"Gary don't need his eyes to see. Gary and his eyes have parted company."
Samson - Head On (1980)
So, the dork on the cover here is Samson's drummer, Thunderstick. Thunderstick is unique in that he had his own gimmick, which he took with him, into whichever band he played with. I have never heard of a band where one band member wears a costume (in this case like the gimp from Pulp Fiction) and has an image completely separate from all the other members of the band. Imagine Ace Frehley, in full Spaceman garb, joining Foghat in 1975, except Kiss never existed and everybody else in his new band went by their real names and wore street clothes.
'stick, incidentally, made the rounds with many English metal bands and played in an early incarnation of Iron Maiden but passed out drunk behind the kit too much and was fired.
'stick, incidentally, made the rounds with many English metal bands and played in an early incarnation of Iron Maiden but passed out drunk behind the kit too much and was fired.
The band Samson from this period intrigues me very much. What an interesting clash of egos it must have been, with the aforementioned Mr. Stick, featured prominently on the cover, guitarist Paul Samson, the band's founding member and namesake and future Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson fronting the whole show. Who played bass? Chris Aylmer. Who the hell is that? Exactly.
Onto the record - first off, the mix is horrible - All drums! Stick actually plays well but he's got one of those really tight snare drums. "peng! peng! peng!"
Anyhow, the first couple of tracks are nothing special, catchy but a little too commercial sounding. By the time they get to "Hammerhead," I'm into it. What a great song. It reminds me of "Run to The Hills," the way the drum rolls following the lines of the chorus and sort of drive it home. I don't know if it's the quality of Bruce's voice but you want to sing along with him. Then instead of getting wimpy or boring with the deeper cuts, they get kind of bizarre, with some weird tempo changes and experimental stuff. There's some sort of outer space martian theme that runs throughout. It's not the greatest but still very original and well done. There are some very good songs on this album and "Hammerhead" belongs on any best of NWOBHM mix tape. Samson don't sound gritty like early Maiden. They sound like Dickinson period Maiden. Weird. In fact in you put this record on and told me it was the new Iron Maiden record I'd say, "Hey, it beats the shit out of "Dance of Death." Scream for me Long Beach! Scream for meeee!
Di'Anno - Di-Anno (1984)
My admiration of Paul Di'Anno, vocalist, unfortunately doesn't translate to Paul Di'Anno lyricist. The first tune gives us the brilliant rhymes - remember-September, user-loser, bad-sad. How about lover-undercover?
I can understand how, after fronting one of the best bands ever, Paul would want to mix things up a bit and do something that harshly sucked. This fits the bill nicely. Neutered synth-rock bullshit through and through.
Holy shit, man. You used to be the singer in Iron Maiden. Go kill yourself. Paul may have actually hired the guy who played synths on "Eye of the Tiger," cause that's exactly how it sounds. More suck for the buck with this one. Buy it on vinyl if you like Frisbee.
Lionheart -Hot Tonight (1984)
Speaking of humongous pieces of shit, this turd is at least partially the fault of Dennis Stratton, ex of ... you guessed it - Iron Maiden! Notice a theme here?
Not Good.
Dennis Stratton, for anyone not aware, played guitar on the first Iron Maiden album, when Dave Murray was already in the band but before Adrian Smith. Legend has it that he kicked out of the band because he liked the Eagles. I know it is most likely not true but I really, really want it to be. Anyhow, you get a big F for this one Mr. Stratton, a lousy attempt at commercial pop metal.
Interesting side note the drummer was a Def Leppard reject and the original singer of this band was Jesse Cox, the original singer of Tygers of Pan Tang, who in case you're not familiar with his work, should have been renamed Jesse Balls because he harshly sucks them. Thank you and good night!
.jpg)
Holy shit, man. You used to be the singer in Iron Maiden. Go kill yourself. Paul may have actually hired the guy who played synths on "Eye of the Tiger," cause that's exactly how it sounds. More suck for the buck with this one. Buy it on vinyl if you like Frisbee.
Lionheart -Hot Tonight (1984)
Speaking of humongous pieces of shit, this turd is at least partially the fault of Dennis Stratton, ex of ... you guessed it - Iron Maiden! Notice a theme here?
1) Leave Iron Maiden,
2) Employ keyboards (and in this case smooth jazz style saxophone)
3) Suck balls
This doesn't just suck balls, mind you, it practically inhales them. Or something. I'm just going to bail out of the ball-sucking metaphor at this point, confident that my point has been made.Not Good.
Dennis Stratton, for anyone not aware, played guitar on the first Iron Maiden album, when Dave Murray was already in the band but before Adrian Smith. Legend has it that he kicked out of the band because he liked the Eagles. I know it is most likely not true but I really, really want it to be. Anyhow, you get a big F for this one Mr. Stratton, a lousy attempt at commercial pop metal.
Interesting side note the drummer was a Def Leppard reject and the original singer of this band was Jesse Cox, the original singer of Tygers of Pan Tang, who in case you're not familiar with his work, should have been renamed Jesse Balls because he harshly sucks them. Thank you and good night!
.jpg)
Witchfinder General - Death Penalty (1982)
As you can probably guess by the album cover of the band holding a knife to the throat of a topless woman above an open grave, these guys were an early feminist rock band. Despite their penchant for schlocky covers, this band is considered an important influence on the doom metal genre. Even saying that is sort of funny because, most times, what being a doom-pioneer means is ripping off Black Sabbath before most people were.
Some groovy heavy stuff with shitty drumming. I was listening to (doom-pioneers) "Pentagram," a lot around the time I heard this and they are similar in some ways.
The singer has sort of a little boy voice that he punctuates occasionally with what, I'm sure is supposed to sound like a Halford-esque shriek but is actually just his voice cracking. Normally this might be enough to write an album off but, goddammit, it gets better.
The guitarist is good, but not just a talented player and the melodic instrumental passages somehow manage to guide the song up to another level. In fact after the first couple minutes of the very first song (unfortunately for them) they settle into a nice groove. I'm not sure what to say about these guys who seemingly have everything from aesthetics to lack of talent working against them but I enjoy their music for some reason.
You have to love the lyrics, "let's drink some mushroom tea," rhymed with "amphetamine is real good speed," on "Free Country." The song is basically a list of drugs that are cool to do. They make sure to mention that heroin is bad and can kill you. Thanks for the tip, guys. They also have a habit of using really dramatic acoustic quiet parts, with unintentionally hilarious lyrics for intros and . "Homicidal Killers, can you tell me what they're worth," is from the song "Death Penalty," which I at first though was supposed to be lamenting how unfair capital punishment is, but then it seems to be lamenting how unfair it is for a homicidal killer to murder someone - or how unfair it is to execute a homicidal killer. Finally I understand it to mean capital punishment is cool, let's kill murderers. Okey-dokey.
"No Stayer," includes the line; "I want a lay, I wanna make you scream do you know what I mean." Now, if it was Vince Neil saying this, or some other creep who actually does creepy shit, like fuck groupies with mud sharks, it would piss me off but our prepubescent and oh so earnest young man, I think it's just darling.
The best line of that particular song is; "back at my place she was in the mood/she sucked and licked my (food)*/when it was running all over her face/she rolled over and then we screwed.
*I had to look this up on the interweb. It sounded to me more like "sucked and licked my shoe," which is actually less disgusting.
It's like listening to "Sit on My Face Stevie Nicks," by the Rotters. There are some lines in there that are absolutely gross but can be taken with a grain of salt because the singer is obviously seventeen years old and a fucking idiot
"Burning a Sinner," with it's references to "sizzling flesh," is a bit distasteful, especially since they can't really make the argument that they're being ironic in a "Kill The Poor," sort of way to denounce violence, considering the whole 'gleefully-slitting-the-throat-of-topless-on-woman-album-cover' thing. That's too bad, since it's about time for someone to take a strong stand on witch burning.
Now I'm going to break with tradition and show a photo of a band not featured in a profile.
Here's 2 of the band members (can't be fucked to remember who right now) not long (few years maybe?) before this recording. Suck and lick my food indeed.
Raven - Rock Until You Drop (1981)
I put these guys in the same category as the band "Anvil," in that they don't seem to understand the concept of irony. they just wanna rock. Rock 'til they drop apparently. They do. The riffs are pretty fast and furious, thrashy in parts and John Gallagher's falsetto is pretty off the hook. They seem like they are having a lot of fun. The lyrics are pretty basic, but delivered with unbridled enthusiasm. Not essential by any means, but not too shabby either. I feel like I need to the band a really great quote like "these guys are pretty one-dimensional - and that dimension is rawk!!! Not really brain scientists or rocket surgeons but what the fuck? For intensity, enthusiasm and some pretty in-your-face shredding, these are your guys.
As you can probably guess by the album cover of the band holding a knife to the throat of a topless woman above an open grave, these guys were an early feminist rock band. Despite their penchant for schlocky covers, this band is considered an important influence on the doom metal genre. Even saying that is sort of funny because, most times, what being a doom-pioneer means is ripping off Black Sabbath before most people were.
Some groovy heavy stuff with shitty drumming. I was listening to (doom-pioneers) "Pentagram," a lot around the time I heard this and they are similar in some ways.
The singer has sort of a little boy voice that he punctuates occasionally with what, I'm sure is supposed to sound like a Halford-esque shriek but is actually just his voice cracking. Normally this might be enough to write an album off but, goddammit, it gets better.
The guitarist is good, but not just a talented player and the melodic instrumental passages somehow manage to guide the song up to another level. In fact after the first couple minutes of the very first song (unfortunately for them) they settle into a nice groove. I'm not sure what to say about these guys who seemingly have everything from aesthetics to lack of talent working against them but I enjoy their music for some reason.
You have to love the lyrics, "let's drink some mushroom tea," rhymed with "amphetamine is real good speed," on "Free Country." The song is basically a list of drugs that are cool to do. They make sure to mention that heroin is bad and can kill you. Thanks for the tip, guys. They also have a habit of using really dramatic acoustic quiet parts, with unintentionally hilarious lyrics for intros and . "Homicidal Killers, can you tell me what they're worth," is from the song "Death Penalty," which I at first though was supposed to be lamenting how unfair capital punishment is, but then it seems to be lamenting how unfair it is for a homicidal killer to murder someone - or how unfair it is to execute a homicidal killer. Finally I understand it to mean capital punishment is cool, let's kill murderers. Okey-dokey.
"No Stayer," includes the line; "I want a lay, I wanna make you scream do you know what I mean." Now, if it was Vince Neil saying this, or some other creep who actually does creepy shit, like fuck groupies with mud sharks, it would piss me off but our prepubescent and oh so earnest young man, I think it's just darling.
The best line of that particular song is; "back at my place she was in the mood/she sucked and licked my (food)*/when it was running all over her face/she rolled over and then we screwed.
*I had to look this up on the interweb. It sounded to me more like "sucked and licked my shoe," which is actually less disgusting.
It's like listening to "Sit on My Face Stevie Nicks," by the Rotters. There are some lines in there that are absolutely gross but can be taken with a grain of salt because the singer is obviously seventeen years old and a fucking idiot
"Burning a Sinner," with it's references to "sizzling flesh," is a bit distasteful, especially since they can't really make the argument that they're being ironic in a "Kill The Poor," sort of way to denounce violence, considering the whole 'gleefully-slitting-the-throat-of-topless-on-woman-album-cover' thing. That's too bad, since it's about time for someone to take a strong stand on witch burning.
Now I'm going to break with tradition and show a photo of a band not featured in a profile.
Here's 2 of the band members (can't be fucked to remember who right now) not long (few years maybe?) before this recording. Suck and lick my food indeed.
I put these guys in the same category as the band "Anvil," in that they don't seem to understand the concept of irony. they just wanna rock. Rock 'til they drop apparently. They do. The riffs are pretty fast and furious, thrashy in parts and John Gallagher's falsetto is pretty off the hook. They seem like they are having a lot of fun. The lyrics are pretty basic, but delivered with unbridled enthusiasm. Not essential by any means, but not too shabby either. I feel like I need to the band a really great quote like "these guys are pretty one-dimensional - and that dimension is rawk!!! Not really brain scientists or rocket surgeons but what the fuck? For intensity, enthusiasm and some pretty in-your-face shredding, these are your guys.
Brian Tatler - Guitar
Sean Harris - Vocals
Duncan Scott - Drums
Colin Kimberly - Bass
Brian Tatler
Brian Tatler
Sean Harris
Colin Kimberly
Duncan Scott
The story of Diamond Head is an epic tragedy, the story of a band that could have been enormous but mismanaged itself into oblivion, was resurrected and will ultimately have to settle for being well respected by bands who went on to greater success. They pioneered a highly influential style almost accidentally and then, as if they set out to prove what an accident it was, they altered their sound drastically enough to nearly erase all memory of their former glory.
Diamond Head started in 1976 in Stourbridge England by guitarist Brian Tatler and drummer Duncan Scott. The line-up was completed by singer Sean Harris and bassist Colin Kimberly. The band cut a number of self-financed demos which generated interest but they were reluctant to sign with a management company (rejecting offers from Q-Prime) and at one point were instead managed by Harris' mother. 1000 copies of Lightning to The Nations were self-released in a plain white cardboard sleeve through one mail-order ad (which was withdrawn after they failed to pay for it) and at shows. From there they made the unfortunate mistake of distancing themselves from their earlier material and also re-recording their most popular tracks as soon as they got a record contract. The band's reputation suffered as they were portrayed badly in print media and followed a more commercial sound, claiming they were bored with heavy metal and rock Their King-Arthur inspired "Canterbury," was the last straw. They lost their record deal and faded into oblivion. The band has since reformed a number of times with different rhythm sections and, ultimately a different singer. Most renewed interest in the band was directly attributable to Metallica who endlessly championed them, let them open for them and covered their material.
Lightning To The Nations (1980)The story behind this album is an usual one. It is, however one of the best, if not the best album of the entire New Wave of British Heavy Metal and certainly one of the most influential metal records of all time. The seven tracks were recorded as a demo in 7 days, originally released in a white cardboard sleeve signed by one member of the band. It was retitled "Lightning to the Nations," and given a new (hideous) cover with a cheap looking photo of a map on fire. Though not a commercial success due to management ineptitude, the raw sound of the album and Tatler's innovative playing made it highly influential, most notably to a group of young men who called themselves Metallica. To their credit, Metallica were never shy about citing them as an influence, recording covers of "Am I Evil?" and "Helpless," two of the heaviest songs ever written and single-handedly revived Diamond Head's career.
Every single song is an absolute ass-kicker full of memorable riffs arrangements and, occasionally, lyrics. Tatler's abrasive guitar sound was copied almost exactly by Metallica for their debut album "Kill 'em All." If there is a low-point it would have to be Sean Harris' weak singing. He sounds either unconvincingly tough or seems as though he's trying to try on Robert Plant's whiny and effeminate, yet lecherous persona. His double-tracked moaning on "Sucking My Love," was probably meant to sound like the middle section of "Whole Lotta Love," but has often been described as sounding like he was having sex with himself.
Borrowed Time (1982)For their next album, the band made the classic mistake of trying to improve on perfection and record new versions of "Am I Evil?" and "Lightning To The Nations." The much-too-polished studio production manages to scrub away any intensity and aggression until they sound like a different band. The band generally sounds weak and Sean Harris' vocals have unwisely become the focus.
I can imagine the producer of this one talking to the engineers in the booth; "Uh ... can we make the guitars a bit muddier? Can we bury them in the mix a bit more? Can we turn the shitty vocals up more? Hey, Sean can you try to sound a bit more like a pussy when you sing the next take? More whoa-oh-oh's please. Oh, and more reverb on every drum. Thanks."
With the re-done tracks from the previous album, that leaves only 5 new songs on this album. I had to laugh when I was looking at the track listing on the re-issued version when I saw, "In The Heat of the Night (extended version)". That song is is about four minutes too long to begin with and sucks to boot. How the mighty have fallen.
Canterbury (1983)They seem borrow Bon Jovi's backup vocals and dickless production and that's not the worst of it. I'm not sure if crack had been invented in 1983 but I can't imagine what else they could have been smoking that would cause them to think this keyboard-heavy slop with a King Arthur theme was a good idea. At this point the band started saying that they weren't interested in being a metal band anymore. It is obvious.
