The SFX nostalgia thread

[Eoin McLove]

They had one very catchy song but what on earth they were doing in a metal mag is anyone's guess.  Even The Prodigy who are decent had no business in a metal mag.

[Paul keohane]

Jesus what a fookin grim list!,I did love Entombed To Ride and SYL-City.Amazing the peaks and troughs over the years.

[Doctor Crippen]

I think people are really forgetting how dirty a term metal became specifically around that time. A lot of the weird records that came about in that era came out of survival or necessity. Bands on majors faced the chop unless they adapted but even then it was no use.

Was there just a point somewhere in the mid 90s where it just  wasnt 'cool' to be a metal head anymore,did irish society just become more conformed for a period etc.

The dance music thing seemed to take a lot of metallers and potential metallers away from the scene. Prodigy, underworld all that sort of stuff. Yokes, clubbing etc was the cool thing. That's my memory of it.

Heavy metal and hooliganism went out the window once the auld doves appeared and everyone was getting mangled in Sides and other such spots, it definitely contributed. Punk pals of mine became techno fans and would spend weekends on the 13th floor above McGraths.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Just on the Metal Hammer topic, it really was diabolical around 96-97 especially. Look at this end of year list, I thought it was sickening at the time but it reads worse today.

Feeder - Polythene
Entombed - To Ride, Shoot Straight And Speak The Truth
3 Colours Red - Pure
Foo Fighters - The Colour And The Shape
Deftones - Around The Fur
Radiohead - OK Computer
Paradise Lost - One Second
Prodigy - The Fat Of The Land
The Verve - Urban Hymns
Faith No More - Album Of The Year
Sick Of It All - Built To Last
Misery Loves Co. - Not Like Them
Strapping Young Lad - City
Metallica - Re-Load
Kerbdog - On The Turn
Green Day - Nimrod
Reef - Glow
Me First And The Gimme Gimmes - Have A Ball
Oasis - Be Here Now
Life Of Agony - Soul Searching Sun

Amazing. What are some contenders for actual best metal albums of that year??

[SligoWhiplash]

Fond memories of seeing Bodycount with Ice-T in the SFX in '93....Don't think they've been back since??

[Cryptic Stench]

1997 was actually a great year

That Emperor record came out that year for a start.

There was a shit ton of other great records from Bruce Dickinson, Rotting Christ, Ocean Machine, Ulver, Immortal, Vital Remains, In The woods,  Fates Warning, Hypocrisy the list goes on and on.

Also that Reload appearance is absolute sycophancy, Load and Reload have their moments but doesn't deserve a spot on an end of year list!

[John Kimble]

That's gas, I can actually remember that list. Metal Hammer really tried to posit themselves at the forefront of this new and exciting era of open-mindedness in metal, but time has shown how utterly regressive the whole thing was. I think most metallers, at least the ones with decent taste, are open to other forms of music without feeling the need to shout it from the rooftops.

[Bogmetaller]

I love that the Verve album, and love Oasis and the Prodigy but how they were ever mentioned in a Metal magazine is beyond me. I know that happened with the Prodigy a lot (more so in Kerrang) but I could never understand it.

[Cryptic Stench]

It's what Kimble said

Metal Hammer really tried to posit themselves at the forefront of this new and exciting era of open-mindedness in metal, but time has shown how utterly regressive the whole thing was

I listen to a lot of other stuff myself but giving those records coverage back then at the expense of some of the great releases that may not have been on people's radar that year was criminal. My problem with it then was there was literally no other avenues to read about metal and that you could read about Oasis, Verve, Prodigy literally anywhere else, newspapers, Q, NME, Hot Press, MTV coverage etc etc Whereas the only place you were likely to read about Rotting Christ's Dead Poem was Metal Hammer or Kerrang, (Terrorizer's distribution wasn't great back then, had to go to main centers for that) and they wasted space on shite, literally shite like Oasis's Be Here now which is a fucking crap album by their own standards all to prove to us how edgy and hip they were and committed to ridiculing classic bands or laughing at Black/Death acts at any opportunity.

[Cryptic Stench]

Amazing how things changed though over time, look at the 2014 list

Behemoth - The Satanist
Machine Head - Bloodstone & Diamonds
Mastodon - Once More 'Round The Sun
Slipknot - .5 The Gray Chapter
Sólstafir - Otta
Opeth - Pale Communion
Electric Wizard - Time To Die
Marmozets - The Weird And Wonderful Marmozets
Anathema - Distant Satellites
King 810 - Memoirs Of A Murderer
Triptykon - Melana Chasmata
Suicide Silence - You Can't Stop Me
Devin Townsend - Z²
Alcest - Shelter
Primordial - Where Greater Men Have Fallen
Scott Walker + SUNN 0))) - Soused
Swans - To Be Kind
Yob - Clearing The Path To Ascend
Winterfylleth - The Divination Of Antiquity
At The Gates - At War With Reality

[mickO)))]

Fond memories of seeing Bodycount with Ice-T in the SFX in '93....Don't think they've been back since??

I don't think they have done much in the way of live shows at all especially since the 00's all they ever seem to play is festivals. One band from my youth that I would really like to see in a small indoor venue.

I always remember the first time I ever went to Germany it was for Wacken as soon we got to the location where the shuttle buses to and from the festival ground were running from there was people everywhere in Body Count t-shirts.