Live Albums: Slayer, SOD, and Iron Maiden

Live albums can be boring as shit, especially live metal albums. Who wants to hear a bunch of drunks play shitty versions of songs played better and with more clarity on the studio album. Part of the experience of witnessing a metal band live is the ear shredding, pants shitting volume, not to mention trailer park gals displaying their tits to the band like sacrificial offerings. Ahhh, actually, that's only half the story, because for many bands, a live album unleashes a raw ferocity that just can't be captured in the studio, not to mention different versions of guitar solos, little bits if improv here and there. And priceless stage banter. Funny stage banter will always raise the worth of a live album by a couple points. So we embarked upon a night of epic live shit.

We started out by listening to the extended Digipack of Iron Maiden's 'Maiden Japan'. A 4 song EP released in 1981, featuring original vocalist Paul D'Anno and drummer Clive Burr, this is a document of the early band, with 16 extra songs released two decades later. This is definately a fan only experience. It is just too fucking long! As an EP, it is essential, as a regular album, also essential, but an hour and 10 minutes later in the digipack, after enduring 5 encores complete with guitar solos, drum solo, and audience participation, it's just way to much. The band sounds brilliant though, and Paul D'Anno's cockney screech is kind of refreshing.

This video is not live, but it is a nice document of early Maiden

Better is SOD's 1992 reunion album, Live At Budokon. Recorded at the Ritz, this Anthrax side project featuring MOD behemoth Billy Milano, Nuclear Assault bassist Danny Lilker, and well as Anthrax mainstays Scott Ian and Charlie Benante, is ferocious and fun live document, famously featuring a near riot, and Milano's moronic but funny bellows. They play all the songs off their classic crossover thrash album 'Speak English Or Die', as well as a few covers by Fear, Ministry and Nirvana(!). It's a crazy document of a crazy time. What I've seen of the video version is pure insanity. Mosh pits like the one featured simply do not exist anymore. It's all a karate kicking fashion show now. Here is part of it, embedding disabled by request:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbP4R_FbkNs

The motherfucker of the evening was Slayer's 'Live Undead'. Recorded live in the studio in front a small number of fans, who manage to sound like raging, meth fueled hordes. This is the remastered re-release, with additional songs(never cared for the tinny quality of the original recordings). This captures Slayer in their element, complete with 'cunts in the night' stage banter. This album was part of 13 year old Chris Eddy's musical education. Slayer will teach you about life, if you know how to listen. Amazing album. The winner!

The most technically accomplished album of the night was Norwegian black metal kings Emperor's 'Imperial Live Ceremony'. Majestic and savage at the same time, this is a document of the later, progressive version of the band. The sound is clearer than their early 90's version, but still a sheet of white noise to the uninitiated. Banter is minimal, though Ihsahn's broken English screaming is kind of a hoot.



Ok, that's it. All the beers were drank. Brutal silliness ensued!

NWOBHM

Got kind of fucked-up Monday night. That's because Chris kept pouring me these stiff-ass gin and tonics. And because we listened to a shit ton of New Wave Of British Heavy Metal: a musical movement of the late 70's early 80's, born in the working class pubs of England, that spawned such bands as Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, and Diamond Head. It's good drinking music.

The heart and soul of the NWOBHM were the 100's of one off bands that released a single and then disappeared from the face of the earth, birthing an obsessive collector culture around it. That's the focus of this first album we heard, 2005's 'NWOBHM Vinyl Revenge'. It is a collection of mostly one-offs, a great comp and a fun listen. One thing for sure, this is no screaming iron fest, especially for someone who listens to tons of death and black metal all day long. These are hardy pub rockers, with emphasis on riff and song, with a dose progressive rock thrown in for good measure, if the band can handle those complexities(and even if they can't). Sounding ragged, sloppy, and under produced, it was metal's answer to punk rock. Band's like Sparta, Oxym, Hazzard, and Bleak House are featured; ultra obscurities previously only heard on vinyl. These bands were just so raw and unpolished. More than a few times, the vocalists sound no more older than 16. One band made Chris laugh with their blatant Judas Priest rip-off. So back to the underground they went, back to the grimy steel mills, or to beg for meth in the streets, after their shot at greatness bit the dust. Some of these 40/50something geezers have reunited, and can be found hitting the metal dork festivals in Europe.

You can hear the bits that influenced Metallica in this song. I think they lifted the first riff completely for Sanitarium.

Venom were one of the most important NWOBHM bands, and were a major influence on extreme metal in general. They were the most extreme of these bands, the most ludicrously satanic, the most punk. Though their first two albums are considered classics, 'Venom: The Single's Collection', a collection of early singles released in 1986, is their best album. It is the best expression of their raucous punk rock approach, especially with the first tracks, the later ones being more typical metal. This is a band best appreciated for the cheesy, over the top quality of their lyrics, as much as their meth driven music. Take this snippet from "In Nomine Satanus":

"In the name of Satan
We'll take what we need
Rock and roll damnation
Let your heart bleed
Sensing the distaster
So we'll blame our hate
Hell bore Satan's child
To use you as our bait"

Just an amazing band, required listening for anyone's metal cannon.

1980's 'Angel Witch', Angel Witch's self titled debut, is a certified metal classic, a shining testement to the ideals of NWOBHM. Though the name might have you thinking that this is some snarling thrash attack, it is instead a majestically melodic gem. From the first song to the last, everything vibrates with class, power, and intelligence, with a strong production. You'll hear their influence in everything from Metallica to Blind Guardian to Ghost and back again.



After that, we put on some Judas Priest and Helstar. Killing Machine/Hellbent For Leather is such a good album. I was kind of out of it by the time we got to Helstar, though. I was fucked up. Here's some proof, until next week.

Darkthrone Retrospective

Good evening, Eldritch Ones, oh ye Minions of Old. Another Metal Night doth commence. I hath but one command for thee: Thou shalt sippeth the cup of Gin and Tonics while hearing the evil sounds of Darkthrone.

I've been wanting to do a Darkthone retrospective for a while. Darkthrone are one of the most important bands in the history of Black Metal; iconoclasts amongst iconoclasts. Forging a uniquely caustic sound out of a simple three chord formula, they are no basement dwelling hacks. These are expert musicians who systematically stripped down their sound on each album, progressing gradually into the beastly blackened crust they are to today. We chose 4 albums from 4 different periods of their work.

Darkthrone's first album, 'Soulside Journey', is a technical death metal album. It is one of the best technical death metal albums of the early 90's, a genre standard bearer. The riffs are amazing, and they should be, considering that they rip off Celtic Frost at least half the time. And this is no vice here, since they use them in a different context, worshiping at the alter of Tom G. Warrior, a factor Darkthrone would repeat throughout their career. The tremulous guitar work has hints of black metal to come. The lyrics are the real indicator of the black metal soul of this band, describing eccentric forays into the occult nether regions. But the real star of this show is Fenriz's supple, powerful drumwork. He fills the rhythmic landscape majestically, blast beating when necessary, expertly driving the band from time change to time change. If Darkthrone had continued on as a death metal band, they would have made their mark as pioneers of the genre simply on the merits this album.



The next album was a complete and utter reinvention. While maintaining the progressive spirit of the first album, 'A Blaze In The Northern Sky' is an absolute classic of black metal. Gone are the molten riffs, replaced by sheets of freezing black ice. While even more explicitly referencing Celtic Frost , this album amps up the evil, every sound wave drenched in cold. Fenriz's drum work, while still amazing and expert, is blunter, faster, and sickening. The production is lo-fi, the treble through the roof, leaving almost no room for the bass at all. The bass player quite in anger after this album, making the band a duo for the rest of their career. The songs themselves are amazing constructions, dark labyrinths of sound and fury, containing many rooms and dungeons. This was an aspect Darkthrone would leave behind, seeking to further regress and strip down their sound on subsequent albums. Chris and I declared this the winner.



The next two albums, 'Under A Funeral Moon' and 'Transylvanian Hunger', are also classics of the genre. The Darkthrone sound is further stripped down to a grim, trancelike minimalism, most songs having only two or three riff a piece, with little rhythmic diversity. This is the sound that they are most identified with. It is a sound that most black metal is identified with, which is their greatest achievement. Chris and I did not listen to these albums, though.

If you ever wondered what the pure essence of black metal is, listen to this song:

After their two genre defining classics, Darkthrone released some relatively mediocre albums, sticking to the formula(though 'Goatlord' was a demo release of the death metal album that was to follow 'Soulside Journey'). So we skipped ahead to the band's most underrated album, 1999's 'Ravishing Grimness'. It easy to see why it is; the first two songs are mediocre. The lyrical bent seems less inspired and loony than as on previous albums. The album takes it's own, sweet time to get warmed up. The production is clearer and the guitar sound thicker. Halfway through the third song you will find yourself sucked into the tonal maelstrom that Darkthrone crafts so well. Nothing really new, but quality grave robbing sickness, none the less.

A few albums later, and Darkthrone reinvent themselves again, leaving behind pure black metal for a more crust punk and traditional metal sound. 2007's 'F.O.A.D' is a good example of the band's reinvigorated sound. More than simply adapting a punk rock style, the band seeks to remake punk for themselves, and infuse it with more evil, while retaining a sense of fun, something new for these grim ghouls. The song "Canadian Metal" is a hoot, an ode to Canadian thrash bands that only a true metal dork could write. Grimy, scuzzy, crusty punk metal...what's not to love? And, always, the Celtic Frost riff referencing abides.




Hope you enjoyed this journey through true cvlt metalness as much as I did. See you next week.

Trouble, The Obsessed, and Entombed

Metal Night was almost a week ago and there is another one tomorrow and my lazy ass is just getting around to updating. It must have been all the Town Club and Seagram's vodka we guzzled. Just recovering now and I am finally able to process it all.

We broke out the boombox this time and listened to some warm analog nightmares.

First one we popped in was stoner metal legends Trouble's 1990 self titled album. Chris was really into this. I thought it was merely ok. Rick Rubin got a hold of this band after the caustic doom metal from their previous releases, and mellowed them out a bit, adding some bluesier touches and some Beatlesque melodies. Many consider this a classic stoner rock album, but Eric Wagner's shrieking is a bit too shrill for my tastes. And it's not the Christ centered lyrics, either. They never come across as preachy, though some of the old hellfire and brimstone is missed. It's well written, well played and well produced, perhaps too well. Oh well.

Chris and I were both keen on the next album, The Obsessed's third album and major label debut, 'The Church Within'. This is a fantastic album. The heavy riffs ooze and swirl, not bludgeoning you, but creeping up behind you with an ether rag. It takes several listens for the songs to insinuate themselves in your psyche. The lyrics are hardbitten, realistic, and not without a certain poetry. And Wino's voice is ageless. Winner.

Lastly, we heard Entombed's first "death 'n' roll" album, 'Wolverine Blues', a sound they would more or less stick with for the rest of their career. This was Entombed's streamlined bid for major label success(Earache had received a distribution deal with Columbia). The songs are shorter, punchier, rolling over you with no subtlety, hardcore with a death metal cruch(though not metalcore). It's exhilarating at first, but after a few songs, we just wanted to hear old Entombed. It's not a bad album, but just lacks depth.

So, until next week....well, in a couple days if I get off my ass.......keep your senses dulled with alcohol and your ears shreded by MEeeeeTALLLLLLLLLLlalalalala!!!