Before I had a driver’s license, the KQRS DJ announced from my clock radio while I sat in my bedroom after dinner with homework in front of me that he would do something he had not previously done. I will never forget; he played an entire album without interruption because it was that good. First song? “Eruption” by Van Halen from Van Halen I, released in 1978. Never before had I experienced such a musical moment that left such an imprint.
Between the emergence of grunge and my rejection of 80s hair metal, I knew Ministry of the industrial genre and the thrash metal band, Slayer, existed. I credit a coworker and WVVX, respectively, for my musical exposure, and bought a Reign in Blood cassette. Upon opening, I thought I got ripped off due to sides A and B being identical. WRONG! Reign in Blood, released in 1986, ranks easily as my favorite thrash recording of all time. Listening to that tape over and over is a musical memory I will never forget.
After Metallica released …And Justice for All I intended to attend the concert, but my friend bailed. In 1991, Metallica released its next recording, The Black Album. I attended that tour, albeit with a different friend. The Metallicats covered all your favorites with the release of Garage, Inc. in 1998.
I flew to Omaha, NE in 2004 as a working professional to visit two separate communities in western Iowa. After renting a car with a cd player, I remembered I forgot to pack some cds. Before heading to the highway I found a record store, perused the bins, and saw As The Palaces Burn by Lamb of God. I recalled Rolling Stone praised this release; the cd sticker read, “’The most devastating album of the year’ Revolver Magazine.” I jammed to that cd as I sped through Iowa for three days.
The first decade of the 21stcentury has no equal for my love of metal. Alice in Chains’ founder, Jerry Cantrell, released his first solo album in 2002, while AIC hired a capable replacement and released several stellar recordings during this decade. Metal bands that recorded during this decade include Meshuggah, Slayer, Yakuza (a local band), System of a Down, Metallica, Lamb of God, and Ministry. Ministry’s finest hour includes the “Bush Trilogy” consisting of Houses of the Mole, The Last Sucker, and Rio Grande Blood. These bands continued to exist, record, and tour into the next decade.
This current decade. Another WOW moment. After finding a Swedish stoner rock band called Salem’s Pot, I came across another Swedish band, At the Gates. ATG released Slaughter of the Soul in 1995, but I failed to discover the band until January 2023. I bought the cd and it has been on heavy rotation since last week. Slaughter is superb! This is classic metal!! A little research revealed ATG formed in Gothenburg in 1990, “are known for being one of the main progenitors of melodic death metal,” and played live in Chicago a mere five months ago. They were unknown to me at the time and have quickly catapulted themselves to my favorite list. At the Gates in 2023!!
Once a metalhead, always a metalhead. Matthew 5:13 (my version ends with “trampled under foot”).
