Tag: heavy metal

Cool Music Videos

On By bigbadburchIn Uncategorized4 Comments

Today I wanted to chill out for a bit and have a look back at a handful of cool music videos. The music video used to define the landscape, MTV was as important in getting people to buy records as radio was. Nowadays more acts than ever can make really good videos, but it takes a lot to get eyeballs on them. They aren’t the way to reel in listeners like they were in the past.

There is no connecting theme here or anything – I’m just pulling up a few videos I remember from way back, or whenever on the timeline they fall.

Dire Straits – Money For Nothing

This video made use of early computer animation in an unlikely and groundbreaking way to put forth a video that took on a life of its own and stood out even beyond Dire Straits’ massively successful Brothers In Arms album. It was the talk of everywhere when it hit.

What’s funny is that I don’t think I’ve seen this video in full since it originally aired on MTV. I never have looked it up on YouTube, until now. The video might seem dated by today’s standards, sure, but I still remember how unreal it was at the time. It probably won’t land with younger audiences much, though I see some love for it in the video’s comment section.

Tool – Prison Sex

This was crazy stuff in the early ’90’s – another kind of animation technique not widely used at the time and in part put together by Tool’s guitarist Adam Jones. The video itself got played fairly regularly on MTV for a bit – until people found it too uncomfortable and yanked it from the airwaves. It got a second life on Beavis and Butthead a bit on down the road.

I’m not entirely sure what the song is about, though plenty of other Tool fans will be happy to slug it out in arguments over the meaning. It’s certainly not a pleasant topic, some form of abuse. The video disturbingly yet also amazingly portrays that theme in its animation.

Journey – Separate Ways

If you would have told me decades ago that I would unironically consider a video of Journey playing air instruments in front a pier-side warehouse one of the best videos of all time, I would have looked at you really funny. Yet here we are and I am offering just that opinion – this video is fantastic.

This is just so unreal and so 1980’s. Journey crafts a wonderful pop rock song and gets zero budget for their video apparently, so this is what we get. And after I reached adulthood and looked back on the video I couldn’t help but smile fondly. It is as goofy as it gets, but damn if it isn’t awesome.

Guns N Roses – Estranged

I went over this song pretty extensively in September when I did my in-depth analysis of the Use Your Illusion albums. I didn’t get too much occasion to discuss the video specifically though.

The song is an absolute masterpiece and the video matches the music blow-for-blow. Video-wise it’s the end of a trilogy that also includes Don’t Cry and November Rain, though I don’t know if the songs themselves play into that (they kinda seem like they do, at least loosely).

The video was clearly big-budget, I would assume more money went into it than many theatrical release movies of the time. It does spell the end of Guns N Roses’ time in the sun, as the band would splinter apart in a few years after this final single from their double album was released.

The video showcases Axl’s eccentricy and self-centerness, sure, but it’s still an honest take of the band at the time and probably goes a long way to painting the picture of this song. The way the song goes into its final movement, one of the most powerful in music, right when Axl jumps off the ship around the 7 minute mark is just perfect timing.

Kiss – Lick It Up

Kiss missed out on the music video format with a lot of their early material. It’s a shame that such a visual, theatrical band didn’t get to shoot music videos for their top-flight 70’s output. Just imagine what we could have gotten out of that.

Instead, we get ’80’s no-makeup Kiss wandering a post-apocalyptic wasteland but with hot women who want to party. It’s like Mad Maxine Beyond Thunderdome, I don’t know. I do know that I really like this video, even if it is honestly kinda cringe.

The song is one of Kiss’ stronger ones from their ’80’s catalog and this video is – well, certainly a video. I can’t help but like it though, this is what I grew up on. It does appear that ¾ of the band is all about the video, while Gene Simmons might have benefited from keeping his demon makeup on.

Muse – Knights Of Cydonia

Let’s wind up with something from this side of the millennium line. This goofy western/sci-fi/kung fu mash up to a sillier than shit song about who knows what somehow winds up being one of the best music videos ever committed to film.

The video is just splendid. It’s a mini feature film, replete with plot and characters. The band only appears as brief hologram projections, I guess that’s fine since they looked like the Gallagher brothers playing alongside James Hetfield anyway. The good kung fu cowboy guy and the girl ride off into the sunset after bad cowboy kung fu guy is digitally vaporized, so I guess everyone goes home happy in the end.

There isn’t a lot more for me to say about it. The video is widely celebrated as one of the best music videos ever made and the song is towards the top of any list of Muse tracks. A pretty good marriage of song and film here.

Lamb Of God – Ashes Of The Wake (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week3 Comments

This week’s AOTW pick is a classic from 2004 that saw one of metal’s rising stars reach new heights and start to secure their place as the genre’s premier act. The album is largely based thematically on the second U.S.-Iraq War and features one of the best 3-song (if not 5-song) opening album sequences ever put to record. The new gods of groove metal arrived in 2004 to headbang through the new millennium.

Lamb Of God – Ashes Of The Wake

Released August 31, 2004 via Epic Records

My Favorite Tracks – Laid To Rest, Hourglass, Now You’ve Got Something To Die For

The album leads off with Laid To Rest – a track that is one of LoG’s most popular songs to this day. The song is one of a few that doesn’t betray its meaning right away – it could be about a victim haunting their killer, as is often surmised. That same concept could play out with the album’s overall theme of looking at the U.S. Wars in the Middle East. Perhaps a “collateral damage” victim is looking for their killers.

Or, the song could simply be a damn break-up tune. That’s what it sounds like to me. There’s definitely something under there to pull that conclusion out, even if the result is quite screwed up. I don’t necessarily recommend screaming “Destroy yourself – see who gives a fuck” over and over again if you’re trying to get over somebody, but hey, it’s there if you need it.

The next few songs jump more overtly into the issue of the wars in the Middle East. Hourglass is a sharp warning of the dangers of nation-building, warnings that have largely come to pass. Now You’ve Got Something To Die For gets into the true cost of war, that being the piles of bodies wrapped in flags and dollars.

The Faded Line continues the harrowing exploration of the cost of war, this time looking at the loss of faith and connection to one’s country, vision and values. It’s a definite standout and one I can truly connect with, it’s kind of shit living in a place where I can’t connect with the ideals that so many among me are rabidly shouting in defense of.

Ashes Of The Wake goes on to explore a handful of other themes. Omerta is a clear visitation of the Mafia’s “code of silence” and the brutal consequences of violating it. There’s more political musing on One Gun, and Break You is about some specifically unidentified heavy stuff.

The album’s title track takes a different approach to outlining the horrors of war. An interview with a Marine who saw combat in Iraq presents the harsh realities of the orders the combatants were given. The song offers a handful of guitar solos, including guest shots from Testament’s Alex Skolnick and Chris Poland, formerly of Megadeth.

Lamb Of God were one of the many bands lumped into the “New Wave Of American Heavy Metal” tag in the early 00’s. That tag got a bit confusing over time and grouped many dissimilar acts together. Either way, Lamb Of God separated themselves from the pack with Ashes Of The Wake. The road ahead would see even more success and exposure for the group through the rest of the 00’s.

Mötley Crüe – Wild Side

On By bigbadburchIn S-Tier Songs2 Comments

This post was part of a series that I called S-Tier Songs. I later decided to abandon the series in favor of a simpler Song of the Week format. I am keeping these posts as I wrote them but removing the old page that linked to the list of S-Tier Songs, so that is why these posts might look a bit odd. Enjoy.

In 1987 rock was king and it had hair. Everyone was on board the hair train – every new band, no matter their actual sound, made sure their luscious locks were on prominent display in press photos and videos. Many old guard rockers, such as Heart, joined in on the hair party. Rock some tunes, get some huge hair, and cash the royalty checks.

And in 1987, the four people most chiefly responsible for starting the whole hair mess arrived with a new album. Motley Crue returned with Girls, Girls, Girls as a way to reclaim a bit of glory after their prior effort Theatre Of Pain was commercially successful yet critically panned. The album was a success and the band continued their hot streak through the end of the decade they helped define.

For everything on that record, one song stands out as among the very best tunes Crue recorded. The album’s opener Wild Side did not see an official release as a single, but a crazy MTV video put the song in the spotlight and the song became a sensation.

Motley Crue – Wild Side

In the late 80’s where the formula for success was hard rockers about sex and ballads about sex, Motley Crue showed back up to add a grittier edge to the sound of their own doing. The band started heavier and nastier than the scene they helped forge, and on Wild Side they returned to explore the sleazier side of life.

The song is a hard hitter, going straight for the throat with a great riff and some pounding drums. Motley Crue were never technical masters of their instruments but when they wrote a great song it was unmistakable. Wild Side is signature Crue and it stands with the other staples of their set, and towards the top of it.

The song lyrically explores the seedier side of life. It’s something often left out of the polish and shine of 80’s rock – everyone was so busy glizting up the Sunset Strip that people forgot how screwed up Los Angeles really was. But this band, one who was billed as the most dangerous in the world, reminded everyone what life on the streets could really be like.

And yeah, they really were dangerous – sadly they were a danger to themselves and others.

The heralded video showcased a live performance replete with Tommy Lee going upside-down on a crazy drum rig. The stunt was a huge talking point that helped spread word about the song and also cemented the band’s reputation as over the top and crazy.

Why is this an S-Tier song?

Wild Side is a kick ass banger that is widely considered one of the band’s best songs. It stood apart from the muddled rock scene of the later 1980’s and re-established some of the grittier edge to Motley Crue. It might not be hard to stand out from the hair rock pack when you drew the blueprints for it, but the band’s return to a harder sound was timely as the Sunset Strip was about to give birth to a dangerous new band who would directly challenge the Crue for the top spot as the king of the rock hill.

I’m not at a point yet where I would take the time to rank individual Motley Crue songs but Wild Side is an easy top 3 for me. It’s one of the real gems in their catalog and it stood out from the crowd as 80’s hair metal excess began to swamp the scene.

Body Count – Bloodlust (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week2 Comments

This week I’m grabbing one of my favorite albums from recent memory. It’s now 4 years old and it’s a record that shifted the band’s profile and also highlighted significant political issues within modern America. One song in particular from this album would get re-released as a single after massive racial tensions engulfed the country in 2020.

And yes, this post will discuss politics. It’s not always my bag and not where I want to go with my blog but it’s unavoidable when discussing this album. Deal with it, I guess.

Body Count – Bloodlust

Released March 31, 2017 via Century Media Records

My Favorite Tracks – No Lives Matter, Civil War, Here I Go Again

Body Count arrived on the scene in the early ’90’s in mega controversial fashion, as Ice T’s metal band found themselves with a banned song in the form of Cop Killer. The band would go on for years to earn a legit reputation for banging music and consistent gigging. The group went on a long hiatus before returning in the mid 2010’s with a refined focus on Manslaughter.

Bloodlust arrived in early 2017, just after a bitter political battle in 2016’s U.S. Presidential elections. Tensions were at an all-time high after the most vile and cancerous arguments presented in public forums I’ve ever seen, and this Body Count record would explore many of the issues in a manner fitting of the savage climate of the time.

I’m going track-by-track this week, as this record deserves the specific attention.

Civil War

The album begins with a mock emergency announcement, one real-sounding enough to scare people who might be within earshot. (It’s happened to me more than once). Dave Mustaine narrates an official government announcement of martial law before the song starts.

Civil War is just like it sounds – a brutal exploration of things breaking bad in America. When this album came out things were looking pretty grim here. It might seem calmer in 2021 than then but there’s still a lot of contempt and resentment for any different perspective today, so I don’t know if the threat has really dissipated.

Mustaine lends an excellent guitar solo to the track and the band slams through dystopian violence gone horribly wrong. It’s a great song but also extra unsettling due to the very real possibility that something could kick off.

The Ski Mask Way

This song sees Ice T and company explore the topic of high-profile robbery. Today’s influencer culture has people flashing their goods more than ever before and this leads to a dark subculture of those people being targeted by thieves. These aren’t the two-bit thieves who make off with your rusted Huffy bicycle at 2:00 AM, these are the pros who will do anything to get what they want.

This Is Why We Ride

One of Bloodlust‘s feature tracks discusses the real issues behind ghetto violence in America. People might complain that Ice T is rich and doesn’t have a voice in the matter, but I’d wager he knows more about the issue than some white guy filming a YouTube video in the huge truck he’s balls deep in debt on.

The song is excellent, a real standout on the record. It pairs a great guitar hook with an actual depiction of the issues truly behind street violence, stuff far deeper than most average people would ever care to explore or discuss. It’s essential listening on a record packed with great tracks and on a topic lighting fires across the country.

All Love Is Lost

This dark, heavy song of betrayal and mistrust features legendary Sepultura and Soulfly mainman Max Cavalera. Max screams along in his distinct growl to a brutal, militant pummeling as Ice T laments the loss of bonds between someone once trusted.

The accompanying music video stands out for this song. Ice T’s Law And Order SVU co-star Kelli Giddish has a go at revenge against her philandering husband. In Body Count world, revenge has an ugly finish.

Raining Blood/Postmortem

A pair of covers come next. Ice T gives a brief spoken intro where he discusses the reasons for forming Body Count and the main influences behind the music. One of those is obviously Slayer, and Body Count covers two songs from the seminal Reign In Blood. It’s an interesting take on the songs, fits the record well, and also goes to showcase Slayer’s influence on the rest of the album.

God, Please Believe Me

A brief interlude offers a lament/prayer. It’s a fitting piece that helps pause the action a bit.

Walk With Me

This song kicks straight in with guest vocals from Lamb Of God’s Randy Blythe. There always seems to be a lot of walking involved with Lamb Of God, I guess this is a muthafuckin’ invitation to hike. I don’t know.

Anyway this is another nice cut. Randy and Ice T collaborate well to another savage metal offering. This is another exploration of murder and psychosis, something Ice T has done quite a bit over the years.

Here I Go Again

This track continues the murder “ballad” exploration. This song was apparently a leftover track from Ice T’s 1996 solo album Return Of The Real. I don’t have an official citation for that but it sounds nice so let’s roll with it.

This is one sick, twisted tale of a killer on the prowl. It’s a fantastic cut and builds to a great climax where the killer attacks himself without realizing it. It’s not just a hollow, gory tale – this is some excellent storytelling set to a nice, groovy pace. It’s easily one of my favorites from the record.

No Lives Matter

The Black Lives Matter movement entered discourse in the latter part of the last decade. It started an extremely heated and divisive argument with counter-protest shouts of All Lives Matter. And on the edges, disaffected and nihilistic edgelords made memes proclaiming the inevitable No Lives Matter. Won’t lie, I shared a few of those myself.

Body Count takes the “No Lives Matter” phrase and re-purposes it for real discussion of the issues. After a spoken intro shredding apart the “All Lives Matter” response, Body Count delivers one of the most important and light-of-truth shining songs in recent memory.

No Lives Matter breaks the issues down to what it really is – divisions and hatred that distract from the true center of power and control, and the actual bottom line of it all – money. People look around and look down to find targets for their rage instead of looking up at the true source of society’s misery.

This song would find renewed prominence in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd sparked a renewed wave of protests in the midst of the pandemic and a bitter presidential election. The truth is the truth, and sadly it will probably rear its ugly head again.

Bloodlust

The album’s title track is pretty simply stated – humans like to kill. It’s a vicious, hellbent track that pounds home the twisted desire to maim and slaughter. It’s kind of hard to tell how much of it is Ice T’s fantasy musings about murder and how much is a very real examination of the ills of humankind.

Black Hoodie

The album’s closer goes again into the issues of race in America, this time shining light on police killings of black people. As Ice T says in the intro – he’s been talking about this shit for over 20 years. It isn’t a new issue, but in today’s information-saturated climate, it’s an issue that gets a lot more play than it did way back when.

Honestly, I’ll just let the song speak for itself. The issues discussed are so raw and so viciously debated that I really can’t add much to it. All I’ll say is that it feels like I live in a sick, brutal society that places no real value on human life.

Clearly Bloodlust is loaded with red hot social/political discourse and also its namesake bloodlust. The two tend to go hand-in-hand, after all. The record struck a nerve with me right away, elevating Body Count from “curiosity side project” status to one of metal’s most interesting and hard-hitting bands. I would go so far as to call Bloodlust my favorite album of the 2010’s, but there is some competition in that regard I wouldn’t hear until the decade was over.

Either way Bloodlust remains a seminal moment in music from recent memory. Everything the album discusses is still sadly in play, it’s not anything I see changing anytime soon. It’s impossible to remove the social commentary from the record, but outside of it exists a fantastic, slamming metal album. The album’s musical guests, metal legends all, add true weight to their songs and are far beyond just cursory appearances. It’s a record that is a total pleasure to listen to, even in the face of some very harsh issues facing civilization today.

Guilty Pleasures

On By bigbadburchIn Controversy6 Comments

The “guilty pleasure” is one of music listening’s most odd and sometimes interesting terms. People like something, but people don’t want anyone else to know. It’s embarassing for a 35 year old, burly man to like Britney Spears or whatever, or for some mild-mannered soccer mom to headbang to Suffocation.

Of course the concept of a guilty pleasure is pretty dumb. People should, in an ideal world, just like what they like and not have any expectations or judgments from society attached to it. And in the modern age a lot of people spend so much time ripping dissenting opinions apart that it’s almost a strength to just express one’s own tastes without giving a damn what anyone else thinks of it. Being affected by any negative thoughts others might have of my music taste is not a thing I can really afford to carry around.

I do have a handful of things that could be thought of as guilty pleasures. They aren’t all that deep or shocking, and only one gives me some hesitantcy to admit. And even that I’m past the point of caring about. Here’s a handful of my “guilty” pleasures, which being real, I don’t feel guilty about at all.

Bon Jovi

I’ve mentioned before that Slippery When Wet was the first album I really ever owned. I still very much enjoy Bon Jovi, especially the 80’s output and some of the stuff from the 2000’s. (No, I’m really not into what they did in the 90’s.)

The conflict of interest comes from metalheads who can’t fathom enjoying something as, well, not metal and as popular and mainstream as Bon Jovi. I’ve caught a fair bit of shit for expressing my interest in the band. I don’t know how I’m supposed to care – I did not disavow rock music when I got into heavy metal. I didn’t take a dark oath to only listen to self-released demos from black metal bands recorded on a Fischer-Price tape deck in the lead singer’s bathroom. I will listen to that, but I’ll also listen to You Give Love A Bad Name.

Hall and Oates

This one seems to throw people off a lot. I love Hall and Oates, I always have. Their big hits in the 80’s were in constant rotation as I was exploring music as a youth. They aren’t an act that I chase down every release or anything (there’s a lot and they’ve covered a lot of musical ground) but I still very much enjoy H&O and I feel very not guilty about it.

For some reason I don’t catch much shit from metalheads about this one. It’s because many of them also like Hall and Oates. It’s other people who do like them who wonder what this crusty dude in an Iron Maiden t-shirt is doing browsing through their records in the store. Sorry, I just wanted to see if there were any South American test pressings of Big Bam Boom.

Oasis

I’ve already written extensively about Oasis and I will be again next month when the Knebworth live set is released. And I probably will beyond that too.

I got into them in the mid 90’s when they were one of the biggest bands on the planet and I was just listening to whatever sounded cool to me at the time. I sort of set them aside in the 2000’s when their songwriting magic had worn off and the band eventually imploded. I, like many, found that wave of nostalgia a few years ago and have been back hard on the Oasis train since.

Now who gives me shit for liking Oasis? EVERYBODY. It’s literally anyone who doesn’t like Oasis is like “You like that crap?” Yes, I do. And if I need to have a defiant, snarky attitude towards anyone hating on my tastes, I can’t think of two better role models for that than the brothers Gallagher. Perhaps calling them role models says something about my lack of well-being but hey, it’s 2021, we’re past that sort of thing now.

Black Metal

This is an entire subgenre rather than one band, and for good reason. I personally don’t feel guilty about listening to it at all, but black metal is some absurd music with a ridiculous history and a lot of unsavory characters who happened to record some of the music’s most revered works.

I have a post coming in the near future that gets far more into how I came into black metal so I won’t bloviate about it much here. But I first heard of it when the crazy ass story of Varg Vikernes and Euronymous made the rounds in the 90’s. The music wound up really clicking with me a few years later.

I don’t feel guilty about listening to harsh, misanthropic, anti-religious music. Those themes are likely why I took to it in the first place. I do, like many, try to make sure I’m not accidentally supporting outright Nazis, something that is an unfortunate part of several black metal bands. That’s its own culture war playing out on the battlefields of social media right now. The signals and messages often get mixed up and crossed, which is why I largely stay the hell out of the arguments. There’s nothing to gain and far too much ire and spite to wind up with in all of that shit. But the style as a whole is being called into question, that’s an unavoidable part of being into this shit in 2021.

I personally will keep on listening to who I like, hoping that they aren’t trying to ressurect the Third Reich. Outside of that I don’t really care what these people get up to, and by and large most of them aren’t into any sick stuff like that. The murder and arson and whatever is fine, I guess.

Insane Clown Possee

Here we are – my one true guilty pleasure, the one thing I have long hesitated to admit liking. It’s the one that I’m like “dude, you have an old picture of me in an ICP shirt, please destroy that kthanksbye.” It’s the one group I had every studio album of at one time but later made a beeline to the CD store to trade in for something inoffensive and unembarassing, like black metal.

In 1998 I was exposed to ICP and I thought they had some funny and entertaining stuff. I really got into them in 1999 and the turn of the millenium. I never went so far as to paint my face, drink Faygo or even go see them live, but I was pretty into their stuff.

My thoughts on them started shifting around 2001. Honestly, their music is pretty dumb. I listen to some pretty stupid stuff anyway but man, these guys take the cake. And also them getting obliterated in song by Eminem didn’t help matters. I quietly packed up my juggalo stuff and pretended that my brief era of being down with the clowns didn’t exist.

Today my thoughts have shifted some again. I can look back at what ICP have done and respect their place in things. They built their own subculture and the infrastructure around it and they turned their own passions into a living and a way of life. They’ve also shown they can roll with the punches, like when they got clowned on SNL for the absurdity of their song Miracles. And the community of juggalos seem to be some pretty cool people, despite how maligned they are in popular culture.

I’ll also admit this – I can’t really get back into them. I think they have a few songs that stand out and are pretty good but by and large this isn’t something I want to play again or have in my collection again.

The Number Of The Beast – Satanic Panic in 2021

On By bigbadburchIn Controversy4 Comments

Note – I originally intended to post this last Friday, the 15th. I started coming into updated information about this incident so I held off until the final news of the matter came through. I had to rewrite most of what I had. This is why I don’t mess with current event stuff much. I’m a hobby blogger, not a damn reporter and I don’t have time for breaking news. I’ll still post this but it’s kind of a damn mess.

A strange case that seemed ripped out of headlines from 1986 came to the attention of heavy metal social media a few weeks ago. A group of parents with children in a high school in Ontario, Canada started an online petition to have the school’s principal removed from her job.

The original petition, since deleted, had a bit over 500 signatures to it. A counter petition filed by students of the school in support of the principal and obviously noticed by Iron Maiden fans, was over 23,000 signatures when I last looked Sunday afternoon. I will briefly mention that I think online petitions are totally useless, and then move on.

After some back and forth over the issue, someone who filed the original petition doubled down on their efforts. The filer suggested that they were uninterested in the principal’s music taste, but was concerned about the use of the number 666 on a sign the school official made in support of the band. Also, the principal dared flash the dreaded “devil horns” gesture in photos involving her obvious love of Iron Maiden. It is worth noting that the photos were posted to the principal’s official Instagram account as agent of the school, not a personal account.

Metal and rock sites offered details of the story and metal Twitter and Facebook lit aflame with criticism of the original petition filers. The filer continued to double down on the criticism of the Satanic imagery, even suggesting that the “battle” wasn’t over after the principal removed the photos from the school’s IG account. A campaign to “get to know” the “real” issue came from the first petition, even as the counter petition swallowed the original in signatures.

Someone file a petition to get me to stop using quotation marks in a sardonic manner, please.

This issue would dissolve for good on Saturday, October 16, when the school announced the principal would remain in her potion with no sanctions or action taken. The original petition was disabled and everyone went their merry way, I suppose. Here is a link to a Blabbermouth.net article outlining the likely final resolution in this case.

This case did remind me of something and also easily caught my attention since Iron Maiden is my favorite band. The following text is the second part of what I wrote originally about this whole thing and I’ve decided to post it unedited. It might make for an incoherent narrative so I wanted to make a note of it for context.

There is no escaping the number 666 with Iron Maiden – it is woven into one of their most famous songs. The Number Of The Beast is usually an auto-include in any tour setlist and is one of the band’s most celebrated works. I would imagine that shirts, posters, tapestries and other merchandise of the album are among the band’s highest-selling merch offerings, and the album itself is a classic that is often ranked at least top 5 in the band’s catalog, if not at the very top.

And the devil horns? A common sign from heavy metal and also often rock fans. Hell, it’s used in other applications outside of music, such as fans of the University of Texas Longhorns sports teams. Sure, they’re popularly known as “devil horns,” but the gesture likely not invented by Gene Simmons does not truly bear any Satanic connotations. It’s just a thing, that’s all it really is.

I won’t get into some huge theological argument here. I’m not a religious person but this site isn’t a space where I intend to really discuss that outside of any relevant context to music. I know plenty of very awesome religious people who are into heavy metal, and I know plenty of very awesome religious people who aren’t into heavy metal who probably think this whole thing is a joke and would not want someone removed from her job because she likes a band.

The overriding point I get out of all this is flashbacks to that absurd battle of the 1980’s – the Satanic Panic. It was quite the chore to grow up and get into rock and metal while everyone was flipping out about real and perceived Satanism in music, movies, behind bushes and in shadows everywhere. That panic informed a great deal of my music-listening childhood and adolescence. I will get much deeper into these themes another time, but I and many others had some memories surface when hearing about this kind of crap going on toward the end of 2021, and about 27 years after the harrowing conclusion of the Satanic Panic.

In the end, all I can really do is hope the principal gets to keep her job (she will). She seems loved by her students and hopefully reason will prevail in a world where it often doesn’t. I don’t expect the group of parents calling for her head to grasp the folly of their argument or to open their perspectives to any different views. That’s not how we do business in the world in 2021.

If nothing else, I’m sure this woman will not have to pay for any beverage of her choice the next time she sees Iron Maiden in concert. If I know anything, it’s that this community does rally around its own. Down with panic, and as always, Up The Irons.

Upcoming New Releases – November and Beyond

On By bigbadburchIn Upcoming Music1 Comment

It’s time to preview some promo singles from albums coming out in the near future. I’m still trying to get the timing right on these and December is generally a dead month for album releases so I’m still feeling this thing out.

Also, I will feature a few second singles from upcoming albums I talked about in the last (and first) version of this. I won’t normally do that because I’d like to cover more ground but it helps in the early going to again highlight a few releases I’m really looking forward to.

One more note – this one is almost exclusively metal, with one (two, if you’re elitist) exception. I haven’t run across a lot more from other scenes that’s releasing soon. I’ll try to do more to mix things up in the future, it will help when we get into next year.

Cradle Of Filth – Crawling King Chaos

I’m leading off with one I meant to have on the first round of previews. The main issue is that CoF’s new album Existence Is Futile comes out this Friday. I though it wasn’t until November, silly me.

I mean, it’s Cradle Of Filth. I am a fan, have been since the later ’90’s. I haven’t really been disappointed with anything I’ve heard from them and while this has a slightly different sound probably due to new band members and the passage of time, it’s still signature Cradle. I doubt I’ll have any issue with this new album.

Shadow Of Intent – From Ruin … We Rise

This cut is from the upcoming album Elegy, which hits early next year. Shadow Of Intent are one of deathcore’s more interesting prospects, fully embracing symphonic and prog-like elements instead of the often-sterile technical showcase many of the -core bands get into.

From Ruin… We Rise offers a new showcase of this use of melody and symphony to create a heavy yet smooth listening experience. This isn’t about wowing with crazy vocal ranges or BPM (not that I mind that…) but using the medium to present a well-arranged and executed song. It makes for a nice preview for the upcoming album.

Ghost – Hunter’s Moon

This one is a little different – it’s not a preview for an upcoming album. Rather it’s a soundtrack release for the now-in-theaters Halloween Kills. I personally haven’t seen the film and probably won’t anytime soon, I’m not a huge movie buff.

I’ll admit this too – I’m not a huge Ghost buff either. I think they have some decent stuff, I do like their song Year Zero quite a bit. I did also see them open for Iron Maiden in 2017 and I thought they put on a really good show.

But I don’t own their albums or seek them out much at all. And this song doesn’t really hold my attention much. I don’t know if this is the territory they’ve moved into after their more mellow and slower stuff from their early days but I can’t really hang with this. I don’t think it’s badly executed, I just can’t get into it.

Hypocrisy – Dead World

This is one that I’m “cheating” on. I covered Worship’s lead single Chemical Whore in my last romp through preview tracks, yet right then Hypocrisy offered this second song. The song gets into how screwed up the world is. I agree. The song is another sign that the new album is going to be a great release after a long period of inactivity.

The real highlight here is the video – it’s a woman fighting her way through a zombie apocalypse. It is pretty brutal and honestly would lead me to ask questions about who is allowed to post what on YouTube, but I won’t do that because I don’t want Hypocrisy getting their video yanked. (Not that I have that kind of stroke, but there’s a conversation to be had about YouTube content). Anyway, it’s a stunning video and I’m looking forward to the new album dropping next month.

Mastodon – Teardrinker

Here with another band I don’t really keep up with – I liked their first few albums but I drifted off after that. This song is just ahead of a new album, Hushed And Grim, which releases the Friday before Halloween on October 29.

This song is pretty cool. It’s not what I think of when I think Mastodon but like I said, I haven’t been in touch with them in a long time. I won’t be in line to buy this on release day but it’s an album I’ll give a spin to and see if there’s more there I can get into. I like the more melodic approach but it takes some getting used to when I haven’t heard them since their heavy early days.

Be’lakor – Foothold

This is melodic death metal from Australia (not Sweden! Shocking, I know) that comes from the album Coherence that releases Halloween weekend, or October 29 for those that don’t know when Halloween is. It has been a five-year gap between releases for the band.

This is some really good stuff, with arrangement and movements that sets it apart from the more savage extreme metal out. Of course there is more like this these days but this group does it quite a bit better than the “look we can put every kind of metal subgenre into one song” thing that kind of permeates metal in our current climate. It’s well-structured and offers some hooks that hold attention. I’ll definitely be keeping an ear out for this on its release.

Emma Ruth Rundle – Blooms Of Oblivion

I’ll close the same way I did the first time around – with a new single from Emma’s upcoming album Engines Of Hell. This is one of my most anticipated releases of the year and it will finally see the light of day on November 5.

While lead single Return felt very deliberate and orchestrated, this song flows more with a gentle acoustic guitar and piano accompaniment. Both the lyrics and video are sparse yet, I don’t know, kind of spooky, as if Emma got David Lynch involved. It’s a very simple video and has a almost ingenious yet profound ending.

Emma has stated that this album is sparse, fragile and a departure from the more noisy effort On Dark Horses that captured a lot of attention in 2018. And she wasn’t kidding – both songs so far are even more stripped down than her 2016 effort Marked For Death. That album’s closing track Real Big Sky was a quiet yet soul-eviscerating affair and so far it sounds like Engines Of Hell is operating in similar, yet not exact circles. I am absolutely looking forward to it, but I’m honestly also kind of scared. This level of raw emotion might be kind of fucked up to listen to for an entire album.

That covers it for this round of previews. We’ll see if we get much to go with as far as stuff coming out in December, since most acts like to get their stuff released in time for album of the year considerations. Perhaps some more bands will preview material that’s going to hit next year as early Christmas gifts, we will see.

Nine Inch Nails – Broken (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week3 Comments

This week I’m heading back to the early ’90’s for my AOTW pick. This record, by definition really an EP, was one of the most formative things I’ve ever heard and it’s also a set of songs that I’m very personally connected to after all these years. I’ve talked about a few of my favorite acts in the early stages of this site but now it’s time for my first dive into another of my all-time favorites.

Nine Inch Nails – Broken

Released September 22, 1992 via Nothing Records

Favorite Tracks – Wish, Last, Gave Up

The mini album features two instrumentals – opener Pinion and Help Me I Am In Hell in the middle of the effort. Both are fine and I’m not usually bothered by instrumentals or interlude-style things but certainly they are not the main event on Broken.

The show truly kicks off with Wish – a vicious, heavy as hell trip through self-hatred that wound up winning a Grammy in 1993 for Best Metal Performance. It was my first real introduction to the band as I didn’t remember much of the debut Pretty Hate Machine but I was primed and ready for NIN when Wish hit MTV. It’s easily one of my favorite songs from NIN and just songs overall.

Last is next and is another splendid take on self-dejection and the disposable nature of humanity. The pounding riff is superb and there are some fantastic lyrics in the song – “my lips may promise but my heart is a whore” being chief among them.

Happiness In Slavery hits with some crazy stuff about bondage or whatever. I certainly wasn’t in tune with what the song was talking about when I was 15. Regardless I still dig the track, there’s a shade more melody to it than the rest of the EP while still retaining the depths of heaviness found elsewhere.

The proper portion of Broken ends on another angst-ridden, depressive song that I consider a total masterwork. Gave Up is a sonic pummeling and some of the most messed up lyrics ever to be found in any mainstream music release. Trent Reznor masks some of his vocals in an almost black metal wail but the message of utter hopelessness is still conveyed in full measure.

The EP concludes with two bonus tracks – a cover of Adam Ant’s Physical and a quasi-cover of Pigface’s Suck. Reznor was a member of Pigface when Suck was originally recorded so it’s more of his own rendition of the song than a cover per se.

The physical album release provides some interesting trivia. The original CD release offered Physical and Suck on a 3-inch bonus mini CD. Both original and reissued versions of the vinyl have those songs on a separate 7-inch record. I think I had the normal CD way back when with the two extra songs tacked on after a lot of hidden silent tracks, kind of a thing in ’90’s CD releases.

I won’t get too much into it but there was also a film for Broken that was, let’s just say, flat out disgusting. I never saw the whole thing but bits I did watch were pretty messed up. Most of Wish made it onto MTV but the band apparently had to edit part of the video’s end out. I guess it’s not hard to get a DVD-quality version of the entire film on the ‘Net today but honestly that sort of snuff or whatever isn’t my gig so I don’t mess with it.

The three songs I mentioned as my favorites at the start – Wish, Last and Gave up – do hold pretty high personal connections with me. They are interwoven at multiple points in my life and mean different things depending on specifically what was up. It could be old friends who fell away, exes I should have never messed with in the first place, terrible heartbreak or just good old fashioned self-loathing and lack of worth. A copy of Broken is far cheaper than therapy, but I’m guessing that the album is also not anyone’s definition of self-care. I don’t know, I just roll with it.

Broken was a major shift for Nine Inch Nails in 1992 and would herald the magnum opus that was to come a few years later. But this EP itself is one of the high points of an extensive catalog of masterful recordings. Trent Reznor joined the likes of Ministry and others in a pursuit of dark, industrial metal and crafted an excellent, soul-crushing EP that was perhaps too dark for anyone’s good but would still go on to platinum sales status. It’s been one of the most valued and most important musical works in my life, and it’s definitely on my list of music I’d have to have on desert island.

Iron Maiden – Hallowed Be Thy Name

On By bigbadburchIn S-Tier Songs3 Comments

This post was part of a series that I called S-Tier Songs. I later decided to abandon the series in favor of a simpler Song of the Week format. I am keeping these posts as I wrote them but removing the old page that linked to the list of S-Tier Songs, so that is why these posts might look a bit odd. Enjoy.

Iron Maiden – Hallowed Be Thy Name

From the Beast Over Hammersmith live performance

Iron Maiden hit the scene in 1980 after several years in England’s club circuit but found themselves scratching for a new direction after two albums. They canned singer Paul Di’Anno and replaced him with Samson’s eclectic frontman Bruce Dickinson. The ensuing decade would see them make an indelible stamp on heavy metal, one of the genre’s most defining and influential acts.

Dickinson’s debut with Maiden would come in the form of 1982’s The Number Of The Beast. Songs like the title track and Run To The Hills would be released as singles, but in the end Hallowed Be Thy Name would become a legacy-defining song and a staple of the band’s epic live sets.

Our song today would mark a shift in Iron Maiden’s sound from a punk/metal hybrid to a more epic direction. Dickinson’s trademark “air raid siren” vocals soared above the band’s now signature gallop. The epic would be a direction Maiden would pursue to greater degree, including many much-debated longer treks included in their longest-enduring “reunion” era of the 2000’s.

But back to the point – Hallowed Be Thy Name is a bombastic tale of a condemned man facing his final moments before he’s taken to the gallow’s pole. The narrator reflects on the meaning of life and his final fate, a trope in song found with Queen’s signature Bohemian Rhapsody, among many others. It’s a haunting and tragic tale, told in fine form through the song’s lyrics and Dickinson’s unparalleled delivery.

Live from the Powerslave tour in Long Beach, the definitive Live After Death performance

The song builds quietly with bells to accent the opening verse but then quickly moves into its signature galloping riff. Bruce’s vocal power is on full display as he pleads for his life in the second verse, interchanging with the riff rather than using a conventional chorus. A bridge takes us to the final verse, where the condemned man accepts his fate.

What happens when one accepts the end of their existence? Guitar solos, usually. At least that’s what I’m led to believe, I did grow up in the ’80’s after all. The solos play out then the song builds to its climax, with Bruce delivering the title before an epic finale.

Hallowed Be Thy Name has been played on nearly every Iron Maiden tour since Number‘s release. It was removed from the second leg of the Book Of Souls tour in 2017 after a lawsuit alleging that Steve Harris ripped parts of the song off from a ’70’s work. I’m not a scholar or a journalist so I’m not going to recount the specifics of that lawsuit, I’ll simply mention that the case was settled out of court on more than one occasion between different members of that band.

Did Maiden rip off someone else for this song? I don’t know and I don’t care. Moving on.

Why is this an S-Tier song?

Hallowed Be Thy Name is an epic masterwork that highlights the strengths of what would become Iron Maiden’s most prolific creative era. The song is often considered the very best of the band’s output. It is a stunning, moving tale that is executed in spectacular fashion and showcases the various signature factors that would make Iron Maiden one of metal’s most celebrated acts.

Live footage from the Flight 666 motion picture release

W.A.S.P. (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week2 Comments

There’s no real huge occasion for this week’s pick other than I recently scored a sweet copy of this on vinyl at my local record shop. Let’s head back to 1984 for one of rock and metal’s best debut albums.

W.A.S.P. – self-titled

Released August 17, 1984 via Capitol Records

Favorite Tracks – I Wanna Be Somebody, The Flame, The Torture Never Stops

WASP weren’t messing around with this collection of sleaze and riffage. The band had already made a name for themselves with raunchy, over-the-top theatrics on stage prior to their debut album drop. The band and album shocked and awed their way to rock stardom in the down and dirty prime of the 1980’s.

The album would court controversy before its release. The intended first single Animal (Fuck Like A Beast) drew the ire of watchdog groups, including the Parent’s Resource Music Center. The infamous PMRC, a collection of senators’ wives who were busybodies with nothing better to do, decided to try and moralize music. Their list of the “Filthy Fifteen” songs included WASP’s first-ever single. As a result, the band’s label decided to drop the song from the album. Of course, as with much that the PMRC lamented back then, both the album and the banned song would become highly sought after. Thank you, PMRC, for letting us know where to look for music.

If you were to pick up this CD in a shop or look this up on Spotify, you will find Animal in its place as the album’s lead track. In 1998 the album was reiussed, both restoring Animal and adding two bonus tracks. I’m personally not a huge fan of bonus tracks on the original portion of a reissued album – I’d rather things be kept separate from the known recording. But in this case I’m happy to have Animal on the reissue and honestly I’m more used to it at this point than I was without it. In contrast, the vinyl I picked up awhile back is an original press and doesn’t have it.

And yes I do like the song Animal. It’s not the best on the album but it’s a cool tune. I think the uproar over it was more funny than anything and was mainly due to the naughty word in the sub-title. It’s a bit of interesting lore and trivia from back when people tried to play morality police with popular music. Even more tidbit trivia – Blackie Lawless refuses to play the song live anymore due to his personal beliefs. Odd, but there’s enough of a WASP back catalog to not need it I suppose.

Animal is just one song though. This album is loaded with killer selections from rock and metal’s prime. Album opener by default I Wanna Be Somebody is a classic, one of the band’s most celebrated tracks. I know I’ve been there and many others likely have after a miserable grind at an unfulfilling job – I wanna freaking be somebody. Alas, we press on, lost to time and without the fame and notoriety of Blackie.

The album’s closer hits on a similar issue – The Torture Never Stops is totally about work. The band’s image from back then might lead a person to think that the song is some dark S&M romp but nah, that shit’s about work. It’s something darker and more hardcore than any sex dungeon could ever be (unless that is your job, I dunno).

Inbetween is a selection of all killer, no filler cuts. And also a lot of spelling things out with periods – L.O.V.E. Machine, B.A.D., hell the band name W.A.S.P. C’mon, this is kind of annoying to type out. But the songs are worth the suffering.

Sleeping (In The Fire) is a nice ballad-like track that sees the band set down the shred and offer some melody while still bringing the power. Tormentor and On Your Knees bring more of the hard and sleazy sound that WASP would become known for. And School Daze knocks the hallowed “class life” that was such a huge thing in America and a natural point of rebellion for many of the nation’s youth.

WASP’s debut album marked the beginning of a legacy that walked lines between hair, glam, shock rock and true heavy metal. Chris Holmes would become a guitar idol even in the midst of a less-than-savory portrayal on film a few years later. And band leader Blackie Lawless has left a very complicated legacy in his wake, but in the context of this debut album there is no disputing the power and prestige.

I did grow up in a semi-sheltered home but honestly my parents never really messed with my music much. But this album was one I kept hidden from plain sight – I knew the reputation WASP had and I wasn’t going to risk having this gem ripped away from me in the name of protecting my fragile psyche from this raw, primal power. Now that I’m all grown up I can freely play Fuck Like A Beast all I want.

WASP’s debut album was a metal classic and would start the band on a path to some unique and rocking albums throughout the ’80’s. The band truly cemented their place as one of hard rock and metal’s defining acts in a crowded era, and they crossed subgenres and defied categorization with an intense, well-executed set of songs that brought rapt attention from an eager fanbase. Blackie Lawless could wear a Skil Saw as a codpiece all he wants, but at the end of the day he and the band brought the tunes to back that brash sort of theatrics off.