A Couple more pre-thrash classics leading up to the year 1983 (at which point I will just be focusing on Thrash albums and not so much stuff falling outside that genre)...
This is another sacred archival release similar to Static Age in a way. This is a record released in 1996 and recorded back in mid 1979. This is Bad Brains in their early days. If you have heard their debut album and, like me, kind of worshipped that album, this is a good next stop in their discog. There is a lot of crossover from the 2 releases song-wise. The production here is predictably much more muddy and the whole vibe of the project is that of some kids in a studio space bashing out their songs as quick as possible. It’s pretty awesome really.
I am a bit biased as, again, I worship this band. Perhaps my fave punk band certainly my fave so-called hardcore punk band. And even when I first heard their debut as a lad, I instantly started connecting the dots of the more meaty metal riff work going on. I was like “holy shit! These guys are basically a more fast and aggressive form of thrash before thrash!”. All that same insane energy and heaviness and sheer aggressive speed is on display here as well.
The version of “Pay to Cum” deserves special shout out here. How H.R. manages to spit these lyrics so damn fast is a mystery to me. Rudimentary Peni on their 1982 EP Farce have a song (forget which) with a similar absurd vocal speed. But outside of that I can’t think of anything quite like this from this era. Tom Arraya on some Slayer records does a similar fast spitting over top fast thrash riffs. This is like that. Anyway, I don’t know where I’m going with this. Rambling and getting distracted.
The guitar solos here are so sharp and fun and metallic, the chunky bass work is badass, the drumming is so fast and furious and of course the vocals are iconic.
I don’t feel this is the same level as their official Debut released 2.5 years later. But it’s shockingly close! There is an energy and adrenaline top these recordings which I personally don’t know of anything matching at the time. Maybe Germs or early DKs or or or… but the point is Bad Brains are at nearly peak powers here and they were all like 19-21 years old. Such a cool album and band.
And I am sorry but I hear some proto-thrash here for sure. It’s more obvious on the debut LP. But it’s already here as well. If the solos were more fleshed out and longer, and really can’t hear what else is needed. Much like Motorhead, Bad Brains straddled that line between these 2 quite similar musical styles/scenes. Sometimes I have a hard distinguishing the 2, there is just so much crossover.
Unlike the debut, there are some parts of this project I don’t adore. Some of the songs are just somewhat filler. Such as “Why’d You Have to Go”. And as this is 1979, there are some more Sex Pistols-ish/traditional punk with none of that hardcore punk ferocity on display, such as on tracks like “Redbone In The City”.
This release is, again, a treat, but I think the first half is such a blast and so good mostly because its rawer and less fleshed out versions of the great tracks released later and as a result the opening run of songs from tracks 1-8 is perfect. That leads to a little let down toward the end. There are some really cool brutal beasts in the back half like “How Low Can A Punk Go?” and early version of “Attitude”.
Overall, not an absolute essential listen and unlikely to be a direct influence on Thrash as these recordings weren’t widely or readily available at the time. But in a circuitous way this maybe seeped into the development of the metal heads, by way of Minor Threat being influenced by Bad Brains and then their early EPs having a more direct influence on some of the more savage sounds of thrashy, hardcore-informed metal… a stretch. But whatever. It’s great, check it out if you haven’t and if you in any way like Hardcore Punk.
This is an album that I enjoyed revisiting after all these years. This doesn’t give off, to my ears, anything particularly metal to me. Probably shouldn’t feature it in this project. BUT this is a majorly important and influential LP. Kind of inarguable that this is the first LP of Hardcore Punk. This sounds like a more aggressive Punk album, which makes sense as that is basically Hardcore for you. This had a huge impact on LA and more broadly American Hardcore for years to come.
The Germs and Darby Crash are icons. They were just about the craziest and most unhinged real-life punks that existed. And the legend of the extreme debauchery and insanity of Crash is what overshadows their music. But the music here is pretty awesome. In particular the bass is mixed gorgeously, and the bass lines are sick. The guitar work all over this album from Pat Smear are dissonant and kinda spindly and off-putting when not balls-to-the-wall aggressive. The vocals are classic, and while not being my favorite, the sheer ugliness and fucked-upness of Darby’s vocals here are so excellently punk.
This is a little too unvaried and lacking many of those “holy shit!” moments that I love, and perhaps a bit too long for a punk or hardcore punk album. But then again there is something here. I can’t put my finger on it exactly. Like, there is a weird dichotomy at work here: it’s both precise and sloppy, poetic and stupid as hell, it’s a bit abrasive and aggressive while also being cold and emotionally stirring at times. It’s really quite a perplexing and essential punk album. Obviously, “Lexicon Devil” is the most famous and classic song here, but all through this album there are cool snippets and ideas and that 10 minute or so closing noise rock dirge (“Shutdown”) is wild!. After a couple listens today, I haven’t fully settled on my thoughts or opinions here. It obviously is massively influential to much of the punk and hardcore I love from the years that followed. But is it an album I unabashedly love or as of yet connect with on a personal level? Not really or not yet.
All in all, this may be an album that most people hear and think “what is special here?” and maybe they come away thinking its overrated because it was first and not because it was particularly great. But I think a couple listens does unveil some other interesting aspects and layers. And I think that anyone who loves or likes punk or is fascinated by the development of that classic LA scene, should hear this at least once or twice.
An interesting band, with an iconic vocalist, with a legendary live show, and a pretty solid metallic punk rock album. The singer Wendy O. Williams is great, quirky, passionate and from what I’ve heard, one of the all time great punk show stoppers live. And she was pretty hot too and wore some sexy outfits and had badass mohawks in the late 70s/early 80s that just added to the allure of the group. Plasmatics were just a force back in the day. And on this, their debut album, they convey admirably some of the traits that made them notable back in the day.
Musically, there is nothing super striking here and distinguishing here. Outside of, again, the wheezy and wild and mercurial vocal heroics of Wendy O. The guitars and the way they crunch and soar in very heavy metal ways and those clean and well produced active basslines and of course those also quite well produced and snappy drums, it all makes for a very immediate and striking sound. This is a very very well produced and clear sounding album, especially considering this is a late 70s NY punk band. Pretty cool.
There is a sort of cartoonish, unpredictability layered on top of the otherwise somewhat direct sound of this album. Out of nowhere on “Dream Lover” you get a straight up noisy almost free jazz, unstructured jam for 2.5 minutes that actually kicks fucking ass. Before the song/album goes back to that heavy and fist pumping punk energy. It’s stellar.
There are a lot of things to love about this band and singer and album. It’s a shame this is not as well known and talked about as many many other bands of the time. Perhaps that is because they were a NY band that came at the end of that legendary CBGB explosion, and then the Next Big Exciting Thing in punk was out in LA and SF and with Post Punk bands and hardcore punk… this band and album juist sorta fell into a weird in-between zone. That is my thought on why this flies relatively under the radar.
Still, if you wanna hear some early punk with a seriously unique vocalist and an album with some heavy metal punch and gobs and gobs of energy and anger, you can’t go wrong with this bad motherfucker right here.
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PRE-1983 Tier List/Ranking:
MASTERPIECE, NEAR-PERFECT, ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL LISTENING:
1. Stained Class by Judas Priest (February 10th, 1978) - exemplary track, "Exciter"
2. Static Age by The Misfits (Recorded Jan-Feb, 1978) - exemplary track, "We Are 138"
GREAT AND ESSENTIAL
3. Black Dots by Bad Brains (Recorded June 1979) - exemplary track, "Pay To Cum
4. Overkill by Motörhead (April 24th, 1979) - exemplary track, "Overkill"
VERY GOOD TO GREAT, NOT SO ESSENTIAL FOR THIS THRASH METAL DEVELOPMENT THING
5. (GI) by The Germs (October 1979) - exemplary track, "Lexicon Devil"
6. New Hope for the Wretched by Plasmatics (March 1980) - exemplary track, "Dream Lover"
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Okay, I'll leave it with that for now. Next really is Iron Maiden and Diamond Head and stuff. I lied last time. _________________ -Ryan
Ps: That Germs album is TOTALLY essential if I understand your project correctly!!!
Interesting! Haven’t heard that one I don’t recall. I have heard their 1977 debut a fair few times and it’s sick.
As for the question of essential or not essential, I guess I am struggling with what that means. Some essential albums I just won’t like THAT much. When I get to Venom (don’t kill me) but that will be an example of something essential to the development of Thrash and extreme metal that I just don’t love (if I do enjoy it a lot).
The essential is referring to the influence or building blocks of Thrash. With some punk or hardcore albums it CLEAR that they were hugely influential on thrash and extreme metal generally (Discharge’s Debut, Bad Brains Debut, GBH stuff, even the Misfits early work). But do I hear the influence of The Germs in even very early thrash? Not really.
That’s why I have decided as of now not to highlight the Dead Kennedys in this project, because their brand of hardcore doesn’t sound like it influenced say Show No Mercy or Kill Em All or Morbid Tales etc. does this make sense at all?
I know Thrash is essentially the metal of the 70s and 80s, made louder and heavier and faster and also incorporating the rhythms and tempos and attitude of punk while being musically more metal… that is how I see thrash’s inception or jumping point.
A question I’ll also have to grapple with in 1984 and 1985 onwards is that now I am in the thrash extreme metal era. BUT there were still punk and noise rock or whatever coming out that had some influence on bands more directly labelable as thrash. So… should I listen to say idk, Siege in 1984 or Black Flag or Rudimentary Peni when I get into the mid to late 80s for this project? I haven’t decided nor figured this out yet _________________ -Ryan
Recent (last week or so) round up of listens... excluding those "used" or soon to be reviewed for this other ongoing Thrash and proto-thrash project:
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Behind The Realms Of Madness by Sacrilege Behind The Realms of Madness by Sacrilege/1985/4-4.2 - astoundingly fantastic. It's got excellent passionate female (!) vocals and some of the best melding of thrash metal with big booming chunky riff work as well as hardcore/d beat pace and vibes. 27 minutes of just pure adrenalized badassery. Seriously, I was thinking of waiting for months to even talk about this as it will come up when I get to 1985 thrash, but couldn't wait. Tam is such a kickass vocalist and the sound and style and songwriting here is all top notch.
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Hiss by Wormrot Hiss by Wormrot/2022/3.8-4.1 - liking this more and more. Wormrot are just about the coolest Grind band ever. I know i've already said something about this here. But yeah it is just great. Top 5 Grindcore band along with Pig Destroyer, Nasum, Terrorizer, and Napalm Death... oh wait and Brutal Truth! Top 6.
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Giant Palm by Naima Bock Giant Palm by Naima Bock/2022/3.2-3.7 - A Very sweet and dreamy and downright jazz poppy album from former member of Goat Girl. The whole vibe of the album is nostalgic and breezy and whimsical and I really enjoyed it on first listen.
Espionage Sabotage Subversion Demo by E.S.S./1982/3-3.4 - This is SUPER obscure, but I enjoyed it. The bulk of it is passionate and somewhat cookie cutter hardcore of the era. BUT there is a track or 2 that meld Noise rock, some sort of quasi-dub sounds and punk flawlessly… This band was onto something unique and cool. They never made it, however because as far as I know they disbanded after making this 13 minute demo in 1982.
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Morbid Tales by Celtic Frost Morbid Tales by Celtic Frost/1984/4 - This is another one along with Sacrilege I was thinking of waiting on until I get to 1984 in my thrash project. But I just couldn't.
I've been sleeping on this one. Didn't remember or realize the brutality and the primordial power of the sound here. "Sloppy", "Thrashing", "Punky", etc…. These words don't quite describe this album. It's a beast. An evil, out of nowhere beast made after just 3 months of the band being together. Incredible.
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Psychopomp by Japanese Breakfast Psychopomp by Japanese Breakfast/2016/3.1-3.3 - I went and saw Japanese Breakfast last Friday in concert. It was great! Anyway, the following are my notes when I listened to these before the concert:
a solid pop/indie rock sort of thing. The vocals are unique if a bit weak at times. She has a very unique singing style. On Jubilee it was just about perfect, but on here I think it wasn't yet mastered.
The opener and some other tracks throughout have very infectious melodies and I like the vibe.
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Soft Sounds From Another Planet by Japanese Breakfast Soft Sounds From Another Planet by Japanese Breakfast/2017/3.3-3.6 - Major tightening up of her sound and vocals from her short debut. More serious and somber and more beautiful. On this I think she shows a lot of what made her third album so great. Needs more listens as I have a feeling it will grow on me.
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Hatred For Mankind by Dragged Into Sunlight Hatred For Mankind by Dragged Into Sunlight/2009/4.0-4.3 - One of the most brutal, unsettling, HATEFUL and fucked up and twisted listening experiences I've had in awhile. The production is PERFECT, filthy and gnarly and thick and slabby. The vocals and guitars and bass and drums all contribute flawlessly to the utterly misanthropic, disgusting pit atmosphere of this absolute beast. What a stellar near-perfect Death Metal/Sludge Metal/Doomy Metal album this is. All on first listen at that! Easily one of my fave Death Metal albums from last 20 years or so.
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Hellfire by Black Midi Hellfire by black midi/2022/3.7-4.1 - After 2 listens, is this my favorite black midi LP? Yes I think so. Cavalcade was great but a few tracks and some of the sequencing choices left me wanting and didn't click with me. This album on the other hand does seem to have a fabulous flow and manic energy throughout and the soft parts work better here. "Still" is perhaps my favorite track. But really those last 3 tracks are stellar and somehow I think, despite the manic excellence of the first half, the last half and really leg of this album raises the power and quality of the music. This is excellent and I will likely be returning often to this. Not sure it will overtake Ants From Up There as my fave album of 2022 or best album out of the so called Windmill Scene this year... but who knows. It took me months to have that "aha!" moment with AFUT. So, its possible the full force of this album hasn't happened yet. Avant Prog, Zappa and less-serious-King Crimson, and Henry Cow vibes here and yet these young men have the talent and chops to pull it off while adding a very distinctly Millenial and modern twist to this musical heritage.
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Paracletus by Deathspell Omega Paracletus by Deathspell Omega/2010/3.5-3.9 - Fabulously unique Black Metal that somehow manages to be completely unique in its sound and methods while still expressing the major cold, despairing power of classic black metal. The riffs are ace and the weird avant garde tonalities and aspects make this as fascinating a metal listen as I can hope for. The vocals and production are also great. It flows well and all in all its a lot better than I gave it credit for before and I shoulda revisited sooner. My bad. Super French as well which is unique I think (haven't yet invested much or any time into French metal - basically just Deathspell Omega and Gojira is my list of French metal i've heard thus far I think)
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The Saberlight Chronicles by Fellowship The Saberlight Chronicles by Fellowship/2022/3.7-4.1 - absolutely riveting and wildly uplifting Power Metal album. These guys have it all, songwriting chops, insane musicianship, great clean uplifting vocals, solos that kick ass, etc etc etc. Just an amazing debut.
I think this may be the very first Power Metal album I have truly loved. This may be the gateway I needed to finally really explore and enjoy power metal classics from Blind Guardian and Helloween etc. I used to think Iron Maiden was considered Power Metal...but no apparently? I was just a kid when I got that idea so it's possible I was mistaken. But what? are they considered at least Proto-Power or influential?
Anyway, I digress. RockyRaccoon mentioned this and I bit and I am glad I did. Stellar stellar album. These mofos kick ass.
Edit: Also, that cover! So cool! Makes me think of a Stormlight Archive cover, with it's bright color and action and the fact that it pops sooo muuuch! Hell the title of the album - "The Saberlight Chronicles", really reminds me of Sanderson's "The Stormlight Archive" as well. And as a huge fan of Sanderson and the Stormlight Archive, I will say that the title got me a bit invested before even pushing play! Also with the name Fellowship, I was thinking of the first third of The Lord Of The Rings. These folks are pushing all my fantasy fandom buttons just from the cover art and names for christ's sake! Okay bye
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Okay, after that little round up and detour, I'll go back to listening to some more stuff for this lead up to Thrash project. Next are classics from Iron Maiden, Saxon, Diamond Head, Motorhead and Angel Witch! LOTS of NWOBHM stuff for sure. _________________ -Ryan
Awesome! I need to check out that Rainbow albnum and its been on my to-do list for awhile. I will listen for this little project soon.
And that AC/DC is one that is off my radar. Will check it out.
Do you feel these 2 albums have that same menacing, cutting edge heaviness and speed that Stained Class possesses? Are they more Hard Rock or do they seem to presage the future, more extreme future of Metal to come in the next 4-5 years after 1978? Just curious your thoughts there.
Just check out THE DRUMS on this cut from Rainbow's Rising from 1976...
A Couple more pre-thrash classics leading up to the year 1983 (at which point I will just be focusing on Thrash albums and not so much stuff falling outside that genre)...
Okay, so this is good. I have written about it before on this very diary and I think I gave it 4 out of 5 metal emojis (basically a 4/5 in regular speak). That is unchanged after these last couple listens in recent days. For sure, as a natural consequence of more time and listens and familiarity, my affinity improved for this LP to some slight degree. They haven’t yet fully settled into their sound here on their debut, the leads and galloping power of the riffs to my ears just aren’t there yet like they would be in 82, 83, 84 etc. BUT there is indeed a slight hint of youthful aggressive power here that perhaps was lost once Dickinson came and joined the group. This isn’t as obviously punky as Motorhead or Venom obviously, nor even as scrappy as recent newfound fave of mine (for this genre) Saxon, but there is something extra there in terms of intensity that I like. The guitar attack is killer even if not at its peak yet, the vocals are great and I slightly prefer these vocals over Bruce’s (although they are so different, it’s a bit weird to compare them.) And I can hear how the speed and power of this band had a beautiful influence on most metal music to come including the first thrash bands. When they are really letting loose on the heavier tracks here, it’s pretty awe inspiring and those bass licks… chef’s fuckin’ kiss. The lighter and more ballad-y tracks are quite beautiful and well done and the second track reminds me of something Judas Priest would do. It’s just an all around well-rounded LP and a fabulous debut album.
So, yeah, it’s really, really good. HOWEVER it isn’t my favorite Maiden. I think I will also touch on and relisten to their second LP, Killers soon because obviously there are a few bands that are monumental enough for more than one entry and Maiden is certainly one of them.
(looking back at my write up after kinda gushing about Saxon, I feel like I am givin Maiden short-shrift. Sorry. "Prowler", "Running Free", "Phantom of the Opera", "Transylvania", and "Charlotte The Harlot" are bangers! and "Remember Tomorrow" is absolutely gorgeous at times. It's just listening to this album didn't blow me away or sort of surprise me like Wheels of Steel for obvious reasons - namely, I have heard this 10 times before and liked it whereas I had never heard nor ever expected to like Saxon. Maiden are Gods. This is really good. Not as good as Killers, Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, or Powerslave off the top of my head. So I will save my effusive praise.)
Anyway, so this totally kicks ass. I didn’t expect that. For years I have had so little interest in checking this band out you could basically round it down to zero. And I don’t know why. I mean I am actually discovering this with several of these so-called NWOBHM bands and classic albums. I have had just no. fucking. Interest. Hell, when I decided to listen to shit tones of thrash and then had the bright idea to listen to earlier albums that lead to that sound first, there was a moment when I was reading articles and looking at lists and seeing all these British metal albums from 79-82 and had a sinking in my gut and thought “well, shit, I guess I kinda HAVE to listen to all these geezer metal groups now, huh? Kinda painted myself in a corner, didn’t I?”. I initially was thinking that I would revisit 5 or 10 albums I actually like or find interesting like Ace of Spades and Bad Brains and maybe Lightning To The Nations. But, some of you know me, I tend I to go to extremes and started listing many, many bands I had only ever heard of and thought nothing of after hearing of ‘em. Raven and Angel Witch and, yes, Saxon were all grudgingly added to my list. I paired it down a little because I ended with like 20 albums, but a few were just unavoidable because I 1. Knew they were classics, 2. Repo had been repping them for years and I just needed to listen and 3. Because over and over and over these classics were name-dropped as being major influences on various Thrash Metal bands.
The point is when I pushed play on this second LP by Saxon, I was doing it almost to get it out of the way and just to see what all the fuss was about, listen once, find something particularly heavy and fast and influential and listen to that a few times and move the fuck on. I for sure DID NOT expect to listen to this album and its follow up album 3 and 4 times and be singing along in short order! But that is what happened. This album and it’s opener “Motorcycle Man’ just sorta instantly grabbed me and made me a bit hyped up and smiling.
Everything about the sound is produced so damn sharply and in such a way as to really impinge. The vocals are sick! Really the vocal work is so old school badass, fiery, sexy, FUN. The riffs are crunching and while not particularly fast most of the time, they always have a presence and an electricity flowing through them. And these songs! What can I say, they are catchy, efficient and brilliant. (the next album Strong Arm of the Law somehow kind of managed to top Wheels of Steel in the song department. But more on that later.).
The highlight for the purpose of showcasing the heavier and faster and more predictive of later more extreme young bands side of things is the closing track, Machine Gun. There is a portion in I suppose the bridge or the break down(?IDFK!) that rumbles and thrashes as good as anything from this year. It’s fleeting and that track doesn’t have the sustained heaviness and proto-thrashyness of “Am I Evil” or “The Prince” by Diamond Head. But it’s there and its sick.
Outside of that, the real highlights here are too numerous to name. The swagger of these recordings reminded me strangely that Heavy Metal doesn’t always have to be something extreme or “brutal” or ultra technical. It doesn’t have to make me feel assaulted like Napalm Death or in the pits of Hell like Slayer or on the front lines of a useless war like “Leper Messiah” or or or… instead, metal can be sick as fuck and simply cool and FUN.
The run of songs from “Motorcycle Man”, to “Stand Up and Be Counted” to “747 (Stranger In The Night)” to the title track is truly absurdly great and catchy and kick ass and full of clever crunching riffs, melodic bass work, rock solid drums and killer vocals. This is almost the quintessential classic hard rockin’ heavy metal album and sound. This is cool, unserious, inspiring, a bit obnoxious, boisterous and…hmm, let’s get one more adjective here, what shall it be… TRANSPLENDENT metal through and through.
Don’t get me wrong, my preference is still things on the more either cerebral and “serious”, or brutal, disgusting, extreme and evil side. But the fact that I enjoyed this so much kind of opened up a whole new world of music that I have been avoiding largely because I thought “what’s the point? It won’t move me emotionally, intellectually nor absolutely assault me and make me uncomfortable… why listen?”
This has been many, many words basically saying this album ROCKS, pure and simple. I think I’ll go listen again before going on to much needed relistens to other NWOBHM
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PRE-1983 Tier List/Ranking:
MASTERPIECE, NEAR-PERFECT, ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL LISTENING:
1. Stained Class by Judas Priest (February 10th, 1978) - exemplary track, "Exciter"
2. Static Age by The Misfits (Recorded Jan-Feb, 1978) - exemplary track, "We Are 138"
GREAT AND ESSENTIAL 3. Wheels of Steel by Saxon (April 1980) - exemplary track, "747 (Strangers In The Night)"
4. Black Dots by Bad Brains (Recorded June 1979) - exemplary track, "Pay To Cum
5. Iron Maiden by Iron Maiden (April 14th, 1980) - exemplary track, "Phantom of the Opera"
6. Overkill by Motörhead (April 24th, 1979) - exemplary track, "Overkill"
VERY GOOD TO GREAT, NOT SO ESSENTIAL FOR THIS THRASH METAL DEVELOPMENT THING
7. (GI) by The Germs (October 1979) - exemplary track, "Lexicon Devil"
8. New Hope for the Wretched by Plasmatics (March 1980) - exemplary track, "Dream Lover"
(yeah, I know, in what fucking universe are we in where mercury puts Saxon ahead of Bad Brains?!? lol. weird... it's close, and maybe i will change later. for now feeeels right.)
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Okay, I'll leave it with that for now. Next will be Diamond Head, Motorhead and Minor Threat etc. _________________ -Ryan
Awesome! I need to check out that Rainbow albnum and its been on my to-do list for awhile. I will listen for this little project soon.
And that AC/DC is one that is off my radar. Will check it out.
Do you feel these 2 albums have that same menacing, cutting edge heaviness and speed that Stained Class possesses? Are they more Hard Rock or do they seem to presage the future, more extreme future of Metal to come in the next 4-5 years after 1978? Just curious your thoughts there.
Just check out THE DRUMS on this cut from Rainbow's Rising from 1976...
ps. Rainbow's version from LLR'nR is WAYYYYY better! \m/
hmm... well you're right that drum sound on that track is quite aggressive and up and down and sounds pretty damned in the red so to speak. Also I wasn't familiar with that cover by Metallica. Thanks!
I listened to Rainbow's 1978 album on your recommendation. Didn't write about it, but I liked it a lot. Not as much as I like or even love Rising or their debut. But it needs more listens.
and okay you've sold me on Powerage and getting back into AC/DC. It's been a loooong time since I went and listened to anything by them.
Repo wrote:
GREAT, write-ups, Merc!!! 😁
Although nothing from Saxon (as much as I LOVE them) can touch Maiden's first FIVE albums.
I LOVE this crossbreeded mutt of a dog you're building!!!! Keep it up!!! :twisted:
ha! I know you love Maiden and all their early classics. I am less enthusiastic. The Saxon love I have may be a bit of a case of the "shiny new thing" and the unexpected immense enjoyment I felt. But also Maiden has yet to really move me down deep in mah soullll (except with "Hallowed Be Thy Name"). So, I just have much less allegiance to them. I'd say the consensus amongst metalheads is that Maiden are indisputably the greater band and all of their first 7 LPs are considered classics.
What band in your view has a run of albums that can compare to Maiden's first 5 or 7 or whatever? I think of Slayer's first 5 or 6 if their Live Decade of Aggression counts or if you count their great live EP and EP from 1984/1985 Haunting The Chapel and Live Undead. _________________ -Ryan
I used to think Iron Maiden was considered Power Metal...but no apparently? I was just a kid when I got that idea so it's possible I was mistaken. But what? are they considered at least Proto-Power or influential?
I would say Iron Maiden are definitely early power metal, or at the bare minimum, they were extremely influential in the power metal scene, bringing the big anthemic feel to metal that power metal is known for. But if you asked me to name early power metal bands, I'd definitely put Iron Maiden up there alongside bands like Helloween and Cirith Ungol and Savatage.
By the way, if you're interested in diving into more power metal, I've got a chart of my favorites, but probably the best power metal chart on this site is Gowi's chart (unsurprisingly) _________________ Progressive Rock
ha! I know you love Maiden and all their early classics. I am less enthusiastic. The Saxon love I have may be a bit of a case of the "shiny new thing" and the unexpected immense enjoyment I felt. But also Maiden has yet to really move me down deep in mah soullll (except with "Hallowed Be Thy Name"). So, I just have much less allegiance to them. I'd say the consensus amongst metalheads is that Maiden are indisputably the greater band and all of their first 7 LPs are considered classics.
What band in your view has a run of albums that can compare to Maiden's first 5 or 7 or whatever? I think of Slayer's first 5 or 6 if their Live Decade of Aggression counts or if you count their great live EP and EP from 1984/1985 Haunting The Chapel and Live Undead.
Let's see... starting with 1969 and sticking with Hard Rock/Metal
1. Led Zeppelin
2. Black Sabbath
3. Uriah Heep
4. Blue Oyster Cult
5. Deep Purple
6. AC/DC
7. Thin Lizzy
8. Scorpions
9. UFO
Yeesh! That a lot right there!!!
Let's just explode out AC/DC so u see what I mean...
1. TNT/High Voltage
2. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
3. Let There Be REock
4. Powerage
5. Highway To Hell
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Mercury
Repo
RockyRaccoon
