Slayer fans, won't buy a ticket without Dave. That's a fact.




...

 

Sabbath was my favorite band for quite a while, but I think their first two albums are head and shoulders above the rest of their stuff - Black Sabbath and Paranoid are still two of my favorite albums. I liked 'em with the Heavy Metal Munchkin (Dio), too. I saw them on the Mob Rules tour in 1981 with BOC, which was the same year I saw Priest and Maiden back before Paul Di'Anno snorted his way out of the band.

It's funny you mention Ian Gillan because me and some friends saw his band the same year at some little dump in Towson, MD. What's amusing about it is that we took this lunatic chick from England with us and she took off with the band after the show. We had to drive out to her house in the middle of the night and inform her parents that we had lost their daughter. We were kind of freakin' out a little bit but her parents were completely unfazed "Oh, no problem - she's done that before. Thanks for dropping by and letting us know, boys." That was too damned funny.

Back to Sabbath, Ozzy, et al, I saw Ozzy not long after Randy Rhoads got killed, and Ozzy was horrible. I think Jake Lee was his guitarist at the time, and he was pretty good, but Ozzy's voice was all ragged out and he couldn't sing worth a ****. That was probably the most disappointing show I've seen - it was so bad we left early.

On the flip-side, the most surprisingly good show I've seen was Thin Lizzy at a little theatre in some gang-infested war zone in DC (this was around 1980 before Phil Lynott died). I've got another insane story about that show involving a scalper and an enraged paraplegic who assaulted some cops but I'll spare you the sordid details. Anyhoo, Thin Lizzy totally kicked ass - I couldn't believe how good they were.

So, aside from Slayer, who are your favorite bands?

 

LOL

I think my favorite cover song is Judas Priest's version of Joan Baez's "Diamonds and Rust". The cover rocks but the original makes me want to drive a drill bit into my forehead...

 

The trouble with most American and British bands these days is that they leave their best hooks on the cutting room floor at live gigs. I grew up with bands my dad jammed with in the basement, like 3 Dog Night, and my pals playing their garage, so I'm into live bands that really stand out. I don't get why Iron Maiden, Slayer and Metallica play the same setlists over and over. When did you ever hear Slayer ever play Screaming From the Sky, 213, Bitter Peace, and Eye of the Beholder, Shortest Straw, Dyers Eve or Maiden play Back in the Village, or the Dianno stuff ?

Anyways - Metallicas best tour was "And Justice" in 88 - saw that twice, the same year when I last saw AC/DC live, after that except for Rush on "Roll the Bones", And Maidens "No Prayer for the Dying" I pretty much avoided arena shows. And the Danzig club tour for $5 bucks, and a couple years later killer gig of the Lucifuge tour at the Latin Quarter. The club scene and small theatres is the best place to hear Metal still. Most people refuse to sit at a festival with 10 bands. Destruction /Kreator in 2003 was a great club tour.

I haven't seen Slayer since 2 shows on South of Heaven 1988. And in 1986 Reign in Blood in Royal Oak, which was a crazy show. A hundred Slayer fans chanted "Slay-er!, Slay-er!, Slay-er!" outside before the doors they opened, and when they did - fans stormed the building. Afterward, we saw a security guard grab a kid by the long hairs until he cooled it. But it didn't matter - Slayer fans went on raging, blood flying from someone swinging a belt of spikes, people climbing over seats, pummeling over others to get a better view, and Araya literally stopped playing bass and banging, with his mouth open shocked at what the mob did in reaction to the monster they created. Eventually, after 4 songs or so, the crowd simply banged in unison, and enjoyed the show. Seeing the entire Hell Awaits, Reign in Blood, and Haunting maybe minus a song was killer. Dave Lombardo was perfect as always, Hanneman banged the entire show, and Kerry King was great.

Now - I pretty much listen to all the better Gothic Metal bands from Europe. Last nite I put on " The Flame Within" disc by Stream of Passion. A must own CD. Then I played "Fallen" by Fields Of The Nephilim. "Dawnrazor", "Mourning Sun" and "Zoon" are killer also by the Nephilim. I have pretty much all the Flowing Tears and Tiamat material, since Withered Flowers and Gaia by the latter. I play it constantly, along with Catafalque, Sunterra, Via Mistica, The Sins Of Thy Beloved, OZGE OZKAN, Midnattsol, Ashes You Leave, and still a couple of the Thrash Metal bands like Jason Newsted era "Voivod" and "Katorz," and the Destruction in their heydey the first 3 LPs, and "Morbid Tales" by Celtic Frost plus Dios Black Sabbath, and Cirith Ungol. My remastered Ozzy Sabbath set collects dust - I love it but rarely listen to it, like my Tull and Rush whose entire catalogue I traded in, or threw in the trash.

 

USA's Heavy Metal from the Metallica.

 

The Metallica are USA's number one Trash Metal.

Justice for all are real stuff.

Slayer are stars but unknowless for one some me.

 

There are so many bands now -

I barely have time to listen to all my favorites -

I even traded in my entire Deep Purple and Bowie sets !

What about Voivod ?

Ever hear the Voivod discs with Jason Newsted ?

Or Celtic Frost Tom Warrior side projects ?



Apollyon Sun - Concrete Satan




Triptykon - Obscured






...

 

R.I.P

 

Love that drummer.

 

Thanks - I'll have to check some of this stuff out. My taste in music is so eclectic I haven't had an opportunity to listen to all those bands and material.

PS. I got into Tull and Rush back in their older days when they were still good. In fact, I saw Rush on their Hemispheres tour and that was a great concert. It kinda sucks that Neil Peart recently retired - he was one of the all-time greats.

Eh - wrong thread, but what the heck -

 

It's so funny how times change. I saved a couple dozen of my fave Jethro Tull and David Bowie tracks by each artist, but as I played Moving Pictures since ages 12 to 33 I can't stomach anymore flower power 1970s stuff even in the slightest, or any Rush whatsoever. I used to blare all the Deep Purple discs from Rod Evans to Ian Gillan and David Coverdale full blast on my high end home system, but aside from maybe some Hendrix once every year like 'Radio One' (at the BBC), I NEVER respected Floyd, Aerosmith, or Zeppelin as artists even though as a kid in Detroit in the 70s it was radio played all day on WRIF.

Us Gen X-ers had more of a punk mentality, we dug the Ramones more than Robert Plant, and our Thrash mentality went from Stiv Bators to Slayer. Angus Young and co. did two of the most phenomenal tours in rock in 1986-88, but I never bought a single AC/DC record. I ignored post punk Seattle grunge as a flash in the pan, mostly because it quickly got too commercial and second, it was never dark enough, heavy enough or rebellious enough to seem genuine. Grunge became a corporate rock, mainstream arena attraction overnight, Nirvana trashing their equipment like the Who was just, well, dumb. And the clubs and towns like Royal Oak, where all the punks would hang, were closed or rebuilt with lofts, and high rises, and painted over. Now downtown Royal Oak, and Woodward Ave look like f__king LEGOLAND, and so does 'Merchants Row' in Detroit.

You can hear how much more melodic Gothic Metal has gotten from my past couple pages posts, but they still retain the darker, more intense elements of Thrash Metal in them - even the guitarist from Flowing Tears says his big influences are Slayer.

Flowing Tears - Thy Kingdom Gone live

 

This Welsh band called Skindred once played this rock pub in Croydon/same rock pub owned by Axis of Evil (that metal band) and then a friend of mine went to Miami, FL and saw Skindred out there
Skindred, from Wales.

 

One of the best live bands in the world.

And you can't beat a bit of the old Newport Helicopter (I was there for this one):

(Probably should include a 'Contains Profanity' warning here!)

 

Blistered Earth is the best Metallica tribute band on the planet.

 

R.I.P Randy Rhoads

 

A snapshot I took of this window art of this metal bar in Croydon, The London Borough of Croydon.
R.I.P Lemmy Kilmister

Also I used to watch this sitcom when I was a baby as UK Gold, a TV network back in the day that recycled old UK TV and ran with this show like it depended on it.

 

Bad bands from east Europe.

I Think Amon Amarth are a better warrior than Voivod.

 

But D.Bowie is real nice to lisen within.