When I write up the Sunday Metal posts, frequently I choose themes or take inspiration from somewhere. For a while I’ve thought about having some guest postings, and that starts now.

The next some posts will be from my close friend, W. He’s flown the flag of metal for many years, including being a metal radio DJ around the same time I was (tho we didn’t meet until after). We’ve been friends for many years, been to numerous shows together, and share a love of the music. So I figured he’d make a good first guest to Sunday Metal. So with that, onwards!

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A few months ago, I snagged the 4-song EP from Jason Newsted’s new band on iTunes and I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised. Here, the soul of MetallicA lives on in Newsted’s heavy, Heavy, HEAVY metal. The four songs on the record are all awesome, and very different from each other, so it’s hard to pick one to showcase here.

I picked “King Of The Underdogs” because it is almost viral in its ability to stick in my head, and I hope it latches on to you as well. Also, the strong reference to Henry Mancini’s “Shot In The Dark” at the end is just awesome.

Newsted’s full-length album came out August 6th, but don’t forget to get the two songs from the EP that aren’t on the album.

When I write up the Sunday Metal posts, frequently I choose themes or take inspiration from somewhere. For a while I’ve thought about having some guest postings, and that continues.

The next some posts will be from my close friend, W. He’s flown the flag of metal for many years, including being a metal radio DJ around the same time I was (tho we didn’t meet until after). We’ve been friends for many years, been to numerous shows together, and share a love of the music. So I figured he’d make a good first guest to Sunday Metal. So with that, onwards!

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I won tickets to a Triumph show from a radio station. (No, not Z-Rock!) The jaw-dropping show they put on was not to be eclipsed until years later when MetallicA’s “…And Justice For All” performance laid near-permanent claim to the coveted “OMG! Show!” belt.

Canadian. Trio. Arena Rock. Not Rush? Whaa? These guys are way under-rated in the world of rock. Perhaps they were overshadowed by their more progressive and technical Canadian brethren? Possibly. But that show earned them a prominent place in my tape collection from that day forward. (Yes, tape collection. Yes, I’m old. Learn from my wisdom, whipper-snappers! And stay off my lawn!) There’s no lack of virtuosity, songwriting or performance here. You have heard some of their songs. I say with confidence, that up to and including the “Thunder Seven” album, you would be doing yourself a favor to seek out the ones you haven’t heard.

When I write up the Sunday Metal posts, frequently I choose themes or take inspiration from somewhere. For a while I’ve thought about having some guest postings, and that continues.

The next some posts will be from my close friend, W. He’s flown the flag of metal for many years, including being a metal radio DJ around the same time I was (tho we didn’t meet until after). We’ve been friends for many years, been to numerous shows together, and share a love of the music. So I figured he’d make a good first guest to Sunday Metal. So with that, onwards!

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As a young pup, delivering pizzas was the perfect job. I got to drive my car, in a hurry, bearing precious doughy cargo on a deadline. I discovered all of the short cuts. I learned where the good tippers were, and which apartment complexes I never, ever wanted to set foot near again.

The first place I ever experienced fear of physical harm whilst making a delivery was an upstairs apartment, the path to which was a concrete walkway sloping downward away from the building at a jaunty angle that clearly communicated “imminent collapse”. Steeling myself against certain doom with the knowledge of the importance of my pepperoni-laced duty, I ascended the rickety, not completely intact stairs, and stepped lightly down the treacherous path. Keeping as close to the building as possible, I completed my quest, collected my just rewards, and retraced my steps with care until I was once again on solid ground. I made it out alive, and the concrete deck remained tenuously (some would say impossibly) suspended as I drove away with Z-Rock blaring triumphantly from the speakers of my car stereo.

I don’t remember what song was playing at that moment, but if there is justice in the world, it was Manowar.

It was this job, and that radio station, that provided me the broadest expansion of my musical horizons I had yet experienced in my young life. Manowar was one of the bands that received a reasonable amount of airplay on Z-Rock, and this was the first song of theirs I ever heard. It has a brash, fiercely independent attitude, a powerful groove with a hook that just won’t let go, and Eric Adams’ vocals are simply inimitable. While it lacks the “Extra Cheese” typical of Manowar, this is still as good a gateway to the self-proclaimed “Kings Of Metal” as you could ask for.

Strap on your fur boots, grab your broadsword, “dec” your gear, and enjoy!

(The apartment complex of doom was condemned and demolished less than a year later.)

When I write up the Sunday Metal posts, frequently I choose themes or take inspiration from somewhere. For a while I’ve thought about having some guest postings, and that continues.

The next some posts will be from my close friend, W. He’s flown the flag of metal for many years, including being a metal radio DJ around the same time I was (tho we didn’t meet until after). We’ve been friends for many years, been to numerous shows together, and share a love of the music. So I figured he’d make a good first guest to Sunday Metal. So with that, onwards!

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Remember last week when I said Metallica is a “top-five most influential and important” metal bands of all time? This is true; But I argue that their sphere of influence ended in the early 90s. Since then, even though they are an indisputable, unstoppable monster in the music business, and they put on a great show, Metallica have become more or less musically irrelevant. Not only that, but we (the band included) all know it.

Case in point: The forthcoming MetallicA pinball machine. According to the trailer, the machine is meant to represent “Over 30 Years Of Iconic Metal.” What song did they choose for the video? Master of Puppets! This being their best song ever, I won’t dispute the choice. Absolutely iconic.

Now take a look at the 12 songs listed in the trailer. One presumes that these are the songs that Stern and the band chose to represent these 30+ years of iconic metal…But only two of these 12 songs were created in the past 24 years! The rest are from the first 8 years of their career.

I know “8 Years Of Iconic Metal And 24 Years Of Mediocre Hard Rock Barely Worth Mentioning” isn’t a good tag line for a pinball machine, so we won’t see it in words. But we see it in deeds – In the songs chosen to represent what we think of when we think of “MetallicA.” We know it. Stern knows it; And RocknRollicA knows it.

When I write up the Sunday Metal posts, frequently I choose themes or take inspiration from somewhere. For a while I’ve thought about having some guest postings, and that starts now.

The next some posts will be from my close friend, W. He’s flown the flag of metal for many years, including being a metal radio DJ around the same time I was (tho we didn’t meet until after). We’ve been friends for many years, been to numerous shows together, and share a love of the music. So I figured he’d make a good first guest to Sunday Metal. So with that, onwards!

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Metallica is one of the top five most influential and important metal bands of all time.

Musically, they were instrumental in defining what thrash metal is. Their influence has been felt far and wide by the dozens if not hundreds of bands following in their sonic footsteps.

Also, MetallicA are almost single handedly responsible for bringing metal – real metal, not the pansy-ass LA poser glam crap – to the masses. Can anyone born since the 70s say they’ve never heard a MetallicA song? Until I was 16, I could.

I clearly remember the first time I ever heard one of their songs. I was 16, driving around Big-D in my aging ’77 Chevy Nova listening to “this cool new radio station” called Z-Rock, when this song came on. It’s not my favorite MetallicA song, but I can say it is the most influential on me, as I had never before entertained the idea that MetallicA would be something I would like. The crushingly powerful rhythm and the imaginative lyrics opened my mind to a new world of awesome, and I wasn’t the only one. It’s songs like this that earned them the oft-repeated moniker “Mandatory MetallicA.”

Nothing like Satan on Sunday, eh?

I never got into Satan, but they of course were a seminal part of the NWOBHM movement. Via The Metal Files I saw they had reformed, a new album, and I gave it a listen. It’s pretty cool.

In the spirit of the Testament/Overkill show back in February, here’s headliners Testament (again) with some old footage: Into the Pit, Raging Waters, and The New Order, from Germany’s 1988 Monsters of Rock show. It cuts off at the end, but still some cool old footage.

 

In the spirit of the Testament/Overkill show back in February, here’s headliners Testament with the title track off the latest album, “Dark Roots of Earth” peformed live at Wacken 2012

 

In the spirit of the Testament/Overkill show back in February, “sub-headliners” Overkill, here’s one of my favorite tracks: “I Hate”…. because I still hate people that make you feel small, I hate having my back against the wall, and I hate being talked down to. 🙂

And here’s a pretty cool version of it from a 1992 bootleg:

 

In the spirit of the Testament/Overkill show back in February, here’s second act, Flotsam and Jetsam with a classic bit of video goodness:

Also, the demo version of “I Live, You Die”. This was the first F&J track I heard and Eric AK’s opening scream of “You’re life passes you BY-AH-YYYYYY!” has stuck in my head ever since.