Kevin's Watch

Dethklok will kick your mother's ass.

'Heavy Metal' is a term that I associate with the 80's. The bands in the 70's era (at least to me) were more hard rock, more influenced by blues rather than the classical riffs and scales that seemed to permeate throughout the dawning metal movement.

I have never considered AC/DC metal, and definately not Zeppelin and Kiss, nor even early Sabbath. Blue Oyster Cult (to me) does not belong in metal, nor Rainbow, among others too many to name. And (again, my opinion here) please don't ever classify Guns & Roses as metal. Hard rock, yes...metal, no. To me, they are one of the bands that was the beginning of the end of good ole head banging power metal.

But...I do think that Ritchie Blackmore was one of the first rock guitarists to crossover from blues to classical influence, which greatly influenced the future generations of great metal guitarists. I always thought of Blackmore as 'Bach in Black'.

To me, the first bands that crossed over from the hard rock era to the metal era were Priest and Maiden. Sure, there were others...but those were the big 2 that (again, in my opinion) started the movement.

Saxon was a tweener in there for me, they started to get the look, but didn't quite have the power. Priest and Maiden got it right on both counts, Maiden from their first release, and Priest a couple of releases later on. Priest's 70's stuff was more hard rock than metal, but when the 80's rolled in, they started to make their change over to the metal gods that they eventually became.

Cail wrote:Bark at the Moon was a really underrated album. I think Jake E. Lee was a great guitar player, and his work with Ozzy was fantastic.

<looks both ways> I actually prefer Jake's playing to Randy's.

Excellent post Jelerak.

DLB, I'm with you. Randy was a decent player that showed some promise, but Jake was awesome. If you like his style, check out Badlands.

"Spirit Journey v1"
Zakk Wylde & Matt Maiellaro

"Spirit Journey v2"
Dana Snyder



I guarantee you will find this nowhere else, nor will you find anything quite like it anywhere.....

FWIW, I hate Zakk Wylde's guitar playing. All those squealing harmonics make him sound like a 12-year old that just discovered the gain knob on his amp.

Cail wrote:FWIW, I hate Zakk Wylde's guitar playing. All those squealing harmonics make him sound like a 12-year old that just discovered the gain knob on his amp.

I don't think that's quite the point

Yeah, I'm sure it's not, but there it is. I saw a live video of "Over the Mountain" with Zakk playing, and it was just terrible.

Jake>Zakk

Cail, I like your style. Jake E Lee is one of my favourites and Badlands is awesome. His riffs are incomparable, so bluesy, so groovy, wow.

To add to the list:

Megadeth - Hangar 18
Megadeth - Tornado of Souls
Anthrax - Caught In A Mosh
Deep Purple - Speed King (not really metal, but man what a riff)
Dio - Stand Up And Shout
Motorhead - Ace Of Spades
Queensryche - The Needle Lies
Halford - Betrayal

Just a few favourites.

Pantera - Walk
Opeth - Deliverance
Arch Enemy - Nemesis

2 Minutes To Midnight kicks some ass.

Sunbaneglasses wrote:2 Minutes To Midnight kicks some ass.

Indeed it does. Hard to fault any Dickenson-led Maiden.

Funny this thread popped back up, as I've really been digging some Badlands and Megadeth lately.

https://youtu.be/aOnKCcjP8Qs

https://youtu.be/wIIfu5MTebU

I actually think that I prefer the Bruce 2.0 era? Maiden has put out 5 strong albums since his return.

ur-James wrote:Pantera - Walk
Opeth - Deliverance
Arch Enemy - Nemesis

I like the newer, proggy Opeth stuff. I am not a fan of the "Cookie Monster" vocals.

Sunbaneglasses wrote:I actually think that I prefer the Bruce 2.0 era? Maiden has put out 5 strong albums since his return.

I'm with you on that. Everything they've done since the reunion is great, with their latest being the best of the 5.


I can't stand Pantera though. I never heard what people liked in them.

There are so many ass kicking Judas Priest songs that I can't single one out. Rapid Fire off of the British Steel album is a good example.

I am a huge fan of Angela Gossow era Arch Enemy.