Under Review #01

I think a good way to get everyone into the swing of things would be a good old fashioned album review... So here's a personal favourite of mine...

METALLICA - MASTER OF PUPPETS (1986, Elektra)

Before the ungodly pile of awful crap that was their eighth studio "effort," St. Anger, before the huge, pop-marketed beast that was Metallica (a.k.a. The Black Album) and even before the bloated, controversial, yet epic prog-thrash of ...And Justice for All, Metallica were a band unrivalled in sound and songwriting ability. This can be attributed to a key component: Metallica's ability to work together as a unit. Unfortunately, following the release of their third album, Metallica lost one of their greatest assets: bass player Cliff Burton. Before his joining the band, Metallica were a primitive styled thrash band influence by New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) bands such as Judas Priest, Motorhead, Saxon and Diamond Head. When Burton entered, however, the band began compiling a series of monster songs that would seal their sound, thanks to the bass player's classical training and knowledge of scales, harmonies and intricate melodies. The height of this song-writing was achieved on their third album which most consider to be the band's magnum opus: 1986's Master of Puppets.

Stacked up against the previous album, Ride the Lightning, there are a great deal of similarities between the two albums, and it's no coincidence. Both records follow a very similar formula. Track one on each album starts as an acoustic song, then suddenly punches you in the face with wall-of-sound galloping thrash riffs that set the tone for the rest of the album. Track two: epic title songs that stretch out over the space of six to nine minutes comprised of several different sections, sort of like a mini symphony. Track three on both albums plays host to hulking, slow monsters of songs that slow it down, whilst track four showcases one of Metallica's great strengths: turning a ballad into a masterclass in technical riffery and guitar solos (This may be familiar to those of you who know the song "One" from ...And Justice for All, however, you probably heard it first on Guitar Hero III so you're not a REAL Metalli-fan). Track five on both is home of an all out thrasher, before track six settles into a slow-then-fast groove. The only difference between the two albums and their layouts is that the nature of tracks seven and eight on each album are altered. On Ride... track seven is a tight, concise thrash track, and track eight is home of a sweeping, epic instrumental. On ...Puppets, the instrumental is placed at seven, and the thrasher at eight. But what's the difference between the two albums overall? Simple. The songwriting on Master of Puppets is better.

“Battery” begins with a classical inspired acoustic melody, before morphing into a devastating wall of chords that comes crashing down into a tight, brutal yet melodic riff, courtesy of Metallica’s secret weapon, the rapid-fire picking of James Hetfield’s mighty right hand. Over the course of five minutes, Metallica will have you screaming along as the song deals with the issue of loss of power by way of domestic violence. In a way, the whole album deals with the loss of power, be it by drugs (the title track), organised religion ("Leper Messiah") or some huge great Chthulu-like beast ("The Thing That Should Not Be"). 
Whatever your choice of song, there's no denying that the title track itself is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. Beginning with one of the most recognisable three chord smashings in recorded history (DUN! DUN DUN DUUNNNNN!) it turns into a twisting, winding epic with its own movements and time signature changes. Watch for the mellow midsection (3:34-4:48) to witness the reason that Metallica weren't just your average thrash band; they were more than capable of intertwining beauty, melody and aggression together in the course of just one song that has become their anthem (No, you poseur Black Album fans, "Enter Sandman" is not their anthem: this song is!).
The hulking beast on track three, "The Thing That Should Not Be" is a crushing track by sheer force of heaviness. The dropped-D tuning makes for a bellowing, simplistic riff that is still headbangingly amazing. "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" is the next track. As I mentioned before, starting on Ride... Metallica demonstrated an amazing talent at starting a song seemingly as a ballad, then morphing it seemlessly into a runaway freight train of heaviness and riffgasmic destruction, featuring the badass flailing of metal wunderkind Kirk Hammett. The hymn to psychosis is one of the best recorded examples of Metallica's talent of combining the beautiful and the ugly, the serene and the cathartic.
"Disposable Heroes" is a balls-out thrasher; an eight minute track detailing tales of the horror and waste of war: "Soldier boy/Made of clay/Now an empty shell/Twenty-one/Only son/But he served us well." Listen to their astounding recreation of the sound of a machine gun on the open E string and be gobsmacked at its precision and technicality; as a guitarist myself speaking from experience, that is a VERY difficult riff to play, even though it only requires one hand. 
Track six, "Leper Messiah"is a song that gains speed and intensity throughout the progression of the song, and lyrically is most probably my favourite song on ...Puppets. It's an attack on organised religion, most particularly televangelism: "Time for lust/Time for lies/Time to kiss your life goodbye/Send me money send me green/Heaven you will meet/Make your contribution and you'll get a better seat/Bow to leper Messiah." Awesome. Following that song, the Cliff Burton dominated "Orion" kicks in; an eight minute progressive piece that has it's heavier and jazzier moments. Note the sheer talent in Burton's bass playing. It took me a long time before I realised which parts were actually performed on bass, but when I did, I grabbed a whole new degree of respect for the song.
Finally, the album closes with a monster track; the five minute "Damage Inc.," yet another thrasher. Metallica's genius in bookmarking the album with two violent thrash songs was unprecedented. The sheer anger and hatred you can feel in the pummeling rhythm guitar is viscerally damning; you can actually feel the weight of the riff as it rips into your eardrums. 
Sadly, following the release of this album, things went south for Metallica. Following a gig in Sweden the same year of Master of Puppets' release, bass player Cliff Burton was killed in a bus crash. Since then, the band has not attained the peaks of this masterwork, but it remains an untainted gem of the thrash metal genre; a completely listenable album from start to finish, and a stone cold classic of music, fullstop.

In the Beginning, there was a blog...

Greetings, mortals,

As a few of you know, there's such a thing as student radio. Some student radio stations have shows that play pop, indie and hip-hop. Some even have shows that play that most dreaded of genres; heavy metal. I host the former.

My name's Dylan, and I'm a metalhead.

So welcome to the first of what I hope will be many blogs, detailing my experiences, insights and thoughts on my time hosting the show, Session of Aggression on UQ's JACRadio (www.jacradio.com.au). 

First off, let me tell you a little bit about myself, and my immersion into the fast and furious world that is heavy metal.

I got my hands on a copy of Slipknot's Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses when I was around 15 or so. At that stage in time, I was listening to a great deal of pop-punk and mainstream garbage, but songs like "Duality" and "Circle" on said Slipknot album changed my perspective on heavy metal. Sure, I liked Metallica, but only because they were the biggest metal band in the history of popular music. Everyone knew "Enter Sandman," and me being the hapless young fool I was didn't even know that masterfully crafted works like Master of Puppets, Slayer's Reign in Blood, Black Sabbath's Master of Reality, Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness or Converge's Jane Doe, existed. I was blissfully unaware.

Enter heavy metal.

As soon as I sunk my teeth into the sounds of Vol. 3... I realised that there must be more out there like this; stuff that I, as a rebellious young lad, could listen to and devour with eagerness. There was. Soon, Metallica entered my regular listening cycle, as did bands like Pantera, System of a Down and Megadeth. But then, I needed something a little heavier, so along came bands like Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Deicide and Opeth; bands that could pummel me with their sheer weighty riffs and musical technicality.

However, I was in far too deep by this stage; heavy metal had a hold on me that no other musical form ever could. I turned away from the decay of mainstream music back to a world where Vikings burned down Christian churches, the fields of battle were forever soaked with orc blood, botched surgical procedures were a fun way to pass the time, but above all, where getting together with your friends, having a few beers and having a good time was a way of life.

Since then, I've never looked back. I like to think that I've become more accepting of other forms of music: currently a few of my favourite bands are Radiohead, Queens of the Stone Age and Bjork. However, that doesn't mean that I won't continue to bring you the best from the world of heavy metal on my show, the SESSION OF AGGRESSION. Welcome to my radio show; I can't wait for you to join me on this most hallowed journey.