THE METAL AND ME
Well folks, it is 23:35 on Sunday the 16th of October 2011 and I have been gripped by the urge to write some blurb on ye ol' SG since I have been meaning to do this for rather a long time! I have much in this noggin of mine to impart - it's just that the majority of time it never gets further than just being an idea. So what makes tonight different you may ask? Well quite simply, it is passion that fuels my urge to write tonight... the passion I have long held for the music that is The Metal.
So where do I begin? Well as I sit here in front of my laptop, I'm listening to the Carcass album Swansong and as always when I am listening to latter day Carcass (sadly their Goregrind/Grindcore days aren't melodic enough to hold my attention) I am always amazed by the sheer power and technicality of their sound, and it brings me to think of metal as a genre and how much I have enjoyed it over the years. Despite liking a huge variety of musical genres, metal has always held my attention. It's funny really because as a young kid, I was always into pretty mainstream easy-on-the-ears kind of music: the first album I can ever remember buying (we're talking way back in the 80s here) was Michael Jackson's Thriller. Somehow however that evolved into buying Europe's album The Final Countdown - a surprisingly good Hair Metal/Prog Rock effort by the way - and then Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet. After that there was a fairly long hiatus between buying any sort of real metal until I discovered Metallica and Iron Maiden sometime in the early 90s via a few friends... and since then I have never looked back.
You see the thing that really hooked me about metal, especially with the likes of Maiden and Metallica was that I had come across a sound that could be so raw and energetic while being really well structured, technically excellent and melodic at the same time. It was like I was able to read between the lines and find depth beyond the loud distorted guitars and coarse vocals (well maybe not Bruce Dickinson) and see the true nature of metal, if that's not being too pompous. Everything about this new music I had found was just so well put together and identifying the various layers became a great pasttime for me. Straight away you could hear that the drum tracks were really way beyond the norm in terms of being compared to your average pop song, and the rhythm and lead guitars often almost symphonic, especially where the solos are concerned. Throw in awesome cerebral lyrics with depth and message (Maiden wrote about epic moments in history and classic movies and poetry!) and you had a winner of a genre that satisfied on so many levels! I remember first listening to the Metallica's Master of Puppets and being totally blown away by the wall-of-sound that they managed to create.. it just seemed to have so much presence. And the buildup to the big solo in Leper Messiah? Just awesome. It's still one of my all time favourites.
So metal music has been with me for so many years now... maybe about 20 (!!) and I have never grown out of it. Sure I've had phases when I've been away from it for a while - the other great musical love of mine is Reggae - but it's always been there and I've always come back to it. I think my tastes have changed somewhat over the years and I have definately expanded my appreciation for different types of metal, but essentially the song has always remained the same. I have always been more inclined to get into the more melodic vareties of metal as long as they're still pretty heavy, so artists such as Metallica (not so much post ...And Justice For All), Maiden, Megadeth , Kreator, Carcass, In Flames, Slayer, At The Gates, Dissection, Arch Enemy, Sepultura, Death and the like are all up there in my list of favourites. Yeah... as old Jables from the Tenacious D says "you can't destroy the metal!". It just endures and always continues to please!
And on that note, I shall leave you with a few choice albums that should feature on any Desert Island Disc package. These are my all-time favourite albums so check them out if you haven't already done so and share the metal love! Peace x
1. Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
2. Metallica - Master of Puppets
3. Metallica - ...And Justice For All
4. Kreator - Coma of Souls
5. Slayer - Show No Mercy
6. Sepultura - Arise
7. At The Gates - Slaughter of the Soul
8. Carcass - Heartwork
9. Dissection - Reinkaos
10. In Flames - Whoracle
Well folks, it is 23:35 on Sunday the 16th of October 2011 and I have been gripped by the urge to write some blurb on ye ol' SG since I have been meaning to do this for rather a long time! I have much in this noggin of mine to impart - it's just that the majority of time it never gets further than just being an idea. So what makes tonight different you may ask? Well quite simply, it is passion that fuels my urge to write tonight... the passion I have long held for the music that is The Metal.
So where do I begin? Well as I sit here in front of my laptop, I'm listening to the Carcass album Swansong and as always when I am listening to latter day Carcass (sadly their Goregrind/Grindcore days aren't melodic enough to hold my attention) I am always amazed by the sheer power and technicality of their sound, and it brings me to think of metal as a genre and how much I have enjoyed it over the years. Despite liking a huge variety of musical genres, metal has always held my attention. It's funny really because as a young kid, I was always into pretty mainstream easy-on-the-ears kind of music: the first album I can ever remember buying (we're talking way back in the 80s here) was Michael Jackson's Thriller. Somehow however that evolved into buying Europe's album The Final Countdown - a surprisingly good Hair Metal/Prog Rock effort by the way - and then Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet. After that there was a fairly long hiatus between buying any sort of real metal until I discovered Metallica and Iron Maiden sometime in the early 90s via a few friends... and since then I have never looked back.
You see the thing that really hooked me about metal, especially with the likes of Maiden and Metallica was that I had come across a sound that could be so raw and energetic while being really well structured, technically excellent and melodic at the same time. It was like I was able to read between the lines and find depth beyond the loud distorted guitars and coarse vocals (well maybe not Bruce Dickinson) and see the true nature of metal, if that's not being too pompous. Everything about this new music I had found was just so well put together and identifying the various layers became a great pasttime for me. Straight away you could hear that the drum tracks were really way beyond the norm in terms of being compared to your average pop song, and the rhythm and lead guitars often almost symphonic, especially where the solos are concerned. Throw in awesome cerebral lyrics with depth and message (Maiden wrote about epic moments in history and classic movies and poetry!) and you had a winner of a genre that satisfied on so many levels! I remember first listening to the Metallica's Master of Puppets and being totally blown away by the wall-of-sound that they managed to create.. it just seemed to have so much presence. And the buildup to the big solo in Leper Messiah? Just awesome. It's still one of my all time favourites.
So metal music has been with me for so many years now... maybe about 20 (!!) and I have never grown out of it. Sure I've had phases when I've been away from it for a while - the other great musical love of mine is Reggae - but it's always been there and I've always come back to it. I think my tastes have changed somewhat over the years and I have definately expanded my appreciation for different types of metal, but essentially the song has always remained the same. I have always been more inclined to get into the more melodic vareties of metal as long as they're still pretty heavy, so artists such as Metallica (not so much post ...And Justice For All), Maiden, Megadeth , Kreator, Carcass, In Flames, Slayer, At The Gates, Dissection, Arch Enemy, Sepultura, Death and the like are all up there in my list of favourites. Yeah... as old Jables from the Tenacious D says "you can't destroy the metal!". It just endures and always continues to please!
And on that note, I shall leave you with a few choice albums that should feature on any Desert Island Disc package. These are my all-time favourite albums so check them out if you haven't already done so and share the metal love! Peace x
1. Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
2. Metallica - Master of Puppets
3. Metallica - ...And Justice For All
4. Kreator - Coma of Souls
5. Slayer - Show No Mercy
6. Sepultura - Arise
7. At The Gates - Slaughter of the Soul
8. Carcass - Heartwork
9. Dissection - Reinkaos
10. In Flames - Whoracle