You can argue with all you want about which Maiden album is the best, I mean, we all have our favorites and few aren't very good, but the first album is still the one I listen to more than any other. From the opener, Prowler, to the closer, Iron Maiden, the self titled debut is a near perfect heavy metal album and the epitome of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.
I snagged the cassette for four dollars I'd saved from skipping lunch in middle school. Maiden was one of the groups banned by my mother, so I had to buy it on the sly and sneak it into the house. I kept the cassette in either my stereo or walkman, with case hidden with a small stash of (ahem) illicit reading material. That's how serious a problem heavy metal was seen by my mom. She'd already banned Alice Cooper (a devout Christian) for being a sick Satanist and was convinced that I'd wind up on drugs and worshipping the Devil myself if I listened to the garbage. But like with my impending obsession with horror, I found ways around the rules and dived head long into head banging music. I mean, for all the rules I had to live by I was fairly unsupervised and I only got caught when I was careless.
My cousin had Iron Maiden posters on his wall, including the long, uncensored version of Killers, so the image of Eddie had been seared into my brain for years and after hearing a snippet of Running Free in 6th grade I knew I had to get some Maiden.
Maiden came out of Britain right at the start of punk rock and their debut has a very raw, punk feel to it, but the band disowned any notion of there being an influence. They recorded the album in thirteen days, mostly by themselves after parting ways with their producer. Debuting at Number 4 in the UK, it didn't take long for Maiden to become a world wide phenomena. (Look at some video of Maiden playing in Brazil in the last few years if you have any doubt about how huge this band is.) There's really nothing I dislike about this album, although it took me a while to really warm up to the slower, prog-like Remember Tomorrow and Strange World, but once those songs had their hooks in me, I really got into those heady sci-fi moments. Phantom of the Opera is even more proggy and the longest track on the album, but I dug the horror influence and it was a much faster song. The rest of the tracks are pure rockers; Running Free, Charlotte The Harlot, Sanctuary, Prowler, Transylvania, and Iron Maiden put to shame most rock bands' whole catalogues...and this was their debut! Never mind Piece of Mind, Number of the Beast, or Powerslave (or the rest of their stellar albums!).
There really aren't other bands out there you can compare to Maiden, even the other NWOBHM bands. Maiden are unique and irreplaceable and everything from the songs, to the album covers and t-shirts to the "face" of the band, mascot Eddie, to their longevity put them head and shoulders above their peers in nearly every respect. I saw them in Charlotte a couple of years ago with Alice Cooper and they still put on an amazing show and despite the fact that you still won't be hearing them on FM radio they played in front of a larger audience that time around than they did when they had an album in the charts. Maiden fans still care, they're still devoted, even they don't like a particular song (or singer), and it all started with a bad ass eight track (nine in the US) album with a strange zombie head banger on the cover.
UP THE IRONS!
Running Free
Charlotte The Harlot
The Prowler
(bonus non-album single released around Killers) Women In Uniform
The Misfits' "Collection I" album is
probably the most essential album out there for me.It embodies my love of horror, rock and roll, lo-fi
recordings and being outside the mainstream all at once.There's a story to my love of this
album.It starts when I was
fifteen.
In 1993, I was learning guitar, playing in my first
band and completely obsessed with Metallica. They were the epitome of Bay Area thrash and I was quickly
diving into as much of their music, home videos and info on the band as I could
get my hands on.
Thanks to the popularity of the live version of
Mother getting airtime on MTV, I was exposed to Danzig around this time. These guys played a heavy, metal-edged
rock and had all the imagery that grabbed my attention instantly.. skulls, long
hair, black clothes, cool guitars, etc.
At this point, Danzig and Metallica were, without question, my two
favorite bands. I couldn't get
more of their music into my collection fast enough. If I had extra money, it was going to them.
I noticed the infamous Crimson Ghost in tons of
Metallica pictures. They were always wearing Misfits shirts but I didn't know
anything about the band. You
couldn't just find out anything you wanted to know on the internet at this
point. Through a Metallica
biography, I came across the fact that Glenn Danzig was the singer for The
Misfits. I was sold. I didn't need to know anything more, I
just needed a Misfits album.
I found a few CD's at the record store the next time
I was there. "Legacy of
Brutality" had cool skeleton art on it. "Walk Among Us" had an awesome ode to B-horror
movies going on with the cover art.
Then, there was "Collection I". The cover art was a little more plain but it had twenty
songs on it. Twenty songs! That was mine. I got home and immediately called my
friend, Adam (the drummer for my first band).
"Dude, I got a Misfits CD. You need to come over and check this
out with me."
He came over right away and I put it on for our
first listen. She is the first
song on the album... and it was... weird.
"What the hell is this?" "Did they record this in their
garage?" "This is
Danzig's old band?" These are
all thoughts that immediately came to us and I'm pretty sure each one of these
phrases spewed from our mouths.
By the time the second song, Hollywood Babylon, was
done, we were hooked, even singing along already. We weren't used to recordings like this and, though it was
dark subject matter, it didn't sound angry, it sounded fun. Once the shock of something new and
completely unexpected wore off, the simplistic genius set in. It sounded bad, but it sounded right
sounding so bad. This was
completely unpolished, full of 50's-style rock and roll chord progressions,
crooning, yelling on key, a little thrash towards the end, a healthy dose of
punk rock attitude and a ton of horror movie influence all in one.
Last Caress was the song I knew because Metallica
covered it live (someone I knew eventually dubbed their "Garage Days"
cassette for me so I could have Last Caress/Green Hell, but I don't think that
had happened yet) . Last Caress
wasn't on "Collection I".
I think that made me a true fan.
It made me listen to the whole thing instead of seeking out the one song
I knew and listening to it repeatedly.
As a horror fan, the imagery is right, the subject
matter is right. That unpolished
sound, even though it took about a minute and a half to get into, really just
works for me. Glenn Danzig's
almost Elvis-style vocals with the dirty, lo-fi sound; it all fits together so
well.
Metal and punk rock are definitely complimentary for
horror fans but no one's ever done horror rock (or horror punk) like The
Misfits. Legions of horror punk
bands have popped up since. Most
try to sound like The Misfits.
Hardly any could hold a candle to them, though.
This album, in particular, influenced my song
writing so much as a teenager and still it does. Almost every band I've been in where I was sort of the
"guy in charge" covered at least one Misfits song. Even in my current project, Werewolves
in Siberia, I covered Halloween and London Dungeon in a completely different
fashion; turning them into horror synth songs that fit in well with the rest of
my WIS stuff.
There are a few Misfits songs I'm not too into but,
for the most part, I really dig their entire catalog (original Misfits,
anyway). It doesn't matter what
mood I'm in, you can throw on The Misfits and I won't have a problem with
it. "Collection I" was
not only my introduction to them, but having twenty songs on it, it was also a
great way to get a grasp on the band, as a whole. This makes it THE necessity for me, rather than picking one
of the albums they originally released.
There are so many iconic songs on this album. She, Hollywood Babylon, Skulls, Where
Eagles Dare, Die Die My Darling, Vampira, I Turned into a Martian, All Hell
Breaks Loose, London Dungeon... I haven't even begun to scratch the surface
here! It's just awesome. It's probably the most listened to
album in my collection (in any format).
It just fits, no matter what, anytime.
Alice Cooper's Dada, from 1983, is one of three albums that he has no recollection of writing and recording and he believes it's the scariest album he's ever recorded. It also happens to be my favorite of Cooper's entire discography. Since I got it from my friend Jase a few years ago, I've listened to it more than any other album. At work, I've let Dada play through as many as ten times on my phone in a day.
Cooper claims he has no idea what the album's about, but it often sounds like a conversation between the artist/entity Alice Cooper and the host personality Vincent Furnier. Take the song Former Lee Warmer; if you insert Vince into the role of narrator and Alice into Lee and consider Alice's world at that time (declining career, relapse into alcoholism) the song is near autobiography. And again, No Man's Land, Alice as a mall Santa or I Love America, Alice as a car salesman? These aren't favorable views of himself or where his career has taken him. Pass The Gun Around is probably the most naked, emotional, autobiographical song on any Alice album about his weird lonely world of touring and alcoholism. Other songs like Scarlet and Sheba and Fresh Blood are pure horror show Alice, but with subtext that could make them metaphors that line up with the aforementioned tracks.
Dada doesn't sound like a cry for help, though. The tone is set with track two, Enough's Enough. A defiant anthem about a young man standing up to his evil father in the wake of his mother's suspicious death. Scared, defeated, humiliated, broken, but defiant, on track after track. Even on the snarky I Love America, with it's redneck spoken word tangent, there's Alice aping the image of every parent's worst nightmare who'd been tamed to the point of appearing on The Muppet Show and even hosting The Grammys.
Musically, the album is a bit dated. The keyboards and compressed drumming is very '80's, but it doesn't hurt the playability of the album. In fact, I prefer Dada over the classic rock sound of some of the original Alice Cooper Band and definitely more than the overproduced Lace and Whiskey and Goes To Hell. The next time we see Alice is in '86 with Constrictor where the Devo/New Wave influence of the last three albums are replaced with a more focused metal approach and the beginning of a long line of great albums.
Dada is the weird middle child album that no one loved or understood, but probably had more to say about the relationship between Alice and Vince than any other album he's ever recorded. It's too bad he has no recollection of making the album, because I'd love to hear what was going on in his head when he was writing these songs.
Blackened extreme metallers HOTH have reissued their highly-acclaimed sophomore album "Oathbreaker" on cassette format via Portland-based Death Culture Tapes. It is available to order here.
The limited run of 100 cassettes will include a free sticker and an exclusive bonus track (a Chiptune version of "Serpentine Whispers", which you can check out here).
"Oathbreaker" is an 8-song, 55-minute opus that "follows the story of an individual from his conception and follows him down a path that grows darker and darker. We wanted to create something that sounded mighty and hopeful in the beginning but spiraled into dreary, black despair by the end."
The Seattle-based duo, consisting of David Dees and Eric Peters, formed in 2011 and released their debut album "Infinite Darkness", the following year. More than just a follow-up to it's precursor, "Oathbreaker" is the work of a matured band possessing the rare ability to fully realize an artistic vision.
Tracklist:
1. The Unholy Conception (7:22) 2. A Blighted Hope (5:26) 3. Cryptic Nightmares (6:27) 4. Serpentine Whispers (5:24) 5. Acolyte of the Tenebrous Night (7:11) 6. Unending Power (8:11) 7. Oblivion (6:20) 8. Despair (8:56) 9. Bonus: Serpentine Whispers [Chiptune Version] (4:54)
For more info and latest news, visit Hoth on facebook or check out their sitehttp://hothmetal.com. I have to admit, I really like this a lot...
Its been a good year if you're into original soundtracks on vinyl, doom metal, and synth music. Out of all the great albums that have landed this year I chose five, one being a re-issue.
Werewolves In Siberia "Beyond The City of The Dead"
Wolfmen of Mars "The Light In The Corner Of Your Eye" (Read my joint wolfy review here)
Mortals "Cursed To See The Future" (Read my Popshifter review here)
Timeworm "Luminescent Wake" (Read my Popshifter review here)
Creepshow original soundtrack re-issue from Waxworks Records (I didn't write a review of this amazing release, but next to last year's Re-Animator release, this is a great package! Translucent blue vinyl with GORE-GEOUS artwork from Ghoulish Gary.)
Japanese hardcore noise band Tetola93 have released their first full length album about year after breaking up. I was completely ignorant of this band two weeks ago, but this album has made me a fan. The vocals are in Japanese so I have no idea what they are saying, but no matter; passion is universal and that comes through loud and clear.
This self titled farewell has many strengths. For one the production is superb-while chaos reigns the sound never becomes muddy. There's also a great diversity in the material and tight song writing. These guys were no slackers. While the listener is washed away in chaos, melodies ride the waves. The music swings from pretty to dangerous, but even at it's most harrowing the group always maintains control, driving the chaos like a Formula One race car.
The album is hitting US shores via Meat Cube, hit the link to hear this amazing band and order your copy. You can also go to Tetola93's Bandcamp page for their earlier EPs.
(A note before signing off; Bands that sing in a foreign language generally have a hard time getting a foot hold in America. This is both understandable and regrettable. Punk and metal fans are generally more accepting of non-mainstream music and I hope that willingness to take a risk comes through for this release, because it is very good and a worthy addition to extreme music fans' collection.)
One thing about most of the movies and/or characters I've written about are actually from before my time or came out when I was too young to see them in the theater. So I was thinking about this earlier as I was getting ready to write this next chapter (which was about something else that came out when I was too young to see it during it's first run). Where exactly did I get my horror fix in the 90's? From underground comics and Industrial music.
MURDER INC.-"MURDER INC."
I was collecting every comic connected to Clive Barker I could find (Hellraiser, Nightbreed, NOTLD; London, his Marvel series, like Saint Sinner) as well as Ashes, Dead World, Faust; Love Of The Damned, The Crow, Gore Shriek, Zombie War, etc. I had gotten into horror influenced metal with Alice Cooper and Iron Maiden in middle school, then White Zombie's La Sexorcito; Devil Music
Volume 1 and Misfits Collection and Walk Among Us in high school. The thing about those four groups is that they are all awesome and fun, but a bit cartoonish and not really scary.
Scary music came into my life via my friend Kevin late in my freshmen year. Kevin was a little older and had his drivers license and a car. He'd frequently drive out to Knoxville (our big city) and come back with music we'd never heard of. One day he put a cassette in my hand and said, "If you can get through the first track you'll love this."
PIGFACE-"WEIGHTLESS"
The first track was a twelve minute endurance test called The Love Serenade (I Hate You). The band was called Pigface and the album was called Welcome To Mexico...Asshole. This was my introduction to industrial music. That cassette lived in my walkman for days only being traded out with another tape I was loaned that day, The Words and Music of Lou Reed; The Best of the Velvet Underground. Taken together that was kind of a crazy experience since the wildest music I had owned up to that point was Guns and Roses.
The thing I loved about industrial bands was the emotional, political, sexual, religious, and social extremes that many of the best bands were willing to go to. Listening to Pigface, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Murder Inc, Revolting Cocks, Front 242, Trust Obey, and Skinny Puppy was like a mash up of Albert Camus' The Stranger, Clive Barker's Hellraiser, William Gibson's Neuromancer, and William Burrough's Naked Lunch mashed up into a musical genre. The music was an electro/mechanical alchemy of punk and metal and often more sonically adventurous than either.
TRUST OBEY-"HANDS OF FIRE"
While a lot of bands may not have had an explicit connection to horror, they were able to convey a horrific world view through their lyrics, album covers, videos, and an overall sense of dread the music created. Ministry has two great examples of this. NWO is political and JUST ONE FIX is about heroin (and features Burroughs), but both feel like short horror films.
MINISTRY-"JUST ONE FIX"
Then there's Skinny Puppy's anti-vivisection video. NSFW...
SKINNY PUPPY-"TESTURE"
That's more horrific than most slasher films. It was easy to sit up all night writing horror stories with this music on and it informed and broadened my world view at a crucial time in my youth where I was heading into adulthood in a small town and had very little exposure to what the world had in store for me (Punk rock was doing the same for me at roughly the same time). I was becoming politically aware and also dealing with heavy depression from growing up in a broken home which was manifesting as anger and hate and a pessimism about the future. Nine Inch Nails' PRETTY HATE MACHINE was a good soundtrack for that.
The world of underground horror comics was opened up to me during my freshmen year of high school also, thanks to an issue of Fangoria that featured an article about David Quinn and Tim Vigil's FAUST; LOVE OF THE DAMNED and an issue of Comic Scene featuring an article about James O'Barr's THE CROW (note; actual cover dates are lost to me and I don't remember which came first). I've told the story in an earlier post about how my friend and I went to our second comic con at 14 looking desperately at every booth for issues of Faust and having fully negative reactions from the vendors. These guys were seriously not cool with us or that comic. "No! I don't even carry it in my store. It's sick!" Finally, there was one booth that had four issues and we each bought two and I found issue 2 of The Crow and some Dark Horse ALIENS comics. When we were old enough to drive, we'd spend whole days scouring thrift shops, used book stores, and the one local comic shop looking for more comics like these and that's when we discovered the amazing DEAD WORLD and started regularly reading the HEAVY METAL.
This was a great time for indie comics, especially with the exodus of talent out of Marvel to Image and the (shudder) Azreal era of Batman. My favorite comic book, X-Men, went into the toilet with Chris Claremont's departure. It would be years before I bought a comic from the big two again and Image quickly started to feel like a screw job, with blatent X-Men clone books, poorly written scripts, and late books. I lived for small press black and white comics.
Industrial bands, comic creators, authors of splatter and cyber punk books were all influencing each other and sometimes collided, like in the film adaptation of The Crow from director Alex Proyas, which featured a cameo from My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, a screen play from splatter punk writer David Schow, and had an incredibly hip soundtrack of alternative, industrial, and metal bands, including Nine Inch Nails covering Joy Division.
NINE INCH NAILS-"DEAD SOULS"
At some point Industrial merged with goth and theatrical metal and a lot of it started to sound the same. Bands started sounding the same and there was little innovation and even less to be excited about. The bands that were good, mostly stayed good, if they stayed together, or went off and started new projects that continued their evolution as artists. For me, going backwards to the roots of Industrial was far more interesting. Discovering groups like Big Black, Suicide, Cabaret Voltaire, Killing Joke, The Swans, and Throbbing Gristle have expanded my life's soundtrack and given me plenty of inspiration to write with.
Honestly, with films like I Know What You Did Last Summer, Final Destination, and the Scream sequels coming out like Twinkies on a conveyor belt, it took a while for my faith in modern horror to be re-established. Really, it's been the last ten years where I felt like horror had finally started reaching for the higher artistic standards that other art forms have long since embraced.
