30 Day Song Challenge – Day Twenty Six: Song That Makes You Wish It Were 1989 and You Were Living Your Life as a Heavy Metal Slut:
by Judas Priest (1979)“Down on your knees and repent if you please!” – Judas Priest‘s Unleashed in the East begins with the highest point of the live set with an exciting “Exciter“. Not that the rest is “down hill” but it’s almost impossible to top the opening number, though Sinner and The Ripper (possibly my favorite Priest song depending on the day) come pretty close. In fact, the whole set, recorded during their 1979 live show in Tokyo is incredibly rocking and sounds great… perhaps too great?
Nicknamed “Unleashed in the Studio” by sceptics, many claim this can only be called “live” in the loosest terms. Holford, after years of denial even admitted that some vocals were re-recorded in a concert like setting. But really, who cares. It’s fun to listen to, it’s exhilarating and showcases the band at the height of their popularity in front of an adoring audience.
by Europe (1986)This airbrushed cover of The Final Countdown, Swedish hair band Europe‘s mega hit is enough to make anyone love it. I’ve been humming the song all day as we’ve been taking a stroll through the first season on Arrested Development. The song accompanies Gob’s magic acts.
Body Building, Wrestling, Metal BeefcakeThor is a hunk in the traditional sense. Muscles, flowing blond hair, muscles, a body building career, muscles, a heavy metal stint and muscles. While he may not be your type in our age of skinny, quirky nerd appreciation, you have to appreciate the novelty of a classic, good old stud. I was introduced to Thor in a Found Footage clip, wherein he performed his signature feat of blowing up a water bottle until it burst. If you want to listen to his later metal sounds, you can hear I Am Thor at NPR, making a perfect fusion of today’s geeky chic and yesterdays beefcake.
Click here for the rest of Thor
by Dio (1983)Green screen demons (in this case a demon named Murray, the bad’s mascot), two handed swords, battle axes, Barbarians, rats and cat eyed monks – yes, Dio’s Holy Diver has many things to comend it as one of the greatest metal videos of all time.
Click here for the rest of Holy Diver
Metal RoyaltyIf you’ve ever done the heavy metal devil horns hand sign (and I am pretty sure you have) you must give thanks to this man, Ronnie James Dio, who popularized it after taking cues from his grandmother, who used the gesture to ward off the evil eye. The powerfully voiced and long locked frontman to Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath and Dio, Dio passed away last week after an up and down struggle with stomach cancer.
Click here for the rest of Ronnie James Dio
on youtubePraise the… lord? Nope, Angel of Death!
437 East 9th StLeave it to Giant Robot NY to turn me into a little art collector! The Metal Mad show caught my attention when Paul Lyons, whose work is featured, sent a note out the other day… heavy metal art sounded like something I could not miss out on.
It’s a fun, small collection of skulls, bosoms, swords and beastly animals. I am/am soon to be (the show is up until March 3rd) the proud owner of Paul’s grotesquely awesome marker drawings and a fantastically creepy Audobon-esque painting of headless bat-birds battling in a black sky by Aaron Brown. These three pieces were my personal favorites, but there’s lots of great stuff to see.
Hannah Stouffer‘s dreamy, bloody paintings are lovely, the black and white pen and ink drawings by Louie Cordero call to mind the horrors of a Charles Burns comic and are fab. I was also smitten with the Bear Horde drawing by French and the intricate creations from Jeremiah Maddock. Oh, and Tom Neely‘s Wolves in the Throne rules.
Click here for the rest of Metal Mad at Giant Robot
Heartwarming, heartbreaking, humbling and uplifting; these are not exactly the words I expected to use when describing Sacha Gervasi's 2008 documentary Anvil: The Story of Anvil, an intimate portrait of the core members (now in their 50s) of a long-lived but commercially unsuccessful heavy metal band… And I certainly didn't expect to cry; but cry I did, profusely enough that I couldn't even pretend that there was something in my eye.
If you ever want a portrait of perseverance and inexhaustible optimism, you needn't look further than Lips Kudlow, the band's lead singer, who, along with his lifelong friend drummer Robb Reiner, have stayed together to play in small clubs, go on ramshackle European tours, and work full time at blue collar dead end jobs to make ends meet.
Comparisons to Spinal Tap are inevitable, but these are real people in real situations. Once metal gods, Anvil inspired numerous mega bands like Guns 'N Roses, Anthrax, and Slayer but, unlike those bands who all went on to make millions, Lips and Robb struggle to live the dream daily. While it's sad at times, it's an overwhelmingly affectionate portrait that doesn't judge, poke fun, or humiliate.
If you want to feel the power of Metal on Metal and the triumph of the human spirit, watch it!
It would be impossible (and almost heartless) not to include Anvil's totally rocking Metal on Metal after being so moved by their struggle. Plus, deep sympathies aside, it is bona fide a classic; a lean and awesome slice of metal just the way I like it. “Join the heavy metal fight!”