Live Stream!!!

 

This weekend my writer’s block was cured, but on Saturday, meaning I missed my (self-imposed) Friday deadline.  As before, I remain incredulous that my weekly ramblings suffice to engender anyone else’s attention, but since they do, I’m happy to continue, to the extent I can come up with anything remotely worth discussing.

By now we’re all painfully aware of the COVID crisis and how it has made a major impact in our lives.  For those of us who enjoy live music, that’s been even worse.

2020 Shows.  2019 was capped off with Clutch’s late December show at the 9:30 Club in DC.  2020 was ushered in by Church of Misery, a Japanese stoner rock band, at the Rock’n’Roll Hotel in DC – up there on U Street, a few blocks due east of Union Station.  Next up was UFO – the British band famous for Michael Schenker, “Doctor Doctor” and ‘Rock Bottom” – who I enjoyed at the Tally Ho in Leesburg, Virginia, with my brother, Matt.  Then was Opeth (as mentioned last week), at the Fillmore Silver Spring, in Silver Spring, Maryland, also with Matt – and it was his first Opeth show.  Finally OM – Sleep bassist Al Cisneros’ side band, very much drone-y like SunnO))) – at the Black Cat, right on Fourteenth Street in DC.   

Then the manure hit the oscillating climate control device.

Here are the shows we had tickets to see, and which were cancelled due to the COVID shitshow. 

TOOL, 4/24/20 at Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, Maryland.

Fu Manchu, 5/6/20 at the Baltimore Soundstage in Baltimore, Maryland. 

King Buffalo, 6/27/20 at the Metro Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland.

King Crimson, 6/30/20 at Wolf Trap, Vienna, Virginia. 

Guns N’Roses, 7/16/20 at Nationals Park in DC.

All Them Witches (ATW), 7/22/20 at the Otto Bar in Baltimore, Maryland.

Roger Waters, 7/30/20, at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC

Dead & Company, 8/5/20 at Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Virginia – with my former boss, Jerry, who hadn’t seen the Dead since …maybe before 1986. 

Judas Priest, 9/9/20 at the MGM Grand in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

Elder, 11/13/20 at the Richmond Music Hall down in Richmond, Virginia.

As you can see, it was some pretty big shows.  Fortunately Bobby Weir, Fripp, Maynard, Halford, Waters, Axl & Slash, are all still alive – Maynard surviving COVID – so hopefully those shows will be back online in 2021 after we get a vaccine that works.  My concern is that if the virus mutates to make the vaccine ineffective, and continues to mutate, we may be looking at a scenario where COVID is effectively permanent.  But let’s hope and pray that this vaccine gets the job done.

Fortunately, despite all this, some bands realized that this Internet thing could let them play a live show and stream it online.  And yes, that has happened.  Here are the live streaming shows I’ve seen so far:

Clutch, 5/27/2020.  Their first live streaming show, called “Doom Saloon”.  An hour, well done.  From Maryland, this band is mostly straightforward rock’n’roll, though the lyrics are somewhat offbeat, and bassist Dan Maines gives a bit a funk step, mixing it up a bit.  Moreover, the band has kept the same lineup all this time:  singer Neil Fallon, guitarist Tim Sult, and drummer Jean-Paul Galter.  If you haven’t heard them already, by all means check them out on Spotify. 

Clutch, 8/7/2020.  Their second show, called “Doom Saloon 2”.  They solicited proposed setlists from the fans and picked one to do.  This setlist had a fair amount of deep cuts.  They also sold T-shirts and recorded the show onto vinyl.

DOWN, 8/29/20.  This is the “supergroup” with Pantera’s Phil Anselmo on vocals, Corrosion of Conformity’s Pepper Keenan on guitar, Crowbar’s Kirk Windstein on guitar, and Pantera’s Rex Brown on bass.  I think the drummer was from Crowbar.  They played their first album, NOLA, in its entirety.  Despite liking DOWN and having all three studio albums, both EPs, and their live album, I had somehow never managed to see them in concert – until now.  They sold t-shirts of the event. 

Crowbar and the Obsessed, 10/3/20.  Crowbar is a thrash band from New Orleans, and the Obsessed features Maryland’s own stoner doom god, Scott “Wino” Weinrich.  This time around he was doing an acoustic set.  Of all these shows, this was my last favorite.

Earthless, 10/17 and 10/24/20.   This is another psychedelic band that does long, extended jams.  Both shows were fine, with different setlists.

Alice in Chains.  On 12/1/20 the Museum of Pop in Seattle, Washington, saw fit to pay tribute to the Seattle grunge band and its late singer, Layne Staley, with a free tribute show of various bands, including Metallica and Mastodon.  The material also covered some later Duvall-era tracks.  The performances were live and streamed in from various sources, all four members of Metallica performing "Would" from separate locations.  

Clutch, 12/18/20.   “Doom Saloon 3”.  Nominally this was supposed to start at 8, but from 8 to 9 what we got was the guys reminiscing over footage of them opening for other bands back in the day, and drummer Jean-Paul Gaster giving us a tour of their home base somewhere in Maryland.  Wagon wheel chandeliers will be sold out now, thanks to him.  The set itself was culled from the most requested songs in all those fan-profferred setlists which weren’t chosen for Doom Saloon 2.   This elicited some displeasure at the absence of deep cuts and obscure tunes, as if the band has some duty to play these songs to the exclusion of fan favorites just so the Old Guard can smugly remark that they recognize tracks which the main base of fans don’t.   Yes, that means don’t hold your breath to hear “Binge & Purge”. 

All Them Witches, 12/19, 2 p.m. and 9 p.m.  The two sets were different, but not completely so – about 70% of the material was the same, 30% different.  The combo pack includes a t-shirt, but no actual recording.  ATW do a good job of mixing TOOL and the Grateful Dead, if you can imagine that.  They don’t sound like anyone else, itself a miracle these days.  They’re from Nashville, Tennessee. 

in January there will be a full series of concerts out in the Mohave Desert:  Earthless (1/23), Nebula (2/6), Spirit Mother (2/20), Mountain Tamer (3/6), and Stoner (how’s that for subtle?) a band put together by none other than Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri.  We’ll see how that goes.  

Benefits.   Most of us prefer live shows, in person, but these live streaming shows do have some major advantages over shows on location.

Logistics.  No driving to DC, Baltimore, or wherever, trying to find parking, then driving back at 1 a.m.  Just turn on your computer and watch (assuming you have an Internet connection); so far all seemed to fit well within my bandwidth.  From the privacy of your own home, you can attend the show wearing as much or as little as you like, and as inebriated or otherwise chemically altered as you see fit, without the issue of how you’re supposed to get home in that condition.  When the show is over, just crash in bed – if that’s your inclination.

No Crowds.  No moshing.  None of this BS where the tallest guy in the club decides to stand front center and block everyone else’s view.  No asshole screaming at Phil Mogg to play “ROCK BOTTOM!!!” through the entire set.  And I’ve yet to see a live stream show sell out.  Mind you, as you can see above, the big shows which would have been at arenas and stadiums haven’t made their way to streaming.

Recordings.  As yet, only Clutch seems to be actually recording these shows, though only on vinyl.  Metallica and Dead & Company are the two current bands (along with Phish and Widespread Panic) who seem to be recording all their latest shows – not just one per tour – and making them available on MP3 or CD. 

If you haven’t already, I would strongly recommend determining which, if any, of your favorite bands have gotten the memo and are live streaming upcoming shows.  Not really a substitute for real shows, but better than spending an hour to ninety minutes surfing Amazon or Facebook. 

DOWN

Searching my blog archives, I see I haven’t reviewed this band yet.  They could be considered a supergroup, as the band members had already achieved some notoriety in other bands already, Crowbar being the most prominently represented (and I have NONE of their albums).  They have three full length albums, two EPs, and a live album/DVD.   I never got a chance to see them live in person, but recently they played a live streaming show in which they played NOLA, the first album, in its entirety. 

Of the component bands, I have all of Pantera’s albums and have seen them as an opening act at an Ozzfest, never as a headliner.  I have all of Corrosion of Conformity’s albums and have seen them several times fairly recently after Pepper Keenan returned - never as a three piece and never as the pre-Pepper punk band.  It was Blind and “Vote with a Bullet” which aroused my attention back in the day.  Crowbar I saw fairly recently opening for the Obsessed.  I was unaware they were from New Orleans until the band took the stage with fleur-de-lys symbols pervasive and the drummer wearing a Saints jersey.   With the exception of Crowbar, with whom I’m not familiar, I would actually compare Down’s material favorably to Pantera and Corrosion of Conformity, if only slightly so.  Anyone who likes those bands – or who likes Crowbar – should certainly enjoy Down. 

1.         NOLA    (1995).   Temptation’s Wings; Lifer; Pillars of Eternity; Rehab; Hail the Leaf; Underneath Everything; Eyes of the South; Jail; Losing All; Stone the Crow; Pray for the Locust; Swan Song; Bury Me in Smoke

Lineup:             Phil Anselmo (vocals) (Pantera); Pepper Keenan (guitar) (Corrosion of Conformity); Kirk Windstein (guitar) (Crowbar); Todd Strange (bass) (Crowbar); Jimmy Bower (drums) (Crowbar).

Tour 9/20/95 to 12/30/95.  No DC or Baltimore area show.

2.         II: A Bustle in Your Hedgerow (2002).  Lysergik Funeral Procession; There’s Something on My Side; The Man That Follows Hell; Stained Glass Cross; Ghosts Along the Mississippi; Learn From This Mistake; Beautifully Depressed; Where I’m Going; Doobinterlude; New Orleans is a Dying Whore; The Seed; Lies, I Don’t Know What They Say But…; Flambeaux; Dog Tired; Landing on the Mountains of Megiddo

Same lineup except with Rex Brown (Pantera) on bass instead of Todd Strange.

Tour:  4/28/02 to 5/25/02.  No DC or Baltimore area show.  They toured Europe for this album and recorded various shows – see below. 

3.         III: Over the Under (2007).   3 Suns and 1 Star; The Path; N.O.D.; I Scream; On March the Saints; Never Try; Mourn; The Tides; His Majesty the Desert; Pillamyd; In the Thrall of It All; Nothing in Return 

 After Dimebag’s death in 2006. Same lineup as II.

Tour:  9/27/07 to 10/14/08.  This tour went much further, including overseas AND Baltimore (10/31/07 at Sonar).

₊          Diary of a Mad Band (CD/DVD).  Live album recorded in London on the II tour in 2006, but released after III (no songs from that album played).  The DVD portion has different songs filmed in different cities (the band members’ clothing abruptly changes during the songs).

4.         IV Part 1 (The Purple EP) (2012).  Levitation; Witchtripper; Open Coffins; The Curse Is A Lie; This Work is Timeless; Misfortune Teller

Pat Bruders (Crowbar) took over on bass from Rex Brown.

5.         IV Part 2 (EP) (2017).  Steeple; We Knew Him Well; Hogshead/Dogshead; Conjure; Sufferer’s Years; Bacchanalia.

Bobby Landgraf on guitar in place of Kirk Windstein.   The band did not tour either EP.  Having listened to them again I’d say there is a substantial drop off in quality from NOLA/II/III and the IV EPs; while the first three albums were enjoyable, I found the IV EPs to be big time MEH.   Your mileage may vary.

Stoner Jesus.  If there is an iconic image associated with the band, it’s the Stoner Jesus, often featured on t-shirts – and a pint glass.  Browsing through the song titles will give you some idea that herbal remedies are popular as subject matter and among the band members.  Anselmo has a bad reputation as a heroin addict, not sure about the rest.  Overall the musical direction is Lynyrd Skynyrd dialed up as heavy as you can make it (too bad Raging Slab aren’t around anymore:  RIP Elise Steinman).  

Corrosion of Conformity

I saw this band a few weeks ago, playing at the 9:30 Club in DC.   I’d known about them for some time but never had a chance to see them live before – they opened for Metallica back in 1997, but due to rush hour traffic we didn’t reach the USAir Arena (formerly Cap Center) in time to see them play.  Moreover, guitarist/vocalist Pepper Keenan left the band to join Down (with Phil Anselmo of Pantera) for several years, during which time COC dropped to a three piece and put out two albums.  But now he’s back.

Pre-Pepper.  I actually ignored them before he showed up, as my impression was they were another hardcore punk band, of which I had no interest.  This lineup had two albums, Eye For An Eye and Animosity, and an EP, Technocracy.   They’re OK, a punk band that thrashes.  However, given how poorly most punk guitarists play, I’d have to say it’s 70% thrash, 30% punk.  The punk comes from short, brutal, intense songs with some quasi-political lyrics I can’t decipher thanks to the usual thrash vocals. 

Pepper.  Pepper Keenan joined the band for the album Blind.  This album, with its “hit single”, “Vote With A Bullet”, signaling a change to a more thrashmetal style, got my attention and kept it.  I bought Blind on cassette and enjoyed it immensely.  From then on, I was a COC fan.

Shortly after Blind, vocalist Karl Angell left the band, and Pepper Keenan took over on lead vocals, establishing a 4 man lineup which could be considered the “classic”:  Woody Weatherman (rhythm guitar), Mike Dean (bass), and Reed Mulllin (drums).  This version put out Deliverance (featuring “Albatross”), Wiseblood, America’s Volume Dealer, and In The Arms of God, before Pepper left to join Down. 

Post-Pepper.  With Pepper gone, the band reverted to a three piece, and put out two albums, Corrosion of Conformity and IX, both of which are OK in quality, about 70% as good as the Pepper material.  Your de facto “Must Have”, CORE CoC is definitely the Pepper material. 

  

Down.  This is a joint project of Pepper Keenan & Phil Anselmo (Pantera).  They have three full albums, NOLA, Down II: A Bustle In Your Hedgerow, and Down III: Over the Under, two EPs, Down IV Part I and II, and a live album, Diary of a Mad Band.  I like the combination of the two.  If you liked COC, you’ll probably like Down, and vice versa.

Return.  Pepper is back – though Down is still going on.  I suppose he’s switching back and forth.  With Dimebag RIP, and Vinnie Paul hates Phil Anselmo, no luck with a Pantera reunion even if someone like Zakk Wylde was inclined to sub in for Dimebag, a scenario likely vetoed by Vinnie Paul and any Pantera fan who hates Wylde.  For his part, Anselmo also seems to be keeping Superjoint (Ritual) going, plus another project.  Be that as it may, stay tuned for more COC and possibly more Down. 

On second thought, Anselmo’s recent National Socialist indiscretion may negatively impact his marketability.  Half the posts on Facebook say, “I don’t care about his politics,” and the other half say “that’s it, I’m never patronizing PA or any band he’s in, anymore.”  So that might well doom Down as a band, but at least Pepper could keep COC going.  Anyhow.  

Supergroups

These are groups comprised of members who are already well-known from other bands.  I’ll start with the most recent and work backwards.

 Them Crooked Vultures.  Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) (guitar, vocals), Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, and briefly in QOTSA), and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) (bass/keyboards).  To be honest, I can’t tell JPJ’s bass playing from anyone else’s.  To my ears – and I’m a big QOTSA fan – this sounds 80% like QOTSA and not at all like Led Zeppelin.  To me, though, that’s a good thing, although I do like Led Zeppelin as much as I like QOTSA.

            I’ve read several interviews with Jimmy Page, and to hear him talk, I get the impression that Page and Plant were not really good friends with Jones, although they liked Bonham.  Also reading Hammer of the Gods, Jones seems like the odd one out.  There seems to be a disconnect, like Jones’ competence and skill were beyond dispute, but he was simply “that guy” who played bass and keyboards for them, punching a clock.  Yet Homme and Grohl seem to have genuine affection for him, like they realize “this guy is very underrated and gets a raw deal.”  Given that Plant nixed a Zep reunion to tour with Alison Krause – Page and Jones were willing – I’d say Plant is very full of himself.  Anyhow, good to see that Jones’ skills are not going to waste simply due to Plant’s misguided ego.

 Chickenfoot.  Sammy Hagar (solo, Montrose and Van Halen) (vocals), Joe Satriani (solo)(guitar), Michael Anthony (Van Halen)(bass), and Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers)(drums).  I was surprised, this wasn’t an AOR wuss-out effort, but is actually pretty damn hard, even sounding somewhat like AC/DC.  The name is a takeoff on the logo, which is the peace symbol, a rare departure from the usual sexual innuendo names.

 The Company Band.  Neil Fallon (Clutch)(vocals), James Rota (Fireball Ministry)(vocals), Dave Bone (guitar), Brad Davis (Fu Manchu)(bass), and Jess Margera (CKY)(drums).  They have an EP, Sign Here, Here and Here, and a self-titled full-length album.  The cover of the EP looks like a corporate report, while the album cover looks like an old-fashioned stock certificate.  It mostly sounds like Clutch but a bit weirder and funkier.

 Down.  Phil Anselmo (Pantera)(vocals), Pepper Keenan (Corrosion of Conformity)(guitar), Kirk Windstein (Crowbar)(guitar), originally Todd Strange (Crowbar)(bass), now Rex Brown (Pantera)(bass), and Jimmy Bower (Eyehategod)(drums).  They have several albums, NOLA (as in, New Orleans & L.A.), Down II: A Bustle in Your Hedgerow, and Down III: Over the Under.  I think of them as a merger of Pantera and COC, and in this case Anselmo tones down his vocals to something closer to James Hetfield than Tom Araya.  It’s like nasty, gritty, rusty, swampy rock, like Lynyrd Skynyrd on bad acid.   

 Damn Yankees.  Ted Nugent (solo), Jack Blades (Night Ranger)(bass), Tommy Shaw (Styx)(vocals, rhythm guitar), and Michael Cartellone.  This was fairly AOR commercial rock, not too bad.  Some of the material on Nugent’s Craveman album had credits to Blades & Shaw, as it came from the never-released second DY album.  Nugent joked that it had been produced by a “gay bandito, and I promised to kill him and his whole family if that turd saw the light of day.” 

 Mr. Big.  Eric Martin (vocals), Paul Gilbert (guitar), Billy Sheehan (bass), and Pat Torpey (drums).  To me, Sheehan’s major contribution was to David Lee Roth’s solo album Eat ‘Em and Smile (remember “Yankee Rose”?), and Paul Gilbert was another popular shredder (Racer X).  I have no idea where Martin and Torpey came from.  This was very much like Damn Yankees, fairly light and fluffy AOR material.  I got this album at the same time as King’s X, Gretchen Goes To Nebraska, expecting to feel blah about King’s X and love Mr. Big, but it was the other way around.

 Asia.  John Wetton (King Crimson, Wishbone Ash, Family)(bass), Steve Howe (Yes)(guitar), Geoff Dowenes (Keyboard), and Carl Palmer (ELP)(drummer).  They were big when I was in high school (80s) but I never cared for them.  By this point I think of Wetton as part of King Crimson’s best lineup, which recorded Larks Tongues in Aspic, Starless and Red.  Bill Bruford, as equally part of Yes as Crimson, recently retired, and remarked that if he really wanted to make some cash, he’d call up Robert Fripp to do a tour playing Larks Tongues and Red in their entirety.

 Blind Faith.  Steve Winwood (Traffic, Spencer Davis Group)(vocals, keyboards), Eric Clapton (Yardbirds, Cream, solo)(guitar), Rich Graech (Family)(bass) and Ginger Baker (Cream, drums).  They have one album, with two major songs, “Can’t Find My Way Home” and “In the Presence of the Lord”.  I’m not a big fan of Clapton or Winwood, so this combo hardly lights my fire.  Nor does the famous album cover with the naked underage chick and the toy plane.  I prefer Roxy Music…

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (+ CSN).  Each member was already famous from previous bands when they joined forces, so this qualifies, but I never liked them very much.

State of Thrash 2008

It’s late 2008 and Metallica has released Death Magnetic, their attempt to remain relevant in today’s world of thrash metal. What does it look like now?


Basics. Heavy metal, as a musical genre, has been around for awhile. Depending on your definitions, it could have begun as early as the late 60s with Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Iron Butterfly and Blue Cheer, but certainly the big three of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin, with their peaks in the early 70s, can claim to be the musical bedrock upon which later bands such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest made their careers in the 80s. In the early 80s, thrash metal emerged at what could be considered the extreme edge of metal, the fastest, loudest, most obnoxious and least aural-friendly bands, the ones that Beavis & Butt-head would claim “scare chicks”.
Approaching the “hairy edge”, the challenge in this genre is to remain “music” of some sort recognizable as such to human ears and not drop off the precipice of mere white noise. As singers’ voices drifted from Rob Halford’s near opera quality skill, to James Hetfield’s growl, then to Tom Araya’s “singing”, the standard got lower and lower, until it reached the point where guttural growls, aka “Cookie Monster” vocals, became acceptable among many bands, despite the fact that we can no longer understand what’s being sung (lyric sheets, please!), and the “singing” sounds more like the grotesque garble of a person – man? woman? – whose lower jaw has been brutally smashed away or tongue ripped out. The same holds true for the music: as the tempo increased faster, the guitars got so fast that the band sounds less like “music” in any meaningful sense and more like a recording of a German WWII MG-42 being fired. Each of these descriptions tend to fit an extreme form of thrash, “death metal”, “grind core” or whatever, which I never liked and will not even address herein. When even the band’s logo is as indecipherable as its lyrics, surely you’ve reached a point of being noise for the sake of being noise. Leaving aside that branch of the thrash family, here is the more mainstream portion of the genre.


Top 4
Metallica. Formerly the top band, until the Napster bullshit and an atrocious sellout. They blended Black Sabbath and Diamond Head and managed to almost single-handedly establish and dominate the genre, progressively improving their sound over several albums: Kill ‘Em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, the Garage Days EP, …And Justice For All, and Metallica (aka the Black Album). They succeeded on their own terms, and eclipsed even Ozzy, Sabbath, AC/DC, and most other metal bands during the late 80s and early 90s, with the exception of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. If anyone could take on grunge, it was Metallica. Even replacing Cliff Burton (RIP) with Jason Newsted had no impact, as …And Justice For All managed to achieve the impossible: attracting a vast group of new fans to the band without alienating the hardcore faithful. I got Ride The Lightning in January 1985 for my 16^th birthday, and we saw them that summer at the Donington Monsters of Rock festival.
Then suddenly we were hit with Load. WTF? Metal fans, including Metallica fans such as ourselves, are notoriously sensitive to a band’s inclination – even perceived – to “sell out”, and many argued that after …And Justice For All, the much shorter songs on Metallica (particularly “Nothing Else Matters” and “The Unforgiven”) were Exhibits A-L in the “Metallica sold out” case. To me, …And Justice For All was simply too self-indulgent, and Metallica was nothing more than a distillation of the true essence into a more concentrated format, not a dramatic or fundamental change in perspective. With Load we had, without a doubt, such a change, and not for the better. The songs have a clipped, staccato feel more in tune with grunge than with their previous work. It’s as if Metallica decided to co-opt grunge by joining it, forsaking pioneering their own type of music and simply trying to re-align themselves to what they perceived was a more commercially acceptable format. Re-Load was at least an honest title, as it gave us more of the same shit. St Anger was a definite improvement, but not a return to the earlier sound. This album sounds like the anger was directed at the fans. But hey: you cut your hair, you added guyliner & piercings (what were you thinking, Kirk??), dressed up as cowboys, etc. If the music didn’t scream sellout, the haircuts certainly did. “Queer Eye For Metallica”. And “Some Kind of Monster” didn’t help either. Mustaine accurately called it “Some Kind of Bullshit.”
So what do you we have with Death Magnetic? Too early to tell for me. Kirk grew his hair back, we have Trujillo on bass instead of Jason Newsted (who really looked like a major league asshole in “Some Kind of Monster” – where is Echobrain now, huh?), and we’ve even got the old logo back. None of the songs suck outright, and a few of them are pretty good: “The Day That Never Comes”, “Cyanide”, and the extended instrumental “Suicide & Redemption”. The weakest track, I find, is the last one: “My Apocalypse”, the last track and probably overly aggressive solely to prove a point and close out the album on such a note (like “Damage Inc” on Master of Puppets). I can’t say this album picks up where Metallica left off, but even after hearing it twice I still come away from it liking it more than St Anger. Maybe I’m tired of hating them and finally willing to give the material a fair listen.
The problem is, James, Kirk and Lars are all 25 years older than they were in 1983. They have wives (or girlfriends) and kids. Even if they wanted to replicate the first few albums, they’re no longer the angry, arrogant young guys we saw in “Cliff ‘Em All”, as “Some Kind of Monster” so graphically showed us. Can thrash metal only be effectively written and performed by drunk, horny, guys in their early 20s? Is there an age limit? I don’t hear anyone claiming that Ozzy or Lemmy are “too old”, and Tony and Geezer seem to get more distinguished, but no less credible musicians, as they age. The younger bands still bow, “we’re not worthy”, before them, so Metallica can redeem themselves from the shame of Load, Re-Load, and “Some Kind of Monster” and give us some decent thrash we can appreciate in perspective. Hell, those of us old enough to have seen Cliff Burton play with Metallica, aren’t exactly kids ourselves anymore.
Actually, after years of having to endure “cookie monster” vocals from various thrash bands (“Who’s gonna sing?” “I dunno, pick the guy who sings the worst”), I now appreciate James Hetfield’s voice. He clearly enunciates the lyrics but gives it just enough rasp and venom to give it the nasty edge it needs to work.


Megadeth. Dave Mustaine’s band. I’ll give him this: he never gave us anything close to Load or Re-Load. But no matter who the band members are, Megadeth always strikes me as second-rate Metallica. Mustaine takes Hetfield’s rasp and warps it into a perpetual, arrogant sneer. “Hey, I’m the asshole who sings.”


Anthrax. Not bad, just too clever. Even Scott Ian admits that this whole “NOT” thing obscured the band’s talent. I think they tried to take too much credit and attention for the “I’m The Man” and “Bring the Noize” deal of mixing rap and metal (no, I will NOT suck your dicks). Highlight? “I Am the Law”, the Judge Dredd song. Joey Belladonna was their best singer, clearly some good lungs. Anthrax’s image was, “we have no image”, but that, in itself, is an image if you try too hard to cram it down everyone’s throats. Enough.


Slayer. The official “serial killer concept album” band. I could never get into their earlier material, South of Heaven or Reign in Blood. Well, if you really hate Slayer, at least the longest you’ll have to endure any album is what, 20 minutes? To me, Seasons in the Abyss was their peak. I have to blame Tom Araya for starting this damn “cookie monster” vocal crap, although he is barely understandable. Now Kerry King has the “bald head, goatee, and arm covered in tattoos” deal. Whatever happened to “long hair, t-shirt” and just play a Strat or an Explorer? Everyone (except maybe Trouble) seems to have hired image consultants - not just Metallica.

We saw Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax together in June 1991 on the Clash of the Titans show, with Alice in Chains opening, but the nature of the format meant that each “headliner” could only play a 45 minute set. Value or not? On the Black Album tour, Metallica was playing, without an opening act, for 3 hours. Do the math and think about it.


Second Tier
Corrosion of Conformity/Down. CoC started out as a hardcore punk band and switched formats, putting Pepper Keenan on vocals. Damn good shit. With Down, Keenan teamed up with Phil Anselmo (Pantera) for what turns out to be New Orleans style thrash, some slow, smokey shit like a ratmeat barbecue dosed with brown acid. Awesome.


Trouble. From Chicago. They take Black Sabbath, add some Beatles and psychedelic stuff to the mix, and come out with a damn good result. The twin guitarists Rick Wartell (KK Downing double – even down to the Flying V) and Bruce Franklin (Uli Roth double, though playing an SG Junior instead of a Strat) trade off solos and harmonies to make Dave Murray and Adrian Smith jealous. Eric Wagner was cool as the singer from ’85 until this summer, but now he’s replaced by Kory Clarke – maybe not the same quality voice, but he has the energy and attitude.


White Zombie/Rob Zombie. Aside from no J. Yuenger or Sean Yseult (I share Beavis’ reaction: “What’s the deal with all these chick bass players?), I can’t tell the difference between the two. The music is acceptable – even catchy sometimes (“Living Dead Girl”, “More Human Than Human”) - but the sound effects and imagery is really over the top. Zombie seems to want to channel Alice Cooper (Cooper’s take on Marilyn Manson: “He wears makeup and has a woman’s name. How original.”).


Pantera. I was never too impressed with them. They started out as a glam metal band from Texas, added Anselmo and turned to thrash, and melted down for reasons I never understood (or cared to learn). I have Far Beyond Driven but never felt compelled to collect any other albums. I hated Dimebag Darrell’s goatee and Anselmo’s voice, but at least in Down he’s learned how to sing.


Voivod. From Montreal. Well played and written thrash metal. They deserve the distinction of being one of the first thrash bands to tip their hats to Gilmour, Waters, Mason & Wright (RIP). They covered “Astronomy Domine” long before Atomic Bitchwax, and I have their terrific 3D album, The Outer Limits, with their cover of “The Nile Song”. They also have a credible claim at being one of the first artsy – if perhaps pretentious – thrash bands around, long before Opeth.


Tool. Are they thrash? Industrial? Progressive? The same with Mars Volta and Thrak-era King Crimson. These are bands who are so far out, they truly defy any meaningful labels aside from “metal” – just as King Crimson has always done. I suppose you truly qualify as “original” when no one can figure out what to call you, even if they don’t necessarily like you. By this point I’ve tuned out on Mars Volta; I wasn’t impressed with Bedlam in Goliath, their latest album, and live they stink. But I still love Tool, especially since 10,000 Days, their latest album, is their best, and unlike Mars Volta, they’re damn good in concert. In fact, I remember thinking as I started getting into Tool last year, that until they came around, Metallica were the heaviest band who could still be called “music” in some way. Tool have since stolen the mantle, and even comparing 10,000 Days with Death Magnetic, have yet to relinquish it back to its erstwhile owners. There’s something inherently metallic about the music, as if it were designed or engineered, and built, rather than written – some industrial science rather than art; Maynard Keenan’s side project, A Perfect Circle, seems to have an organic, fleshy feel to it compared to Tool. And live, the band disappears among the lights and magic, the screens behind them at the back of the stage, as if they were creating something far larger than themselves. A Tool live show is certainly an experience, in fact very similar to Pink Floyd – just 100 times heavier.


Exodus, Nuclear Assault, Flotsam & Jetsam, Suicidal Tendencies. I know of these bands but never paid attention to them. They’re more famous because of their former members than as bands themselves. Each of them has supplied a different member of Metallica: Kirk Hammett from Exodus, Jason Newsted from Flotsam & Jetsam, and most recently, Robert Trujillo from Suicidal Tendencies – replacing Newsted.


The Next Generation
Turisas. From Finland. I have their album The Varangian Way, a concept album about a band of Vikings who end up in Mikligard, aka Constantinople (Istanbul). Fairly well done (especially compared to Tyr)! Closest in sound to Opeth (see below). They covered Boney M’s single “Rasputin” and managed to make it work – both versions inspire a classic Cossack dance! However, they also play in full Viking regalia, which includes furs and war paint; and they have a violinist and an accordionist, so they have a huge novelty factor which may damage their credibility.
As with KISS, there is always a tendency to write off any band which overtly indulges in some obvious gimmick. AC/DC has Angus Young, Alice Cooper had his theatrics, and GWAR clearly have their elaborate stage show. More recently there’s Slipknot with their matching jumpsuits and different masks, Wayne Static’s bizarre hair & beard, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, etc. – clearly there is no shortage of bands who may or may not be trying to crutch substandard talent and music by a bizarre innovation. Being enthralled by the smoke & mirrors may trick you into buying into a genius that doesn’t exist – or blind detractors from talent hidden underneath all that. To call KISS talentless strikes me as both easy and unfair; they’re not geniuses or artists, but they do have real talent. I put Turisas in the same category, especially since I was impressed by their music before I even watched the bonus DVD revealing their stage presence. But the DVD shows them playing during broad daylight at various festivals, well below the top of the bill, to an audience which mostly paid to see the headliners and had these Viking weirdos inflicted upon them. Those people may be less inclined to give Turisas a fair hearing. We’ll see. They’re supporting Dragonforce AND headlining other clubs this fall, giving two groups of audiences exposure to this “battle metal”.


Opeth. From Sweden – finally a band the country can be proud to claim their own aside from ABBA. I have Watershed (newest album), The Roundhouse Tapes (live) and Damnation. Although they have their share of “cookie monster” vocals, the singer often makes a mistake and sings normally. They also slow down periodically and end up sounding like Pink Floyd on steroids (very reminiscent of Voivod). Probably one of the most talented of the new crew of thrash bands, and that appears to be the well-deserved reputation they’re developing. Even the heavy parts have almost a classical feel to them, similar to Metallica’s instrumentals “The Call of Ktulu” and “Orion”, even if Opeth don’t sound anything like Metallica.
Damnation is remarkable – and a judgment call. Technically it’s not really even a thrash album, more like remarkably executed progressive rock. But the fact that this band can pull it off at all is a major factor in their credit. Watershed is a thrash album, and a damn good one. The live album shows that not only can they play, Mikael Akerfeldt, the singer/lead guitarist is fairly witty and irreverent, almost a thrash version of Ian Anderson. His humor is a welcome foil to the music, which is all too often serious. What you’re left with is a refreshingly well-rounded band which covers the bases, slamming you in the head at one point, yet caressing you at others, similar to 70s era King Crimson. The truly great bands know how to build upon their influences yet still expanding and developing a new, unique sound of their own. This is what separates Opeth from Dragonforce, as noted below.


Dragonforce. Giving Opeth some stiff competition for role of top new band. I’ll have to go with Opeth, though. While Opeth are doing something unique and original, charting new territory, Dragonforce are basically ripping off Kill ‘Em All – from 1983!! – and pretending to give us something brand new. Do they really think that Metallica have so alienated every metal fan out there, that NO ONE has heard the first 3 Metallica albums? Give me a break. The one thing they change is having a singer who sounds like Steve Perry of Journey instead of James Hetfield or Dave Mustaine. I have their most recent album, Ultra Beatdown, which probably should be called Ultra Beatoff. I could barely endure it.
In addition to the almost note-for-note ripoff of the early Metallica sound, the lyrics are inane. Check them out for yourself and you’ll see what I mean. The best you could say for them is that they complement the music, but Metallica and Megadeth, and thrash bands in general, tend to at least attempt to write lyrics which are listenable and appreciable in and of themselves, not merely window dressing for the music just so it won’t be just an album of instrumentals. Thrash metal has established a fairly high standard for politically and socially relevant lyrics – even if 70% of them are about nuclear war, or if you can’t understand half of them because the singer can’t sing for shit – so Dragonforce fall well below the minimum threshold. Which is a shame, because their singer actually CAN sing for shit. But even if they fixed the lyrics, they’re still ripping off “Motorbreath”. Been there, done that.


Clutch. Not bad. I have one album, but I’ll have to hear more of them. They throttle it down a gear, but only one gear. In a way, this sounds like the sound Metallica is trying for on Load and Re-Load, except that for Clutch it’s 
their own sound, instead of an established band trying to latch on to an existing genre. Too bad.


High On Fire. The one song I heard sounded like this obscure band no one has ever heard of: METALLICA. Is the rest any different?


Mudvayne, Slipknot, Static X, Disturbed, Powerman 5000. ZZZZZZZZ. Please, spare me this Ozzfest garbage – I’ve had to endure each of these bands open for Black Sabbath over the years and have never been impressed by any of them. More bands with gimmicks galore and at best average talent. Can they play their instruments competently at 100 mph? Sure. Can they sing? Rarely. Are they doing anything that hasn’t been done over and over again? Not really. What was really laughable is that often the singer would bark out something about “down with all those boy bands or Britney who all sound exactly the same” and then give us second rate thrash metal which all sounds exactly the same. The music is hardly original or remarkable and they probably wouldn’t have as much of an audience if they dropped whatever gimmick they’re using (see Turisas above).

So who wins, circa 2008? I can’t decide between Tool or Opeth. Trouble deserve a solid silver metal simply by virtue of sheer persistence. I’d like to believe Metallica have redeemed themselves, but the jury is still out on Death Magnetic, and I still don’t like it as much as 10,000 Days or Watershed.

Confederate Metal

Here’s a relaxingly short blog entry for a change.  Spanning a continuum from country & western (C&W), then southern rock, eventually we reach something I’d call “Confederate metal” – it’s definitely southern in style but too heavy to be called rock.

 First off, here are the “southern rock” bands:  Lynyrd Skynyrd (of course), Molly Hatchet, Marshall Tucker, .38 Special, Blackfoot, Allman Brothers.  None of these quite reach the point of being metal, though metal fans often enjoy these bands.  These bands below are considerably heavier.

 DOWN – a side project with Phil Anselmo of Pantera and Pepper Keenan of Corrosion of Conformity.  Definitely metal, without a doubt, but also having a strong Southern tinge to them.

 Dixie Witch – a power trio from Austin, Texas.  They covered Skynyrd’s “On The Hunt” pretty well on a compilation album.  They also tour with the Suplecs.

 Raging Slab – actually from New York City (!!) but they definitely qualify.  When the first album came out back in 1990, they were hailed as “a cross between Lynyrd Skynyrd and Metallica”.  They have a female slide guitarist, Elise Steinman.  The first album, Raging Slab, is the best; subsequent albums tend to vary in quality.  The most recent is Pronounced Eat Shit, clearly a tribute to Skynyrd and their first album.

 Suplecs – from New Orleans.  One of the heavier ones, also qualifying as stoner rock.  They’re big Saints fans.  Check out “Cities of the Dead”, one of their better songs.  They also covered the Beatles’ “She’s So Heavy” (from Abbey Road) even better than Type O Negative.

 Pride & Glory -  Zakk Wylde’s one album side project before he started Black Label Society (which could also qualify under this category).  Given that he’s from New Jersey, I suppose he’s a Yankneck (redneck from north of the Mason-Dixon Line).  I’m the opposite – here in Virginia (CSA country) bleeding Union dark blue. 

 I say “Confederate”, but none of these bands actively advocate abolishing the 13^th Amendment, seceding from the Union, or racism in general.  “Southern metal” could be another word, but it’s not as cool or interesting as “Confederate”.