.Editorial - My Nod to the Old School
Metal Reviews

Release year: 2004
Reviewed by Ben

Sometimes when I’m talking to fellow metalheads I wonder. I wonder why I seem like I am the only one my age that is into groups such as Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Motley Crue. I mean, as I’m typing this I am playing Hell Bent for Leather at a very loud volume and every now and then I have to belt out a line and throw the horns to Evening Star or Rock Forever. I’m writing this editorial to hopefully enlighten some of our younger readers to the old school, you know, before Edguy, before Stratovarius and even before Hollenthon and Thyrfring there were bands like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden.

I think that my appreciation towards the originators is because of the way I got into heavy metal in the first place. My initiation wasn’t through Rhapsody or Children of Bodom it was through Iron Maiden, and an early album at that, Live After Death back in the seventh grade. From there I kept on with such greats such as Painkiller as my introduction to Judas Priest and I worked my way backwards. From the eighties and seventies I went even further back into time with Black Sabbath and there I remained for a solid year with all three bands. After I started to peek my head out of my cloud of Eddie, the Hellion and Sabbath I got into Helloween via a tape of Keeper of the Seven Keys part II. Now, here in my pre – high school years I was listening to music solely from the eighties and back, be it Overkill, Helloween, Testament and even Motley Crue, who were a big part of my life right before I entered and through high school. With the advent of the internet I began to hear about groups such as Blind Guardian and Gamma Ray and Angra so I started to hunt these guys down and what do you know, I loved em! Instead of seeming “old” as some people might think if they hear someone like Sonata Arctica first, these “new” bands sounded like an evolution from the groups that I was listening to up to that point, and I was amazed. I think that aspect of my heavy metal life right there is responsible for the way that I feel towards my Too Fast For Love (which I consider a classic), Stained Class records. I was listening to the originators for years before I even heard someone who might be considered new, even then though Blind Guardian can still be debated as being “new” or not seeing as they have been releasing albums since the eighties themselves. Even then however, it was still a natural progression to acts of today, from Blind Guardian and Virgin Steele I went to Stratovarius, Sonata Arctica, and Edguy.

Today when I talk to people that are into the bands of today, many of them don’t agree with me that Judas Priest is one of the greatest heavy metal bands ever, only rivaled by Iron Maiden. I don’t count the ones that say stuff like, “Fuck that old man gay shit,” because they are obviously ignorant in their metal ways and don’t like it in the first place. I’m talking about people who say that the sound quality sounds dated and old. To me that doesn’t seem so but I can understand how someone who got into metal through a 2000 up group can say that. Until the 2002 remasters, the Priest catalog was plagued by poor sound, the drums sounded like someone was hitting cardboard and the guitars sound muddy to someone who’s heard the miracle of modern day production. I’m very glad that those records were remastered and released with bonus tracks because it breathed new life into my old favorites, right now Hot Rockin’ is leaping out of my stereo and grabbing my neck and forcing it up and down and I’m in one hell of a metal frenzy. The same case can be said about the Crue reissues, they sound more vibrant, more electric now to me at least, yet new metal fans can still hear them and go, “Wow that sounds old.” I just want to yell, “Dammit! These guys fucking rule! Without them there wouldn’t be the bands that you love today!” but I digress.

I don’t mean to sound like the old fart that works at the vinyl store downtown with a mullet that mutters, “You damn kids, you don’t know nothing! Back in my day let me tell you…” and then proceeds to tell you about the time that Motley Crue rolled into town on the Shout at the Devil tour, the parking lot madness before the show where everyone was cheering and singing songs while drinking beer and headbanging, the insane light show and stunts, “Man, Nikki Sixx, he set himself on fire dude!” and then about the post concert party at the metal club a block away (or it could have been any Friday or Saturday night for that matter), that from the outside resembled nothing more than a rathole that should have been condemned weeks ago, but on the inside was leather, denim, spandex, chains, more beer, women and future local groups with a fistful of dough and their own dreams of making it big all stuffed in the side of their boot while everyone was mingling and chatting it up. The guys were going after the chicks that had the tightest and skimpiest outfits, and there was always the one dude who resonated that bad boy energy that just had all the girls flocking to him without even trying and one such female was another guy’s old lady so before the end of the night you saw Mr. Bad Ass get in a brawl with one angry boyfriend and you just laughed and stuck your nose in the air because you knew you ruled the world, here were all your friends and you didn’t have a care in the world other than who was coming to town next week and how bad you wanted to get laid that night from that one girl over in the corner but she was always with the no talent singer from band X who couldn’t even sing more than thirty minutes before his voice blew out and yet he still managed to get whatever chick he wanted through his constant lies and name dropping, “Yea baby, I was chilling with Vince and Tommy in the dressing room before some asshole security guard said I wasn’t on the guest list, but I got their digits so when they come back we’re gonna tear it up. I’ll see if I can squeeze you in there too, it’ll be hard baby but I’ll try,” but in your head you knew that it was only a matter of time before you and your boys got the proverbial shit together and you’d have your own deal before long and soon you’d be rolling into town in the huge luxurious tour bus and it’d be your name on that marquee and that singer boy would still be floundering in obscurity while you, you made it. Man, I feel old.

Killing Songs :
Ben quoted
Other albums by .Editorial that we have reviewed:
.Editorial - Horny For Harpsichord reviewed by Ben and quoted
.Editorial - Why I need to take a break from writing for MetalReviews reviewed by Alex and quoted
.Editorial - USA / Germany Thrash Match: Big Four Style reviewed by Ben and quoted
.Editorial - Re: Reissues and Remasters reviewed by Ben and quoted
.Editorial - A Brief Run Through Power Metal (in 3 1/2 stages) reviewed by Ben and quoted
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