Because we at the MS Mansion keep no secrets about our un-ironic love of ’80s hair/glam and because we can never seem to resist a Carlos Ramirez-penned Top <insert here> list at Noisecreep, we give you The Top Ten Musicians with Hair Metal Pasts.

There are a few usual suspects whose Aqua Net pasts have been well-documented here and elsewhere (hiya Rivers Cuomo and studly stud Butch Walker) but there are a few surprises in there as well. Like Disturbed’s Dan Donegan… what I wouldn’t give to hear a Vandal recording! In fact, if someone wants to email those to us I’ll gladly post them for all of us to laugh / sneer at / enjoy.

Take a look at the list, then come back here and tell us why hair metal sucks.

-VN

Elise over at Reign in Blonde found this fan-filmed footage of Weezer doing what is actually, as she notes, a pretty decent cover of Sabbath’s “War Pigs.” Which isn’t entirely shocking, given that Weezer mastermind Rivers Cuomo is a known metalhead; of course, he’s also a self-professed Limp Bizkit fan, so I guess we should just thank our lucky stars he’s not running around covering “Eat You Alive” or whatever.

Actually, scratch that. Weezer covering Limp Bizkit might be hilarious, in that ironic emo hipster douchebag kind of way. Especially if they incorporated the rapping.

-AR

It’s a well known fact that Weezer mastermind River Cuomo is a metalhead (see ridiculous photo above). But I’ve read numerous interviews with the guy over the years where he promised (or threatened, depending on your point of view) to a metal album – even going so far as to claim that Maladroit was Weezer’s metal album – and the thing never seems to materialize.

Well, as it turns out, Weezer might have already made their contribution to metal, and I just wasn’t paying very close attention. SMN News pointed us to this interview with Weezer mastermind River Cuomo, in which he admits to biting off Metallica:

“‘The Sweater Song’ was the first Weezer song I ever wrote, back in 1991… I was trying to write a Velvet Underground-type song because I was super into them, and I came up with that guitar riff… It wasn’t until years after I wrote it that I realized it’s almost a complete rip-off of ‘Sanitarium’ by Metallica. It just perfectly encapsulates Weezer to me — you’re trying to be cool like Velvet Underground but your metal roots just pump through unconsciously.”

Oddly enough, I’d never really noticed the similarities between the two songs in the past. Hm.

Check out both songs after the jump and decide for yourself whether or not Cuomo really owes Metallica a royalty check or ten.

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I saw Cold open for Marilyn Manson once. Even though it was a good month after Halloween (I recall only because it was Thanksgiving weekend), guitarist Terry Balsucko wore a Michael Meyers mask the whole set and stood almost perfectly still, hunched over his guitar as though he should be in the belfry at Notre Dame; vocalist Scooter Ward stood at the lip of the stage, smoking a cigarette and remaining otherwise completely stationary; and drummer Sam McCandless’ hair was dyed to look like a cheetah’s fur.

Needless to say, it was the most painful forty minutes of my life.

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