The Mosh Pit (5.09.08): Forgotten Metal Classics

Posted by Dan Haggerty on 05.09.2008

This week the Mosh Pit steps back and revisits previous years to look at the truly missed, forgotten, or overlooked metal classics. Form Grave Digger to Tygers of Pang Tang, Death Angel to Quartz, and … Twisted Sister? Step into the Pit and discover some of the hidden classics from metals past!




Before I even get started this week, I need to take a moment of silence for what was truly devastating news. One of my favorite metal bands, Trouble, has parted ways with their lead singer. Turns out Eric Wagner has decided that almost 3 decades of touring is enough and departed for new endeavors. I certainly can understand how after all of that time, someone might have enough of the road. Add in that smaller bands don't get the perks of major acts, and several decades on the road would probably outright suck. But long time readers know my devotion to what is truly an institution in metal, and thus despite my understanding and wish nothing but the best of Eric, I'm still devastated by the news.

I actually got the chance a month ago to drive to Chicago and see one of the band's gigs (again), and I'm glad I did. It turns out that will be the last show with the original line up. This just goes to show folks, that you should take those opportunities to see your favorite bands – You never know what may happen in this crazy business.

But the band picked up Warrior Soul's Kory Clark, so they will be continuing on and I look forward to what the bands determination to continue on will bring. Obviously the rest feels the need to keep taking it to the road, which I suspect didn't help matters. Plus I have many a fine memory of standing there front and center; hands raised with the horns, head banging uncontrollably to some of the heaviest and grandest riffs to be chugged and chucked live ever.

And yes, that is one of my scanned album covers signed by the band. I have a picture with Eric Wagner as well, but I'll save you the horror of seeing my ugly mug. Hey - If your going to be a fan, be a fan all the way I say.

Thanks for the moment – On with the show!






Fun With Feedback

Last week from the comments section, we had…


First up is Ashish:

Can't relate into this edition. Haven't gone THAT deep in the 80's yet. I'm
still in the 70's and my affection for Sabbath [which I got from this column].


How about a column that takes a look at Sabbath without Ozzy or Dio? I've heard
good things about the Martin era [esp. the Headless Cross album] so I would like
to hear from you too. :)

First of all, thanks! Next, and more importantly, I love the fact you're getting into Sabbath and I helped play a small part in that. One of my original goals for doing this column was to hopefully help people get to know heavy metal better through its illustrious history, and help them discover some of the many great albums spread throughout it's near 40 year run. Hey – All this junk knowledge has to be good for something!

As for the column about the Tony Martin era Sabbath material, that's a great idea. I'll put that on the planner and work on it.


Next we have Craig:

Great article. I also agree that Ride the Lighting is the best Metallica CD.

You know it man - Spread the word!

Oh shit, forget to mention the Yngwei Malmsteen inclusion. I heard him for the
first time when he did the G3 tour with Satriani and i think Vai(not sure on
Vai). After that i went and bought trilogy and loved it. Far beyond the sun is
one of the greatest guitar instrumental's ever.

I have to admit, Malmsteen is a bit hit or miss for me. It's like virtuoso overload. A song is great but an album is over kill. But Trilogy is just an awesome statement on the subjet front to back. Glad your digging it - Classic Metal is an often missed subgenre of metal!

I think I can call him a regular – Krunchy:

Man, what a trip through memory lane! I can say that I had all these albums by
1987, except Destruction, which I hadn't picked up until a few years
afterwards. I can't believe that you have "Awaken the Guardian" in
here. I bought that album because someone told me it sounded like Iron Maiden
with the needle skipping and Geoff Tate singing. Goofy lyrics, but Guardian is
a lost classic metal song.

Can't find many exclusions to your list, since alot of what i listened to at
that time frame was from 1985 or 1987, I would say that The Crumbsuckers might
be one, SOD (perhaps that was 85 or 87 not 86) Ludichrist, Carnivore,1st Death
EP, and Bathory.

Lastly, what about Walls of Jericho by Helloween. I thought that was better
Iron Maiden album than Somewhere in Time (Yes, blasphemy in most Maiden
circles) but I think it's definitely true.
Underated in my opinion metal albums you should review would be DRI - Full
Speed Ahead and Riot - Thundersteel, perhaps some Coroner as well?

Good to hear from someone who is already on the same page. Some great albums you mentioned there, so I'll take it from the top.

Crumbsuckers: Wow, you got me on that one. I haven't heard them in years. Friend use to have a tape (or maybe it was vinyl!). Oh man, completely forgot them after all this time. I'm going to have to check them out again out of curiosity. If memory serves, they were East coast speed-punk type of blast. Considering I'm not big into punk cross-over hardcore (normally – there is always exceptions), that might be why. But hey, they had a lead singer at one point named Haggerty so it must be good… Right?

Don't answer that.

SOD - Speak English or Die: This was 1985 actually, so it never made the list. If I ever do 85 it'll have to go on there. That little pile of thrash till you drop hardcore was singularly incredibly influential for an album with so much time not taking itself seriously. Then again, that's why it was fun!

Helloween - Walls of Jericho: Now we're talking. Must-resist-urge-to-spontaniously-review-album… Seriously, this was also 85. I should probably just do 1985 at this rate, but I've been trying to stick to years that packed significant historical punches. I know one thing, I should just up and do a feature on speed metal and place this as ground zero. Now that is an idea to consider…

DRI and Riot – Good suggestions. If I don't work them into a theme, I'll get them into a "Forgotten Classic" feature sometime.

And by the way, good take on Metallica in Fact or Fiction this week – Keep it real dude!

Not a bad list

But Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica make the list and NOT Dark Angel? Are you out of your fucking mind

Sadly, the wife agrees with you. Not with Dark Angel part… Just the fucking out of my mind part. I blame hair metal – It made all of us a little dumber.











Forgotten Classics Gone Wild!!!

OK. Here's the deal. Over the last two months, there have been so many albums we've gone over that not everything has made the column. Some were left out due to space, a few we're so obscure I decided to highlight them later, and even a few were flat out missed. It happens when you discuss so many albums. Even now I'm sure I'm missing a few albums, so I'll leave it in your capable hands to keep me honest. Speaking of which, don't be shy. Thanks to Krunchy I'm going to check out a band I haven't heard for like 20 years, and that is a very cool thing. At the end of the day I'm a music collector and a metal junky, so nothing would be as great as people talking about albums that we all get to check out!

So here we have it, the albums from 1980, 83, 84, 86, and 90 that were missed last time around:





Witchfinder General - Friends of Hell






So deep into the underground, their brief existence of two albums (and a live) is larger than life amongst old-school metal aficionados, the band developing a cult like status amongst those in the know. Well, that and they are a great band. No pretensions, on gimmicks (beyond the OTT cover), just honest in your face metal based in one old school while being down-tuned into an even older school. Pure traditional doom meets the golden age of NWOBHM, and I'm dead serious when I say few other bands have captured early Sabbath's sound in spirit. Sure, you have the British Invasion breeching the licks of these tracks, but the sound crushes with the apocalypse of Iommi's guitar work and Ozzy's nihilistic gut check.

This is the real stripped down doom deal, sent with love from the chemical 60's and the forsaken and damned cynicism of the 70's – Tied with an 80's metal appreciation. Sorry about the cover, but naked chicks in violence scene might have sounded edgy in 83 (not really - to campy), and the humor shows the band really does have their tongue firmly in cheek, but it would violate site rules to post it in full. If you like old Sabbath and NWOBHM, just pick this up for yourself. A few spins to warm this up and you will likely have a new fovorite classic album for your collection.






Death Angel - Act III





I don't know how I missed Death Angel while listing the albums of 1990. Premier thrash that acts as a bridge between the more popular moshers like Metallica or Anthrax and the underground smashers like Kreator or Exodus. You see the distilled and admiral qualities of both in Death Angel, and Act III was a classic and essential statement on the subject, proving again what a great year 1990 was for thrash (see also Rust in Peace and The Human Factor). The thing that is great about this album, much like the new album actually, is that this takes the idea of 80's thrash and proposes it's own sort of evolution of the genre – so it's thrash but thrash evolved some to new darker and grittier plains of existence. In fact, you almost can't cal this thrash anymore, more like a shredding heavy dark metal – To call it thrash would force you to compare it to earlier albums (and those shred the house down), which does this album a disservice. It's not the thrash album of earlier offerings, and will disappoint if you treat it that way. What this is a solid blast of metal evolved from thrash, the next stop of evolution, much like Pantera took thrash into new (and different) directions – But those stuck because Pantera was HUGE. Dark Angel brings it on this ambient but throttling classic and deserves recognition with the other thrashers of that time.





Torch - Torch





Here's a hard to find lost gem. A rough stripped down NWOBHM with an overtime work ethic, so immediate in its sense of metal self, yet forward thinking with ideas of the genre's flow and growth. Or at least it was to anyone who was listening, Torch criminally never getting out of the gates to a wider audience. It's not like this is extreme, underground, or technically challenging to the casual music fan. It just does the basics with such edge and devotion to delivery that it's imposing. Think Diamond Head in its sense of work ethic, every moment filled with riff and groove, but the serious attitude and bottom end adds years to the performance. Add in some serious power along with a bunch of tracks that sink their teeth into you and you have Torch. This doesn't almost qualify as cult classic, ranging into obscure, which is a shame. This much energy and focused adrenaline within the soundscapes of NWOBHM should have launched a stellar career. Doesn't matter, this just kills and that is the only thing that matters.





Quartz - Stand Up And Fight





Certainly one of the greatest unsung highlights of the NWOBHM (well them and Angel Witch), mighty Quartz was just 110% on all frontiers. This might have been all Brit-Invasion, but the vocals have a stadium soar to them, the drums are heavy and firing, while the guitars have as much groove as gallop to them. Man this was incredibly forward thinking for 1980. If that wasn't enough, you can definitely get a forward blackened metal vibe from this, as if Mercyful Fate went doom metal. Fat riffs added to the rolling guitars, melodic at times and smolders evil others, even giving up better production (for that style). Black Sabbath must have agreed, picking up keyboardist Nicholls to become the bands unofficial 5th member for most of the groups run.





Tygers of Pan Tang - Wild Cat





Goofy name and all, but the Tygers were the real deal and had a nice run in the early 80's with their eclectic mix of chaotic riff work, Motorhead with less punk and more rock and roll, basically NWOBHM stumbling through a scrap yard. Something just simple and honest about this Brit-Invasion staple, and band that lurched into prominence with that surge and faded away with it. Rev up the muscle car and shred the tires, because this drives with power even if it shakes and rattles with a few loose bolts. That's part of the charm, the band just cranking and clanking through these tunes like the glory days of cheap fuel, grit and grins smeared on the windshield until the gas runs out in 1983.






Grave Digger - Heavy Metal Breakdown





German metal turned into carnivore, lone animal that hunts lesser game for food and pleasure. Grave Digger started out as a high powered thrash unit set to over kill. Basically Accept meets early Helloween meets Destroyer; some of Germany's metal finest stylistic sounds distilled into a 100 proof concoction that's illegal to produce without a license. In other words, speed metal that has thrash and Teutonic engineering so tight that is just rolls around like a wall of destruction; but also at times slowed down to show off the steel edged razor wire. The band would clarify and sharpen their sound to eventually become thrash's answer to Accept, but here it's most definitely a primitive creature that rips and shreds for sport. Not that that is a bad thing, just not the Grave Digger to come. This is great in its own right and bristles with energy not containable in the mere technology available for the time. Play loud and keep the breakables some place safe.






Cirith Ungol - King of the Dead





Not so much a metal album as alien technology, Cirith Ungol conforming to no type of metal sound proper, incalculable in where it came from or where it went. This is literally its own entity and singular sound in time. A claustrophobic yet empty sound, a sense of guitar work that's heavy on groove, grime, and the underground. All propped up with a vacuum production that adds to the outer space life-form that is these damned tracks from Mordor…

Fun analysis aside, the odd signature sounds might be comparably complex in its uniqueness, a sort of Progressive trip through medieval sci-fi and darkened atmosphere over technical rolling guitar licks. Yeeeeaaaaaa… If you figure that out, let me know so I know how to clarify the band's sound. But you'll get where I'm going if you hear it. Good band, even with the high dose of nuclear winter and completely un-commercial ambience. Managed four albums before the lidless eye would reclaim them however. Definitely a cult classic.





Waysted - Vices





Michael Schenker wasn't the only man to go solo out of the underappreciated UFO! Even further under the radar was Pete Way and this blasted power trip through hard rock and metal nuggets unearthed from a drunken orgy in some dungeon. The cover art will help you wrap your brain around that one. Waysted was a band out of time, or at the very least UFO firing on all cylinders including fuel mixed with liquid oxygen. No joke – This smokes mightier than UFO ever did. Not that I'm despairing UFO, for surely they are a great band. But they are a hard rock band born of the 70's. This just cooks and sizzles from a metal perspective, making it a different creature even if the discerning ear can connect the dots. Think Aerosmith in a bar fight, and you'll be close...





Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry





Stardom and accolades that last to this day are delivered into the hands of Dee Snider and Co. Stay Hungry being part heavy hitter, part scorcher, and amazingly part dumb-downed teen party anthem. A little bit of everything, giving up a little of something for everyone. First, the hits: "We're Not Going to Take It" and "I Want To Rock" being some of the cheesiest pre-puberty nut jobs to be launched onto MTV. But goddamn if they aren't a guilty pleasure, even if they are basically sport stadium drinkers sung by men in their girl friends underwear…

They are fun but certainly not worth the price of admission however. And it's the image of those songs that keep this album out of the hands of serious metal hunters today. That's understandable, considering the levels of cheese from the can those songs deliver. But the sad thing is that the rest of this album is actually quite the solid metal album. a few heay hitters and one scorcher hiding under the hood.

That lies in the rest of the album, from the title track to "SMF" to "The Beast". All solid metal busters worth the title, and marking the evolution proper of the band from their last quality offering in You Can't Stop Rock N' Roll. But the real story goes to the absolute best song the twisted ones ever gave us: "Burn In Hell". That baby smokes, scorches, and is a momentary look at an awesome sound the band should have delved into further. Label pressure and MTV success would give us even dumber versions of "We're Not Going To Take It" over the next two albums and Twisted Sister would be done. It's a real shame; from listening to the other 75% of this album the band could have owned the commercial end of metal if they would have advanced there instead.

But fear not, for Dee and the boys are perennial touring favorites today, even scoring Wacken appearances where they indeed bring the house down with "Burn in Hell".






Encore

There's more hiding out there guys! Plus I'm sure you have some opinions what was missed and should be discussed, so have at it. Hopefully some of these classics will spark in you and get you on your way to some real under ground classics. Or at least not over look a good album like Twisted Sister (so much better than the MTV image!)

Ashish had a great idea from the comments, so I'll be doing Sabbath – The Tony Martin era soon. I've pretty much run the course on the current arc of the column, highlighting historical years from metal's yesteryear. I'd love to hear nay ideas on something guys find interesting. Maybe I could cover more years from 70's and 80's? Or perhaps a take on a specific band. Maybe even tackle a few genres one at a time and highlight the bands from that genre. Let me know what you guys would find interesting and I'll see what we can get done. I have my ideas, but it would be pretty cool to know what you guys like as well.



Final Thoughts

Rules of the Mosh Pit:

1. Heavy metal survives through natural selection.

2. Real metalheads listen to whatever in the hell they want

3. Keep it real and play it on 10.