First, we heard a certified classic that is nearly immune to criticism. What can you say that hasn't been said about Metallica's Ride The Lightening? Just the facts, I suppose. It was released in 1985 and it was the breakthrough masterpiece that catapulted them to eventual domination. This is their best album. It eschews the cliches of the debut, and it lacks the ponderousness of later thrashsterpieces. It is a sleek metal machine, a mighty meeting of riff and song, of dark atmosphere and foreboding that they never really expressed again. There is an evil vibe here. There is death. Hetfield is in his lyrical prime, expressing directly, without metaphor, the many exciting ways to die, whether by your own hand, the hand of God, by nature, by the state. And after all that, we are sucked into the primordial ooze with Cthulhu. If you can't appreciate this album, then you will never fully appreciate life itself. This would have been winner of the night, if I wasn't such an asshole.
Into the Necro Lands Part 11.1 - Creeping Death
I produce a marker from my pocket and
begin to draw, tracing out the Mournful Congregation patch from
memory. Again, the bell rings, "Arvid?" Intones the
tired-looking Sargent. We rise and follow him down a shabby hallway
lined with tiny offices. "Have a seat, please." The gray
bureaucrat motions to a couple of cheap plastic chairs on he other
side of his desk as he shuffles through papers in the file cabinet.
Bloodmace and I look at one another, knowing we will have to hide the
sigil somewhere in this district of Sekran, as per Chanthoth's
instructions. We begin the paperwork for the assassination request.
Endless droning questions to witch we give false answers fill the
air. "May I be excused?" I get up and walk down the hall
towards the bathroom, but I walk past the wooden door and straight to
the Sectaurian at the front desk. I discreetly slip the note to her
as I pass and put the clay button with the magic sign on the desk.
Looking at the note, she quickly grabs the forbidden object and drops
it into the pen holder. I walk back to the office to answer another
hundred queries before I am presented with a license for a murder
that will never happen. The desk Sargent dismisses us and we amble
down the hall to the receptionist’s office. Passing her desk, I spy
her side a piece pf paper out in our direction. Without looking at
her i snatch it up, burying it in my front pocket.
Into the Necro Lands Part 11.2 - Evil Has No Boundaries
The chaos of the daily market has
subsided when we leave the assassination office. Only a lonely
janitor, languidly sweeping up the remnants of the day's work remains
in the cavernous chamber. Bloodmace and I wander down the corridor
toward the exit but as we pass the great doors that give entrance to
the hall of commerce, the Sectaurian who aided us walked swiftly in
front of us. Her hands, clasped behind her back, relax for a moment
and make a discreet motion to follow her. Walking swiftly, but well
behind our guide we move through the imperious checkpoint at the exit
and into the gusting stormwind outside. Weaving through the onyx and
alabaster gates that separate the business district from the city's
dwellings, we behold the city's strange architecture. Metal and
crystal structures bubbled up from the multicolored sand that covered
the ground, all domes and spikes that towered above us like great
thorny plants. We step up our pace, feeling the gaze of the patrol
officers wandering about. "Bloodmace," I say, "Do you
think we can trust this one? She did recognize the
Winner of the Night (for me anyway) was Anthrax's Persistence of Time, their last with Joey Belladonna and their last good album, period. This is the 'serious' album; the one that seeks to combat their image as a cartoon metal band that writes about comic books and invented rap metal. They succeed. It is easily their darkest album, and their most ambitious. The riffs stick to your craw, and for once, Joey sounds like he would not rather be in Journey. Even the Joe Jackson cover song is good. The songs are lengthy, but not ponderous. There are a few nods to Pantera and the newly emerging nu-metal genre, but this is still a thrashster piece. I voted this for winner because I was impressed by how well it stacks up against the certified classics, this nearly forgotten album by a band that would try to sound as much like Helmet as they possibly could for the rest of the 90's.
Weirdly, we decided to have Slayer's live EP, Live Undead, as the bonus album. I don't remember why. I was drunk. This is a good document of thier early period, when the Priestness of their songs was most obvious to the point of near plagiarism. Evil, youthful energy abounds. Not nearly as vital as their late 80's albums. I was drunk. It was my birthday.
Words of the Elders
Let us contemplate the strangeways, the cruel and beautiful pendulum that is time and tide of this uncanny world. None can know the exotic fancies of those gods and goddesses that play stones on the fates of mortals, none can reckon the end of one game or the start of another. Yet in the darkness, we call. Like a beacon for whatever entity may answer, we call. Lift up the sorrowblade and strike the sky young kings! Smite the brow of fate and crush the gods that defy you! Remember Narn, remember the T'Chah Karnac and the indecent at Mount Raven! Graafenweisen Kalik'ch! Otqara Machak!
Until next week, whips of fate,
Horns
