So, Unknown Soldier recently nominated me for Best Music Taste, but caveated this by saying that I needed to "branch out", and I figured the best way to do this would be to listen to some old eighties metal, a genre that I am almost totally unfamiliar with. To do this I think I'm going to go review the entirety of the
Metal Massacre series. Aficionados of metal (i.e. not me) will know these as a series of compilation albums put out by Brian Slagel, who in 1981 had recently begun the now legendary underground metal label Metal Blade Records, in order to showcase unsigned metal bands. Usually I don't go track by track, but since this is a comp it only makes sense to, but enough talk...
Metal Massacre I - 1982
1. Steeler - "Cold Day In Hell": Sounds kinda like Ratt (also on this comp) or early Crue. Which is funny since these guys are from Nashville, Tennessee. Certainly not bad.
2. Bitch - "Live for the Whip": Meh. They a'ight, but nothing special. Heavy metal with a boring chick singer. And I usually love chick singers.
3. Malice: "Captive of Light" Like much of what's on here (I'm coming back around to this song right now after listening to most of the rest of the album) this is some NWOBHM inspired metal. I never knew there were so many bands copying this **** so straightforwardly, but I guess it makes sense. I mean this was 1982 after all and I guess the American bands just hadn't had time to evolve much. Not that that makes this kick any less ass. If you like Angel Witch, Blitzkrieg, or early Maiden then you'll dig this. Bitchin' riff I might add.
4. Ratt - "Tell the World": An actual band I know. It doesn't mention this track on their Wikipedia article, so I can't be sure if they weren't on any other comps but it's entirely likely that this was their first time on vinyl. It's pretty much Ratt as you would expect: early glam, with an emphasis on big, catchy riffs. It's pretty sweet. Of course that's assuming you like Ratt. And I do.
5. Avatar - "Octave" (instrumental): I can only assume this band couldn't find a vocalist in time, cause why they would put an instrumental on a comp that was probably introducing them to the world I have no idea. Not bad though. Definitely NWOBHM inspired stuff that brings to mind Blitzkrieg.
6. Cirith Ungol - "Death of the Sun": I should love Cirith Ungol: they're from one of my favorite time periods of metal, they're properly cheesy, and their album covers are to die for. But, like Anvil, whenever the vocals kick in I cringe. So this isn't doing anything for me.
7. Demon Flight - "Dead of the Night": That's better. Some good ol' trad metal obviously trying to build from the NWOBHM, but with some oddball King Diamond-style vocals. Not as good as Mercyful Fate mind you, but for all I know the less-than-stellar production might be killing some of the atmosphere. I'm curious to see where they went from here.
8. Pandemonium - "Fighting Backwards": Coooool. Sounds like kissing cousins to Witchfinder General. Good dose of heavy Sabbath riffs with some Ozzy-style vocals. With the scarcity of doom in the eighties I imagine I'd have heard of these guys had they done anything of note, so now I have to know what happened to them.
9. Malice - "Kick You Down": Right off the bat the opening drumbeat brings to mind Motorhead, but since this is Malice's second song on the comp I know that this is an NWOBHM (by way of LA) band to the bone. Bitchin' riff I might add.
10. Metallica (listed as "Mettallica")
- "Hit the Lights": Alright, this is the real reason I wanted to do this: the first Metallica song ever recorded. They weren't even a real band when they did this. James played bass and some guy called Lloyd Grant, who wasn't even involved with the band but for this one recording, played lead. Alright, so what does the song actually sound like...
Bahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I thought his singing on
No Life Till Leather was goofy. Now he's trying to sing like he's in Diamond Head. And it's not particularly working. I mean the rest of the song kicks as much ass as one would expect, but that singing is just...yeah. No. Thank god it's slightly buried in the mix. But **** does this song kick ass other than that.