Your Thursday Hard & Heavy Mix To Honor The Gods Of Thunder!
Playlist links
Playlist Heavy Thunder Thursday! Torching Wrathchild! youtube
Playlist Heavy Thunder Thursday! Torching Wrathchild! spotify
There is a fine line between Punk and Metal, Thrash and Death, Progressive Metal and Progressive Rock, Doom Metal and Stoner Rock, and occasionally two seemingly contrarian styles can be combined if the proper path is followed. No genre in modern music develops in a vacuum. Steve Harris, when being pressed on the Punk influence on Iron Maiden by Sam Dunn, vehemently objected to Maiden’s music having any sort of connection with their spike haired counterparts. “…[W]e actually didn’t like punks at all,” Harris says. “The punks back then couldn’t really play their instruments like the later ones.”
But even if someone absolutely disavows a certain influence, such as Steve Harris does with Punk, your surroundings will still somehow bleed into your subconscious whether you like it or not.
A band that often gets left out of the equation when discussing the evolution of Heavy Metal is The Who and their cataclysmic release Live At Leeds. They have a way of carefully building up aggression by varying the intensity and loudness of their play, only to release it in a violent fury of madly thrashing drums, deep guttural bass strokes, and demolishing guitar distortion. The brutal attacks unleashed on such tracks as Young Man Blues or My Generation, specifically from this live release, can be recognized in both Heavy Metal and Punk. However the Who left their mark on many more styles that followed in the wake of their devastation. If you listen carefully you can even discover their anger and aggression in much quieter genres than Metal or Punk.
If you add the influence of Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Yes, and the almighty purveyors of Metal, Black Sabbath, it is not surprising that with a bit of imagination and an open mind, a jam band guitar maestro like Steve Kimock, who at many times is more akin to Blow By Blow era Jeff Beck, can close out a hard and heavy mix incorporating Punk, Alternative, Progressive, Thrash, Death, and Doom Metal.
The Who recorded the earliest song on this playlist in 1970 with the cover of a song first released in 1960. Huntsmen, Pequod, and All Them Witches launched the newest songs in 2020. The decades between are represented by 80s Iron Maiden and Metallica – by 90s Slayer, Suicidal Tendencies, Bad Religion, the Adicts, and Smashing Pumpkins – by 2000s and 2010s Rise Against, High On Fire, Mastodon, Opeth, the Sword, Kylesa, and Meshuggah. Steve Kimock closes out the set with a completely distortionless instrumental and manages to conjure up that aggression so brilliantly unleashed many decades ago from the hallowed halls of Leeds University.
The Punk Meets The Monster
Rise Against – Blood Red, White & Blue
Rise Against has several songs on Revolutions Per Minute that remind me of early Iron Maiden. Would love to ask them if this era of the Beast had any real influence on their sound or if it’s just a figment of my imagination. I did have a very good Punk friend kind of confirm it once, still would be interesting to find out.
Literally 22 years separate the recording of Rise Against’s Blood Red, White & Blue from Maiden’s Wrathchild, but the fury sounds the same. Check out the energy and vigor that both bands exhibit in each of their live performances. Both bassists attack their instruments with similar fierceness, leading the aggressive guitars and wild erratic beat with a heavy thump-slapping groove.
Both Paul Di’Anno and Tim McIlrath take no prisoners with their ferocious vocal style, firing the crowd up into a frenzy. Their raw energy exerts a punk edge, one dark and wrathful, the other frenetic and ranting, yet united in their intensity. Young men, from different times and distinct genres, yet ready for combat and out to conquer the world.
Iron Maiden – Wrathchild
The Adicts – 7:27
Suicidal Tendencies – We Call This Mutha Revenge
Didn’t really know what to do with Suicidal Tendencies when they first appeared in the Rock’n’Roll sphere. Punk was a hard sell for me in my younger years and bands that switched from Punk to Metal were even more suspect. I had heard Suicidal’s first album when it was released and didn’t like it. Somewhat later, a friend tried to turn me on to Join The Army however by that time I was already entering the psychedelic world of the Grateful Dead.
Years later, I bought Suicidal For Life on a whim. This expletive laden rejection of commerciality and fame turned out to be a hilariously fun listen with off the wall lyrics and fast paced heavy riffs. Another friend of mine recommended the Art of Rebellion and out popped another of my all time favorite records. Can’t think of a single bad song on that release. Unfortunately the band itself doesn’t seem to dig on it too much. For that reason I have yet to see Suicidal play a single one of the songs from Art of Rebellion live.
We Call This Mutha Revenge is one of the fastest songs off the album. The message is hurled at you with vehemence and aggression making you happy you are not on the receiving end of Psycho Miko‘s revenge. Mike Muir has one of the most iconic voices in Punk and Metal, retaining a sense for melody in the most angry and violent attacks. Don’t let the rather slow pace of the intro guitar jam fool you. The song suddenly kicks in to high gear after Psycho Miko declares the beginning to be the end. Suicidal are masters of blending brutal Thrash with raw Punk, yet interrupt the furious pace regularly with perfectly placed melodic guitar interludes. A mad thrashing romp.
Bad Religion – The Empire Strikes First
Alternative Worlds Wrecking About
Smashing Pumpkins – Frail & Bedazzled
The Smashing Pumpkins is one of those bands that just kind of crept up on me, and that right when they were about to hit their peak. Usually a band has to be around for a while for me to find a liking to them, especially if MTV has them in heavy rotation. Maybe their videos were just not that dumb as others and they weren’t trying to chase a specific image. The whole Grunge thing completely passed me by. In some cases it took me over 20 years to get into any band of that style. Smashing Pumpkins were somehow different. I remember really getting into their Siamese Dream release and loving it front to end.
Oddly enough, Pisces Iscariot became more of a favorite of mine, maybe for its jammy, psychedelic style, and lack of commerciality. Originally released as a collection of B-sides and rarities, the album shines with an adventurousness and joy of experimentation without going full on off the rails. Frail and Bedazzled steps in where Siamese Dream left off. An upbeat rocker with fast paced riffing, guitar shrieks, and Billy Corgan‘s signature squeal-a-screech-a-holler. Love that Jimmy Chamberlin drum drive, too. His precise yet forceful technique keeps the Alternative / Punk riffing of Billy Corgan and James Iha as tight as in any progressive rock staple. He is truly one of the all time greats, pounding on those skins with his very own distinct sound.
The Sword – Freya
I never would have dreamed I would be discovering great metal acts at Bonnaroo when I first started attending that festival. My first journey there was specifically to see The Dead, Bob Dylan, and Willie Nelson. Well, Willy had carpal tunnel and didn’t show, Bob’s set wasn’t one to write home about, and the Dead weirded me out when they suddenly segued into Shine On You Crazy Diamond during Dark Star. Love me some Dead and love me some Floyd, but together things get too strange. Might have been the Ganja Goo Ball, too, though. I split off from that set and discovered a bunch of new bands.
I decided to return the following years. Over time the organizers would incorporate certain metal acts, sometimes on a specific day at a specific tent, or in the case of The Sword, on the pre-opening Thursday night. The Sword combine their metal with a bit of Doom and Sludge and color it with mystical lyrics of worlds imagined or long gone by. Freya is a fast paced Doom anthem with a heavy thundering beat honoring the Norse Goddess in charge of love, fertility, battle, and death. The opening riff sounds like a charge to battle, leading into an old school hard rocking metal groove interlocked with stoner metal verse bridges and hypnotic pounding breaks. Valhalla is calling!
The Who – Shakin’ All Over
I am a Deadhead through and through, but an angry one at times. And that anger needs its valve for release. The Who knew exactly how to channel their rage and force it out through their instruments, with a vehemence rarely achieved by others. The Who’s live performances were a perfect vehicle for that and Live at Leeds is their crowning achievement, being one of those albums that literally changed my life. It became my relief valve for much of the pent up frustration and indignation of my religious childhood and authoritarian rearing, while being raised in a culture not my own.
Shakin’ All Over isn’t the most violent song on that album, but it does the trick. A hard rocking cover of the 1960 British Rock-a-Billy classic by Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, whose version itself is well worth a listen. Rock-a-Billy stayed a force to reckon with in Britain long after the early U.S. heroes of Rock’n’Roll had passed the torch on to the teeny bopper idols of the early 60s. Johnny’s version is a nod to the great 50s rockin’ hits and plays on the High School aesthetic pioneered by the likes of Chuck Berry and Bill Haley. The groove is all swinging London 60s, though.
The Who take Johnny’s clean surf rock inspired guitar sound and youthful innocent vocals, and sexualize it with guitar distortion, wildly erratic drums, and lustful vocals. The bass and guitar thunder of the verse and chorus give birth to early rumblings of metal and punk simultaneously , then transform into a destructive force of psychedelic savagery reinforced by Keith Moon’s carpet bombing drums. Roger Daltrey is no late teen Rocker in motorcycle jacket and greased hair making the moves on his high school sweetheart at the homecoming dance. He’s a hunter who is on the prowl with nothing innocent about his game.
All Them Witches – Lights Out
All Them Witches is another of those newer bands that walks a fine line between Rock and Metal. In the 80s there would have been no doubt, full on Metal, but these days the lines are much more blurry. They combine Stoner and Psychedelic Hard Rock with elements of Doom and Sludge Metal, staying adventurous in their style and defying boundaries and limits. Lights Out shines with a fast pace while maintaining a gloomy spirit. The beat and bass drive hard, forced on by a heavy trucking riff and moody lyrics augmented by an evil mechanical chorus.
Kylesa – Only One
I had a chance to experience the heavy percussive sound of Kylesa at the Backstage in Munich. I’m a short motherfucker which makes it hard to see anything over the Teutonic giants usually filling the German concert halls. It took me a while to figure out how they managed that hard thundering drum sound but I somehow managed to catch a glimpse through the human forest obstructing my view and noticed they were playing with 2 drummers. That is one of the reasons I have always stayed true to metal – the drum sound. Many Rock bands these days use their drummers strictly as a metronome and by that create a rather boring sound. They’ll have a bassist with 5 or 6 strings thumpin’ up and down the fretboard, but the drummer just keeps the beat. Explain that one to me.
Kylesa however literally thunders. Their song Only One pounds this in your face. The song kicks in with guitar shrieks and a heavy percussive beat leading into a hypnotic spiral guitar loop. The horde of sounds hammers itself to a delirious break only to release its fury with a full force blast and female screaming vocals. Laura Pleasant’s voice is an angry shriek, ghostly yet possessing and drives the shredding guitars and thundering drums up winding paths and steep inclines to ever greater heights and speed. This is modern metal for the ages.
Metal Worlds Collide
High On Fire – The Face Of Oblivion
High On Fire is one of those bands that can’t do any wrong in my book. I first got a taste of their fury at Bonnaroo and was literally blown away. Wasn’t to sure what to expect from a metal band at a hippy fest but man did they impress. They really got that freak crowd going with their relentless style and unremitting energy. I’ll never forget that shirtless monster Matt Pike firing up the crowd during High On Fire’s sonic onslaught and whipping the tie dyed mob into a frenzy. Their name left no room for compromise. Yeah, the crowd was definitely high – and absolutely on fire!
Blessed Black Wings is unrepentant Metal at its finest, brutal, violent and raw. Matt Pikes guitar sound grabs you like the firey whip of the Balrog, thrashing you down the deepest depths of Moria from the Bridge of Khazad-dûm . You enter a dark world of demons and monsters where death is your home and black wings are blessed. The thundering bass, hammering drums and fierce guitar riffs smash you against the walls as you fall, stone debris loosening at each point of impact. The pounding comes to a sudden halt as you land in icy water yet Matt’s guitar awakens the Balrog again. He rises from the cold depths, his demonic screams forcing you through dark tunnels and up the endless stairs of Zirakzigil to fight an eternal battle.
Metallica – Creeping Death
Opeth – Deliverance
Pequod – Spineless
Mastodon – Sleeping Giant
Instrumental Spheres
Steve Kimock Band – Bronx Experiment
Hope you all enjoyed this little playlist. Let me know who your favorite Punk, Rock, or Metal bands are. Or if you know any non-Metal bands that have an edge that might fit in a future Thursday playlist. Please check out my social media and don’t forget to keep on rockin’. Cheers!