recently someone came to me to inquire about apprenticing in metallurgy. however, the first driblet of word vomit out of this aspiring pupil's spout was "tony iommi is not a good guitar player."
...and the curtain was torn in two. anyway, this got my retractable horns all in a twitter. how could anyone have suffered these neophytes before? bearing this in mind, here is my basic primer for metal...or at least how i got into it. it is not recommended for everybody, and assuredly will be exhausting for me to compile and you to peruse. let us begin.
metallica. if there was an alpha, this is it. it is for everyone. you get such a broad overview of what makes metal so enticing, and what could be added to the broth to reach more satisfying and varied results. kill em all, ride the lightning, master of puppets are all undisputed classics...and justice for all (which i dig) is an acquired taste, i guess. what kind of things were missing from metallica? let's explore this in detail.
quality guitar solos = testament
humor = anthrax
good drumming = slayer
harsh vocal stylings = sucks (rescinded...eventually)
tough guy posturing, downtuned guitars, racial parity (st. anger would resolve these as well)
see? you've pretty much got the big four right there. i suppose megadeth should be included somewhere, perhaps under "spent almost entire first album budget on drugs." it's true. dave mustaine was very candid about his self destruction then, and highly repentant about it today. sure dave found god, but this song proves he doesn't exist. did i mention they covered the duke nukem theme? alright, that is kind of awesome i guess.
so now you've listened to metallica, you've probably thought "i don't ever need to hear any other band or style of music ever again. all is false." but the truth is, after ...and justice for all, to borrow a phrase, metallica was no one's friend. if metallica were an ice cream flavor, they'd be pralines...and dick. movie tie-ins? napster saber rattling? pedal steel guitars? talk about a de-rection.
what is the burgeoning metalloid to do? listen to bands that can safely be traced back to metallica, or bear enough semblance to keep some of that sense of abandonment at bay. at any rate, this is how you get into pantera. not because you are legitimately interested in them, but rather you ascribe to the belief that all the rock that was missing from metallica's black album was magically transposed into cowboys from hell. all the grit, passion, and skill from its members were assumed into their texas counterparts' corporeal forms. lars ulrich was not effected.
and pantera used to sound like this. just so we are clear. oh well. cowboys from hell was awesome...just ask this guy, performing the last 15 seconds of cemetery gates where phil actually manages to get on pitch with dimebag's whammy bar siren songs. without the proper accoutrement however, it is sadly lacking. dragon ball z makes everything more metal.
well, that's enough for now. next time we will explore why i didn't start listening to black sabbath before metallica. in the meantime, here is a rockuspective (that's trademarked) of their career.
kill em all:
ride the lightning:
master of puppets:
...and justice for all
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
i really dig how bad the mix is on that version of blackened, it kind of reminds me of blood fire death with that drum sound.
Never liked Metallica. They were too weak for me. And yes, I know it sounds weird to say that when I was fourteen years old, I was already over that to the extent that I was listening to Slayer and Emperor, but it's true.
Post a Comment