Top 2 Metal Bands That Got More Savage With Age
. . .
Metal fetishizes the first album; this is fact. The first album finds youth at its peak. It is often raw, brash, and the first encounter for many with the band – and you’ll always love your first.
But metal is aging, and so are its musicians. Oddly, their music usually doesn’t reflect aging. Technology has artifically kept alive the careers of many bands. Now Pro Tools and pricey production can juice up even the oldest rocker. Bands like Exodus and Accept are old as dirt, but still roll off the assembly line sounding like high-performance machines. That’s the nature of the music industry: push out Product with a capital P.
So the natural course for metal bands is to sound more polished over time. Other ingredients start creeping in – electronics, other genres, and the most wretched of all, orchestras. Of course, musicianship and songwriting can improve over time. But if the holy grail of metal is the legendary first album, why do metal bands stop chasing it?
One reason is that they can’t. They lose a step with age. Last century’s Slayer would blow this century’s Slayer off the stage. Another reason is that they won’t. People mature, they grow into different personas, and they no longer want or need to be the top gunslinger in town.
But savagery need not be the sole province of youth. Late-career art can be more extreme than early-career art. Jimi Hendrix’ heaviest work was with his final band, Band of Gypsys. Tom Waits released the discordant and disturbing Bone Machine and Mule Variations at age 42 and 49, respectively. Scott Walker released the supreme mindfuck The Drift at age 63. I recommend reading John Updike’s excellent article for The New Yorker regarding late-career works.
. . .
So which metal bands have gotten more raw and savage over time?
The list in my mind is very short.
First, let’s eliminate some possibilities. Let’s not count bands like Darkthrone that always sound raw due to budget. (Darkthrone have also decreased considerably in savagery. Compare the hailstorm of Panzerfaust with the self-consciously-recombinant last two albums.) Except for Divine Intervention, Slayer have never sounded slick, but their savagery undisputedly peaked with SLAYER’s Reign In Blood Played At The Same Time [WARNING: LOUD!!!]” href=”http://www.heavymetalmusicnews.com/2011/11/08/every-song-off-slayers-reign-in-blood-played-at-the-same-time-warning-loud/”>Reign in Blood. Danzig’s last album was raw and loud; but for fighting and fucking, the first two records still reign supreme.
Only two metal bands come to my mind as denying the gentility of old age.
The first is Celtic Frost. I base this on Monotheist. Who would have expected Tom G. Warrior and Martin Eric Ain to return after 16 years with one of the heaviest doom albums ever recorded? The album drips with feedback and lacerating tones. Granted, the rawness is calculated, but it is still rawness. Triptykon sounds slightly slicker, but it still stares into the abyss – more than ever, in fact.
The second is Metallica. Note that “raw and savage” does not necessarily equal “good”. St. Anger is a bunch of flailing around, and Death Magnetic is overheated in trying to evoke youthful vigor. Those records are raw and savage, but also confused and ineffective. Compare with the assured second through fourth albums – Metallica sounded best when they were cool and in control.
I’d love to be wrong. I’d love to hear metal bands who, over time, sounded uglier and scarier and more intense. But I am having a damn hard time thinking of any. Can you?
. . .