Punk Vs. Metal
Joe McVeigh
There is a strong belief here among the BTSB staff that punk rock is the little brother of metal music. They are not alike at all, yet always seen as related by outsiders. So, for a new feature here on BTSB, we present to you Punk Vs. Metal, in which semi-pro punk rock fan Joe McVeigh and metal listener extraordinaire Mark Rahn debate the virtues and shortcomings of their favorite albums. One will discuss why his chosen album is great, and the other will politely point out why he is wrong. First up, we have two heavy hitters – Metallica’s Master of Puppets and Screeching Weasel’s Kill the Musicians. Also included is a music player so you can listen to a song from each album while reading. We’ll start off with the older brother. Let us know what you think of the arguments and what your favorite albums are in the comments.
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Master of Puppets by Metallica
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“Master of Puppets” by Metallica
Mark:
In 1986 Metallica achieved a new level of excellence with their third major label release, Master of Puppets. The album clearly displayed the band’s growing understanding of song structure and melody, while remaining true to the abrasive speed and aggression that made the band famous.
The first track of the album is “Battery”, which begins with a Spanish-style acoustic guitar that warns you of impending violence. Ignoring the threats, you continue to listen until finally the full force of the band kicks in, and you drown in a sonic tsunami of distorted guitars. You are then greeted by the fiery vocals of James Hetfield that scream, “Lashing out the action, returning the reaction, weak are ripped and torn away,” which definitively sets the tone for the rest of the album.
The music then leads you on a roller coaster ride of amazing guitar riffs that are punctuated with brilliant solos by the legendary Kirk Hammett. Each song is inventive and unique and displays a wide range of tempo and time signatures powered by the domineering drumming of Lars Ulrich. The title track, “Master of Puppets”, is an excellent example of the time and thought that Metallica puts into writing a song. It has all the elements of a classic metal composition, with blistering speed, an amazing interlude, and a guitar solo that sounds like harnessed lightning.
The stand-out track of the album is “Orion”. It starts with a simple guitar riff that drones on for a few minutes, and then stops completely. As the guitars fade, Cliff Burton plays a short, beautiful solo on the bass guitar. The rest of the band then joins in, and begins to play the most impressive waltz that the metal world has ever heard. The last few minutes of “Orion” are truly inspiring, and in my opinion, the best example of Metallica’s incredible talent.
Master of Puppets is the pinnacle of Metallica’s amazing career. It combines the youthful fire and intensity of the earlier albums with the mature song writing of their later career. I place Metallica at the very top of my list of favorite metal bands, which easily makes Master of Puppets my favorite metal album of all time.
Joe:
Master of Puppets is arguably the greatest metal song ever written and certainly the greatest metal song I’ve ever heard. It makes you wish every metal song could sound like that. With a chorus of “Obey your Master,” the song forces you into being its subject and then commands obedience.
That said, Kirk Hammett is the arguably the greatest metal soloist ever. Actually, scratch that, he is. There’s no argument. His solos sound like someone strangling a cat inside a velvet bag – insane yet soft somehow (cruel yet kind?). I’ve also heard his solos described as being the musical equivalent of the feeling that comes from being in the middle of a battle and having your bullets spread around you instead of in your gun.
For my tastes, though, this album is not as perfect as its fans would insist. It’s just almost perfect. “Disposable Heroes” drags too much and sounds like a filler song on an otherwise immaculate album. It’s not as fast as the forceful songs that precede it and not as melodic as the slower songs that come after it. It just seems out of place and a bit lame.
Kill the Musicians by Screeching Weasel
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“I Wanna Be A Homosexual” by Screeching Weasel
Joe:
Screeching Weasel is one of my favorite bands (along with The Ramones and The Violent Femmes). But this is not my favorite Screeching Weasel album; Boogadaboogadaboogada is. But this is by far their most diverse album. It has early songs, demos, covers, live tracks, and, most notably, one of the greatest punk songs ever written – “I Wanna Be a Homosexual” – an anti-homophobic rant that respects the “balls” it takes to be a queer. This song is so great that I’m reluctant to admit that my favorite band outdid themselves with it because it would mean that they couldn’t write such a great song. But they did. And not only that, they are one of the only bands that could. Many, many Screeching Weasel songs are about how much they hate someone or something. But this is the only song I’ve ever heard that basically says, as my esteemed writing partner once pointed out, “I hate you so much that I want to be what you hate.” Oi, indeed.
The song “Six a.m.” is a great example of Weasel’s ability to write oldies love songs, albeit in a more in-your-face and aggressive punk rock manner. In fact, this ability is one of their hidden treasures. As a listener, I often wondered why I liked Weasel’s songs so much, until I realized that they are almost a cross between Buddy Holly and the Ramones.
“Hey Suburbia” is a classic Weasel track that perfectly encapsulates the punk rock mentality with the chorus, “We don’t give a shit about tomorrow”. It first appeared on Boogeda, but here it is longer and has a much better ending.
So, although Kill the Musicians is not one of their go-in-the-studio-and-write-an-album albums, being as it is mainly B-sides and sporadically recorded tracks throughout their early history as a band, it still one of the best punches in the punk rock business. And somehow when a punk band blows you off your feet with an album, it just feels that much better because you weren’t expecting it.
Also, can anyone think of a better name for a punk rock album than Kill the Musicians?
Mark:
Kill the Musicians is a hodge-podge masterpiece from punk geniuses Screeching Weasel. The album is a collection of songs from various recording sessions that took place over half dozen years. A total of seven musicians combined forces to create the music which was almost exclusively written by Ben Weasel. The few exceptions are a handful of covers including a quartet of Ramones songs, and “I fall to pieces” made famous by Patsy Cline. The highlights of the album are the “Celena”, “Hey Suburbia”, and the band’s punk-rock epic, “I Wanna be a Homosexual”.
Despite its gritty and low quality production, or perhaps because of it, Kill the Musicians is punk rock at its very best. The sloppy, high-paced songs are full of rebellion and a spit-in-your face attitude. My only critique is that the 31-track album has a few filler songs, and it could easily be pared down to a leaner, meaner package.
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Reading this article reminds me of the Tenacious D song with the line: “Punk rock tried to kill the metal / But they failed, as they were smite to the ground”. So true.
Being a dedicated headbanger I have nothing but the utmost respect for Metallica (pre-90s, when they were still a metal band), but I have to say that I’ve never liked their music. MoP (in the metal music scene we tend to abbreviate everything) had a couple of nice tracks and so did the other three pre-90s albums the band made. However, decent songwriting aside the musicians just aren’t good. Lars Ulrich can’t drum worth a damn and Kirk Hammett is a joke! The only one with singular talent in the band is Hetfield, but his antics were ruined by booze-infused deterioration and general sloppiness in life. Considering that Metallica is hailed as one of the “four great” thrash metal bands (Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax and Metallica, of which only the first two deserve the title if consistency counts) it’s ridiculous how their sub-par talent has always escaped the huge metal fan base they have.
I mean, pit Ulrich with any of his fellow drummers in the thrash metal scene, such as Iggor Cavalera, Dave Lombardo or Vinnie Abbott and you can see where he falls short. His footwork is clumsy and off-time and his fills scream for someone to parodise. The only things worth positive mention are his facial expressions, which reflect a soul in agony (probably due to the fact that he’s more than aware of his shortcomings as a musician).
Kirk Hammett is a blues/rock guitarist and a pretty good one at that. He’s nimble and has quite a cool repertoire of licks with which he could dazzle people in any Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute concert. But a metal guitarist, Kirk Hammett? Aww, shut up guys. I remember Joe and I have had a very long talk about this matter (in a drunker stupor), and I’ll reiterate what I said back then: in my opinion, metal guitar is all about manipulating the wall of sound. There are many ways to do this and Hammett fails in each one. A good metal solo needs vitality, speed, inventiveness, feeling and, most importantly, EDGE (preferably razor-sharp). Just listen to Dimebag Darrell or Trey Azagthoth for inspiration. You can do wonders with an acoustic guitar and still sound as metal as hell, just listen to Sepultura’s Beneath the Remains or Chaos A.D. You can have songs with no solos at all and still sound like the entire band has just digested dynamite and are ready to go off at any moment, just listen to Gojira, DON’T listen to St. Anger, Metallica’s proudest moment.
I should end this with the words “In my opinion” in bold, italics and underlined, but I don’t mind coming off as arrogant or one of those “who am I to criticise Hammett, whose level of talent I’ll never ever achieve”. The truth according to my books is that he’s exponentially overrated and totally washed away by the myriad of guitarists who can out-play, out-write and out-stage him any day. And the same goes for the whole band.
But I have to admit that the first four records are pretty decent. But doesn’t it make you wonder how a group that can write songs like Master of Puppets, Creeping Death or For Whom the Bell Tolls can also produce such infinite crap like absolutely anything they made after the Metallica-album of 1991? I mean, all bands have their downfalls, but to have it go on for over a decade with such a productive band? And still people call them the greatest? Come on.
Being a musically omnivorous headbangin’ punkrocker(some narrow-minded scenester might call this an oxymoron) extraordinaire, i’m delighted to see what cultured folks we have on the English departement.
I couldn’t agree more what Simo said about Metallica and especially Lars’ drumming skills, a grossly overrated guy, especially if you dare to put him in the same category with the likes of Igor Cavalera and Dave Lombardo.
Indeed, ’tis a sad state Metallica is today. How do you go from zit-crusted snotty teenage trashers
(http://megadeth.rockmetal.art.pl/pic/metallica_band03.jpg)
to
“Armani of Darkness”
(http://thephoenix.com/COMMUNITY/blogs/onthedownload/metallica_ArmaniOfDarkness.jpg)
No offense all Metallica fans, but…
Anyway, this is a pretty awesome feature, keep it up dudes!
Oh, Simo, Simo. You’re such a wonderful guy until you start to say things like that. Can’t we all just get along?
Let’s start where we agree. I’m not too fond of Ulrich either. His drumming is mediocre at best, boring at worst. Agreed. Also, DON’T listen to St. Anger. I never have and never will. And I don’t mind sounding arrogant either.
But how dare you talk of Hammett in that way? Don’t you see that his differences are what make him the greatest ever? Metal guitarists are a dime a dozen, and they’re all thrashing and fighting to pick their way into Hardcore Heaven. But Hammett stands alone. With the other metal soloists writing interchangeable riffs, Hammett’s riffs are refreshing in their breadth, to say nothing of their awesomeness. That’s why he is the perfect compliment to Hetfield’s songwriting. When you get someone like Hammett, with the perfect mix of inventiveness, speed, and vitality, the Wall of Sound (WoS) doesn’t mean squat. Sorry Dimebag and sorry Mustaine, but Hammett, the hired gun of metal guitarists, reigns supreme. I just wish these words would have came to me in that drunken stupor you speak of.
Finally, the Metallica downfall was nothing short of astronomical. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, right? Well, Metallica must have been pretty damn big. And why not, because in my opinion (italics, underline, flashing red lights), those first four albums were nothing short of astronomical.
But now you got me talking all about metal. Better to let Mark, our resident metal expert here at Punk vs. Metal HQ, to take you to task. Until then, who wants to talk about Screeching Weasel? ‘Cause I love me some Screeching Weasel.
This argument is futile in two ways: First, there is a well-known fact of life about opinions being like people (there are lots of them but some are more attractive than others). Second, there’s the familiar anecdote that arguing over the Internet is like calling the Sonera customer service (even if you get your message through, you’ll still get an idiotic answer).
That being said, let’s get back to the issue at hand. Yeah, Hammett stands alone, I totally agree with you on that. But WHERE he stands alone is the thing we’re arguing about. We can go on for days on end with both of us repeating our arguments ad infinitum, but I just don’t understand your point. Maybe it’s just that I’ve listened to so much metal music that I’ve become deaf to anyone who can’t reach the level of MY favourites. Or maybe Metallica belongs to that genre of metal, with bands like Trivium, of which I care little about. It’s all possible. But that doesn’t change the fact that “inventiveness, speed, and vitality” are three words I would never ever use when talking about Hammett. His single redeeming fact is that he’s written a couple of cool riffs, but even that is overshadowed by the utter crapness of what he’s done over 80% of the time.
Having said that, I acknowledge your opinions and will do my best to consider them almost, but not quite, as noteworthy as mine.
Just kidding, of course.
Thanks for the comment, Tuukka. I think the Lars debate is decided then. Do you agree, Mark?
Speaking of which, stayed tuned for the next article in which Mark and I present Lamb of God’s album “As the Palaces Burn” and The Vandals’ album “Live Fast, Diarrhea”. I couldn’t think of two more opposed ends of the Punk/Metal spectrum.
As for you, Simo, it is my opinion that opinions are like assholes – we all have them and they all stink. This proves that your opinions are equally as futile as mine and should at the very least put an end to us from arguing over the Interwebs. It’s as if a Sonera Customer Service Agent called the Sonera Customer Service Hotline. Now there’s a scary scenario to consider. For those of you not familiar with Finland, Sonera is a phone and internet service provider.
But a quick reflection on your favorites idea – that really is what it boils down to. We can argue forever (or at least until the beer runs out) but it’s impossible to knock a favorite song or album off the pedestal we put them on in our minds, isn’t it? I mean, even if you found out terrible things about the songwriter or band of your favorite song/album (as I have), it still only very slightly ruins the song/album itself.
What would it take for your favorite metal band to be knocked out of your top three once they’re there? Metallica is one of my favorites and all the thrash they put out after the “Black Album” still doesn’t hurt my love of “Master” or “…And Justice”. Also, I heard Ben Weasel, of Screeching Weasel, say he’d rather have McCain in the White House and that he thinks the Beatles are overrated. Yet I can’t help but love his songs.
I would like to say that I’m excited about this new feature. The first thing I noticed is that this mark rahn character uses ear tickling phrases such as “sonic tsunami of distorted guitar” which in turn makes his article more appropriate. Early Metallica could be compared with with a tsunami so Mr. rahn wins by default. As for this Joe guy he seems to have been jaded by his love of the weasel that it cost him the opening round. Mark Rahn came into the game with a strong yet reliable leadoff hitter, one with the heavy hitter power but consistently got on base, (meaning loved by many). You could call this the Jimmy Rollins album (BTW who won the world series?). Now Joe the main reason you lost this is because you came in with a speacialty hitter. Kill The Muscians is my favorite weasel album but i feel that boogeda may have been a better album compare to MoP. MoP is a straight sucker punch to the jaw while KtM is more of a great movie you don’t ealize is great till you listen a few times. Boogeda would have been better because it is more like a sucker punch to the ear which makes it a more appropriate comparison for this section. joe you tried to hard and failed……
Im not very partial to either genre but i have noticed that metal is a lot more mainstream and that a lot of punk songs are just remakes of other songs that other bands have done. Im not saying this is a bad thing its just got me really perplexed. Its hard for me to say that one is any better than the other and that hopefully in the future some dude will break boundries and bring the 2 together and not totaly suck in the process.
I have to say that to me the entire argument of punk vs. metal is completely moot. Not only does it boil down to a question of personal tastes but the two styles of music have hardly anything to do with each other simply on the basis of origins. Neither style spawned the other and any similarities between the two are most likely a case of divergent evolution or the two genres influencing each other.
A further problem comes from the fact that the two styles are so diverse, with various subgenres and variations, and that’s without even taking the mainstream/underground issue into consideration.
So, yeah. Ultimately this is a question of apples and oranges. That doesn’t mean that this article wasn’t justified. On the contrary, I think this article perfectly illustrates the divergence of people’s musical tastes and actually shows a degree of sophistication in a discourse that usually boils down to “my subculture/music is better/less ridiculous than yours!”
Now if you’ll excuse me while I listen to some Dead Milkmen and wash it down with a nice doze of Slayer.
I listen to many different kinds of music. And It just happens that Metallica and Screeching Weasel are some of my favorite bands.
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