WHY YOU GOTTA BE SO HEAVY?!

The late vocalist Paul Baloff of Exodus exclaimed something on that band’s live album ANOTHER LESSON IN VIOLENCE:

“Why you gotta be so heavy?! Why so heavy…?”

I just watched two videos on YouTube about “metal before Black Sabbath” and “metal after”, and there were a lot of bands I never heard of that were/are considered proto-metal, a term that I think is as over-used as “literally” and “narcissist”. I will post the links to the videos later on in the blog for your dancing and dining pleasure.

As far back as I can remember, I always liked the sound of a turbo-charged guitar, pounding drums and screaming vocals. Yes I like other genres too, but before I heard Judas Priest at the age of 11 in 1981, I was groovin’ to the obvious bands: Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Queen, Kiss, and Cheap Trick. I was “the weird one” in kindergarten onward because I was always singing along to these bands.

If I could really sing, you’d all see me perform more.

Anyway, when I first heard Judas Priest via the song/video “Hot Rockin”, I thought “Wow…look at the leather jackets…the sound of the guitars…the voice! I must know more!” Oh and my prayers were answered soon after with an Iron Maiden video called “Iron Maiden”. My mom actually walked out of the living room and said “This is noise! I hate it!”

Perfect!!

More bands followed: Scorpions, Accept, Dio, Deep Purple, Rainbow…oh this is my idea of dying and going to heaven…but wait…

Black Sabbath?! How come I never heard them before all these bands? Got me, but I bought the first Sabbath album when I was 13 back in 1983, and my ears were pummeled. THAT GUITAR SOUND!! This is where heavy metal began. Period. No dog in this fight. No room for arguing.

Soon after I heard what was considered “heavy metal”: Twisted Sister, WASP, Motley Crue, Quiet Riot, Dokken (ummm…no). Yeah I liked the stuff, but then a friend named Marc turned me onto…

Metallica!

Heard “Fight Fire With Fire” and I said “They make Judas Priest sound like the Monkees!” My stereo melted, my heart sped up faster, and this thing called thrash metal was perfect for an angry disillusioned 14-year-old. Soon I heard Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, Exodus…this music was made for ME!!

But then I got hip to bands like Black Flag, Venom, Mercyful Fate, Discharge…all this metal coming at me so fast and furious, I couldn’t keep up. I had to hear more of this heavy stuff, even going as far as buying an album I never heard of because the cover was cool. Did it piss off my parents? Then it came home!

And then my tastes shifted to a different type of metal in the form of Living Colour. This was called “funk metal”…what? This was a different brand of heavy, and I ate it up for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Jane’s Addiction followed, then Faith No More and a band that would pummel me into submission: Pantera!

Now suddenly Metallica sounded like The Bee Gees!

So what’s my point to this blog? Simple: Watching these two videos introduced me to some bands that never hit the mainstream, or never got as far as their garage door, but for their time, there was some HEAVY shit: Proto Metal 1 and Proto Metal 2

Of course, people’s opinions of what’s “heavy” will vary but make no mistake, some of the really obscure bands from the late 60s into the mid 70s were pretty crankin’! Are they as brutal as early Metallica or Cannibal Corpse? No way. But given the time frame, I could picture brains exploding to such bands as Sir Lord Baltimore, Budgie, and odd-named ones like Socrates Drank The Conium (?) and Suck (?!) As a matter of fact, here’s the Spotify playlist created by the guy who did the videos: Beyond Sabbath

Can you tell I get excited about heavy music? 🙂

I’ll be 56 in a couple of months and still love stuff that’s heavy!!

Why do I have to be so heavy?

Why not?!