"Wonder had gone away, and he had forgotten that all life is only a set of pictures in the brain, among which there is no difference betwixt those born of real things and those born of inward dreamings, and no cause to value the one above the other."
--H.P. Lovecraft, The Silver Key
This Metal Friday, a toast to the great Nicko McBrain, who last week called it a day after a career that spanned more than 40 years behind the drum kit with Iron Maiden.
When Nicko joined Iron Maiden in 1982 there were skeptics. He was replacing Clive Burr, a terrific player who had been there since Maiden’s debut album, and joining a well-established band that had just put out the wildly popular Number of the Beast.
Nicko had to make an impression. And he did, on the very first song of his first studio album with the band, “Where Eagles Dare.” An awesome, driving tune kicking off side A of Piece of Mind (1983).
It’s telling that the first sounds you hear on this classic album are Nicko’s thunderous drums. He brought a new level of heaviness and intensity to the band, and remained Maiden’s drummer for 42 years, until age and the residual effects of a 2023 stroke forced him to hang up the drumsticks.
At 72 Nicko has more than earned his retirement.
I’m glad I got to see Maiden and Nicko one last time earlier this year. Our metal heroes are aging, no guarantees of tomorrow.
Grave Digger... a legendary band with whom I was only lightly acquainted until I saw them open for Blind Guardian circa 2017. I very much enjoyed what I saw, prompting me to explore a bit more of their back catalog. Including this week's selection for Metal Friday.
No frills on "Season of the Witch." Atmospheric opening, a nicely building song with a great guitar tone, heavy, with a wonderful little chorus supported by excellent backing vocals. Given the subject matter of the song I suppose I should have slotted this into October.
Observation: These German power metal bands (Edguy, I'm looking at you) have slightly off-beat lyrics, occasionally non-sequitur, betraying English as a second language. Its slightly word salad and generic fantasy, but nevertheless carried along by the wonderful instrumentation and a powerful vocal performance. Enjoy.
Metal Friday returns with simple, hard-driving metal. Metal Church and "Start the Fire," off The Dark (1986).
Nothing subtle about this one, just a great example of classic mid-late 80s metal. The main riff kicks ass, decent guitar solo, and the late David Wayne puts on a terrific vocal performance.
In the late 90s heavy metal was in shambles. A Mad Max wasteland, fans squabbling over the little juice that remained like savage, scavenging bikers. The mutated blight of grunge and nu metal (Jesus I hate even typing nu metal) had dropped a steaming deuce on anything resembling taste, talent, or actual heavy metal. It was a dried out, sad, creatively bankrupt, pathetic wasteland of terrible music, suffused in the outflow of the great septic tank of post hair-metal apocalypse.
God I hated this period.
And please don't try to change my mind. It sucked, hard. I saw it all, first hand, at multiple Ozzfests and a lot of shitty listening sessions in college surrounded by assholes in flannel. Yes, I gave it the old 'college try,' for FOUR YEARS, and can confirm it sucked, Pearl Jam and all.
I saw Limp Bizkit come out of a toilet, literally, at Ozzfest. They should have stayed there. I'd gladly hit flush, as the world cheered.
Spare me your nostalgia and stories; this was fucking dark times for heavy metal.*
And then came 2000.
Iron Maiden came roaring back with Brave New World, and Rob Halford came out of a post Judas Priest funk with Resurrection. And suddenly the world tilted back on its correct axis, and all was right again.
Heavy metal was back.
"Resurrection" was Halford telling the world, "Fight and 2wo were interesting ... okay not 2wo. But I needed these albums at this point in my life. I've gotten them out of my system. Now? Fuck that noise. I'm back, with legit music."
This was a repudiation of the 1990s. Don't believe me? Here's the lyrics:
I'm digging deep inside my soul
To bring myself out of this god-damned hole
I rid the demons from my heart
And found the truth was with me from the start
Holy angel lift me from this burning hell
Resurrection make me whole
This song is awesome. It resurrected heavy metal.
Listen and enjoy. And remember how fragile it all is, boys.
* I don't hate you, I just think you have terrible taste in music.
That it is told in the language of fantasy is not an accident, or because Tolkien was an escapist, or because he was writing for children. It is a fantasy because fantasy is the natural, the appropriate language for the recounting of the spiritual journey and the struggle of good and evil in the soul.
--Ursula LeGuin, “On Fantasy and Science Fiction”
The critics who have dismissed fantasy as juvenile escapism have failed to recognize that fantasy grapples with real and eternally pressing issues, albeit wrapped in metaphor and fantastic trappings.
The same critics who worship at the altar of realism and extol the virtues of novels about average people in familiar times cannot admit their darlings have rapidly aged and are fast losing their relevance. While the classics of fantasy remain as fresh today as the day they were written.
That’s because the language of fantasy is unbound by time, or place. It deals with the big issues—conflict within and without, love, sorrow, friendship, the inevitable march of time, pain, decay and death—in poetic abstraction, and in heroic meter and timbre. Modern novels that reference an author’s time and place will confuse the modern reader with surroundings that grow increasingly abstract and impenetrable with the passing years, while the Hyborian Age or Middle-Earth remain eternally familiar and inhabitable even as their authors slip further into the past. They are distanced from the ordinary, but close to the human heart.
The Battle of Evermore will still be played 100 years from now, though perhaps never as well as this version by Heart. Because we all grasp its emotional depths, and understand the meaning of the plaintive cries.
The apples turn to brown and black
The tyrant's face is red
Oh war is common cry
Pick up your swords and fly
We’re always trying to bring the balance back. It’s the eternal struggle never won, but once in a while we experience the blessed peace of equilibrium.
The Battle of Evermore will still be played 100 years from now, and remain as unspoiled as Lothlorien, because it is the timeless matter of fantasy.
My metal summer continues, and so Metal Friday continues, with Metallica.
"Orion" oozes nostalgia and loss, which I'm possibly projecting knowing that its architect Cliff Burton died just six months after its release. It feels like a dirge--and it very much is. The song was played over speakers during Burton's funeral, and James Hetfield had notes from the song's bridge tattooed on his left arm.
Incredible.
38 years after its release "Orion" remains a beautiful piece of work, haunting and atmospheric and utterly unique. The break at the four minute mark, broken when Cliff comes back in alone with his bass, is perhaps the high water mark on a magnificent album.
I can't even tell you how many times I listened to "Orion" in high school, driving around aimlessly with Master of Puppets in my car stereo. I relish those days.
I'm hoping I might hear it when I see Metallica next Friday at Gillette Stadium. Highly unlikely as Metallica almost never plays it live, likely out of respect for their late bassist. We'll see.
My last Metal Friday post on the passing of Eternal Champion bass player Brad Raub resulted in some recommendations and a brief but pleasant detour into the catalog of a related band, Sumerlands (for whom Raub also played bass).
"Force of a Storm" immediately jumped out at me as an awesome track and a worthy share on this Metal Friday.
I know nothing about Sumerlands, but they're a five-piece band whose sound is "rooted in 1970s hard rock and classic power metal from the 80s and 90s," per their website. They are a new band with a vintage sound, one that sounds very good to my ear. I like the vocalist and the guitar work in this one is excellent.
So on this Metal Friday I honor his memory with “Worms of the Earth,” off their wonderful album Ravening Iron. With its spectacular Ken Kelly album cover (now THAT would be an amazing original to hang on my man cave wall).
Beyond badass.
Still feeling my way out with this band but I’m really starting to dig Ravening Iron. "Worms of the Earth" should be a hit with any red-blooded sword-and-sorcery/Robert E. Howard/Bran Mak Morn fan. Here’s a sample of the lyrics, which are basically a faithful retelling of the tale:
Upon a Roman cross there hangs a man I cannot save
For this, Rome will have to pay
I must find the door to ebon depths where they degenerate
There's nothing I would spare to see Rome howl in pain
Eyes like golden stars shining in the dark
In Dagon's Barrow I will take the stone they must obey
The King of Picts has forced his claim
One of the all-time greats in visual adaptation. Fight me if you think otherwise.
The King of Picts has forced his claim... he certainly did. Love that.
I can’t express how glad I am to see a band like Eternal Champion lend their own artistic interpretation to REH. We’ve got pastiche novels, visual artists, comic adaptations, gaming supplements, and now heavy metal bands, all keeping Howard alive with their own inspiring visions of the greatest sword-and-sorcery author who ever lived.
Raub added his own verse to that roll-call, no doubt.
Slayer and Sepultura… really no heavier than that. There’s no need, from my perspective.
I can’t do cookie monster vocals. That means that Death Metal and Black Metal bands are out.
To be honest, I haven’t made a concerted effort to break into these genres. The barrier to entry is so high that I just can’t bring myself to do it, even though I can appreciate some of the riffs and melodies.
I need to be able to understand what the vocalist is saying, and I can do that with Max Cavalera and Tom Araya.
Sabbath is heavy enough for most mortals, and will raise an eyebrow in mixed company. Slayer and Sepultura will get you flat-out kicked out of parties … but I still greatly enjoy them. As with here, on Refuse/Resist, and South of Heaven.
Both awesome, and really fucking heavy. But I don’t feel the need to go any heavier.
It's been a while since I did one of these. Too long. And I've got Blind Guardian on the calendar tomorrow. So, time for another Metal Friday.
Blind Guardian is great for so many reasons, but starting a song with a lute and either a flute (or perhaps a fife?) is one. Another is songs like "Curse My Name," which could be a number in an alternative metal universe performance of Les Miserables.
This is a great song, atmospheric, melodic, epic... and underneath it all some hard critique of monarchy. We are the nation, we are the law, and we won't take it anymore. How do we depose the monarch? Put him to death, that's what I say.
I wasn't even sure there was an electric guitar in this song... but yeah there it is at 4:38. Yet despite the lack of typical heavy metal trappings it's heavy AF, heavier than many guitar forward tunes.
Very dark.
And awesome.
Hard to believe this came out 14 years ago, on At the Edge of Time (2010). I feel like this album just came out yesterday. But time is subjective. The passage of years is different now than it once was.
I was too young to appreciate the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (aka., NWOBHM, love that fucking acronym) back when it washed up on American shores, circa 1975-83 or thereabouts.
The good part about this unfortunate time mismatch is that now I can explore its various bands. Though most have long since disbanded or faded into obscurity, they are new to me, and therefore as fresh and vital as they may have been whilst playing some dingy U.K. pub circa 1978. And yes I just said "whilst." I'm putting on my English cloak for this one.
The best band to come out of the NWOBHM movement, Iron Maiden, has passed into Godhood, but most of its acts sank into obscurity. This Metal Friday features a good one from one of the semi-lost, Tokyo Blade. Obscure but apparently they had a long career, go figure.
I won't claim "If Heaven is Hell" (1983) is the best song ever, but it's pretty darned good, possessed of that rough, unpolished, energetic, guitar-forward sound that I love from this era and region of the world. The U.K. birthed heavy metal from the foundries of Birmingham and they still do it the best, IMO.
Metal Friday is a day late this week but I'm just getting back from a business trip to Chicago that has me all sorts of out of sorts. 12 straight days of work that is now over.
Admittedly I am not the biggest Savatage fan but "Edge of Thorns" checks every damned box I love about heavy metal. Great vocals. Tough, poetic lyrics. An incredibly powerful build up to a breakdown at 2:55, followed by an absolutely divine guitar solo by the late Criss Oliva.
Gordon Lightfoot is probably—nay, definitely—not metal. Not even metal-adjacent.
Yet he is the subject of this Metal Friday. For obvious reasons.
I mourn the passing of this great man. He had a hell of a career and a hell of a life. 84 years is a pretty good run.
But it was still tough news to hear that he passed on Monday.
I listen to Gordon Lightfoot on vinyl every summer up our family’s lakehouse. His music takes me straight to our pontoon boat, circling the lake in the early evening with a cocktail. Not quite so hazardous as Lake Superior when the gales of November come early.
Lately I had found myself listening to Gordon more often. Perhaps because I’m getting a little more mellow as I age. Metal is still my go-to but his stuff is timeless, beautiful.
I’m not going to waste any words explaining why Gordon Lightfoot is great, and worth listening to. He’s been extolled by Bob Dylan, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, Billy Joel, countless other iconic musicians. He's probably the greatest Canadian musician ever, this coming from a raging RUSH fan. Hell, if Geddy Lee says it, good enough for me.
I’ll just say: He’s way better than you think. Every song on Gord’s Gold is gold. He has more good songs on one album side than most artists will record in a lifetime.
Instead I’ll just offer a song.
I was thinking of going with “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” or “If You Could Read My Mind” or “Sundown” as evidence (all awesome, and deservedly remembered) but here’s “Early Morning Rain.”
Close your eyes, listen to the dude signing this song. Try to reconcile what you're hearing with a man (then) in his late 60s.
Impressive. Aging warriors still fighting the world with metal.
Firepower (2018) is Judas Priest's 18th studio album. If it were their last, it would be a hell of a swan song. I love this album, almost every song on it, and "Traitors Gate" is one of my favorites. It might be the best song on the album. The lyrics speak of an impending execution for a man convicted of treason, but believing he's in the right. Uncompromising, and very metal.
The river shows no mercy The tower looms into my view I sense my execution's closing With darkness all around me The axe is ground to end my days The raven's cry proclaims repentance
Few bands carry on for more than 50 years; fewer still continue to produce good original work in the twilight of such a long career. Judas Priest is a notable exception, but then again they've always been exceptional.
Metal Friday this week, we're going with an upbeat rocker from the late, great Ronnie James Dio.
"Caught in the Middle" is not the first song most think of on Holy Diver, and of course it's not the iconic title track, but it's a fun, energetic, guitar forward tune I greatly enjoy. A great pairing with a cold beer and the start of the weekend.
Oh yeah, and that band you like, with that lead singer you dig? Dio is a better singer than that guy. Will put Dio up against anyone, anywhere, anytime.
Iron Maiden is perhaps my favorite metal band of all time.
"Stranger in a Strange Land" is perhaps my favorite Iron Maiden song.
Which should make "Stranger" ... my favorite song of all time?
No, not ready to say that. That's not a clean equation. But it is an absolute gem, 10/10 on the metal richter scale.
I love everything about this song. Steve Harris' melodic bass intro. The atmospheric build up. Bruce's off-the-charts vocals. And then, Adrian's guitar solo. IMO his best. It's divine, I'll leave it at that. See 3:18. And damn, the counterpoint bass. It takes you to another planet, as does the entire album. Because it is Somewhere in Time.
I'll admit my analysis of this tune lacks any objectivity. I burned through TWO Somewhere in Time tapes in high school, listening to them so many times in my boom box and my car stereo that they simply wore out, the reels squeaking so much I had to discard them.
I remember staying up late one Saturday night to watch this MTV lifeline for metalheads. I was fading, half-in, half-out of a sleep state. Exhausted from either football practice or bagging groceries.
Ricky Rachtman (or was it Adam Curry?) teed up Meliah Rage and I came to, quick. Instant smelling salts.
"Beginning of the End" has a great hook of a riff, a nice guitar solo around the 1:35 mark. Simple, powerful lyrics. Basic structure, no frills, all power. No subtlety; it needs none.
Sometimes you just need hair metal. Or the equivalent. Def Leppard is close enough.
I'm a fan of Leppard up through and including Hysteria; after that they lose me. But you have to respect their ongoing commitment to musicianship and good performances, even at this point in their career. I saw them in concert last summer in a monster quadruple bill that included Motley Crue, Poison, and Joan Jett.
Leppard was by far the tightest, best-sounding band of the four. They rocked.
"Let it Go" is a fine example of their early work, before they went ballad-heavy. This one is a fun little rocker, with lyrics that leave absolutely zero to the imagination, unless you can't fill in the "C."
Cool woman, cool eyes, you got me hypnotized So head down, get a rhythm Stop your stalling and your bitching I'm rock steady, I'm still shaking I'm ready for the taking So make your move, yeah, make me And get ready for the big "C"
Bruce is not only the lead singer of the world's greatest heavy metal band, but he also has an amazing side solo career. Today's Metal Friday features a wonderful cut off his 2005 solo effort Tyranny of Souls, "Kill Devil Hill."
This song is a paean to the birth of flight and Bruce's aviation obsession. Maiden is notorious for teaching history in their songs, whether you want them to or not/find it tedious or not, and this tune is no exception:
On December 17th, 1903, the Wright Brothers launched off a downhill track in Kill Devil Hills, and their airplane flew for a full 12 seconds. These 12 seconds would prove to be revolutionary, and the first airplane had successfully taken flight.
Bruce is in full-throated, top form on this one. The song soars, literally and figuratively, when he leans into the chorus at 1:14.
As the wind whips over the hillside
Twenty knots over Kill Devil Hill
Steady wind blows over the sand
Twenty knots over Kill Devil Hill
If you're a Maiden fan who hasn't yet explored Bruce's solo career, get on that now.
