No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No,No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No,No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No,No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No,No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No,No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No,
I hope they NEVER lose the rock faces. I'm from a generation where Motörhead, AC/DC, and Iron Maiden all threw shapes and made rock faces. Sissy little baby children raised on Taylor Swift, Avril Lavine and American Idol are, of course, gonna be skeered when real musicians kick total ass. This is life. Learn to love it and live it.
I'm 45, and this was the album that pretty much negated my attention to any other album, Summer of 1993.
http://www.stereogum.com/1388181/covenant-turns-20/top-stories/
This is one of the best metal articles I've read anywhere, by anyone. Vintage Cosmo Lee-quality and content levels. At 45 years of age, I remember the Summer of 1993 like it was yesterday. "Covenant," "Individual Thought Patterns," "The Ethereal Mirror" and "Screams and Whispers" ruled my CD player that summer. In a peculiar (or maybe not so) bit of synchronicity, I put all four albums back on my iPod just last week. Cheers!
I wish you would have folded "The Devil You Know" into this list. Bet you milled that one over in your head a bit before deciding against it. Good job! :)
The National - "Trouble Will Find Me"
Kylesa - "Ultraviolet"
Inter Arma - "Sky Burial"
Savages - "Silence Yourself"
The Knife - "Shaking the Habitual"
VHOL - "VHOL"
I have a story. I actually had a dream about "Reign In Blood" prior to it being released. I've been a Slayer fan since the beginning, since "Show No Mercy" showed up on my doorstep via mailorder in February, 1984.
In the fall of 1986, probably induced by reading the now-infamous Spin magazine advanced review of "Reign In Blood," I had a dream in which I heard, very clearly, the music that would constitute the as-of-then unreleased third Slayer album. It sounded EXACTLY like Tony MacAlpine's - "Edge of Insanity" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXEtpKNL1MA , but with Tom Araya's ghastly vokills over the top. That mental image stuck with me until I finally heard "Reign..." a few months later. Slayer's Def Jam debut did not sound like Mr. MacAlpine's neo-classical shredding. Huh.
"Push" was a big album for me that year as well. I saw the AiC/Screaming Trees/Gruntruck tour and, yes, I can confirm that Gruntruck blew both of the other bands off the stage. I saw them a little later headlining with, if I remember correctly, Dangerous Toys (?) at some filthy club in St. Louis. Yikes. Some of those riffs on "Push" were just jaw-dropping. Where's that Skin Yard reassessment?
I love that still! I thought it was David Bowie! Diamond Dogs-Bowie in an Absu video. That makes perfect sense in my world.
An awesome way to come home from work!
:)
After reading the "Turn on the Bright Lights" reflection, I was wondering if this was gonna get covered. Bought this and "Kill the Moonlight" on vinyl on the release date. This had the bonus 7" in it with the adorable song she'd written for Marshall. I put on three albums on my iPod this morning. Time telescope!
A lot has changed since then. I mean, DGC put Sonic Youth on tour with Neil Young and Social Distortion in 1990. No one really, I mean, REALLY, knew what was gonna happen.
And I saw Soundgarden open for Voivod in 1990. And Voivod were on MCA!!! It was a crap shoot and everyone, basically, after the inroads made by The Replacements, Jane's Addiction, etc. in the late '80s, wanted to see what might stick, rather then sign another Cinderella or Poison (not like there wasn't plenty of that still going on through 1992.)
"The mocking of rock star stereotypes was a veneer he hid behind until he could fully embrace them, which he made every attempt to do."
That reminds me of the very astute observations Chuck Eddy made about Cheap Trick by the early to mid-1980s.
Some of us remember 1988 when those of us who listened to Soundgarden were in college and their name was synonymous with Killdozer, Sonic Youth & Melvins and Option Magazine called Nirvana's debut LP a clone in the wake of Seattle's first signee to Sub Pop and SST. Those roots NEVER left that band. It's not their fault they got caught in the tide of pop culture hysteria and easy niche marketing. The band had been around for years before Pavement and Yo La Tengo fans started (foolishly) dismissing them as "hippie jock bro" rock.
I skipped class (college freshman) to go to the record store and wait for the UPS truck to deliver the copies of this on the day it came out. I remember being in my Honors English class with the cassette on my desk and some classmate poking fun at it. "This is going to be the biggest album of the decade," I told the guy. His response was, "Oh, yeah. 'Cause that 'Unforgettable Fire' really burned up the charts!" Well, history proved me right. That was a long time ago...
HAHAHAHAHAHA! You guys DID do it! Makin' me proud, Sterogum. Anywhats...I've not listened to this album in a great age. I actually no longer own a copy. But it was massively important to me in 1992. Essentially, the "big" metal album that Metallica failed to make with "The Black Album." There was a delicate balance created with this. The hardcore elements derived from Henry Rollins work with Rollins Band had not been twisted into the everyman-macho-jockcore-neanderthal idiocy that would very soon follow from this band and the literally thousands of "groove-oriented" post-thrash metal imitators. The end of "Mouth for War" even sounds like Voivod, fer chrissakes!
In my old age, when I really want to revisit the spirit of heavy metal thunder, circa-1992, I always reach for Entombed's godly classic second album, the massively influential and heralded, "Clandestine."
Next month, Pantera's - "Vulgar Display of Power" turns 20. Can't wait for the Sterogum article on that one too. As the darkwinter of 1992 gave way to spring, "Little Earthquakes" and "Vulgar Display of Power" were the flagships of what would end up being an unforgettable music year. Albums by The Jesus Lizard, Kyuss, PJ Harvey, Pale Saints, Entombed, etc. and shows from Rollins Band, Tori Amos, Skinny Puppy, Social Distortion, My Bloody Valentine, and Lollapalooza II, etc., et al., and so forth and so on. Wild 'n' wonderful times.
No one under the age of, at the very least, 40 can appreciate just what a tidal change "Van Halen" marked in all of pop and rock music. In a era marked by Player, Pablo Cruise, the soundtrack to "Grease," Gerry Rafferty and Tuxedo Junction, Van Halen's debut was EVERY LAST SINGLE BIT as much of a cataclysmic seismic change as "Pink Flag" or "Another Music In A Different Kitchen." The debut, at the very least, deserves to be listened to with fresh ears by anyone with even a passing interest in pop and rock and their history.
This was fantastic. Wonderful. As someone old enough to have purchased "Ride the Lightning" on its release date (well, as close as a pre-order/mail order could come in the Summer of 1984) and saw the band twice while Mr. Burton (with whom I share a birth date) was still alive, I truly appreciate someone who can grasp the importance of this band during their early years. Angry metalheads and anti-metal hipsters have been trying to revise their history for decades now, in light of the lame part of their narrative, but those first three albums will be unmatched for all time. A job very well done!
Why would anyone dislike this? It's a fact. Read the Decibel article with Mikael Åkerfeldt. IT WAS RECORDED IN THE SAME STUDIO THAT ABBA USED IN THE 1970s.
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