You wanted the best and you got the best. The hottest band in the world, KISS!

Love them or hate them, KISS’s influence on the world of music — and commerce — cannot be denied. There’s no questioning the money machine that is KISS. If Gene Simmons can make a buck at it, he’s going to go for it. I have nothing wrong with it as the man works hard and reaps what he sows. I also find myself enjoying listening to interviews with Paul and Gene. Gene is a hype machine and always amusing to listen to. Paul is always the showman, even when he’s being interviewed. Always enjoyable to listen to these guys, even if in the end all you’re doing is laughing at them. In the end, they’re living the life they want and seem to be enjoying it, so I have no problem with their desire to make lots of money. I’m here however to talk about the music.

I actually think KISS makes pretty good music. A lot of people don’t agree, which is fine. Sure the songs aren’t always artistic masterpieces, but the songs are catchy, have good hooks, and you enjoy them. It’s fun music. Anthems for your life, for your party. Music you want to turn up to 11. I also appreciated that with KISS, at least with the original four members, the band was structured that everyone contributed: everyone played an instrument, everyone sang, everyone wrote. Not many bands did that.

What KISS really brought to the music world was the show, the spectacle. You went to see KISS live and you didn’t just listen to the music, you saw a show. From the makeup, to the pyro, to the on-stage “acting”. Check this video from 1975:

While early in their career, they still put on a show with pyro, makeup, even synchronized “dancing”. All of this went into making KISS something not just to see, but to hear. Every rock act since can trace the evolution of their live performance back to KISS (and Alice Cooper).

Of course KISS always worked to outdo themselves in their stage shows, with giant sets, explosions, Ace’s guitar billowing smoke and fire, and of course The Demon, Gene Simmons, breathing fire and blood:

During the 1970’s you couldn’t deny KISS. As a small child I ended up with a set of KISS trading cards and of course thought they were the coolest thing. I recall my Mom looking at a card with Gene/Demon on it. Mom was completely appalled and terrified by it, which of course made KISS even cooler. 😀

The Metal Gods. The Almighty Judas Priest.

There’s debate as to where and with whom metal was born, but many will agree that if not for Judas Priest, metal would not be what it is. Leather, spikes, and chains. Motorcycles. Dual shredding guitars. Double kick drums. Pounding bass. Amazing vocals. Lyrical content that runs the gamut. Heavy metal is what it is in large part due to Judas Priest.

I like the obvious things about Judas Priest, such as K.K. and Glenn’s guitar work, Scott Travis’ drumming (opening riff of Painkiller, ’nuff said), of course the mighty Rob Halford’s vocals. But I also like how Judas Priest is a band that allows itself to evolve. Look at the early Priest albums like “Rocka Rolla” or “Sin After Sin” and compare them to albums like “Painkiller” or “Angel of Retribution”… the musical style is still Priest, but the overtones are quite different. Or consider how the band can have songs such as “Diamonds and Rust”

and then songs like “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin'”

But no matter how it is, it’s all Judas Priest. A band with depth, feeling, talent, and is all metal through and through.

And of course, if not for Judas Priest, we wouldn’t have Heavy Metal Parking Lot. 😎

From the buzzsaws and sparks, to Chris Holmes’ appearance in The Decline of Western Civilization Part 2, to being the poster child for the P.M.R.C., love them or hate them, W.A.S.P. carved their niche in the metal world. 

What I always found interesting about W.A.S.P. was the mix they presented. They had theatrics from KISS and Alice Cooper. Blackie Lawless pranced about the stage like David Lee Roth, which isn’t surprising given they came from the L.A. glam scene. In fact, there’s a lot of L.A. glam present in W.A.S.P. too. The music was a bit harder edged for L.A. tho. Still, they managed to stand out and Blackie has turned out quite a long career for himself.

While I prefer songs like “I Wanna Be Somebody”, “Wild Child”, or even their cover of The Who’s “The Real Me”, the sense of humor displayed in the video for “Blind In Texas” just can’t be passed up.

Dave Mustaine gets kicked out of Metallica, goes on to form his own band in which he is the primary creative force. Witness the birth of Megadeth.

I have to admit I am not the biggest Megadeth fan. I don’t love them, I don’t hate them, just don’t care one way or the other. Megadeth has never really moved me one way or the other. I have some of their albums, but I don’t listen to them much and when I do I tend to just skip around to the few songs I like. I respect the band. I respect the musicianship. Some songs are really cool (e.g. Holy Wars, Skin O My Teeth, Peace Sells), but I just never got into the band and even today I’m still not that moved to get into them. But without question, Megadeth holds an important role in the world of metal, and Dave Mustaine is a very interesting guy. 

I always liked “lighter” metal, but then one day in high school a friend of mine played a cassette tape for me that introduced me to the world of “true” metal.

Anthrax.

Of course, the song wasn’t much of a metal song, it was “I’m The Man” (sorry, YouTube won’t let me embed it). But it was funny enough that I kept listening to it. Even tho the EP was mostly mixes and edits of that one song, it also contained a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”, which was well done. Enough that it made me seek out other Anthrax albums like “Among the Living”.

Anthrax was a different sort of thrash band. They weren’t all spikes and leather, well they used to be but later saw them wearing t-shirts and Jams. Lyrical content came from other places, like Stephen King and Judge Dredd comics. And of course, they were one of the first to blend rap and metal:

Anthrax has had their lineup changes, their career ups and downs, but they always made their unique brand of metal.

Is Metallica metal? I would (still) say so. 🙂

Without question, Metallica is the most successful metal band the world has ever known. They have been through a lot, they have changed, and some old school fans refuse to even acknowledge them these days… or if they do, won’t call them “metal” but maybe just a “rock” band. This I can understand. After the black album the band changed their look and their song style. The whole Napster fiasco. St. Anger. Lars and James getting in touch with their feelings (banana stickers!). I can agree with this. When you have millions of dollars, when a big emotional moment in your life is auctioning off your artwork collection for millions of dollars… well… not that I have any problem with them being rich and enjoying success (I do think that’s awesome), I think it has detracted from what makes Metallica Metallica. Where’s the anger? Wanting your anger to be healthy? What happened to Alcoholica? How healthy was that? 🙂  There’s no question the Metallica of today is not the Metallica of old, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

I’m still a fan of Metallica. I see nothing wrong with their evolution and change. Any musical artist that has endured has changed. They change their look, their sound, their direction. Nothing too majorly radical (I don’t think we’ll see Metallica go country), but still they change. If things are the same over and over, then what’s to care about? Even if you hate it, at least you’re still caring about it… apathy is worse than dislike.

I recently picked up their new album, Death Magnetic. It’s better than St. Anger. It is closer to old-school, but it’s still new school Metallica. The only album I don’t listen to is S&M.

Love them or hate them, they’ll never stop, they’ll never quit, because they’re Metallica.

How can I have Sunday Metal and not have an entry on Slayer?

There’s nothing for me to say. This is Slayer. ’nuff said.

I was working at WXJM as the Metal Director. An album comes in from the band “Monster Magnet” called “Spine of God”. The CD sleeve was rather sparse but had one standout line printed within: “It’s a Satanic drug thing, you wouldn’t understand.”  And thus describes Monster Magnet’s music and how they helped to bring the so-called genre of “stoner rock” to the masses.

Monster Magnet takes a nostalgic drug-fueled journey back to the 70’s. Overdriven fuzz-box guitars, psychedelia, and lyrical content that I guess would make a lot more sense if you took drugs by the truckload but yet still had an amazing poeticness even to the sober. Dave Wyndorf is the mainman and visionary force behind Monster Magnet, and over the years of his drug consumption, sexual overindulgence, and music writing, you can see how his life experiences become reflected in the trippy space rock outlet that is Monster Magnet.

Lyrical gems include: “Life is good, a rocket-sled utopia, a self-imposed myopia, you gotta love this pace. Life is fast, a million winners everyday; you tell me is this work or play? I’m never really sure.”.  “Some people go to bed with Lucifer, then cry when they don’t great the day with God.”.  “You’ll never find your pleasure if you worry about your pain.”  and my favorite: “I’m suckin’ up more karma than I need, so have a supernova on me.” That last line comes from the song “Facedown” from the album “Superjudge”, which is my favorite album from Monster Magnet.

When the record company was pushing “Spine of God” they offered me a chance to do a phone interview with Dave. I took up the offer and they gave me his home phone number and said to call him at this time on this date. I grabbed the nearest piece of scrap paper and scribbled down his phone number and the information. When it came time to do the interview, I called Dave and we spoke on the air for about 5 minutes. I spun some tracks off the album, and proceeded to continue to speak with Dave off-air… for about an hour. It was years ago and I don’t recall all that we spoke of, but I just remember at the time he was very cool and down to earth… he was talking with a complete stranger for an hour, so there had to be some level of friendly there. The other weekend when was I was overhauling my closet, I came across some of my mementos from my radio daze… one of which was that scrap of paper with Dave’s number on it. While lots of things got thrown out, I kept that scrap of paper.

Growing up in the Washington D.C. area, Wrathchild America was a local band. I admit I didn’t follow the band back in their early Wrathchild days, but while writing this blog entry I came upon this excellent documentary piece on the band:

Nothing screams ’80’s metal like getting your hair done, eh? It’s rather amusing to watch the guys getting their hair highlighted, primping… how… manly. 🙂  Of course, the drummer, Shannon Larkin is still going today, playing in Godsmack. And it seems guitarist Terry Carter has gone country. Oh, how things have changed. 🙂

Again, during my radio days I got to see the band a great deal. In fact, they were the first band I interviewed at the start of my radio career, in support of their 3-D album. I think Terry and Brad were a little annoyed with me, but I was young and new and had no clue. Still, I saw Wrathchild America many times during their career and always enjoyed their musicianship, their stage banter (they were constantly joking), and their live shows were always a fun party.

The mighty Pantera. Just when metal was dying from the rise of “the Seattle scene,” along comes Pantera to kick the world in the ass. 

I remember the first time I saw Pantera live. The Bayou, Washington D.C.. They were opening for Wrathchild America, supporting their Cowboys from Hell album. Since I worked in radio at the time, I was backstage talking with the band. I spoke with Phil about the (then) new Peter Steele project. I spoke with Dime, who then was “Diamond Darrell”… he signed my Pantera hat with “Dime” and explained to me his “name change”. Dime was so nice, so friendly.

Their music is like no other. Power. Groove. Emotion. Soul. Strength. 

Walk on home, boy.