Devastation

So due to my recent re-discovery of The Sound Of The Beast, I've been excavating that magical 1982-1984 period in which all disparate strains of black, death, power, doom and good old fashioned classic heavy metal exploded outward, diverging with the power of an atom being split. As the shards from the initial metal detonation spurred by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal hurtled onward and upward, genres would soon become rigidly codified. Excellent and powerful music would result, but I've always had a particular fascination with this period, when the lines were still blurry and scene politics not as dogmatic. It's especially interesting to note that by 1984, the great steel lords like Saxon, Iron Maiden, Motorhead and Judas Priest and American counterparts like Manowar were all still firing on all cylinders, while most of the bands who would shape the direction of heavy metal over the next 15 plus years were already in place, either as underground tape-trading fixtures or fresh-faced fusiliers recording debut albums and playing local shows, and even a few groups of teenagers thrashing about in smokey beer-soaked practice pads.

Here is a list of some favourites, new and old, that have been getting extra spins at the altar recently.

Anvil - Metal On Metal Canadian power metal legends best known for appearing in a documentary which portrayed them as a real-life Spinal Tap. Fortunately, a new generation has re-discovered these guys, and fallen in love with ridiculous anthems like the title track and the groupie-slaying sleeze tributes "Tag Team" and "Jackhammer." The leather bondage gear and musical vibrators that were synonymous with their stage dress only adds to their perverted appeal.

Bathory - Bathory Although later they became notable for pioneering the ultra-epic micro genre of viking metal, Sweden's Bathory began life as ultra-crude Venom wannabes. I mean that in a good way. This was a vital step in the creation of black metal.

Exciter - Heavy Metal Maniac A great missing link between classic heavy metal and mid-80s thrash, this Ontario band worked much of the same ground as early Metallica, thrashing with wild-eyed abandon and displaying a love for Sabbath's heavy riffage and Motorhead's breakneck speed. For a year or two at least, these two bands were neck and neck, though these guys never really topped themselves after this. Standout track is the ultraheavy "Iron Dogs," but there isnt a weak track here. An overlooked classic.

Iron Maiden - Number Of The Beast
Not much needs to be said about this record. Iron Maiden's first record with Bruce Dickinson saw them leaving their punked-up pub-metal roots in the dust in favour of elaborate, classical compositions and fantastical (rather than macabre) lyrical themes that would define the career of one of the greatest bands of all time.

Judas Priest- Screaming For Vengence
This was Priest at their commerical peak. Touring the world with Iron Maiden in tow, the twin titans created legions of fans everywhere they went. Some of Priest's catchiest songs can be found here, with Downing and Tipton's trademark dual lead guitars carving molten chunks of sound with laser precision. Everythime I hear "You've Got Another Thing Coming" on the radio on our local classic rock stations, I always crank the volume.

Manowar - Into Glory Ride The manliest men who ever manned. Manowar would carry the flame for true heavy metal for decades, but this is one of their best efforts. In particular, "Gloves of Metal" ranks as one of the grestest fist-in-the-air, call-to-arms metal anthems of all time.

Mercyful Fate - Melissa
The arcane, mystical aura of Denmark's Mercyful Fate is matched by their highly accomplished musical feats on spellbinding compositions like "Into The Coven," "Satan's Fall" and the mesmerizing title track. Kind Diamond 's unbelieveable falsetto is in fine form here, and their phenomenoal musicianship and gothic sensibility would have a powerful influence on everyone from Metallica to Mayhem.

Metallica - Kill 'em All
Metallica kick-started a new era in metal with their heavy chugging rythms, giving birth to the thrash metal aesthetic fully formed on their debut. Unlike later albums though, this is pure, unrefined work by a band obsessed with heavy metal, with each song coming loaded by at least six or seven riffs and as many shredding guitar solos. Hetfield's vocals are a little high and screechy, but the band gets by on enthusiasm and sheer conviction. They would never sound like this again, and Kill 'em All captures a young and hungry band on the cusp of greatness.

Motorhead - Another Perfect Day
Easily the most underappreciated Motorhead album. Former Thin Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson stopped by to inject his fluid, melodic style into the Motorhead machine, and the results have polarized fans ever since. For me, tracks like "Shine" deserve to be ranked among the very best the band had to offer, though if one were to ever categorize a Motorhead album as conventional, this would be it.

Saxon - The Power & The Glory This was Saxon's commercial peak, and great ragers like "Redline" that channeled the drive of their early biker metal roots were bolstered by the elaborate slow build of "The Eagle Has Landed." Things were getting slicker production-wise for them, but on this album, and to a lesser extent 1984's Crusader, Saxon still ranked among the best that Britain had to offer.

Slayer - Show No Mercy Dave Lombaro's shockingly fast drumming and the ultra-evil imagery of Tom Arya's psychotic screams distinguished Slayer very early on. Unlike other speedfreaks like D.R.I. or C.O.C. Slayer was equally interested in the technically accomplisehed tendencies of classic heavy metal. Their chops were raw, but song structures were not being simplified, simply sped up to vaporization speed while still retaining the instrumental breaks and complex bridges. A radical and extremely influential debut.

Venom - At War With Satan
The final of Venom's essential proto-black metal template-setting albums, At War With Satan's epic title track is effectively metal's answer to Milton's Paradise Lost. This is far from the basement-value ineptitude of Welcome To Hell. Here, they prefigure all the baroque tendencies that some angry scandanavian teenagers would ride to infamy in the coming decade.

Warlock - Burn The Witches Germany's Warlock did a raw, energetic take on power metal with a thrashy edge, and threw the soaring vocals of metal-goddess Doro over top. The effect is all shredding, wailing guitars, flying hair and relentless drumming crystalized into pure unadulterated heavy metal.

Molten

I've been reading Ian Christe's truly excellent book, The Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal. It's been a favourite of mine for years, and since I have little new reading material at the moment I decided to dig back into it and read it cover to cover. Christe's truly astonishing depth of knowledge and knowing smirk shine through his well-constructed narrative of the history of heavy music from its inception in the late 60's up until its publishing date in 2002. Anyone with an interest in metal or rock music should read this book, which also contains a series of handy genre guides listing essential recordings in all styles of metal.

Christe also curates and contributes to a fantastic blog at Bazillion Points Publishers which speciallizes in metal-related books, films and food. They have a particularly great collection of obscure metal demos from all manner of underground (and sometimes above-ground) bands. Check it out for an unholy collection of all manner of grimy,dungeon-production thrash, death, black and power metal filth by teenagers who can barely play their instruments. In other words, its fucking awesome.

Anchor

So I recently got a job at a local radio station, which is part of the reason the updates have been fewer and farther in between for the last month and a half. Although it started as a promotions gig, (set-up for remote broadcasts, appearances at public events, handing out free stuff and calling contest winners etc.) I've just this past week started to branch out. On Thursday and Friday I took part in the launch of a new top 40 music station, SoNIC 104.9FM and got to operate the board for a few hours. If you're reading this blog, chances are you won't like the music, just like I don't, but a job is a job. Today, I've been thrown into the fire so to speak, as I've been giving updates on-air for NEWS 1130 from Vancouver's 101st summer fair, the PNE. I think it's gone pretty well, in fact I'm writing this update in between cut-ins. So yeah, I have a cool new job, it's going well, and I'm making inroads to a real career. I'll be starting the world-class Radio Broadcast program at BCIT in a few weeks, and I'm already getting paid to go on-air at a major radio station in one of the three largest media markets in Canada. So life is going well.

Honestly, I do have reservations about being part of the machine. Rogers Communications, who owns the stations I work for, is one of the largest companies in Canada. Moreover, the radio business is cutthroat, and I've already seen collegues of mine get terminated in purely bottom-line decisions. I've made my dissatisfaction with how radio has served music for the last few decades clear in this here blog previously, so there is no need to get into that here. That being said, if I can make a living talking into a microphone about my two greatest passions, music and sports, I think I could live with that. And maybe, just maybe, I can make some changes for the better from the inside. Okay, maybe that's a long shot. Clearly, some day I'm gonna have to set up my own pirate radio station, purely for the love of music. Someone has to play Captain Beyond and Sir Lord Baltimore. Keep on rocking everyone.

Red Fang - Murder The Mountains

Band: Red Fang
Album: Murder The Mountains
Label: Relapse
Year: 2011

Oregon's Red Fang first got my attention a few years back when their LARPing-themed music video for the excellent "Prehistoric Dog"single made the rounds on the internet. The EP which contained that devastating track, as well as an earlier one, were promising releases by a good heavy rock band on their way up, but did not match the awesomeness of their shining moment. Still, it was enough to get them signed to Relapse, and high expectations have followed. With their new full-length Murder the Mountains now available to the world, its time to see if these guys really have what it takes to deliver the goods.

I'm happy to report that Red Fang has ripped out one of the most enjoyable rock records of 2011, tinkering with their basic formula just enough to demonstrate real musical growth while playing to the group's strengths and laying down a pounding assault that does keg stands on your ear drums. They've even been kind enough to make another, equally hilarious music video for their single, the massively overdriven twin-lead guitar collossus "Wired." Working strictly from a palette of exclusively fuzz-guitar abusing 70's van music by way of late 80's and early 90's grunge and alternative rock, Red Fang do not dress their music up with psychedelic flourishes or progressive instrumental pyrotechnics. Everything here sounds lean, hard and powerful. The performances have a live feel to them that sounds as natural as practice pad jam session. It's just that the musicians are good enough and their material interesting enough so as to give a professional polish to the band's rampaging assault.

Although they play up the image of beer guzzling dirtbags in their videos, these guys clearly care about the craft of music. Their tight, well-arranged brand of stoner rock is beyond the grasp of most garden variety pot heads, even if they are too enamoured by a half with some of their influences. In particular, sludge trudges like "Malverde" betray a Melvins influence so obvious that they wouldn't sound out of place on Stoner Witch. More often however, the band's ability to shift tempos and cadences, not to mention building to powerful eruptions of guitar/bass,/drums brings some much-needed variety to their previously vanilla hard rock. When they put the elements together, as on the fucking killer "Dirt Wizard," Red Fang prove themselves to be capable of great things. Now all that remains is for them to further refine their vision.

The record sounds great, and the association with Relapse is notable in that Murder the Mountains sounds as if it had some money backing it. Chris Funk gives the band a slick sheen that retains much of the rawness inherent in their sound, allowing them to be both clear and heavy. Some prospective rock fans might be turned off by what they feel is a radio-friendly mix, but honestly I think Relapse is smart enough to know radio won't touch a band like Red Fang anyways. If their straightforward approach alienates a few metalheads by being a little too 'middle of the road' for some, most music fans who can appreciate a great riff, powerful vocal hook or crushing groove will find much to like here.