-
The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Metalheads! Confess & Brag
- Thread starter Dannyalcatraz
- Start date
Moulin Rogue
First Post
If you like Queen, you should check out yet another British group that hit the scene at the very beginning of the '70s - Uriah Heep. I've never read a reliable source that says Uriah Heep influenced Queen, but it's easy to listen to Heep and THINK they did, because Uriah Heep came a little earlier and they used some operatic vocal harmonies in their music.
But beyond that, they delved into the "fantasy" genre with their lyrics more than other bands around at the time. There was a little bit of this around anyway (Sabbath's "The Wizard", Zep's Tolkein references in "Ramble On" and later with "Battle Of Evermore") but Heep went furthest yet with lyrics about wizards and magic and stuff. Their debut album is definitely heavy by 1970 standards. They are actually still around but have had many, many, many lineup changes throughout the years.
Some Uriah Heep songs to check out, all from 1970-72: Gypsy, Dreammare, Bird Of Prey, Lady In Black, Look At Yourself, Tears In My Eyes, The Wizard, Easy Livin', Rainbow Demon, Sunrise, The Magician's Birthday.
So if you're familiar with Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Budgie and Uriah Heep I would say you've got the "first generation" of heavy metal (early '70s) all covered. It's probably worth noting that all the bands in that list are from the UK. Americans at this time were more "hard rock" like Grand Funk Railroad, Alice Cooper... the US caught on to Led Zeppelin real quick because Zeppelin was very bluesy and mostly sang about familiar rock n' roll stuff. I'd say early heavy metal is defineably "British" with all their crumbling medieval castles and the gloomy climate and so on - the US took a little while to capture that medieval dark aspect.
The first American band to really sound "metal" was Blue Oyster Cult (yes, they of "Don't Fear The Reaper" and 'needs more cowbell' fame). THAT song is not very heavy but they did other songs that are.... their 1972 debut album includes the Sabbath-y song "On Flame With Rock And Roll", so I thought I should mention them here as well.
But beyond that, they delved into the "fantasy" genre with their lyrics more than other bands around at the time. There was a little bit of this around anyway (Sabbath's "The Wizard", Zep's Tolkein references in "Ramble On" and later with "Battle Of Evermore") but Heep went furthest yet with lyrics about wizards and magic and stuff. Their debut album is definitely heavy by 1970 standards. They are actually still around but have had many, many, many lineup changes throughout the years.
Some Uriah Heep songs to check out, all from 1970-72: Gypsy, Dreammare, Bird Of Prey, Lady In Black, Look At Yourself, Tears In My Eyes, The Wizard, Easy Livin', Rainbow Demon, Sunrise, The Magician's Birthday.
So if you're familiar with Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Budgie and Uriah Heep I would say you've got the "first generation" of heavy metal (early '70s) all covered. It's probably worth noting that all the bands in that list are from the UK. Americans at this time were more "hard rock" like Grand Funk Railroad, Alice Cooper... the US caught on to Led Zeppelin real quick because Zeppelin was very bluesy and mostly sang about familiar rock n' roll stuff. I'd say early heavy metal is defineably "British" with all their crumbling medieval castles and the gloomy climate and so on - the US took a little while to capture that medieval dark aspect.
The first American band to really sound "metal" was Blue Oyster Cult (yes, they of "Don't Fear The Reaper" and 'needs more cowbell' fame). THAT song is not very heavy but they did other songs that are.... their 1972 debut album includes the Sabbath-y song "On Flame With Rock And Roll", so I thought I should mention them here as well.
Thunderfoot
Hero
Hey Danny, sit down for a while, I've got this.
Okay kiddies, Thunderfoot is not my name due to some sort of strange dwarven character I played, it was handed down as my street name because of my feet (Duh) as I played double bass - yes I am a drummer. So sit back and take notes, you may want to grab a soda/beer/blood and possibly something that will clog your arteries, I hear live bat is good.
Let's start with the very basics, some vocabulary -
"Heavy Metal" was coined in the song Born to Be Wild by Steppenwolf. The song intended to point the phrasing to motorcycles, but some how got applied to the heavy rock sound (for at the time it WAS heavy) of the song and started a new wave of music in Britain and America.
"Wearing the Leather(s)" - Rob Halford of Judas Priest is the first known metalhead to wear leather. At the time his homosexuality was buried and known only to a few close associates, in the male homosexual scene, bondage was all the rage in the mid to late 70s. When Halford began to wear his bondage gear on stage, the look took off, accompanied by their breakout hit Hell Bent For Leather, a fashion movement was formed.
"Hard Rock" - The more melodic younger brother of Heavy Metal. Hard rock was the original term coined for the eventual 'heavy rock' movement. Hard rock is any music with loud distorted guitars, big drums, heavy flat line bass, but a more melodic spin on the music to include keyboards, light distintive vocals and harmoized guitar parts. There are several genres within or related to hard rock such as Arena Rock, Hair Metal, Pop Metal and Progressive Pop (qv below). Artists that have fallen into this category over the years include but are not limited to: Aerosmith, AC/DC, Alice Cooper, Asia, Boston, Cream, Foghat, GTR, Journey, KISS, Queen, Rush, Styx, Triumph, Van Halen, Vixen, Whitesnake, Yes, Zebra
"Arena Rock" - Hard Rock style popular between the late 70s and mid 80s, so named because the stage shows were so large they could only be performed in arenas. Concerts usually included extended guitar solos, drum solos, keyboard solos and even bass solos. Often times the crowd is encouraged to sing along and pyrotechnical and laser displays are the norm. Alice Cooper and KISS set the bar high with their early theatrical shows so many groups later had to come up with new and inovative ways to draw in the crowds. The best arenas show artists as reviewed in a tone of resources included (but are not limited to) AC/DC, Foreigner, Journey, Motley Crew, Rush, Scorpions, Styx, Triumph, Van Halen, and ZZ Top.
"Hair Metal/Pop Metal" - As Heavy Metal progressed through the 80s the later period saw a reprise of the 70s glam rock style invade the leather look of Britian. If leather was homo-erotic than wearing ladies lingere was even more so. Began in American in the New York club scene by veteran rockers Twisted Sister, Dee Snyder is quoted as saying, "our wives and girlfirends would do our make-up and hair and we would shop for clothing in the 'oh my god I'm fat' ladies departments." The look and sound was orginally fresh and cutting edge, but by the downfall of metal to the grunge era of the 90s, the 'Pop Metal" tag, where bands were engineered by producers and image consultants, started to water down and over use the 'power ballad'. Bands include (you know the rest): Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Dokken, Guns n' Roses, Kix, Motley Crew, Poison, Quiet Riot, Stryper, Trixter, Vixen, and Warrant.
"Progressive Pop/Rock/Metal" - This group of music is the most hard to define, while the hard edge is there, the musicianship of the individual players often times presses the very envelope of known music. Often times a band in this category will achieve commercial success with a single song or series of songs gaining new 'fans' only to have those same 'fans' disappear when they play their other selections. The lyrics are often deep in meaning, touching on political and social aspects that popular music shies away from. Groups that live here are: Black Sabbath (with Ronnie James Dio), Cream, Dream Theater, Emerson Lake and Palmer (Powell) or ELP, Kansas, Kings X, Rainbow (with Ronnie James Dio), Rush, Yngwie Malmsteen, Frank Zappa and Zebra.
"Death Metal/Black Metal" - Music form originating in the mid 80s as a result of the constant right wing protest groups touting Satanic influence of Heavy Metal music. Originally this music was musically no different than 'traditional' metal but used more minor keys and dimished chord progressions, as the style progressed the vocals became less pronounced and more of a 'growl' than a true metal 'scream'. Bands are not limited to the following: Black Angel, Corrosion of Conformity, Deth, Embalmed, GWAR, King Diamond, Rancid, Slayer, Voivod, and Witchblade.
"Speed Metal/Thrash" Speed metal was all about the speed baby, it wasn't enough to be loud and hard, you had to push 250 beats per minute (bpm). The music was noted by its all out assualt on the eardrums by 68th note guitar licks, quadruple triplets on the drums and a steady 'dubba-dubba" stroked on the bass. vocals ranged from audible to mindless gibberish sometimes melodically sang and other times just yelled and squalled. Thrash was the fusing of this new speed mentality with eneregy of punk infusing it with odd times, sudden breaks and other farsical but musically appealing techniques. Bands of note include: Anthrax, Megadeath, The Misfits, Motorhead, and the granddaddies of the genre Metallica (Please note that this was before the And Justice For ALL album when they became "ALTERNNICA.")
"Christian Metal" - the musical answer to the 'death metal' scene. Infused with positive lyrics and a message of salvation, this alternative to doom and gloom was looked upon by the 'true metal' community as a moronic step-child, however, just as metal asked to keep an open mind, further listening reveals many of these groups were quite talented. The "CM" tag actually spanned all of the known accepted forms of metal described above so you could literally find the positive equivallent to anything you may find aurally pleasing. Bands are listed with appropriate style behind name in parenths: Angelica (Progressive.Pop), Bloodgood (Hard Rock), Bride (Hard Rock/Arena), Holy Soldier (Hair/Arena), Jet Circus (Arena/Progressive), Mana (Hard Rock/Arena), Shout (Arena), Stryper (Hair/Pop/Arena), Tourniquet (Speed/Thrash), Throne (White/Black/), and Xalt (Arena/Pop)
That's enough for now. Next time we'll go over history and they way the music progressed to fit movements, social policy and economic status during the Cold War.
Okay kiddies, Thunderfoot is not my name due to some sort of strange dwarven character I played, it was handed down as my street name because of my feet (Duh) as I played double bass - yes I am a drummer. So sit back and take notes, you may want to grab a soda/beer/blood and possibly something that will clog your arteries, I hear live bat is good.
Let's start with the very basics, some vocabulary -
"Heavy Metal" was coined in the song Born to Be Wild by Steppenwolf. The song intended to point the phrasing to motorcycles, but some how got applied to the heavy rock sound (for at the time it WAS heavy) of the song and started a new wave of music in Britain and America.
"Wearing the Leather(s)" - Rob Halford of Judas Priest is the first known metalhead to wear leather. At the time his homosexuality was buried and known only to a few close associates, in the male homosexual scene, bondage was all the rage in the mid to late 70s. When Halford began to wear his bondage gear on stage, the look took off, accompanied by their breakout hit Hell Bent For Leather, a fashion movement was formed.
"Hard Rock" - The more melodic younger brother of Heavy Metal. Hard rock was the original term coined for the eventual 'heavy rock' movement. Hard rock is any music with loud distorted guitars, big drums, heavy flat line bass, but a more melodic spin on the music to include keyboards, light distintive vocals and harmoized guitar parts. There are several genres within or related to hard rock such as Arena Rock, Hair Metal, Pop Metal and Progressive Pop (qv below). Artists that have fallen into this category over the years include but are not limited to: Aerosmith, AC/DC, Alice Cooper, Asia, Boston, Cream, Foghat, GTR, Journey, KISS, Queen, Rush, Styx, Triumph, Van Halen, Vixen, Whitesnake, Yes, Zebra
"Arena Rock" - Hard Rock style popular between the late 70s and mid 80s, so named because the stage shows were so large they could only be performed in arenas. Concerts usually included extended guitar solos, drum solos, keyboard solos and even bass solos. Often times the crowd is encouraged to sing along and pyrotechnical and laser displays are the norm. Alice Cooper and KISS set the bar high with their early theatrical shows so many groups later had to come up with new and inovative ways to draw in the crowds. The best arenas show artists as reviewed in a tone of resources included (but are not limited to) AC/DC, Foreigner, Journey, Motley Crew, Rush, Scorpions, Styx, Triumph, Van Halen, and ZZ Top.
"Hair Metal/Pop Metal" - As Heavy Metal progressed through the 80s the later period saw a reprise of the 70s glam rock style invade the leather look of Britian. If leather was homo-erotic than wearing ladies lingere was even more so. Began in American in the New York club scene by veteran rockers Twisted Sister, Dee Snyder is quoted as saying, "our wives and girlfirends would do our make-up and hair and we would shop for clothing in the 'oh my god I'm fat' ladies departments." The look and sound was orginally fresh and cutting edge, but by the downfall of metal to the grunge era of the 90s, the 'Pop Metal" tag, where bands were engineered by producers and image consultants, started to water down and over use the 'power ballad'. Bands include (you know the rest): Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Dokken, Guns n' Roses, Kix, Motley Crew, Poison, Quiet Riot, Stryper, Trixter, Vixen, and Warrant.
"Progressive Pop/Rock/Metal" - This group of music is the most hard to define, while the hard edge is there, the musicianship of the individual players often times presses the very envelope of known music. Often times a band in this category will achieve commercial success with a single song or series of songs gaining new 'fans' only to have those same 'fans' disappear when they play their other selections. The lyrics are often deep in meaning, touching on political and social aspects that popular music shies away from. Groups that live here are: Black Sabbath (with Ronnie James Dio), Cream, Dream Theater, Emerson Lake and Palmer (Powell) or ELP, Kansas, Kings X, Rainbow (with Ronnie James Dio), Rush, Yngwie Malmsteen, Frank Zappa and Zebra.
"Death Metal/Black Metal" - Music form originating in the mid 80s as a result of the constant right wing protest groups touting Satanic influence of Heavy Metal music. Originally this music was musically no different than 'traditional' metal but used more minor keys and dimished chord progressions, as the style progressed the vocals became less pronounced and more of a 'growl' than a true metal 'scream'. Bands are not limited to the following: Black Angel, Corrosion of Conformity, Deth, Embalmed, GWAR, King Diamond, Rancid, Slayer, Voivod, and Witchblade.
"Speed Metal/Thrash" Speed metal was all about the speed baby, it wasn't enough to be loud and hard, you had to push 250 beats per minute (bpm). The music was noted by its all out assualt on the eardrums by 68th note guitar licks, quadruple triplets on the drums and a steady 'dubba-dubba" stroked on the bass. vocals ranged from audible to mindless gibberish sometimes melodically sang and other times just yelled and squalled. Thrash was the fusing of this new speed mentality with eneregy of punk infusing it with odd times, sudden breaks and other farsical but musically appealing techniques. Bands of note include: Anthrax, Megadeath, The Misfits, Motorhead, and the granddaddies of the genre Metallica (Please note that this was before the And Justice For ALL album when they became "ALTERNNICA.")
"Christian Metal" - the musical answer to the 'death metal' scene. Infused with positive lyrics and a message of salvation, this alternative to doom and gloom was looked upon by the 'true metal' community as a moronic step-child, however, just as metal asked to keep an open mind, further listening reveals many of these groups were quite talented. The "CM" tag actually spanned all of the known accepted forms of metal described above so you could literally find the positive equivallent to anything you may find aurally pleasing. Bands are listed with appropriate style behind name in parenths: Angelica (Progressive.Pop), Bloodgood (Hard Rock), Bride (Hard Rock/Arena), Holy Soldier (Hair/Arena), Jet Circus (Arena/Progressive), Mana (Hard Rock/Arena), Shout (Arena), Stryper (Hair/Pop/Arena), Tourniquet (Speed/Thrash), Throne (White/Black/), and Xalt (Arena/Pop)
That's enough for now. Next time we'll go over history and they way the music progressed to fit movements, social policy and economic status during the Cold War.
Nyaricus
First Post
Kurashu said:
Do I!
Here's the thing: there is a big difference in the sound of "troo" black metal and it's more popular bands. True black metal is distinguished by it's raw production, and has a bleak and angry feeling to it, whereas most of BM's popular bands (Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir pop to mind) have a very different sound.
Nargaroth - this is a german BM band, and I have to say that their album Black Metal Ist Krieg (A Dedicated Monument) is a fantastic piece of work. It features a compilation of covers and original work all about BM, and has a fantasic flow to it all. Recommended Tracks: 'Amarok - Zorn Des Lammes III', 'Pisen Pro Satana (Root cover)', 'I Burn For You (Lord Foul cover)'.
Burzum - this is Varg Vikernes' band. He's the guy that killed Euronymous, guitar player for Mayhem, which is argueably BM's most infamous band. While the man himself is obviously not a nice guy, I've listened to a variety of his work, and it's amazing what he's done. May I suggest the album Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, which opens with the epic 14 minute long tack 'Det Som En Gang Var', an amazing mix of synth, guitars and keyboards. Did I mention Varg plays all of his own instruments?
Gorgoroth - while I can't call myself a raving fanatic about this band, I do have the album 'Under the Sign of Hell' and I can say it's a solid piece of BM work, with some decent tracks like 'Krig' (a personal favourite of mine), 'Blood Stains the Circle' and 'The Rite of Infernal Invocation'.
Impaled Nazarene - the one album I have by them, 'Suomi Finland Perkele', has a few solid tracks as well, though I'd recommend Nargorath or Gorgoroth over this one. Tracks of note: 'Let's
ing Die', 'The Oath of the Goat', and 'Blood is Thicker than Water'.------
As for the more popular bands of the genre, Cradle of Filth is not only one of my favourite bands, but they are also BM; thus I can say a lot about them.
CoF has greatly changed their sound over the years. They've almost always had a certain gothic/symphonic bit going on, what with orchestra-inspired intro tracks on most of their albums and a keyboardist in the band for most (all?) of their career, but they have undeniably evolved as a band. Their newest album (Thornography) can best be described as not black metal, but a particular sub-genre is also hard to come by - I'd shoot for blackened melodic groove metal with black and death metal influences, but as I said, it's hard to define.
In any case, they have slews of fantastic work, what with a decade and a half as a band under their belt.
I'll do a Chronological play-by-play for the albums I own:
Dusk and Her Embrace (1996) - Not missing much if you don't have this album; it had a few so-so tracks, but most are largely forgettable - much like the album itself. I do like 'A Gothic Romance (Red Roses for the Devil's Whore)' though
Cruelty and the Beast (1998) - This is a CoF release which sticks very much to the true black metal spirit while still feeling melodic and experimental. It's a very solid piece, and has numerous good tracks: 'Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids' (a personal favourite), 'Desire in Violent Overture' and 'The Twisted Nails of Fate'. I should note I have the limited double-disk edition which has tracks from a previously released Celtic Cross edition which has bonus tracks. Get this version if you can - it has a fantastic cover of Venom's 'Black Metal' (the song which, IIRC, started the BM movement) and Iron Maiden's 'Hallowed Be Thy Name'.
Midian (2000) - This album likely incorporates the keyboards moreso then CoF ever had previously, It has a great horror/gothic theme to it, opening up (after an intro track) with the essential 'Cthulhu Dawn', and with many other excellent tracks alongside it: 'Death Magic for Adepts', 'Lord Abortion', 'Tearing the Veil from Grace' and the amazing track 'Her Ghost in the Fog', which is very melodic and dark.
Damnation and a Day (2003) - this is *the* album which got me into Cradle of Filth. This was the first (and last, at the time of this posting) album CoF did with Sony. With a huge budget, they found themselves backed by a full orchestra, and their previous flirtations with keyboards came full swing. It's an epic album, with 17 tracks breaking in at over an hour and 15 minutes of symphonic black metal, with amazing work by the entire band here. If I were to say "pick up one CoF album", well this would be that album. It's crisp, it has depth, it has energy and it is, IMO, the pinnacle of what CoF has done in their career; check out 'Hurt and Virtue', 'Better to Reign in Hell, 'Serpent Tongue' when you buy this album
Nyphetamine (2004) - this CD is CoF settling down in their symphonic black metal niche, and is kinda the yang of Midian's ying, if that makes sense. There are many tracks you simply should not miss, although the special double disk edition is skippable - the second disk really has nothing of interest on it, other then an interesting cover of Cliff Richard's 'Devil Woman'. The main disk, however, is absolutely loaded with good tracks, with 'Nymphetamine Fix' and Nymphetamine Overdose' taking the lead. Overdose is simply Fix with an intro and an outro and ups the length by a good 3 or 4 minutes - but either are enjoyable. The intro instrumental 'Satyriasis' is, IMO, CoF's best one yet, and 'Gilded
', 'Nemesis' and 'Absinthe With Faust' are all essential CoF tracks. This album strays fairly far from CoF's BM roots, but it's a very interesting take.I won't bother going over Thornography, as it really is not BM, but I would recommend you buy this album if you are a death metal, black metal or symphonic metal fan - there is really something for everyone on this album.
Hope that helps!
cheers,
--N
Nyaricus
First Post
\m/ Thunderfoot is an awesome nick-name, haha.Thunderfoot said:
I never knew that; I always figured metal's association with leather was due to bikers wearing it (and their subsequent association with metal) - but then I'm not sure (now) if bikers were influenced then by metal to wear leather. Very neat little tidbit, anywayThunderfoot said:
cheers,
--N
Kurashu
First Post
Thunderfoot said:
[rant]
Lordy do I hate that term. The actual term does nothing to describe any style of music being played, just the content of lyrics. I don't see Nile being called egyptian death metal because they're songs are usually about Egypt. If I made a band that had songs about the Shinto religion would that be Shinto Metal? Or what about Islam? Deicide isn't "nihilist death metal".
The only thing I hate more is when my mom calls everything, EVERYTHING, I listen to that's heavy "death metal" regardless of how it sounds.
[/rant]
Nyaricus said:
Ah yes. Burzum. I was wondering when that name'd come up. I suppose once can't mention black metal without either Burzum or Mayhem coming up. Euronymous. Am I the only one who finds his name, in Greek, means "well named" amusing?
Nyaricus, thanks for the suggestions. Cradle of Filth annoys me. From both what I've heard of them and the fact that everyone here who listens to them thinks they're BMFs, like Samuel L Jackson or something.
jgbrowning
Hero
Ferret said:
Try the song Killing Machine from Hell Bent for Leather. It's not as popular as many of Judas Priest's other songs, but I think it does a great job of capturing the aggression and bravado indicitive of their style. That said, pretty much anthing from about 1978 to 1984 by Priest is good music. Also, give their recent reunion album a listen: it's surprisingly good as well.
Glad you like metal Ferret.
Right now I'm loving me some Therion hard core (been listening to their last 4 albums a lot recently), but I've got Kiss' Creatures of the Night in my headphones right now.Oh a bit of funny gamer/metal knowledge. The ENnie award winning adventure last year, The Pleasure Palace of the B'thuvian Demon Whore was written exclusively to the Judas Priest discograpy. And a butt-load of Mountain Dew.
joe b.
Nyaricus
First Post
BMF's = big mother "freakers"?Kurashu said:
What tracks have you listened to, and why did they annoy you? In any case, while they have indeed broke into the mainstream with their work, they are still a very good band, IMO. Of course, I've heard (on ther net here, at various metal sites) that some people either love them or hate them, and that you might choose to hate 'em doesn't really surprize me.
I guess I'm kinda like you in that I've always shied away from what everyone was blabbing about. I had a friend who used to go on and on and on and on about Tool, and I hated them solely based upon how much excessive preaching he'd do about them. I bought a CD on a whim last year, and now own 3 different Tool CDs. They are hardly a favourite band of mine (I could name you many, many others that rank higher) but they do have some good tracks to their name.
Just sayin', is all
cheers,
--N
