My journey through metal chronologically
Are you going to limit the criteria at all Morpheus? I feel that if you simply go about listening to every full-length on Metal Archives chronologically then you're destined to never get out of the mid-1980's as there are literally thousands of releases from that decade alone.
Please note that none of what I'm about to say is directed at anyone. It's just that this topic has been on my mind a lot in recent years.
I must admit that I've attempted way too many chronological order projects over the years, ignoring the fact that I'm generally never going to get even of a fraction of the way through any of the lists. To be very honest, I know that I'm struggling a bit with life when I start spending all my time making lists of things I'm going to do, rather than actually doing them. Lists of every movie I'm going to watch, without actually watching any. Lists of comics or books I'm going to read, without ever reading a page. Whenever I find myself doing this these days, I force myself to actually do something rather than just planning to do something, even though the completist in me is screaming that "I haven't started from the right place in time" or "I've not experienced all the predecessors to this to be able to fully appreciate it". This website actually helps a lot, as I can funnel these completist tendencies into something that metal fans can use and appreciate (including myself).
Anyway, I'm certainly not telling anyone that chronological plans should never be undertaken (I still do it). I just think setting an achievable criteria is a must, to avoid almost certain failure. My advice? Set a number of albums you can realistically listen to over the course of a few months (maybe 20, 50 or 100). You want to check out every important power metal or death metal album? Start with the top 20, then once you've finished with that, add another 20, and then another. At some point you'll almost certainly get bored or be inspired to do something else, at which point you won't have wasted your time exploring all the most primitive and often shit releases without ever getting to the stuff you actually wanted to experience. Burnout is real, and the best way to achieve it is to force yourself through low quality content when you could be listening to the cream of the crop.
For anyone that's interested, my current project is to work my way through a list of 100 releases (chronologically of course), made up of the top 25 releases on RYM for each of my favourite genres (death metal, black metal, thrash metal, doom metal). I'm putting them in a precise order as I go, with the end goal of finally figuring out what my top 25 releases of all time actually is (so I can populate it in my Metal Academy profile). Once I reach the end of the 100 releases, if I'm still interested in continuing, I plan to add an additional genre (I'm currently eyeing off progressive metal, gothic metal or maybe even industrial metal) and form a list of 125 to move onto. I'll keep going until something pulls me in another direction, but at least I feel like these lists are achievable. I'm already 40 releases through the first list and having fun.
I think a chronological approach to certain subjects can certainly be helpful. For instance, when I was struggling to get into death metal my Death Metal: A Voyage of (Re-)Discovery project really helped by taking it back to the very early demos and seminal releases and in so doing I gained a better insight into, and appreciation of, death metal and so found myself a way into a genre which I now "get" much better and am really enjoying exploring (when time allows).
No, I didn't forget about this, had a whole bunch of unpleasant shit going on between the last release and this one. Still, one year in one month is pretty good time. :)
Deep Purple - The Book of Taliesyn
A much more proggy album from the same lineup as the last album. Feels a lot more interesting to see Deep Purple doing this rather than the bizarre selection of covers from last time. That said, this album doesn't really feel much like a Deep Purple album a good deal of the time. It's just really that Hammond organ giving that distinct Deep Purple flavor and even then it isn't always the tone setter it should be.
The whole epic fantasy premise the cover promises doesn't quite land. The opening track, which I've linked, does, doing a very nice energetic and dynamic song that the rest of the album just fails to live up to. A lot of this just feels like some generic rock music you'd use in a movie or a game because you couldn't get a real song. It's not outright awful, but I can't really remember most of it after the album finishes playing. Except Kentucky Woman. I hate Kentucky Woman, but that's less because it's necessarily bad but more because I remember when people overplayed the absolute hell out of that song, other covers don't give me that same viscera hatred.
Deep Purple - Deep Purple
Oh, hey, Deep Purple again. Three in a row. And the last album with Rod whatever his last name is. I'll be sad to see him go even if the band has matured. I don't have anything to say about this one, it's basically just a generic lump of rock I have no thoughts or real feelings on.
Flower Travellin' Band - Anywhere
I'm somewhat perplexed by Flower Travellin' Band's apparent metal status, they really sound more like generic jam band from what I've heard. Really, if you want to hear something good from Japan at this time you'd probably be better off watching the Stray Cat Rock film series, or uh...Hausu. Yeah, watch Hausu, that'll give you some dreams. Stray Cat Rock is probably better for getting a grasp of what music they liked back then since that was popular, for a year or so. Has a nice wideth of music, unfortunately the only ones I remember were some Deep Purple-esque band and a group that for some reason the lead actress was singing for in the movie.
Anyway, Anywhere isn't terribly interesting musically. I mean the actual cover parts are okay, but for example let's use the song you probably haven't heard of as an example, Louisiana Blues by Muddy Waters. The original is according to a quick Youtube search, 2:55. This cover? 15:46. Basically the actual song, 12 minutes of decent but not great jamming, then the song again. They're not terribly special as covers, so there's not much to actually talk about.
Flower Travellin' Band's next album "Satori" is pretty great. I used to wear the t-shirt around religiously many years ago.
Lucifer's Friend - Lucifer's Friend
I remember reading at the time this band got on M-A that there was a big debate beforehand, before eventually deciding to do it. I'm not really sure why, to be honest. Ride the Sky is why everyone argues that these guys are metal, and honestly, it doesn't really feel metal. Sure, a lot of symphonic metal bands could stand to learn a lesson from Lucifer's Friend, but that doesn't necessarily mean the song is metal.
It's a very nice album, but it's very clearly a Deep Purple-esque hard rock album. It's all pretty nice, but not exactly metal. Let's pick on Toxic Shadows, the longest track on the album. Nice, bluesy rock, but nothing more.
I'll typically listen to an artist in chronological order if I'm serious about studying them, like what I'm doing right now with Devourment. I've never undertaken the "chonological genre history" route, but with all the subgenres coming out between the 80's and 90's alone, it's gonna be difficult. The RYM charts will easily help with the history, but when it comes to the exploration of each individual form of metal explored at once, you might want to focus mostly on key bands in each scene.
Now we get to Deep Purple with Ian Gillian, the vocalist that's all anyone knows. Where Deep Purple is usually considered to be a metal band. I don't know about other albums, but this ones strikes me as something metal enough to get a metal/hard rock label so many lesser bands end up with. A lot of bands wish they had the energy these guys have. This isn't like a lot of their radio hits where it feels like a lot of the band is phoning it in. I don't think this would be nearly as controversial if it weren't for the band's status as more of a classic rock band.
The weirdest thing about this album to me is how good Ian Gillian sounds to me. I've hear a lot of stuff on the radio and despite what you might think, I kind of loathe hearing Deep Purple. There's a very phoned in quality to his voice. Like some exaggerated method of how a "rocker" should sound; barely following along and barely singing in tune.
Which makes it feel strange that the whole album has more of a rawer quality than I'd expect. And there's this weird contrast between epic organ intros and solos with the raw regular stuff. Practically like two different albums at some points. I suspect a lot of people were influenced by the harsh jump between the intro and the first time Gillian opens his mouth on Speed King. This all implies it doesn't work, but it does. Certainly, the songs which maintain a more consistent tone like Flight of the Rat or radio favorite Child in Time are better, the more varied ones still feel connected despite their deep contrast.
I liked this one. We'll see how the band does in the future because a lot of those albums are kind of meh and not really metal.
4/5
Deep Purple - The Book of Taliesyn
A much more proggy album from the same lineup as the last album. Feels a lot more interesting to see Deep Purple doing this rather than the bizarre selection of covers from last time. That said, this album doesn't really feel much like a Deep Purple album a good deal of the time. It's just really that Hammond organ giving that distinct Deep Purple flavor and even then it isn't always the tone setter it should be.
The whole epic fantasy premise the cover promises doesn't quite land. The opening track, which I've linked, does, doing a very nice energetic and dynamic song that the rest of the album just fails to live up to. A lot of this just feels like some generic rock music you'd use in a movie or a game because you couldn't get a real song. It's not outright awful, but I can't really remember most of it after the album finishes playing. Except Kentucky Woman. I hate Kentucky Woman, but that's less because it's necessarily bad but more because I remember when people overplayed the absolute hell out of that song, other covers don't give me that same viscera hatred.
I just gave this album a couple of spins. I agree with you that it's more progressive than "Shades of Deep Purple". Despite what people may say, there's still no hard rock or heavy psych here though. I'd go with a dual tagging of psychedelic rock & progressive rock.
I was more impressed with than album than most people. Even though they're better at hard rock, Deep Purple proved that they can really bring out the fantasy vibes through rock long before symphonic prog or any fantasy genres of rock and metal ever existed. It was a very "vibes" album from what I remember. And yeah, the prog wasn't always the MOST creative as it had been done more well before, but I kinda believe that the first two real prog bands were Moody Blues and Deep Purple, and this was one of those albums that helped cement it before King Crimson came into the picture (and coined the term).
I was more impressed with than album than most people. Even though they're better at hard rock, Deep Purple proved that they can really bring out the fantasy vibes through rock long before symphonic prog or any fantasy genres of rock and metal ever existed. It was a very "vibes" album from what I remember. And yeah, the prog wasn't always the MOST creative as it had been done more well before, but I kinda believe that the first two real prog bands were Moody Blues and Deep Purple, and this was one of those albums that helped cement it before King Crimson came into the picture (and coined the term).
Wait, King Crimson came after Deep Purple? (checks) I could have sworn In the Court of the Crimson King was 1968. '68 seems weird, because on one hand that's basically when the genre started, but at the same time you have about a dozen of the early bands releasing their first album then. Even some of the major Brit prog bands got their debut in, like Soft Machine. Seems weird in retrospect, because it often seems like rock sub-genres spring up overnight whereas metal took a while.
Another good example is how The Moody Blues were another pop rock band in 1965 before Days of Future Passed.
I was more impressed with than album than most people. Even though they're better at hard rock, Deep Purple proved that they can really bring out the fantasy vibes through rock long before symphonic prog or any fantasy genres of rock and metal ever existed. It was a very "vibes" album from what I remember. And yeah, the prog wasn't always the MOST creative as it had been done more well before, but I kinda believe that the first two real prog bands were Moody Blues and Deep Purple, and this was one of those albums that helped cement it before King Crimson came into the picture (and coined the term).
I seem to remember that as well, but I think that was a good move for them because the two sides compliment each other well.
Deep Purple - Deep Purple
Oh, hey, Deep Purple again. Three in a row. And the last album with Rod whatever his last name is. I'll be sad to see him go even if the band has matured. I don't have anything to say about this one, it's basically just a generic lump of rock I have no thoughts or real feelings on.
Personally, I find "Deep Purple" to be another highly creative record that traverses a whole array of different sounds. I'd probably tag it as another psychedelic/progressive rock release with a noticeable blues rock influence & very little in the way of genuine hard rock.
By the way, you can hear Blackmore using sweep-picking at the end of “April” which is pretty astounding given that it was still only 1969.
Even though they're better at hard rock, Deep Purple proved that they can really bring out the fantasy vibes through rock long before symphonic prog or any fantasy genres of rock and metal ever existed.
Have you heard their 1969 "Concerto for Group & Orchestra" live album? It's basically a symphonic prog concerto in my opinion.
No, I haven't heard any of their live albums. I remember trying to see if they had any when Joe Satriani was in the band, but left disappointed.
Flower Travellin' Band - Anywhere
I'm somewhat perplexed by Flower Travellin' Band's apparent metal status, they really sound more like generic jam band from what I've heard. Really, if you want to hear something good from Japan at this time you'd probably be better off watching the Stray Cat Rock film series, or uh...Hausu. Yeah, watch Hausu, that'll give you some dreams. Stray Cat Rock is probably better for getting a grasp of what music they liked back then since that was popular, for a year or so. Has a nice wideth of music, unfortunately the only ones I remember were some Deep Purple-esque band and a group that for some reason the lead actress was singing for in the movie.
Anyway, Anywhere isn't terribly interesting musically. I mean the actual cover parts are okay, but for example let's use the song you probably haven't heard of as an example, Louisiana Blues by Muddy Waters. The original is according to a quick Youtube search, 2:55. This cover? 15:46. Basically the actual song, 12 minutes of decent but not great jamming, then the song again. They're not terribly special as covers, so there's not much to actually talk about.
I disagree on this one. I'm a big fan of Flower Travellin' Band's sophomore album "Satori" but hadn't heard "Anywhere" until now. God, I wish I hadn't waited so long because I really fucking connected with it. Flower Travellin' Band are almost impossible to categorize as they simply cover so much territory but do it with so much authenticity & electricity that, if you didn't know any better, you'd imagine that they'd spent a lifetime in each of the genres they cover. They remind me of countrymen Boris in that way & I'm sure there's a lot of inspiration & influence there. "Anywhere" isn't a metal album. If I had to describe it I'd probably label it as a heavy psych/jam band record. The cover version of "Black Sabbath" is certainly metal though & is as doomy as all fuck. It's definitely an earlier example of traditional doom metal.
Surprise.
Black Sabbath - S/T (1970)
Let's see if I can say something unique about this one. Probably not. I've been trying to get back into playing the guitar, which I generally can't make as intelligent observations about my own skill or lackthereof outside of stuff like "how the fuck do you play that chord?" or "made that note high-pitched". Every skill from guitar to language learning has observations you can make as an amateur and observations you can only make if you actually know what you're doing.
This applies here in that there are two albums called Black Sabbath. The Black Sabbath we all have in our head that's heavier than everything released until 1982, which is really just the first song, and then the other Black Sabbath, which has that and then far more psychedelic music flow throughout it. I don't need to explain the former album, even if you haven't listened to Black Sabbath its the exact thing you have in your head from reputation or the album cover, it's the latter that needs explaining. The album minus the title track.
While the album is very heavy for 1970 it is not so out of place for the most part. Other bands occasionally reached the heaviness on one or more tracks an album. Basically every single distinct song on this album is at least a bit metal. The key word is distinct song. There is a lot of more jam session-esque pieces on the album bridging songs. Not Dream Theater, more Grateful Dead. An almost ambient backing, carrying the dark mood far more than most metal bands would do afterwards.
In this regard, no one imitating the band has gotten close to them. It's very easy to imitate the heavy sound these guys had, but it's another to imitate the whole package. To start off with something that sounds like it should be playing over the apocalyptic wastes before switching to a heavier version of '60s bluesy rock instrumental. To not make it sound forced or obviously distinct, but for it to just be. Not their doom metal imitators, nor their occult rock imitators. Even my personal candidate for the band carrying on the original Sabbath spirit, Ningen Isu, only ever get as far as imitating most of their elements. If metal is defined as imitating Sabbath, metal has failed.
This is back in the days when Ozzy still sounded weird and alien, rather than a coked out methhead behind a 7/11. You get some strange contrasts. On The Wizard, despite sounding dark and depressing, comes off as oddly upbeat which by all accounts should come off as deeply sarcastic. Especially since the album ends with a song in which he laments about a love he never had. It's one of those things that happens because this is the era where a band doing X genre absolutely must do so and so lyrically.
Sabbath's debut is just as unique now as it was originally. Did it invent heavy metal? Basically, but it's not just that, and that's why 50 years down the line it's worth listening to even as probably millions have imitated it in some way.
9/10