Metal on My Mind

As I sit here in the hospital, basking in the joy of our first daughter, I thought I would take a few minutes to write some random thoughts I’ve had lately. Somewhere in the Write On Archive there is a post about how when I was younger I thought that I liked heavy metal, that I was a metal head, or some sort of metal maniac. Thanks to Launchcast I learned that it is not so; I am merely a hard rocker who lists some metal bands among his favorites. Sorry for the snub, heavy metal.

So here I will take you on a tour of some of my metallic ideas of late. Let’s Rock.

I’ve found myself thinking of Anthrax lately. Because I was obviously a Master of Metal I felt that I should like them, but beyond I am the Man I could never develop a taste. The other day I heard a couple of songs on the radio. I enjoyed them, but before Bawitdaba and Adrenaline there was Caught in a Mosh. I believe that is the first mosh pit song, but I’m willing to be corrected by them of you as that know. I also put I am the Law, inspired by the comic character Judge Dredd, and their cover of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. All in all it is a good lesson in why only the front man should have a live mike. Not really, but sometimes.

Some songs have come out lately from so called NuMetal bands, those alternative-metal acts spawned in the nineties after the well-deserved blow to butt-rock led to a metal meltdown. It is funny how things turn out sometimes. Some acts started strong out of the gate and then took the road of the power ballad or just decided to suck. For my examples I carefully selected Faith by Limp Bizkit and Mudshovel by Staind. Then I took Faith off again because the version available had a huge F-bomb right in the middle. Whatever Fred.*

Clawing our way out of the sludge, I wanted to share a few amazing tunes with you, my readers. These are from bands that supposedly sucked, couldn’t solo, and were supposedly going to be crushed under the metal wheels of supposedly better bands. You can see there is a lot of supposition in that.

The first song is Prodigal Son by Sevendust. To me they are the Hootie of metal; they’ve got a soul of steel or something like that. Prodigal Son is nothing out of the ordinary for them; it has raw verses with a hook-heavy chorus. Still rocking.

Next is Dead Memories by Slipknot. These guys make a bunch of unbearable noise with the occasionally undeniably brilliant slab of iron that makes me giddy. I have heard three tunes from their new album, and been impressed with every single one. I picked Dead Memories because Corey Thomas manages to sing the whole song without screaming or using the F-Bomb, then just in case you forgot they were a metal band they blast some double-bass drum action all the way through the second verse.

Mudvayne falls under the same category as Slipknot for me. Their new song Do What You Do is a metal sucker-punch. A groovy first verse and catchy melody set the trap, the jaws spring with the intensity of the chorus, and then just in case you hadn’t figured out that you weren’t listening to 3 Doors Down they turn the second verse on its head and play some downright metal riffage over the same catchy melody.

To end my metal monologue, I will discuss a band that started off suckin’ it up but has earned my admiration. Back in the days of yore there were a lot of bands that had a “sound.” Something about the band made it recognizable even if the listener had never heard the song before without hearing the vocalist. For example, someone might recognize Rush by the way Neal Peart uses his right hand. They might recognize Van Halen from the “Brown Sound,” that unique combination of flanger, reverb, and delay that makes Eddie’s tone so easily identifiable. Or it might be the way Kirk Hammett slathers a lead in his own wah sound that gives away a Metallica song. On and on. Except for many years now bands have not done such a thing. Please share examples if I am wrong. I suppose that that crazy chorus effect that Shaun Morgan uses on all of his solos might identify a Seether song, but nothing else really would. The band of which I come to started out rather Sickly but have garnered my attention with every passing album. I find that like so many of those older bands I can recognize them in an unheard song; I think it is something in the rhythm section because their guitar player frequently changes tones from song to song, but I could be wrong. Indestructible showcases their pummeling combination of melody and brawn.

So that is some of what I’ve been thinking about Metal. That and that Death Magnetic is an amazing Metallica record. I figured this post was dragging on long enough. I would be happy to post my thoughts on Death Magnetic in greater detail if anyone wants to have them. Rock on, people. Have a Metal Christmas.

R.

*Catherine Wheel was never NuMetal band but they rock. And Black Metallic has “Metal” in the title and that is what we are about today.