Punk vs. Metal pt. 2

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. For the second installment, we have punk rock comedians extraordinaires the Vandals facing off against the leaders of the American Metal Movement, Lamb of God. Let the games begin.
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“N.I.M.B.Y.” by the Vandals

Joe:
The last article of Punk vs. Metal received quite a few comments about Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. People seemed to think that he wasn’t cut out to be a metal drummer. If that is so, what does it mean for punk rock drummers, who are usually accused (sometimes rightly so) of playing the same beat in every song? Well, friends and enemies, I give you Vandals drummer Josh Freese. Not only has Freese played on over 100 albums as a studio musician, he is also the drummer for DEVO (oh no…), A Perfect Circle and NIN’s touring band. Give it up, metalheads.

Now, Lamb of God’s drummer, Chris Adler, is pretty damn good too. Clearly drumming is not going to decide the battle this week. What is going to win it for punk rock this time, however, is something never found in metal music, but done so perfectly by the Vandals: humor.

Sure, metal rockers are up on-stage in zebra-striped spandex pants, a mesh tank top, and a perm that would make your older sister groan, but these metal gods take themselves very seriously. The image may be hilarious to the passive observer (and even the metal fan here and there) but it offers no wit, no insight, and in most cases is not worth the visual.

With the Vandals, on the other hand, you know you’re in for some cleverness. The protest-ridden lyrics so common to punk rock are hilarious when handled by the Vandals. On Live Fast, Diarrhea, by merely replacing the protest about politics with a protest about restaurant orders, we get the words:
I’ll say it simple, so you can understand
Get my food right, I am a hungry man
You say you’re sorry, not really a waitress
“I’m studying to be an actress”
Starting acting like a waitress!
-from “Take It Back” by the Vandals

Then there is the song “N.I.M.B.Y.”, which is not only hilarious, but also a perfect example of the Vandals’ ability to poke fun at punk rock’s penchant for rabble-rousing while also satirizing the “not in my back yard” social campaigns. On top of all this, the song has a great guitar riff and rhythm, something that is common on their later albums as well.

This is the kind of stuff you just don’t find in metal. In a room crowded with punk rock bands preaching their “message,” the Vandals are a breath of fresh air that can not be overstated. As drummer Josh Freese has said, “I think the Vandals is the least political band out there.”

Mark:
If you like punk rock, then you will like the Vandals. If you like punk rock and you have a sense of humor, you will love the Vandals. They play first-rate, snot-nose punk with a heavy dose of hilarity. I couldn’t even get past the title of one of their albums, Live Fast, Diarrhea, without laughing, and the comedy continued as I listened to the record. The songs all feature great lyrics with catchy hooks and even a few impressive guitar solos which is rare in punk rock. Overall, the think the Vandals are great. I don’t think I will be trading in my Lamb of God records anytime soon, but some light-hearted punk rock might be a welcome change every now and then.

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“11th Hour” by Lamb of God

Lamb of God is a full dose, make no mistake. Their music is brutally aggressive, and they are one of the heaviest and darkest bands that I have ever heard. From the moment you press play, a Lamb of God song launches itself into high-speed sonic destruction. It tears through your ears like an army of iron death machines without any regard for you safety. When it is all over, you feel like crying, but you are so thrilled that you survived, you ultimately feel empowered.

The thrill of it all is not for everyone, but it is definitely for me. My favorite Lamb of God album is their 2003 release, As the Palaces Burn. It has all the warmth of an icicle, and the soft-smooth feel of a piece of sandpaper. Palaces is Lamb of God’s third full-length record, but it was the first one to introduce the band on a national level.

Standout tracks include “Vigil” and “11th Hour”, as well as my personal favorite, “Ruin”. It starts off the album at a violent pace, and if you’re not ready for the tempo change halfway through “Ruin”, it might just knock you over.

What the band lacks in vocal talent, they more than make up for with incredible stage presence, and precision instrumentation. They are a musical horror story in the best possible way, and they are undoubtedly the modern day kings of American hardcore.

Joe:
On the extreme other end of the punk-metal spectrum from the Vandals lies Lamb of God. Lamb of God is serious. Very serious. I don’t know how else to put it, but if you don’t like this style of music, you are not going to start liking it. I suppose that’s true with any band, but it seems more so with Lamb of God because of how hard their music is and how serious their lyrics are.

That said, I just can not get into Lamb of God’s music. Even though they have been described as a hardcore punk band, that their original name was Burn the Priest (Oi!), and that their bassist, John Campbell, said they are “a punk band that plays heavy metal,” I still can’t get into their seriousness. I’m not saying they’re bad, just not my style. Sorry Mark, give me the old school thrash instead.

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Punk vs. Metal

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.

Legal Disclaimer: We are not making any money off of this article and if your song or your client’s song appears on this site and you would not like to have it there because your client is not making any money off of it, kindly ask us to remove it and we will. Us being dedicated reviewers, we have no time for court cases.

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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Ever heard of Norwegian Black Jazz?

When it comes to music, I’m omnivorous. I love a variety of styles, and nothing inspires me more than listening to some of the stranger concoctions that spring up from the melodic undergrowth every once in a while. In this article I review three up-and-coming albums by some of the more striking enterpreneurs in cross-over music. You can buy these albums in any refurbished record store.

Necrotic Quintet – Birth of the Cult
Style: Norwegian Black Jazz

NQ is one of the pioneering cross-over bands to grace (or curse) the Norwegian jazz scene. Incorporating a heavy blend of hell-bound, overdriven fury and beautifully complex scales littered with tritones and other devilry, the multi-instrumentalist and sole band member Herbie “Hurzum” Hoelmstedt proves that though heaven is paradise, hell is where the TRUE party is! Hurzum wades deep in the tried-and-true ambience of the black jazz musical tapestry. The album, complete with cover art of the corpse-painted Hurzum crucified on a baritone saxophone, will no doubt live on as a true classic of the genre.

Jewel:
The track Modus Maleficarum splits through your eardrums like a power drill through a hymnal. This quasi-modal, xenharmonic masterpiece invokes in the listener images of darkness, witchcraft and gory orgies. Hurzum’s unparallelled jazz skills put the listeners to the test, as they are forced to do some heavy math while trying to figure out just when the bass drum (time signature 19/53) meets the snare (time signature 57/160).

Coal:
One track we could do without is Devil Steps, a whopping 16-minute epic odyssey that lacks all sense of direction and ambition. The failure is only augmented when Hurzum shows his (lacking) skills as a black jazz scatter: “Ska da da doom doom death death fire blood ska da doom”.

Blind Jonas Jackhammer – Mississippi Über Alles
Style: Hardcore Blues

“I WOKE UP THIS MORNING, MOTHERF*@KING MORNING” screams the singer and political activist Blind Jonas Jackhammer after a furious onslaught of overdriven guitars and blastbeating drums in the opening track. Mississippi Über Alles is one of those albums that manages to let loose the beast, but still confine it to the 12-bar pattern of the traditional blues song. Lyrics are very blues-y, with Jonas singing about cotton fields, failed marriages and booze, but they always come with a twist (usually in the guise of every four-letter swear word in the English language, articulated one after the other with rapid precision).

Jewel:
Holiday in Jackson was instantaneously hailed as a cult hit on the release of the album. It’s just what you’d expect for in a hardcore blues song: twelve bars of anger, frustration and treating musical instruments with the zeal and frenzy only comparable to late night, drug-induced fights with your spouse. If this track doesn’t make you want to throw your pet cat through the wall, nothing ever will.

Coal:
Why is it so that every hardcore band out there has to be so goddamned political? Bush Blues is just a monotonously dictated political rant about the U.S. administration against a back drop of a lazy shuffle beat. Why, oh why must the otherwise beautifully mindless music of hardcore blues be spoiled with tracks like Bush Blues that make you want to think, and after you’re done with pondering, you realise that thinking is the last thing you should involve yourself while listening to Blind Jonas Jackhammer’s music.

Steel Girls – Steel Girls
Style: Pop Metal

Just when you thought that the metal music genre had been thoroughly categorised to the point of ridiculousness, Steel Girls enters the scene with the eponymous album that solders classic girl band sounds together with a backgrop of downtuned metal guitars and raging double bass drumming. Lyrical content is just about what you’d expect from a girl band, ranging from sleepovers to pillow fights to ex-boyfriends who are graciously described in the track This Bitch Is Self-Sufficient as “those lying and cheating f**ckers, who have no idea how to leave the toilet seat down”. Is this the adrenaline rush that the stagnated metal scene requires or just a marketing ploy? That’s a question only you, dear reader, can answer, but for the present reviewer this album gave nothing but a feeling of self-loathing for having that dreaded Y chromosome.

Jewel:
The aforementioned This Bitch Is Self-Sufficient has everything that the album has to offer, in its best and in its worst. Like I wrote in the review above, if this kind of music strikes you as listenable, you’ll love this track. If not, you’ll probably use the album as a discus to throw at your concubine.

Coal:
Sexy Sexy Samba is just plain awful. Imagine being trapped in a sugar-coated beach house in a Caribbean island, drinking Mai Tais and tanning your abs while dancing with scantily dressed boys and girls of the non-brain-celled disposition. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Well it’s far from the imagery in Sexy Sexy Samba. The closest thing I can relate the track to is the embarassment of being caught by my co-workers while playing air guitar naked in front of a mirror at the office common room.

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