Thrash metal

 

The variations in rhythm came surprisingly quickly - that was the thing that astonished me when it all "blew up" back in '83, that it was all so very different and that bands were acquiring individual styles that were more radical than those developed by most NWoBHM bands - but those more advanced techniques are not the basis to thrash, just what made the better bands stand out from the simple bands.

 

The trouble is that "thrash" quickly became a dirty word, associated with some kind of mindlessness in playing - and bands tried to get the point across that what they did was more than "thra**". 

 

In my opinion, they shouldn''t have! Thrash was a new technique in itself, that completely revolutionised metal and what could be done with it - and the biggest revolutionaries of this new technique-based style were the bands themselves, especially those who cultivated original styles.

 

It's all progressive.

 

Metal has always had a bad press - I remember reading a review of "Highway to Hell" in a fairly major UK Pop magazine in the late 1970s, which ripped it to shreds, awarding the album 3 stars (out of 10 - one of the lowest I'd ever seen in that particular publication) denouncing AC/DC as "Headbanging horrors", and the music as a cross between "a chainsaw and a piledriver".

 

I immediately sought it out as a result, and never read such shallow pop journalism again if I could help it. I could not believe how right/wrong they were - wrong to award it 3 stars, but right in the "Headbanging Horrors" stuff. I was hooked on AC/DC from that moment! 

 

Yeah, but notice that in that case the reviewer's choice of words make it clear that he's terrified of this music - and remember, fear implies respect.

 

Today? Not only is rap causing most of the moral panics metal used to, but a lot of recent trendy "retro-metal" bands have a somewhat parodic vibe (look at the cover of the latest Municipal Waste album, or for that matter its song titles, if you want an example) that makes it look like they don't really respect the genre and its culture. Don't forget how SomethingAwful (and others) routinely dismiss metal as nothing but leftover feedback noise from adolescent testosterone poisoning. It's like mainstream culture has gone from shunning metal because it says something they don't want to hear to shunning metal because they refuse to even understand it.

 

All this becomes even more insulting to any self-respecting metal fan when you remember that - in Denmark at least - conservatives are still as scared by punk as they were back in the eighties.

 

I immediately sought it out as a result, and never read such shallow pop journalism again if I could help it.

 

Indeed. The worst music reviewers are those who are paid to do it.

 

I've seen it on youtube, Young Guitar!

I'm a big fan of both Marty Friedman and Paul Gilbert, so I've seen a few of the Young Guitar stuff on youtube, absolutely madness.

He does speak great Japanese, and Paul Gilbert is very fluent in Japanese as well.

 

Tank are absolutely abysmal. Saw them live supporting Motorhead (maybe on the Iron Fist tour) and was given the LP. Then one of my metal loving cousins notices the LP and gives me a Tank picture-disc single for my birthday. They also top my 'most embarrassing performance on TV' chart. Forgot the show. Early 80s NWOBHM cash-in show on ITV. Remember two fascinating features on Judas Priest and Saxon.

 

No bias against shred! I usually insist on it on any instrument. Make my ears bleed! Please!

 

Haven't listened to the Tank LP since 82 (and I am in no hurry). I still have the plain sleeve 7" that came with it (fanboyism heh). I seem to remember that the Motorhead tour was when the stage descended from the ceiling (f**k they knew how to open a set). Pretty sure it was Iron Fist. B'ham Odeon incidentally.

 

Any ideas what that TV show was? It may have been a local thing. Whatever Central used to be called (ATV)? in the midlands. I remember fragments of great things on it. All nwobhm. Tank turned up and as the guitarist is about to power chord it after the drum only intro someone had forgotten to turn the gain/reverb on his amps giving him the cleanest Hank Marvin sound imaginable. Problem was, he weren't no Hank Marvin