Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Friday Music: Heavy Metal's Dark Secret

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  • Dave Patrick,

    I used to laugh at and mock metal when I was young - the blinkered outlook of a punk / new wave / alternative fan. That all changed later in life, and I've spent the last 10 years discovering some great, great music via the less well-traveled sub-genres of metal. Straight "heavy" metal (Dio, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin - yes I know there's arguments for and against them being "metal", Rainbow, Iron Maiden, Budgie, et al) I still find tedious, and I'm not really a great fan of the stop-start "100 riffs per song, vocalist sounds like a water buffalo with a bad cold" brand of death metal.

    But give me a dirty, badly produced black metal band like Watain, Megiddo or Ildjarn, and I'm all over that - atmospheric black metal like early Blut Aus Nord and Westering, stuff like Anaal Nathrakh, melodic death metal like early In Flames and Autumn Leaves, drone like Nadja or our very own Black Boned Angel, noise metal like WOLD, "viking" metal like Amon Amarth and Bathory, even a bit of power metal (if you ever get the chance, read the liner notes to Lost Horizon's Awakening The World, they're hilarious).

    Sure, Mayhem were pretty screwed up, and Varg Vikernes (the man behind Burzum) is a convicted murderer, but outside of those, the Scandinavian scene can be likened to Manchester in the early 80s - a hotbed of creativity, with bands like Darkthrone, Burzum, Bathory and In Flames inventing their own versions of "metal".

    And I love Beastwars :D

    Rangiora, Te Wai Pounamu • Since Nov 2006 • 261 posts Report

  • Rich Lock,

    In anticipation of our return home tomorrow (Detroit/SF/Auckland)

    Kick out those jams with a flower in your hair

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report

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