The Days of Lore

Black Friday (the 13th): Slayer still slays

Friday, November 13th, 2009 | musiX | 2 Comments

How can the members of Slayer—now in their mid-40s—still manage to scare the shit out of me? I don’t know, but let’s look at the rest of the Big Four, shall we? Metallica: Harmless. Megadeth: Whiny. Anthrax: Bush-less.

Yes, Slayer still brings it—and in the almost 30 (!) years they’ve been around, have not so much as twitched as new trends and new bands and new serial killers and new wars and new presidents have come and gone. The latest World Painted Blood sounds like it could have been released during the Reagan administration … except, thankfully, it’s the Obama administration … and Oliver North is reporting for Fox News instead of, ya know, lying to Congress.

So. Slayer. I guess the only time critics have complained about the band veering from its direct path to Hell was ironically during Divine Intervention and Diabolus In Musica. But, I say to hell with the critics. Those are great records. You can actually hear Tom Araya’s bass. And the drums sound like your head is inside the double-kick. And I actually liked Paul Bostaph, who replaced original drummer Dave Lombardo in 1992.

But I like Lombardo more. No one’s faster. At 44, he still pummels the skins like he did decades ago on “Angel of Death” and “War Ensemble” (Lombardo returned in 2006). The riffs still gallop at blinding speeds (see “Psychopathy Red”). Solos squeal like slaughtered pigs (the intro to “Snuff” … wow). And there’s still plenty of dark and creepy imagery courtesy of Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, who I think these days are just trying to out-gross one another. Which is what fans want. I mean, metal is the only category of music where exploration and experimentation are not welcome … see where it got Metallica.

Above all, Slayer still pulls it off convincingly—probably because they/we don’t know any differently. Put them next to Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth and it’s like sicking a pit bull on a chihuahua … which, if I’m not mistaken, was the inspiration behind the song “Silent Scream.”

“Psychopathy Red” - Slayer

“Hate Worldwide” - Slayer

Tags: Anthrax, Black Friday, Dave Lombardo, Diabolus In Musica, Divine Intervention, Jeff Hanneman, Kerry King, Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer, The Big Four, Tom Araya, World Painted Blood

Black Friday: Reading between the lines

Friday, June 19th, 2009 | musiX | 3 Comments

Historically in metal, a band’s image is as (if not more) important as the music itself. From the band’s name, to its garb, right down to the logo. Alice Cooper and KISS were better-known for what they looked like than the music they made (more true with the latter). When metal ruled in the late ’70s and the ’80s, it was all about image … until it regressed to absurdity before finally getting smothered by the always-fashionable flannel shirt.

The Me Decade is when the metal logo was truly birthed—a single, defining brand that could be easily seen and recognized on records, posters and, most importantly, T-shirts. Bands like Motörhead and Judas Priest went with classically ornate logos, while the aforementioned KISS chose a simple, very memorable signature lighting-bolt “SS” (turned into backwards “ZZ” when the band toured Germany). It carried over into the ’80s when it was all about the logo—Metallica, Exodus, Slayer, RATT, Anthrax, Dio, Def Leppard, AC/DC—all of which could be found scrawled on notebooks and in bathroom stalls, or crudely written or carved on school desktops … or so I’ve heard.

The tradition carries on today. In metal if you don’t have a tough/menacing logo, you might as well be playing Showtunes. Especially in black metal. In fact, in the world of black metal a band’s logo might be the first, and sometimes only, identifying element. It doesn’t even have to be legible for chrissakes, as bands are seemingly trying to one-up each other in keeping their names a mystery to the world.

So. For this Black Friday, I’ve scoured the bottomless pit of the Interwebs to find the most unruly, tangled, illegible band logos possible. It is your duty to try to decipher them. I’ll post one new logo per day (not including Saturday and Sunday) through Thursday, June 25. Shoot your answers to me at mark@thedaysoflore.com. The person who guesses the most band names correctly out of five will win a classic metal album of my choosing. Yes, this means all five people who both listen to metal and read TDoL have a chance to win a disc. It will, of course, be an incredible metal masterpiece.

Deadline is midnight (PDT), Thursday, June 25, and the winner will be announced next Black Friday. It will take a keen eye. It might also help in some cases to be fluent in Finnish.

Ridiculously unreadable band logo No. 1: This band comes from—you guessed it—Finland. They enjoy long walks in the snow, and their lyrics are as unintelligible as their logo.

Tags: AC/DC, Alice Cooper, Anthrax, Black Friday, Def Leppard, Exodus, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, KISS, metal band logos, Metallica, Motörhead, RATT, Slayer

Black Friday: Slayer hella likes to sing about Hell and Satan

Friday, April 3rd, 2009 | musiX | No Comments

… And Satan might be the nice guy among all the serial killers and Nazi war criminals that Slayer has sung about over the years. I found this video on one of my favorites MetalSucks. The metal mashup comes via Metal Injection and strings together every reference of “Satan” or “Hell” from Slayer’s studio albums (cover songs not included). Supposedly vocalist Tom Araya screams those unholy words a total of 88 times, not counting repeats. If you like this, check out the Metallica version: 81 mentions of the words “die,” “dying” or “death.” Happy Friday!

Tags: Black Friday, Metallica, MetalSucks, Slayer

Glen with one ‘n’

Thursday, February 26th, 2009 | musiX, pdX | 3 Comments

“What kind of music do you listen to?”

That question came early on in the day, the day I worked with Glen. And from that point on, music was all we talked about. Glen is 41. Has a wife and a 3-year-old kid. Owns 1,500 CDs. Has seen the Ramones three times. Slayer twice. Alice In Chains is his favorite Seattle band. And he claims emphatically that 1970 was the greatest year for music.

Glen and I stock ice cream. It’s the first job I was able to get since moving to Portland five months ago. He’s been doing it for almost two years. We go from store to store slapping Eskimo Pies and Rocky Road (invented by Dreyer’s in 1929 and named with the Great Depression in mind) on to the shelves. No thinking involved, just talking about rock ‘n’ roll. When a song would come on over the intercom, he would call out the artist and the year it came out. “Julian Lennon (the less cool Lennon), 1984,” he said while “Too Late For Goodbyes” rang through the store’s tinny speaker system. “Foreigner, 1984,” when we heard “I Want To Know What Love Is.” One time I thought Glen was working a few doors down the aisle, when I heard out of nowhere: “Bob Seger, 1976.” It was “Still the Same.” And it was awesome.

Later that day we had to drive a ways to get to some of stores located in these podunks outside of Portland, so we carpooled. Wet gloves lined Glen’s dashboard, drying over the heater vents, which smelled like a mixture of wet dog, dirty socks, dreadlocks and cookies ‘n’ cream. There was music, of course. He’d made a mix that pulled one song from each of his Top 30 albums … no easy feat. The rest of the afternoon we listened to Bob Dylan and The Doors, the Dead Kennedys and the Ramones, Neil Young and The Who, from albums like Highway 61Revisited, Leave Home and Live at Leeds, which Glen proclaimed as the greatest live album ever. I couldn’t argue. I was glad to discover that Glen was a smart person, even if he looked at me funny when I told him I didn’t own Live at Leeds. “I should make you walk!” he threatened.

Glen told me that he asks everyone he meets what they listen to. And when they give the stock reply, “I listen to everything” he’ll follow up with “Do you listen to Slayer? Do you listen to the Carpenters?” I probably redeemed myself by answering yes to both. Of all the songs I heard that day it was “Ramble Tamble” from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Cosmo’s Factory record that slayed me … released, of course, in 1970. Here’s to Glen, a true music freak. Here’s to the underrated CCR, who’s influenced every band worth a damn. And here’s to the fact that I didn’t have to sit in a (slightly) smelly car listening to stinky FM radio.

“Ramble Tamble” - Creedence Clearwater Revival

Tags: Bob Dylan, Bob Seger, Carpenters, Cosmo's Factory, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Dead Kennedys, Foreigner, Julian Lennon, Live at Leeds, Neil Young, Ramones, Slayer, The Doors, The Who

Black Friday: Slayer vs. Metallica

Friday, December 26th, 2008 | musiX | 21 Comments

This sounds like a no-brainer: Slayer slays Metallica for its latter-day sins, and drags its lifeless corpse back to a dark cave with the rest of the sell-outs.

I always thought it would be interesting to set these two metal titans loose on each other. It’s been written about before, but done very half-assed, usually summed up in one over-simplified conclusion: Metallica are pussies and Slayer fucking rules. Well, not so fast, my fine feathered-haired friend …

First, a little background. There are some interesting parallels in the bands’ careers. Both formed in 1981 in Southern California (Metallica, of course, later relocated to the Bay Area), and drew their influence from British metal bands like Venom, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. Both bands were given their first breaks by founder and owner of Metal Blade Records Brian Slagel, who put them on his Metal Massacre compilations (Metallica on Metal Massacre I, Slayer on III). Metallica and Slayer released their debut records in 1983—Kill ‘Em All and Show No Mercy, respectively. They are both considered part of the “Big Four of Thrash” along with Anthrax and Megadeth. Both bands have a median age of 44. In their respective 28-year careers, both bands have had similar output—Slayer has released 10 albums; Metallica, nine. Both have had records produced by Rick Rubin. The majority of their songs touch on war and death and insanity—with very metallic titles like “No Remorse,” “Criminally Insane,” “Disposable Heroes” and “Expendable Youth.” Guess who wrote which.

So why is Slayer still a critically lauded metal band that can do no wrong in the eyes of its crazed devotees, while Metallica has been relegated to “They were once great, but started sucking ass in the early ’90s” status? That’s easy. Because Metallica was once great, but started sucking ass in the early ’90s. Oh … then there was the whole Napster debacle. Um … and we got to watch in disbelief as the members underwent $40,000-a-week therapy sessions, thus emerging as raging primadonnas in 2004’s Some Kind of Monster. Right.

BUT. There’s always a but. Take Slayer and Metallica’s best records—arguably Reign In Blood and Master of Puppets, respectively—and there’s no contest. Don’t get me wrong, Reign In Blood is a great record that deserves all the accolades it receives, but Master of Puppets is a flawless and deadly combination of musicianship, anger, production, speed and, above all else, the songs are just better. Stand those records side by side and Metallica slays Slayer. Match up their second-best: Metallica’s … And Justice For All and Slayer’s Seasons In the Abyss, and Metallica emerges again. Debuts? Kill ‘Em All is a raw slab of punk rock … kills Show No Mercy dead.

Yes, Metallica cheesed out in the ’90s. In a big way. But let me say this: Dr. Dre was also involved in the Napster lawsuit, but hasn’t caught nearly as much shit as Lars Ulrich. And Load and ReLoad were torpid and mediocre hard-rock records with stagnant production. Then again, Slayer hasn’t changed one bit, essentially rewriting the same riff hundreds of times over, while adopting a pretty predictable insert serial killer/Nazi war criminal name here lyrical template. There’s something to be said for evolving—although in the world of metal, the theory of evolution is as absurd as Intelligent Design is in real life.

Now it’s almost 2009(?!), which means the members of Metallica and Slayer are ancient in metal years. Do both bands still bring it? Of-goddamn-course. Does that mean they’re good? Meh. Metallica released Death Magnetic this year, a return to its former self, and made an eerie video for “All Nightmare Long” about a Soviet experiment gone wrong. The speed and the eight-minute, multi-part songs are back, but it could never be as good as Master of Puppets or … And Justice For All. And Slayer is set to release an as-yet-to-be-titled album in 2009 (I’m sure the title will include one of the following words: “death,” “God,” “die” or “Christ”), and it will sound exactly like Reign In Blood and Seasons In the Abyss, which, in itself, is impressive. But why not just listen to Reign In Blood and Seasons In the Abyss?

Now if you’ve read this far, you a) still give two squirts about these bands, b) are waxing nostalgic on your awkward teenage years, or c) were just morbidly curious as to how this death match would end. Well, the end is here. And both bands are still standing, for better or worse. So how can we settle this? Well, the album title Kill ‘Em All sort of set the stage early on for Metallica (good thing they didn’t go with the original title, Metal Up Your Ass). Guess we’ll just have to see what the fun-lovin’ fellas in Slayer come up with next year. There. I just wrote 800 words about Metallica and Slayer, and it wasn’t half-assed … perhaps three-quarters-assed.

“Psychopathy Red” - Slayer (unreleased, from the forthcoming record)

Video for “All Nightmare Long” from Metallica’s Death Magnetic

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Tags: ... And Justice For All, Black Friday, Brian Slagel, Kill 'Em All, Master of Puppets, metal, Metal Blade Records, Metal Massacre, Metallica, Reign In Blood, Rick Rubin, Seasons In the Abyss, Show No Mercy, Slayer, Some Kind of Monster

Black Friday? Meet Black Elk

Friday, November 28th, 2008 | musiX, pdX | No Comments

Today’s the day. The sheep awaken at 4 in the morning so that they can invade shopping malls across the nation to fulfill their cheap, consumeristic desires. Me? I thought it was only fitting to wake up at 7:09 a.m. on this Black Friday so that I could bring you the new weekly feature here at The Days of Lore called … “Black Friday.”

However, this new Friday tradition should not be confused with shopping, or historical disasters. TDoL’s Black Friday will examine the unholy underworld of metal. Why? Because I grew up in a town called Red Bluff listening to Helmet and Pantera and Slayer and Metallica and Iron Maiden and RATT. Ahem.

Some weeks Black Friday will be a sociological examination of metal, where I get my dainty hands dirty in a genre with a longstanding tradition of grown men wearing makeup and teasing their hair, drugs, sexism and satanism, or any other kind of “ism” you can think of. Metal can be goofy (see Manowar), frightening (e.g. Gorgoroth). And in most cases metal fans are, well, fanatic. Even if metal’s not your thing, it’ll at least be interesting.

Sometimes I will even point out bands that are actually good. Like this week …

What better way to kick off Black Friday than with Portland’s own Black Elk. The four-piece just released its second full-length Always a Six, Never a Nine, a record that harkens back to the sludgy, smart noise of early Amphetamine Reptile (Melvins, Chokebore, Helmet). Basically it’s metal without being too metally (look it up!)—loads of skull-slicing riffage, tempered with just enough weirdness and a vocalist who doesn’t sound like Cookie Monster’s cuz.

Black Elk was featured in a recent Willamette Week article on a metal club at a local high school—yes, we encourage headbanging in school. The band has a couple of dates lined up, including Jan. 10 at Someday Lounge. There are two benefit shows scheduled for Dec. 6 and 7 to help with medical expenses for guitarist Erik Trammell, who was hit while riding his bike to work in late September in our bike-friendly city. On that note … listen to these ditties, and get out there and pump your hard-earned dough back into the economy. It’s Black Friday!

[The Black Friday feature will appear every Friday in addition to the usual TDoL goodies.]

“She Pulled Machete” - Black Elk (Always a Six, Never a Nine)

“Elk Takes Night” - Black Elk (self-titled)

Tags: Always a Six Never a Nine, Amphetamine Reptile, Black Elk, Black Friday, Chokebore, Erik Trammell, Helmet, Iron Maiden, Melvins, Pantera, RATT, Slayer