Through The Metal

Heavy Metal has always been silently known as the bastard child of the music world, but as we know, some bastard children grow up to do great things and in this instance of metal, there's a lot of good music out there.

Black Sabbath are considered to be the Godfathers of Heavy Metal, though some say Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple & even bands like Steppenwolf are the first heavy metal bands. In that time period, perhaps, but any casual fan of metal sees these bands as hard rock/classic rock acts at best.

Metal is heavy, hence the name. Sabbath were not just heavy sounding, but heavy lyrically. Just read some of Geezer's lyrics, then read some of Zeppelin's or Purple's. They paint very different pictures entirely, given metal's evolution.

But, given the Godfathers rightful place in musical history, are they the best? It's a very open question as any true die-hard Black Sabbath fan would say yes. Any hardcore Ozzy fan will say maybe, but might without question say yes to Ozzy himself, given the propelling solo career Post-Sabbath. Even after Ozzy was fired in '79, Sabbath continued with Dio, Tony Martin and others behind the mic as Iommi kept flying the Sabbath flag high and clear.

Metal has spawned some of the greatest bands in music's quite short history. We seem to forget that although music has been around for thousands of years (Blackmore's Night springs to mind.... #Drumroll) and although solo artists and bands only started emerging in the early 1900's, so much musical history has been made, especially in the metal world. Enter Metallica. Anyone that knows the name most likely knows the history, from Mustaine, Cliff, Justice, Grammy's, Black Album, Hair-cuts, S&M, Some Kind Of Monster (fantastic film), Death Magnetic (with the un-named record engineer) and now Through The Never.

Metallica have sold more albums than the rest of the big 4 combined, even though many metal fans will argue 'til the end of time that Megadeth are a betterband, that Slayer, Anthrax among others are "the better band". It really is down to personal perception as to what "makes" the better band. Record sales? Legions of fans? Musical accolades? Branding/Franchise? The songs themselves, the albums they were on, or the MTV videos?

The answer is, whatever makes you happy. Personally I feel Metallica have made a couple of great albums. I like some tracks from Kill 'Em All. If Lightning had Master of Puppets production I would probably say Lightning is their best album, but it's not, Puppets is. Justice would have been a step-up if it had any bass. I don't really care for the Black Album bar The Unforgiven & Sad But True. Ironically, I like Load, though it should have been a double album with only the good half of Re-load making an appearance. Funny thing is, if that album had been released under a different band name, it would have sold twice as much and been considered a great hard rock album, but because it was a Metallica album that wasn't "metal up your ass", a lot of their fans unfortunately dismissed it as the Black Album part deux.

St Anger would have been half a decent record if the snare drum was tightened up and if Bob Rock threatened to kick Hammett in the nuts if he didn't record a fucking guitar solo. It ended up becoming an album of average songs averaging seven minutes long for each track. Having no solos is a worse move than the most pretencious prog rock album you will ever find. Don't ask me which one, there's a few out there. Death Magnetic & Beyond Magnetic were a step back in the right direction, but the guitars are distorted. I don't mean through the amp, that is guitar distortion, I mean through your speakers. It's not your speakers making that fuzzy, buzzing sound, it's Rick Rubin taking his eye off the ball and just telling the band to "get on with it". Look at the album sleeve and try to find the sound engineer's name in the album credits, I guarantee you won't find it & with good reason too, but even that doesn't beat Lulu.

Moving swiftly onto and away from Lulu as fast as humanly possible. What the actual fuck were they thinking, exactly? Maybe it was their mid-life crisis album. The greatest thing that album spawned was the lyric "I am the table". If you wish to see my thoughts on the shittest album I've probably ever heard, watch this old podcast video from YouTube below.

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Now that you're thinking about it, are Metallica truly the greatest heavy metal band of all-time? Did you watch Some Kind Of Monster? Did you listen to Lulu from start to finish? Would you consider a band that has made quite a number of wrong turns on their path to metal stardom to be considered the benchmark for what makes heavy metal one of music's best genres and a household name when it comes to all things hard rock & heavy metal?

Undeniably, they are a great band and have made great music, but so have bands like Megadeth, with Peace Sells, Rust In Peace, Countdown & even Youthanasia, which isn't as metal as the aforementioned, but is to Megadeth what Load is to Metallica. What a fantastic album that is. Even a couple of their more recent records, United Abominations stands out for me. Put that up against Lulu and ask yourself what do you honestly think? Is Master of Puppets the greatest thrash metal album ever made? Or is it Reign in Blood? Personally, if we're talking about Slayer, Seasons in the Abyss, the album, was their best. The song, I personally consider is up at the very top with Puppets as the best thras song. Granted, it came 4 years after, but still a very strong contender to that particular crown. As a fan of prog rock & metal I would strongly make an argument that Dream Theater are one of the best and simultaneously, most underrated bands that fall into the metal genre. Like Metallica, they have had albums that hit & miss with their fanbase, but records such as Images And Words, Train of Though, Six Degress & Black Clouds are some of the finest collections of music (not just metal) I can honestly say I have ever heard. If you doubt my opinion, check out tracks from their Live Score album. They're an even better live band.

And y'know what, I haven't even gotten STARTED with Iron Maiden yet, who are my favourite heavy metal, whom without you have no heavy metal.

Iron Maiden's last 4 albums, in my honest opinion, are some of their best. Brave New World & A Matter Of Life And Death are their best albums. Nope, not Somewhere in Time, not Killers, not even Seventh Son, those two, which really is a testament to their greatness that they came back with music like that and with some of their best material they've ever written.

Dance of Death & Final Frontier also featured moments of true Maiden magic, but BNW & AMOLAD stand far out from the rest. Rock in Rio is also a great live album. Infact, Metallica, Maiden & Dream Theater have definitely been a huge influence on my own music. If you head over to the music section of my site, scroll down to my very 1st ep and listen/download the track titled 'Within The Temple', you'll hear a metallica influence in there.

Iron Maiden & Dream Theater's John Petrucci have heavily influenced my guitar playing over the years and in general. There are some tracks on my debut album MindsEye that have definitive moments of Maiden & Petrucci-esque guitaring. Try to figure out which songs. You can stream the ENTIRE album for free on Spotify (link here to my music section) or download it now via iTunes, Amazon or other android markets worldwide. Check out & subscribe my YouTube Channel, Like my Facebook page. If you're a guitarist, check out my Youtube Guitarist's Facebook Page too. And feel free to message me or leave your comments here, there or on Twitter @benjaminteacher. Thanks for reading.

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