Today's Metal Tune

"AOV" sounded uncertain and all over the place, as did much of .5: The Gray Chapter, which was understandable as Slipknot was in a very uncertain place after the untimely passing of a key member and writer along with the unceremonious firing of a different key member and writer. And even if much of the album was written by Corey Taylor and Jim Root neither brought much of the directness and economy of Stone Sour to bear, and the discordance could be jarring: the track ("Approaching Original Violence") tried to have it both ways with all the cacophony sometimes broken up by melodic vocals and choruses. In its better moments the track was dynamic and compelling, and there was something to be said for how the entire band had grown as writers, players and arrangers. But "AOV" bore all the marks of a band that didn't know where they were going or what they should be doing, for better and worse.

Dimension Hatross found Voivod fully in their zone, and "Experiment" added just the right amount of prog to the band's chaos in a way that felt more exploratory rather than simply overly technical. Snake's warbling was maybe the most noticeably quirky but nothing these guys were doing felt standard; but if Piggy's soloing was pretty awesome Away's drumming was on another level entirely. Thrash was rapidly expanding throughout 1988, but most bands were almost slavishly adhering to a single template whereas Voivod were doing their own thing and in playing the long game arguably carved out a more meaningful niche and legacy.

"Blot Out the Sun" mostly lived up to its title with 7 minutes of post-metal and shoegaze reminiscent of Swallow the Sun and The Ocean with harsh vocals counterbalancing the slow and steady drums. Mountaineer scaled the walls with atmosphere and dynamics and aimed for expansiveness and mostly got there, and even if in a lot of ways this was more vibe than song it captured its intended aesthetic.

The second Metal for Muthas compilation had the unintended effect of revealing how much of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal was rooted in mid '70s hard rock, as Xero's "Cutting Loose" was fun but very shaggy with lyrics that were total Bad Company-style bluesy "my woman's been out with another man" stuff. The middle instrumental section had a nice flow with fun drumming and elegant soloing that was unfortunately mixed back (most likely due to the low-budget recording despite this coming out on EMI), but the tune was also probably a minute longer than necessary as it just kind of ambled along and grooved without a clear destination or sense of purpose.

“Second Awakening” fit perfectly inside Violent Revolution, with Andy Sneap’s pristine production capturing Kreator snapping into focus.  It was definitely thrash and a pivot away from the goth and industrial textures of the mid ‘90s, but there was also the melodic death metal Mille Petrozza and crew successfully wove into their sound.  Most of all the band sounded clearer and more purposeful than in years and maybe ever, though funny enough Mille sounded like he was holding back a bit as he would sound far more frazzled (in a good way) on subsequent releases.  “Second Awakening” didn’t have quite the charge of Violent Revolution’s title track but it still ripped and felt like something that would soundtrack a wall of death during a festival appearance, so it was fundamental to Kreator’s return to awesomeness.

Tom Naumann rejoined Primal Fear for Devil’s Ground, but the riffing on “Heart of a Brave” sounded more like it came from Stefan Leibing or Mat Sinner with its semi-noodling and somewhat unfocused charge.  The tracked moved well and kept heads banging, and Ralf Scheepers was in great form as usual though his dramatic wailing on the chorus was more than a bit much.  There was usually a bit more propulsion and vigor whenever Naumann was on board, but “Heart of a Brave” ended up being one of the better moments from an extended fallow period for Primal Fear.

“Explosions After Dark” is pretty much a perfect title, even if the underlying track was fairly typical Australian prog/djent.  Ebonivory tried to mix it up a bit by layering more aggressive vocals in spots, and there was definitely a lot going on with the interludes and vocal changeups.  It didn’t totally come together and some of this played as technical for its own sake, but on their own the pieces were pretty strong and overall the track had a cool vibe.

The Triumph of Steel was somehow both one of Manowar’s most appreciated and underrated albums, largely because of its one-off lineup.  But Rhino’s drumming absolutely smoked on “Ride the Dragon” as did David Shankle’s riffing, and Shankle didn’t get nearly enough credit for his writing livening up what had become a stale formula- he contributed as much material to The Triumph of Steel as Ross the Boss did on Manowar’s previous three records combined.  Eric Adams was also in great fighting form and Joey Demaio’s bass didn’t overpower the recording, though it certainly helped that the rest of this iteration was so strong musically.  Of course the track was completely ridiculous, but come on: this was Manowar, and fast Manowar at that which generally ruled. 

“Whiskey Lifestyle” laid it all out right there in the title, and the weirdly named Valume Nob brought it in full punky, sludgy and antisocial form.  Marshall Black’s vocals were rooted in sludge and hardcore but mostly sounded more ornery than angry while the tune largely felt like a group of dudes fighting their way out of a cardboard box but not feeling super stressed about it.  This was the kind of tune that sounded fun blasting out of busted speakers while knocking back a few, after which one generally moved on to something else.

Sounds of a Playground Fading was the first In Flames album not to include any original members, but while Jesper Strömblad’s departure was an obvious inflection point for the band the truth was they were inching towards the more textured sounds of their tenth record for the better part of 7 years and “Fear is the Weakness” was a logical extension of the threads woven throughout Come Clarity and A Sense of Purpose.  If anything, the track found Anders Fridén and Björn Gelotte locking in the template blueprinted on those previous two albums, with layered guitars mixing crunch with space and semi-melodic but gnarled vocals muttering inscrutable musings over steady rhythms.  Of course this was far removed from even Clayman let alone Whoracle and “Fear is the Weakness” was every bit In Flames in festival headliner mode- Sounds of a Playground Fading was one of their highest charting albums in the US and found them playing arenas in Northern Europe- but even if the claustrophobic chaos that made them so hugely important was long gone their sense of craft came through and made them worthwhile if no longer very exciting.

Vulgar Display of Power was a landmark album for Pantera and ‘90s metal as a whole, but it was also front-loaded: while the first 5 tracks found the band at the peak of their powers, almost nobody talks about the remainder of the album other than the closing ballad “Hollow” and noting “By Demons Be Driven”’s opening riff being used as the theme music for Headbanger’s Ball.  The second half was by no means bad and had a ton of great riffs, power groove and Phil Anselmo vitriol, but numbers like “Rise” were more like iterations of the template as Diamond Darrell’s jackhammer guitar, Vinnie Paul’s blunt-force drumming and Anselmo’s street poetry already began to feel overly familiar.  The tune ripped as a matter of course and there was no stopping the Pantera steamroller, so the track was an inherently awesomely banging deep cut.  But “Rise” inadvertently revealed the flipside to the band’s new approach as it showed how their relentlessness could turn repetitive.

The stoner metal movement peaked a few years before Abdullah released Graveyard Poetry, which might’ve explained why “Deprogrammed” was a more energetic and rock n’ roll take on the form.  The tune moved along at a fun pace while staying heavy and full of stoner/doom riffing and vocals, and the band brought a nice punk and NWOBHM feel overall to go with the killer breakdown in the middle.

Like many other bands Godspeed had the idea of bringing ‘70s heaviness and swagger up to date, but Ride ended up sounding very early ‘90s alt, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing but the result was that their lone album ended up sounding more dated than the era they were influenced by.  Still, “Stubborn Ass” had a pretty good solo, and Rachel Bolan’s production emphasized the heaviness which went a ways toward mitigating the silliness of the title.  The track arguably reflected the period better than some of the bigger songs and bands, as it more directly captured the goals and attitude of most bands during that time.

“Battle Cry” and Go for the Throat were ground floor ‘80s metal, basic but effective and delivered with conviction.  Vic Hix’s vocals were on the lower end of Dio-esque growling and a bit dramatic, but then again those were the times and the soloing was on point without getting too shreddy or distracting.  Shok Paris epitomized the era and embodied the essence of metal in the decade, slugging it out in the clubs and going for it with enthusiasm even if they didn’t have the intangible spark that separated the winners from everyone else.

Prince of the Poverty Line was the moment Skyclad became far more intentional about integrating violins and folk textures into their thrash metal template, in the process firmly establishing folk metal as a thing as tracks like “Civil War Dance” balanced between the two disparate threads.  The track initially skewed more towards metal, with nice tribal drumming from Keith Baxter and great riffing (one of the band’s more underrated qualities), and Martin Walkyier’s snarl likewise came into its own.  But then Cath Howell’s violin jumped into the mix and all bets were off- it was hard to determine whether the fiddles and jigs were meant to be part of the narrative or just a novelty, more likely this was Skyclad trying to stand out and find their own sound.  And stand out they did, for there was nothing like “Civil War Dance” either before or since, since most folk metal (including Skyclad’s later releases) would lean more heavily on one side of the coin versus the relatively even split achieved here.

Hardly anyone was expecting or hoping for a new U.D.O. album after Udo Dirkschneider spent 4 or so years gargling through an increasingly half-hearted Accept reunion, but Solid was a shockingly purposeful slammer that built on Timebomb and for a brief moment made the prospect of new material from Dirkschneider seem exciting.  To be sure, “The Punisher” was more than a little basic lyrically and the music was straightforward Accept-style heavy metal, but the track also found this incarnation of U.D.O. fully in their zone: Stefan Schwarzmann was the lone holdover from U.D.O.’s previous run and while he didn’t do a Scott Travis impression like on Timebomb his drumming was between-the-eyes propulsive and didn’t let up, while Stefan Kaufmann’s guitar and production updated Restless and Wild for the ‘90s and did a much better job of conjuring prime Accept than the previous years when he, Dirkschneider and Schwarzmann were actually in Accept.  And Udo’s chainsaw screeching was in top form, sounding more powerful and irascible than ever and making his comical threats maybe not menacing but certainly entertaining.  “The Punisher” was a straight-up ass kicker delivered with a distinctly U.D.O. form of violence, defying trends and laying waste to the notion that Udo Dirkschneider was a spent force.

Mark Osegueda might be the only thrash singer who got better with age: the Death Angel frontman has sounded far more agile and purposeful in the past 20ish years than during his teenage run with the band.  Peter Wichers caught Osegueda at exactly the right time when he was putting together the second Nuclear Blast Allstars record, as “My Name is Fate” came alive thanks to the singer’s controlled volatility- to be sure, Wichers did a great job coming up with a track and arrangement that fit the frontman without copying Death Angel or even being all that thrashy.  Even as Wichers’ production was almost Roger Glover in its balance of heaviness, clarity and smoothness the track was still a fun metal ripper and Osegueda sounded right at home.