Stu Presents: The Golden Age Of Metal!

[StuSmallz]

No, I'm not starting (yet) another project here that I'm going to leave half-finished, since I'm actually almost completely finished with it elsewhere, so I'm re-posting here just to share this goodness with you guys here (although I am planning on this version of the project that I present here to be an abbreviated one, so if you want to read the full one later on, just go check it out on the site ("Global Domination Is Dead"). As for what it's about, that would be Heavy Metal, the style of music that’s my far-and-away favorite, and has partially defined my life for decades now, so long has the love for it been with me. But, before we get to the meat of this project, first I suppose I should explain what it’s about exactly; put simply, this will be an entry-by-entry discussion of at least five trailblazing, defining metal records year-by-year from a decade-long period I’m going to define as the Golden Age of Metal (duh), with (almost) all of it written by your's truly, and with less effort put towards my own personal preferences for certain records (although of course, my own biases will play some sort of role here), and more of an eye on placing important, genre-defining metal records in their larger historical context.

But, as for what exactly the Golden Age of Metal is, there’s still currently no “official”, scholarly definition of it, at least, not one you can find on Wikipedia, Arbiter of All Online Truths; every attempt I’ve made searching online for the term “Golden Age of Heavy Metal” has only lead me to random articles and blog entries on the subject, all of which define it differently. But, speaking personally, while I’m certainly not any kind of expert on the roots of the genre, to put it in terms we can all understand, basically, the influence of the rock ‘n roll of the 1950’s eventually led to the hard rock of the 60’s, which evolved further into the early metal of the 70’s, including, of course, the explosion of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal towards the end of that decade, which continued strong through the early 80’s.

However, despite the strength of the NWoBHM movement, and its massive influence on various subgenres of metal, in my opinion, the Golden Age of the genre would not begin until a bit further into the decade, when we not only began consistently getting an unprecedented (and unmatched ever since) amount of great, classic albums, but also records that would prove to be genre-defining to the biggest, most important styles of modern metal, as the style really developed, diversified, and expanded outside of Britain to become a truly global phenomenon. But, when exactly this age began as far as I see it, you’ll learn soon enough; in the meantime, just be patient, and get ready for the Golden Age of Metal, baby!