Saint Vitus is an awesome album, but it sounds too Sabbath-otiented to really stand out. Psalm 9 has a stronger taste for darkness and atmosphere, so I vote Psalm 9. _________________ Do it yourself and let me play my music: https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=61802
Vote for Psalm 9, which is pretty great while Saint Vitus is “just” good. Love those early 80s underground metal gems _________________ Overall chart Fake overall chart
For those who like lists:
This is "De Zwaarste Lijst" (the heaviest list), a metal top 100 which is voted every year on StuBru, the Belgian rock radio station with the best heavy metal tracks according to the listeners:
https://stubru.be/dezwaarstelijst/ditisdezwaarstelijst2020
with Master Of Puppets at the top and 4 tracks from 4 different Belgian bands in the top 10: if you don't know Amenra, this is the most special especially if you look at their stage act. They even started their own church: the Church Of Ra. Channel Zero is the most classic Belgian metal band but Black Fuel, the number 2 is worth checking out.
They were desperate. Metal. Or the coalmines. So they made metal for the mines. Scrapping together a sound borrowed from whatever was around in underground metal in 1983. Venom. Discharge. And just across the border, Hellhammer. And created a blackened, opaque monstrosity that is rightly championed as a first wave black metal classic. They would later (successfully) jettison this sound for thrash, but their first EP is purely primitive and all the better for it.
After checking out Hellhammer's Satanic Rites, this is next place to go for underground punk metal.
They were desperate. Metal. Or the coalmines. So they made metal for the mines. Scrapping together a sound borrowed from whatever was around in underground metal in 1983. Venom. Discharge. And just across the border, Hellhammer. (Wall of sound borrowed from Discharge; the primitiveness borrowed Venom.) And created a blackened, opaque monstrosity that is rightly championed as a first wave black metal classic. They would later (successfully) jettison this sound for thrash, but their first EP is purely primitive and all the better for it.
After checking out Hellhammer's Satanic Rites, this is next place to go for underground punk metal.
One more thing. This is a very artistic, theatrical and even grandiose album. They totally had a flair. Perhaps they couldn't play so well at this point, but like the best punk rock, that doesn't stop them from putting on one hell of a show. Plus, this is one of the first tastes of Blast Beats! On the second track - "Sepulchral Voice." Again. Them just being creative with what they had. Energy & passion!
Another thing. Like a lot of the best hardcore from this period, there's a shitload of emotional pain & frustration. Like being trapped. But Angelripper's trying his damnedest to break out.
I consider this an essential extreme music release, right up there with Hellhammer at this point.
Although 1982 could be considered the starting point for doom with both Witchfinder General and Pagan Altar "releasing" (pagan Altar's was just a demo tape that circulated wide & broad) stellar albums, most point to 1984 as the true proper launching point for the Doom genre. In 1984, speed ruled and Doom was impossibly out of style and out of step. You had to have balls of steel to get up on stage and play riffs this slow. But, play Trouble & Saint Vitus did. Saint Vitus in particular proved a seminal force mightily influencing their label & tour mates Black Flag during the early 80s and no doubt having a hand in one of the most important releases of the entire 80s - My War.
But who did it better in 1984? Saint Vitus or Trouble?
Spyglass wrote:
Saint Vitus is an awesome album, but it sounds too Sabbath-otiented to really stand out. Psalm 9 has a stronger taste for darkness and atmosphere, so I vote Psalm 9.
Ledzep wrote:
Vote for Psalm 9, which is pretty great while Saint Vitus is “just” good. Love those early 80s underground metal gems
Metal Disclaimer: Both albums that will discussed herein are bonafide classics. Both are essential building blocks for any decent Doom collection. But, it wouldn't be a DOOM OFF! without a little debate. Just keep in mind that I LOVE both.
First OFF!, I think both of these albums are GREAT, five star albums. Doom would NOT be the same without both of them. They are also very different Doom albums with very different styles despite both clearly being Doom albums. Pretty cool for a subgenre just inventing itself.
Second OFF!, I think 1984 is the launching point for the Doom sound. While Witchfinder General clearly incorporated doom elements, in particular the Sabbath worship, there were a also a great deal NWOBHM elements. In a way, there album Death Penalty looked backward. Meanwhile, both Pagan Altar and Witchfynde simply embellished on what Black Sabbath and other heavy Hard Blues Rock bands were doing in the early 70s. There is a revivalist feel to both albums even though BOTH are incredible albums. And because they were incredible examples of that magical & mystical early 70s sound, they proved incredibly influential on the Doom subgenre in the years to follow.
Third OFF!, if either of these bands are guilty of sounding too "Sabbath-oriented" it's Trouble's Psalm Nine. Both steal Sabbath riffs. Let's get that out of the way right from the start. However, at this point Sabbathian riffs (along with those of Judas Priest & Iron Maiden) were becoming established parts of the vocabulary of metal. However, Trouble not only stole the riffs, they were sonically and structurally more tied to early 70s Black Sabbath (check out songs "The Tempter" and "Revelation (Life Or Death)" as the best examples. The galloping riffs of "Revelation" are strikingly sonically tied to Sabbath.) then Saint Vitus. That's not a bad thing! Hell, that's probably what makes Psalm Nine so good!
BUT, Saint Vitus was creating something sonically & structurally completely new! And it's amazing that their sound & vision arrived so fully formed right Off! the bat. A lot of it comes from the fact that they were not completely tied to the metal scene. In fact, the metal community initially hated them. They were far more embraced by the punks. They were on SST. They toured a ton with Black Flag who were also pioneering their own kind of metal in 1984 with My War. In fact, the cross pollination of Saint Vitus and Black Flag in the early 80s is the stuff of legend. They both pushed each other in a direction that probably would not have happened otherwise. They were both partly playing slow as fuck and incorporating epic song lengths as a big Fuck Off! to the punk scene that had become, by 1984, engulfed in rigid, restraining rules (by the fans) of what punk & hardcore "should" be. Completely missing the point of what punk was in the first place! So Dave Chandler (of St. Vitus) and Gregg Ginn ( of Black Flag) essentially said Fuck Off! and became kindred spirits that eventually invented Doom (with Saint Vitus' debut) and Sludge Metal ( with side two of My War). Saint Vitus' sound and topics at this point were straight from the grave! They were playing what would become Funeral Doom with tales of Zombies, Psychopaths and Burials at Sea right from the start. Their sound was compressed, distorted, and haunting. They sounded like they were playing six feet under! Of course, a lot of this has to do their ace production team. The SST/Black Flag production team of Dez Cadena, Joe Carducci, and SPOT. Clearly this was a match made in heaven for me.
Metal Disclaimer2: I worship both SST and Black Flag. So this wasn't really a fair fight! 😨
It’s one of those “Where were you?” moments that shook the metal community back in 1982. The opening track “Fast a Shark” on Restless & Wild. The opening fake out of German Alps folk music. The frenetic, jolting record scratch. And The Scream that announced a change of the guard. That something new was on the horizon. Speed Metal. Accept from Germany ( and Raven from the UK) were on the forefront of this new sound which would be tightened and bolted down to become thrash in the ensuing years.
How would you rank their albums? Which of their albums are essential?
Did they have the first Speed Metal album with Breaker in 1981?
Are any of their albums past Metal Heart worth checking out?!?!
PS. I was going to have another battle – this time between Raven & Accept entitled Speed Kings and how during the early 80s these two duked it out for speed metal supremacy, but I just don’t think Raven’s all that. And Accept are!
Missed Accept supporting Sabaton a few years back. I'm not a big Sabaton fan, but I really wanted to see Accept...
Anyways I've never heard anything from Raven, but I've heard lots about them, time to give them a shot! _________________ Overall chart Fake overall chart
Ok. We've covered A LOT of ground over the past couple of months. Part of this exercise is to suss out what The Essential Metal Canon looks like. I will ONLY be cataloging albums that have been specifically name-checked in this diary thus far. So this is far from an exhaustive list. More of a fun, let's see how much ground we've covered as well as a nice synopsis for those keeping score at home. So here's a list BY YEAR of the albums that I feel is essential to building the ultimate metal discography. I will periodically update this list. And of course, I'd love to hear your thoughts & recs!
\m/_\m/____ Repo's Metal Canon____\m/_ \m/
1974
Kiss - Kiss
1975
Ted Nugent - Ted Nugent
Scorpions - In Trance
1976
Judas Priest - Sad Wings Of Destiny
Scorpions - Virgin Killer
Rainbow - Rising
1977
Judas Priest - Sin After Sin
Scorpions - Taken By Force
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