I got dragged out to Ivory Black’s in Glasgow after the Taste of Chaos tour on Saturday night. I gather it’s cheaper than the Classic Grand and full of less kiddies than the Cathouse. It was also flipping near empty! A shame as the music was excellent.
The point of this post, though. As I sat, helping drink the bar dry of tequila (why? I hate the stuff) there were two TVs on the wall in front of me. One was showing Penelope Spheeris‘ The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years. The other had last year’s Sonisphere “Big 4” video recorded in Sophia, Bulgaria.
The girls in our group seemed focussed on what Poison looked like in 1988. I was wishing the sound was up so I could hear Anthrax’ set.
However, as the older film approached its end, the final band featured playing live was Megadeth – featuring a very baby-faced and sneary Dave Mustaine. The band were on a small stage with no security. Fans were clambering up and launching themselves off with wild abandon – I can’t the last time I saw a stagediver at a gig. Seriously.
At the exact same moment on the other screen, Megadeth were finishing their set (in the lashing rain) in an arena or football ground in Bulgaria. A huge pit in front of them keeping them maybe 10m from the nearest fan. A huge sound setup. A crowd of maybe 50,000 or more.
It was just one of those coincidental moments, and it made me wonder… back in that first video did Mustaine have even the slightest inkling he’d be playing such a different environment around twenty years later? And who else would have believed that such a niche band would go on to such things.
Not just them, obviously. Metallica were also featured in both films. It just so happened that both Megadeths finished their songs/sets at the same time in front of me.
I can’t recall who, but apparently some tosspot on Radio 1 recently said that rock and metal is dead. Again. People like that obviously have no clue what they’re talking about and live in an little world of their own. All it takes is one glance at the gig listings in a magazine, or a check online to find the countless tours and festivals taking place.
The festival has arisen from the ashes of the old Donington Monsters of Rock. It now runs for four days. Sonisphere has appeared from nowhere and is adding new countries to its touring festival each year. Bloodstock. Hard Rock Hell. Damnation. High Voltage. That’s just the tip of the iceberg – and that’s only the UK.
Bands that didn’t even hit the heights of the likes of Metallica are still touring. Some are making comebacks, some never went away. In the last few weeks I’ve seen Annihilator and Exodus, to name but two.
Despite a continued lack of radio (come on, Radio 1 – one show a week… at midnight?) heavy metal has continued to live and breathe for decades. It’s constantly being written off, but it has the most dedicated fans of any genre of music.
The internet has definitely helped – as it has with other types of music – allowing new bands a cheap outlet for their demos. This has without a doubt made a huge difference, especially around the late 90’s when thing were a little sparce in the metal field.
But now we have bands like Poison selling out arenas in the US. Lawnmower Deth, at the other end of the scale, are playing a couple of gigs a year after 15 years or so in retirement. Judas Priest are still going despite the band being old enough to have grandfathered a huge proportion of their fans.
You can have your own opinions about the music, but there’s no denying it. Heavy metal is here to stay.
Just deal with it.
Yeah, but.
The bands you mention? Most of them are on their pensions. Sure, they’ll keep going until they go out in a blaze of glory or a fizzle of shortened telomeres, but if rock and metal rely soley on those artists, then the sound will be die with their generation.
And there are a bunch of copycat artists out there, singing covers of their songs. And I’m sure there are bands out there composing new stuff.
But I can’t the last time a new rock or metal band, one from this century, made the news.
There have been loads, Dewi. ittedly, they’re not all making a splash in the way bands like Maiden or KISS did – but then, it took them quite some time. Check out acts such as Avenged Sevenfold (getting popular), Bullet For My Valentine, Paramour, Pendulum, Hatebreed, Stone Sour, Gallows, HellYeah, Airbourne… I don’t even like all of them, but it shows there are still some “young” bands coming through who are catching people’s attention and drawing crowds. There will be very few from this century as it takes a band maybe 10 years these days to gain a significant foothold.… Read more »
Avenged Sevenfold (getting popular), Bullet For My Valentine, Paramour, Pendulum I was about to post that I wasn’t into the sort of rock you were talking about when I realised that I have the albums of the above mentioned bands and they are regularly shuffled on my iPod! An article I read recently was hyping up X-Factor, whilst saying that guitar and rock music was dead – two very different beasts, one that will disappear when the novelty wears off, the other will continue as it has done over the years. It’s true, I confess to watching X-Factor, please don’t… Read more »
BTW, Happy 2011 Mosh!
Humbug.
As for the bands in italics in your comment, I don’t actually like any of them. However, they are part of the huge collection that is rock/metal and are going from strength to strength.
Metal gives bands a chance to change and grow, develop their music and characteristics and become something worth liking.
The pop environment creates bands that are shit to start with, have one catchy hit, produce a number one and a few quid for some self-centred exec (*cough*Cowell*cough*) and then vanish onto the turd-heap.
Sean Merrigan liked this on Facebook.