deep_333
Great idea for a thread. It all began with Black Sabbath S/T 1970 to kick off the genre. Honorable mention to The Beatles "Helter Skelter" for inspiration to many future bands.
Happy Listening!
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Way too many to mention. I've been a metal-head since I bought my first album (Black Sabbath - Paranoid) in the early 70's and have progressed along with the genre. I'll mention a few of the somewhat relatively obscure post-2000 releases and maybe come back for pre-2000 later. There are tons of great individual songs outside of these albums. If anyone cares maybe I'll mention a few later. Post-2000 (Doom) Trees of Eternity - Hour of the Nightingale. (my favorite post-2000 album) Draconian - Sovran (Thrash) Warfect - Exoneration Denied (Death) Aeon - Aeons Black (easily my favorite death metal album) (Metalcore) Cataract - With Triumph Comes Loss |
Satriani, IMO, is perhaps the best guitarist & composer... of the ones who're still alive today. I went to a deep purple concert back in the early 2000s and he opened for them. It was complete WTH moment watching him live, what he can do with a guitar.
Here are some heavier tracks... Joe Satriani - The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAD7JJGIJEw
Joe Satriani - Crystal Planet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfMK3F08-ho
Here are some more melodious ones, some have electronic elements mixed in, etc
Joe Satriani - Lights of heaven https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAWP-OTelyU
Joe Satriani - Turkey man https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF9fTGOYw30
Joe Satriani - Engines of creation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UrLSxcVOTY
Joe Satriani - Why |
@larsman Hey! I lived as a kid in Sunnyvale and went to college at Sonoma State. Got into the scene in high school, about '77. Out of 2,000 kids, there were 3 of us into punk. LOL. My band is Tower of Swine. Played a ton up in Sonoma County (with the likes of Victims Family, etc) and gigs in SF and the south bay. |
@johnnotkathi - Hi - I've lived in San Francisco since 1973 and was a regular denizen of the Mab (I started going in late '76 when Jerry Paulsen was still the promoter of punk gigs there a couple nights a week), and have known Jello since he first moved to SF. I also used to shoot concert photos at venues from the Mab to Oakland Stadium. Which band were you in? I may have seen you.... |
If you’re looking for melodic riffs, etc, here’s some stuff
James Murphy (from "Testament") - Touching the Earth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrTh2Sw8Dms
Whitesnake - Sailing Ships https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS4VxVFAmvQ
Whitesnake - Is this love https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrIYPZjhMfk Many a times, i’ve wished i had Coverdale’s voice.
Or , if looking at Maiden specifically...a few of these come to mind Iron Maiden - Strange World https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fkD-jzgMXE
Iron Maiden - Revelations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRqPFEb3CLs
Iron Maiden - Afraid to shoot strangers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeFLAALpThU
Iron Maiden - Wasting Love https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO0D1makMq0
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@oberoniaomnia saw Flipper many times "back in the day." They were regulars at a lot of the Mabuhay Gardens shows. Was never a big fan but respected their originality, etc. Remember seeing them and Bruce Loose got hit in the face with a full can of beer, and did not even flinch. Did not even blink. Not cool someone threw it but pretty impressed how Bruce handled it. Cool logo as well Yes, know both RP and DK, have some of their stuff on vinyl as well. Like them both! |
@johnnotkathi Have those as well plus "Fyulaba" and "If you swear, you'll catch no fish" all on vinyl. My HC stuff is European biased, as I grew up on Switzerland. US band "Artless" was a fun show I caught in a club in Basel. Exploited turned out to be a bunch of a-holes. Toten Hosen (with the true Heino!) at Rote Fabrik was equally fun; live much more of a steamroller than on recordings. Having been in SF, did you get into Flipper from SD? There is a great record by Shatter from Basel, a tribute band to Flipper/Will Shatter. Recently re-listened to it, and the tribute for once is better than the original! I am sure you are aware of Rudimentary Peni, a bit out there, towards Die Kreuzen. |
@oberoniaomnia Cool, I have SNFU vinyl of.... In the Meantime and in Between Time, Something Green and Leafy this Way Comes, The One Most Likely to Succeed, And No One Else Wanted to Play, ...And Yet Another Pair of Lost Suspenders and If you Swear You’ll catch No Fish. All good stuff. Love that band. Aside from that, I was in the SF/Bay Area scene heavily from 77-85 and most of my music is from that timeframe, although I do try to stay connected to more current punk/hc. That said, thanks for the suggestions above!!
ps. As for Lard, my band played several gigs with the DK’s....was a blast! |
Rush - Moving Pictures - first CD print from West Germany, as a DDD CD the production is phenomenal. This was one of the very early Rock CD’s demoed in many audio stores to show off the introduction of the Compact Disc to the rock crowd. Metallica - Black album, a lot went into this album, a noticible bump in quality from anything from the heavy metal bands before it, rumored is $1M was spent on production. Billy Idol - Rebel Yell - beginning to end, synthesizers and guitar work are the standout, very dynamic album. Queensryche - Empire, great production, very clean, I have the early release CD, the later prints seem to have the gain over annenuated. Seether - Disclaimer, I also have Karma and Effect, I find the production to be solid on Disclaimer, my Karma and Effect album I tend to hear distortion in some peak areas. Pat Benetar - Crimes of Passion, I have all of her albums, but I find this early print to be a standout album on production, you notice it right away with the opening track Treat me Right. Def Leppard - Pyromania, I like the 2 albums before this one more, but the production of this album is off the chart for 1983, the first print CD from West Germany does not dissappoint. Linkin Park - Meteora, I noticed a slight jump in production quality from Hybrid Theory, the Minutes to Midnight album the gain is turned up too high. My go to is the Meteora ablum. Many other good Hard Rock and Heavy Metal genre albums out there, I could keep going, these above come to mind to me for sound quality and dynamics. |
@johnnotkathi Re pure HC punk: Canal Terror, Upright Citizens, Razzia's Tag Ohne Schatten, One Way System, Lard as some of the lesser known ones, I really like. I still like it (Dividing lines, Ötzi, Arctic Flowers ...), but gravitate these days a bit more towards post-punk, darkwave, cold wave, neofolk, and weird "pop" (e.g., felte label out of Los Angeles; Hackedepicciotto, Mission to the Sun, Svesor Bhrater). Got away from Flipper, Conflict, GBH, and similar stuff. |
@johnnotkathi Just found "Better than a stick in the eye" on vinyl in Switzerland. Was my first SNFU title I found in CD in '92, back in Swansea, Wales, where I did my master's project. Also found their first "and no one else wanted to play" also on vinyl in Switzerland. |
@johnnotkathi A few that I like are Bad Asteroid, Flatlands, Get it like that, Sittin with a duck on a bay. Worth a listen. |
I agree that one persons "heavy metal" is another persons "hard rock' take on things. Me, at age 63 and having discovered "hard rock" about 10 years ago I find my self gravitating towards smaller bands eg. Seether. However Tool is always at the top of my playlist as is Godsmack. Tool's production is just wicked. I can't do speed or thrash metal. |
@go4vinyl - funny you mention those American bands like Angel, Starz, Legs Diamond, etc; I've got a friend in England, and that was totally what he was in to! Also what he termed '-er bands', like 'Player' and any number of others with similar names. I also like Nazareth.... |
@simonmoon +1 for Riverside. I play them a lot... You might give RPWL a try if you haven't heard them. I'm old enough that I was around when some of the great albums were released. I spent most of my money on music. Van Halen debut is probably tops. Also Ted Nugent's early albums, first four Aerosmith albums, Judas Priest, UFO, Nazareth. Lots more not listed. |
Nazareth is my all-time favorite band, in my opinion the heaviest and best record of all time is their Hair of the Dog - the original European version that doesn’t include Love Hurts (great song and performance, but it doesn’t belong on this record). I have listened to it since it was released 1975 and I never tire of it! As I write this, I am listening to Opeth's new record (on cassette, actually, as I just got an awesome Nakamichi deck in the rack) ’The Last Will and Testament’ - it’s great and Opeth is a band I highly recommend exploring. I’ve been collecting obscure records for more more than 30 years (which nowadays are easy to find and listen to on the web) and there’s a lot to discover, if you haven’t. For example, Night Sun - Mournin’, Hairy Sea - Can’t Get Through, Mistreater - Hell’s Fire, and Ocean - God’s Clown are examples of fantastic heavy albums! In the mid 70s there were a lot of great American that released great music: for example Moxy, Starz, Angel, and Legs Diamond. Man, there’s so much... |
@jastralfu +1 on Fair Warning, my favorite VH album also. |
@stuartk - not so much albums as individual songs; wish I could find that list I made up a few years ago of 'prettier Iron Maiden songs' as I had 6 or 7, but two I could suggest right offhand would be 'Still Life' off of the 'Piece of Mind' album, and 'Infinite Dreams' from 'Seventh Son of a Seventh Son'.... |
Can you recommend a particular album that exemplifies the above?
Right... I don't doubt it. I've heard very little. I enjoy the music of those two Opeth tracks. The lyrics, not so much. Perhaps because I’ve experienced depression and anxiety, music that evokes what feels like a familiar emotional weight is difficult to listen to dispassionately as entertainment. This is not to say I only listen to happy music. Far from it. I saw the comment from the homeless suicidal guy, too. Just goes to show a given piece of music can elicit differing reactions from different listeners. Personally, I think D. Krall is vastly overrated. I’m mystified as to why many audiophiles focus on her when there are, IMHO, far better Jazz singers out there, but that’s a topic for another day. I agree with what you assert about emotional connection and gear. My parents had a pretty good system for the 60’s but played strictly Classical and Broadway musicals. I didn’t dislike such music but hearing the Beatles and Motown on my cheap transistor radio in bed made a much deeper impression on me. And it had absolutely nothing to do with fidelity! I feel sorry for guys whose appreciation for music is dependent upon the sonics. |
@stuartk Many metal bands are not unidimensional...For example, Opeth (swedish progressive metal) is quite heavy by all standards within the metal genre, though there’s a lot of melody sprinkled in all over.. even with some of their heaviest tracks. But, out of nowhere, they released an album, "Damnation", which is quite unlike any of their heavier works. The entire album’s gold, but here are a couple of tracks from that album, Opeth - Hope Leaves (the recording/studio master if you can get your hands on it is admirable too...) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGPRoszjnWA I noted that one of the highest rated comments on the YT video is a guy talking about how he was homeless & suicidal, but, pulled through listening to this album
Here’s another track from the same album. Opeth - Weakness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1BIcwJDy5c Not the happiness song on earth (for sure), but, the guy is singing about some personal loss. Diana Krall sang about personal loss in one of her high quality audiophile recordings, but, i just fell asleep when i heard it (that's just me, not speaking for everyone, of course). This guy sang about personal loss, i was wide awake and it touched the depths of my soul somewhere. There are many audiophiles talking about how they couldn’t emotionally connect with the music in spite of having high end gear n all...You listen to something like this on a bluetooth speaker late at night and it might still get ya (no high end rigs are necessary)....Emotional connection is not even a question when the artist himself is something special.
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@stuartk - ah yes, that old bugaboo about categorizations - one person's metal is another person's hard rock and yet another person's 'classic rock'. I think it starts getting a bit silly after awhile; there must be at least 10 sub-genres just under 'metal'. In Hendrix's day, there wasn't any 'classic rock' or 'metal'. Totally agree with you about Wishbone Ash - I always loved that original lineup. Much of Maiden's more wonderfully melodic stuff always struck me in a similar way to Wishbone Ash, with the guitars intertwining in and out.... And Steve Harris from Iron Maiden had historical and literary concerns in much of their music; their's was a more cerebral metal, generally speaking. |
I don’t think there are actually that many stories/ themes/topics, be it music, visual art or literature. It’s not the what, so much as the how. The Iron Maiden tune is very pumped up -- unrelentingly so. there’s not really any contrast -- it’s just balls out, pedal to the metal, from start to end. Personally, I find this gets monotonous very quickly. Compare it, for example, to Led Zep’s "What Is and What Should Never Be" -- way more contrast and variation in textures, dynamics, timbres. Not saying one is better -- just trying to explain what my preferences are. it’s not that I don’t enjoy rockin’ out -- "Warrior" and "The King Will Come" from Wishbone Ash’s Argus are examples of what I like. Notice how they vary more hard driving riffs with more lyrical passages. All three tunes display the influence of British Folk music. I like this, but no doubt there are those for whom this just comes across as "light-weight". Fair enough. Each to his/her own.
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Iron Maiden - Trooper https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VZbjrDwQ28
Essentially reads me to me as a anti-war message, based around true life events from the 1854 Crimean war.....an anti-war message which is much needed in the current world of warlords who are about to nuke the world soon, i suppose.
(can’t quite sing flower gardens, kissing roses or how a gal broke yer heart into a million different pieces to this one....i suppose)
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@stuartk - Oh, I know you wouldn't, Stuart. I was just curious as to what themes you prefer for hard rock and metal, but now I see that this isn't really your preferred genre anyway. It's all good! Enjoy your week.... |
Sorry for my lack of clarity. I’d never tell any musician what they ought to play! I simply don’t relate to the aggression or focus on psychologically troubled states. I don’t like the way such music makes me feel physically or psychologically but clearly, this is highly subjective. I’m a Jazz fan and can only tolerate so much dissonance. On the other hand, I don’t care for music that is too far to the other side of the spectrum. A certain amount of dissonance/tension can be enlivening. Too much can be assaultive. I like Richie Kotzen because he has incredible chops (he began as a shredder) and can definitely rock hard but is at the same time, very soulful and melodic. |
Not necessarily true, here's an example of Diamond Dave being just a funny guy....
Van Halen - Everybody Wants Some https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EI8JN-fSLo
P.S. If you walk like this (adopt this gait pattern), your confidence levels shall rise with every step you take. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iPYl1Vp6rgU
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@stuartk - out of curiosity, what themes do you think they should explore instead for aggressive music like this? |
Why the obsession among the Hard Rock/Metal genres with themes of pain, death, fear, insanity, etc? I simply do not relate. I don’t know if Richie Kotzen qualifies as Hard Rock but I like this a lot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkKBcEV75WE
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