Metal Music For Beginners Series - Volume XI
(There is a stillness in the warm night air. The increasingly decrepit-looking theater sits on an old, dirt-ridden and unforgiving ground, still hot from the scorching summer day that has ended. The audience, weary from their extensive travels, enter through the front doors and make their way to their seats, as usual. Then, almost like clockwork, the lights dim. The stage lights slowly come up, but there seems to be no one on the stage as there normally is. Suddenly, the front doors behind the audience burst open, and a figure walks in without a word. It takes a moment for everyone to realize it's the usual hooded host.... only now, he no longer dons the denim vest. No, this time he is wearing what appears to be a cowboy hat upon his head, and a flannel shirt on his top half. The hood is still there, forever cloaking his mysterious face from everyone.
He walks up to the stage, stands center, then begins to speak....)
"Well, well.... Some time has passed, has it not? Do not mind the apparel you see me in. I am simply dressing in conjunction with our next phase of this educational course. Now that we have ventured through the early days, let us delve into the modern times. I know that there is some excitement among you all tonight, and I am happy to say that I am equally excited as well. You are all in for a treat tonight.... for what better way is there to start our second half of the course than to take us to the lovely year of 1990? Yes, this was a year of great possibility for the world of metal music, and there was one band in particular whom, after four previous studio albums with very little success, finally broke through the mold and forever cemented themselves into the legacy of modern metal music! Ladies and gentlemen, please lend me your ears as I take you all into the world of...."
Pantera
In the year 1990, there were very few bands that could keep their heads above water in the realm of metal (of any metal subgenre, really). Sure, there were some that had shone through.... Anthrax released "Persistence of Time", Cannibal Corpse released their debut album "Eaten Back to Life" after being signed to Metal Blade Records, Danzig released their anticipated sophomore album "Danzig II: Lucifuge", Megadeth released "Rust in Peace", and of course, Slayer released "Seasons in the Abyss".... and there were quite a few more notables.... but for the most part, metal was dying and Grunge music was starting to rear its head.... not necessarily an ugly head, for I myself am a grunge fan. But it was wrong for the underground world to just let metal die off the way it did back then. Thank God it came back.
But aside from all that mish-mash forever plaguing the music world, one metal band really stood out. That band was Pantera. Sure, their previous attempts kinda labeled them as a "glam" band, but there was an album that was about to shut all the naysayers up for good and cement their legacy as a relevant metal act into the pages of metal history. That album was....
Cowboys From Hell
The world of metal music was full of uncertainty as to the direction it was going in within the '90's era, especially after grunge music took the forefront of rock music and broke into the public eye with full force. Fortunately for those who still dedicated their ears to the underground, they were pleased to be blessed with a true metal masterpiece within "Cowboys From Hell". With tracks like "Primal Concrete Sledge", "Cemetery Gates", "Domination", "Psycho Holiday" and the title track (yes, let us not forget that rager!), Pantera was making it abundantly clear that they were not gonna let metal go all the way down without a fight, and filled with vengeance to boot!
Anyone who was anyone in the metal head community knew that something big was coming when CFH was finally released. And it would serve as a great beginning listener tool for those new to the metal world and perhaps didn't know where to start. CFH gave them an opportunity to go into it with an open mind and then walk out a new metal head. They had ferocity, they had melody, they had punishing drum beats, destructive bass lines and screaming guitar solos from the metal god himself, "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott. In the direction they were going in, and at the fast pace in which they were doing so, those who were immersed in the metal community could clearly tell that the band was going to continue to do big and great things, both with sound as well as live delivery. And now, for your listening pleasure, here are a few tracks that have been personal favorites of mine. Enjoy.
"Cowboys From Hell"
"Psycho Holiday"
"Cemetery Gates"
"Domination"
(As the lights come back up, the host, without a word, steps down from the stage and makes his way back outside through the front doors behind the audience. Then, almost as if on cue, he looks back over his shoulder....)
"I would leave now if I were you...."
(He leaves. Then, almost as if staged, the sound of choppers fill the night air, and a big band of bikers donning band-patch covered vests of both leather and denim alike storm in, wielding weapons of all sorts.... bats, clubs, chains, guns and knives. They scream in an uproar, causing panic throughout the theater, and without hesitation the crowd scurries with urgency to the doors and billow out into the night, desperately hurrying to their vehicles to leave, so as to avoid whatever gruesome fate may have been awaiting them still inside the theater doors. As the last of the cars leave, a sinister laughter can be heard within the theater, and the sound of Pantera's song "Primal Concrete Sledge" pours out the open theater windows into the night, drowning out the sound of clanking beer mugs as the biker group party all through the remainder of the night.)
Nice! I see you share folk metal sometimes aswell, so you've got yourself a new follower :-)
Why thank you! Glad to see some people on here who share an interest in Folk Metal. I'm obsessed with it haha. Already seen Korpiklaani, Turisas, Varg and Winterhymn live, all amazing. I'd love to see Tyr and Alestorm live someday, hopefully they come around here where I am (New Hampshire, U.S.).
I'd love to see Tyr and Alestorm live aswell, and Eluveitie. I'm sure my boyfriend would love it! I've mostly visited symphonic metal bands before, like Nightwish, Epica, Delain, After Forever (mostly the Dutch bands, as they tour the Netherlands a lot). I'd love to see Nightwish again, now that the singer from After Forever joined them. She has an amazing voice!
I also very much enjoy folk bands like Scrum, Rapalje and Killkennys. They visit the kind of fairs I frequent :-)