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!

[StuSmallz]

We kick the first year of this epic project off with Iron Maiden’s “Powerslave”, a metal record that needs no introduction from a metal band that needs no introduction, as it serves as the monumental capper to a back-to-back series of iconic records we got from the poster boys of NWoBHM throughout the first half of the 80’s, from the scrappier, punkier stylings of the Di’Anno records, to the more melodic, epic tone of the Dickinson era, which defined the band’s style and made them worldwide icons, so it was a no-brainer to go with “Powerslave” as being the foremost representation of traditional metal that was released in ’84. However, I wouldn’t exactly describe this as being a revolutionary record for Maiden, but rather, a refining, revisiting the bigger, more ambitious leanings of 82’s “Number of the Beast“ after the band had the chance to get a bit more comfortable with Dickinson/newcomer drummer Nicko McBrain through the more humble, but still equally enjoyable stylings of ’83’s “Piece of Mind“.


At any rate, from the blazing opener “Aces High” to the soaring instrumental “Losfer Words”, or the absolutely epic, 13-minute record closer “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, this is Maiden at their best, as Murray & Smith’s amazing riffs and solos blaze away as intense as ever, Steve Harris’s incredibly energetic, galloping bass holds down the low end in his signature virtuoso manner, and of course, the operatic vocals of the Air Raid Siren, Mr. Bruce Dickinson himself, fly higher and farther than ever before, resulting in what is still the band’s finest hour, as far as I’m concerned; up the Irons, punks!

Recommended Cut:

[StuSmallz]

Whoops, looks like I accidentally missed posting this thread on the Music board, like I meant to; can anyone higher up help me out with that, please?

[Skitch]

I am here for this!! I've been kicking around the idea of making a "favorite metal albums" list for a while.

[StuSmallz]

I am here for this!! I've been kicking around the idea of making a "favorite metal albums" list for a while.

Hope you enjoy the ride here, then! = )

[StuSmallz]

Next up, we have Bathory’s legendary debut album, which is arguably the most influential record to come out during what was (also) arguably the peak year of what’s become known as "1st wave" of black metal (but, more on that later), as this record continued the musical legacy of Venom (as much as Quorthon might have denied it otherwise) and took it to a brand new extreme. In this way, Bathory took the metal world by storm (of damnation?) with their lo-fi, uncooked chicken-raw production values, openly, unabashedly Satanic lyrics, and raspy, evil croaking vocals courtesy of the man, the legend, Quorthon himself, all of which are aspects that would see tremendous reverberations in Norway during the following decade (as we’ll eventually see later in this project).

Really, besides sounding raw in a more muddy, Venom-ish way as opposed to the shrillness that would characterize the productions of their Norwegian disciples later on, the only other aspect of “Bathory” that makes me hesitate from officially calling it “black metal” in the modern understanding of the term is its songwriting, which relies almost exclusively on intense, speedy tempos, something that I don’t necessarily consider to be a defining characteristic of the style from the 2nd wave onward.

But, regardless of the genre-quibbling, “Bathory” was still some of the most evil-sounding music around in ’84, and whether you want to call it 1st wave black metal, evil-sounding thrash, or just extreme metal in general, this is still one of the most influential records from one of the most influential metal bands of all time, and whether you enjoy its particularly raw take on the genre or not, this album deserves respect for the almost incomparable impact that it’s had on our beloved music, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

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[StuSmallz]

Finally, we end the initial year of this project with what is, in my humble opinion (and hopefully yours as well), the most important metal record of ’84, which is, of course, Metallica’s legendary sophomore effort “Ride the Lightning”, one of the band’s very finest hours (even though it actually only lasts a little longer than 45 minutes, haha), and, as far as I’m concerned, the first true classic album to arise out of the then-nascent thrash metal movement. Now, when I say that, I admit that that statement does come with a number of caveats; first off, I’m not necessarily saying that I personally, conclusively know beyond any shadow of a doubt that “Ride the Lightning” is the first great thrash recording ever released, as, for l know, some band no one’s ever heard of out in Nowheresville, Ohio recorded the most amazing, shredtastic metal demo tape ever all the way back in 1968, one that made “Reign in Blood”, “Master of Puppets” and “Peace Sells” all sound like complete and total crap, only for the band to disband after the only copy was destroyed in a tragic donkey fire, depriving the world of the most ahead-of-their-time heavy metal savants it has, or ever will, know. And, “Ride the Lightning” wasn’t the first album released by a thrash band, as Slayer & Anthrax had both already released their respective debuts by the time “RtL” had hit the streets, and heck, this wasn’t even the world’s first taste of Metallica, which came in the form of the previous year’s debut release “Kill ‘Em All“.

However, while “Kill ‘Em All” and those other records were certainly fun, fairly enjoyable debuts, stylistically, as far as I’m concerned, they were relatively unsophisticated, less aggressive examples of “speed metal” as opposed to being straight-up modern thrash, and if Metallica and their contemporaries had continued in the same vein, I don’t think they would’ve ever escaped the incredibly long shadows of classic/new wave of British metal, and established their own sub-genre. However, the band did just that with “Ride the Lightning“, taking the foundation of their idols that they had already been building upon in earnest and taking it to the next level, as they dramatically progressed their sound in a personal sense, whether it be the all-out shredfest of an opener “Fight Fire with Fire”, the shockingly intimate, acoustic-driven confessional ballad “Fade to Black”, or the 9-minute (!) epic instrumental “The Call of Ktulu”, an absolutely insane ode to Lovecraft’s most iconic of Elder Gods.

And in the process of creating all these amazing tunes, Metallica helped to permanently establish the sound of a brand new style of metal in the process, as they take the relentless intensity of hardcore punk and fused it with the more technically-accomplished musicianship and the less chaotic, relatively “orderly” song structures of their British metal idols, all executed with a particularly ambitious, even progressive-leaning overall ambition to give it a unique edge, helping to create what we now know as *dramatic drumroll please* official modern-day thrash metal, yo. Of course, by this point, I’ve already tried to prove that ’84 had plenty of other classic, pioneering metal records of various styles, but for my money, “Ride the Lightning“ is definitely the most influential one, simply by virtue of being released by a metal band that’s become as uncommonly popular as Metallica, as, while it isn’t necessarily more trailblazing in a stylistic sense than what Yngwie, Trouble, or Quorthon recorded this year, with all due respect to those artists, their records didn’t end up selling in excess of 10 million copies worldwide, did they?

But at any rate, regardless of commercial popularity or inner genre impact, I think by now that I’ve proven that “Ride the Lightning“ and the other records I’ve covered in this entry (and more I haven’t, but we’ll get into that) ended up making 1984 one of the biggest watershed years in the history of heavy metal, and, instead of turning out to part of some nightmare-ish dystopian era like Orwell predicted all those years ago, what we got instead was the true beginning of the Golden Age of Metal, baby!

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[Skitch]

I wondered what Metallica album you would pick...

[StuSmallz]

I wondered what Metallica album you would pick...

Wait, "what Metallica album I'd pick"? Did they put out another record in '84 that I'm not aware of or something?

[Skitch]

I shake my head in disbelief every time I listen to Master of Puppets. Its literally fucked up that such an album exists. How the hell did that get created? It had to be sorcery. It had to be.

[StuSmallz]

I shake my head in disbelief every time I listen to Master of Puppets. Its literally fucked up that such an album exists. How the hell did that get created? It had to be sorcery. It had to be.

Oh yeah; still my number one Thrash record, and still in my top ten Metal records of all time to this day, despite all the other classics I've discovered from the genre since. By the way, to clear up what I meant by my last post, I'm going by release year when I pick albums for this, and not artist, so I'll be covering multiple records from the same band over the course of this project (including Metallica, because it'd be pretty much impossible to only pick one record from them during this era, you know?).

[StuSmallz]

We arrive at ’85 with Celtic Frost’s To Mega Therion, an absolute classic of First Wave Black Metal, and easily the band’s greatest moment, beyond a shadow of a doubt. Of course, when compared to a lot of other First Wave records, TMT certainly had a far more polished production on the whole, with an overall sound that’s nowhere near as raw as, say, what Bathory was doing at the time, or even just as dirty as the band’s own debut, the previous year’s Morbid Tales. But, while Therion may not have been the most representative record from that movement, it’s still an essential regardless, with its wild, energetic solos, iconic, infectiously crunchy riffs, killer, razor-sharp guitar tone, dynamic, unpredictable, genuinely intelligent songwriting, whose tempos range all the way from dread laden, doom metal-ish crawls to sudden, intense outbursts of thrash-style speed and all points inbetween, and Tom Warrior’s epically apocalyptic lyrics, gruff, harsh vocals, and iconic, constipated-sounding grunts.

And within all of these elements there is absolutely an infusion of, yes, an incredibly evil, black-ish vibe, which should’ve been a dead giveaway from simply glancing at the album’s nakedly blasphemous cover art by H.R. Giger himself (if Alien ever gave you nightmares as a child (or an adult), you have him to thank). Add on top of that the tasteful, avant-garde touchs like the operatic female vocals, eerie, ambient soundscapes, or the occasional orchestral section, which foreshadows the way extreme bands would experiment with symphonic elements the following decade, and you can see that Frost had a brain to go along with all of their gut-level musical extremity. And all of this is even more impressive an achievement considering how relatively “polished” a sound the album has, showing that you don’t need to sound like crap to also sound evil, a lesson I wish more of the band’s musical offspring would’ve taken to heart, but regardless, on its own merits, To Mega Therion is an absolute, stone cold classic of 80’s Metal, and my personal favorite album of its particular year, which, as you’ll soon see, is definitely saying something

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