Metal Monday #8

The past couple of days have really flown by, to the extent that they feel surrealistic in retrospect. That's the only way I can explain it. Once you get involved in mass toking sessions you can expect any concept of time and scheduling to disappear. It is the unfortunate truth and it is the main reason (besides dying for a few days after a houseparty) that this wasn't updated at its correct time. Fear not, however, as here it is in its full glory, albeit a little on the late side. I hope you enjoy the tracks.

First up is a real treat by one of the 'big four' of thrash metal, Megadeth. Fascinatingly, the song to be featured is as equally about the Northern Irish troubles as it is about the popular comic book antihero The Punisher. Of course, the track I'm referring to is Holy Wars... The Punishment Due, a song whose origin is to some extent blurred. Although Megadeth founder, vocalist and rhythm guitarist, Dave Mustaine, has stated in an interview with Guitarist magazine that the story behind the song was that during an Ulster Hall show he noticed bootleg Megadeth t-shirts on sale but was persuaded not to remove them as they were helping 'The Cause', there are discrepancies regarding what transpired after this action. In spite of these differing accounts, the most widely accepted report is that for some reason only known to himself, Mustaine shouted something along the lines of "give Ireland back to the Irish." Given the sensitive climate of Northern Ireland at this point in time, it is no surprise that both Mustaine and the rest of his band had to leave in a bulletproof bus. It was after this show that Mustaine decided to write about the Holy Wars of this country. The song itself is one of my favourite Megadeth tracks due in large part to its relentlessness and overall structure. It is one of the few tracks from this era to really captures the essence of thrash metal and although it isn't their most popular track, few songs get a crowd going as much as this one.

Megadeth - Holy Wars... The Punishment Due

The next track to be posted is a heavy one: Feed The Gods by White Zombie. Of all the places and all the things to introduce me to this track, it had to be one of my least favourite films, Airheads. It is difficult to express exactly how much I hate this film. As a kid, I'd heard a lot of good things about it from numerous different reputable sources (or at least sources I considered reputable at the time) but when I watched it I don't think I've ever cringed so badly throughout an entire film in the manner I did with it. There was one good thing to come from it though, this track. Surprisingly, White Zombie actually recorded Feed The Gods for the soundtrack of Airheads and can actually be seen playing it at Whiskey a Go Go during the film, so I suppose technically if I hadn't seen this film, there's a good chance I wouldn't have heard the song in the first place. Don't underestimate me when I say that this one is heavy. It is really heavy, which is exactly what you should expect from a White Zombie track. Herein lies a problem though; it can be quite a burdensome track to write anything constructive about. The only thing that really comes to mind is a significant emphasis placed on conveying an overarching sense of brutality. The drums come crashing down hard from the outset, the distortive effects placed on the guitar provide a necessary blueprint of savageness and Rob Zombie bellows above it all on a borderline incomprehensible scale.

White Zombie - Feed The Gods

The middle track to be posted today is more for nostalgic purposes than anything else. It is The Blood, The Sweat, The Tears by Machine Head. It is at around this point that you're probably wondering where this sense of nostalgia stems from, considering they still release albums on a regular basis and play at an international level pretty frequently. Unfortunately these days I hardly ever get around to listening to Machine Head anymore. They will still get a look in every now and then but it is becoming less and less frequent in recent times. Although some people lumped them into the nu metal bracket, I don't really agree. Whilst there is little doubt that they burst onto the scene when this subgenre was at exploding point, they ticked all the right boxes for a decent thrash metal band and could even be considered part of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal. The song to be posted today, The Blood, The Sweat, The Tears serves as a nice little reminder of a bygone era. It was just one of those tracks that absolutely everyone was listening to when it came out. The vocals were intimidating but not in the same way that the vocals in Emperor or Immortal are. There is definitely crossover appeal because while it is undoubtedly a heavy track, the vocals don't intrude too heavily and the riff is simple yet extremely effective.

Machine Head - The Blood, The Sweat, The Tears.

The fourth track to be posted is by a band I quite honestly haven't properly listening to in years: Kreator. Unless you're truly into your metal, its unlikely you know of these guys. Alongside Overkill, I would consider them one of the most underappreciated thrash metal bands out there. Like Destruction and Sodom, they are credited with helping to create the Death Metal genre by containing certain elements that later became a staple of that genre. This aspect alone should pique your interest. The song I have chosen to go with for this post is an old favourite of mine, Slave Machinery. I don't know what I like most about this track but what I do know is that its a toss up between the consistently balanced drum licks and the skullcrushingly vicious guitar riffs. The drums are so stereotypically metal its not even funny, keeping the flow but preserving a rough but diverse parimeter. Though I'll be the first to admit that the vocalist of Kreator, Miland 'Mille' Petrozza can be a little grating at times, he is the type of metal vocalist you get used to after a prolonged period of listening. Slave Machinery combines each of these aspects to create one of their overall better tracks.

Kreator - Slave Machinery

Lastly I've decided to go with something a little bit different, Bulls On Parade by Rage Against The Machine. I know what you're thinking, what a clichéd track. I partially agree. There is no doubt that Bulls On Parade has been played out, but no more so than Guerrilla Radio, Bombtrack or Killing In The Name Of. The reason I've chosen Bulls On Parade is because out of all the Rage Against The Machine albums, I feel Evil Empire gets the least amount of recognition and I have no idea why. For me, each of the albums are up there as some of the best released by a modern rock group, yet for some reason Evil Empire always seems to get neglected when people talk of the band. Admittedly, the album has a very different approach, concentrating primarily on bass riffage and seemingly building the tracks around it. Aside from this, the political messages are the same and it is musically tight throughout. Bulls On Parade is a good example of this factor because while some could dismiss its simplistic approach, its riff is such a hardhitting one that it is a difficult song not to nod along to. While I wouldn't necessarily say its their best (what is?), it is a nice little reminder of the overall competence and songwriting ability of the band.

Rage Against The Machine - Bulls On Parade

Metal Monday #6

The first song in discussion this week will be our first live track, usually id try and avoid live material as the recording quality is never really up to scratch and the band never really sounds as perfected as they do on the studio, however this track is a testament to how brilliantly such a well rounded band can perform under live circumstances. The band is Vanden Plas and the song is the opening track on their Spirit of live album. The track opens with a the crowds chanting the group's name and the listener is instantly transported into the crowd, a nice touch by the producers. The track is very much a perfect sample of what you are going to hear from the rest of the album, tracks from the 4 albums preceding the recording. Andy Kuntz delivers a memorable performance during the track especially during when delivering the higher and more harmonized notes which seem to always compliment Stephan Lill's guitar work throughout the track.

Vanden Plas - I Can See (live)


This track is slightly different in that it is not technically metal, but hip-hop. The track, Awaiting the Hour, heavily samples Slayers Rainning Blood and the name has clearly been taken from the lyric within the song "awaiting the hour of reprisal". The song hails from Ill Bills 2007 mixtape Black Metal and is very typical of the artist, featuring heavy hitting lyrics that justify the heavy riffs playing over them. The name of the song and the lyrics they were derived from were later re-used as Ill Bills second studio album "The Hour of Reprisal", also featuring heavy metal orientated tracks such as War is my Destiny, i haven't went into too much detail on ill bill here so i can do a profile of him sometime in the future, for now enjoy the track.

Ill Bill - Awaiting the Hour


The next track I want to talk about is Megadeth's Insomnia. To most people it almost seems to be an accepted realism that a band older work usually seems to be better and their new work is unlistenable, Metallica being a prime example, another being Dragonforce, however a few artists do seem to mature as they get older and have not only listenable albums, but albums that destroy previous endeavors, The Beatles, Jurassic 5, Common and Savatage being just a few examples. I am not going to state that Megadeth's later albums are perceivably better than their earlier work, however I still find their later work pretty damn good and very listenable, especially when you consider Megadeth's long time rivals pitiful attempts at making music. Insomnia come from the groups 1999 album Risk, which was a critical and commercial failure, with fans complaining about the lack of metal, however I feel that Insomnia really stood as a testament to the group and to what the album was trying to do, even if it was slightly experimental. The band would return to form with later albums which provided touring grounds for the band especially after their brief breakup in 2002-2004. Insomnia has a seeming organic flow to it which seems to stem from the violins that are heard backing the track throughout. I really enjoyed this track from this ill fated album, so I urge you to give it a chance.

Megadeth - Insomnia


Next I want to talk about Tool's memorable song Hooker with a Penis. I was first introduced to this song (and the band) through a cousin of mine, being a big tool fan he naturally wanted to spread the word about the group, I listened, I enjoyed and I wanted more. The song is from their critically acclaimed album Ænima and after hearing it I was satisfied. I felt it was a very accessible album and still do, especially compared to a slightly more conceptual Lateralus. The song was one I ended up listening to a lot over the years and was probably one of the key songs that got me interested in the progressive metal genre, even if I didn’t consciously link the two at the time. The song is very typical of the time it was written in and of Tool themselves, containing slightly irregular drum patterns that a few bands seemed to be experimenting with at the time and also containing Keenan's signature vocal style dominating the track and almost sounding like an instrument itself due to the aggressive tone and meticulous timing of his words.

Tool - Hooker with a Penis


The last track is another entry from Dream Theater, a band who seem to, unsurprisingly, keep making appearances in our list of featured artists. This track I want to talk about is The Mirror from their 1994 album Awake. The song is a lot heavier than the majority of the band's songs and heavily leans towards the thrash metal genre that they would explore further in later albums which I personally felt came full circle within Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, most attempts at the heavier Prog Metal just didn’t seem to work out for the band which Train of Thought seemed to prove, this doesn’t however mean that all albums after Six Degrees were bad, with Octavarium providing some great tracks. The mirror opens with a very distinctive riff that carries though as a theme of sorts to the song, running and appearing throughout it. LaBrie's vocal work seems to work here better than it does in the groups later attempts at the heavier genre, mainly because he's signing more naturally and seemingly passionately. This brings me onto some of the bands later work, specifically Systematic Chaos, were LaBrie seems to drown out the instrumentals on the albums (which just don’t seem loud enough), and he sounds like he's just reading the lyrics off the page, putting no passion into the words he's singing, therefore creating no story or musical flow for the music to follow with Petrucci just masturbating on the guitar in the background for the sole reason that he can. The Mirror is a prime example of when Dream Theater were an American muscle car speeding down the highway in what can only be described as progressive beauty. LaBrie balances his "metal" vocals well in this track and doesn’t go overboard on trying to tackle a genre he clearly can't, which as described above, he later goes on to do. The track also features exquisite work from Kevin Moore, from what would be his last album with Dream Theater. I personally think that Moore was one of the best things to happen to the band, Sherinian would prove to be an admirable follow up in the albums he was featured in, as for Rudess, I feel he was Dream Theater's Night of the Long Knives. Enjoy the track.

Bonus Track: Ok, so I've had this song in my library for a long time, a good few years ago it was put onto a compilation cd that I'd listen to in school and I thought it sounded very familiar, then I listened to The Mirror again and I thought they sounded similar, after some time I actually sat down and compared the two tracks and I founded that they sounded almost exactly the same. The song in question is Darkane's "Chaos vs Order". I am almost certain that Darkane just flat out stole this song from Dream Theater, they open the same way and have pretty much the exact same song structures with all the same instruments appearing at the same times and so on, I'm not sure if anyone has actually looked into this but I feel it they are way too familiar to be a coincidence, have a listen and see what you think.

Dream Theater - The Mirror
Darkane - Chaos Vs Order