First of all, that's one hell of a list. Second, I've listened to Raven's debut Rock Until You Drop and liked it, but not nearly as much as I hoped. It's basically party rock, but turned up to 11. Although I definitely don't find it to be as extreme as Venom. It was still cool to hear them, so thanks for the rec 😄
And lastly, Cirith Ungol have released their first album since 1991. First in almost 30 years!
And it's fantastic, the songwriting is almost as good as their classic stuff, I definitely recommend it. The mix sounds a bit weird, the drums are low in the mix and not as punchy as I'd like, but apart from that it's one of my favourite releases of the year. _________________ Overall chart Fake overall chart
And it's fantastic, the songwriting is almost as good as their classic stuff, I definitely recommend it. The mix sounds a bit weird, the drums are low in the mix and not as punchy as I'd like, but apart from that it's one of my favourite releases of the year.
Awesome rec, brother! Been listening to this off & on all day, interspersed with playing D&D with my kids, and it's totally solid. Somehow someway matches up with their classic stuff from the 80s!
Second, I've listened to Raven's debut Rock Until You Drop and liked it, but not nearly as much as I hoped. It's basically party rock but turned up to 11,. Although I definitely don't find it to be as extreme as Venom. It was still cool to hear them, so thanks for the rec 😄
Couldn't have said it any better. Imagine if Iron Maiden were composed of troglodytes whose main obsessions were rockin' and.... 🤔 .... rockin' even harder!
Interesting foot note in the development of speed metal due to their energy, timing and speed, but it hasn't aged well especially compared with their peers such as Anvil, Exciter, and of course, Accept.
Talk about weird. Bathory got their big break because of fan mail. In 1983, a small record label was putting together a compilation entitled Scandanavian Metal Attack. A band backed out at the last minute. Quorthon talked. The label boss relented. Begrudgingly allowing him two tracks mostly as a favor to Quorthon’s Dad who owned the record label. And then it happened. The mail poured in. Lots & lots of it. Fan mail that is. Because the tracks were brilliant. The sound itself sounds like the beginnings of one of those classic jokes. Two albums walk into a bar. Metallica’s Kill ‘EM All & Venom’s Black Metal. They got shitfaced drunk. Sloppy & reckless. Fucked right there on one of the pool tables in the back. And spawned something new. Something awesome.
For at it’s core, it’s essentially a speed metal album mixed with a heaping ton of Venom worship. (After all they're named after a Venom song, the immortal “Countess Bathory.”) And created the most extreme speed metal heard at that point. What I love about my favorite kinds of music is that it’s sooo simple when you break it right down. Especially punk rock. And this is essentially punk rock. Simple plodding beats. A couple of cool riffs. Tension and release. Frenetic. And then easing off. Which isn’t surpinging really. Because long before he became the godfather of the entire black metal scene, Quorthon was just a punk. “Oh yeah, when I was a kid I was walking around with green hair and safety pins and stuff - I was totally into it. Ha! Ha!”. Quorthon continues, “Our interests are simple - sex, horror and the exploration of the dark side of life. It's just a way for me to let off a little steam, after all, this is supposed to be fun, right?".
And fun it is. What’s interesting to me is that tracks like "Necromancy" actually sound like goth rock mixed with industrial. Something that's not that far from early Skinny Puppy really. If "Necromancy" played at an industrial night at some dive-y punk club back in the mid 80s, no one would have batted an eye. They would have just danced a little harder. That shit swings!
Proto-Death: The Best Proto-Death Albums (listed chronologically)
1981: Venom - Welcome To Hell
1982: Venom - Black Metal
1983b: Hellhammer - Satanic Rites
1983a: Slayer - Show No Mercy
1984c Sodom - In The Sign Of Evil
1984b Bathory - Bathory
If you were trying to pick one band that encapsulated the sound of metal, it would have to be British Steel/Screaming For Vengeance era Judas Priest. That’s a given. But Accept’s early 80s output would be a close second! In fact, no other metal band dominated the early 80s metal scene quite like Accept besides Iron Maiden (whose run of FIVE utterly essential albums over FIVE years is downright mind boggling.) But Accept (sorta) had (nearly) FOUR classic albums over that same span with Breaker, Restless & Wild, Balls To The Wall, and Metal Heart.
But, I’m getting ahead of myself. It took two albums for Accept to find themselves. Their first two albums (self-titled and I'm A Rebel) are competent but entirely generic late 70s hard rock. But then BAM! Accept arrive fully formed on Breaker in 1981. People will tell you that Breaker’s a transitional album. That's utter bullshit. Especially the first side which is an unqualified masterpiece of 1981 heavy metal and completely on the forefront of where metal was going. Especially the title track “Breaker” itself which just may be the very first speed metal song. Check it out here...
... and see what every future metal band was about to mainline.
Completely metallic, mechanical, fast, dirty and brutal. Taking their key twin influences of, let’s say, 80% Priest and 20% Bon Scott-era AC/DC and running with it. That's right. AC/DC. People forget, perhaps because the Brian Johnson second-rate era far outlived the Bon Scott one, that AC/DC were one of the rawest, dirtiest and heaviest bands on the planet back in the late 70s. If you don’t know this, do yourself a favor and spin “Go Down” or “Dog Eat Dog” from Let There Be Rock. That shit is nasty!
tldr: There are THREE albums by Accept that I feel are ESSENTIAL for the metal canon.
THE THREE U NEED
1. Breaker (1981)
2. Restless & Wild (1982)
3. Balls To The Wall (1983)
And for those three years, they were one of the biggest, most important bands in metal. And the metal axis shifted ever so slightly Eastward. To Germany. And the Continent.
To see what all the fuss & excitement was all about, you need to check out....
Breaker is such a great song, sounds huge even today. May be the first speed metal song ever, it was just a bit faster than anything else at the time, up until Venom took over.
Also Let There Be Rock is vastly overlooked, my favourite AC/DC album. Say what you want about AC/DC's never changing sound, but they had several classics in the late 70s and early 80s. I still play some of their stuff, even though I've left the AC/DC phase in my early teens.
Breaker is such a great song, sounds huge even today. May be the first speed metal song ever, it was just a bit faster than anything else at the time, up until Venom took over.
Also Let There Be Rock is vastly overlooked, my favourite AC/DC album. Say what you want about AC/DC's never changing sound, but they had several classics in the late 70s and early 80s. I still play some of their stuff, even though I've left the AC/DC phase in my early teens.
Sounds fun to this day.
Me too! With Powerage a close second. Everything with Bon Scott is awesome though! \m/
I’m not going to say that they were game-changers. Or massive influencers or anything like that. I will say that this is another damn fine NWOBHM album from 1980 that deserved better than what it got - massive indifference and ineptitude from their record label MCA. MCA's ineptitude with hard rock and metal bands in the early 80s eventually got them derisively dubbed the Musical Cemetery of America by the metal community.
Formed in 1978 as Axe, Fist were at the forefront of The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) along with Quartz and the Tygers Of Pan Tang. Like Quartz and TOPT, they split the difference between the 70s Hard Rock of bands like UFO and more metallic NWOBHM bands like Saxon. They're essentially 70s hard rock with an injection of punk energy and rawness. Hell, a few songs even remind me of 70s glam rock queens Sweet (see Vamp and One Percenter). But, mostly it's owes its allegiance to mid-70s UFO. Another band that deserved far, far better than they got!
It wasn't that long ago that I was talking up Quartz's Stand Up & Fight as the "quintessential" NWOBHM album. But, I think this one may even be better & more representative. (Of course, I'm splitting hairs here. They're both pretty awesome and total NWOBHM gems.)
Check this track out for a pretty sweet taste of their sound...
Ok. There’s going to be slight tweak (& re-naming!) of The Mellow (Metal) Zone. The more I listen, the more I think. The more I think, the more I listen. And the more I listen, the more I think. That’s it’s all circling down into one obvious point. That’s there is no line. The line is all bullshit. That line that demarcates metal from punk. Punk from metal. It never existed at all for the bands that made this stuff in the early to mid 80s. They weren’t buying into any of that crap. They mixed and matched all sorts of heavy, extreme, “hardcore” sounds without care of names, fealties and such nonsense. If you couldn’t play, well you sounded more punk. If you could play, well you were metal. The better demarcation was between commercial and the underground. But, hell, even that line is pretty blurry with bands crossing back and forth in the 80s.
Nope. If shit was heavy, it was ready for the pilfering. And thank the heavens for that. Down with genrefication! If the shit rips, it was good enough for them. Which means it’s good enough for me.
And I can think of no band better to kickoff this rebranding than The Exploited. They’re music ripped! As the long in the tooth scribes at Trouser Press put it, The Exploited are pretty much “the paradigm” of British Punk. And I couldn’t agree more! Rough, rowdy, blisteringly catchy & obnoxious all rolled into one. The Exploited were to the UK ’82/Hardcore scene what Sham 69 were to The Clash & Sex Pistols. Proud working class yobs making music for drunk working class yobs. This wasn’t music for art school wankers. This was music for the streets.
tldr: There are TWO albums by The Exploited that I feel are ESSENTIAL for Repo’s Punk Metal canon.
THE TWO U NEED
1. Punk’s Not Dead (1981)
2. Troops Of Tomorrow (1982)
Do yourself a favor and check out at least the first ten minutes of this to check out why I feel that the 80s underground music scene was as vital and exciting as anything you could get from the late 60s…
I’m not going to say that they were game-changers. Or massive influencers or anything like that. I will say that this is another damn fine NWOBHM album from 1980 that deserved better than what it got - massive indifference and ineptitude from their record label MCA. MCA's ineptitude with hard rock and metal bands in the early 80s eventually got them derisively dubbed the Musical Cemetery of America by the metal community.
Formed in 1978 as Axe, Fist were at the forefront of The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) along with Quartz and the Tygers Of Pan Tang. Like Quartz and TOPT, they split the difference between the 70s Hard Rock of bands like UFO and more metallic NWOBHM bands like Saxon. They're essentially 70s hard rock with an injection of punk energy and rawness. Hell, a few songs even remind me of 70s glam rock queens Sweet (see Vamp and One Percenter). But, mostly it's owes its allegiance to mid-70s UFO. Another band that deserved far, far better than they got!
It wasn't that long ago that I was talking up Quartz's Stand Up & Fight as the "quintessential" NWOBHM album. But, I think this one may even be better & more representative. (Of course, I'm splitting hairs here. They're both pretty awesome and total NWOBHM gems.)
Check this track out for a pretty sweet taste of their sound...
Doctor Doctor is one of my favorite hardrock tracks ever especially the versions where they stretch out the intro which then goes on to define the whole song. This kind of “wankery” is maybe the other side of the extreme metal/hardcore punk genre bending you were talking about and indeed not even metal but hardrock.
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