The cover above is the version I have, released in 2004 via their own YtseJam label.
It was also re-released in 2021 via the “Lost Not Forgotten” Archives with the below cover.
The performance of this album would inspire the writing for their most Metal album in “Train Of Thought”.
The show was recorded live in Barcelona, Spain on February 19th 2002. It was the second night of a two night stand in a city.
And it was the start of a new Dream Theater tradition (while Mike Portnoy was in the band), which was to play an entire album from another band.
This is what Mike Portnoy had to say about it in the CD booklet;
“Dream Theater is playing the 2nd night of a 2 night stand in Barcelona, Spain…
After an almost 2 hour set of DT material and a 15 minute intermission, the lights went out and the opening chords to “Battery” began…
50 minutes later, the Spanish crowd had no idea what had hit them.
The next day the word was all over the internet and our new tradition to cover a classic album whenever we did a 2 night stand in the same city had been established…but for those 50 minutes in Barcelona, the completely unsuspecting crowd had no way to see it coming…
I remember looking into the crowd by the time we started “The Thing That Should Not Be” and seeing people look at each other like;
“Holy shit…they’re doing the whole fucking thing!!!”.
Yep, that would have been the same response I would have had.
The band for the recording is James LaBrie on vocals, John Petrucci on guitars, Mike Portnoy on drums, John Myung on bass and Jordan Rudess on keys.
Battery
This is performed exceptionally.
LaBrie also brings out the chainsaw aggression of a youthful Hetfield.
Petrucci and Portnoy nail their sections.
Master Of Puppets
As soon as Petrucci plays the first four chords the crowd responds. If this song is played again in 2024, it will be bigger than ever due to “Stranger Things”.
The Thing That Should Not Be
The Intro with the keys is more ominous.
And LaBrie gives the song a more theatrical vibe with an octave higher vocal line, and I like it. It would have been cool if Dream Theater explored the groove doom Metal domain.
Sanitarium
Masterful.
It’s the only way I can describe Petrucci. The intro, acoustic and lead, played by Petrucci is exactly that.
LaBrie tries but doesn’t have the same demented vocal delivery as Hetfield here.
From 3.36, it’s basically a Dream Theater song, with riffs, leads and sporadic vocals. LaBrie is awesome here, his “fear of living on” delivery; excellent.
Disposable Heroes
The drums sound like machine gun fire in the intro.
But it’s that galloping palm muted E string riff that comes after which seals the deal for me.
“Master of Puppets was an eye opener for me because before we covered this album my Metallica knowledge was not so deep.
Having grown up playing Bach, Liszt and Chopin the idea of technique and virtuosities had a definite place in my mind. I have to admit that upon discovering Metallica my perception of technique opened up to other possibilities outside of the classical world.
A song like ‘Disposable Heroes’ sounds like machine-gun fire to me. The blistering, galloping guitar rhythms that sound like the pick is about to go up in flames is an impressive display of intensity and technique. [James] Hetfield really shows what he is made of in a track like this one and I was very impressed.”
Leper Messiah
I always love the section from 40 seconds to a minute. The groove behind it and the way the guitars are orchestrated so that the bass and drums stand out.
Orion
It’s right up Dream Theater’s alley, a nine minute instrumental. And a classic Metallica song.
Damage Inc
They had covered this song previously during the era between “Awake” and “A Change Of Seasons” and released a version of that live performance.
Overall people can compare this album with the real album and find issues.
When an artist covers another artist, it is purely for fun initially and to show respect to the artist who inspired and influenced them.
This is no different and it sounds like the band is having fun, using the last hour of the their three hour set to pay homage to Metallica.
Which is tough to say as I’m a fan of Christopher Nolan.
I’m surprised that Nolan thought it should be made into a movie, then again, creative people are inspired by things that others don’t see as inspiring. In this case it was a the 2005 biography “American Prometheus” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwinx
The story focuses on Oppenheimer’s studies, his direction of the Manhattan Project during World War II, and his eventual fall from grace due to his 1954 security hearing.
Since the last hour was like a “Law and Order” episode, maybe a limited TV series would have been better. But a TV series doesn’t have the gross takings that a cinematic release has.
It’s approaching the $800 million mark from a $100 million budget. It will be seen as a success, but its not re-watchable.
I also finally got around to watching “Avatar: The Way Of Water” on Disney+.
I didn’t think a sequel was necessary however James Cameron has a habit of surprising people and he sure did it with this movie. It’s long run time didn’t feel that long and the story flowed.
By the end of it, I made a commitment to watch the third one in the Cinemas. And it hooked my kids as well.
“Painkiller” on Netflix is a must watch. OxyContin destroyed many families and the series does a good job of telling the story.
SHOWS MADE AND THEN CANCELLED OR REMOVED TO SAVE ON TAX
In May, Disney+ said it would cut US$1.5bn of content from its streaming platform, so the company’s value is reduced which means they pay a lot less tax.
This involves axing current programs which are or were popular like “Willow” and not releasing other big budget series’s like “Nautilus”.
Paramount+ also did the same removing “The Pink Ladies” and Jordan Peele’s “Twilight Zone”. Warner Bros also removed “Westworld” along with others.
Time will tell how subscribers will respond to the streamers removing shows when they need to save a bit of cash.
CEASE AND DESIST
There is a high chance that a fan of the artist will have a different political view to that of the artist.
And the artists are okay with this when they are taking the money from these fans because at that point in time they don’t know the political view of the fan.
Suddenly, a politician plays the music of an artist at a rally, there are fans of the artist in that rally and the artist then sends a cease and desist letter to the politician to stop.
How much say or veto rights can an artist really have in how their music is used?
NOTHING ELSE MATTERS
James Hetfield wasn’t sure he wanted to go there and explore themes of vulnerability. Bob Rock insisted that he explore this path of being vulnerable and urged Hetfield to take vocal lessons.
Well that song just surpassed a billion streams on Spotify.
All the music here has been released before circa 2003 when the band remastered their albums on their own Motley Records label.
But let me highlight how many issues of the album they have done recently.
In 2022, they released a Limited Edition, Reissue, Black/Clear Split Vinyl edition.The music on this edition was just the normal album.
In 2018, they released a Limited Edition, Reissue, Remastered, Clear With Red Swirl Vinyl Edition. The music on this edition was just the normal album.
In 2016, they released a Limited Edition, Reissue, Remastered, Red With Black Swirl, 180g Vinyl edition. The music on this edition was just the normal album.
In 2011, they released a Limited Edition, Reissue, Remastered, Mini Vinyl Replica edition. The music on this edition was just the normal album.
Again in 2011, they also released a Reissue, 180g, Gatefold edition. And again, the music on this edition was just the normal album.
Between 2003 and 2023, they also released various CD versions of the album with wording like, HDCD, Club Edition, Limited Edition, Enhanced, Reissue, Remastered and SHM-CD (for Japanese Releases). Apart from the 2003 edition, it’s been the same album re-released.
But, it’s selling for $370AUD. It looks like a nice collectors piece and if you don’t have this album, you’ll be thinking “why not”, but at that price I would have expected something to be included that hasn’t been released as yet.
Take a cue from Mr Coverdale, who puts the effort in with his evolution compositions, different jams/rehearsals of the songs and live recordings.
STEVE JOBS
At 12 years old Jobs called Bill Hewlett (the co-founder of Hewlett-Packard) to ask for spare computer parts.
Jobs got the parts and a summer job working the assembly line at Hewlett-Packard.
Steve Jobs, believes asking is the single thing that “separates the people that do things from the people that just dream about them.”
METALLICA
Brian Slagel is putting together the Metal Massacre compilation album.
Slagel met Lars Ulrich a year ago at a Michael Schenker concert. Lars calls him up and asks him, “if he puts together a band can he be on the record?”
BON JOVI
It’s 1982 and Jon Bon Jovi has just finished writing and recording “Runaway”.
He shopped it around and couldn’t get a record deal. He couldn’t get a band together to play live because original bands didn’t make enough money.
Luck would have it that a brand-new radio station would open in New York. It was so new it didn’t have a receptionist so nobody was there to stop Jon from walking straight to the DJ and asking him to play “Runaway”.
The song quickly gained traction and Hobart entered Bon Jovi into a contest the radio station was running for the best unsigned band.
Jon won, he got his Mercury deal and by the summer of 1983, the song had become a huge hit.
It’s amazing what could happen from asking.
SONG ON REPEAT
“Crime Of The Century” by Revolution Saints.
That Chorus hook is undeniable. It’s from the new album “Eagle Flight” which has Joel Hoekstra and Jeff Pilson joining Deen Castronovo.
Check it out.
BONUS SONG I’M LISTENING TO
“Burn For Me” by The Night Flight Orchestra. It’s the Bowie “Modern Love” feel which hooks me in and then that feel gets put in the TNFO blender and what comes out is an infectious AOR Rock song.
Then my vinyl came in and I listened to it the old way, cranking the stereo with the lyric sheet in front of me.
And I kept thinking.
Stryper would like to have their yellow and black colors back. The colors of caution. If you grew up in the 80’s you would know that Stryper had the “Yellow And Black”. And as much as those colors are associated with Stryper, as part of the Stryper reunion in the early 2000’s, one of the stipulations from Michael Sweet was that he wouldn’t wear the Yellow and Black anymore.
So Metallica took it 20 years later.
In the “So What” interviews conducted by Stefan Chirazi and available on the Metallica website, Chirazi asked James Hetfield what the colour yellow means. James, responded with the following;
“Yellow, for me, is light. It’s a source of goodness. So against the black, it really pops.
My vision was I wanted this album [to be] called “Lux Aeterna” because that summed up all the songs for me, kind of an eternal light that was always inside of us that maybe is just now coming out.
And I was out-voted, which is great. “72 Seasons” is definitely more chewable. But that colour came out of “Lux Aeterna.”
“72 Seasons” is released on their own “Blackened Records”.
They are free to do what they want, and it all happened because they control their masters and the highly lucrative back catalogue. Not another label or some investment fund. It is them.
They print so much vinyl they purchased their own vinyl press. Because they can.
As part of the press releases, Hetfield stated “the first 18 years of our lives, that form our true or false selves. Much of our adult experience is re-enactment or reaction to those childhood experiences”.
So here we go.
72 Seasons
As told to Stefan Chirazi, in the “So What” interview, this is what James had to say about it; “It was the “72 seasons of sorrow,” and I dropped the “sorrow” part because the first 18 years of life aren’t all sorrow”.
One thing about the songwriting team of Hetfield and Ulrich is that they sure know how to start off a song.
When that fast riff comes in at 50 seconds it’s mosh pit time. And at 65 seconds it’s the same riff but played with a hard rock feel.
“Shot down, traumatic, time haunted by the past”
What an opening line.
It’s easy to read the situation as someone who has experienced significant emotional trauma, and this trauma continues to affect them in the present.
The opening phrase “shot down” is interesting to me. It generally implies a sudden, unexpected loss or defeat. This could be a reference to a specific event that caused the trauma, such as the loss of a loved one or a significant failure.
And with the phrase “time haunted by the past”, it suggests that it is difficult to focus on the present, as the events of the past are a constant reminder.
Shadows Follow
I gotta say, I like the way this song starts. Actually all of the riffs in this song are headbanging.
I also like the whole “Seething, breathing, nightmares grow”. It’s a different vocal style for Hetfield. It’s simple and very melodic.
“Facing my demons, now I run, still my shadows follow”
It’s menacing and it goes to show the mind state of Hetfield as he tries to confront his inner demons or personal issues, but despite his efforts to escape or avoid them, the problems continue to affect him.
And then there is the word “shadows”.
It could be interpreted as a metaphor for the negative aspects of Hetfield’s personality or past experiences that continue to linger and affect him.
Screaming Suicide
This track is classic Metallica.
Rob Trujilo thinks this song would be a killer in the live arena because there is a groove element to it.
Via the “So What” interviews, Trujilo has stated that; “the verse in that song is different from anything Metallica’s ever done, and it’s surrounded by this groove that is just so infectious, it captures you, kicks you in the ass, and, well, you’ve got to move.”
Lyrically it’s dark.
In the first verse, Hetfield is telling us about a voice inside and how it is questioning if he’s good enough and how he should just give up.
In the second verse, the lyrics state;
“Then a voice appears, whisper in your ears, “you are good enough”, throwing down a rope, a lifeline of hope, never give you up”.
Does it suggests a moment of encouragement and support as the rope is pulling Hetfield out of the dark hole or is the rope a noose.
The phrase “you are good enough” could be a powerful statement of validation and acceptance.
How can it be that the Metal God known as Hetfield is struggling with feelings of inadequacy or self-doubt?
But is the voice offering a message of self-worth and confidence as a way to trick the person into listening to it.
How good is the section from 3.50?
Sleepwalk My Life Away
The Intro.
It builds perfectly. The bass is dominant while the guitars decorate like “Enter Sandman”.
And the bluesy riffing is back.
Maybe it’s back too much but i don’t care.
“Stagger on through the fog in the midnight sun”.
Its metaphorical.
It could represent a challenging and confusing situation that the person is facing, where they must navigate through unclear circumstances (the fog) while enduring a continuous period of brightness and clarity (the midnight sun).
Additionally, the word “stagger”, a lack of balance, due to alcohol or some other addiction, shows that the person is unable to maintain their composure in the face of difficulty.
You Must Burn
Hearing this, I can hear those groove metal tracks like “Harvester Of Sorrow” and “Sad But True”. And I like it.
Via “So What”, this is what Trujilo had to say about the twisting middle section;
With this particular middle section that came to be, that was really centered around a jam and was very moody, and there’s a danger to it; I like how the bass is walking. It’s got a feel to it where it’s “walking through a forest,” like a scene from a Tim Burton movie or something. That’s the feel I get. And James and I just started kind of grooving on it. It was just the two of us.”
How good is the riff at 4.26?
“Smile as it burns to the ground, the perfect don’t want you around, question yourself you may learn who’s the next witch you must burn”
Smile people as you watch that something you disliked or have been rejected from burn to the ground.
The latter part of the line, “question yourself you may learn who’s the next witch you must burn,” is more metaphorical. Its asking is to reflect on our own actions and judgments, perhaps in relation to the exclusion we also might have experienced.
Overall, this line seems to be expressing a somewhat dark and cynical perspective on social dynamics and human behavior otherwise known as social media.
Lux Aeterna
I had to look up what “Lux Aeterna” meant. I knew that “Lux” meant “Light” but wanted to know more. Well “Eternal Light” is the answer.
While acts like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Def Leppard became commcercially successful, the biggest Metal band in the world right now, wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Diamond Head.
A tribute to “Diamond Head”, their “Kill Em All” album and their fans.
“Amplification, lighting the nation” Hetfield sings.
Crank it.
Crown Of Barbed Wire
“So tight this crown of barbed wire”
The Metaphorical Crown of Thorns.
The “crown of thorns” is often used to refer to the painful burden that someone is forced to bear.
The “crown of barbed wire” suggests the heavy burden Hetfield is carrying, that is causing him pain and distress.
Barbed wire is also used to create boundaries or to keep people in or out of certain areas. The “crown” of barbed wire could represent the sense of being hemmed in or limited in some way.
I like the “Harvester Of Sorrow“ feel in the Interlude and Solo Section.
Chasing Light
“Harvester Of Sorrow” is back again. I love the groove from the original song and I like it here.
Then it morphs into a speed Metal track.
How good is that Chorus?
I’m screaming at the top of my lungs, “chase the light, lean on me”.
If Darkness Had A Son
The military style drumming hooks me in. And the way Hetfield builds the guitars reminds me of “Now That We’re Dead” which is my favorite song from the “Hardwired” album.
Let’s go back to 2019.
I remember it well. Metallica were about to arrive in Australia to play a lot of sold out shows, but the tour was cancelled a week before the shows as Hetfield entered rehab again.
Are we surprised when Hetfield chants “temptation”?
“If darkness had a son, here I am”
What an iconic and powerful line.
It suggests a willingness to confront the darkness and embrace one’s own inner struggles, but it also carries a sense of danger and potential for evil.
Too Far Gone
It’s classic Metallica.
And I’m a big fan of the fast punk vibe in the Chorus.
Finally Kirk Hammett breaks out some decent licks. Especially the fast picking bit between the Chorus and Verse. Very “Master Of Puppets” like.
And that “all away” section is perfect.
The song ends with “make it through the day, just for today”.
Room Of Mirrors
It’s a punk song.
“In a mirrored room, all alone I stand, strip away the phantom fame”.
It shows a desire for self-reflection, authenticity, and honesty. Hetfield wants to show us who he truly is, without the illusions of fame and celebrity getting in the way.
And I like that Thin Lizzy like harmony after the solo, which they use a few more times throughout the song.
Inamorata
I had to look up what it meant.
“Inamorata” means “the woman that a man loves”.
The woman here is called Misery and when Hetfield sings “She’s not why I’m living” and “She’s not what I’m living for”, you feel every word.
Via “So What”, this is how Hetfield sums it up; “Misery as my mistress, and I’m trying to hide her. I enjoy her at certain times, but I don’t want the world to know about her.
I don’t want to introduce her to the world because it’s not okay. So misery as a mistress, it does serve a purpose in my life, but I don’t want it to be my life, and I’m tired of it running my life.”
Via the “So What” interviews, Trujilo stated they “hit a grand slam with “Inamorata”. It’s a cross between a beautiful old film with a really cool painting or something… it resonates “California.”
5.11.
It’s the breakdown. The hi-hat shimmering in the background. The bass playing a groove. Swing like. The guitars decorate.
It’s got a Bill Ward Sabbath groove and swing.
And Hetfield, The anguish.
Then the harmonies begin, like “My Friend Of Misery” and a section from “Orion”.
“Darker Still” is a song by the Australian band Parkway Drive. It is also the title track of their 2022 album.
It is one of the best Metal tracks released in the 2020’s decade.
When it comes to Metal, there is always a discussion as to “what is Metal?”
Growing up in the 80s, there was a period up to about 1985 when any album with distortion guitar was classed as Metal.
This meant that you would find AC/DC, Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, Kiss, Metallica, Venom, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Twisted Sister, Judas Priest, Van Halen, Scorpions and Quiet Riot (just to name a few) in the Metal section. Even Punk bands ended up in the Metal section.
But the scene fragmented. Blame the labels and MTV.
The massive sales of albums from Def Leppard, Scorpions, Judas Priest and Van Halen in 84 and 85, paved the way for the massive sales to come from Bon Jovi, Europe, Guns N Roses, Whitesnake and Def Leppard again between 1986 and 1989.
The labels needed new names and suddenly Glam/Hair Metal was a thing, Hard Rock was a thing, Melodic Rock was a thing, Thrash Metal was a thing, Death Metal became a thing, Melodic Metal became a thing and then Melodic Death Metal became a thing.
And somehow a thing called Black Metal and Extreme Metal became a genre.
On the other side you had Speed Metal, which morphed to Power Metal and then elements of that style became known as Symphonic Metal and another element became known as Pirate Metal.
And we all know that Grunge came and created a wasteland of rock acts. Industrial Metal and Industrial Rock started to rule the wastelands, and then Alternative Rock and Alternative Metal came briefly just to give way to Nu Metal.
And before Nu Metal, there was Grindcore, Hardcore, Doom Metal and everything else that didn’t fit in.
Parkway Drive started off in the 2000s with a Metalcore label. Metalcore is described as a fusion music genre that combines elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk. Its known for its use of breakdowns, slow, intense passages conducive to moshing.
These days Parkway Drive is basically a Metal act (and a pretty big one) that has so many different styles in their repertoire.
Like Metallica.
Metallica in the 90s, had became a very different version to the speed Metal band that started off. While their 80s output focused on speed, they did push some boundaries in the progressive Metal world before scaling it back to end up with the biggest selling groove Metal album ever.
Then they incorporated Blues Rock and Southern Rock into their sound for the “Load” and “Reload” album cycles. And when Nu Metal became a thing with no guitar solos becoming the norm they did this as well with the “St Anger” album. But since the fans became madly in anger with them, they never returned to the “No guitar solos”.
Metal to me is an “anything goes” attitude. And that’s what Parkway Drive brings to the table.
“Darker Still” has a lot of solos. Melodic solos. Emotive and sad by Jeff Ling who is the lead guitarist and man, he plays the sections wonderfully. But the recording sessions for this album along with some personal issues broke him and he lashed out badly at vocalist Winston McCall.
Just the way it begins with the whistling and the acoustic guitar is enough to hook me in.
But it’s the whistling melody which comes in at the 28 second mark that forms the foundations of the song. Because the same melody appears later as a solo, and with a choir and with violins and it’s massive.
Especially from 4.08. You hear it all, the guitar lead, the voices and the violins. Just close your eyes and let the music take you away.
And Ling breaks free again, for one of his best solos.
The song’s lyrics to me are about a person struggling with depression and the darkness that comes with it. It describes the feeling of being trapped in a cycle of self-destructive behavior, unable to break free despite the toll it takes on their life and relationships.
The chorus of the song is powerful, with the lyrics “And the night grows darker still”
This line speaks to the idea that even in the darkest moments of our lives, there is still hope and the possibility for redemption and recovery.
After they finished doing the tracking for the “Darker Still” album, the band members started the process of breaking up. No one wanted to be in the band anymore.
More volatile meetings were held and the guys realized they needed help.
Rhythm guitarist and manager, Luke Kilpatrick, saved the band. He suggested that they get counseling. Like Metallica.
The April 2022 tour they cancelled of the U.S for undisclosed reasons was due to the weekly counseling sessions they started to have.
And they made it.
Until I die, until I die and the night grows darker still.
It’s my favourite song from the self-titled “Black” album and I just saw footage of Metallica playing it live on Jimmy Kimmel a few days ago.
It’s down-tuned a little bit, a sign of aging and how the voice needs those lower keys. It’s also sped up a little bit (yep they can still play a fast tempo song even faster) and it’s still as powerful.
On Spotify, it is at 52 million streams.
Basically forgotten and it pales compared to songs like “Enter Sandman” at 1.072 billion streams, “Nothing Else Matters” at 925 million streams, “The Unforgiven” at 428 million streams, “Sad But True” at 267 million streams and “Wherever I May Roam” at 167 million streams. It’s no surprise that the singles have a high listen rate.
Behind the singles, it’s song’s like “Holier Than Thou”, “The God That Failed” and “My Friend Of Misery” that make albums great. At one stage “Holier Than Thou” was going to be the lead single from the album, but Mr Ulrich had other ideas.
Most of the talk today is on the release of “72 Seasons”. As I type this, the new album is playing on Spotify.
But for Metallica to have the career they have had, it all comes back to the monumental “Black” album. It’s the Championship Ring, the one that gets you to do multiple victory laps.
A few years ago it celebrated 30 Years and as bands do these days, they celebrated the release with a special Anniversary edition.
And what I like about these Anniversary editions, is when bands add the demos. David Coverdale splices them together and calls them “Evolution” versions. Metallica gives you the warts and all, with mistakes and all that.
And I tracked the evolution of the song.
For the ones that have heard the “Holier Than You – From James’ Riffs Tapes” version on the Remastered Deluxe Box Set, you can hear the drum groove already established via James programming the drum machine.
And James is scatting vocally for the verses, but he had the Chorus hook. Short and sweet. Song writing 101 is to always start with the Chorus hook and work backwards.
The next version of the song is listed as the “August 13th Demo”. This time it’s just James and Lars and you get to hear that machine gun picking from James with Lars making the drumming a bit more tighter and refined.
And James has the vocal melody down, but not the words as he “Obi Wans” and “Yeahs” his way through the song, except for the Chorus. Because the hook is still there.
“No more the crap rolls out your mouth again”
What an opening line. I feel like this is about those TV Evangelists that ended up getting caught with their pants down, doing hookers and cocaine back in the late 80s and early 90s.
But these days, it could be about politicians and lobbyist who seem to push agendas that don’t benefit the people who voted them in, but those same agendas do benefit the corporations who funded their campaigns.
Even celebrities say or type words that get them into trouble. Social Media is the cesspool for this.
“You lie so much you believe yourself”
And iconic line and even more important now than ever before when lies are sold as truth and people surround themselves within echo chambers, unable to read critically nor able to analyse the data.
Differing opinions on facts is healthy for society but its unhealthy when opinions are formed without any basis of facts. Then again, if everyone saw everything the same, there would be no hate or division.
That section from 3.13.
It happens after the solo.
It’s just drums and bass. It’s brief but it definitely gets the foot tapping and the head moving. Then the guitars kick in and the song ends. I think at 3.47 it could be the shortest Metallica song. But one of their heaviest and leanest.
All ideas or If you use the words “intellectual property” for the Copyright maximalists, have an influence from something that came before. We learn to write music by learning the music from others. We learn to write stories by reading the stories of others.
It’s probably why people shouldn’t get all emotional over ideas/intellectual property.
People like familiarity.
Derek Thompson in his book “Hit Makers” mentioned how people are drawn to music that might be new, yet familiar enough to be recognizable.
In other words, that new song we all like has enough variation in it to make it not a carbon copy of its source influence.
And people still like to claim that their song is so original and free from influence and when people have that fixed mindset, well, the courts are busy and the lawyers are making money.
Check out my recent Google alerts on the word Copyright.
A lot of delusional people who believe that their works are so original and free from influence.
Guess what.
All of our ideas have already been stolen. Because there is no such thing as the genius loner. It’s a myth. We are all social people and our creativity is fuelled by our social environments. Every single day, we take in our surroundings, we set meaningful and important goals and we are always thinking of solutions to problems.
A neuroscientist and a psychologist broke down creativity into three main buckets;
Bending means you take a previous work and re-model it in some way. “The Walking Dead” and “Night Of The Living Dead”.
Blending means merging previous works together so you have multiple melodies and re-cutting it to suit what you want to write. Jimmy Page was great at doing this with Led Zeppelin’s music. Metallica did that with “Sanitarium”.
Breaking is taking a short and important musical idea otherwise known as a musical fragment and building on it. Think of my post on “One Riff To Rule Them All”, which covers the A pedal point riff used in songs like “Two Minutes To Midnight”.
The differences between humans and computers is how we store information and how we retrieve information. For the computer, the riff stored on the hard drive will sound exactly the same three years later, however that same riff stored in our head would be different.
Why.
Our brain breaks it down, blends it and bends it with other information. This massive mash up of ideas in our brains is our creativity. And when we play that riff three years later, it has a different feel, different phrasing or something else. Some of them stink and sometimes we create something that breaks through into society.
A funny thing started to happen when streaming became the main source of income for the labels.
Live albums started to come out.
You see, streaming services like new content. And since bands like to take their time or need to make time to record new original music, they filled the void for new content by releasing live albums.
Suddenly getting new product out yearly instead of every two to three years became the norm. But it still didn’t solve the problem of people not buying albums.
Whitesnake is a band which keeps firing out live recordings year after year. “Made In Japan”, “Made In England”, “Bad To The Bone 84”, “Castle Donnington 90”, “Live In The Heart Of The City” and “The Purple Tour” have been released as stand-alone albums over the last 10 years.
And David Coverdale knows the value of his super fans.
I attended the Five Finger Death Punch and Avenged Sevenfold gig on Tuesday, 25 February 2014 at the Big Top in Luna Park. It was my first time seeing them both live so I didn’t know what to expect.
Each week, the sites that enable copyrights to be infringed innovate at a rapid rate to stay ahead of the curve. They are competing against each other for people to use them to illegally access entertainment.
Read the post to see how these sites innovate. Instead of shutting em down, the labels and movie studios should be employing these people.
I played Nostradamus and looked into my crystal glass full of whiskey in the jar-o to make some predictions.
ON A DOWN SLOPE
DAUGHTRY
The band leader, Chris Daughtry messed up big time chasing the crowds of “Train” and “Imagine Dragons”.
He is a hard rocker from day dot and rock gave him his legion of fans. For the ill-fated and recent “Baptized” album, he committed career suicide, throwing his lot with the hit songwriters.
The songs are good, however they are not Daughtry songs. It would have been better for him as an artist to have given those songs to other artists that are more electronic pop rock minded. That way he would have been the songwriter, the way Bryan Adams gave songs away to other artists that wouldn’t suit the Adams sound back in the 80’s.
HYPE
We can see through the hype and we hate it.
So much hype was around Dream Theater’s self titled release and it disappeared from the conversation within six weeks.
Megadeth’s brand new album “Super Collider” was being outsold by the Black album.
THE ALBUM FORMAT
Making money is hard. Just because a band releases an album, it doesn’t mean that people would pay for it or would want it.
And when we are inundated with product we tune out, however, it turns out we have time for Metallica’s “Black” album. At this point in time it was still moving two to three thousand units a week and it was expected to pass 16 million by May 2014.
GOING GOING – ALMOST GONE
CLASSIC ROCK
Classic Rock bands have another 10 years left.
ON THE UP – STORYTELLING
That is why TV shows are the most downloaded torrents of all time. Tell a good story and the world will be at your door step.
Read the financial reports on Universal Music Group.
Spotify has propped up their bottom line and that bottom line will get better each year for Universal. And they keep spreading the bull shit that they are out there fighting for the artists. The good guys.
Frontiers has become a major player in the classic rock, melodic rock and hard rock scene. They kept the flag of melodic rock flying high since 1996, when all of the other major labels abandoned the style and put their monies into grunge first and then industrial rock/metal and then nu-metal.
And their business model is all about locking up copyrights for a long time.
They have realised it’s not about sales anymore, and while steaming numbers and revenue are still tiny, in the long term the labels will be able to reap the benefits.
Why?
Because streaming is a regular recurring revenue business. And these Copyrights are valuable?
Let’s put it this way, if Metallica is on Spotify, then the rates paid back to the COPYRIGHT HOLDERS (which in this case is Metallica as they do own their Copyright) must be good, because Lars Ulrich and their manager Cliff Burnstein would not allow Metallica to enter a business arrangement that is not in their favour.
And back in 2014, Tool or AC/DC or Def Leppard were not on Spotify. They all are now.
The real truth is that there is much more music out there than there has ever been, so the issues that are present to artist and labels is how do they get people’s attention directed towards that new music.
Personally, I don’t even know anybody who pirates music anymore. There is no reason to pirate and legitimate customers/fans would always turn to legal alternatives.
Add “Recording Sales Revenue” plus “Streaming Revenue” plus “YouTube Ad Revenue” plus “Ticket Revenue” plus “Merchandise Revenue” plus “Corporate Deals Revenue” plus “Sponsorship Revenue” plus “Publishing Revenue” plus “Licensing Revenue” and then decide if you are winning or not.
Again, if you are not seeing a lot of revenue, then you need to be speaking to your label, because if you have numbers in all of the above Revenue streams then something is a-miss contractually.
You know the drill. A new technology comes out and eventually it will start to get some traction. Then the word will spread about and more people would flock to it. It’s new, it’s cool, it’s hip and its innovative. Then when it is at its peak, the people who testified for the new tech, will abandon it, looking for something new and better.
MySpace, Facebook, Twitter are three such platforms that came, peaked and right now are suffering an identity crisis.
MySpace is finished.
Facebook got traction because it connected people in a way that MySpace couldn’t. Now, all of these connected people need to deal with the marketing of products, advertisers, like requests, fake friend requests and spam.
Twitter is well, Twitter. With so many people tweeting or having their tweets connected to their Facebook Posts or their blog posts, everything is getting lost in the mix. When a big news item hits, Twitter is the platform to go to, because people who are directly involved in these big events are the ones that are tweeting.
Spotify has been around for a while now and in the last 3 years it set up base in a number of large music markets like Australia, Canada and of course the US.
The people tried it. Some have stuck to it. Some have abandoned it. The ones that speak out against it have never used it.
Spotify however needs a game changer. Sort of like how the move to APPS changed the iTunes store. And it’s all about the FREE. Fans of music showed the world that they want FREE music to listen to. And don’t say that FREE doesn’t work. How the hell did Free To Air TV exist and grow over the last 60 years.
I am all over the shop when it comes to music. I still purchase product from the bands I like and I stream as well.
And the funny thing is that I don’t use iTunes anymore.
Who would have thought that day would have come?
And that is what Spotify needs to think about it. Once the newness has rubbed off, what’s next. Consolidation. How can you consolidate when the modern paradigm is DISRUPTION?
P.S.
I wrote this in 2014 and since then Spotify has innovated a lot to keep people interested. Putting their lot in with PODCASTS and it looks like they will be moving to Audio Books as well based on a recent survey I undertook with them.
It’s all about stopping copyright infringement. It’s all about shaking down internet users. It’s all about a ridiculous and “out of touch with reality” penalty system. For example, if a user downloads one song, the RIAA have argued that the copyright holders are out of pocket between $20 to $10,000. Seriously.
When discussions are had on Copyright, it’s all about the enforcement. It’s all about creating a monopoly. The ones that sit on the innovation fence are shouted down to from the ones that control/hold the Copyrights.
The thing is, people have been “copyright infringers” since day dot. Anyone that remembers cassette tapes, will tell you how they used to copy songs from recordings onto a cassette tape. James Hetfield used to copy Lars Ulrich’s record collection onto cassettes.
We used to copy songs from the radio onto cassettes. We used to copy movies from TV onto VHS cassettes. Then we got even more creative and hooked up two videos at once to make copies of the latest releases. With the advent of the CD and blank discs, we started making mixed CD’s. When Napster exploded, people flocked to it. Because we had been copyright infringing forever.
It is easy to lay the blame on others. However it is the record labels that need to take responsibility. They still don’t get it. People want FREE music. Spotify provides a service that is free, however it is still seen as restrictive and people still go to other torrent sites to download content. YouTube also provides a service that is free.
And then the recording industry claims that these sites make so much money from running ads on their site. If that is the case, then why isn’t the recording industry offering the same service and making that same money.
They don’t want to, because that would mean they would have spent dollars in Information Technology. And they don’t want to do that.
And most artists have never made a living from royalties. The record labels always have.
Well I hope you enjoyed another wrap up of Destroyerofharmony history?
I overdosed on “A Love Unreal” from Black Label Society.
Since 2014, I have been playing “Angel Of Mercy” non-stop. It’s made my 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 end of year lists. It’s always in my Top 100 Spotify songs I play each year. The guitar solo on it is “guitar hero” level. With “A Love Unreal” Zakk has orchestrated another candidate. The guitar solo on this song is a 10 out of 10 for me.
It’s a song within a song. God damn, the whole solo section is 1 minute and 20 seconds long. There are pop songs on the charts which are 2 minutes long.
The Grammy’s is not about the awards, it is about the performances. The Grammy organisation exists solely to sell a TV show and advertising.
The music websites back then wrote about the performances, and how Metallica mashed up “One” with classical pianist Lang Lang. And they got a 125% boost in Spotify streams for the song “One”. Overall, across their whole catalogue, their Grammy performance gave them a 63% increase.
No one wrote about the actual winners in the Best Metal category.
Who was it again?
That’s right, it was “God Is Dead?” from Black Sabbath, And it didn’t get any traction after the awards.
The ACCC, our competition watchdog launched an inquiry into the pricing. The techies went in front of the commission and stated that they didn’t set the price for music in Australia and that the price was set by the Record Labels.
It was found by the Commission that there should be no reason why Australians should pay more for software and music.
However, nothing has changed in relation to the prices. If anything, with the labels pushing vinyl, the prices have quadrupled, with a brand new double vinyl set going for $80.
And music sites would talk about the return of vinyl, but its miniscule compared to what digital brings in. Music is about data. It’s not about how many albums or songs are sold.
Are people listening, sharing and talking about your music?
And if they are, where are these people located, so you can organise ways to tour there and monetise.
I don’t see myself as depressive, but I do have a lot of songs in playlists that are classed as depressive or sad. So I wrote about some of the songs. The link is more in depth however I will summarise.
“Give Me A Sign” is from the album “Dear Agony” by Breaking Benjamin released in 2009. “Break Away” is from the album “The Illusion Of Progress” by Staind released in 2008.
“What A Shame” is from the album “The Sound Of Madness” by Shinedown released in 2008. “Broken Bones” is from the album “Light Me Up” by “The Rev Theory” released in 2008.
“Let Me Be Myself” is from the self-tilted Three Doors Down album released in 2008. “Alias” is from the album, “A Sense Of Purpose”, released in 2009.
“Wake Up” is from Story Of The Year, who are a very underrated band in the metal community. From the outset they got labelled as Emo. However, to me I always saw them as a metal band. This song is from the “The Black Swan”, released in 2008.
“That Was Just Your Life” has so many familiar bits, like the “Enter Sandman” riff backwards, the harmony guitars at about the 5.50 minute mark ripping Thin Lizzy rip offs and a section in which they plagiarise “Jump In The Fire”. Call it a great song, to open up the “Death Magnetic”.
“The Forgotten” is from the last album of the Howard Jones/Killswitch Engage era released in 2009 and what an album it is.
“The Unforgiven III” is another Metallica classic.
These two movies are for all the people who believe that if you work hard, get a good education and put in the 12 hour days, that somehow, success will work itself out and befall on them.
But it doesn’t really happen that way at all. Everybody is putting a scam in motion.
What these movies have shown is that it doesn’t matter what level of education a person has. It doesn’t mean that they will win. Quitters never win and it is the winners that write history. The winners write history because they bend the laws and they twist social morals to suit them. People may not like it, but it’s the truth.
Oblivion
I love it’s eeriness.
This movie is for the people who only believe what they are told and even when they come across something that questions that belief, they re-frame it and twist it, so that it conforms with what they believe in, because that is all the know. Whatever Mission Control said was the truth and the whole truth.
We life in an information society right now with everything at our fingertips.
Don’t be a fool. Do your own research and question everything. Don’t just follow. Whereas “The Wolf Of Wall Street” and “American Hustle” reflect the hustling mentality of life, “Oblivion” reflects our servitude to institutions.
Now You See Me
This movie is a sleeper hit. For a movie that cost $75 million to make and promote, it has returned over $350 million.
World War Z
I wrote back then how we have had a pretty clean run in relation to pandemics compared to previous centuries. I guess it was a bit premature.
In “World War Z” the virus needs a viable host to spread and therefore it is found that people inflicted with various diseases are immune from the zombie swarms as they cannot spread the disease.
Respect our world is the message that I get from WWZ. The more we disrespect it and pollute it, the more we and our future generations will suffer.
And the rich pharmaceutical companies care about treatments. There is no money in cures for them.
I found an Hot Metal article from November 1991 on Richie Sambora, so I did the painstaking task of typing it all up and adding my own comments. The interviewer is Stefan Chirazi and it was part of Sambora’s press campaign for his first solo album “Stranger In This Town”.
1991 was three years after “New Jersey” came out and five years after “Slippery When Wet.” The band Bon Jovi was on hiatus meanwhile Jon Bon Jovi had another hit with “Blaze Of Glory.” This was a crucial time for the artist known as Richie Sambora.
Here are some quotes from the article;
“I don’t consider myself a rock or pop star, I consider myself a musician and I would like people to consider me as an artist.”
“At the time Blaze Of Glory hit, Jon said he didn’t really know if he wanted to go on with the band again. That kind of left me in a difficult position because I didn’t have a record contract and I didn’t have a contract with Bon Jovi.”
“Then, at the end of our last tour, we had some disagreements about different things. I owned the record company which is now Jamco and used to be The Underground – Jon and I and Doc McGhee owned it all together. And I didn’t wanna be part of that anymore because I was so tired and beat up from being out there so long.”
“Bon Jovi’s sold 30 million records and I can’t even evaluate that or relate it to real terms. All I know is that I work as hard as I can, and at this stage of my career I’m still working this hard.”
Once the year was over; hard rock, melodic rock, glam rock and so forth would never be the same. In relation to hard rock releases, what a year it was. So many great albums got released, however according to the record labels barometer of success, those albums failed miserably.
One of the best releases from 1992 was “Blood and Bullets” by Widowmaker. Not only is it a great album, it was also the first “official” album to feature Dee Snider from Twisted Sister after Twisted Sister.
Along with the self-titled Lynch Mob album, “The Crimson Idol” from W.A.S.P., “Dog Eat Dog” from Warrant, “III Sides to Every Story” from Extreme, “Sin-Decade” from Pretty Maids and “Revenge” from Kiss, it formed my decadent seven wonders of heavy rock.
My metal tastes got serviced by “Countdown to Extinction” from Megadeth, “Fear of the Dark” from Iron Maiden, “The Ritual” from Testament, “Dehumanizer” from Black Sabbath, “A Vulgar Display of Power” from Pantera and a new band from Seattle called Alice In Chains” and their excellent “Dirt”.
Dream Theater blew me away with “Images and Words” while Yngwie Malmsteen delivered the excellent “Fire and Ice” and no one outside of his hardcore fan base heard it. Another neo-classical shredder Tony MacAlpine released “Freedom To Fly” and boy didn’t he fly with it.
“Hold Your Fire” from Firehouse, “Five Wicked Ways” from Candy Harlots, “Don’t Tread” from Damn Yankees, “The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion” from The Black Crowes, “The Wild Life” from Slaughter, “Nothing Sacred” by Babylon A.D., “Hear” from Trixter, “Tangled In Reins” from Steelheart, “Double Eclipse” from Hardline and “Adrenalize” from Def Leppard satisfied by hard rock cravings.
I didn’t like “Even Flow” or “Alive” when they hit the air waves back in 1991. They just didn’t connect with me at that point in time. In addition, I was really anti-grunge because all of the rock bands that I was into started to disappear.
So I was staying loyal to my team. The hard rock team.
Then in 1993, I saw a live performance of the band on MTV doing “Jeremy” and then they went into “Rockin In The Free World” with Neil Young and suddenly, I was interested. Loyalty to hard/glam rock was still strong, however in the end I am a fan of music and if there is great music to hear from other genre’s I will dig deep and hear it. So I asked a previous hard rock friend of mine who switched to the grunge side to copy the album onto a cassette for me.
I started this post with “Just put out the damn album”.
When we laid out cash for the 10 to 15 albums we used to buy a year, we had time to digest and live with the music for a long time so we were okay with the lead up.
But.
The 8 week lead up to the release is too much these days especially when the LP run could be over in a month after it’s released.
That’s right.
That’s how fast new albums disappear from the conversation in the current environment.
The first week sales that might look great on paper are irrelevant.
Check the second week streaming numbers. Then the third, then the fourth and so on. Those numbers will show you if the fans care for the music or if only the press (that the marketing team has paid to promote your product) cares.
And people will complain about streaming revenue and how it doesn’t pay enough. Control your rights, have a song that people connect with and you will be paid well and forever.
If investment firms are cashing in, it’s because streaming pays. But it pays the organization who controls the rights.
YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and all the rest will pay forever.
Isn’t that better than the one off transaction between the record store and the fan?
That fan could have purchased the album, taken it home, played it once and traded it.
Maybe that fan played the album a million times. But the artist wouldn’t know that behaviour.
Data tells us what’s hot and what’s not. And like it or not, it’s always been about the hits. To me a hit isn’t the song that takes the number 1 slot on a chart.
“Fear Of The Dark” or “Hallowed Be Thy Name” or “Creeping Death” or “Fade To Black” or “Master Of Puppets” didn’t set the charts alight but the fans made those songs hit’s. Convert staples.
We don’t live in 1989, where mediocre stuff on the radio gets some traction because of the marketing/hype dollars invested into the promotion. We live in the era of connectivity and virality and hits and streaming that pays forever.
But artists need to release a continuous stream of product to win.
I played the cassette tape to death trying to learn every riff and lick. And when I couldn’t pick it all up, I shelled out $50 on Wolf Marshal’s transcription of the “Tribute” album and I spent a lot of hours woodshedding to it.
Even though Ozzy re-cut his vocals for the release there is no denying Randy Rhoads and his love for his instrument. The way he re-imagines his multi-layered guitar riffs from the studio versions and turns it all into one definitive guitar cut is brilliant. For any guitarist, new or old, this is it. It gets no better than this.
“Mr Crowley” was the first song I got stuck into. It has two shred leads and the way Randy combined those guitar lines into one definitive track for the “was he polemically” section is brilliant. And the outro lead is just one of those songs within a song lead breaks.
“Revelation (Mother Earth)” has a finger picked part at the start which is breathtaking, the interlude is subdued and relaxing but that outro is breathless. And the live tempo is much better than the studio tempo.
“Children Of The Grave” was the next song I tried to learn after “Mr Crowley”. I love the way Randy plays the C#m riff on the 4th fret on the 5th string. That’s how I learned this song. It wasn’t until many years later I heard the Sabbath version and Iommi is down tuned to C#.
I must say, I love the tempo of this live version.
And that outro improv lead is brilliant especially when Randy starts to reference Ace ala “Love Gun”.
When I think of “Children Of The Grave”, I think of this.
“Goodbye To Romance” is the piece d’resistance in guitar playing. The jazz like chords in the verses, the arpeggio chorus riff and that guitar solo.
These day’s guitarists can do unbelievable and very advanced things on the guitar but do they have the song sense of Randy Rhoads.
My kids back then had been watching “School Of Rock” and “The Pick Of Destiny” on and off, so i did a \::/ salute to Jack Black for spreading his love of rock and heavy metal to the masses.
Because the movies capture what rock and roll is all about;
going against the grain,
breaking rules set by the institutions/parents and having fun along the way.
“Back To Mystery City” by Hanoi Rocks was covered. It’s unfortunate that most people know of Hanoi Rocks because of drummer Nicholas “Razzle” Dingley’s death due to being drunkenly driven by Mötley Crüe’s Vince Neil.
All death is tragic. And I remember reading an interview (I think it was in Faces) that if Razzle’s didn’t join in 1982, the band probably would have broken up. And then his death in 1985 ended the band.
“Speaking in Tongues” by Talking Heads is mentioned. “Burning Down the House” sold the album. It was everywhere. One of my hard rock bands in the 90’s even covered the song in a rock context.
“Streets” was the creative musical outlet for Steve Walsh in between his departure from Kansas.
The debut LP was released in 1983 on Atlantic Records. The deal was negotiatied with one manager and destroyed by their next manager after he argued with the President of Atlantic Records, Doug Morris.
So Atlantic just released the albums with no promo and if they stuck, good. But they didn’t stick. And they never released the albums on CD while they controlled the rights.
Steve Walsh even got a lawyer to get the albums back from Atlantic and Rock Candy re-released the Streets albums recently.
So before people beat up streaming, they need to understand how it was back then and the monopoly the labels had to kill or break a career.
The Eric Martin Band released a great melodic rock album called “Sucker for a Pretty Face”.
And I still don’t understand how “Burning” from Shooting Star wasn’t a big hit.
Maybe because they were on Virgin Records, a label known for new wave and running low on funds, so when a rock album landed in their laps they had no idea how to promote.
But the truth is that the bands first managers were stealing from em, so the band fired em.
And because these managers used to work as record promotion guys, they blacklisted the band to the radio stations.
Meatloaf released “Midnight At The Lost and Found” but it was lost as “Bat Out Of Hell” was still selling like it was a new release.
And Aldo Nova was trying to capture the highs of “Fantasy” with “Subject”.
Now unless the artist is a DIY artist who controls their own copyright, or Metallica or Motley Crue who own their masters, most of the copyright holders are the major labels. So the labels are raking it in.
There is also a term doing the round, called “Black Box Revenue.” This is the name given to income that the record labels collect that cannot be directly tracked to the recordings of a specific artist.
To put it all into context, streaming services pay the labels an upfront fee to access their catalogues. In addition, the services then pay the labels royalties for each stream.
Yep the labels get paid twice because they “own” the masters that artists created.
Musicians always had to work hard to get somewhere, that part hasn’t changed and it will never change while others fly private on the backs of the hard work of artists.
During the recorded music industries heyday, there was this widespread idea, sort of like an unwritten law, that we (the fans of music) could purchase music and own it, the same way we purchased and owned the toaster and any other commodity.
Of course when it comes to music, its never that simple.
What the music fans actually purchased was a non-transferable license to listen to the music under very specific and strict conditions. If you don’t believe me read the fine print.
We basically had the right to enjoy the music in private, over and over again.
I had been re-reading a lot of the magazines I accumulated during the Eighties and the Nineties and I finished reading a story about Metallica from the Australian magazine “Hot Metal”.
It was the June 1992 issue.
And in the interview James Hetfield was talking about the stage design and how they would have an area in the middle of the stage set aside for taping. The fans would have to buy a special ticket for the tape section area and Hetfield saw it as a cool thing to flood the market with bootlegs.
Metallica in 1992, wanted to flood the market with bootlegs. Metallica in 2013 had the following disclaimer on their Live Metallica website “Terms of Use”; Any violation of copyright laws may result in severe civil and criminal penalties. Violators will be prosecuted to the maximum extent possible.
Kirk Hammett said that there hasn’t been any great bands “because of things like iTunes and streaming and social networking, it’s destroyed music. It’s destroyed the motivation to go out there and really make the best record possible. It’s a shame.”
You see, when you detach yourself from the streets and live in your ivory tower, you don’t see what is happening at ground zero.
Five Finger Death Punch is going GOLD and PLATINUM in a tough sales market. They have great numbers in relation to YouTube views and Spotify streams. Their albums have been selling up to the point of when their new one is released. Think about that for a second.
Shinedown are doing super numbers in relation to sales, YouTube views and Spotify streams. They have certifications to prove it as well.
Will we have the superstars of the Eighties and Nineties again?
Of course not, but we don’t live in a monoculture anymore.
We are living in the golden age of music access. The history of recorded music is at our fingertips and that is a good thing.
The music that BFMV creates is very reminiscent to the hard rock / heavy metal music created between 1981 and 1986, before Bon Jovi released “Slippery When Wet” and the majority of bands started chasing the pop metal / pop rock “pot of gold”. It is basically the same music that I grew up on.
Metallica – CHECK Iron Maiden – CHECK AC/DC – CHECK Slayer – CHECK Megadeth – CHECK Judas Priest – CHECK
Modern influences like Machine Head, Pantera and Metallica “Black” album period are also found in the songs. It’s probably why I connected with the band.
It could be seen as a gimmick to mimic hard rock and heavy metal songs on cellos.
But it’s no gimmick.
Because what you hear are technical players playing the the vocal melody, the guitar leads, the main riffs and sometimes the drum beat.
“Plays Metallica by Four Cellos” is the debut album by Finnish metal band Apocalyptica, released in 1996. It features instrumental Metallica covers arranged and played on cellos.
The band was invited to record this album by a label employee after a 1995 show in which they performed some of the songs. The members were initially unsure and thought nobody would listen to such a record, but the employee insisted and they recorded it.
And people liked it, especially in Europe. In Finland it was certified Platinum and it was certified Gold in Germany and Poland.
Enter Sandman
When you hear the vocal melodies of James Hetfield shifted from a voice to a cello, you get to understand how musical Hetfield’s vocal melodies are.
Master Of Puppets
So many good sections in this.
The way they play the Verse and Pre-Chorus with the vocal melody is a must listen.
But you will be pressing play on this to listen to the solo sections as they move from the clean tone arpeggios to the fast sections. And that whole clean tone arpeggios section is very Ennio Morricone sounding, when played on the cellos. But I never thought that hearing it with the electrics.
Harvester Of Sorrow
Great sequencing to have these three tracks one after another. Imagine an album that had this three punch combo.
The slow metal groove on the original version is a favourite and the guys in Apocalyptica do it justice, especially the cello that becomes like the percussive drum.
The Unforgiven
This song was made to be played via orchestras and cellos however I don’t think that was the intention of Hetifeld and Co. Yes, you can hear some of those Ennio Morricone influences in the original cut that appeared on the “Black” album, but goddamn when you hear the track in this medium, it’s a soundtrack song to a Clint Eastwood Western.
The intro, the chorus and the solo sections are essential listening. You really get to hear the quality and melodicism of Metallica.
And the sequencing of these four tracks is perfect.
Sad But True
When I first heard this song, I heard a bone crushing heavy metal cut with a Kashmir like groove. But when you hear it with the cellos, you immediately pick up on the Ennio Morricone influence.
Creeping Death
The Verses and the Chorus played on the cellos along with the vocal melody is essential listening.
Then instead of repeating the Verse and Chorus, the Apocalyptica guys go straight into the excellent Hammett lead break and the Conan The Barbarian “Die” section.
Wherever I May Roam
The middle Eastern style intro suddenly sounds like a Genghis Khan Mongolian soundtrack when played through cellos.
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
This song was always going to work on cellos.
When the arpeggios start and Hammet’s lead begins in the Intro , its haunting and sad.
Basically if you like Metallica, you will like what Apocalyptica does here
destroyerofharmony 