Posts Tagged ‘the metal files’
The torture never stops!
This album can do no wrong. Seriously. This was another one that I first heard through a former friend from high school. I was 16 (1986) and drove my ’66 Nova 4dr to his house to hang out. I believe this was the first time that we hung out and I was in awe of his record collection and his bedroom walls filled with cool metal posters.
I’m flipping through his crate of records and see the WASP S/T album and asked him to play it. I’d seena nd read about them in the ‘zines but hadn’t put ears to it yet.
WOW.
WOW!
Being blown away doesn’t really even mildly describe how hard this album hit me upon my first listen. WASP was different, especially coming from the LA scene where lipstick and hairspray was ruling the scene. I never really got into that look or sound that came along with it except for the early Crue stuff.
Sure WASP had hairspray and makeup, but it wasn’t the same. There’s not a bad song on this album at all. Sure, School Daze had some goofy lyrics, but it is still a great jam.
Blackie Lawless has a very haunting quality to his voice. It’s vicious at times. These guys were the perfect combination of power, dark tones and tasteful metal.
When I put this CD in my car, it generally stays in there for a few weeks. I never grow tired of listening to it. If I have to pick my favorite cuts on this they would have to be Hellion, Sleeping in the Fire, Tormentor and L.O.V.E. Machine.
11/10…easily.
And let’s not forget what W.A.S.P. stands for. If you look on the inner ring of the actual album, it’s spelled out as “We are sexual perverts”.
That rules.
My current guitarist saw their first 2 shows in LA…@ the Troubador I believe. There’s some footage of these shows on YouTube I believe.
The Metal Years
I simply love this movie. I watched it again yesterday for the billionth time. It’s interesting seeing many of the people in the movie that I’ve met a time or 2 over the years and seeing how much they’ve changed.
I’ll always love the section on ODIN. Sure, Randy O. was pretty wasted and said a few outlandish things, but at least the guy believed in the dream. And he had guys with him who believed it as well…his bandmates and Gazzari (RIP).
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend a weekend with Shawn and Jeff Duncan of ODIN. Those guys are legends to me. And to no surprise, they are very cool dudes. They latest band, DC4, was here in Austin for the SxSW festival and I got to help them around town a bit. They completely kick ass. It was a pleasure for me to assist in every way that I could. Especially since I’ve been a fan of their debut since it came out. After watching the Metal Years again yesterday, it was cool to see them back then and compare them to the now. They seemed so familiar to me when I finally got to meet them.
The Chris Holmes section of the movie was always a bit weird to watch for me with him being completely tanked in the pool with his mom sitting there. I recently read on the Wikipedia page about the movie that the bottles of vodka that he was drinking and pouring all over himself were full of water.
I love the section on London as well. I had the cassette of their 2nd album way back when and liked it a lot. Would love to see this stuff come out on separate CDs…official or not.
One of the best bands featured on there was Detroit’s Seduce. A former friend from high school and I used to listen to them all the time back in the olden days. They looked glammy but were pretty damn metal IMHO.
The Faster Pussycat stuff was cool. One of my bands opened for them about 6 years ago and it was almost scary to see how much taime had changed. That dude’s a freak.
All in all it’s a fun movie to watch, even if it did focus more on the glammier side of LA. At least Lemmy and Alice Cooper got some good footage in there. It seems that this is coming out in an official DVD version sometime as well according the the Decline Movies website.
All the dreams we held so close seemed to all go up in smoke
It’s no secret that I am a huge Stones fan. I practically love everything up to and including Steel Wheels (minus that horrid nightmare Dirty Work). I think that Goats Head 
Soup is one of my favorites, if not my #1 from their 70s era. The album is a bit mellow and smooth and very different from the albums before it and after it, Exile On Main Street and It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll, respectively.
Silver Train, Star Star, Hide Your Love, Dancing With Mr. D, Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) and even Angie are all great tracks.
This album has Mick taylor all over it. He was a great guitarist and arguably a better writer than Keef. My opinion of course.
I really wish I had some sort of life story to attach to this album like I do with many others from my collection, but I don’t. I will say that this is a fun album to play bass too and one of the first ones I put in to learn how to play when I started bassing in 2000. Nothing majorly difficult, just cool progressions.
The Metal Files 
You must be logged in to post a comment.