JUMPING DARKNESS PARADE: DAATH’S EYAL LEVI ON HIS MOST INFLUENTIAL METAL RECORDS OF ALL TIME (THE EARLY DAYS)
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 3:30pm by Eyal Levi
MEGADETH, RUST IN PEACE
Ok, I was like, what, eleven when this shit came out? More like thirteen when I discovered it. Back then, Dave Mustaine was almost like a political figure as far as metal goes. Who knows how I’d look at his role now, but back then, he was a hero.
And then there was the songwriting. Nobody was writing music as creative as them. Listen to the guitar breaks in songs like “Five Magics” or the entire masterpiece, “Rust in Peace.” Nobody was writing stuff like that, and for the time, I felt like the lyrics actually meant something. And the solos – try playing a Marty Friedman solo when you’re thirteen. Try playing one now. The dude is/was/ and will forever be untouchable.
This band meant the world to me back then. I’m not crazy about the new directions the band has gone in, but that doesn’t diminish that they changed my life back when I was younger. I always felt like their rival bands were playing it safe, and that Megadeth was taking all the musical risks. I definitely think that this would be the musician’s choice for those of us who are and were still into real metal with real songs. Not just shred wankery.
PANTERA, VULGAR DISPLAY OF POWER
The cover is a dude getting punched in the face. The videos that went along with the album are these crazy motherfuckers living the life, trashing hotels, partying, having a great time, and playing huge motherfucking shows. Check out their live videos from that era. Check out how tight they were. I challenge newer bands that rip off their vocal
and riff style to try and even come close to how tight these guys were. It doesn’t happen. This band was one of a kind. Shame about what happened.
The funny part now is that I feel like a bunch of the younger generation of whatever-core bands out there rip off these guys left and right and have no clue that they are ripping them off. The older generation still gets it about them, but I fear that their legacy has been tainted a little, and that bugs me the fuck out. This band is responsible for the majority of the crunk metal sound that’s out there now.
GUNS N’ ROSES, APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION
I still don’t know if this classifies as metal, but I don’t care. Back then you had Poision, Def Leppard, and the rest of the spandex bullshit, and then these guys screaming about their lives on the streets. There’s something about this music that just felt completely real, as opposed to all the other hairspray metal that was out at about that time.
Then there’s the music. Have you ever heard this album on headphones? Slash and Izzy Stradlin are almost never playing the same riff at the same time. The whole album is a counterpoint and counterplay of the two guitarists. Pretty impressive if you ask me.
And the solos? Again, untouchable. Many people talk shit about Slash’s soloing, but I’d like to see any of these rock n roll wannabes who think they can touch the blues get in the ring with him. Either people have too much technique and they end up sounding like white boys, or they don’t have enough rage and they end up sounding like dinner music. Slash knew how to compose the perfect blazing rock’n’roll solos.
-EL
Visit Daath on MySpace and maybe someday one of their albums will be your most influential records.
Wow, you’re posting a lot as of late! RiP is obviously one of, if not THE best thrash album ever made. Interesting point about GnR. I haven’t listened to them in a REALLY long time (I’m neither a fan nor a hater), so I guess I’ll try it sometime soon to notice the counterpoint. It’s always great to find subtleties like that in music.
WORD!!!
needs more slayer
im all about vulgar display
VDoP definitely kills, even today. Dunno if it’s just me, but Bodom sounds influenced by it especially.
Funny you mention Bodom…the 2nd riff of “Sixpounder” on Hate Crew Deathroll sounds almost exactly like the 2nd riff on “A New Level.”
All I can say is wow if those albums are the most influential albums.
Influential to me. Whats on your list?
You’re absolutely right on all counts. . .but I was hoping to find more albums that you consider to be so influential…these are definitely up, up, up there on my list. I actually listen to Appetite for Destruction more than the other two; Rust In Peace – the occasional song, because I’m faaar from crazy about what Dave ‘The Vain’ Mustaine is doing with the b(r)and now, and sadly enough, I hardly put on Vulgar…it breaks my heart…because it’s me favorite of the three. Might sound like I just contradicted myself, but that’s only because I’m cuckoo for crunk.
There are many more records that influenced me. These are just the first three that brought me over to the dark side. The gateways so to speak. I’ll talk about other influences later.
Totally agree on all counts. I’m especially pleased to see “Rust in Peace” mentioned here. It’s an amazing album that I rarely hear/see discussed. The solos still give me chills to this day. I can’t put into words what a letdown “Countdown to Extinction” was after the brilliance of “Rust”.
There’s a part of me that also misses the era in which these albums came out…where girls would come up to me and ask me where they could get the Guns ‘n’ Roses t-shirt I used to wear in junior high school. Heavier bands rarely get the exposure necessary to generate that level of interest these days. Sad.
i’ll second that. countdown was a huge disappointment.i hoped it was maybe a misstep and held my fingers crossed for youthanasia. but that was even worse…such a tepid piece of hard rock, i knew they were gone for good. they broke my teenage heart and thats hard to forgive
megadeth’s slide into lame ass hard rock is (read:- calculated attempt to court the big time) is seldom discussed in a negative tone (certainly compared to metallica). people think ‘risk’ was a bit poppy and that was it, the rest of their catalogue is solid. not likely. if metallica are to be castigated for selling out, so should megadeth (perhaps moreso seeing as they didnt even manage it properly (popularity wise)).
and now that heavy stuff and solos are popular again, what do you know, he’s about to release a heavy shreddy album ala rust in peace. i’ll listen to it but i hope i don’t like it as i don’t want to give tacit approval to his cynical populariity chasing as each epoch dictates
Oh cmon, they got bad, but they still werent as bad as Metallica in the 90’s. Risk was terrible, but the rest of the shit they released was at least black album level (which is still terrible mind you, but not quite as shitty as “Low Man’s Lyric”, or “Ronnie”. On top of that, Megadeth has been coming back with some heavier thrashier shit since 04 when The System Has Failed came out, and even moreso with United Abominations a couple years ago. No, it isn’t Rust in Peace II, but to say they wussed out as much as Metallica is a pretty hard sell. Don’t forget also, the more albums you sell, the more castigated you get when you get all lame-ass. Megadeth may have been as good or better than Metallica in their prime, but they had nowhere close to the fanbase.
What happened to Blessed are the Sick? That was from the same era and every bit as influential.
I didn’t get into Blessed are The Sick until I had already been into metal for a little while. Blessed are the Sick changed my life as well, but there albums are the ones that pulled me in in the first place
Mad respect.
It’s funny, I look at the albums that influenced me as a kid and they’re all Straight Outta Compton, The Chronic, Ridin’ Dirty etc.
poser.
If anything I’d be a poser if I said any metal or rock album influenced me early on. I wasn’t listening to any of that till I was a junior in high school.
Vulgar/Pantera is definitely on my list AND I know well enough nothing like that can be duplicated nor do i try. Bands today that do this claim to be originators & unique, but they’re re-inventing the (st/wh)eel.
The msg. in RIP was definitely strong & got me to think outside the box. It was around early Junior high where i got to hear it. And the funny thing is Countdown was totally under-appreciated when it came out, but now when you hear it, when I hear – i think its quite a tough album. Appreciated more now then back then, definitely.
For me, was Arise by Sepultura – it had both a strong msg. & good musicianship. & i carry that into my playing. ALOT of death metal too. Napalm, Cannibal, Morbid. Even the CLASSIC classics, like Floyd & Sabbath who wrote deep music that regardless whether you were stoned or not, as a musician you could be able to appreciate that shit!
Defintely some SLAYER needs to be in there too.
I asked a dude one time if he listened to Pink Floyd and he replied, “Oh, I’m not in to the whole drugs thing.”. This made me want to punch him in the face. My stoned days were well over, but you don’t needs drugs to enjoy Pink Floyd. I mean, it makes it a little more interesting but it’s not needed in order to appreciate the tunes.
def leppard are really not spandex and hairspray.
please
These are all SUPER influential albums for me too. Interesting point about “Appetite…” on headphones. I totally went back and did that for the first time not long ago and tripped out. One of the only bands of that time to get really creative with the compositional aspects of stereo recordings. Also this and “Rust…”, you can really hear each guitar doing ONE thing (even when they opt to double) as opposed to the perfect Hetfield triple-tracked layer cake. Nothing against that but in the case of those albums, the rawness is essential.
I remember the first time I read the tab for Hanger 18 and just wonder how the hell I was supposed to stretch my fingers in to the crazy chords in the intro, no less tackle a single solo from that song. Friedman is a madman and his solowork is beautiful too.
You really don’t have to stretch that much to play the intro, the chords aren’t too crazy
Absolutely spot on!! Agree on all counts. I too feel like today’s generation of metal heads knows very little if anything about where the music came from.
Yay RiP is mentioned! What a great album…and the end of a string of great 80’s releases by ‘deth. They would never even come close to this ever again. Glad to hear people put in a good word for it.
The only thing Pantera influenced was absolute garbage. It also influenced a lot of white trash NASCAR fans to smash Busch Light cans with their heads, shoot shotguns in the air, do donuts in cornfields with their pickup trucks and vote for George W. Bush.
This sums up 99% of Pantera fans:
O’Doyle RULES !!!!
Hey now, just because you got beat up by a bunch of jocks in high school who liked Pantera doesn’t mean you need to hate :-) In all seriousness though, it isn’t exactly Pantera’s fault that they made good metal that appealed to the masses somewhat as well. Taking Vulgar aside, minus the redneck beer can smashing thing, it is a brutal album that paved the way for many current metal bands, I’m sure (even the good ones).
There’s a reason I didn’t mention Pantera in my post. I’ve summed up why they’re horrible too many times to count. Well put, Biff. And zhitnik, it’s not “brutal” by any standards.
Well subjective definitions aside, my point about its influence is still there, whether you like it or not.
Oh, I know they influenced a lot of bands. they just made really simplistic, bad music that inspired a lot of simplistic, bad music.
You would probably be surprised how many of your favorite metal bands were influenced by Pantera in some ways. Even that goofy Dungeons and Dragons metal you like.
I don’t know about simplistic, but much the same can be said of Van Halen [back when they still mattered (RIP)].
…And I don’t know about bad, either. The point that I’m ham-handedly trying to get across is that more than one band of debatable quality (for the record, I’m all about Pantera and VH both, but to each their own) has inspired numerous shitty offspring.
See, THIS travesty of commenting is what happens when you’re posting (distracted and on the sly) at work. I’ll stop now.
right on! ah sweet memories: carcass: necroticism, biohazard: urban discipline, life of agony: ugly, type o: bloody kisses, anthrax: persistence of time, death: individual thought patterns, machinehead: burn my eyes, meshuggah: destry erase improve, suicidal tendencies: the art of rebellion, cynic: focus, a good era for metal!
Eyal, what exactly is crunk metal? Are you talking about those (insert prefix)core bands that rip off Pantera like Throwdown, A Perfect Murder, etc? To each their own but I thought The Great Southern Trendkill was a much more influential album than Vulgar Display of Power, not to mention that Walk has been overplayed to death. Though it’s weird to think that Pantera made the best music when they were going through their roughest times like when Phil distanced himself from the band and overdosed on heroin. That all happened during the Trendkill era.
Are you a Down or Hellyeah fan?
Crunk is just southern slang for something that hits really fucking hard and in a musical sense with a lot of groove. There’s no such thing as “crunk” metal. Funny that you would ask me to describe it. Its just slang.
I don’t like Hellyeah. I love Down.
I’m glad you have your opinion on Southern Trendkill and all that but I was merely speaking about the albums which influenced ME to get into this genre of music when I was a wee lad.
Haha yeah, well you know there’s just so many sub genres of metal now these days and they keep adding up. Speaking of Megadeth, I heard they might do a U.S. tour with Slayer this year. I’d love to see that especially since there was all this supposed “beef” between Dave and Kerry.
Next time you guys tour, you should bring out Behemoth with you.
I love Down but can’t stand HellYeah. HellYeah is pretty much a tired parody of Pantera where Down does something different.
Did you just ask yourself a question then answer it?
nope, just stating my opinion
you’re so right about pantera!
but there are some very tight bands out there, I’ve seen facless last night, I was like. Dude is this the album on playback? wtf?
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL THIS IS SOME NEW STUFF RIGHT HERE
Sepiltura’s ARISE was a kick in the ass for me. SO many riffs and time changes in any given song. really kept my attention. Cowboys from hell was so different to what I was used to. Can’t tell ya how much I partied and played sega genesis to that shit. It will turn you into a drunk!!!!!!! Badass!