.....The other night, on the way home from dropping my Son off at a birthday party, as it was such a beautiful evening I decided to roll the windows down, open the sun roof and let Testament blaze my eyebrows. I was only rolling down the street at about 10 miles an hour. There were two reasons for this:1. I was in a residential area and there were kids everywhere
2. On this beautiful Summer evening, I was thoroughly enjoying the fresh air and the tasty sounds Chuck Billy & Co and was in no rush to speed home.
It is a good thing that I was driving so slowly because a boy who couldn't have been any older than 3 busted out into the street about 25 feet from my car on some kind of motorized four wheel thingy. I stopped, looked around...fully expecting to see some parental units in the near vicinity. About 20 or 30 seconds go by, nothing....not a single adult in sight. Suddenly, I see the front door to one of the houses come flying open. There, on the front porch stood this dude with what is quite possibly the most glorious mullet I have ever seen. He had a cigarette in one hand, a malted beverage in the other and was wearing a black T-shirt that had a picture on the front of Sir Ian Fraser Kilmister (Not yet Knighted by the Queen but he should be)\m/. The back of the shirt read "I'm So Bad....Baby I Don't Care." He proceeded to take a drag of his smoke, a drink of his brew and shouted at the young lad in the street "Hey boy.....git yer butt up here 'fore I open a can of whoop ass." At this point, I was wondering if I should intervene. Fortunately, an older woman (probably Captain Super Mullet's Mother) who appeard quite sober came out of the house, calmly went to get the boy and brought him safely back inside. Before I drove away, I made eye contact with Mr. Motorhead shirt. He looked at me, unleashed a massive Coors inspired belch, enthusiatstically lifted his hand (the one that wasn't holding the beer) to throw me the "horns" and started laughing hysterically before stumbling back into the house. You may be wondering why I am telling you this story. What I am getting at is this, try as you may but it is just wrong put all "Metal Heads" into a single category (as many people seem to enjoy doing). This World is littered with millions of headbanging hooligans. Not all of us don a sweet mullet, get drunk in the afternoon and neglect our Children. We Metal Warriors are a diverse crowd.....we are Bankers (Scrotos), Business Owners(Dr. Beau), Hotel Managers(Dominicus), etc; The list goes on and on. That being said, you can forget about silly stereotypes. There is no need to put us all into a small category...there is enough Motorhead for us all to enjoy.....\m/..
...The other day, I was writing about my love of Hatebreed. I do indeed love them..... Me love them long time, one time.:). However, in the early 1990s Crowbar delivered some deliciously groovetastic sludge that no dobut served as inspiration for Hatebreed (and throngs of imitators). To quote the great Dominicus-Slayer of Beats, Jamey Jasta was a Barista at Starbucks when he heard Crowbar for the first time! I also think he probably wore flip flops, rocked out to Rusted Root and kept wine coolers in his man purse. The video for "All I Had I Gave" is pretty silly and even though it is a predictable choice for me to pick as a Crowbar "showcase," the riffage is undeniable and Kirk's sepulchral groan is not of this World!:)\m/
For the last several days, I have been ranting about rediscovering "old school" Metal. As I was looking through my collection, creating my "A," "B" and "C" piles (based solely on their ability to bring the thunder), the fact that became abundantly clear to me is that the preponderance of quality riffaliciousness that is unleashed on the masses today is brought to us by the most excellent promulgators of the "Classic" Metal music we hold near and dear to our hearts. Case in point.....The Puppet Master by King Diamond (Kim Bendix Petersen). For those who are not down with the King....King Diamond was the lead vocalist for Mercyful Fate in the late 1970's and early 1980's. I am so thankful for Mercyful Fate because without these pioneeers, I dare say that Metallica would perhaps not have ripened as masterfully as they did. Hetfield, Ulrich, Mustaine and McGovney may have still convened in Lars' garage in 1981 but without the influence of "Fate," their amazing demo "No Life 'Till Leather" may have sounded more like "High and Dry" by Def Leppard (A fine piece of work in it's own right but not exactly laden with "Thrashtastic" grooves)! My point is this, even though Mercyful Fate disbanded before they could leave the mark on the World of Metal that they were truly capable of (Because the rest of the Dudes in "Fate" opted to go in a softer and more "commercial" direction), King went on to produce some premium solo material and like a fine Chateauneuf-du-Pape, he gets better with age. 
So here's the thing...I love Metallica, you love Metallica, we all love Metallica but I wish people would stop saying that they "invented" Thrash. Yes, they did write some of the best Metal ever recorded and certainly are an amazing Band but they did not pull this stuff out of their bungholios. Ever heard Angel Witch, Mercyful Fate, Diamondhead, Venom or Motorhead??????????????????? Listen to "Curse of the Pharoahs" by Mercyful Fate (not just because Metallica covered it) or "Love Me like a Reptile" & "We are the Road Crew" by Motorhead. Notice any familiar riffs????? Yes, we must give Metallica their props but we cannot forget the orginal Puppet Masters. LONG LIVE KING DIAMOND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The other night, my Wife and kids were "scrapbooking," so they were digging through storage bins of photos, artwork, memorabilia, etc. My 5 year old (young Roberto), handed me a CD and said, "Dad, this must be yours....it looks like Heavy Metal or something!" Indeed, it was mine and it was of course, "The Metal." It was Iced Earth's SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES. About 5 years ago, I was going through old CDs, deciding what to keep, what to give away and what to sell and I remember putting "SOMETHING WICKED" in my nostalgia bin. At the time, I was experiencing a bit of burn out on the "American Wave of Heavy Metal" groups but knew that at some point in the future I was going to feel the need to dust off this old gem. Yesterday, I was reminiscing about the "old" groups I used to listen to with some frequency and coincidentally, Roberto discovered Iced Earth. Of course, I had to throw on "Something Wicked" at my earliest opportunity (which came last night after I returned from Dr. Rock's studio). I poured myself a glass of wine, put on my SCL4s so I don't wake up the Family and drifted of into a Metallic Dreamworld.....