As we crash headlong out of January and towards waiting February, it seems odd that a month has already passed since we all sat down to Christmas turkey and ham, and grumbled about the crap presents we had been bought. Now it's a nightmare on credit card street and we're all trying to forget it and move into the new year, already a month old almost, with gruff attempts at good humour and hope. Down in Journaltown things are certainly moving, so let's head on down there for the final time this month.
We're back with
blackdragon123's favourite band
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ackdragon.html, as he looks at the sleeve for
Headless cross
but I have to be honest, I don't know what
Deadchannel is up to. In
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ear-music.html he says he listened to the Velvet Underground debut (as did I, more further on), but there's no review. Then there's something about “Feeding the five thousand”??
Frownland is looking for, and getting, suggestions for albums as he remains
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...wnapilago.html
And if it's recs you want,
Goofle is your man! It's 2001 in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...63-2013-a.html and that means albums from Nas, Unwound and Aesop Rock among others.
Ki, however, is really getting back into it with a will and in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...nal-music.html you'll find music from Iron and Wine, Approaching Nirvana, Jacobs Dream and Judas Priest.
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-song-day.html has Death Grips and Ought
and is anyone in the mood for an Egg? You'll find one in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...i-journal.html, says
Neapolitan
on
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...crap-heap.html Pet_Sounds is talking about another of his favourite Beatles tracks, “Let it be”
and it's acoustic guitar day, apparently, over at
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...listening.html
I've been doing a lot of writing for, and not so much posting to, my journals this week, but I've still managed to throw in a few updates. The Tom Waits discography continues in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...d-journal.html with
Foreign affairs and
Blue Valentine, while completely out of season but needing to be finished, the Scrooge Showdown picks its last finalist in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-emporium.html, with the knockout stages beginning next week. But that's not all: we also have more from
The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy as well as the penultimate episode of
To play the King. Dredd and Johnny Alpha both feature in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...d-2000-ad.html, with the former continuing his battle against Call-Me-Kenneth and his rogue droids and the latter wrapping up his second adventure as he and Wulf take on the space pirates.
After a short break we're back with the list as
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...e-you-die.html and I listen to The Libertines and Ozomatli, while in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ive-metal.html, as mentioned I'm starting off the albums from 1967 that I've chosen to represent the fringes of progressive rock's birthpangs and looking first at the debut from The Velvet Underground. And Nico.
“Red, hot and heavy” from Pretty Maids is at number 25 in
Unknown Soldier's countdown for 1984 and there's a double helping of Queensryche in
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...y-history.html (which will surely make Anteater happy) with two of their albums sharing the number 24 spot. Then if you're afraid of RATTs, watch out! No. 23 is “Out of the cellar”. Quick! Jump up on this table!
For this week's
I'm gonna have to give it to Deadchannel, because this is so weird and I do not understand it, but it certainly drew my attention...
Quote:
Originally Posted by DeadChannel
Heh, about that...
 |
And so to
Rather surprised to realise I've caught up with his current entries so quickly, so this will therefore be the final look at “Pounding Decibels”, as we run through 1983 and into 1984. The former began with the usual intro:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Unknown Soldier
1983
1983 was a natural continuation of 1982 as far as half the scene were concerned, which is fairly logical considering metal’s prominent position as a music genre by this time. Bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Van Halen ruled the metal roost, but they would now be joined by Def Leppard largely thanks to the release of their Pyromania album, which went off in the USA like a nuclear bomb! For those who don’t know it, it not only became one of the biggest selling metal albums of its time, but one of the biggest of the year for any genre! Metal’s success at this time could be attained to several factors 1) Its now lengthy history had a huge amount of quality bands behind it of which many were innovators. 2) Metal usually had quality musicans and vocalists, unlike the dubious minions that roamed punk. 3) Along with AOR bands they were fully capable of functioning as arena rock bands and this would fill out arenas. 4) Bands like Iron Maiden brought quality album artwork to the highest level, as this was an age where artwork sold albums. 5) The NWOBHM demonstrated that the genre could give birth to explosive revolutions from within the genre and still strengthen it even further. 6) They were able to embrace MTV when the opportunity came along. 7) Despite the huge commercialism of the genre in certain areas, it always kept its hardcore fanbase. Now all this largely explains the first half of the metal spectrum as mentioned above. The other half for many would actually be more interesting, because metal had finally branched out from its grass roots which had been laid down by bands such as Venom and Manilla Road to name just two, to start embracing what would become known as the extreme metal genres which would splinter into multiple sub-sections with their own identities. Most grass roots bands would certainly owe a debt to the Metallica debut which came out in 1983 and besides being a classic debut, is probably more important for what it would signify as a statement, to a lesser degree the Slayer debut holds a certain amount of importance as well. Also the slowly growing glam metal movement fronted by band’s like Motley Crue and Twisted Sister would finally hit the big time thanks to another band and that was Quiet Riot, who would turn glam metal into an overnight sensation in 1983 largely due to a Slade cover song. Both Motley Crue and Twisted Sister were better bands than Quiet Riot, but it was very much ‘right place at the right time’ for them. Kiss finally demasked on their Lick it Up album, even though they should’ve done it a year earlier on their Creatures of the Night album, which was a stronger album. Finally Dio relased Holy Diver…………… what more can I say, does it get any better than that? |
And the countdown kicked off with a double-header from Savatage, with both “Sirens” and “The dungeons are calling” at number 20, then Steeler hit the 19 spot with their s/t debut and Kiss removed the makeup and came clean to “Lick it up” at number 18. There was a “Power infusion” from Trance at 17 while Exciter were “Heavy metal maniac” at 16, Raven roared “All for one” at 15 to which Tank responded “This means war!” at 14. The final three in the lower half of the top twenty were then completed by Saxon with “Power and the glory”, Hanoi Rocks with “Back to Mystery City” and at the very top, Dee Snider and Twisted Sister growled “You can't stop rock and roll!” And you can't.
The top ten opened with “Metal health” from Quiet Riot followed by Manila Road's “Crystal logic”, then the number 8 spot went to Manowar with “Into glory ride” and Slayer's “Show no mercy” was at number 7. Sixth place went to Accept with “Restless and wild” and the top five then kicked off with Motley Crue's “Shout at the devil”, followed by Def Leppard with “Pyromania.” The top three then featured three stone-cold classics, with “Kill 'em all” from Metallica at three, Dio's “Holy diver” at two and Maiden's “Piece of mind” taking the top slot.
“Down on the slab” then featured Sabbath's cringeworthy “Born again”, and to fill in the time between now and his 1984 coverage Unknown Soldier started looking at NWOBHM compilations such as “'79 revisited” and all four “Metal massacre” compilations. Also “Court in the act” by Satan and “Deliver us” from Warlord. That took us into 1984, but as he's currently working on that as I write, I'm going to finish my coverage here and just add that this journal deservedly won the award for best journal two years running, and is probably likely to make that a triple in 2015. If you have not yet read it, and have even a passing interest in hard rock, heavy metal and the history of same, then start your journey now. You'll be glad you did.
Next week I'll be starting on a totally new classic journal, and it comes from this guy
It's been superceded by his current journals, but I want to take a look back to 2009 when, two years before I exploded onto the journals scene (!) this man was beginning a journal he called
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...s-obscure.html
It looks like it only lasted about seven months, but he covered some pretty interesting stuff in it, and then began another, and another, and another .... now where have we heard that before?
So stay tuned! Anteater's first journal comes under the microscope from next week.
And that's it for this week. Don't forget to keep voting for your favourite Star Trek episodes and stay tuned for lots of more exciting news coming up.
Till next week
Toodles!