Welcome to this weeks edition Of the Badgers Metal Breakdown Throwback Thursday playlist. Many of us metal fans got into metal by hearing a song or seeing an album at a local record store. Some of us had that one friend who introduced us to bands, or you simply heard something playing and it sounded so good you had to hear it again. For some of us those songs mean something to you some way some how. Maybe it’s a song or an album you haven’t listen to in years, but as soon as you listen to the song it brings you right back to a specific time in your metal fan history. This is my playlist with videos, or at least audio clips of songs from bands that bring me back. Some of the songs are from local bands that I would go to shows, and others are from some of the first metal cd’s I bought. With that said lets jump into the pit of memory lane.
First up is a song by Sepultura, I bought the album when I was in the 6th grade. This was one of the first metal cd’s I bought. Shortly after I jumped head first into metal and have never looked back since. By this time I had already been playing the drums since 1993 and this album was the first metal album I would learn the drums to. The 1996 gateway metal album for many is none other than Roots. This album is well known for the song “ Roots Bloody Roots” which to many is that signature song everyone knows. I will be honest this is the first metal song I learned on the drums. Igor had a simple but heavy sound to make the song a classic. I remember sitting at my drum set and just playing this song over and over and over. Then playing the drums to Attitude this song was just so badass to play at the time. The rest of the album had some killer tracks like Cutthroat, Ratamahatta, and Born Stubborn to name a few. So here is a video for Attitude
Now Fault is a band that got started around my hometown of Atkinson, NH.
These guys were that band that because they were local you tried to go to any and every show you could. They had a killer sound, Tim was merciless on the drums, the samples at the beginning of the songs were perfect. This was one of those homegrown bands that just killed it. Now trying to find videos for their songs is next to impossible. I’m just glad I have always kept every CD I have ever owned, and also their album “ Sensory Deprivation” is also on Spotify, so if you have/Subscribe to Spotify take a listen to their whole album. I really would have liked to find something for the song Children of the Corn, or Purgatory. But the only video I found is for just the audio for the song Cyanide. Which is still a badass song that can hold its own. I just feel as though Purgatory shows off the talent of Tim on drums more, and of course being a drummer I do lean more towards the drums. At any rate here is Cyanide of the 1998 album Sensory Deprivation. Enjoy and if you like this, some of the members ended up starting a band called the_network. A great album worth listening to is Bishop Kent Manning.
Now for a band that blew me away when I picked up a victory records sampler while I was much younger. Back before EMO was thought of, we had hardcore, metal, and the crossover bands that fit both. Like Bloodlet, and Integrity did and both were on that victory records sampler. The song on the sampler was that introduction to Bloodlet and I ended up going to a Newbury Comics and picking up the album Entheogen. The album came out in 1996 and I instantly got hooked on the 9th track “ (95”. This was and still is one of the songs I love playing the drums to. The vocals are different than most other bands, the bass has a heavy presence at times. Drums are great, and fun to play along to. This will always be one of my favorite songs to listen to. It just has a groove to it that I can’t sit still when I listen to the song. So enough chat because I just need to get the video/Audio clip up so you can listen for yourself. For some of you, you may have been a fan, if not I can tell you this particular song takes me back big time. This song thoroughly makes my day when I listen.
Now to bring it back a few more years is the album that I discovered my absolute favorite live song. Yes it is a live album, and although I really do not care for live albums, this one solidified its impact on me with the song “Fear of the Dark” For some of you I do not need to name names. You know what band I am talking about, and you may even know the album it came from but if not then let me educate you. The year was 1998, Iron Maiden put out A Real Live Dead One. Live songs while they were touring in 1992 and 1993. Now Iron Maiden will and forever be one of my favorite bands ever. They may not be death metal, grind, metalcore blackmetal what have you. They are simply put. METAL! \M/ Now this particular song was recorded live in Finland in 1992. This song to me is so powerful, when you listen to it, you can almost imagine you were there. when the song starts and Bruce starts singing, the crowd is too, and you can hear them perfectly. It demonstrates the dedication the fans have for something they believe in, and love. They sing the melody, and even when Bruce says “ You” at the 1:39 mark in the beginning you know everyone in that crowd sang “ Fear of the Dark”. This song is a great display of musicianship, and just how favored Iron Maiden is.
So while I could write pages worth of information about the band or album or even the song I will leave it up to the video to explain.
My next video is for a song off of Sevendust’s debut album. The whole album was great, but the song “ Black” is probably the song that got everyone’s attention. Iremember hearing it on a local radio station that would play heavy stuff in the evenings. Needless to say I also picked this album up from a Newbury Comics, as that was the record store that had metal and hardcore bands and everything in between. It is still my favorite store to go to due to their selection. They were so ahead of their time that I don’t think an official was ever made. Nowadays youtube has everything you could ever want from a kid putting a glow stick in the microwave, a goat screaming, and an autotune version of Antoine Dodson on the news. But there is no official video for Black. So while this weeks TBT playlist does not have a lot of “ official” videos. There are some great tunes, worth listening to. Here is a clip for Black.
Napalm Death is my next selection, now to be fair, I had heard them many times. They actually to me had a grind sound to them, that wasn’t widely used among metal bands. While everyone else was doing the “Death” metal style these guys were doing their own thing. These guys have been around for a long time and are still doing it. They recently put out “Apex Predator” so they haven’t slowed down one bit. We can talk about Greed killing, More than meets the eye and many other songs. But the video I have for is from 1997 The album was Inside the Torn Apart and the track is ‘ Breed to Breathe” I heard this song off an Earache Records sampler “ Earplugged 2” I picked this album up that year at a Strawberries one town over. And would listen to this album and from there I discovered more Earache Records bands. Napalm Death just had a different sound then the other bands. It wasn’t totally different, but it was like adding a different spice to a sound that made them unique. They still aim to deliver metal, and I don’t see them slowing down either. Here is the video for Breed to Breathe;
Up next is a great album from the band Today is the Day.
So for all those Mastodon fans out there stick around because Brann Dailor, and Bill Kelliher actually played in Today is the Day before Mastodon was even formed. You had those two guys teamed up with Steve Austin ( who also did vocals on “Terror and Hubris in the House of Frank Pollard”, production, mixing, engineering, analog editing, digital editing, and mastering of the album New American Gospel” by Lamb of God in 2000) and made In The Eyes Of God a rollercoaster of an album. They are listed on Wikipedia as noisecore now this is where I get hung up on sub-genre’s. Look if its metal, call it metal, I understand black metal, death metal, grind etc. But once you start calling something post hardcore bible thumping sludge pop noisecore. Im going to just say “ its metal” . So without any great quality video of this song, I have audio for the song “ Going to Hell”
My Own Victim may not ring a bell to some of you but I heard these guys off a century media sampler compilation. I ended up buying their 1997 album “ No Voice, No Rights, No Freedom” while they may be more hardcore than metal, they fit in to the category because hardcore was a sound between punk and metal. I could go on about the similarities the history but who gives a damn. I am just playing a song that brings me back to my younger days. That good old rebellious hardcore sound. These guys are a Kentucky band who got started in 1995 with all the great influences of hardcore, and what they did was put out a great hardcore sound for that album. I really enjoyed this album. Nothing too fancy over the top or trying to make everyone else happy. So instead of just a video or audio clip. Since I can’t find the song I am looking for, then what I have is the audio for the entire No Voice album. So either skim through. Listen to the whole thing or do what you want, but just know this album has some killer hardcore tracks on it.
I remember scouring the internet back in the days of aol, and windows 95 trying to find metal any way I could. You would come across bands that never get big, and then bands that changed lineups or names. For example there used to be a website mp3.com it may still be active but I guarantee its not the way it used to be, and I actually downloaded Burn The Priest’s first album. Who knew they would Later become Lamb of God. So while I would use that site I discovered so many bands. And one of those bands was Ebony Tears. They had a similar black metal sound like At The Gates that piqued my metal interest. I came across the song Harvester of Pain, and I just really liked the way it was written. Very simple, yet has fast attacks, but mostly besides the drums which I am normally locked onto, but the guitars. I really like the guitar sound on this song. They have a fuzzy distortion similar to a buzz saw which some bands can pull of. This guitar sound is why I like Trap Them’s guitars because they have that guitar distortion sound. The band is now split up and the members went on to form Dog Faced Gods which sounds nothing like Ebony Tears. Sometimes the direction is totally different. At any rate I could only find a lyric video so here is the lyric video for Harvester of Pain, enjoy;
My last video, is for an entire album worth of audio, I can’t find this album anywhere, and I loved it. I was in highschool, and heard the Slaughter of the Weak album my freshman year, I saw them play a show freshman year, and when their next album came out I knew I was goin to go out and buy it. So sure enough the album Dead and Buried came out in 2001 and I picked it up at none other than my favorite Newbury Comics. And I played the shit out of this album. So why am I doing audio for the whole album? Because I can’t find audio or video of the one song I really wanted to do which is Circle of Death/ Jungle Rot. So if you want to go straight to that song just skip to the 31:57 minute mark. But I do recommend just playing the whole album because the intro to the album is a great sample. These guys play a style of metal that is not the popular lets do everything faster and do pig squeal vocals and blast beats, and everything that everybody else is doing. These guys have that slow groove style death metal similar to Sodom, Monstrosity and Grave. They did however just put out a track for their new album which sounds pretty good. They have always stuck to their signature sound which is what I like. They have never changed for anything. Just still pumping away heavy badass metal. check out their new track “Fight where you stand” from Decibel Magazine.
http://decibelmagazine.com/blog/2015/6/10/man-up-and-fight-where-you-stand-with-jungle-rot So with all that said here is the entire Dead And Buried album for you to listen to;
ENJOY
That wraps up this weeks Throwback Thursday metal edition, This wont be a weekly thing but every few weeks or so its fun to listen to metal that takes you to a different time.
-Badger \m/
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