Random metal related thoughts

[The Wretch]

I don't mind the "pub rock" thing, it isn't far removed from a lot of the NWOBHM bands in that sense anyway, which is an era that I love. Not just Maiden, Saxon, Angelwitch, Diamond Head etc, but the boogie rock influenced stuff like Vardis, and the blues rock style of Nicky Moore era Samson. 

I like the overall sound too. I love Somewhere In Time and Seventh Son, but the synths and all that had a limited shelf life. They needed to strip back and just go for something simple.

I'd kill for No Prayer and FOTD style songs from them now, instead of an album with too many over long tracks when they have the same slow, semi acoustic picked intro, repeat the title chorus etc like the entire second side of the last album.

They still have good ideas, but if they put those in a few more punchy, shorter hard rock style songs it wouldn't go amiss. Fair enough if they have an epic here and there, that is part of who they always were, I'll never forget the first time I saw them do 'Rime...' live. I still get goosebumps just thinking about it.

But I'd take another pub-rocky album, or tracks like 'Tailgunner' or even 'Holy Smoke' over the likes of 'The Parchment' any day.

Or the mentality that that making Empire Of The Clouds 18 minutes long is an achievement in itself becuase they like prog rock, failing to realise that it wasn't the running time that made Roundabout or Thick As A Brick progressive and exciting, it was the content and composition. 

[Eoin McLove]

I just finished listening to No Prayer. A very mixed bag indeed. Some cool songs, some forgettable fluff and one or two surprising numbers. Assassin and Mother Russia are interesting. Mother Russia encapsulates the prog essence they have been failing to capture with those over long, repetitive songs they've been spilling out in recent decades, but it's short and snappy. Assassin is an odd one. Some really great riffs that aren't typically Maiden-esque to my ears, but then the vocals let it down a bit. Maybe they'd grow on me over time. Not a classic by any stretch but not a write off either.

[jobrok1]

Despite probably not having listened to NPFTD in at least 20 years, I still regularly sing the chorus to Mother Russia in head everytime I come across anything Russian. Be it on TV, a movie, the Ukraine war or a baldy drunkard swingging vodka in the local Lidl carpark.

[Sworntothecans]

Despite probably not having listened to NPFTD in at least 20 years, I still regularly sing the chorus to Mother Russia in head everytime I come across anything Russian. Be it on TV, a movie, the Ukraine war or a baldy drunkard swingging vodka in the local Lidl carpark.

But can you be happy your people are freeeee? 😂

[Trev]

Been back listening to Anciients a fair bit since they announced the new album, keep thinking that they got the artwork mixed up for the first two albums. I'd have thought Heart of Oak should have had the woodland creature type cover, that slightly resembles a heart, and Voice of the Void should be the spacey fella with a big void for a head

[Ducky]

Also a fan of FotD, No Prayer not so much.

It also helps that FotD was one of my first Maiden albums, and I only ever had a rickety tape copy of No Prayer (and this was after my proxy of a Mini Disc recorder, so g'luck to any tapes getting used).

Shout out to one of the lads who wondered why Bruce had a "fear of the dog"

[Anvil]

Shout out to one of the lads who wondered why Bruce had a "fear of the dog"

I have a constant fear that Rovers always near

[Maggot Colony]

What the fuck were Amorphis thinking when they released that cover of Light My Fire?!

[Carnage]

It's appalling, but isn't as bad as the death metal version of I Am The Walrus I heard on The Metal Show one night. Dunno who it was by, I was on a bus and missed the intro but fucking hell...

[Bürggermeister]

I've been to Berlin a good few times over the last few years. It's still a very odd city with the mix of imperial, fascist, communist and now capitalist architecture, all in one place. There are still many areas where the legacy of the war and then the wall make for a very odd vibe in a city in 2024. It's very different to other cities.

It must have been fucking surreal for non-German bands, who were signed to Noise in the 80's, to find themselves in the little island of West Berlin when they came over to record. The likes of Voivod or Watchtower, in particular, recording in Hansa or Skytrak, close to the wall, towers and death strip, penned in by the wall, must have made for a total fucking brain melt which must surely have had some sort of influence on them. Just to be dropped into this mental environment which was normal to the lads working in the studio, and then fly back out again... it must have been mental.

[astfgyl]

It's appalling, but isn't as bad as the death metal vetsion of I Am The Walrus I heard on The Metal Show one night. Dunno who it was by, I was on a bus and missed the intro but fucking hell...

Was it Ten Masked Men by any chance? Maybe they were after the demise of the Metal Show I might be remembering something like Total Rock Radio on the old Sky Box

[Carnage]

Dunno, this would have been in the mid-to-late '90s.

[Mithrandir]

I have literally no concept of what 'sludge metal' is and I'm confused by what it means or the type of music it refers to?

[The Wretch]

Its one of those weird ones which used to mean the New Orleans thing like Crowbar and Eyehategod, but was also used for bands as different as Grief and Buzzoven.

And then it was Iron Monkey and the like.

Now it seems to be used for everything from High On Fire to Neurosis, to shoegazey bollocks.

It is almost as overused and incorrectly used as "stoner metal".   

[open face surgery]

Melvins, then Crowbar and EHG, then it mushroomed.

https://youtu.be/amWKVFY40Xs?si=yOGo1CJzRpNT2b8O

https://youtu.be/9Zwvcek7og4?si=SW0we5Q6F3U-tjeD