Every day a new start, and she prefers the sudden truth
We'll never learn to guide our heart, we'll never find what we deserve
She's leaving, she waited for so long
She pretends that he cares, invents some tale just to get his heart
With no more dreams she didn't have
She washed her hands of this whole affair
She's leaving, she waited for so long
But as she left, she gave her all, abandoned hope, she took for home - She's Leaving
The Cure. New Order. Depeche Mode. We can all agree they’re the big three of 80s DARK synth pop. Crushing songs. Deep songs. Songs that made us feel understood in the crazy storm called junior high. Songs that could get us through. As an awkward 80s kid, I was a massive fan of all three. But, for some reason (I'm blaming Pretty In Pink!), OMD were relegated to a "best of" in my growing vinyl collection. An LP that I would break out merely for 80s dance parties. I (& most my friends back then) considered them lightweight. Fluff.
So what a surprise when I started revisiting the early 80s due to Mercury’s request to make an 80s chart to find this stunning, deeply touching album. As my Genni would say, “It’s deep, Dad". Deep indeed, I reply in return. My Genni loves things that are deep. And dark. A turn in events from just a few years ago. Things change I guess. I remember hanging out with her in the lobbies of movie theaters to let the scary scenes pass. Watching her jump & twist on the lobbies makeshift attempts at comfortable seating. So happy that we were just there together. Waiting out the scary parts. Waiting for the storm to pass. Waiting for our Tilly, the daredevil oldest, to burst out the exit doors like a tempest gabbing a mile a minute to catch us up on all we had missed.
We had missed nothing though. Because we had each other.
To weathering the storm. And finding those who are willing to wait with us through it. No matter how uncomfortable the seating.
The one album that every self respecting burnout/metal head bought in 1980! All my friends owned this. We probably played this more than any other album in 1980 (very) closely followed by Back In Black!
The heaviest ( and most "extreme") metal band in the world in 1980. No other album released in 1980 would be as influential on the direction underground metal would head.
Proto-Proto Death Metal (1980)
(South Of The Dial #2)
Ok. These guys are NOT Death Metal. AT ALL. Like, not even close. They ARE Proto-Doom though. If you're into doom, especially the druggy, retro quasi-hippie stuff where Black Sabbath are spliced with all that late 60s psychedelic blues band stuff like Jethro Tull than this is your Holy Grail. Perhaps Ground Zero of that entire Doom Movement. Whereas bands like Saint Vitus took the hardcore punk approach to Sabbath's back catalog, band's like Witchfynde in 1980 and Witchcraft in the 2000s mined the psychedelic, hippie-ish elements. I love BOTH approaches and will be writing about Saint Vitus soon enough.
HOWEVER, as a prime NWOBHM band back in 1980, Witchfynde influenced Venom in other ways. Their satanic imagery and album cover was obviously massively influential on Venom (I mean just compare those two album covers. Case closed.) and thus the entire black and death movements that followed.
At any rate, just an incredibly killer NWOBHM, Proto-Doom release from 1980 that deserves to be in more charts and on more turntables. One of my favorite metal releases to be on from 1980.
The gold standard of the NWOBHM. Take no substitutes! (Unless you're talking about Wheels Of Steel also released by Saxon in 1980! These boys were just killing it back in the early 80s.)
Mach II of the greatest metal band of all time. Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules sounded completely different than Mach I Sabbath and were every bit as good (& in many ways influential.) Very few bands can just completely reboot their sound like this. Just one more reason that Black Sabbath are the greatest metal band of all time!!!
No band better understood and capitalized on suburban high school burnout culture than Van Halen in the late 70s/early 80s. Total classic sleaze rock as only they could do.
to be continued...
Last edited by Repo on 11/10/2021 16:56; edited 1 time in total
I remember waiting for them as a kid. The good part. That part in some rock n’ roll song that would just take me over the top. The anticipation would build & build then... BANG! Cirith Ungol knows all about it. Waiting for that good part. And they had an idea. A brilliant idea. Let's just make songs chock full to the brim with the good parts! Like a super satisfying ooey-gooey Snickers bar!
Well, kiddies, that’s how you get one of the coolest rock fests in America – Frost & Fire (in Ventura, California) – named after you even when you’ve only sold about six albums and no one outside of inner metal circles have ever even heard of you. In many ways, Cirith Ungol were an indie rock metal band. Having more in common with cult Portland garage rockers Dead Moon than traditional metal bands like Raven and Accept. Their songs brim with creativity and wit. Musically, they channel early Rush at their most metallic. But there’s a manic indie rock creative streak that runs through all their songs. Cool eerie keyboards straight from Goblin here. A gum popping bass line there. Good parts everywhere!
If you’re into underground metal, it really doesn’t get any better than this. And it's easily one of my favorite finds yet on this journey. Essential (E)!
“The whole NWOBHM thing didn’t exist when I wrote Angel Witch,” he recalls. “We were called Lucifer at that point and we were just a heavy rock band. I was in love with Sabbath, you know? I didn’t like anything else I was hearing. I liked bands like Led Zep and Deep Purple, but I preferred the Sabs because it just made more sense to me, with everything that was happening around me. I thought, ‘Why is everyone writing love songs?’ I was into the fantasy thing and horror and I just felt that was more of the way to go.” – Kevin Heybourne, founder, guitarist & vocalist of Angel Witch
The Setting: Two bands really stood out from the pack on the Metal For Muthas compilation. The comp that we can succinctly say heralded the arrival of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM). A comp so important I almost named this post after it. Iron Maiden, as I noted earlier in this diary, were the clear head of the class. We all know what happened to them. But what, if anything, did the salutatorians have to add?
The Listen: Demons. Lots & lots of demons. Angel Witches. White Witches. Sorceresses. And Gorgons. Clearly not the kind that hid under his bed. No, my friends. These were the kind of demons poor Kevin wanted in bed. It seems our protagonist had girls on the brain. He tried to will his way into their hearts, but “The more love I feel for you, the more you fade away” he lamented in the their classic title track "Angel Witch". Frustrated, confused, and probably more than a little horny, Kevin took to the dark arts of metal, and crafted one of the few genuine classics of the original NWOBHM movement.
The Verdict: NWOBHM was cut short. Born in 1979, it's growth was quickly stunted once thrash quickened everyone’s pulses in 1983. But, you know what? As of lover of early 80s metal, I’ve always secretly wished that thrash had waited just a few more years to get its ball sack hair. Luckily, Kevin and his Angel Witches gave us this consummate NWOBHM classic. If you love those first two Maiden albums as much as I do, well brother, what the fuck are you waiting for? Unlike Kevin's demons, this is the real deal.
Setting: It didn’t take very long. Maiden were just that much better than everybody else. And it was bloody obvious right from the beginning, my friends. 1980 was the year that the New Wave Of British Metal (NWOBHM) took the metal world by storm. It boasted seminal releases from Angel Witch, Diamond Head, Saxon (x2!), Judas Priest and Motorhead. (That's a shitload of important albums! I almost feel that one of these SIX ( Twisted Evil ) albums just has to make the list too. Don’t you?! Think ) But the best of them all, even at this stage, was Maiden with this almost unbelievably confident and assured debut.
The Listen: Again, the most startling aspect on hearing this again is their maturity and confidence. Almost impossible to believe that this is their debut. Like The Cure, they create an atmosphere that is unrivaled. “Remember Tomorrow” and “Strange World” being the most obvious examples.
Verdict: This is bloody simple ain’t it! Throw it on the pyre, boys and be down with it. We got ourselves another keeper!
I'm not a huge fan of Metal, but I like Slayer and Metallica. What do you think I should start with to get into Metal?
_______
Music From Around The World: https://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/v...hp?t=24820
I'm not a huge fan of Metal, but I like Slayer and Metallica. What do you think I should start with to get into Metal?
_______
Music From Around The World: https://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/v...hp?t=24820
If you like Slayer & Metallica, I'd recommend one of these next...
it is your thread and a question for you, so I stopped myself from annoyingly jumping in with words, but 2 of those were what I was thinking of, REPO! Great minds I guess lolol. I myself am not very familiar with Metal Church, so didn't think of that. I was thinking though that Rust in Peace, Leprosy and Arise or Beneath the Remains by Sepultera would be great next albums. Not toooo similar but similar enough, not toooo different, but different for sure. _________________ -Ryan
I'm not a huge fan of Metal, but I like Slayer and Metallica. What do you think I should start with to get into Metal?
_______
Music From Around The World: https://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/v...hp?t=24820
If you like Slayer & Metallica, I'd recommend one of these next...
it is your thread and a question for you, so I stopped myself from annoyingly jumping in with words, but 2 of those were what I was thinking of, REPO! Great minds I guess lolol. I myself am not very familiar with Metal Church, so didn't think of that. I was thinking though that Rust in Peace, Leprosy and Arise or Beneath the Remains by Sepultera would be great next albums. Not toooo similar but similar enough, not toooo different, but different for sure.
it is your thread and a question for you, so I stopped myself from annoyingly jumping in with words, but 2 of those were what I was thinking of, REPO! Great minds I guess lolol.
Haha! You know u can jump in anytime, Merc! 😁
Quote:
I myself am not very familiar with Metal Church, so didn't think of that.
Guess what metal album I think u should listen to next! 😉 All three of their albums from the 80s rule!
Quote:
I was thinking though that Rust in Peace, Leprosy and Arise or Beneath the Remains by Sepultera would be great next albums. Not toooo similar but similar enough, not toooo different, but different for sure.
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Repo
Mercury
