Today's Metal Tune

Suspended Sentence is understandably the mostly forgotten outlier in Satan’s discography, but the combination of musicianship and intensity that powered Court in the Act remained firmly in place and Michael Jackson’s snarly vocals held their own even if they were completely different from Brian Ross’ idiosyncratic drone/falsetto.  “Suicidal Justice” was more straightforwardly metallic in a way that epitomized heavy music in the UK in the back half of the ‘80s, but Russ Tippins and Steve Ramsey were never less than a formidable tag team on guitar and likewise Sean Taylor was a beast on the drums.  The NWOBHM magic of Court in the Act was missing, but these guys were great players and even with a different frontman were among the best that British metal had to offer at the time.

Much was made of Billy Corgan’s guest vocal on “The Cross”, but the real story about Humanity: Hour 1 was the Scorpions essentially handing the reins to outside writers and producers in search of finally making a record that at least wasn’t terrible after nearly 20 years of nonsense.  And it actually worked: while the record was nobody’s idea of a masterpiece and there was no point bothering with the “concept” (which wasn’t even authored by Klaus or Rudy to begin with), James Michael and Desmond Child were able to present the Scorps in a good light and delivered a good balance of hooks and heft.  “The Cross” was largely written by hired hands like every other track on Humanity (in this case it was James Michael, Desmond Child and Marti Fredericksen alongside Matthias Jabs) and Corgan’s aforementioned feature was a bit distracting and didn’t really sound much like typical Scorpions, but Klaus Meine sounded more engaged and for the first time in a long time it sounded like the guys were going for it.  The production was more modern than necessary but not oppressively so, making “The Cross” and the rest of Humanity: Hour 1 one of the better latter-day Scorpions albums.

Power metal experienced peaks and valleys, but mainland Europe never gave up and always kept space for the subgenre.  So it wasn’t all surprising that Gomorra emerged out of Switzerland in 2020 with a barnburning gallop that offered the next link in the chain following HammerFall: Divine Judgement and “Flames of Death” didn’t so much nod to its predecessors as point directly at all of them.  Originality was never the point- tunes like this were meant to get over on energy and enthusiasm, and the track had plenty of both.

Next lived up to its title and stayed the course for Sevendust even after leaving their longtime label and losing a key member: “Silence” carried on as usual and was a logic follow-up to Animosity and Seasons with Lajon Witherspoon’s vocals doing the melodic lifting.  Clint Lowery’s songwriting acumen was missed, but only slightly: Sonny Mayo was perfectly capable of playing this style of downtuned hard rock and Morgan Rose had plenty of his own chops as a composer.  The track was heavy in its construction and perhaps closer to the core Sevendust sound than the sometimes too bright Seasons, with just enough hooks come chorus time to reiterate the band’s potential as a radio act.

Things took off fairly quickly for Caligula’s Horse once Inside Out introduced them to a global audience: even though the market was already cluttered with prog metal groups (many of which were signed to the same label) the Australian band had enough personality and songwriting acumen to stand out.  And even as numbers like “Valkyrie” began to tilt the scales towards greater accessibility, there was still enough technicality in the playing and idiosyncrasy in Jim Grey’s warbling that the tune still felt distinct.  In certain ways Rise Radiant filled a void left by Karnivool’s lengthy absence and “Valkyrie” played in a similar lane with its jutting riffing counterbalanced by atmospheric and melodic vocals though it was more overtly heavy.

The whole idea behind Racer X was tethered to its time and place, but the concept of classically trained and proficient musicians getting together and playing heavy metal covers alongside some original material carried through a few decades later with collectives like Metal Allegiance and Kings of Thrash.  The original recipe slugged it out on the Sunset Strip and didn’t so much reject hair metal as try to work around it, so Street Lethal’s title track ran parallel to Ratt and the like even as it was significantly faster and shreddier: a very young Paul Gilbert was playing for the thrill and noodling the Shrapnel way while Jeff Martin hollered like a California Rob Halford while still nodding towards Vince Neil.  Of course it was completely ridiculous, but “Street Lethal” offered something of a secondary history of ‘80s metal in that it showed how musicians were absorbing multiple strands of the genre and trying to apply more technique.

The Battle Rages On... was an apt title for a record that had no reason to exist other than as product to market Deep Purple’s 25th anniversary: Ritchie Blackmore wanted virtually anyone other than Ian Gillan at the mic, and the rest of the band (especially Gillan) were tired of indulging the guitarist out of fear he might depart.  That they pulled it together at all was surprising enough, but despite initial pans the record contained some hidden gems, with “A Twist in the Tale” being one of the handful of harder rocking numbers.  The guys didn’t sound totally in sync- especially on stage- but Blackmore brought one of his trademark elegant snaky riffs for Jon Lord to follow along with while Ian Paice delivered his distinctly classy propulsion.  Gillan sounded more bemused than angry even though he clearly hated every second with Blackmore, but he still reminded everyone that he alone made sense as Deep Purple’s singer.  And if one listened very closely, they might hear a rare instance of the Mark II lineup having a tiny bit of fun.

Nobody was expecting or seeking a new record from Picture after over 20 years away, but Old Dogs, New Tricks was a surprisingly robust return to form.  It certainly helped that the reunion focused on arguably the band’s strongest lineup, as “Blood Out of a Stone” was a ripping and rampaging double-kick driven stormer that hewed closer to the band’s better material rather than the overly slick hair metal that ended their first run.  Pete Lovell’s vocals were definitely on the craggier side, but he kept up with thunder behind him pretty well considering the long layoff between records, and mostly the tune was just fun no-frills metal with a healthy measure of craft behind it.

X-Wild was a power metal band on account of the history of its members, but Monster Effect and “Heads Held High” were more like just straight up fast heavy metal and more like speedy Running Wild than the more melodic variant.  The riffs and drumming were frenetic, though the funny thing about Frank Knight’s screeching rasp in retrospect was that while it recalled Udo Dirkschneider in the moment they actually sounded more like Mark Tornillo.  But while Axel Morgan, Jens Becker and Stefan Schwarzmann inadvertently revealed they needed Rolf Kasparek’s leadership more than they wanted to admit, X-Wild at its best offered plenty of fun and frantic metal, and “Heads Held High” certainly fit that description.

“Sky is Falling” was mostly prog and math metal, but the vague grunge elements Course of Fate brought to the track added some interesting wrinkles.  That it was still a bit dramatic came as no surprise given the prog, but the tune felt a little dirtier and slightly more organic as a result.

Arise was mostly an incremental progression from Beneath the Remains, with the key distinctions being Max Cavalera getting better at English and Andy Wallace’s mix adding more space for Igor Cavalera’s drumming.  Otherwise, “Subtraction” was a pretty straightforward thrash number and a logical next step for Sepultura: it was fast, frantic and had a prototypical dry Morrisound production from Scott Burns.  But in the margins there were some meaningful developments, as the Cavaleras and Andreas Kisser were growing as musicians and writers and Wallace brought out Max’s charisma as well as Igor’s power groove.  This was why people began taking Sepultura more seriously right as thrash was beginning to fade, because while they bore all the trademarks they were subtly elevating and evolving the sound.

Strange Highways was a dark, heavy and difficult album, which made “Here’s to You” with its hollering and cheering both feel like a welcome respite from the borderline oppressive heft and also a little awkward.  Presumably it was meant as another Dio anthem along the lines of “Stand Up and Shout” and “We Rock”, and there was something of a hook in Tracy G’s riffing as well as the pre-chorus.  But Ronnie’s growling had the same belligerence that made “Jesus, Mary & the Holy Ghost” and “Evilution” total monsters and this iteration of Dio was all about beatdowns, so “Here’s to You” felt a bit stuffy and claustrophobic even as the lyrics offered a rallying cry.  Ronnie was aiming for something very deliberate on Strange Highways and for the most part he achieved his goal of crafting a more modern metal record more rooted in the real world, but that created a weird dichotomy on “Here’s to You” that he couldn’t fully reconcile.

There were arguably more tunes like “Into the Void of Lucifer” coming out in the last 10 years than during the actual decade bands like Lethal Steel pay homage to, but the Swedish crew seemed to dig a little deeper by not only referencing the usual suspects but layering in more obscure (but still foundational and hugely important) countrymen like 220 Volt and Heavy Load.  This came out particularly in the vaguely Euro metal vocals, but really the entire tune was just straight up fast heavy metal that was nice and speedy like they used to make ‘em.

Bruce Dickinson had built up so much goodwill from both his last two solo records as well as his enthusiastic return to Iron Maiden that the announcement of Tyranny of Souls generated far more excitement than anything he had ever done outside Maiden.  And tracks like “Soul Intruders” demonstrated that he and Roy Z. had a very clear grasp on their sound, as the guitarist’s riffing and production were heavy but also smooth while Dickinson went for a slightly different kind of theatrical grandeur in his bellowing.  These nuances did make Bruce’s solo output fully distinct from Maiden even if both were working off the same foundation, and in the case of “Soul Intruders” there was a lurching quality in the chorus that Steve Harris would never consider.  That the track was actually a bit lightweight didn’t feel like such a big deal since everyone was firmly in their zone, and the primary riff just slammed.

While throwback acts trying to summon the mid ‘80s seemingly sprouted by the millions, “Mature Themes” was one of the few tunes to recall the indie/alt metal of the mid ‘90s.  Toronto’s Biblical was going for a few things at once on The City That Always Sleeps, tying everything together with a grungy production that played up the rawness of the material.  There was also an early ‘00s sleazy garage vibe which added both finesse and a little more wildness, though the synths were maybe one bit too much.  Still it was fun little raver that moved quickly and broke things with aplomb.

All sorts of nonsense kept Witchfynde out of commission as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal crested and faded, so when they finally returned in 1983 with Cloak & Dagger it was with not only a different singer but to a scene that had begun to move on.  And to the extent that Luther Beltz was a dramatically different vocalist than Steve Bridges and Montalo and crew were ready to up the tempo considerably, the band was ostensibly ready to adapt.  But even though “I’d Rather Go Wild” was tailor-made for the moment Witchfynde retained its NWOBHM haplessness: Montalo’s riffing was skeezier take on Iommi and pretty fun as a result but still felt amateurish, while Luther Beltz’s ridiculous proclamations of youthful rebellion were made even more ludicrous by his absurd falsetto shrieking that made the whole endeavor feel Z-grade (which of course it was).  There was still plenty of fun to be had- Montalo was an underrated guitarist and the band knew how to bash out catchy heavy metal- so “I’d Rather Go Wild” had a certain goofy charm even if it unintentionally epitomized the downfall of British metal.

Soilwork started to level up with A Predator’s Portrait, but working with Devin Townsend on Natural Born Chaos brought a focus to the group- and Björn “Speed” Strid in particular- that reframed their entire deal and set them on a different path.  But the title track left a little room for ambiguity insofar as it wasn’t quite as tightly structured as “As We Speak” or “Black Star Deceiver” and found Strid working his way through the chorus in real time.  Peter Wichers’ music had hooks but likewise didn’t always know how to best leverage the melodies he and Strid were aiming for.  What the track ultimately pointed to was Soilwork finding their way towards an approach that worked for them.