Category: Heavy Metal
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Things You Don’t See Anymore #4: The Flexi Disc
Many hundreds of years ago (well, in the 1960’s and ’70s) and in the days before the Internet, if you can imagine such a thing, record companies tried many ways to get music heard. They tried bribing DJs. This was frowned upon. They tried fixing the charts by bulk buying or giving away records to…
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A Few Words on Jeff Hannemann and Slayer
I was sorry to learn of the passing of Jeff Hannemann, Slayer guitarist, who died on 2 May 2013. Hannemann, alongside fellow Slayer members – guitarist Kerry King, monster drummer Dave Lombardo and bass player / singer Tom Araya produced a game-changing record “Reign In Blood” which, thanks to its crystal clear production (by Rick…
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The Best Concept Album of the Eighties? Step Forward Operation Mindcrime
Concept albums divide opinion. There are those who dislike them as bloated, worthy and self-indulgent. These people see concept albums as being about as welcome as Justin Bieber in The Anne Frank Museum, and avoid them like they would gout. And there are those who love them because they are er, bloated, worthy and self-indulgent.…
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Why Do Most People Dislike Heavy Rock But Think One Direction Are Good?
Read on for my ten point action plan to make rock music more popular… Last week, I held a Focus Group on why Heavy Metal music isn’t popular amongst certain demographics. As part of this scientific approach, I surveyed a number of listeners of Radio 2, Heart FM and Magic FM to seek their views…
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Breaking The Law: A Cultural Analysis of Judas Priest’s Finest Music Video
It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that Judas Priest‘s Breaking The Law video remains a high point of Western Civilisation generally. The song itself has seeped into popular culture to the point that over 76% of the population can no longer refer to the song without saying Breaking The Law twice in quick succession. Alongside…
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Albums of the Year! From 25 Years Ago! What Were They Thinking?!
Did you used to look forward to magazine end of year best-of lists? The magazine I bought every week when I was a teenager was Kerrang! magazine – and (true to form for someone of the highest geekery such as myself) I read every issue from cover to cover. And I would look forward to the…
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For Sale: Can You Guess Which Rock Star’s House Is On The Market?
It’s not every day that a rock legend puts their house up for sale…but whose house is it? Let’s look Through the Keyhole… Knowing that the demographics of the Every Record Tells A Story readership includes many multi-millionaire rock fans, where better for a rock star to advertise their des res than in these very…
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The Art and Innovation of German Heavy Metal
German Heavy Metal….. Let’s do something different for a change. The wind of change is so important. Let me perform a magic trick. Black out your mind for a moment… Now think of a German heavy rock band. Any German rock band. The first one that stings to mind… Scorpions, right? See what I did…
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Movember: Rock’s Top Ten Greatest Moustaches of the Eighties
What are the Greatest Moustaches in Rock? November has become a slightly frightening time of year for men everywhere. A very worthy campaign has swept the nation in the last few years encouraging people to grow hair on the upper slopes of their faces during the month to help raise awareness and highlight the fight…
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Remember The First Time You Heard…Black Sabbath?
Black Sabbath’s Seventh Star is not the most obvious starting point for a rock fan to be introduced to heavy metal’s most iconic band. Growing up in a religious household presented the odd challenge for a young heavy metal fan not necessarily seeking ways to aggravate his parents. I had a number of damage limitation…
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Motörhead’s Best Record Is…
Motorhead’s best record? It’s a tricky one. Many people would say Ace of Spades – but I’m not so sure. Orgasmatron is the one for me. There are lots of opinions in rock n roll but few facts. It’s probably a Fact that The Beatles were the greatest creative force of the 20th century. Radiohead‘s…
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How $5.98 Made Metallica Millions
Metallica may have been the band to change the mainstream’s minds about the so-called thrash metal movement, but they did it in the UK not through (3rd album) the magnificent Master of Puppets, but by the follow up. And no, I don’t mean …And Justice For All. Master of Puppets made the top fifty in…
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Remember The First Time You Heard…Metallica?
After three incredible albums in the ’80’s Metallica were still only rock music’s most popular cult band. Alongside Anthrax, Slayer and Megadeth they had spearheaded a movement (thrash metal) that, like the Olympics’ Beach Volleyball, had yet to convince the mainstream that it should be taken seriously. Yes – that’s it. Metallica were the beach…
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Hard Rock Calling: Soundgarden, Iggy and Rain…
Soundgarden – live at Hyde Park’s Hard Rock Calling Festival Without a doubt, the best thing to have come out of the dreadful weather that the UK has nearly drowned in during this ridiculous excuse for a summer (or as it will become known, the Great Hosepipe Ban of 2012) is the cancellation of Wednesday’s…
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Donington ’86 – Monsters of Rock: Ozzy, Scorpions, Def Leppard, Motorhead and More Bad News…
My first Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington (that’s Download for the youngsters) was headlined by Ozzy Osbourne in 1986. Although a Winged Chariot would have been a more appropriate vehicle to take us to this most holy of heavy metal shrines, we settled on taking a National Express coach from outside John Menzies in Chelmsford,…
Every record tells a story 