Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

William_the_Bloody · 10-09-2015, 03:38 PM

Wow! You must be one hardcore Celtic Frost fan!

I thought they were allright, but on this side of the Atlantic know one really gave two squirts and a piss about them, is this a European thing???

Anyways still a good journal, keep on rockin, cheers.

Unknown Soldier · 10-10-2015, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by William_the_Bloody

Wow! You must be one hardcore Celtic Frost fan!

I thought they were allright, but on this side of the Atlantic know one really gave two squirts and a piss about them, is this a European thing???

Anyways still a good journal, keep on rockin, cheers.

Most of the Celtic Frost fans on this forum have been American as far as I know.

I certainly think they're highly rated in the UK but it's on the European mainland where there fanbase is at its strongest as far as I know. What's special about Celtic Frost was their ability to constantly set the yardstick for extreme European metal, because I think without them we may never have had top quality extreme metal bands from countries like Norway, Sweden and Finalnd etc.

William_the_Bloody · 10-10-2015, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unknown Soldier

Most of the Celtic Frost fans on this forum have been American as far as I know.

I certainly think they're highly rated in the UK but it's on the European mainland where there fanbase is at its strongest as far as I know. What's special about Celtic Frost was their ability to constantly set the yardstick for extreme European metal, because I think without them we may never have had top quality extreme metal bands from countries like Norway, Sweden and Finalnd etc.

I see, they were influential in the same way Bathory was. That makes sense then. I don't know how long you plan to do this but it will be interesting if you ever get to the 2000's. I like the general sound of a lot of the pagan & Viking black metal bands, but can rarely find a stand out quality song, so hope you list a few.

Unknown Soldier · 10-11-2015, 12:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by William_the_Bloody

I see, they were influential in the same way Bathory was. That makes sense then. I don't know how long you plan to do this but it will be interesting if you ever get to the 2000's. I like the general sound of a lot of the pagan & Viking black metal bands, but can rarely find a stand out quality song, so hope you list a few.

If I ever manage to reach the 2000's I sure as hell need to streamline my entries and change the format as it's going very slowly, I usually do a format change every so often anyway.

Black metal is not something I'm really into, but I probably will get into it a lot more as this journal progresses.

The Batlord · 10-11-2015, 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by William_the_Bloody

I see, they were influential in the same way Bathory was. That makes sense then. I don't know how long you plan to do this but it will be interesting if you ever get to the 2000's. I like the general sound of a lot of the pagan & Viking black metal bands, but can rarely find a stand out quality song, so hope you list a few.

As far as I've ever heard, Celtic Frost were as influential to Norwegian black metal as Bathory. The influence might not be as obvious, but CF were kind of a landmark band.

Unknown Soldier · 10-16-2015, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

As far as I've ever heard, Celtic Frost were as influential to Norwegian black metal as Bathory. The influence might not be as obvious, but CF were kind of a landmark band.

For a band that were extremely influential on black metal, Celtic Frost especially on To Mega Therion were very much like a thrash metal band in terms of sound.

The Batlord · 10-16-2015, 12:24 PM

I never thought they sounded much like thrash. More like Motorhead crossed with doom metal.

Unknown Soldier · 10-16-2015, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

I never thought they sounded much like thrash. More like Motorhead crossed with doom metal.

Well that is one way to classify them.

Unknown Soldier · 10-22-2015, 01:53 PM

Pentagram Pentagram 1985 (Pentagram)
Doom Metal

Why are we not the chosen ones?
(Album cover is from the Relentless release 1993)

Verdict
When referring to pioneers of heavy metal, Virginia based band Pentagram surely qualify as one of these true pioneers of the genre. Formed way back in the early 1970s Pentagram with their classic Black Sabbath inspired doom sound, were of the same generation as other American metal bands of the 1970s like Sir Lord Baltimore and Bang, along with some of the bands that I've featured 'In the Shadow of Sabbath' section (see reviews) Unlike these bands though Pentagram never issued any albums throughout the 1970s, but what they did manage to do was to keep the band intact despite constant line-up and name changes throughout this turbulent period, whilst the former rival bands had mostly folded. The longevity of the band can quite simply be attributed to vocalist and principal songwriter Bobby Liebling who has been the constant mainstay of the band, much like what Dave Brock has meant to Hawkwind for example. The band finally released that long awaited debut album in 1985 with an eponymous Pentagram title that would later be changed to Relentless (for a future release) and the album is largely based on the band's 1982 demo All Our Sins under the name of Death Row the then name of the band. The strength of Pentagram as a band, is their ability to infuse an addictive listening edge into their material and the opening track on this album "Relentless" has that in spades and if you add in the Ozzy style vocals of Bobby Liebling and the fuzzy guitar tones the mix is a winner. Some tracks are extremely melodic like "Sign of the Wolf" which kind of avoids the typical doom trappings that ther genre would become known for and other tracks like "Dying World" really rock out. Despite some differences with the album material what all these songs do have in common though, is their ability to constantly lean on the doom meanderings of Black Sabbath throughout and are also enhanced with a solid fuzzy guitar sound. For all its accolades there are several noticeable negatives to the album and these are largely shaped around the fact that the bulk of he material comes from the 1970s and early 1980s, giving the album a dated sound by 1985 metal standards, making the album feel like something that came out half a decade earlier. Bobby Liebling despite being the life and soul of the outfit is not a great vocalist but he does manage to pull off an Ozzy saunter, and for me around his period he very much sounds like one of the weaker NWOBHM vocalists that graced a number of bands from that genre. In fact the Pentagram debut album would not be of place as one of the doom represenatives of the NWOBHM, as they have much in common with bands like Witchfinder General amongst others, than they do with the burgeoning doom metal sound of American bands like Trouble. Another low point for some are are the low-key production values of the album, but for me this underground feel actually does grab me as it should and it's probably the best thing about the whole album. Overall this album is seen as a cult classic by many and despite admiring some of its finer points the album has never really grabbed me as it should do. The Pentagram debut would come out around the time of the Saint Vitus debut and both bands would be seen as forming important pillars of the American doom metal movement.

Unknown Soldier · 11-02-2015, 04:57 AM

The Live Album Section 1985

Iron Miaden Live After Death 1985 (EMI)

When you’re the biggest heavy metal band in the world, it makes sense to then go out and record a live double album and that is exactly what Iron Maiden did in 1985. Live After Death would be a whopping almost two hours long and would be garnered from the band’s highly touted ‘World Slavery Tour’ which the band had undertaken after their acclaimed Powerslave album had rocked the top of metaldon. The tour would also be one of the longest and most extensive undertaken by a rock band, which in turn gave the band little chance of recording a studio album in 1985. The sets for the tour would be lavished with the Powerslave theme, which would be Egyptian sarcophagi and hieroglyphs and the sections for the live album would be taken from the Long Beach and Hammersmith Odeon legs of the tour. The album is noted for avoiding overdubs that were often be used on a number of live albums and bassist Steve Harris stated that the band were strongly against this from the beginning anyway and were dedicated to putting out a completely and truly live experience. Side by side with the album a live video of the experience was also recorded by director Jim Yukich and would include 14 tracks. After the opening ‘Churchill’s Speech’ and the customary “Aces High” the first half of the album is dominated by tracks from both the Powerslave and Piece of Mind albums. The second half of the album would be dominated by The Number of the Beast and the Paul D’Anno era albums Iron Maiden and Killers. As always with live albums there is some debate over the choice of material but for me the choices are pretty good and mostly obvious. Some negative reviews of the album complain about Bruce Dickinson’s voice as being off on a couple of tracks but personally I think he does ok here, especially on the Paul D’Anno tracks, which was always going to be a contention anyway between Paul v Bruce lovers of the band. Kerrang! would describe the album as being ‘The nearest that any person could get to being on an Iron Maiden world tour without actually leaving town’ and the album would be regarded as one of the great live albums of the decade. The 1970s may well have been the era of the live album but throughout the 1980s monster live albums like Live After Death would still continue to enhance the live genre.

Bruce Dickinson- Vocals
Dave Murray- Guitar
Adrian Smith- Guitar
Steve Harris- Bass
Nicko McBain- Drums

Production- Martin Birch
Long Beach 1985
Hammersmith Odeon 1985

10-09-2015, 03:38 PM	#1001 (permalink)
William_the_Bloody Music Addict Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: Sunnydale Cemetary Posts: 2,093	Wow! You must be one hardcore Celtic Frost fan! I thought they were allright, but on this side of the Atlantic know one really gave two squirts and a piss about them, is this a European thing??? Anyways still a good journal, keep on rockin, cheers.