My memory of Budgie’s self-titled debut album is that it is fast; Budgie play faster than just about any of the original metal bands (with the exception of Deep Purple on occasion). And so, putting everything else aside, that record is important as it points towards the New Wave of British Heavy Metal well over …
Tag: Metal
Cruelty and the Beast (1998) by Cradle of Filth
I usually have no problem with weird voices. Sure, there’s the odd one that rubs me the wrong way but, more often than not, I can ignore or even enjoy a weird voice when I hear it if I like everything else about the music (and especially if that voice is talented).
Holy Diver (1983) by Dio
I have only heard one Dio-era Sabbath album, and I can’t say I loved it. But it was a few years ago and I can’t really tell you specifically what it was that rubbed me the wrong way; maybe it just seemed out of step with the time.
Piece of Mind (1987) by Iron Maiden
Sometimes I’m listening to an album, and reading about that album, and wondering why I seem to be hearing something different than other people do.
Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka (1998) by Nile
One of the things that I worry about with Death Metal (or Black Metal, for that matter) is that I am going to be confronted by 35-60 minutes of the same style of music and that doesn’t really float my boat. I just don’t want to listen to so many tracks where the style of …
History of a Time to Come (1988) by Sabbat
I am, on some level, a sucker for thrash. Yes, this was released in 1988. Yes, it is heavily influenced by the major American thrash bands. No, there isn’t the kind of genre-creating and genre-defining additions to trash that other late ’80s bands were able to create, on this particular record. I don’t care. Its’ …
Stained Class (1978) by Judas Priest
I do not like Judas Priest, at least as they compare to the other New Wave of British Heavy Metal (henceforth abbreviated NWOBHM) bands. I sort of assumed that was due to the fact that they predated those bands by years and that they jumped on the bandwagon. I am only familiar with their early …
Nightfall (1987) by Candlemass
I am, I supposed, a peculiar kind of metal fan. I like a lot of metal but one of the things I love about great music is particularly un-metal: variety. So every time I encounter one of these bands that practices within a very specific metal sub-genre, I find my love of variety challenged by …
Restless and Wild (1982) by Accept
I didn’t know what to think of this band with a hilariously un-metal band name, which was a good thing, as this record surprised me.
Secret Chiefs 3 Live at The Great Hall September 14, 2017
This was my second Secret Chiefs 3 show, in a much better venue than the last time. It was also a very different experience and I’m not sure whether that’s because SC3 are doing something different on this tour (apparently they are here opening for Dead Cross) or whether the venue made them.
Vol 4 (1972) by Black Sabbath
Round about the time the piano opens “Changes,” we start wondering what is going on. Prior to this moment (or, perhaps, prior to “The Straightener”), Black Sabbath was the heaviest band in the entire world. There was no band louder or lower than Sabbath. And then we get a piano ballad backed with a fucking …
Anthems to the Welkin At Dusk (1997) by Emperor
The problem for me with black metal is that it generally always sounds the same. The black metal bands I’ve heard just do black metal (or melodic black metal, or whatever) and that’s that. They are content to release 50-60 minute onslaughts of one sound and leave it that.
ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ [Psalm 69) (1992) by Ministry
This is the first Ministry album I’ve ever heard. It’s also the first industrial metal I think I’ve ever heard (at least as an adult) and I must say that it sounds pretty much exactly as what I imagined it would. That’s a good thing, I think.
Danzig III: How the Gods Kill (1992)
I have never heard Danzig before and, to the best of my knowledge, never heard Glenn Danzig before (except maybe on some Misfits song, but I think the only version of the band I’ve heard is one without him in it). And there’s something I am having a hard time shaking, which will likely infuriate …
Scum (1987) by Napalm Death*
Full disclosure: my favourite Grindcore band is Anal Cunt, because they are a joke. Grindcore has always struck me as a joke, or at least something easily turned into a joke, because of the brevity of the songs and the over-the-top nature of the music. But there are and have been tons of grindcore bands …
Screaming for Vengeance (1982) by Judas Priest
Every time I listen to Priest I get a different feeling than I do with their NWOBHM contemporaries (I am not saying Priest is NWOBHM), and that is that they are a little more concerned with selling records. Maybe that’s because Priest were always interested in doing that (I have never heard any of their …
Wiped Out (1982) by Raven
Imagine a faster, louder Judas Priest, or a faster Maiden with a little more diversity to their sound (if, say, Maiden were more rooted in earlier metal). That’s what Raven sounds like to me and it’s awesome.
Enthrone Darkness Triumphant (1997) by Dimmu Borgir
As far as I know, this is the first “melodic” black metal album (it may not be, I’m not a genre obsessive). It’s basically black metal with cheesy keyboards.
Scream Bloody Gore (1987) by Death
Apparently there is some debate as to whether or not this is the first death metal album. I haven’t head the other contender myself, and cannot speak to that. I also don’t know mid 80s Thrash enough to speak to it. Also, I’m no genre purist, so I’m not sure I care for anything other …
America Must be Destroyed
I must admit that my idea of GWAR and what they actually sound like were very far apart. In some ways they remind me of KISS, in the sense that they look significantly harder than they sound.
Breaking a Monster (2015, Luke Meyer)
This film about a tween-age metal band made up of black kids from Brooklyn made me feel much the same way as watching one of those beauty pageant documentaries though these kids actually want to play music.
The Number of the Beast (1982) by Iron Maiden
The most Iron Maiden of Iron Maiden albums, this is practically a greatest hits collection. Unlike their first two albums, this feels a little more mature or developed, though it’s also less novel sounding.
Filth Hounds of Hades (1982) by Tank
The opening of “Shellshock” made me think I was in for a crazy, crazy record. The chanting seemed so far outside of what I was expecting from metal from 1982, that suddenly I had all these expectations.
Vulgar Display of Power (1992) by Pantera
I have not heard Cowboys from Hell but I have a hard time imagining that it’s significantly better than this onslaught of a record. I have no idea if this was is one of the first proper groove metal records (I doubt it) but, listening to it, it’s hard to imagine one that’s more definitive: …
Reign in Blood (1986) by Slayer
Slayer has been on my list to listen to for years. But after listening to Megadeth and discovering I really don’t like them, I got worried that maybe the same thing would happen with Slayer. No chance of that happening.
Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying? (1986) by Megadeath
Megadeath have been on my list of essential 80s bands to listen to for years, possibly a decade or more. And now that I’m finally getting to them I’m so, so disappointed I don’t really know what to say. This is some pretty damn heavy music for 1986, and that part is good and cool. …
Bullhead (1991) by Melvins
I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to like Melvins. They make loud music, I like loud music. They have charted their own course regardless of record industry trends. They have collaborated with members of one of my favourite bands. But this, my introduction to the band, and likely one of their most seminal albums, strikes me …
From Fear to Eternity: The Best of 1990-2010 (2011) by Iron Maiden
I accidentally picked this up thinking it was a compilation of their ’80s music. Ah well. I learned a couple of things from this record: First, Iron Maiden has a formula and they stuck to it (at least on the songs considered their “best”). Second, I should never get a live Iron Maiden album. It’s …
Arise (1991) by Sepultura
This is a solid Thrash record. It’s got some great playing and it’s pretty relentless. But I struggle to love it as much as I would like to knowing that they would go on to better things very shortly. And there are only brief hints of their expansive palette of later records that make this …
Metal Evolution (2011)
This is an in depth examination of metal by the man most associated with covering metal on film (though I have yet to see either of his movies). The positive side of this show is that it is a landmark: I don’t think there’s anything like it out there to focus on just a single …