Thrashing Around

One of the disadvantages of working in IT is the dreaded “On Call” rota. On the surface it is a pretty good deal: a fixed amount of money simply for having a mobile phone through which an systems operator can call to ask for assistance in the middle of the night. If there are no calls then it’s money for nothing. Unfortunately, I seem to get called quite regularly and usually at very inconvenient times of the night which leaves me grumpy and in a particularly foul mood. I’ve noticed that this also transcends into the kind of music I listen to. I recently received an Amazon voucher which I had intended to extend my collection of Jazz CDs with Miles Davis, Nina Simone and Herbie Hancock all lined up on my wish list. As it is, I made the purchase just after being woken up at 03:30 in the morning and, sure enough, a package showed up from Amazon with Anthrax, Metallica and Arch Enemy CDs enclosed.

The first two of these disks were part of my plan to replace odd bits of vinyl with digital copies. The Metallica CD Garage Inc. is a 2 CD affair containing cover versions of some of their favourite tunes. Metallica were one of Thrash Metal’s leading innovators but were always very happy to wear their influences on their sleeve. In fact, given that many of their influences were rather obscure British rock acts from the 1970s they could (and probably did) get away with playing covers of the songs and their American audience thinking they were originals. I first picked up on Metallica on the Tommy Vance show on Radio 1 in the early 1980s. They sounded quite unlike the “big hair” American glam and metal acts at the time: both in terms of the sound (fast staccato riffs, short break-neck guitar solos and machine-gun drumming) and by their lyrical content which was much darker and with a left-leaning political stance. In fact this was much the case for the Thrash sub-genre along with contemporaries such as Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer: “The Big Four” as they were known (although I wouldn’t really describe Slayer as particularly left-leaning).

Garage Inc consists of one disk of covers recorded in 1997 and another of EPs and B-sides which was what I was looking to replace. Some artists can take an old song and bend it into their own style to the point of creating a radically new work of art. Metallica don’t do this and most of the songs are fairly faithful reproductions of the original tracks (many of which I own) and they never quite surpass the originals, although Daimond Head’s Am I Evil, Budgie’s Breadfan and Queen’s Stone Cold Crazy are all worthy of playing in Metallican form. Only Thin Lizzy’s Whisky In The Jar is a step in the wrong direction – maybe a cover version of a cover version doesn’t quite gel?

The Anthrax CD is their Greatest Hit’s compilation, Madhouse. Anthrax were one of the first Thrash Metal bands to get UK chart success. This was partly due to them being signed to a major label unlike independently signed contemporaries such as Metallica. I did have couple of their singles on 7”: I Am The Law and I’m The Man: the latter which shows that this is a band with a sharp sense of humour. I never really bought anything else by them although I liked a couple of their other songs. Madhouse is a pretty decent compilation and as will as other hits such as Indians and Got The Time it also includes some of their pre-mainstream hits and also Bring The Noise – their collaboration with combative US rappers Public Enemy: it shouldn’t work but it really does.
The Arch Enemy CD is something of a suck it and see affair with me. They are originally from Sweden and describe themselves as “Melodic Death Metal” which means that they are not afraid of a bit of a tune in the style of Metallica but their vocalist (I wouldn’t exactly class it as singing) bellows out their lyrics in a Death Growl – a kind of deep, guttural screaming reminiscent of a demonically possessed and rather angry mad man. Unusually, Arch Enemy’s “Death Growler” is a rather attractive German lady called Angela Gossow. Manifesto of Arch Enemy is a compilation album containing a selection of their recordings with Ms Gossow and shows off both the melodic and death elements of the ensemble quite nicely. The vocals sort of work. It’s not my favourite style of “singing” but the lyrics are, for the most part, intelligible and the balance between the ferocious musicality of the band and the angry shouting of the front woman work quite well. I must admit, however, that I can only listen to this in small doses. After two or three tracks she just sounds a little bit upset about something.