Here's the first in a series of loosely themed, annotated playlists/mixtapes that I'll be posting. All of this stuff is available on Rhapsody (I'm working on a good way to search for and find the comp; not working at the moment, but that might be an indexing issue), iTunes (hopefully coming soon assuming availability), and maybe some other music retail/sharing outfits. Most of these songs are pulled from my personal collection or from Rhapsody. I'm obviously not affiliated with Rhapsody at all, but I find that its pretty handy (albeit ultimately limited in selection) for checking out new-to-me music, especially with a limited budget for records.
If you don't have access to Rhapsody or iTunes, or just want to quickly check out a few of the tracks, I've linked most of the song titles to "videos" of the tracks that I could find on the web. (No guarantees for sound quality).
1) S.O.D. – “King at the king/evil is in” – Hardcore verses and a campy bridge nail the hilarious absurdity of worshipping the Dark One in a mundane, minimum-wage world. (Last Line, Best Line: Evil, hell, Satan, goat, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun).
2) Megadeth – “Devil’s Island” – Classic Megadeth with a goofy refrain. Bass players are often underrated (shameless plug), but few have been more integral to their band than Dave Ellefson.
3) Municipal Waste – “The Art of Partying” – The philosophy behind Old Milwaukee and raggggge-ing.
4) UFO – “Lights Out” – Catchy melody + rhythm section that refuses to let up + Michael Schenker putting on a guitar clinic = a 1977 song about the London Blitz (or some have suggested the 70s power cuts) that deserves the recognition it gets as a cult classic.
5) The Accüsed – “Take My Time”- Yup. Work sucks. (Great whacked vocals, but better follow along HERE.)
6) Hirax – “Unleash the Pack of Dogs (Open the Gates)” – Relatively new song by thrash stalwarts Hirax opens with the first lines of the shallow, but pretty vampire-werewolf throwdown movie Underworld. This song is much better than the movie. Great album overall.
7) Sepultura – “Mass Hypnosis” – Crazy fast, but foreshadows the chugging, pounding groove and political vitriol they would perfect on Roots.
8) Converge – “Eagles Become Vultures” – Scathing and intense (what else?). One of their biggest and one of their best.
9) Morbid Angel – “Brainstorm” – From the awesomely evil Blessed Are The Sick, this is Tampa death metal at its most economical. And these dudes can really, really play; guitarists Trey Azagoth and Richard Brunelle sound like Kerry King and Jeff Hannemann’s equally demented cousins.
10) 3 Inches of Blood – “Infinite Legions” – Cam Pipes is as an intense singer you’ll hear in metal and the dual harmonized NWOBHM guitars (even if just heard in small bits of this song) really work with the upped tempos.
11) Excel – “Insecurity” – I heard about this early metalcore gem from Ian Christe’s excellent and deep metal chronicle Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal. They are Excel!
12) Gallows – “In the Belly of a Shark” – This song made it on a 2006 Kerrang! compilation; I think they made a good choice. Dig of the organ and the dissonant guitars. (Actual video with moving people here.)
13) Deathrow – “Pledge to Die” – Anti-war sentiments similar to “Mass Hypnosis” – familiar, but indispensable lyrical territory for metalheads. This one really gallops. Also, the fantasy-style album cover has a super phallic rock in the background. Raging steel indeed.
Dude, awesome reviews! I'm gonna put up a post on my blog directing people here (specifically if they like metal). :-) Keep it up brother! Also, I'm not too hip to this genre, but what do you think of some of these so-called metal fusions (and other recent trends)? I was reading a little about it on Wikipedia. They mentioned a couple bands that I really like, such as Bullet for my Valentine and Wolfmother.
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