Cover Albums

 

The March 2022 issue of Classic Rock Magazine has its cover story on … covers.  “Covers” are when one musician plays a song by another musician.  Oddly, although Garage, Inc. (Metallica’s double covers album) is mentioned, there’s really no discussion of cover albums per se.  And as I can show you below, there are now plenty of them to talk about.

Morning and Evening.  When bands are starting out, they have to rely on covers until they hone the skills necessary to write acceptable quality material of their own, obviously drawing upon the inspiration of those covers.  The Beatles had gone to 100% originals by the third album, A Hard Day’s Night, but even Please Please Me (#1) and With The Beatles (#2) were less than 50% covers.  The Stones didn’t make it to 100% originals until Aftermath, their fourth album, and the first album had only one original.

Likewise, when the bands get older and run out of gas, rather than put out an album of substandard originals, it’s much easier just to do an album of covers.  Of course, it’s intriguing to hear how they put their mark on other bands’ music.  What I noticed, though, was most of these covers predate the band’s own material and – as Saxon explicitly acknowledge with the album title – were their inspirations.  What I rarely hear are any of these bands playing covers of their own peers and competitors.  Thus no Beatles covers on Blue & Lonesome, no Black Sabbath (and just a snippet of “Dazed and Confused” in a medley) on Turning to Crime, no Megadeth, Slayer or Anthrax on Garage, Inc. 

Here they are, listing the songs and the original artists.

Deep Purple, Turning To Crime.  The most recent of these.  Half are fairly obscure 50s tunes, the rest are more famous 60s tunes.

7 and 7 Is (Love); Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu (Huey “Piano” Smith); Oh Well (Fleetwood Mac); Jenny Take A Ride (Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels); Watching The River Flow (Bob Dylan); Let The Good Times Roll (Louis Jordan & the Tympany Five); Dixie Chicken (Little Feat); Shapes of Things (Yardbirds); The Battle of New Orleans (Johnny Horton); Lucifer (Bob Seger); White Room (Cream); Caught in the Act (medley including “Dazed and Confused” (Led Zeppelin), “Hot ‘Lanta” (Allman Brothers))

Ace Frehley, Origins Vols 1 & 2.  The original lead guitarist for KISS.  These were released separately in 2016 and 2020.  He claims he’ll do a Vol. 3, but the story quoting him saying so isn’t dated.

Vol #1.  White Room (Cream); Street Fighting Man (Rolling Stones); Spanish Castle Magic (Jimi Hendrix); Fire And Water (Free); Emerald (Thin Lizzy); Bring It On Home (Led Zeppelin); Wild Thing (Troggs); Parasite (KISS – really a cover?); Magic Carpet Ride (Steppenwolf); Cold Gin (KISS); Till The End of the Day (Kinks); Rock and Roll Hell (KISS)

Vol #2.  Good Times Bad Times (Led Zeppelin); Never In My Life (Mountain); Space Truckin’ (Deep Purple); I’m Down (Beatles); Jumpin’ Jack Flash (Rolling Stones); Politician (Cream); Lola (Kinks); 30 Days In The Hole (Humble Pie); Manic Depression (Jimi Hendrix); Kicks (Paul Revere & the Raiders); We’ve Gotta Get Out of This Place (Animals); She (KISS)

Fu Manchu, The Covers.  I have this on vinyl, and have never seen it on CD.  It doesn’t show up on Amazon or eBay in either format, nor does their Wikipedia discography even mention it.  Apparently it was a limited release of 700 copies by the band itself.  As stoner rock bands go, FM have shorter, snappier, high tempo songs, often about skateboarding, so the punk influence is definitely front center, as the cover choices make clear. 

Who Are You (Void); Nothing Done (SSD); D.O.A. (Van Halen, not Bloodrock); When The Shit Hits The Fan (The Circle Jerks); Moving in Stereo (The Cars); Beach Blanket Bongout (JFA); Freedom of Choice (Devo); Godzilla (Blue Oyster Cult); Things Start Moving (Adolescents); Ride To Live (Live To Ride) (Twisted Sister); Six Pack (Black Flag); Words To Live By (Penance); Jailbreak (Thin Lizzy); Chevy Van (Sammy Johns).

Yngwie Malmsteen, Inspiration.  A few years back before the Saxon album.  YM plays large headstock Stratocasters with scalloped fretboards and took classical music into overdrive, blending it with obvious influences of Ritchie Blackmore, Uli Roth, and Jimi Hendrix, which makes their inclusion on this covers album a no-brainer.  Although he’s obviously talented and practiced those oddball scales rigorously, somehow he doesn’t seem to pull off more bluesier solos that well.  My recollection is that I got the UK album after hearing this one, the only track on the album I wasn’t already familiar with. That’s a prog super group with Allan Holdsworth (guitar), John Wetton (bass & vocals), Bill Bruford (drums), and Eddie Jobson (keyboards).

Carry On Wayward Son (Kansas); Pictures of Home (Deep Purple); Gates of Babylon (Rainbow); Manic Depression (Jimi Hendrix); In the Dead of Night (UK); Mistreated (Deep Purple); The Sails of Charon (Scorpions); Demon’s Eye (Deep Purple); Anthem (Rush); Child in Time (Deep Purple); Spanish Castle Magic (Jimi Hendrix)

Metallica, Garage, Inc.  Before this, they had “broken in” Jason Newsted with the $5.98 EP, Garage Days Re-Revisited (1987), before his bass was ignored on …And Justice For All.  Fast forward to 1998, when the band released Garage, Inc., which included the EP on disc 2 along with other previously released covers – including “Am I Evil” (Diamond Head) and “Blitzkrieg” (Blitzkrieg) which had been the b-sides of “Creeping Death” and tacked on to the Elektra version of their first album, Kill ‘Em All.  Then they went into the studio and recorded a whole CD worth of new covers, for a two disc set.  I like that they pick more obscure tunes instead of big hits.

Disc 1 (Freshly recorded):  Free Speech For the Deaf (Discharge); It’s Electric (Diamond Head); Sabbra Cadabra (Black Sabbath); Turn The Page (Bob Seger); Die, Die My Darling (Misfits); Loverman (Nick Cave); Mercyful Fate (Mercyful Fate); Astronomy (Blue Oyster Cult); Whiskey In the Jar (traditional, played by Thin Lizzy); Tuesday’s Gone (Lynyrd Skynyrd); The More I See (Discharge)

Disc 2 (previously released):  Helpless (Diamond Head); The Small Hours (Holocaust); The Wait (Killing Joke); Crash Course in Brain Surgery (Budgie); Last Caress/Green Hell (Misfits); Am I Evil? (Diamond Head); Blitzkrieg (Blitzkrieg); Breadfan (Budgie); The Prince (Diamond Head); Stone Cold Crazy (Queen); So What (Anti-Nowhere League); Killing Time (Sweet Savage); Overkill (Motorhead); Damage Case (Motorhead); Stone Dead Forever (Motorhead); Too Late Too Late (Motorhead) 

Monster Magnet, A Better Dystopia.  New Jersey's premiere stoner rock band.  Dave Wyndorf gave us this collection of mostly obscure tunes.  I would have preferred an entire album of Hawkwind covers – or least add in their earlier covers of “Brainstorm” and “The Right Stuff” – but at least he gives us the distinction of the only Hawkwind cover on any of these albums.

The Diamond Mine (spoken word intro); Born To Go (Hawkwind); Epitaph For A Head (Blackfoot); Solid Gold Hell (Scientists); Be Forwarned (Pentagram); Mr. Destroyer (Poobah); When The Wolf Sits (Jerusalem); Death (Pretty Things); Situation (Josefus); It’s Trash (Cavemen); Motorcycle (Straight To Hell) (Table Scraps); Learning To Die (Dust); Welcome To The Void (Morgen)

Motorhead, Under Cover.  Given that the man himself, Lemmy, already did “Motorhead”, “Lost Johnny” and “The Watcher” on both On Parole and Motorhead, I suppose Hawkwind songs weren’t going to show up here, though “Silver Machine” would have been cool. 

Breaking The Law (Judas Priest); God Save The Queen (Sex Pistols); Heroes (Bowie & Fripp); Starstruck (Rainbow); Cat Scratch Fever (Ted Nugent); Jumpin’ Jack Flash (Rolling Stones); Sympathy For The Devil (Rolling Stones); Hellraiser (Ozzy Osbourne); Rockaway Beach (Ramones); Shoot ‘Em Down (Twisted Sister); Whiplash (Metallica)

Ozzy Osbourne, Under Cover.  Yes, the same title as Lemmy’s.  Instead of Zakk Wylde, his guitarist on this is Jerry Cantrell of Alice In Chains.  Mike Bordin of Faith No More (who also played drums with Ozzy’s solo band, and Black Sabbath on the 1997 Ozzfest tour) is here on drums.  Ozzy gives us lots of hits from left field: a Beatles song, two John Lennon songs, King Crimson, and the hit the Moody Blues had before Justin Hayward and John Lodge joined and they became a prog band with Days of Future Passed, “Go Now”. 

Rocky Mountain Way (Joe Walsh); In My Life (Beatles); Mississippi Queen (Mountain); Go Now (The Moody Blues); Woman (John Lennon); 21^st Century Schizoid Man (King Crimson); All The Young Dudes (Mott the Hoople); For What It’s Worth (Buffalo Springfield); Good Times (The Animals); Sunshine of Your Love (Cream); Fire (Arthur Brown); Working Class Hero (John Lennon); Sympathy For The Devil (Rolling Stones); Changes (Black Sabbath – yes, like Ace, covering a song he was originally on)

The Rolling Stones, Blue & Lonesome.  Eleven years after their last album of original material, A Bigger Bang (9/5/05), the Stones come back with an album of exclusively blues covers.

Just Your Fool (Little Walter); Commit A Crime (Howlin’ Wolf); Blue and Lonesome (Little Walter); All of Your Love (Magic Sam); I Gotta Go (Little Walter); Everybody Knows About My Good Thing (Miles Grayson & Lermon Horton); Ride ‘Em On Down (Eddie Taylor); Hate To See You Go (Little Walter); Hoo Doo Blues (Otis Hicks & Jerry West); Little Rain (Ewart G. Abner Jr & Jimmy Reed); Just Like It Treat You (Willie Dixon); I Can’t Quit You Baby (Willie Dixon)

Rush, Feedback.  Back in 2007, fairly short – just an EP.  They did a tour for this album, which we saw, and for which some of the concert t-shirts were tie-dyes, with the 2112 Naked Man (who may or may not be the same naked guy from the Hemispheres cover) is now afraid of a peace symbol instead of a red star.

Summertime Blues (Eddie Cochran, but homage to The Who version, not the Blue Cheer version); Heart Full of Soul (Yardbirds); For What It’s Worth (Buffalo Springfield); The Seeker (The Who); Mr Soul (Buffalo Springfield); Seven and Seven Is (Love); Shapes of Things (Yardbirds); Crossroads (Robert Johnson/Cream).

Saxon, Inspirations.  Along with Iron Maiden and Def Leppard, among the trio of most successful New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) bands to emerge from the early 1980s and not merely survive but prosper, even if they aren't quite as famous or successful as the other two.  Biff & his comrades came out with this relatively recently.

Paint It Black (Rolling Stones); Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin); Paperback Writer (Beatles); Evil Woman (Crow); Stone Free (Jimi Hendrix); Bomber (Motorhead); Speed King (Deep Purple); The Rocker (Thin Lizzy); Hold The Line (Toto); Problem Child (AC/DC); See My Friends (Kinks)

Tesla, Real to Reel (Discs 1 & 2).  Often lumped together with Motley Crue and Skid Row as a "hair metal" band, Tesla were less about image than about the music itself, with a sincerity that was sometimes borderline naive.  Disc 1 was sold outright in CD packaging allowing for two.  The second disc was given at the shows for that tour, which I saw at the Ram’s Head Live in Baltimore.  Frank Hannon himself was at the merch booth and give me the disc – and signed the insert.

Reel 1.  Space Truckin’ (Deep Purple); Walk Away (James Gang); Hand Me Down World (Guess Who); Bad Reputation (Thin Lizzy); Thank You (Led Zeppelin); I’ve Got A Feeling (Beatles); Day of the Eagle (Robin Trower); Ball of Confusion (Temptations); Rock Bottom (UFO); Stealin’ (Uriah Heep); Bell Bottom Blues (Derek & the Dominos); Honky Tonk Woman (Rolling Stones); Dear Mr. Fantasy (Traffic)

Reel 2.  All The Young Dudes (Mott the Hoople); Make It Last (Montrose); Shooting Star (Bad Company); Not Fragile (BTO); Street Fighting Man (Rolling Stones); It’s My Body (Alice Cooper); I Want To Take You Higher (Sly and the Family Stone); Do You Feel Like We Do (Peter Frampton); Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers (ZZTop); Seasons of Wither (Aerosmith); Saturday Night Special (Lynyrd Skynrd); War Pigs (Black Sabbath)

UFO, The Salentino Cuts.  They started off with Mick Bolton on guitar for two space jam-type albums, then found Michael Schenker for five major seventies albums and a later trio of reunion albums; Vinnie Moore has been the guitarist for the last several albums.  The only constant member has been vocalist Phil Mogg, and they give us a rare gem: a LATER song, “River of Deceit” from Mad Season. 

Heartful of Soul (Yardbirds); Break on Through (The Doors); River of Deceit (Mad Season); The Pusher (Steppenwolf); Paper In Fire (John Mellencamp); Rock Candy (Montrose); Mississippi Queen (Mountain); Ain’t No Sunshine (Bill Withers); Honey-Bee (Tom Petty); Too Rolling Stoned (Robin Trower); Just Got Paid (ZZTop); It’s My Life (Animals).

As these are all experienced professionals, I didn’t hear any songs butchered, though I didn’t hear any where I felt they had improved on the originals.  In about 20% of the cases I was unfamiliar with the source material to make any kind of comparison anyway.  As a Monster Magnet fan, though, I was dissatisfied with Wyndorf’s choices; it seems he deliberately picked extremely obscure tracks to continue cultivating his “aren’t I cool?  I wear sunglasses at night” persona. 

Tribute Albums.  I suppose the opposite of a covers album, where one band covers all sorts of different bands’ songs, is a tribute album, in which all different bands cover one band’s songs.  The most recent was Blacklist, where Metallica’s 1991 self-titled, so-called Black Album, gets cover treatment by a host of bands outside their own genre.  The sad apart about it is that almost all of them make the original versions sound that much better.  It’s almost as if the band was thinking, “well, everyone seems to think we sold out on this album, but here are versions of our songs which are far more commercial than our own.  See how you like those.” 

MetALiCCa

I saw Metallica’s second orchestral collaboration, S&M 2, on Wednesday night at the movie theater, and enjoyed about half of it:  the half corresponding to their material from 1983 to 1991, which was the beginning and the end of the show.  It occurred to me that Metallica has indulged in a few affectations over the years.   These are represented by the A, L, C and C uppercase.

Acoustic.   I got their Helping Hands album recorded earlier this year.  Of 12 songs, a full third, 4, were covers:  “When A Blind Man Cries” (Deep Purple), “Please Don’t Judas Me” (Nazareth), “Turn the Page” (Bob Seger), and “Veteran of the Psychic Wars” (Blue Oyster Cult).  The remaining songs were “Disposable Heroes”, “The Unforgiven III”, “Bleeding Me”, “Nothing Else Matters”, “All Within My Hands”, “Enter Sandman”, “The Four Horsemen”, and “Hardwired”.

I’m getting really fed up with acoustic albums, and I think we can blame Tesla, a band I’d otherwise be praising, for this thanks to their Five Man Acoustical Jam. 

My assessment is that if a song was originally electric it will not sound any better as an acoustic song. 

I suppose I should distinguish songs which were acoustic from the beginning, and metal bands are surprisingly competent at doing so.   That being the case, their electric songs still work better in their original format than pretentiously reduced to acoustic parameters.   When it comes to bands’ ability to write original material in the acoustic format, I give Alice in Chains & Jerry Cantrell the top honors, with SAP and Jar of Flies being superlative.  Everyone else should stick to electric.

Here’s an idea: instead of this acoustic crap, how about taking songs which were originally acoustic and make electric, heavy versions of those?   Go for it! 

Live.  Actually, I can’t really call live albums an affectation.   For that reason I’ll give them a pass on that.  In fact, I’ll give them credit:  they’re releasing all of their shows from the most recent tour as live albums, not just a single live album per tour.  They haven’t matched their San Francisco comrades the Grateful Dead policy of playing a different set each night; their sets are about 80% identical night by night with 2-3 slots as wildcards.  [Dead & Company, the current incarnation of Jerry Garcia’s classic band, are also releasing all shows on MP3 and CD, as Metallica are.]  I picked up the May 2017 show at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, which is the show my brother and I saw for the Hardwired tour.  Of course I already had Live Shit: Binge & Purge, recorded on the Black Album tour. 

More recently, they have Live at Grimey’s, which is setlist heavy on older tunes – “Fuel” being the only one from later than Metallica.  In fact, it’s excellent enough to warrant sharing:  “No Remorse”, “Fuel”, “Harvester of Sorrow”, “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)”, “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, “Master of Puppets”, “Sad But True”, “Motorbreath”, and “Seek and Destroy”.  THREE songs from Kill ‘Em All!  This show was the night before their Bonnaroo show in 2008, which itself was a remarkable set:  

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/metallica/2008/great-stage-park-manchester-tn-53d6dfc9.html.  Sadly, only one track from that show (“Sad But True”) made it to recording.  We’ll have to enjoy the Grimey’s set instead…

Covers.  Yet again, comrades Tesla did this with Real To Reel, but they did this clever thing of releasing the first disc normally with the second disc picked up on the tour, which of course I attended (fall 2007).  I actually got Frank Hannon, who had been running the concession stand at the Ram’s Head Live at that show (aside from actually performing) to sign my CD insert – after he gave me disc 2.

Anyhow.   Metallica has been doing covers for awhile, and its Garage Inc did a remarkable job of a full new disc (#1) and compiling previous covers on Disc 2.  That’s in addition to the Garage Days Re-Revisited EP, the first endeavor with bassist Jason Newsted.   

Classical.  It’s now been twenty years since Metallica’s first classical collaboration, S&M, which gave us “No Leaf Clover”.  I have it on CD and have listened to it a few times.  At that time ReLoad was the most recent album, so of 21 songs, 7 were from Load and ReLoad, or one third. 

Now there’s S&M 2, twenty years after the first S&M show, a live show with an orchestra backing them up.  They’ll be adding another night, 10/30, on which you can see them in a local movie theater.  I would imagine when the run is over, the soundtrack (DVD/CD/MP3) will be available.  

Here’s what prompted me to do this blog, because I came to two conclusions based on this, one specific to Metallica and the other more general.

Metallica.   I liked Hardwired when it came out, considering it a change from the prior albums, which is to say Load, ReLoad, St Anger, and Death Magnetic, a series I’ll refer to as the Loadwired albums.  However, when it came to the middle of this set of S&M 2, I realized something.  After “For Whom The Bell Tolls”, the band plays nine Loadwired songs, including three (“Confusion”, “Moth into Flame”, and “Halo on Fire”) from Hardwired, before returning to “Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth)” in set 2.  All nine sounded equally “meh” to me.  Now, “meh” for Metallica isn’t crap, manure, commercial, or unendurable, but with so many other awesome songs on Kill ‘Em All through Metallica, I could do without any of the Loadwired songs taking up place in the set. 

And I could not aesthetically distinguish the three from Hardwired from the other six of that era.  That being the case, Metallica (aka the Black Album), is the cutoff point for the material I’m going to listen to on a regular basis and enjoy.  The Loadwired stuff is to be endured periodically and far less often, and I do have all of it on CD. 

On the other hand, some people arbitrarily stick with the Cliff Burton material, meaning you have only three albums to choose from – Kill ‘Em All, Ride the Lightning, and Master of Puppets.  It also means you’re going to miss the 9 excellent songs from …And Justice For All and twelve of Metallica.  This includes “One”.  Because you’re too pissy about “The Unforgiven” and “Nothing Else Matters”, you’ll also miss out on “Harvester of Sorrow” and “Sad But True”. 

Hey, it’s your loss.

General.  The more I hear these live albums where a band performs its material with an orchestra, the more I consider these to be an affectation. 

For songs I already liked, the orchestra really doesn’t add much more.  And for songs – like those Loadwired songs – which I never cared for to begin with, the orchestra doesn’t turn it into a song I now like. 

Let’s go a step further and briefly address bands releasing original classical music of their own (which disqualifies ELP’s Pictures at an Exhibition, by Modest Mussorgsky).

Atom Heart Mother.  I love this Pink Floyd album, although the band itself doesn’t.  Gilmour has been playing “Fat Old Sun” in his solo sets these days, and Waters has been playing “If”, but that’s side two, isn’t it?  And we all love Wright’s contribution, “Summer ‘68”.   I suppose we should say it’s the “Atom Heart Mother Suite” which takes up all of side A that the band really detests as overindulgent and pretentious, but I listen to the album in its entirety on a regular basis.  Hell, the album cover alone, with the cow, is distinctive and noteworthy. 

Deep Purple can claim the distinction of Concerto for Group and Orchestra, from September 1969, not only the first musical operation of Deep Purple Mark II which had finally formed that summer – Rod Evans and Nick Simper shown the door, and Ian Gillan and Roger Glover finally abandoning Episode Six and joining up – but also one of the first rock & orchestra collaborations.  Mind you, this wasn’t Deep Purple’s regular material – which at that point would have been exclusively Mark I material anyway – but original classical music written by keyboardist Jon Lord expressly for this project.  I have it on DVD and watched it once.  Blackmore plays his red ES335.  It’s done at the Royal Albert Hall.  It was interesting but hardly had me compelled to watch it again.

Days of Future Passed.  The Moody Blues album deserves credit as well, and predates Concerto by two years (1967).  In this case the orchestra was real – the London Festival Orchestra – but the material was expressly written and recorded with the orchestra ab initio.  And this is an album I’ll listen to far more often than Concerto.  The Blues themselves have played the album live in its entirety fairly recently (2017) with the full orchestra.  I can venture to say that Concerto didn’t get a repeat performance, and with Jon Lord resting in peace and the rest of the band close to packing it in, isn’t likely to in the near future.

How did we get to Atom Heart Mother and Days of Future Passed from Metallica???  Classical music, two S&M performances.  Given that we know Metallica has no objection to playing covers, perhaps S&M 3 should add in Floyd and the Moody Blues.  Think about it, guys….

*****

People seem to love hating on Metallica, and I find about 50% of the crap to be justified.  But for all my dozing off during the Loadwired material, I certainly came back when “Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth)” resumed a set section I knew would be exclusively older material.  Now let me sit back and enjoy the Grimey’s show….

Sell Out!

One beef I hear quite often is that bands “sell out”.  That is, they betray their fans and their heritage by changing their sound to sell more albums and make more money.  I’d like to address this issue.

As professional musicians their job is to write and record music, then perform it, to a sufficient level of competence that a critical mass of people are willing to purchase the music and pay to see them perform it.  It would be odd to suggest that a band deliberately write music to minimize their audience and income.   “We need to write music good enough that people actually buy it, but not so good that too many people like it.”

Having said that, I rarely watch the Grammy award shows and almost never listen to the bands and artists who win the most.  My own tastes center around AC/DC and Black Sabbath, plus stoner rock, the Beatles & Beach Boys, and progressive rock like Pink Floyd (who played stadiums in the late 70s, including Montreal!) and King Crimson (not the same level of popularity).   Some bands I like only play clubs and very likely will never play any larger venues:  Clutch and many stoner rock bands.  But if by some miracle Clutch had a top 10 album and were thrust into a spotlight headlining hockey arenas or music festivals, I’d be just as happy to see them there as I am to see them at the current places they play, mainly small local clubs.

Here are some examples.

Aerosmith.  Originally a classic rock band in the 1970s with an excellent album, Toys in the Attic, years later they hit it big with Permanent Vacation and other similar albums.   These are clearly more commercially oriented than Toys in the Attic, though you can be sure they continue to play the older material live.  Did they sell out?  Probably.  Are they worth seeing?  Sure.   Is the new material worth listening to?  Maybe on Spotify, but I wouldn’t spend my money on it.

Metallica.   Three thrash-defining albums with Cliff Burton on bass:  Kill ‘Em All, Ride the Lightning, and Master of Puppets.  Cliff died touring the last album, replaced by Jason Newsted, and the band blew everyone away with …And Justice For All.  Here’s an example of an album which achieves commercial success based on its merits rather than any deliberate attempt to sell for the sake of selling.  I’d argue the following album, self-titled Metallica, aka the Black Album, is more of the same, roughly the same running time of music divided into 12 songs instead of 9.   Because if you really thought the Black Album was the sellout, you’re wrong: it was the next album, Load.   Subsequent albums Re-Load and St. Anger gave us more of the same, Death Magnetic as well, and Hardwired…to Self-Destruct sounds like a return to the more traditional Metallica sound.

We saw the band tour recently in 2017, but the last show we saw was 1997, on the Load tour – our first show was (yes, I’ll mention it yet again) Donington 1985, on the Ride the Lightning tour.  We were not impressed with Re-Load through Death Man-getic and only Hardwired persuaded us to return to the camp.    

Def Leppard.   Did they sell out?  Yes.  Did they get away with it?  Remarkably, yes.  Initially yet another New Wave of British Heavy Metal band like Iron Maiden, Saxon, and Metallica-inspirers Diamond Head, Def Leppard had a forgettable debut album, On Through the Night, a killer second album, High’n’Dry (my favorite) produced by John “Mutt” Lange – the man responsible for AC/DC’s Highway to Hell, Back in Black, and For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) – and an excellent, if somewhat more commercial third album Pyromania which blew the doors open for them.   The next album, Hysteria, really threw off the pretense of metal and said, “ladies, line up here.”   However, it did eventually catch up with them after subsequent albums simply gave us more of the same and fans lost interest.  They still tour, but none of the albums have come close to matching Hysteria’s sales. 

Pink Floyd.  Here’s a weird case.  Obviously Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall sold far more than Piper At the Gates of Dawn through Obscured By Clouds, the prior albums.  But arguably they should have – they are much stronger albums.  How often does anyone listen to “The Grand Vizier’s Garden Party” or “Sisyphus” (Mason and Wright’s studio contributions to Ummagumma)?  I certainly watch “Live at Pompeii” and enjoy Atom Heart Mother, but I’d say the later material is still better.  

  

Some bands actually go backwards, starting out trying to sell millions of albums and then switching to simply writing whatever material they feel like, without any concern for sales.

Deep Purple.  Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, bassist Nick Simper, and keyboardist Jon Lord were frustrated with the lack of success of their respective bands in the late 60s and recruited singer Rod Evans and drummer Ian Paice to form Roundabout, quickly retitled Deep Purple.  From spring 1968 to summer 1969 they had three albums, Shades of Deep Purple, Book of Taliesyn, and (self-titled) Deep Purple, but despite touring the US opening for Cream and Vanilla Fudge, couldn’t get anyone much interested in them.  Their material was 50% covers and generally calculated to sell – and didn’t.   By July 1969 they’d persuaded singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover to quit their now-stagnant prior band Episode Six and by early 1970 had In Rock out in the record stores.  This was followed by Fireball and Machine Head.   Note, of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and this band, only Deep Purple released a live album, Made in Japan, at the same time as the tour it was recorded on.  The band only became successful AFTER it stopped trying to be successful.  So much for that.

The Beatles.   Same deal here.   The earlier material was intended to move units, by Sgt. Pepper they decided to stop touring and record whatever they wanted to.  Of course, by then they had established themselves as a band people wanted to hear, so John-Paul-George-Ringo aren’t quite the same as Ian G-Roger-Ritchie-Jon-Ian P (aka Deep Purple Mark II).  Be that as it may, they also quit touring, foregoing what could have been lucrative tour income – if only they could get all those screaming girls to shut up.   

Note:  Frank Zappa is famous for hating the Beatles, and my understanding is that he disagreed with the prior analysis of Sgt. Pepper representing a break with their prior commercial tendencies, cynically concluding that the band simply changed its tactics but not its strategy.  In fact, he titled his third Mothers of Invention album We're Only In It For The Money and designed the cover as a deliberate parody of Sgt. Pepper's famous cover.  It's hard to miss the point Zappa was trying to make.

Oddly, he liked the Monkees, who if anything were far more egregious than the Beatles.  Zappa’s distinction was that the Monkees themselves were trying to break out of the commercial prison they’d agreed to play in, insisting on playing their own instruments on the albums and writing their own material.  Fair enough, except that the Beatles had been doing so since Please Please Me.  I can scarcely imagine that the Monkees themselves, or their biggest fans, would compare Headquarters to Sgt. Pepper.   Mind you, the bands themselves got along with each other, and the Beatles encouraged the Monkees to expand beyond their original commercial constraints.  In terms of 60s psychedelic idiocy, Magical Mystery Tour and Head are probably about equal.  Getting back to Zappa’s assessment of the Beatles, though, even Rubber Soul and Revolver are far different than Please Please Me, “Tomorrow Never Knows” lights years apart from “Love Me Do”.   I’m a big fan of Zappa, but I’m also a fan of the Beatles, and on this issue I’ll side with the Liverpool guys over Frank.

In general I find this tendency to scream “sell out” whenever a band begins to achieve more commercial success to be the rock equivalent of “snowflake” status.   It’s really convenient that this seem to happen AFTER the person has already been seeing the band in concert.   Anyhow.   Sometimes the material sells more because it’s better, sometimes not, not necessarily one or the other.  As noted, there’s Def Leppard and there’s Pink Floyd.  Decide after listening to the music itself, NOT because the band wound up at the Grammys.   

Donington Monsters of Rock

By now I’ve been to too many concerts, not all them thoroughly memorable, to make them all worth blogging about.  But every now and then there’s one which merits the treatment, if only briefly.

The other night, on the treadmill, I wasn’t able to find the Thursday night NFL game, but I did find MTV showing footage of Glastonbury Fayre in the UK.  Ack!  Kaiser Chiefs, Shaggy, Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa…who are these people?  I suppose Radiohead is the only one of that type of band I can stomach.  Give me Donington and Download…

When we lived in Paris, our parents knew another family – I believe with USTS/USTTA – which lived in southwest London; Baron’s Court was the nearest Underground (“Tube”) station.   Apparently the Chelsea stadium must have been nearby, but at the time I had no clue Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham, etc. even existed, much less were anywhere nearby.  Anyhow.   Since we got to go back the Wonderful US of A in even-numbered years, in odd-numbered years we’d vacation in London.  For example, we were in London the summer of 1983 when “Return of the Jedi” came out, and saw it at Leicester Square.  We’ll never forget the cheeky British kids behind us who would NOT SHUT UP, going on about “corr, Wheetabix!” and “corr, Darth Vader!” in their inimitable British accents.

ANYHOW.

I’ve already discussed Metallica’s show here in my recent Metallica blog, so forgive any repetition thereof.  Here’d I’d like to cover the festival itself.

In August 1985 we were back in London.  We learned that RATT were playing at a festival called Donington Monsters of Rock.  Then we learned that Metallica were also playing there.  DING DING DING!  The US Embassy had a bus going there – bus tickets & concert tickets combined in one package.  Where do we sign up?

Our poor Dad had to get up at 5 a.m., drive a right-hand drive car (our friends’ car, which normally stayed in the garage as we normally took the Tube everywhere beyond walking distance) through the streets of London to get us to the Navy Annex where we got on the bus.  

The bus wound its way up the … M1?  No clue.  The highway.  Anyhow.   “Money For Nothing” (Dire Straits) was on the radio literally nonstop, although Dire Straits were not playing at this show.   And my brother and I arrived at this huge empty field at a race track, with a stage at one end.  It was a huge, unruly crowd of Vyvyans, with a few Neals and Ricks thrown in there and there.

Band 1:  Magnum.   Some quasi-metal, quasi-prog British band was up first.  Matt has since investigated this band, but I never did.  They were….OK.
SET: All England's Eyes; The Prize; On A Storyteller's Night; Changes; Les Morts Dansant; The Lights Burned Out; Two Hearts; Sacred Hour; Kingdom of Madness

Band 2.  RATT.  “Round And Round” – of course.  Invasion of Your Privacy was the current album, but Out of the Cellar was the popular one – and remains so today.   A good show, though as of this point I can remember little of it.  Incidentally I’ve never seen RATT again. 

SET: You Got It; Wanted Man; You Think You're Tough; You're In Love; Lay It Down; The Morning After; Never Use Love; Round And Round; Sweet Cheater

Band 3.  Metallica.  YES!   Ride the Lightning tour.   Hetfield, Hammett, Ulrich and CLIFF F’N BURTON.  We were definitely psyched.  Not everyone else was – many bottles and cans were thrown at the stage, which James, Kirk and Cliff had to periodically duck.  Hetfield implored the audience not to “hit our beer”.   More recently I finally scored a bootleg of this show, and lo and behold, I heard him say that again.   Nice.

SET: Creeping Death; Ride The Lightning; For Whom The Bell Tolls; The Four Horsemen; Fade to Black; Seek & Destroy; Whiplash; Am I Evil?; Motorbreath

Band 4.  Bon Jovi.  I can’t remember which tour this was, and to this day remain unimpressed with Bon Jovi.  I certainly wasn’t impressed that day.   Mind you, this was before "Wanted Dead or Alive", which at gunpoint I'd identify as the Bon Jovi song I hate the least.  I think I had a headache and took a nap during their set, believe it or not.
SET: Tokyo Road; Breakout; Only Lonely; Runaway; (guitar solo); (drum solo); In And Out Of Love; I Don't Want To Go Home; Get Ready

Band 5.  Marillion.   Yes, at the same concert as Metallica was this band, who we’d never heard before.  No bottles or cans chucked at Fish & his friends.  Indeed not.  It was the Misplaced Childhood tour.   Matt and I were actually impressed, him more so than me.  I got a t-shirt, he got all their albums and followed them even into the Steve Hogarth phase.  He also followed solo Fish and saw his shows, but apparently much of those involve lengthy diatribes about Scottish independence, delivered to American audiences who have no reason to give a shit about that. 
SET: Waterhole (Expresso Bongo); Lords of the Backstage; Blind Curve; Emerald Lies (intro); Script For A Jester's Tear; Assassing; Pseudo Silk Kimono; Kaleigh; Lavender; Bitter Suite; Heart of Lothian; Incubus; Garden Party; Market Square Heroes; Fugazi; White Feather

Band 6.  ZZTop.  By now I was zonked out, and practically sleeping on the bus.  Matt says he was actually watching the show.  I like ZZTop, and now have several of their albums.  With Eliminator and its various videos playing all the time – most notably “Legs” – we knew who they were.  By now I’d call “La Grange” my favorite song.   Reviewing the setlist now, I regret I was not actively enjoying the show, but I’d have lacked the musical maturity to enjoy most of the set, including a Funkadelic cover.   [If anyone has a bootleg of this show, by all means let me know.]
SET: Got Me Under Pressure; I Got The Six; Gimme All Your Lovin'; Waiting For The Bus; Jesus Just Left Chicago; Sharp Dressed Man; Ten Foot Pole; TV Dinners; Manic Mechanic; Heard It On The X; I Need You Tonight; Pearl Necklace; Arrested For Driving While Blind; Hit It And Quit It (Funkadelic); Party on the Patio; Legs; Tube Snake Boogie; Can't Stop Rockin'; Jailhouse Rock (Elvis); La Grange; Tush 

The bus left, brought us home, and yet again our poor Dad had to pick us up again.   We’d scored t-shirts of Metallica (Metal Up Your Ass, the only choice), RATT, Marillion, and a ZZTOP DONINGTON one, none of which fit anymore, assuming we can find them (I recently got a new Metallica one in XL). 

1985 was actually the last time I was in London or the UK, so I haven’t been able to attend any more Doningtons or any Downloads.  Checking the lineups for other years shows that even numbered years had the best lineups.

Here they are, in reverse order (headliner first) (* = show recorded/filmed for official release):

1980.  Rainbow, Judas Priest, Scorpions, April Wine, Saxon*, Riot, Touch.

1981.  AC/DC, Whitesnake, Blue Oyster Cult, Slade, Blackfoot, More

1982.  Status Quo, Gillan, Saxon, Hawkwind (!!!!), Uriah Heep, Anvil

1983.  Whitesnake, Meat Loaf, ZZTop, Twisted Sister, Dio, Diamond Head

1984.  AC/DC, Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne, Y&T, Gary Moore, Accept, Motley Crue

1985.  See above.

1986.  Ozzy Osbourne, Scorpions, Def Leppard, Motorhead, Bad News, Warlock

1987.  Bon Jovi, Dio, Metallica, Anthrax, WASP, Cinderella

1988.  Iron Maiden*, KISS, David Lee Roth, Megadeth, Guns N’Roses, Helloween

1990.  Whitesnake, Aerosmith, Poison, Quireboys, Thunder

1991.  AC/DC*, Metallica, Motley Crue, Queensryche, The Black Crowes

1992.  Iron Maiden*, Skid Row, Thunder, Slayer, WASP, The Almighty

1994.  Main Stage: Aerosmith, Extreme, Sepultura, Pantera, Therapy?, Pride & Glory; Second Stage: The Wildhearts, Terrovision, Skin, Biohazard, Cry of Love, Headswim

1995.  Metallica, Therapy?, Skid Row, Slayer, Slash’s Snakepit, White Zombie, Machine Head, Warrior Soul, Corrosion of Conformity

1996.  Main Stage: KISS, Ozzy Osbourne (both headlining, but playing separately), Sepultura, Biohazard, Dog Eat Dog, Paradise Lost, Fear Factory; Kerrang! (Second) Stage: Korn, Type O Negative, Everclear, 3 Colours Red, Honeycrack, Cecil

The festival was discontinued, until 2003, when it was reborn – taking place at the same location – as the Download Festival.   Saxon’s song “And the Bands Played On” (off Denim & Leather) is about Donington. 

Metallica Returns!

The premier San Francisco thrash band kicked off their newest US tour of their latest album, Hardwired…to Self-Destruct in Baltimore, Maryland, of all places, at M&T Bank Stadium (home of the Baltimore Ravens) of all places, attended by my brother and I, of all people.   Oh, and few thousand others, of which we knew only a college suitemate up in the ozone rafters, section 5 million something, with his teenage son (and we did not cross paths – too bad).

First off, thank the Almighty One Upstairs for giving us clear, decent weather – neither hot nor cold – for what was for everyone an outdoor event.   Gone are the days of Metallica playing basketball/hockey arenas indoors – in any case the tour is coinciding with the NBA Playoffs and the Stanley Cup.   Whether you got seats up in the ozone or some “Hetfield leans over to kiss you” pit tickets, you were outdoors.  And the weather, as previously noted, cooperated.  Hallelujah!

Second, I would like to thank my brother Matt for arranging this: not merely paying for my ticket, but also navigating the substantially complex minefield of options available when purchasing a ticket for a large venue for an established band, an endeavor considerably trickier than simply buying general admission tickets for a small club show.  Also, he drove us up to Baltimore in rush hour traffic (and back).  Over the years, since our first show together for either of us, AC/DC in October 1984, he has been my most consistent concert companion (always avoid alliteration).  That remains true even today, when I’m seeing more shows in the NYC area or concerts by jam bands and stoner rock bands, a taste Matt does not share.  Although I’d say it’s more accurate to say my tastes have expanded rather than changed, because Dead and SunnO))) shows are in addition to, not instead of, Metallica and Iron Maiden. 

Third, since this was the first stop on the tour, I’ll refrain from revealing the setlist, which is available on Setlist.fm anyway for those of you who are curious.  If Metallica has adopted its SF comrades the Grateful Dead’s policy of changing setlists from show to show, it would be news to me.  The only non-jam bands which do so are Clutch and Pearly Jam.  However, I can’t help sharing that the Spanish Civil War – Republicans with Mosin-Nagants, Fascists with Mausers – made its appearance, as did WWI, though the flat helmeted US doughboys got an unexpected upgrade, trudging past Mark IVs carrying M1 Garands, Thompson SMGs, and bazookas to blow apart the few A7Vs and captured Mark IVs they may have encountered in spring through fall of 1918.  Guess which songs these images relate to, and decide whether the answers surprise you.   Also, for those of you pining for Cliff Burton, there was a tribute of sorts to him.  It looks like Robert Trujillo understands he has big shoes to fill.  As Jason Newsted understood as well. 

Fourth, the opening acts.  I was busy trying to purchase a Baltimore-specific Metallica tour shirt (the one I managed to purchase, after much frustration and difficulty, was a Ravens-inspired variant) while Volbeat were playing, but we managed to catch Avenged Sevenfold.   Oddly, I have several of their albums, including the newest.  They sound like they decided to take Metallica as a startoff and add as much other stuff as their limited talent and imagination could produce, which is not a whole lot.  But it was the visual spectacle which sealed it for me:  mohawk, sleeve tattoos, skinny jeans, v-neck t-shirt, backwards baseball cap.  Like One Direction on steroids.  For an opening act, alleged sellouts Metallica picked a band that makes them look like an honest garage band on their first tour.  Bravo, James & Co.

Fifth: Metallica themselves.  Sadly at my age I’m often looking at my watch during concerts.  At a truly good show the watch on my wrist is forgotten.   As it was here.  Truth be told, James & Co. were a little rusty (particularly on the older songs they weren’t in the studio recently recording), but the mistakes show they’re not lip-syncing.  The energy and fun were definitely there.   Hetfield brings his modest but discernable wit and sincerity to the mix, but keeps the BS to a minimum as they let the music do the talking.  No remarkable surprises, but I think I speak for all veteran Metallica fans when I say the show was superb and well worth whatever you paid and whatever inconveniences you endured (again, thank God for the weather).

They had a huge stage with immense screens behind them, with a huge M on the left and an A on the right.  In addition to imagery from videos, it also showed the band members performing (including one past member, obviously not in real time absent some serious necromancy), which probably helped those too far away to see the band members on stage.   They had a middle ramp going forward through the crowd, like we’ve seen at a few AC/DC shows.  Despite the epic size and scale, it remained fairly simple, but the band couldn’t resist some FUEL & FIRE and eventually some fireworks.  There were a few other gimmicks I’ll decline to reveal.  Again, well done, impressive, a splendid time etc. etc. etc.

Here's another cool thing.  Towards the end of the set, Hetfield asked the audience whether they’d seen Metallica before or not.  Judging by the response, the mix was roughly 50/50 – which surprised Hetfield as well as me.  So half the crowd was seeing the band for the first time, although they’ve been around since 1983 (as I note below, our first show was in 1985).  

Previous shows.  Here I can share without spoiling the surprise.  In reverse order:

4/8/1997.   Load Tour, USAir Arena, Largo, MD.  Remarkably, it’s been 20 years since I’ve seen Metallica.  That tour I was working in Falls Church, we all had day jobs, and it was a weekday show, so Beltway traffic meant we missed the opening act, Corrosion of Conformity.   Towards the end of the set an “accident” occurred which doused the lights, and the band continued the show “in their garage” – though minus Dave Mustaine and Ron McGovney. 

7/17/1992.   Metallica (Black Album) Tour, RFK Stadium, DC.   Joint show with Guns N’Roses, Faith No More opening.   We were on the field, which was one huge mosh pit.  You had to fight nonstop with the entire audience.   Screw that.   We went up into the bleachers and watched the rest of the show from there.   We ended up leaving during the GNR set, before they played “Estranged”.   I’ll have to see about revisiting GNR to correct that.

4/1/1992.   Metallica (Black Album) Tour, Capital Centre, Largo, MD.  I don’t remember much about this, except that we had reserved seating and didn’t have a mosh scene to endure.

3/9/1990.   And Justice For All Tour, Capital Centre, Largo, MD.  I went to this show with Ken.  Shortly before the show, I got the single which had “Breadfan” (Budgie cover) as the b-side, and the band actually played it.  Ken was thrilled to be familiar with one song which must have baffled much of the audience.  I seem to recall a statue of justice crumbling as part of the stage spectacle.

6/10/1988.  $5.98 Garage Days Re-Revisited EP Tour, RFK Stadium, DC.  Van Halen’s Monsters of Rock.  Jason Newsted’s debut.  This was just months before And Justice For All came out.  The lineup was Kingdom Come, Metallica, Dokken, the Scorpions, and Van Halen, the latter with Sammy Hagar on their OU812 tour.  We arrived during Metallica’s set.  With the new album not out yet, their set was older songs and no previews, but “Last Caress” (Misfits) from the EP.  For me, it was the first show with Jason Newsted on bass.  The crowd got extremely rambunctious during Van Halen’s set, setting fires in the bleachers, leading Hagar to have the house lights turned on.  Crazy, man.

During the summer of 1986, Ozzy Osbourne toured the US, with Metallica opening on their Master of Puppets tour.  They played Merriweather Post Pavilion that August.  Our parents wouldn’t let us go.  However, the following February, 1987, Metallica toured Europe as a headliner with new bassist Jason Newsted taking over for Cliff Burton, who had died the prior September (famous bus accident).  I was in Maryland for my freshman year at University of Maryland, College Park, while Matt was finishing his senior year at ASP, our high school.  Matt not only saw the show on February 5, 1987, at the Zenith in Paris, he sent me a concert t-shirt.

8/17/1985.  Ride the Lightning Tour, Donington Monsters of Rock Festival, England, UK.  Our first show, and one of our first concerts.  We were in London in August 1985, and the festival was going on at that time.  The US Embassy had a group going, with a rented tour bus, leaving from the Navy Annex in downtown London at the crack of dawn that Saturday morning.  Our father got up very early, drove us from southwest London to the Annex in our hosts’ right hand drive car (fortunately streets deserted at that time) in time for the bus, and picked us up equally late when we returned.

Matt and I arrived around 11 a.m.  I bought the only Metallica shirt they had, “METAL UP YOUR ASS”, which horrified my parents (yes, knife sticking up from toilet) and which I only wore to school on the very last day, by accident.  More recently I bought an XL version since the Donington one no longer fits.  We listened to Magnum with modest interest, sincere interest for RATT.   Then was Metallica, easily the heaviest band on the bill that day, but none too popular, as the crowd threw bottles and cans at them, forcing the band to duck periodically as they played.  Even “Am I Evil” didn’t seem to help.  We certainly enjoyed James, Kirk, Cliff (!!!!) and Lars.  But a crowd which loves Fish & Marillion was unlikely to enjoy this brutal band from San Francisco.  

[Recently, a friend of mine from Ottawa, Canada provided me with bootlegs not only of Tool (10,000 Days tour) but also of Metallica on this tour (Ride the Lightning, Oakland Park 8/31/85), with the same setlist (Creeping Death, Ride the Lightning, For Whom The Bell Tolls, The Four Horsemen, Fade to Black, Seek and Destroy, Whiplash, Motorbreah, and Am I Evil).   Later, college suitemate Bill provided me with a bootleg of the Donington show itself.  Thanks, Diane & Bill!]

From then on it was Bon Jovi (ignored, I took a nap), Marillion – who are these guys?  As noted, they were much more popular at the festival than Metallica – though nowadays NOT playing M&T Bank Stadium with Steve Hogarth – and finally the headliner ZZTop, though by that time I was exhausted and resting in the tour bus waiting to go home.  It was one of our first shows, our first festival, and an experience we will never forget.  And thanks to blogs such as these, I can make sure my readers don’t forget either.

Metallica & Diamond Head

Hardwired….to Self-Destruct came out on 11/18, the same day we saw Diamond Head at the Fish Head Cantina in Baltimore.   HTSD was the first Metallica album since Death Magnetic, which was released in September 2008, though the joint venture with Lou Reed, Lulu, dates from November 2011.  The third CD has a bunch of extra stuff, some of which was previously released.  I found it a worthwhile addition at a reasonable price.

Diamond Head.   I’d reviewed them earlier, in 2008, as well as Metallica around the same time.   By now the only original member is guitarist Brian Tatler.  They’re originally from Stourbridge, which is outside Birmingham, England. The band had its original run from 1976-1983, broke up, reformed from 1990-94, and then again from 2000 to the present.  Duncan Scott (drums) and Colin Kimberly (bass) were only in the ’76-83 version, while singer Sean Harris had been with some of the more recent reunions but apparently is permanently estranged from Tatler.  The remainder of the current band is singer Rasmus Born Anderson, rhythm guitarist Andy “Abbz” Abberley, bassist Dean Ashton, and drummer Karl Wilcox.  Tatler is playing a sunburst Les Paul Standard instead of a Flying V these days.  RBA is young and energetic, shaved head with a beard – an extra from “Vikings” – and does an excellent job of copying Sean Harris’ vocals.

They have a new album, self-titled Diamond Head, which sounds like a competently executed 2016 version of their prior material. They played about three songs from it.   Aside from those songs, and one from Canterbury (commercial flop third album, a bone thrown to the hardcore fans in the audience), the set focused on Lightning to the Nations and Living on Borrowed Time, the first two albums, of which the former provides all the best songs that Metallica in their excellent judgment saw fit to cover – including my favorite, “Sucking My Love”.  “Am I Evil” closed the set, with “Streets of Gold” (???) as the encore. 

By the time we got into Metallica – 1985 – they were an opening act at Donington (Ride the Lightning tour) then for Ozzy Osbourne (Master of Puppets).   We never saw them in a club, where you can get close up to the stage.  Their club stage would have been in the San Francisco area back in 1983-84 when Kill ‘Em All was the newest album.

As I noted back in 2008, if you remove Iron Maiden, Saxon, and Def Leppard from the mix of NWOBHM bands – i.e. the three most successful bands which survived the general demise of the genre itself – you’re left with a few worthy mentions.  Of these, thanks to Metallica, DH are probably the best known.   Angel Witch, Witchfynde, and Vardis are the next ones down.  All three have fairly recent albums, Vardis’ (Red Eye) being the newest (2016), Angel Witch As Above, So Below (2012) in the middle, with Witchfynde’s, Play It To Death being the oldest (2008).  Generally the “updated” albums sound like a more modern version of the original material, a balanced blend of them which tends to work, though naturally we’re going to prefer the original material if only out of sentimentality.  I think that holds true no matter how well the band does at putting out new material. 

Hardwired.  By now I’ve heard it three times (twice in the car, once through the videos).  Looking back at my reviews of St. Anger and Death Magnetic, the prior two albums, I see that I liked St. Anger more than Load and Re-Load, and Death Magnetic more than St. Anger.  Likewise, I like this one more than Death Magnetic.  James has his massive riffs, Kirk has his widdly-widdly Satriani solos, I generally ignore Lars & the bassist, and pay some attention to the clever song titles and growling vocals. 

Tracks;  “Hardwired…to Self Destruct”; “Atlas, Rise”; “Now That We’re Dead”; “Moth Into Flame”; “Dream No More” (Cthulhu tribute!), “Halo On Fire”;  “Confusion” (PTSD tribute); “ManUNKind”; “Here Comes Revenge”; “Am I Savage?”: “Murder One” (tribute to Lemmy, though no Hawkwind references - @#^$@#%^); and “Spit Out The Bone”.  The tracks seem to have a little bit of step to them – that extra beat that takes it from just 4/4 to something with a discernable groove, yet without being overtly funky.  Each has its own music video, mostly footage of the band playing with some sort of gimmick.  Despite the awesome subject matter, “Dream No More” had a fairly unimpressive video.  “Halo on Fire” features a female Kurt Cobain, somehow.  In fact, they’re all fairly mundane and unimpressive as music videos go – many of them apparently done by someone who didn’t even bother to read the lyrics – with one notable exception.  The video for “Murder One”, the Lemmy tribute song, is certainly good – and provides the missing Hawkwind references.  :D

Band.  It’s funny, I’m watching these recent music videos, one per song, and getting a subjective impression of each band member.  JAMES:  Your GF’s Dad.  LARS:  Your GF’s creepy uncle.  KIRK:  Your GF’s ex-BF.  ROBERT: Your GF’s mom’s new BF.

However, I suppose I’m a stick in the mud, because notwithstanding an upward trend in quality after the nadir of Re-Load, I still prefer the first three albums, with Cliff Burton.  Having said that, I will be happy to see Hetfield & co. in concert if and when they bring Hardwired to our local concert venue (DC or NYC areas), however large or small that might be. 

I have a feeling it will be somewhere larger than the Fish Head Cantina.