Heavy Metal, Its History, Influences and Subgenres

[The Good Reverend Roger]

But you just don't know how down and dirty things get at the Rhythm Cafe

I bet a motherfucker would get CAPPED trying to sell fake patchouli up in that bitch.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

If that silly little bog had anybody with sense in it, Phil Fucking Lynott would be in charge.

Thin Lizzy took their bus through the drive through at the Burger King in my home town years ago.

People still remember that. It's probably the coolest thing that ever happened there.

The funny thing about Thin Lizzy is that I have trouble thinking of them as Heavy Metal, even though they clearly are.

[AFK]

Yeah, after listening to metal bands like Death, Carcass, or even Slayer, it's hard to think of a band like Thin Lizzy as Metal.  Hell, even some early Priest can sound much more Rock in comparison. 

[AFK]

By the way, I dunno if any of y'all have heard the new Testament stuff yet or not, but to me it comes off as horribly meh.  Though, I think Testament has largely been pretty meh as a thrash band, which is a damn shame when you have someone as talented as Skolnick in your band.  I find his jazz music much more interesting than present-day Testament.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I was always kinda take it or leave it with Testament.

And it is kinda funny too, Metal gets more Metal as time goes on. I know what you mean about Priest. Hell, if the first time I heard Bruce Dickinson sing was listening to Book of Thel, which is the tits, by the way, I would never have though of a lot of Maiden as Metal, even though, again, they clearly are. (Number of the Beast was the first Metal album I heard, sometime around the age of 9 or so. I actually liked it right away, but my friend refused to tell me who they were. Bastid. I only recognized the songs later when I started hanging out with Metalheads in 8th grade when I was a grunge kid.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

My music history is kinda funny. First I didn't give a crap. Then I heard Maiden, then I listened to like, MC Hammer and shit. Then I permanently borrowed my mom's copy of Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi, then my uncle gave me a copy of Nevermind. Then I became a die hard Nirvana fan and jumped into the grunge thing, then Kurt killed himself and I started hating alternative music. Simultaneously I started hanging out with people who listened to Maiden, Motorhead, Megadeth, and Metallica. Became a Metallica fan first (I once had more Metallica shirts than I do have Maiden shirts now). Then Load. Then Reload. Then Chemical Wedding. Then Blaze left Maiden. Then I gave Emperor a shot. The rest, as they say, is history.

[AFK]

If you don't include hair metal, my first metal album was Gutter Ballet by Savatage, who went on to become my favorite metal band.  Still love that band even though its pretty much defunct.



But I did the whole hair metal thing first.  White Lion was one of the first bands I got into.  But I gravitated to the less BIG bands like Poison and the Crue and was more into the Teslas, Kix, Badlands, Bang Tango, etc.

I got into the alternative/post modern scene too, Nirvana was one of my faves.  I didn't really have much exposure to black metal, my avenue to the heavier stuff was the Sabbathy doom metal like Solitude Aeturnus and Cathedral and the deathy doom stuff like Anathema (who these days sound more like Radiohead) and My Dying Bride.

[East Coast Hustle]

Yeah, after listening to metal bands like Death, Carcass, or even Slayer, it's hard to think of a band like Thin Lizzy as Metal.  Hell, even some early Priest can sound much more Rock in comparison. 

Hell, after listening to Napalm Death, Cephalic Carnage, and Goatwhore it's hard to think of a band like Slayer as metal. There's no end to that rabbit hole. Which, really, is why I just like good music and don't much care what other people decide to call it.

I'm bummed to hear that Testament's newest is meh, though I'm hoping that since I REALLY like Testament I'll find myself disagreeing. But the one song I heard was, well, kinda meh.

[AFK]

I've always felt that they were the underachievers of Thrash.  It just seems like they should be so much better and interesting than they are, because there is no question there is a lot of talent in that band. 

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I've always felt that they were the underachievers of Thrash.  It just seems like they should be so much better and interesting than they are, because there is no question there is a lot of talent in that band.

Sometimes talents don't quite mesh into really great song writing. Just look at RHCP. And sometimes lack of talent doesn't mean that song writing more than makes up for it. Sometimes you can be a mediocre musician, with a bunch of other mediocre musicians, but it just works. I would say Nirvana is an example of that but Dave Grohl is a great drummer. He had to be. Kurt was picky as fuck about that sort of thing.

[East Coast Hustle]

IMO, Skolnick is the best living guitar player (unless Andres Segovia is still alive but he'd be old as dirt by now), and Chuck Billy gets credit for being the only guy I can think of whose voice got better after throat cancer, but they've frequently had a case of awesome riffs and tight musicianship not translating into amazing songs. I love New Order and Souls of Black, and I really dug Demonic and The Gathering. I'm holding onto my high hopes for the new one for no other reason than Gene Hoglan is playing drums on it.

[East Coast Hustle]

Twid, RHCP had all kinds of awesome songs. Just remember that BloodSugarSexMagic was their last good album, even though it was the first one most people heard. But that old shit, like Freaky Styley and Mofo Uplift Party Plan, that shit is pretty goddamn awesome.

[East Coast Hustle]

Now, though, well....I can see why Frusciante left the band. He's WAY too good to be doing what they've been doing lately. BTW, you guitar-heads, if you ever come across any of his solo stuff it's pretty damn good.

[AFK]

IMO, Skolnick is the best living guitar player (unless Andres Segovia is still alive but he'd be old as dirt by now), and Chuck Billy gets credit for being the only guy I can think of whose voice got better after throat cancer, but they've frequently had a case of awesome riffs and tight musicianship not translating into amazing songs. I love New Order and Souls of Black, and I really dug Demonic and The Gathering. I'm holding onto my high hopes for the new one for no other reason than Gene Hoglan is playing drums on it.

I think The Gathering had James Murphy on lead, who's also a pretty bad-ass metal lead guitar player.


And you can't go wrong having The Atomic Clock on the skins.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Now, though, well....I can see why Frusciante left the band. He's WAY too good to be doing what they've been doing lately. BTW, you guitar-heads, if you ever come across any of his solo stuff it's pretty damn good.

Their newer stuff has a tendency to overshadow their older stuff in my mind.

Also, I'll check out his solo stuff