Essential Metal

You got here by clicking on Beavis and Butthead (huh, huh, huh.....he, he, he - Woh - that was cool etc).

I discovered Heavy Metal at an impressionable age - 14 - and I had no idea that I would end up loving this stuff as much as one would an errant child (how profound!). Yes - sometimes Metal is terrible, overblown, takes itself too seriously and unintentionally funny - but is also a damn fine musical form - I like it a lot.

The rise of Metal can basically be traced to the late 60's Blues Explosion - out of this came a variety of Guitar Gods; Jimi Hendrix (who obviously came from another planet!), Jimmy Page (of the Yardbirds and later Led Zeppelin), Jeff Beck (also of the Yardbirds) and Eric Clapton (Cream). Suddenly - very loud guitar was the soundtrack of many a teenagers bedroom, eventually evolving into a heavier form of blues.

Bands, and like prog they were mainly British, started to get louder and less like blues and as the 1960's came to a close, several metal gods were spawned;

• Some working class brummies had been playing old blues tracks and then took their sound on a few decibels and scared the shit out of everyone on their first album. I am talking about Black Sabbath - just listen to the opening of their first album and try not to imagine being cold - the rain, wind, tolling bell and terrifying de-tuned opening riff - I don't think Ozzy and his chums had any idea just how influential this would remain even 30 years later - it is like watching a horror film in musical form. They went on to produce perhaps the worst background music ever (it does not suit being in the background one bit) and really hate each other. If this is Satan's music then cast me into that lake of fire.
• Some more brummies got together and became even bigger than Sabb - they recorded the ultimate rock ballad - so popular it usually is named in abbreviated form (Stairway) - blew everyone else away for a short time and made further pacts with Satan - Led Zeppelin - proving that god must like stuff like Craig David or Toploader. They also smashed some hotel rooms, got laid many, many times and even had time to conform to stereotype and have their drummer die on them.
• Some very skilled musicians got together at the end of the 60's and recorded some iconic rock - Deep Purple. They also ended up hating each other - rather more than Black Sabbath did.
• Bands started to fill Stadia, outrage parents and perform miracles with voltage - this is music for nasty people and for several wonderful years it was massive!
• Some more British bands waited until the early 1980's to make their mark - Def Leppard and Iron Maiden - this was the NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal)

Thus was born Metal. The rules of this great musical form seemed to be;

• You will record songs about Satanism, Doom, Death, Sex and Drugs. It is OK if any song touches on all of these.
• You will have at least one record cover banned/doctored/withdrawn/all of the above at some time in your career.
• You will be sued by your ex-manager at some point
• When three or four people are gathered together then thou shalt wreck the hotel room
• You will buy a private jet
• You will build stupid stage sets
• You will fire at least one of your band members at any time during the 1970's
• ...or he could die
• You will go on massive world tours

My own link to metal is the 1984 Iron Maiden album, Powerslave. Basically I liked the cover - the icon of IM, Eddie The 'Ed, presented in the form of an Egyptian God. This was more like it! The music inside was superb - fast, fascinating, plumbing the depths of history. The album closed with Rime of the Ancient Mariner - a 14 minute epic. Now this was good.

I was hooked - but I had to realise that I had joined a club - and like any club, this one had rules;

• You will wear a denim jacket, cover it in patches and never wash it
• you will wear band logo tee-shirts
• You will get told off by mam and dad for playing Powerslave too loud
• You will hang around with other people who like metal
• You will scribble band artwork on the back of your RE book.
• You will take it all very seriously
• You will study the LP lyric sheet with care, refusing to find lyrics like "Satans Coming Round the Bend - People Running 'cos they're Scared" to be the most funny thing you have ever heard
• YOU WILL Air Guitar

Metal continued to evolve throughout the 1980's. Metal became Thrash, Speed or Death Metal. Funk Metal arrived along with quite horrible glam metal bands - like Motley Bloody Crue (a sort of Kiss for the 1980's). Then Guns and Roses came and went back to basics - becoming the biggest band in the world - for a while. According to many, when Nirvana turned up in 1989 it was all over. This strange era had another set of rules;

• You will discover MTV and make very expensive videos (Guns and Roses made a Video Trilogy for Christ's Sake!)
• You will have too much hair
• You will not be nice people at all (Guns and Roses this means you again)
• Instead of wrecking Hotel Rooms you will wreck your own lives - two members of Motley Crue will plough their car into an innocent and kill them during a legendary bender, Axl Rose will knock the shit out of his wife and get arrested - many times. Tommy Lee will become Mr Excess.
• You will leave your band, slag them off in Kerrang or Metal Hammer, before having a one off reunion at the advice of your bank manager
• Many of you will sell out - Def Leppard, Bon Jovi - as a punishment you will now go to Heaven!!!!!!!

Nowadays, Metal has moved on without me! Blink 182, Slipknot.... erm..... and all those other guys produce a brand of music that I know nothing of. Metal has never died for me - but it just seems a bit ill at the moment.

Some Essential Metal

Iron Maiden - Rime of The Aincent Mariner - Powerslave 1984 - based on the Coleridge poem, this epic holds a special place in my heart - perhaps it is the great storytelling, the atmosphere (the rigging creaking during the doldrums section - eek!) or the never ending guitar solo. For best reults, play as a double bill with the title track.

Deep Purple - Black Knight - In Rock 1970 - legend has it that Purp recorded this after a trip to the pub to cure their writer's block. It is full of lots of recycled stuff - the guitar riff is stolen from Eddie Cochran, the drum beat is just swing that has been bashed about by the quite brilliant Ian Paice.

Anthrax - Indians - Among the Living 1987 - the best album cover ever, contains possibly the best Thrash track ever - faster than a vindaloo through a senior citizen, heavier than freight train up the arse - this song kills grannys. Apart from being pretty deep ("a flag of many colours is what this land is all about") it was also a pretty big hit - well done guys!

   back to essential music