I had this album copied on music cassette at first. I can’t quite remember who I got it from but it was possibly the chap who I had planned to see Def Leppard with in 1988. There were two of us at school who liked the band and I was meant to go and see them play at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the Hysteria tour. I didn’t go to that in the end as I secured a place on the Cyprus camp and that seemed more worthwhile.
This is the first album by this band. IT is a monster album musically. I don’t know if it was a numerical success [checks Wikipedia], it did OK for a debut. I reckon it did well ultimately because fans went back and bought the back catalogue. I know that Def Leppard were disappointed at being lumped in with the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal which was a mostly London thing. Def Leppard were from [checks Wikipedia, wants to write Sheffield] Sheffield and didn’t really like all that London stuff.
I love this album.
What gets me most is how well all the songs are crafted so well for such a young band. You could swap this and their second album and it would make more sense. In my mid to late teens I found High n Dry a little too-samey and this, the first album, was interesting all the way through. I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in that early 80s sound of rolling bass lines and proper sounding guitars.
So, the singer has a classic high voice, but that was a part of its time. The bass is lovely and loud, the guitars work together in harmony and each song has tempo breaks and fits together in a Coca Cola contour-bottle shaped audio-scape [that last metaphor is either amazing or bullshit].
When writing these reviews I tend to have that album on in the background, jogging my memory as I write. The sounds for this album have made me stop and listen a number of times. This is a good thing, I normally don’t pay attention to the music, or at times I don’t have the songs playing as it is an album I know intimately.
Rock Brigade – lovely
Hello America – a little bit bullshitty
Sorrow Is A Woman – great guitars, lovely lyrics, good riff
It Could Be You – look, all these songs are
Satellite – really good, except for the “ooh yeah”s in this one
When The Walls Come Tumbling Down – a post apocalyptic wonder
Wasted – Excellent opening riff, the beat keeps going, excellent
Rocks Off – classic high speed riffage (possibly live but I think the crowd sounds were a post production issue
It Don’t Matter – Lovely
Answer To The Master – to be said with an American accent, also has a classic starty-stop solo section with some awesome bass work [I guess the guitars are good too]
Overture – this is an amazing piece of writing that still shakes me
Look metal fans. Go and buy this. Listen and enjoy. Play it to your family telling them it’s one of the best. They won’t understand.
I bought this album because I really liked the first album by this band. I’ve listened a few times but nothing particularly strikes me about this album. The songs come on now and then and they are fine.
Motörhead are one of those strange bands for me where I listened to the absolute best of them and sought out further music but found it all disappoints slightly. I’m not sure I’ve even listened to this album.
This is a slightly unexpected sight in these pages I guess. what happened is that Ice-T released a heavy metal album called Body Count. It made me wonder if I would like his more “traditional” stuff. So, I bought this CD.
Here’s the shocker – I didn’t mind it. I liked the beats and most of the lyrics. It seemed a good fun album to own.
This album did consort with controversy because the second track was meant to be Princess Diana speaking about being completely on Ice-T’s dick. I mean it sounds like a well spoken British person but if it really was Di that would have been the absolute best.
This album is so very important to me. I’m not sure I’ll be able to get across why but I’ll give it a go. The most talented writer I am not.
My earliest memory of rock music is being in the back of the Smith’s car and they decided to play this via a music cassette. I can remember being driven in a Ford Granada along Gilden Way in Harlow and all the members of the Smith family banging their heads up and down. I’m not sure I understood what was going on. I was young, somewhere around ten. This whole event seemed strange. I form of loud guitar music when you move your head.
I’d only been exposed to Abba and Jean Michel Jarre at home. I don’t think there was any rock in the house. There might have been some of The Shadows but nothing particularly heavy. We have to skip a bit after that and it’s worth reading this communication about my descent into metal music. Music back in those days was hard to find, it was exciting to be able to listen to something you had search for, something others hadn’t heard, something that was your own. It’s like finding that one book that really affects you but no-one else has read.
I don’t know when I bought this album. I expect I had a taped copy for a long time. I’m pretty sure I have a CD version somewhere now but, of course, it’s all digital and on a NAS now.
What amazes me about this album is that it is a complete and fully-rounded rock album and it was released in 1974! I probably expect that rock started around 1980, when I became music-conscious, of course every generation likes to think they invented sex (or music).
I have loved this album for over thirty years and I expect I will continue to do so. There isn’t a song that is fast or crazy. Just a complete album of well-crafted songs that make you want to dance, or smash your head on something. I’ve always been amazed at just how beautiful the two lead guitars sound when they solo together.
Not Fragile – the title track starts with a blistering bass line and continues to develop into a crushing riff. I love it. The duelling guitars is amazing.
Rock Is My Life, And This Is My Song – Lovely. A wonderful song.
Roll On Down The Highway – classic rock anthem with a wonderfully crafted solo.
You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet – arguably the weakest song on this album but annoyingly the most well known.
Free Wheelin’ – An instrumental with some classic stop-start riffs. It’s built upon all the classic forms of rock/blues. It even has a bass solo. Love it.
Sledgehammer – another of my favourites. The opening riff slowly beats out and makes this song a calming beast.
Blue Moanin’ – I do think this is the second weakest song on this album. I mean it’s good but one of them has to be bottom of the list doesn’t it? I’m excluding You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet from the list.
Second Hand – you gotta love a cheeky muted cow-bell in this song. This is a great song.
Givin’ It All Away – an upbeat bluesy riffed beast of a song that would get a pit going (maybe, if we weren’t all so old).
This album isn’t metal. But it’s some of the finest blue-rock you can find. It still holds it own forty five years after release. If I had my way either everyone would know this or no-one. You aren’t good enough for this music.
I guess it takes some commitment to drive 500 miles to get to a music event. This is the fifth time Smith and I have done this. It is possibly going to be the last for a while, we kinda feel we need to seek out new things, but we shall see. M’era Luna does have an excellent atmosphere and I think we’ll be back at some point in the future.
As is now the standard we left on the Thursday and drove to a hotel in Bochum. We should have got there in time to have a meal out and see the town but instead there were power issues with the Eurotunnel that delayed our journey on the train by three hours, that was quite frustrating, but we did walk a couple of miles along the main road and find zero bars. Yep, zero. There were two gambling dens but zero bars. I’m not sure if that’s the Germany I imagined.
Campsite Sky
Friday morning means driving the last two and a half hours to Hildesheim and getting to the festival. This part of the journey went well. The traffic was queueing to get into the car park and so Smith ran to join the queue to get us a decent tent spot. It’s quite amazing how quickly the massive campsite fills up with tents. I got parked and dragged most of the kit to the tent. After that, we chilled and wandered and thought about getting ready for the disco that evening.
Friday Night at M’era Luna
Tickets for the disco were different from years before, we had to buy a wristband which was the standard 5 Euros. As we arrived in the disco there was some decent heavier music being played and it was DJ’d by a guy from the band Unzucht. After a short while it did change style as someone else took over and the music went a bit shit. Smith and I had drunk quite a bit. He lost his glasses. It was about 0200 when we quit and I went for a shower. That night I wandered back from the showers down the runway to the tent, the air was warm and I was happy.
I guess you haven't lived until you've walked half a runway dressed in only a towel.
Saturday was going to be hard work. There is always one night when there’s a little too much alcohol consumed. Last year it was the Prodigy gig and Saturday night. This time we overdid it on the Friday! Hangover protocols were now in place. But, there were bands to see starting at 1100 and so things had to get ready. I sometimes feel I physically suffer for my art.
Saturday at M’era Luna
Saturday’s theme for me was future-dystopian-cyber outfit. This was pretty much all home-made and I was very happy with the results. Smith had problems with his horns and so I watched the first band by myself.
Null Positive – main stage. Female fronted metal band, bit like Arch Enemy. quite enjoyable. Two female”dancers” on stage, playing with smoke and fire.
The gas mask on my outfit was really pulling into my head and making me experience pain. Plus the hangover wasn’t helping.
Sudenklang – main stage. I didn’t write anything else here so I don’t remember how good or bad they were.
Centhron – hangar stage. Fast beats, bit boring. It was during this set that I decided to go and get rid of the gas mask. It was hurting me and the backpack was annoying. Also, it was a warm day and I had about three layers on. I returned to the tent [about 15 minutes walk away] to get changed into boring normal clothes. I had been photographed and so thought it time to feel comfortable.
Corvus Corax – main stage. Four bagpipers medieval/folk stuff. It’s basically metal but with bagpipes. It’s not very inspiring stuff and the singer was terrible but the Germans love this shit.
We heard Oomph! while we ate food and I don’t remember being impressed. It’s a terrible band name also!
Agonoize – hangar stage. Bit disappointing really, I had heard some of their stuff and I was hoping for a really “edgy” show. The singer squirted blood three times, he pretended to cut his wrist and let the “blood” spray out for most of the songs. Finished with Breathe as a tribute to Keith, but it was a terrible version.
Agonoize – Hangar Stage, M’era Luna
Lacrimosa – main stage. 1.2 songs. Yeauugh.
SITD – Hangar. solid but only got going after second singers song. Lead singer doesn’t know words to some songs and was reading. The sound at front not great, the system speakers are quite wide and so a lot of the dynamic was missing from being close to the front.
SITD – Hangar Stage, M’era Luna
Die Krupps – Hangar stage. Saturday headliners. We watched from slightly further back and the sound was much better. This band are really good and their show has been excellent every time I’ve seen them. I’d happily go and see them again. I’d recommend them to anyone.
Die Krupps – Hangar Stage, M’era Luna
That was the end of the Saturday for us. I think ASP were playing the main stage as we left, I wasn’t bothered at all about seeing him. It had been a long day. We had both had problems with the sun cream running into our eyes and causing massive hayfever type symptoms. Overall the music had been great but I felt dead.
Saturday Steps
From the above picture you can see I walked quite a bit that day. I also hadn’t slept much, which was going to be the pattern for the whole weekend really.
On the Sunday I woke to the sound of someone calling “Kaffee”. I popped my head out of the tent and had coffee poured freshly for me from one of the festival workers. He had a large backpack with a supply of drink and all the accoutrements on his belt for a perfect coffee and only 3 Euros. Bloody lovely.
It might be time to talk about the pooing situation at festivals. I mean, this shouldn’t be talked about but too make the process as easy as possible it takes planning and hard work. Firstly, eating vegetarian reduces the amount of time required in the portaloos. Next, pick your portaloos carefully. The ones on the runway are very busy and stink. I mean they stink more than others. So, go to the toilets in the car park. Leave the festival site and walk a bit. This needs to be planned for after waking and coffee. Next up, take the portaloo furthest west. The one in the east gets sunshine on it and heats up. This increases smells. So, to sum up, find the least used loos, and use the coolest one.
Getting ready on Sunday was easy, it was an old costume being recycled.
Sunday at M’era Luna
I kept the hood with me as the Sun was warm and I didn’t want to burn my skin.
Fear of Domination – main stage. Finish. Male and female singer. Good bass drop. Good solid set.
Fear Of Domination – Main Stage, M’era Luna
Yellow Lazarus – hangar stage. Ok. EBM but fast, not great. Two songs. It’s like Aqua (Barbie girl) on speed. Pretty sure we only caught a few of their songs.
Scarlet Dorn – main stage. Slow melodic rock with female singer. Keyboardist is from LOTL. This sort of music is fine in the background but it didn’t really rock.
At some point I went to get changed, again! It was another hot day and I wasn’t enjoying being in my costume. My head was sweating a lot under the gas mask.
Formalin – hangar stage. Live drummer. Keyboards. Singer. Pretty good. Very good crowd interaction. Good song dynamics.
Heldmaschine – hangar stage. Blue LEDs on costumes and drumsticks. Two guitars (one a lefty). Bass. Drums. Singer. Backing track somewhere.
I’m in there a few times, as is Smith, I’ll leave you to find it though. After this show I had to keep pouring water over my head to cool down. I think I had over done it. At least I didn’t get a cracked rib from the PIT unlike Smith.
Suicide Commando – hangar stage. Really good but I lefty feeling unwell. Sounds better a distance from stage, speakers too wide at very front. I needed cool air. Spotted the SITD guy in front of SC.
Suicide Commando – Hangar Stage, M’era Luna
VNV Nation – main stage for a few songs. Ok, but the gig at the Scala was amazing.
After this it was shower time and a walk down the runway. Then, Monday we just had to drive home. On the way we had planned to stop just into Germany for photos but because of the delays at the tunnel we chose not to. We had plenty of time on the return journey and so we stopped on that:
Wankum, De
I couldn’t tell you why we chose to stop here!
The excitement didn’t end in Germany! We got to the Channel Tunnel a few hours before our crossing and so paid a little extra to get home earlier than originally planned. This was good as Smith only had prescription sunglasses left after losing his in the disco and he didn’t want to drive home in the dark. As we approached the Maidstone junction on the M20 one of the front tyres blew and deflated quickly. This was very annoying. We managed to pull off the motorway and put the spare on. We were about three miles from my house.
I’ve had the car looked at and it it probably a tracking issue which caused the insides of the tyre to wear down too far. This will hopefully be fixed on Monday or Tuesday. I’m just glad that it blew where it did rather than 500 miles away in Germany. That would have been quite a shitter.
So, M’era Luna 19 was amazing and fun. It was also hard work and a challenge. Next year, we will see what happens. Maybe I’m too old for this shit?
This is a monster of an album. Buy it. Play it. Love it.
I was meant to see Motörhead play in around 1990 with two friends, Smith and KH. That didn’t happen because of a falling out between me and KH. I didn’t go. I’ve heard the show was really good. Oh well. I had to wait until 2013 to see Motörhead live at Download Festival and they were OK but very much a product of their time. This album though captures them at their very best.
I bought this on tape [music cassette] waaay back. I can remember listening to it while I worked at Cossor Electronics in my “gap year”. I had an AIWA portable cassette player with bass-boost and this album was a great kick in the ears. Gap Year is in quotation marks there because I never intended to go to university but things happen, maybe I’ll write about it here.
I think the thing that this album surprised me the most was the elegance with which Lemmy plays the bass and how his rolling riffs and scales really fit the music. I’m not sure I’d be able to hear this subtlety live but in this album it shouts out.
Ace Of Spades – bloody marvellous.
Stay Clean – another great song.
Metropolis – not a bad song on this album.
The Hammer – it’s metal isn’t it.
Iron Horse – better than when Bon Jovi mentioned it.
No Class – say it with an American accent.
Overkill – Often imitated never bettered.
(We Are) The Roadcrew – Just listen to that scream.
Capricorn – Not a unicorn.
Bomber – I’ve not seen the video but I suspect this is when the lighting rig, shaped as a bomber, flies over the band.
Motörhead – This is the best.
Just before the band play Motörhead Lemmy says “Just In Case”. This phrase echoes through my brain, it’s there as a constant catch phrase, I’ve thought about it a lot. I’ve written it on pupils’ leaving books in the past and referenced this album in the hope they listen to it. The bass playing explodes out of the speakers and knocks you flat. It’s an amazing song and the rhythm of the vocals makes me smile. I don’t really know what Lemmy sings, it’s not thing – vocals, I leave those to Smith.
Everyone should own this album, even if it’s to put on at the end of a party to get rid of everyone, or to celebrate a great night. Go and buy it.
It’s Ozzy isn’t it! You don’t need much more than that. This freaky person who once bit the head of a live bat during a concert. This man who took copious quantities of drugs and who invented Heavy Metal. This man who still writes great music. This god of metal.
And then you see him on a reality TV show and it shocks you just how fucked he is. His body is knackered and you can actually see him thinking. The show highlighted just how much his wife had managed him and got him clean, eventually.
Whoever your heroes are they will let you down eventually. This downfall will be quicker if you see or meet them in real life. Never meet your heroes. I used to think Ozzy was a god, now he’s a broken man.
I’m pretty sure this was the first Ozzy album I bought. There are a couple of others but I think I got this one on music cassette. It’s a brilliant album. It’s very well produced and has excellent songs on it. I’ve loved the rolling bass lines keeping the rhythm section going and the creepy sound clips over the top. There’s a certain beat to these songs that is a slow but heavy boom that means you can feel the urge to move and bounce along.
Mr Tinkertrain – excellent. Mama, I’m Coming Home – tear jerker. No More Tears – brilliant opening, the riffing is ace. Hellraiser – damn good. Zombie Stomp – written with the audience in mind. A.V.H. – darn good.
I’ve enjoyed this album for many years and it still pleases me, which is no mean feat.
Last Saturday I went to see Rammstein play their current set at the MK Stadium in Milton Keynes. It was bloody amazeballs.
Early Fire
I had spent the previous week at RAF Shawbury with a cadet camp which was already a brilliant week and I then topped it off with this brilliant show. I drove down from the West Midlands to Milton Keynes and met with Smith in a supermarket car park. This gig is an important one because he had brought his kids along, their first major gig. You could tell that there was a slight trepidation from the eldest [around 14] but the youngest displayed nothing but sheer excitement [around 12].
The support band were two women who played pianos on a stage just in front of our seats. It was nice but I didn’t really pay attention. I was suffering with the effects of being tired and so I read a book on the development of the pressure suit for high altitude flying published by Nasa. It wasn’t bad but I needed to rest!
Extinguishers?
Rammstein themselves were amazing. Absolutely amazing. The show they put on is remarkable and worth every penny of the 7500 for the cost of a ticket. There were the normal theatrics with lots of fire. And I mean lots of fire. There were black clouds bellowing over the stadium at certain points during the show and I wondered what it must look like to someone outside the stadium.
Angel Of Fire
There were many highlights. Every song had its own act. The keyboardist being burnt in a massive cauldron, the burning to death of a giant baby, the massive riding cock for the song “Pussy”, and flames shooting from guitars.
This might seem odd but the dance track halfway through made my night. That was the moment I thought “this is the best show ever”. One of the guitarists DJd while being lifted high above the stage and the other members of the band came on with suits that lit up along the limbs. They then performed a dance routine to an electronic version of thier own song. What balls, to make 30,000 metal fans listen and dance to electronic music. This band have it all.
This was the best show I have ever seen and is the third best gig I have been to. The Prodigy last year at M’era Luna may have been an excellent show, I don’t know I can’t remember any of it. This concert would have been top of the list had I been in the pit. You have to take whatever you can from a gig and I loved this but part of me hankered to be in the mild violence of the circle. I still had a great time. My top three gigs are: Combichrist Old School, The Prodigy and Rammstien – this one.
This Was Warm
This is the thrid time I have seen Rammstein and it was bloody brilliant.
“Did I mention? I’m seeing Rammstein in Milton Keynes this weekend.”
This was the first Bon Jovi album that was released during my fandom. I’m not sure if I had already seen them live, I’ll check at some point. I remember driving with friends down the Wembley Arena and seeing Bon Jovi with Dan Reed Network as support in around 1990. Right, this album was released in 1988 and so I was into Bon Jovi then but I hadn’t seen them live.
I really loved this album. It felt mature but still great fun. I have just, slightly embarrassingly, realised that the band’s name shortens to BJ, which is brilliant but I can’t believe I’ve only just noticed that [I wonder if the Pom has?].
Lay Your Hands On Me – brilliant.
Bad Medicine – brilliant and includes the lyric which I have found most fascinating: “You’re an all night respirator wrapped in stockings and a dress”.
So, here’s the thing. I could end this album right at this point. I know that’ll be controversial given some of the songs that follow:
Blood On Blood, Homebound Train, Rise Cowboy Ride, I’ll be There For You, 99 In The Shade.
These songs have never really done much for me. That’s just how it is and I do understand it’s a massive character flaw. When I saw these guys last at Twickenham they played “I’ll Be There For You”, it was the most boring song ever, key changes and everything. I hated it.
This album is still great, even though I turn off after about ten minutes. Everyone should own it.
As we approach the other classics in the “N” section of this mammoth album review journey we settle into thoughts about Nevermind. You know what, I just don’t know. In the early 90s this sounded amazing and remarkable, a real game changer. It turned metal from overblown historical narratives to being about feelings and angst.
I’m also worried that it doesn’t stand the test of time and might be a bit shit. If you’ve heard The Pixies you know what I mean. I haven’t played this for decades. I guess it still scares your parents though.
This album means a lot to me. I originally had this on tape bought as a birthday present [I think] by a friend from my village. Lisa and I both went to air cadets and our friendship grew over the years we spent together. Towards the end of my cadet career we would give each other lifts to the squadron. 309 was based in the nearest town to the village and we had to get there somehow.
Lisa bought this tape for me. We listened to it together in the car and I loved the rawness of the sound. As I grew up further it amused me that this band were put together pretty much to sell things at a shop on the Kings Road. Brilliant marketing and hilarious at the same time. Punk being used as an overt advert for the shop Sex. Brilliant!
Not all the songs are brilliant but a good proportion are and the production is excellent. Again, it’s amusing how well produced this album is given the whole punk pastiche [not sure that’s the correct word there, I might have just mentioned a Danish pastry].
Holidays in the sun
Bodies
No feelings
Liar
Problems
Seventeen
Anarchy
Pretty Vacant
All amazing songs. All really well written and produced. This is a one album band, everything else was shit. This album though, it served them well.
This does what it’s meant to. It scares your parents. It makes them worry for your sanity and the future of humanity. It’s ingenious.
Then, while I was at university, in possibly my second year, Lisa died. Suddenly. While playing football. Fuck. My dad told me. In a bar near Goodge Street. “I’ve got some bad news” he said. Lisa was dead. Fuckin’ dead. At about 21 or 22. They didn’t ever find out what happened. She was fit, played sport and ran all the time, smoked all the time, was great to be around.
The funeral was fucking terrible. The church was packed. People sat in the aisles. I think we all, the cadets, wanted to run away afterwards, but her dad asked us to stay a the wake. It was shit. I think we were all numb. We pondered going to look at the coffin in the hole, I said we shouldn’t, let’s remember her the way she was, we didn’t look. That night we all went on a pub crawl around Sawbridgeworth and drank many round to Lisa.
I used to go and chat to her grave for about ten years after she died. I just went there to think. I might have said stuff, but I also know that’s just stupid because she was dead and gone. Once you’re dead that’s it. Your gone. But it felt like the right thing for me to do at those times. Even my mate Rich and I once went to speak to her after a dining in night at 309. We left our girlfriends with my parents at about midnight and just went to chat to Lisa. Fuck knows what the girls thought about that. It’s just what we did.
I have a newspaper clipping about Lisa dying folded inside the CD case of this one. I moved it there from the music cassette when I upgraded.
Life’s shit quite often and then every now and then you get a bit of happiness. Then you die. Some of us die before the others. I miss you Lisa.
Lisa Died
We’re so pretty, oh so pretty, we’re pretty, va-cunt.
I don’t remember buying this album and I suspect it was another failed attempt to get into The Who. I can tell you that I don’t think I’ve ever listened to it, or if I did it was decades ago. I wouldn’t even be able to tell you what tracks are on here, although I could guess.
I’ve just looked at the track listing and I can honestly say I recognise about half the song titles. I guess I’m still not a Who fan.
I was given this album as a gift during early February 2007, I’m pretty sure it was on my stag do. Anyway, as much as I love Rammstein I haven’t listened to this album as much as I should’ve. I’m not sure why but I seem to prefer the other albums.
Sometimes the older stuff works best for a band because you know the songs so well. I think that’s why I find it hard to get to know the newer albums or ones that are newer to me. I guess I also don’t like bands who keep the same music style? I’m not sure about that statement actually. Here’s my thinking:
I love the early Iron Maiden stuff but the albums after Seventh Son are a little boring. I think it’s because they didn’t really change their sound? Or maybe I just grew out of Iron Maiden, I’m not saying it’s wrong to keep liking them I’m just saying I changed.
I still love AC/DC even though [apart from Let There Be Rock] all their albums sound the same. This contradicts my experience to Iron Maiden so I don’t know what it is about AC/DC or Maiden that makes my response to their new music so different.
Metallica changed their sound over the years and I haven’t liked anything by them since Garage Days Re-Revisited. I mean there are two songs on the black album that are OK but everything since then I’ve not liked. Maybe it’s because they went “mainstream”?? I don’t know. Maiden are pretty mainstream, as are AC/DC, and I still kinda like them so who knows what’s going on. I guess you like what you like.
Since 2009 I’ve been into Aggrotech or Hellectro music and I really enjoy it. The canon isn’t as large as for metal and so I haven’t tired of the music yet. I don’t understand the causation route here. I can’t decide if Andy and I share the same interest in music genres because we have the same music tastes and are friends anyway or whether the fact that we are friends also influences our music tastes so they are the same. There are some small differences in what we like and obsess over but by and large our tastes have grown together. Odd and probably not that odd I guess.
So, Rammstein. I first heard them when a friend, Sara, gave me her CDs of the first two Rammstien albums and I loved them. I remember listening to these CDs in around 2003. It took a few year for me to get to the point of seeing Rammstein because I had a phase when I didn’t go to gigs and concerts, but I am definitely in a music phase at the moment and one that’s lasted about six years so far.
This album is a classic but it just happens to be one I’ve not listen to that much.
This is an album which takes me back to the early 1990s almost straight away. I’m pretty sure I bought this in a record shop in Portsmouth. This means I bought it around 1995/6.
I remember spending time at a mate’s flat after being out on the beers in Bishop’s Stortford. He was working as a house master in a private school and we would often rock up to his accommodation and sometimes we’d have the Narcotics Suite on in the background and I remember being very impressed with the music.
I also remember being in a car with my parents and even though they were fine with all my heavy metal and thrash I asked them to put this CD in the player and listen and I don’t think they quite got it. The music has complex beats and I think it broke them slightly. I have loved this album for over twenty years. When I saw The Prodigy last summer at the M’era Luna festival it was one of the best gigs I had ever seen.
Break and Enter – a deep heavy intro to the blistering sounds of The Prodigy.
Their Law – Fuck ’em. Shout and scream this one at the establishment.
Full Throttle – a fast ride to hell I reckon.
Voodoo People – magic people. I think I remember this one from the live show. A guitar based sound to give you full on dance beats.
Speedway – It’s a race isn’t it? Sounds like the soundtrack to a Ridge Racer game, but better.
The Heat – Still great.
Poison – The intro to this, with the spoken word and then the wa-wa sounds makes me shiver. It needs to be loud and hit you in the chest.
No Good – ha ha, this one reminds me of a relationship I was in once. Every now and then this song went through my head before I’d had enough and left.
One Love – lovely.
Narcotic Suite x 3 – a beautifully written selection of songs which will make my spine shiver.
I liked this album before I was into my current electro-aggrotech-industrial phase. It was a forerunner that seemed “OK” for a metal fan to like. I think I used to be worried what people would think about me when I spoke about music and now I don’t care what you think. I like what I like and am what I am.
So, Nirvana were massive. They were huge and considered a great influence over the 90s. But then he died and I heard The Pixies and suddenly I wasn’t that bothered by them.
I really liked the Seattle sound of the early 90s and I saw Alice In Chains a few times. The soundtrack to the film Singles is a super album. Nevermind was amazing and had a raw power that was a complete turn around from the thrash and metal that had come before. But, I’m afraid that one good song on a pretty good album doesn’t heroes make [in my view].
I look back quite dispassionately from the lofty heights of 2019. I can see what they did but I can be almost unbothered by it all.
I bought this album, I played it but for me I think it lacked the power of Nevermind. The vocals have a haunting sound and this was the first of the Unplugged albums that made MTV a fortune. I can’t remember the last time I played this album. I can’t see a time when I will play this album.
Nirvana does make me remember my third year at university. You see you have to read this boring, lofty communication to get this far before you get a nugget of glory days waffle. Back in the day we held “welcome” dinners for each of the engineering departments and we asked freshers to come along. I attended all of these in my third year as I was in the “Departmental Societies Officer” role within City and Guilds College Union. I t was pretty much my duty to go along and drink and be merry.
The disco at the dinners was run by the people from Imperial College Radio, a group to which I also belonged having been part of the organisation since my own first year at university. There are stories about time at the radio station that I should record on this site. So, ICR ran the discos and kept pointing out that I knew all the words to the Wham! songs, which was slightly embarrassing but at least it meant I got the chance to influence the choice of songs.
When “Smells Like Teen Spirit” came on I would run to the dance floor and then begin to be a little aggressive with the metal style “dancing” I guess. There was one dinner where, at the end of the song, I was the last man standing on the dance floor. Everyone else had decided it was best to get away from me. I look back and think my behaviour could have been considered anti-social but I also recognise that times were different and people probably cared less then that I do now.
Being in the pit at a metal show is an act of consensual violence to a certain extent. Everyone there wants to have a good time and jump around and bounce into each other. However, at the same time everyone looks out for each other and if someone falls we all help them up. I’ve helped up people I’ve been running into and I’ve also been helped up when I’ve fallen. There are levels of behaviour that are considered OK and there are definitely upper limits. It’s all unspoken but works. If you don’t like the level of violence then you leave and no one cares. I’ve left pits in the past, where I’ve considered the violence beyond my limits and I’ve stood on the edge and watched.
Most concerts I’ve been to just involve the crowd jumping around and maybe creating a circle. I’ve been to gigs where we’ve run into each other in time to the music and in the right environment that’s pretty good fun. I’ve been to gigs where the pit seemed to consist of a few people rugby tackling each other and I thought that a stage too far and so I left that one. In that same pit I saw someone throw a punch, this was beyond the unwritten rules and that chap was dragged out and handed over to security. There are rules you see, you just have to know what’s going on.
When I think of the pits I’ve been in, there has been the following bands where I’ve been controlled by the music:
I put this album on yesterday while I did some work and it was OK. It’s got a very 80s sound. My first encounter with this band was when I was in secondary school and someone pointed out the bass playing of Billy Sheehan. It is very fast. I can’t really imagine anyone playing guitar that fast.
This album is good but not memorable if that makes sense. It doesn’t really bother me. They had another album called Lean Into It I think, which I reviewed in January.
You know we need humour in our lives. I know Monty Python more from the albums and audio than I do the TV shows. I have seen the vision versions but I haven’t watched as much as I should. I have listened to these albums over and over, especially Live At Drury Lane. This album contains all the studio versions of the greatest Python songs.
Buy it. Listen to it. Research the times and history to get an idea of what goes on in the world, the song “Henry Kissinger” testifies to this fact of satire and humour being used to “take it to the man”.
This is known as the black album by most fans I think and it is the first Metallica album I bought straight from release rather than playing catch up with their discography. There is one good song on here and one semi-good song. The rest I would not play.
Sad But True – this is a pretty heavy amazing song, although slow. It crunches through you, especially live.
Enter Sandman – this is designed to be a single and went massive. It’s an OK song.
The rest of the album I could not tell you about from memory. This is interesting as when I saw Metallica at Donington in 1991 these were the only two songs that they played from this album, even though it had just come out.
I bought this on tape and I’ve just checked the NAS drive and amusingly I haven’t even updated my collection of this album to a complete digital version. I only have three songs from this album in digital. I also have Wherever I May Roam, but let’s face it, that’s a shit song.
This album marked a major decline in my appreciation of Metallica. There was a slight decline after “Justice”, but this one hastened the break up. Metallica went massive after this album and became mainstream. That’s when I stopped liking them. I’m not sure which way around the causation goes, whether their music changed and I stopped liking them or whether they became mainstream and so I stopped liking the music.
I did go to see Metallica play in Earls Court in about 1995 [just checked and it was October 12, 1996] and it was quite good but the new songs are shit and I really struggle to get past that. The show was filmed as the DVD Cunning Stunts. In that DVD one of the stuntmen is described as the “burning man”, not by his name by the band. This guy set himself alight over the complete tour every night and yet the band didn’t know his name. I guess that’s how it goes being a rock star but I didn’t like that.
