Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier · 12-26-2013, 08:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Urban Hat€monger ?

To be fair though you look at Michael Schenker and you think to yourself, well he probably deserved it anyway.
I agree Pete Way was a total badass, I hope some day his re-appraisal will come and he'll be up there with people like Keith Moon, Ozzy, Iggy & other nutcases. If anyone deserves an autobiography it's him.

The problem is that he's not a household name like either Keith or Iggy and therefore his infamous exploits are limited to just fans of this kind of music, but sure he deserves an autobiography. I also remember seeing a vid on YouTube a couple of years back where Joe Elliot of Def Leppard speaks about UFO and Pete Way, sadly I can't find the video again otherwise I'd put it here.

Unknown Soldier · 12-26-2013, 08:25 AM

Hard, Heavy and Worth a Mention 1979

Blackfoot Strikes 1979 (Atco)
Southern Rock

A southern attack with a blustery wind.

Blackfoot were probably the heaviest of all the better known southern rock bands and like Molly Hatchet before them are well worth a mention in this journal. Also seemingly like almost every southern rock band they hailed from Jacksonville Florida so their credentials from the word go were spot on. But what made Blackfoot unique and the clue was surely in the band’s name, was that they were a wholly Native American rock band that were fronted by guitarist/vocalist and principal composer Rickey Medlocke. Unlike some of their fellow southern rock bands, Blackfoot were somewhat economical with the amount of musicians in the band and opted for the standard four man set-up. Blackfoot as a band had been touring for about a decade by the time 1979 arrived and had previously released two average sounding albums in No Reservation 1975 and Flyin’ High 1976, but it was with the release of their third album the serpent covered inspired Strikes that they made their breakthrough, with the album cracking the US top 50 album chart. Strikes as an album always struck me as being one of the stronger southern rock albums around this time that I’m aware of (as said on the Molly Hatchet review, my knowledge of southern rock is far from great) The album is heavy and consistent throughout and the band’s decision to include three cover songs in a ten track album was always going to be risky, but the three song covers of “I Got a Line on You” by Spirit “Pay My Dues” by Blues Image and the well known “Wishing Well” by Free are all well executed and actually enhance the album, especially the Free cover. The original cuts on the album are strong as well and are highlighted with songs like the album opener “Road Fever” which is hard rock pure southern style and songs like the hit single “Train, Train” but the highlight of the album is surely the album closer the dynamic sounding “Highway Song” an epic 7 minute track which harks right back to the band's 60s and 70s roots. It's a spectacular piece of music and on listening to it, the band's influences are as clear as day and include the Animals, Jefferson Airplane and Fleetwood Mac who can all be heard here amongst others.

Rickey Medlocke- Guitar/Vocals
Charlie Hargrett- Guitar
Greg T.Walker- Keyboards/Bass
Kackson Spires- Drums

Production- Al Nalli and Henry Weck

The Batlord · 12-26-2013, 04:13 PM

I know that since you're not covering demos, for obvious reasons, but I've just been checking out some of Pentagram's, who never had an actual album till '85, early demos and singles and I think they deserve some kind of mention before you get to the 80's. They sounded fantastic even then.

Unknown Soldier · 12-27-2013, 08:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord

I know that since you're not covering demos, for obvious reasons, but I've just been checking out some of Pentagram's, who never had an actual album till '85, early demos and singles and I think they deserve some kind of mention before you get to the 80's. They sounded fantastic even then.

I agree that 1985 is too long to wait for Pentagram and will find some way to include them in an earlier 1980s section.

Unknown Soldier · 12-28-2013, 06:19 PM

The Batlord recently suggested that I put a 'best of' list to finish the decade, I'd already thought of this myself previously and therefore have quickly put together two lists of the best 12 albums from 1969 to 1979 to close the decade. The albums selected are only albums that actually made the Top 10 lists and no extras.

List 1: This is pretty much the objective list and the expected one. All these albums are there for their reputation, influence, impact and overall brilliance, and in my opinion offer the cream of the first decade of hard rock and heavy metal. It was hard enough to select 12 albums here without then trying to put them in some sort of order, so I've put them in a chronological order for a quick listening list.

List 2: My own personal desert island selection from the bunch, these are albums that I personally love and can go nuts over, some are flawed but they pump where it really matters and all offer me something different.

List 1
Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin II 1969
Black Sabbath Paranoid 1970
Black Sabbath Master of Reality 1971
Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin IV 1971
Deep Purple Machine Head 1972
Black Sabbath Sabbath Bloody Sabbath 1973
BOC Secret Treaties 1974
Aerosmith Rocks 1976
UFO Lights Out 1977
Judas Priest Stained Class 1978
Scorpions Lovedrive 1979
ACDC Highway to Hell 1979

List 2
Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin I 1969
Sir Lord Baltimore Kingdom Come 1970
Trapeze Medusa 1970
Stray Suicide 1971
Flower Travellin Band Satori 1971
Hard Stuff Bulletproof 1972
Night Sun Mournin' 1972
Black Sabbath Vol.4 1972
BOC Tyranny and Mutation 1973
Alice Cooper Welcome to My Nightmare 1975
Scorpions Taken By Force 1978
Ace Frehley Ace Frehley 1978

William_the_Bloody · 12-28-2013, 07:39 PM

Just gotta say that this is an AWESOME thread, probably the best on music banter at the moment but...and here comes the but, lol.

I'm feeling a bit sore about the lack of Bon Scott AC/DC in your top ten. Of course Black Sabbath are the godfathers of metal, but Bon Scott's AC/DC was the better band in my opinion.

Unknown Soldier · 12-29-2013, 07:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by William_the_Bloody

Just gotta say that this is an AWESOME thread, probably the best on music banter at the moment but...and here comes the but, lol.

I'm feeling a bit sore about the lack of Bon Scott AC/DC in your top ten. Of course Black Sabbath are the godfathers of metal, but Bon Scott's AC/DC was the better band in my opinion.

Given that most AC/DC fans are pretty hardcore and love the honest one-dimensional sound of the band I can see why they would think that. Personally I never ever warmed to them really, but have recognized Let There Be Rock, Powerage and Highway to Hell as great albums (all three reviewed) as is the live If You Want Blood You've Got it.

Unknown Soldier · 12-29-2013, 07:32 AM

To close the year just some fun stats quickly done by me. I gave every album in my top ten points. For example 10th spot=1 point and 1st spot= 10 points to work out the best and most consistent band. Of course some bands folded in the decade and others came late in the decade, but the top 10 came out like this and in this order. It paints a rough picture and I wouldn't argue with the top two, who only went on a drastic slide with their final two albums of the decade:

Led Zeppelin
Black Sabbath
Thin Lizzy
BOC
UFO
Aerosmith
Judas Priest
Nazareth
Alice Cooper
Budgie

........and in entries accumulated by country in the top 10:

UK= 63
USA= 37
Australia= 5
Ireland= 5
Germany= 4
Canada= 3
Japan= 3

Unknown Soldier · 12-30-2013, 07:03 AM

Format Change

In order to make the journal more focused and also to incorporate the ever increasing amount of quality albums that arrived from 1980 onwards. I’ve now decided to streamline the existing ‘Top 10’ reviews by doing away with the middle ‘album’ section and in its place creating a larger 'verdict' section (as I talk about most of the songs in this verdict section anyway) Also I’ll be doing away with the “Also check this out….” “Albums that missed the cut…..” and the “Live Album” sections as well and now incorporating them in a new list from 11-20. So from now on there will be a ‘Top 20’ list for each year, of which all the albums 20-11 will be in a mini-review format and albums 10-1 will be larger expanded reviews similar to before. There will also be one final new section based on my contentious album pick of the year (still working on a name) which as the name suggests, I’ll be picking an album that I don’t see eye to eye with when it comes to reviewers or even with just plain public opinion (so it could either be good or bad) or even an album that is just plain terrible and should never have been released! Finally I may end each year with some additional footnotes or comments as well. All in all the yearly reviews should be tighter and with a greater overall focus as well.

Unknown Soldier · 01-01-2014, 06:34 AM

1980

1980 was one mother of a year and without doubt possibly the most important in the history of heavy metal. It was quite simply a watershed of a year and the quality of overall releases was simply astounding especially by newish artists. Hard rock and heavy metal had constantly given us quality bands over the previous decade, but far too many of these bands had fallen by the wayside, largely due to the fact that their record labels had had no idea on how to market them. American labels had been without doubt the worst culprits here and had killed a number of talented acts stateside, a situation which would knock the American scene back several years behind its UK rival. So to fully understand the impact that heavy metal had back in 1980, an overview of the music scene in general is worth looking at. The UK scene was dominated by punk bands that had evolved into post-punk and new-wave acts. Schoolkids were into the growing Ska movement and the in-crowd were listening to the bands that would make up the New Romantic grouping of bands, as bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and even newer acts like UFO and Budgie etc were now old hat. Stateside the word ‘safe’ was the watchword, as established artists or new artists that had an established sound were still the dominant forces, as long as they played a cultured mid-tempo rock sound and even giants such as Aerosmith, Kiss and the Blue Oyster Cult were now playing ball, despite all being past their best at this stage. In fact a number of offbeat American acts had to score first in the UK, before making a breakthrough back in the US, so where did this leave hard rock and heavy metal? Firstly all credit to Judas Priest, AC/DC and the Scorpions three artists that all kept the flag flying and were at the height of their powers and without them I’m not sure we would have had this explosion in 1980. Secondly certain other bands especially in the UK such as Motorhead and Thin Lizzy, were deemed as being cool and provided a strong link to the punk fanbase. In the case of Motorhead the punk link was fairly obvious, but in Thin Lizzy’s case the poetic and iconic Phil Lynott was the key, which meant that hard rock and heavy metal had a viable link to what was fashionable circa 1979-1980. Thirdly 1980 would also further the box-labelling of bands even more, as from now on most bands that would’ve been classified as hard rock would now get a heavy metal label! So with all this in mind, the UK was a hotbed for some kind of heavy metal explosion but I’m sure nobody quite expected it to be as big and have the impact that it would over the ensuing years. Also apart from the new heavy metal explosion in the UK, major established artists such as Judas Priest, AC/DC and Black Sabbath had no trouble making this year’s elite top 10 list, a fact that was amazing considering that AC/DC had just lost the iconic Bon Scott and Black Sabbath had pulled themselves from the bowels of despair with the arrival of Dio. Finally all was not lost stateside, as Van Halen were selling by the million and showed us that glamour metal was the way forward there, which in turn would see the USA undergoing their own metal revolution in just a few years. But the revolution of 1980 was really just about one country and one movement and that is explained below......

The New Wave of British Heavy Metal

The New Wave of British Heavy Metal (from now on referred to by its official abbreviation NWOBHM which of course saves me writing it out everytime) was the first movement to fully encompass all the existing hard rock and heavy metal genres and in many ways it was the second wave of influential Bristish bands, to follow on from the pioneering giants of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, along with all the other numerous and influential bands that popped up throughout the 1970s. In fact as said above, without the likes of Judas Priest, Motorhead and AC/DC (who were British based of course) it probably wouldn’t have been possible. The NWOBHM is often compared to the earlier punk movement of 1976-1977 and apart from certain similaries such as Paul D’Anno’s singing style and some metal bands adopting a punk–infected garage style. The two styles actually shared very little musically, but what they both did have hugely in common was the ability to attract outsiders, put out an an aggressive sound and most importantly the “do-it-yourself ethos” that both movements adopted, as opposed to the established order of the day. Both movements also had an emphasis on singles and EP’s largely due to budget restrictions that both movements initially faced. The NWOBHM itself would largely be about new bands re-establishing the roots of the bands, music and styles that they loved and had inspired them in the first place to form a band. Black Sabbath often get huge amounts of credit for being a big influence on the NWOBHM largely due to being satan-derived traditionalists and of course laying down every riff and tempo essential to metal, but in my opinion they were probably no more influential on the NWOBHM than the other ten or so other bands that often get mentioned as big influences as well. In fact I’d say Led Zeppelin were probably the single biggest influence on the NWOBHM and Black Sabbath’s turn would actually come later with the birth of the darker extreme metal genres just around the corner. So apart from these two monoliths, bands like Deep Purple, Nazareth, Budgie, Uriah Heep, UFO (where I remember some time ago Joe Elliot of Def Leppard on video saying just how influential they were on him and Def Leppard) AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, Rainbow, Scorpions and Motohead, but probably the most relevant of them all circa 1979-1980 was the flashy and visual metal style of Judas Priest the purest metal link between Black Sabbath and the NWOBHM. Apart from these expected bands just mentioned, a large number of progressive rock artists were also influential on the scene, as were those from the glam rock scene of the early to mid 1970s as well and every band seemed to have their more favoured angles as well, while others were just grouped as NWOBHM. In fact an avid listener could listen to say around 20 or so NWOBHM albums from 1980 and 1981 and hear most of the above influences across these albums, on some its hughly noticeable whilst on others not really at all and needs to be detected. It should also be noted that depite the expected aggression, loudness and speed of some of the bands in the NWOBHM the movement itself was often extremely melodic as well. Certain bands would show us despite their heaviness that they could be melodic as well hence harking back to the likes of UFO and Thin Lizzy for example, so sure the bands were heavy for their time, but melody certainly prevailed for those that were able to master it. Most bands though adopted a tougher overall sound and uptempo songs, along with soaring vocals and of course the maintanence of guitar solos kept their level of reverence as a metal band. Equally important to all of this, were the subject matter of the songs, which often revolved around fantasy and mythology themes along with darker horror and satanical themes for some bands. The fantasy aspect etc though, wasn’t exactly new as Rainbow had already fully established fantasy themes in metal a few years earlier to an amazing level, but now these themes would be more prominent than ever before. Album covers would also form the dominant image of the movement and could well make or break a band commercially and this was one of the areas where a band like Iron Maiden went to the top of the class from day one. Like punk before it, most bands adopted a universal image that of course had already been ushered in by the likes of Motorhead, Thin Lizzy and to its extreme level with Judas Priest, and from this moment on denim and leather would forever be linked with a tough metal sound and image. Finally the NWOBHM didn’t just appear in 1980 (well it almost did) and as I’ve already noted earlier in this journal, a number of bands as far afield as both France and Japan had already adopted a grassroots approach to metal that actually sounded akin to the British bands. These bands along with a number of other new British artists of the NWOBHM persuasion in 1979 such as Samson and Saxon, had released patchy debuts but were still albums that came strictly under the NWOBHM banner. So through either design or chance nearly all new band debuts would come out in 1980 (others missed out largely because they never had the finances for a debut that year) So from 1980 onwards, metal would now attain a new level of excellence that had been previously unsurpassed and now gave us a hotbed of creative fertility probably unrivalled in the annals of metal.

12-28-2013, 07:39 PM	#456 (permalink)
William_the_Bloody Music Addict Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: Sunnydale Cemetary Posts: 2,093	Just gotta say that this is an AWESOME thread, probably the best on music banter at the moment but...and here comes the but, lol. I'm feeling a bit sore about the lack of Bon Scott AC/DC in your top ten. Of course Black Sabbath are the godfathers of metal, but Bon Scott's AC/DC was the better band in my opinion.