by Rich Catino Note: Thanks to fellow Metal Hall writer Jack Mangan for your input and suggestions, and guitarist Jack Frost (Seven Witches, Aldo Nova, ex Savatage) to remember those who were an influence. Don’t Call It Hair Metal is a new book by Canadian guitarist Sean Kelly currently from the Lee Aaron band and Cony …
The mid-1980s. Traditional Heavy Metal was firmly established at this point, still expanding in strength and reach, becoming well-defined and familiar to its core audience. This was the era when offshoots like Thrash Metal, Speed Metal, Death Metal, and Black Metal began pushing heavy music toward extremes. But there was another boundary-smashing sub-genre on …
1, 2, 3, 4. Anyone with functioning limbs (and lungs and digits, where applicable) can master an instrument. True musicianship nirvana is achieved when you play with virtuosity, creativity, smarts, and beauty. You don’t necessarily need neck-breaking speed and high agility to be the best – – if that were the case, then everyone’s …
* The one with some general predictions about future music access and formats. Records, 8-tracks, reel-to-reels, tapes, CDs, mp3s, streaming – – how will we connect with and listen to our music in the years ahead? How will our Metal be delivered? ** The Skull Beneath the Skin. You’ll be able to have cybernetic implants …
* Can we turn down the house lights? All right, raise up your phones. . . Gen X and older, you can raise your lighters. It’s time to bring it down a notch and play some Power Ballads. They became requisites for artists of all Metal sub-genres for awhile, from Glam/Hair/Pop to NWOBHM, traditional, and …
Europe, Candlemass, Hammerfall, Yngwie Malmsteen By Rich Catino Yup, just like the Hammerfall song ‘(We Make) Sweden Rock’, Sweden has been rocking since the 80s with great bands. A couple big names that obviously come to mind – Europe, Yngwie Malmsteen, Candlemass. But the Sweden branch of the Heavy Metal tree has many smaller branches. …
We’re off to the witch. Originally misheard as “We’re up to the witch,” ca. 1985, on my Emerson K3661A one-speaker boombox.* I had no inkling of the Satanic panic swirling around Dio’s 2nd solo masterpiece, “The Last in Line;” I was blissfully unaware of the pearl-clutching and hand-wringing over the demonic figure on his album …
Historic Metal Albums: Fear Factory – Demanufacture* The machine is now alive. Alternating clean and harsh vocals are commonplace in Heavy Metal today, but Fear Factory pioneered the technique on their “Soul of a New Machine” debut. They then perfected the hybrid vocal method on their sophomore album, and in the process, created one of …
Let me take you back to a bygone era. . . . True story from my long-haired teenage mallrat days, circa 1991: I tried on a fedora-type hat and looked great (if I do say so myself), but let friends talk me out of the purchase. Their fatal shot for my fashion venture was: “Don’t …
By Rich Catino Scorpions Are In The Metal Hall, So What About Accept? I previously wrote three other articles about the contributions from Germany and all the great hard rock and heavy metal names the country has given us. All of them have yet to be inducted into the Metal Hall of Fame so …
