Daniel's Forum Replies

This morning's track is Sorcery's "Sorcerer" which I regard as being hard rock:

Black Sabbath's "Electric Funeral" from 1970's classic "Paranoid" album is an interesting one because it kinda crosses over between stoner metal & doom metal. On the one hand you have the slow tempos & imposing atmosphere of traditional doom metal & on the other one you have the extensive use of wah pedal which adds a thick layer of psychedelics & makes it hard to pick just the one genre tag. As a result, I'm gonna say that this was the first true stoner doom track.

Black Sabbath's "Electric Funeral" from 1970's classic "Paranoid" album is an interesting one because it kinda crosses over between stoner metal & doom metal. On the one hand you have the slow tempos & imposing atmosphere of traditional doom metal & on the other one you have the extensive use of wah pedal which adds a thick layer of psychedelics & makes it hard to pick just the one genre tag. As a result, I'm gonna say that this was the first true stoner doom track.

This morning's track is Sorcery's "Airborne" which I regard as being hard rock:

I was thinking the same thing about the Metal Academy Radio thing. I think the Metal Academy brand needs to be in the titles more than the names of the clans do though. I'm also thinking that the titles should start with the genre rather than Metal Academy because it's more likely to be the genre that draws people in initially & I'd ideally like people to know that it's a monthly playlist just by reading the title. I think we need some form of uniformity but are open to ideas. Currently I'm thinking something like "Heavy Metal Homework - A Monthly Metal Academy Playlist" would work. If you search the term "Homework" on Spotify you'll find that all of the playlists that come up have hundreds (if not thousands) of likes so I think that sort of differentiator might work for us.

This one might be a little controversial as most people seem to tag it as heavy metal but I'm gonna dispute that. Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" from their classic 1970 sophomore album "Paranoid" (which was released on 18th September 1970) is too slow & doomy for heavy metal in my opinion. The dark, lumbering riffs that make up the majority of the song's run time are classic doom metal & possess the atmosphere to match. It's only really the solo sections that see heavy metal playing a role which draws things into the traditional doom metal space.

This morning's track is Sorcery's "Snowshit" which I'd suggest is heavy psych:

Some of the more blatant examples of plagiarism I can recall in recent times come through Aura Noir's 1996 track "The One Who Smite" which blatantly clones both Sodom & Slayer. Check out the opening riff & then compare it to the opening riff from Sodom's "Proselytism Real" from 1986:

Now compare the riff at 1:54 in "The One Who Smite" to the riff at 1:38 in Slayer's "Angel of Death" (also from 1986):

I've just passed this nomination Andi.

Here's my review:

Being a local gives any self-respecting metalhead some additional rights within their homeland as it affords you the privilege of being in the know about a number of artists that offer a high-quality product but, for one reason or another, have failed to break out of the confines of their international borders. Canberra four-piece Alchemist fit that bill very nicely for us Aussies & I think you'd be surprised as to how big a role they ended up playing in the childhood of both of your Metal Academy administrators. Ben & I came across Alchemist very early on in their recording career when we picked up their 1993 "Jar of Kingdom" CD from the local record store. We were both under-age at the time so didn't have much of an understanding of who Alchemist were at that point but, over the next 3-4 years, that situation would drastically change with the boys playing an increasingly more significant role in our lives. I'd pickup Alchemist's 1991 "Demo '91" demo tape directly through the band shortly afterwards but it wouldn't make anything like the sort of impact that Alchemist's next couple of albums did & I look back on both of those with great fondness & nostalgia now. I'd also see Alchemist play live on countless occasions during the mid-1990's as they were a regular visitor to our hometown of Sydney which is less than a three-hour drive from Australia's capital city, not to mention their involvement in both organizing & performing at the legendary annual Canberra metal festival Metal For The Brain which was very much a right of passage for Aussie metalheads. Alchemist were an amazing experience in a live environment too, particularly when you've just dropped a tab of LSD as I had on one memorable occasion in Newtown. That's a story for another time though as we're really here to talk about Alchemist's debut album "Jar of Kingdom" which is still a very interesting listen all these years later.

Alchemist were formed by band leader Adam Agius (The Levitation Hex) back in 1987 & had begun life as a tech thrash band with their first two demo tapes "Eternal Wedlock" & "Demo '90" sitting predominantly in that space. I recently revisited their third demo tape "Demo '91" though & found Alchemist to be in a transitional phase that saw them sitting halfway between a Voivod-ish tech thrash model & a far more experimental & creative avant-garde/psychedelic sound. Did it work? Weeellll.... not quite. It was far more interesting than it was enjoyable. Alchemist's debut album would see the promise of that demos A side coming to fruition though with the band having had the time to complete their transition into a fully-fledged avant-garde death metal band. Agius was the only original member remaining by this stage & he'd recruited a very talented trio of accomplices to assist him in the creation of some of the most bizarre metal music the world (& certainly a seventeen year-old me) had ever heard to the time.

"Jar of Kingdom" sports a very unusual production job that can initially be a little off-putting. The bass & rhythm guitars possess a strangely bassed-out tone with very little in the way of high-end & it sees them being somewhat lost in the background. This affords the psychedelics that are layered over the top the opportunity to play the role of the sole instrumental protagonist. You can still make out all of the riffs but one feels that the album could have been a touch more effective if those riffs were given a little more scope. In saying that though, I can't deny that this flaw only amplifies the things that make Alchemist truly unique i.e. their strange, quirky & downright bizarre psychedelic melodics. It also gives Adam more room to move as a frontman with his vocals now being presented as a rabid, unintelligible death metal bark. He never takes himself too seriously though so the listener rarely finds themselves with that classic extreme metal scowl on their face as this music is simply too fun for that.

The tracklisting on "Jar of Kingdom" is very consistent & was clearly the result of the lengthy six-year engagement period & extensive live experience. It opens with my favourite inclusion in "Abstraction" which showcases Alchemist's new sound in all its glory. My other clear favourite is the short & atmospheric "Found" which features guest female vocals from Adam's family friend Michelle Klemke. The other eight tracks are universally rewarding but rarely overcome the fact that I simply can't ever genuinely "love" a record that's this silly. The re-recorded version of my favourite song from "Demo '91" in "Enhancing Enigma" was most welcome while there are number of others that would soon become live favourites for me & my friends. I'd imagine that it would be quite hard for those that have never had the pleasure of witnessing an Alchemist show to imagine this material being presented in a faithful format in a live environment but I can assure you that the band sounded almost exactly like this live, if not better.

Look... I'm not going to sit here & tell you that "Jar of Kingdom" is essential listening & it doesn't come close to touching Alchemist's next couple of records either but it was an important record in the annuls of Aussie metal history nonetheless & I think it has something to offer, particularly for those members of The Infinite who are gifted with a more eclectic taste profile. I mean, I'd argue that if you haven't heard Alchemist then you're completely in the dark about some of the places that metal music can go as they created arguably the most psychedelic example of metal music you'll ever encounter. Imagine a combination of the silly avant-garde experimentation of Mr. Bungle & the weird-ass death metal of Phlebotomized or Pan.Thy.Monium & you won't be far off the mark. Perhaps you think that there are musical borders that simply can't be broken through? Well, Alchemist emphatically piss on that idea with their debut album & they should be given credit for that if nothing else.

3.5/5

On 18th September 1970 Black Sabbath changed the world forever through the release of their classic sophomore album "Paranoid" which has gone on to become one of the most infuential records in metal history. The opening track from that album is arguably my favourite Sabbath tune & is generally tagged as heavy metal but when given closer scrutiny you'll find very little that resembles the classic heavy metal sound of bands like Judas Priest or Iron Maiden. It's very much a mish-mash of different sounds that, when combined, amounts to something that's fairly difficult to categorize. Let's break the song down a bit:

* The intro to "War Pigs" is pure doom metal with the inclusion of the siren signaling the impending doom of humanity.

* The verse is centered in blues rock territory with jazzy high-hats & bluesy lead guitar licks. Once the full riff appears with its descending run of power chords we see it building into something that resembles heavy metal though.

* The riff that follows the verse possesses the bottom-string chugging & power chords of heavy metal although there's a lot more swagger here you'd usually expect from that genre as it really gets your hips moving so it feels more like hard rock. The restrained guitar tone certainly contributes to this.

* The doubled guitar solo section sits within the realms of heavy psych with Geezer Butler's basslines moving around beautifully beneath Iommi's capable, Jimi Hendrix-inspired shredding.

* The closing movement sees things taking a turn in a progressive rock direction with Iommi again adding doubled guitar solos in an ad lib fashion with Butler once again exerting himself in a more melodic fashion.

So, as you can see, we have a highly complex & varied array of sounds & styles here with doom metal, blues rock, heavy metal, heavy psych & progressive rock all playing important roles in the holistic outcome. Is this a metal song? Yeah, definitely. But what genre tag can draw together all of those different sounds? Traditional doom metal? No, this certainly isn't consistently doomy enough to justify that tag. Heavy metal? I don't think so as "War Pigs" simply doesn't sound anything like our modern understanding of what the heavy metal genre is intended to be. It's far too organic, bluesy & psychedelic for that, perhaps even too heavily influenced by the late 1960's. It does make for amazing stoner material though with all of the different sounds listed being encompassed by the stoner metal tag, even if it may not be your most traditional example of the stoner metal genre. The blues rock, heavy psych & early progressive rock components are simply too significant to be tagging a track like "War Pigs" as heavy metal, despite the presence of that genre at times. To do that would be to over-simplify what is a much more complex & cerebral song than that.

Today we take a look at Sorcery's "Slippin Away (For K.E.R.)" which I'd suggest sits somewhere between heavy psych & hard rock:

Just prior to the release of their sophomore album "Paranoid" in September 1970, Black Sabbath released this single for a song that was very much an afterthought & manufactured purely to provide their label with a song that was suitable for the 7" single format. It would go on to become one of the defining song in the entire history of heavy metal music with its fast pace & focus on palm-muted bottom-string bar chord down-picking:

This morning's track is Sorcery's "Last Good-Bye" which I'd suggest is best associated with progressive rock:

Interestingly, I really dig the cover version of Venom's "Heaven's on Fire" that appears as a bonus track on the Spotify version of the record & feel that it would have improved the album if it had of been included on the original release.

Here's my review:

Those of us that were as heavily involved in the tape trading scene as I was back in the 1990's might remember just how much hype there was around Oslo-based blackened thrash metallers Aura Noir around the time that their first couple of proper releases hit the shelves, partially due to the involvement of respected metal musicians Carl-Michael Eide (aka Aggressor - Infernö/Ved Buens Ende/Cadaver/Dødheimsgard/Satyricon/Ulver/Virus) & Ole Jørgen Moe (aka Apollyon - Coffin Storm/Cadaver/Dødheimsgard/Immortal) who both shared the instrumental contributions equally in a multi-instrumental fashion. I don't believe I ever heard either of Aura Noir's demo tapes but their 1995 debut E.P. "Dreams Like Deserts" was an outstanding way to introduce themselves to the underground & is still my pick of the band's discography to this day. My enjoyment of that release would see me urgently requesting a dubbed cassette copy of the Norwegians' 1996 debut album "Black Thrash Attack" as soon as it hit the lists of my fellow traders. Aura Noir's debut album saw them bringing guitarist Rune Eriksen (RUÏM/Twilight of the Gods/Vltimas/Ava Inferi/Mayhem/Nader Sadek) into the fold for the first time in what must surely go down as somewhat of an extreme metal supergroup & one that presented their musical roots very openly through their music too. Much like Aura Noir's other full-lengths, I don't recall enjoying "Black Thrash Attack" as much as I did "Dreams Like Deserts" so I haven't returned to it since but I do recall finding it fairly enjoyable so Sonny's feature release nomination has come as a pleasant surprise.

"Black Thrash Attack" is every bit the record that's advertised on the front cover as you'll rarely find a more blatant & pure example of the blackened thrash sound. It's raw & aggressive but, as with so many of Aura Noir's sources of inspiration, it doesn't take itself too seriously either. You won't find anything terribly original here. In fact, you can expect a totally retro vibe with the First Wave of Black Metal being the dominating influence. From track to track you'll no doubt pickup parts that have at the very least been inspired by early Bathory, Venom, Slayer & particularly Sodom whose influence appears quite regularly. The vocals, on the other hand, predominantly tend to sit in Quorthon (Bathory) & Nocturno Culto (Darkthrone) territory & are one of the most appealing elements of a record. Like so many of the founding fathers of black/death/thrash metal did, this sees Aura Noir fitting very nicely into that groove between multiple extreme metal genres & also sees the Norwegians absolutely maxing out on their underground appeal with the kvlt elitists out there.

The album kicks off in stellar fashion with four really strong tracks opening proceedings & by the end of "Wretched Face of Evil" I was starting to wonder if I'd been a little harsh on "Black Thrash Attack" back in the day as the material seemed to be of a higher standard than I recalled. Unfortunately, the remaining six tracks don't match that quality though, despite the majority of them being pretty enjoyable & undeniably thrashy tunes in their own right. "Destructor" is the one song where I find myself struggling for engagement but everything else has a lovely, familiar old-school vibe about it, sometimes because I've literally heard some of the riffs a thousand times before (see the blatant Sodom & Slayer plagiarism in "The One Who Smite" for example).

I think "Black Thrash Attack" probably falls into that category where I really want to like it more than I actually do. Those first four tracks are excellent & immediately see me dropping my guard but, once I've dug into the record in more detail, I find that it doesn't quite hold up to greater scrutiny. There isn't a genuine classic here (although "Conqueror" tries very hard to get there) & that's probably another reason why I can't achieve a more solid rating but the B side simply isn't of four-star standard in my opinion. It's respectable, I admit, but I can't claim that it gets my blood flowing to the same extent as the A side does. This failing leaves Aura Noir with a decent blackened thrash record that should appeal to fans of bands like Nifelheim, Destroyer 666 & Desaster & may also be the band's strongest full-length but it's one that's unlikely to see me reaching for it all that often in the future.

3.5

Here's my review:

While it's probably worth mentioning from the start that New York's Living Colour have never really fit within the stringent criteria required to enter my personal taste profile, I've always had an appreciation for what they do, particularly during their late 80's & early 90's heyday which is where my knowledge of them ends. I was first introduced to Living Colour through their super-popular smash hit "Cult of Personality" which I discovered on a compilation album shortly after its release back in 1988 & it would lead me to progressively pick up dubbed copies of their first three full-lengths as they hit the market, all of which offered me similar levels of entertainment even if I never considered any of them to be essential. Interestingly though, I never considered Living Colour to be a metal band during their earlier days with their 1988 debut album "Vivid" being more of a funky hard rock record. The links to metal grew off the back of 1990's "Time's Up" record which I regard as one of the extremely rare examples of a true "funk metal" release with the vast majority of other records being tagged as such failing to convince me of their eligibility for the niche subgenre. I always thought of 1993's "Stain" as being Living Colour's strongest work to the time but I haven't heard it since my last year of high school in 1993 though so I'm here to confirm or deny that allegation today.

One thing's for certain & that's that "Stain" was Living Colour's most consistent & most mature record to the time. Where both "Vivid" & "Time's Up" contained a few obviously weaker tracks to balance out the inclusion of their hugely successful singles, "Stain" possesses neither trait, instead offing a solid set of thirteen tracks that never disappoint but rarely amaze. The fact that it rarely leaves me cringing is a big plus though, as is the wonderful contribution of guitarist Vernon Reid who I feel delivers one of his most compelling performances here with his jazz fusion inspired & whacked out solos being thoroughly captivating. New bass player Doug Wimbish also proves himself to be a true star of his chosen craft with a powerful & invariably impressive array of basslines that anchor the songs beautifully. One thing I do think is worth noting though is that this material is not nearly as funky as it's made out to be so the links to funk metal are misguided. "Stain" is much more of a blend of alternative metal & hard rock for mine with only closer "Wall" fitting the bill for funk metal so I'd encourage all members of The Gateway to down-vote Funk Metal & up-vote Alternative Metal on the Metal Academy release page.

As to be expected with a Living Colour record, the tracklisting offers plenty of variety with regular change-up songs being included in order to keep things interesting & showcase the talented musicians' flexibility. My favourites are the synth-driven art rock piece "Nothingness". the experimental/avant-garde hip hop number "WTFF" & the afore-mentioning "Wall" which I think was a great way to close out the album. The quirky ode to bisexuality "Bi" is the most obviously commercialized inclusion while "Hemp" even sees Living Colour attempting a deep ambient sound. There are a number of hard rock-based tracks that will no doubt have fit very comfortably into US commercial rock radio programming at the time but they all maintain a reasonable level of integrity & quality.

After a few active listens on my commute to work & back this week, I'm gonna have to suggest that my position on "Stain" hasn't changed much. Perhaps Reid's contribution may be slanting me in this direction given my obvious penchant for high-end guitar playing but I still think that "Stain" was Living Colour's best album to the time. I've certainly confirmed my suspicion that it was their most mature & consistent one. Perhaps I just enjoy an alternative metal sound more than a funk metal one or a funky hard rock one but I tend to think there's a little more to it than that & feel that "Stain" has been a little hard done by due to the lack of hit singles it contains. If you're a fan of "Vivid" or "Time's Up" or similar bands like Extreme, Electric Boys or Ugly Kid Joe then I'm willing to bet you'll enjoy "Stain" too.

3.5/5

Today's song is Sorcery's "Sugar Sweet Lady (Debbie's Song)" which I'd suggest is a psychedelic rock tune:

I get what you are saying here Daniel and I would definitely agree that the main riff is a heavy metal riff, but the rest of the track contains an overwhelming amount of blues and rock to call it an actual heavy metal track. I wouldn't deny that it is a very early example of a heavy metal riff used in a song, but would be reluctant to make any bigger claim for it than that.

I don't disagree that the rest of the song is hard rock but that main riff makes up at least half the runtime (i.e. all of the verses & the solo section) so a dual tagging is the only accurate option in my opinion. It would seem wrong to simply go with hard rock when the song is built around a metal riff after all.

Also on 1970's "Deep Purple In Rock" album we find closer "Hard Lovin' Man" which I don't think will create as much debate. Just listen to that galloping main riff which utilises palm-muted bottom-string triplets to create pure heavy metal fire. Iron Maiden were clearly listening closely.

I feel like you're on the right track there Sonny. I'll spend a bit more time thinking about this topic on the weekend but would appreciate it if everyone kept throwing out ideas. We obviously won't be able to list every major genre that's included in the playlist title for a clan like The Fallen but do you think it's too limiting to say Doom Metal for that one, Heavy Metal for The Guardians, Black Metal for The North or Thrash Metal for The Pit?

It actually took my quite a few revisits before I decided on stoner metal over heavy metal Sonny so it was a close call that could have gone either way really. I don't hear the traditional doom metal sound there though, despite many people making that claim.

Today's track is Sorcery's "Fly The Sky" which I'd suggest is hard rock:

In my online research to date, one thing that's been the unanimous message from successful playlist administrators has been that you need to have a well-defined niche & a clear differentiator from the opposition in order to stand out. I'm not sure that the clans are it as people likely won't know about those prior to our playlists coming up in their searches & it won't be possible to explain them in this format either. It's also worth noting that we're trying to advertise & draw people to our playlists here as our first point of call rather than the website. That will hopefully come later & we can use the playlist descriptions to advertise Metal Academy but the first step is to get people interested in listening to & subscribing to our playlists. The playlist names need to leave the potential listener intrigued or satisfy a niche requirement they have such as a study accompaniment or music to have the COVID to or something like that. We want every person that puts "COVID" into their search to see our playlist come up first for example. If our title is "thrash metal" then you're competing with a zillion much more popular playlists that will obviously come up first.

I certainly get what you're saying gents. I am willing to options that I may not have in the past if it will see more people hearing these playlists though because I feel like we've missed an opportunity thus far.

This morning we kick-off a new release in Sorcery's "Sinister Soldiers: debut album from 1978 which opens with "Arachnid (The Dark King)" which I'd suggest should qualify as metal & sits predominantly in the stoner metal space.

Also on Randy Holden's "Population II" album from the early 1970, we find this shorter reenactment of the previously mentioned "Fruit & Icebergs" which showcases the same slow tempos, crushingly heavy metal riffs & the lumberous doom metal atmosphere of the original version (if one that's strongly infused with heavy psych which once again sees it falling into the traditional doom metal tag):

I love the idea for The Revolution Andi. I’ll have a think about how to best implement that idea. It will have to include the full word “metalcore” though.

That kinda indicates we only include new releases though, doesn't it?

FYI there's a limit of 100 characters in the title.

Perhaps we could go with a play on the academic thing? Metal Academy Radio - Doom Metal Detention? Death Metal Double-Period?

I've been spending a bit of time thinking about our playlists & how we can start to take them to a wider audience given that the number of likes on each is still so minimal. I've done a little bit of reading up on it this morning & one of the main things that comes up is that you have to get the name & description right or else people simply won't be able to find your lists in searches. I dunno if you've tried it but if I search death metal, grindcore or any of the artists or songs included in the latest The Horde playlist, I won't ever see my list coming up in the search results. What does come up are a list of playlists that have those exact terms in their titles (i.e. "death metal", "grindcore", etc.) so I'm wondering if we're missing a trick here. With that in mind, I'd like to throw it out to our members to come up with an agreeable playlist naming structure that will draw people to our playlists but one that still stands out from the crowd. Ideally, I'd like to use the same structure across all nine playlists if at all possible too.

I listened to this playlist in full today & really enjoyed it. I truly think "Leviathan" might be the pinnacle of Yngwie Malmsteen's career & the neoclassical metal subgenre in general. It's so dark & majestic. Fucking love those Sodom & Ozzy Osbourne tracks too, not to mention the belting new Judas Priest song which reenacts the "Painkiller" record. I thought the curve balls I threw in all worked really well alongside the more obvious The Guardians artists too. There was obviously some material that didn't hit the spot (Dragonforce, Moonlight Sorcery, Ryujin, Anthrax, Sonata Arctica) but I knew that going in of course. Everything else was really solid.

One can't deny Blue Cheer's status as a proto-metal act, but I think it just slightly missed the mark.

Interesting. This was one of the ones that I thought was more clear-cut to be honest. Are you saying that you don't think it should qualify as traditional doom metal or that you don't think it's metal in general?

Pelle, I notice that you only selected one clan when you registered for the site. You're actually allowed to select three so let me know if you'd like to add a couple more.

Here's my review:

While I was certainly well aware of former Misfits & Samhain front man Glenn Danzig's early solo works, I never felt the need to give them any dedicated attention until more recent times when I investigated his first two records in 1988's self-titled & 1990's "Danzig II - Lucifuge". I found both of them to be pretty decent & quite enjoyable hard rock albums too although I wouldn't consider either to be essential & I'd suggest that neither were metal enough to qualify as genuine metal releases either. 1992's "Danzig III: How the Gods Kill" has always been talked about as the final piece in Danzig's trio of great records though so I've always felt that I owed it to myself to give it some consideration too, if only in the interest of satisfying the obsessive completist in me. The fact that it's often referred to as being Danzig's most metal record to the time was certainly a drawcard for it given my personal taste profile too so I didn't hesitate in selecting it as this month's The Guardians feature release.

My earliest observation was that "Danzig III: How the Gods Kill" is most certainly a Danzig record. It's got that lovely, warm & organic production job with a bluesy feel & an atmosphere that verges on the gothic quite often, perhaps more so than either of Glenn's previous records. But this is also a heavier & more metallic record than "Danzig" & "Danzig II: Lucifuge" were. In fact, it's easily metal enough to qualify for heavy metal status on this occasion with the metal being even more prominent than the hard rock, although the combination of the two is very important in the holistic outcome that "Danzig III: How the Gods Kill" achieves. While I've struggled with Glenn's vocal style at times in the past, it seems much better suited to this sound & I never found myself struggling at all. I'd actually go so far as to say that I really enjoyed his contribution here, particularly during the deeper & more atmospheric moments. You see, despite being a noticeably heavier record than Danzig's first two albums, this is also a deeper & more gothic sounding release. It's like everything that was hinted at on Danzig's earlier records has been amplified which has resulted in a release with a stronger purpose & a well-defined personality.

The tracklisting is generally very solid & consistent with almost all of the ten tracks being impressive in their scope & execution. The clear exception is the disappointing art rock piece "Sistinas" which draws upon ethereal wave/dream pop ideas & presents them in a way that seems much too poppy for Danzig but the rest of this material shows a clear level of class that can only be developed from many years of live performance & recording experience. Rick Rubin has done a splendid job as executive producing the album too as the material has been granted every opportunity to impress the listener. I particularly enjoy the guitar tones which have had the distortion backed off a bit in the interest of dynamics. The only thing that prevents "Danzig III: How the Gods Kill" from getting to the extreme upper echilons of my esteem is that there's not more genuine classics included. The brilliant "Heart of the Devil" is the only inclusion that I'd suggest will go down as a long-term favourite of mine with it's slow buildup to a magnificent crescendo while the rest of the album is simply of a rock-solid quality. Some of that is due to the limitations in Danzig's vocal style of course but I'd also suggest that there are very few heavy metal albums that can achieve that level of affection from me anyway.

If I had to describe "Danzig III: How the Gods Kill" to an uninitiated observer I'd probably say that you should imagine a combination of Zakk Wylde-era Ozzy Osbourne, the gothic-tinged hard rock of The Cult & the bluesy doom atmospherics of some of Pentagram's (well... Macabre's if we're being pedantic) early 1970's hard rock singles like "Be Forewarned". It's an intriguing & predominantly rewarding record that has taken Danzig to the next level with me after his first two albums failed to achieve essential listening status. I can't see any reason to continue to explore Glenn's later solo records at this point given that none of them are as highly regarded as his first three but I will most certainly be returning to "Danzig III: How the Gods Kill" from time to time as my new go-to Danzig record.

4/5

The second earliest genuine doom metal track I came across in my investigations is nowhere near as obvious & was actually recorded before the release (but after the recording) of "Black Sabbath" in early 1970. It comes from former Blue Cheer guitarist Randy Holden whose debut solo album "Population II" is a pretty decent heavy psych record to tell you the truth. The album includes this metal monster "Fruit & Icebergs" that I'd suggest showcases a clear infusion of his heavy psych sound into genuine doom metal, thus creating an excellent early example of the traditional doom metal subgenre.

What do you guys think of it? Doom metal enough for ya?

I just finished checking out Yngwie Malmsteen's 1978 "Powerhouse" demo which he recorded when he was just 15 years old. The level of virtuosity & creativity he was had achieved as such a young age is absolutely astounding. It's a combination of heavy metal & hard rock instrumentals with hints at neoclassical metal. You'll likely recognise some tracks as being early versions of his later works too.

This morning's track is Scorpion's "Born To Touch Your Feelings" which is once again hard rock.

That leaves the "Taken by Force" album with just the two metal tracks in my opinion which is not enough to qualify as a metal release in this exercise. Tomorrow we'll be beginning a new release in the 1978 debut album "Sinister Soldiers" from Chicago's Sorcery.

Also, I gave Scorpions' 1978 double live album "Tokyo Tapes" a revisit this week but found that it's also a hard rock record with only a few genuine metal tracks included.

It's very possible for AI to create a metal album from scratch & is likely already happening. We were very close to using AI for the Neuropath cover art but the application our designer was using ended up blocking anything even remotely graphic & the ideas we were previously looking at were particularly graphic so we opted to look for real artwork instead which ended up with a pretty great result.

I've just passed this one Andi.

I've just passed this one Andi.

I've just passed this one Andi.

I've just passed this one Andi.

I've passed this one Andi as the release now qualifies.

The second example of stoner metal to hit the streets also came from the "Black Sabbath" album in the very popular "N.I.B.".

It's absolutely baffling that people continue to tag this song as heavy metal because it sounds absolutely nothing like it to me. The wah-wah bass intro from Geezer Butler leads us into a song that's built on a groovy stoner stomp of a main riff with Butler continuing to utilize his wah-wah throughout the song. There's an obvious psychedelic feel to this song which is clearly heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix. This is particularly evident in Iommi's trills, phrasing & ab lib as well as his doubled guitar solos which are layered over some lovely, warm progressive work from the rhythm section. It all sounds so late 60's to me which makes it a stellar weed-smoking track (trust me on this, I know from a wealth of first-hand experience). This is certainly not doom metal or heavy metal. With its bass-heavy production job, "N.I.B." feels so comfortable with a stoner tag but it was actually a pretty close call as to whether I went with stoner metal or stoner rock. At the end of the day it was really only the pronounced rhythmic component to the main riff that gives it the additional head-banging potential required to get it over the line for metal qualification.

OK, so you'll be relieved to hear that there's not gonna be any surprises to kick this journey off. Black Sabbath's signature title track was unquestionably the earliest example of a doom metal track. No, not heavy metal. Genuine doom metal. Well.... what's known as traditional doom metal on some other websites to be fair. Let's take a look at why, shall we?

The low tempos, crushingly heavy main riff & phenomenally dark atmosphere of the first four & a half minutes of this classic metal anthem justify a doom metal tag without any case for challenging. The remainder of the song sees that tag moving more into the traditional doom metal space than the pure doom metal one with the more up-tempo section from 4:37-5:15 clearly being the source of inspiration for Iron Maiden's signature heavy metal gallop & the final one-minute crescendo being a complete heavy psych workout. This was obviously doom metal's origin as far as I'm concerned.

I apologize if I was a bit blunt there Rex. What I meant was that the thread is not intended to discuss the differences between stoner metal & traditional doom metal at length. I only raised that topic as people have a bad habit of mistagging a lot of the early stoner metal material as traditional doom metal or heavy metal simply because the stoner metal genre wasn't yet defined so I wanted to clarify any misunderstandings around the meaning of those terms from the offset. The real intention of this thread (& several others to come) is to showcase the results of many months of research from myself on the earliest roots of metal & I wanted us to get stuck into that instead of dwelling on the traditional doom metal vs stoner metal argument. Ben & I have always intended Metal Academy to be educational & to challenge the accepted consensus on metal-related topics so this is a part of trying to expand on that idea while giving us a greater point of difference.

This morning's track is Scorpions' "He's a Woman - She's a Man" which is a clear heavy metal song in my opinion:

Thanks for clarifying Rex but you're kinda hijacking the intended direction of the thread here so I'm just gonna move on.

The almost unanimous consensus in the world of metal is that Black Sabbath's title song was the first genuine metal song ever written & there's no reason to dispute that but whether it was the first genuine metal song ever RELEASED is another thing altogether. You see, Black Sabbath's self-titled album was originally released on 13th February 1970 but most people probably aren't aware that there was a 7" single released prior to the album's release date in "Evil Woman" which hit the shelves more than a month earlier on 9th January 1970. The A side features a hard rock cover version of Crow's "Evil Woman, Don't Play Your Games With Me" which could never be mistaken for a metal tune & would appear on the English version of the "Black Sabbath" album. The B side "Wicked World" (an original track which would appear in place of "Evil Woman" on the US version of "Black Sabbath") was another story altogether though & represents the true beginning of metal music in my opinion (at least from a proper recorded release perspective).

When taken holistically "Wicked World" is still more rock than it is metal but the main verse riff has clear ties to metal & is significant enough in how the song plays out to justify a dual tagging in my opinion. I mean, it's the clear centrepiece & focal point & is the element that generally springs to mind when you think about "Wicked World", isn't it? Let's take a look at the track in more detail:

"Wicked World" begins in pure blues rock territory for most of the first minute with pentatonic blues licks & a jazzy swing beat.

Things change significantly at 1:05 though when the doomy verse riff arrives which is still built on blues rock concepts borrowed from tracks like Cream's "Sunshine Of My Love". The thing that differentiates this riff from the blues rock crowd though is the introduction of palm-muted, bottom-string chugging at 1:05 which immediately put things into metal territory. I'm guessing that the inspiration for that came from Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown" although Sabbath's version is much heavier given the darker tone & the doomier feel.

Then at 2:15 we see the introduction of a psychedelic arpeggio section.

At 2:56 Tony Iommi launches into an unaccompanied hard rock solo which is highly reminiscent of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love".

The eerie feedback of the outro once again feels like psychedelic rock.

So, we have blues rock, metal & psychedelic rock all thrown in together which immediately points to the two genres discussed earlier in the thread. The song is far too bluesy to be tagged as heavy metal & it's not consistently doomy enough to be classed as doom metal either with the heavy metal chugging in the main riff giving it a more up-tempo rhythmic feel. That leaves a stoner rock/metal tag as the best fit given that it covers all of the elements on display & the verse riff possesses that druggy sway that's so commonly associated with stoner. This makes "Wicked World" not only the earliest example of the stoner metal genre but also the earliest metal song to receive a proper release.

I have to disagree with a few of those comments Rex:

The length of a track has no impact on whether you're listening to a doom metal song or not as far as I'm concerned. You can easily have a three-minute doom track as the genre is all about tempo & atmosphere rather than length. The same goes for any other metal subgenre too actually, even progressive metal. Music is about sound & atmosphere. Not duration.

Traditional doom metal is a form of doom metal that's diluted with late 60's & 1970's hard rock, blues rock, heavy psych &/or heavy metal influence & sometimes the use of faster tempos during parts of a given track. This is because the doom metal sound first appeared during a time when metal was still very much in its development so there was more of an anything goes approach. I wouldn't say that it's exclusively about a heavy metal component (despite what RYM may tell you) although many of the early trad doom albums have genuine heavy metal tracks included which muddies the waters further.

Stoner metal doesn't have to be "fuzzy". It does generally have to have a thick, bass-heavy tone similar to doom metal though which is where the links to doom come in as stoner bands often sound like a doom band from an aesthetic point of view, even if the riffs aren't always slow. One of the things that a lot of metalheads miss with stoner metal is that it's just as much about the groovy riffs as it is the psychedelia too. There is definitely a trademark curvy stoner riff style that is immediately identifiable & dictates that a track is stoner metal even if there's no fuzz or psychedelia whatsoever. If you want an example then play Ben a stoner metal track & wait for him to cringe. That's simply his reaction to stoner metal riffs as he has very little tolerance for them.

Anyway... a lot of this will become much clearer as this thread progresses (as well as another couple that I'm planning to start for some other genres/subgenres).

Just checked out the 1978 "Oh, što te volim, joj" debut album from Boznian outfit Vatreni poljubac. I found that there were a few genuine metal tracks included but it was significantly more hard rock than it is metal so it didn't qualify for inclusion here.

Maybe if it were a little shorter (not that it wasn't already perfect), it would've dethroned Karma as my top spiritual jazz album, or even In a Silent Way for my top jazz album period.

Quoted Rexorcist

For the record, "In A Silent Way" is my favourite release of all time for any genre... period.

Hhhmmmm.... this sounds very exciting given how much I enjoyed Darkthrone's last album "Astral Fortress". I'd suggest that I shall be partaking in this one at some point.