Does anybody know if the lyrics to "Kill vs. Maim" are a direct nod/counter to the Scorpions song, "Only a Man?" Just curious if there are any articles shedding light on this question. Thanks!
When I was growing up, The Doors were universally adored, always discussed in the same company with the same reverence as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Jimi Hendrix Experience (another band that has puzzlingly lost a bit of stock since that time.) If you were ANY sort of cool kid, of any stripe, in the early '80s, you "loved The Doors, man!"
I think the '90s really did them in, as far as being critical darlings was concerned.. As mentioned, they were just as great an influence on the original punks as The Velvet Underground. When grunge hit and killed off the Siouxsie's, The Echo and the Bunnymen, etc., part of that "continuing legacy" was killed off as well.
Danny Sugarman's, "No One Here Gets Out Alive" had also had a decade to finally sink in and get chastised for being one of the most embarrassingly sycophantic and pretentious rock memoirs ever published.
Shortly after Val Kilmer and Meg Ryan hit the silver screen in '91, the pop zeitgeist shoved Morrison and his merry men back out of the Parthenon or Rock to collect dust in some dreary '60s alcove.
"Trying to define “metal” has been an ongoing issue for years, basically since DRI and the Cro-Mags."
I would say since the NWOBHM. The term has been in the rock vernacular since the early 1970s to describe extremely loud, guitar-centric music. We can all agree on this.
I have a friend who remembers hearing a couple of DJs on her local rock station back in 1981 playing Iron Maiden's soon-to-be-released, "Killers" album. They played the first two songs and made fun of the LP for the next half-hour because it was so stupid, extreme, ridiculous and unmusical.
I remember the first power and thrash metal bands calling the wave of Hellhammer/Bathory/German thrash utter trash and noneense. Kerrang! magazine made fun of all of those albums routinely in 1984/84, giving 1/2K and K ratings. Dave Mustaine famously said, 'Boycott Noise Metal" back in 1987 ( http://www.powerlinemag.com/2011/09/05/megadeths-two-daves-explain-peace-in-1987/) because he said all the new thrash bands were assholes who couldn't play.
This has been going on forever.
Quote I read today: "I always though XTC was a band you were supposed to like to seem smart, even though its pretty clear they are only smart if you are college sophomore. After that, they are kind of embarrassing (not to mention painfully white)." :)
I'm officially closing the comments to this article. You will NEVER see a live band this good. That's not a matter of opinion, that's a scientific fact. Thank you and goodnight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErXbMB9R5-0
For me the hardcore-derived, drill instructor harsh vocals are the only ones I can't get into! The black metal shrieks and death metal guttural gurgling are funny/amusing/absurd but since there's seems to be some subtext that that hardcore vocals are more "street" or "real" or more legitimate in their expression...and since they remind me of Pantera...they finally cross the line into cringe-inducing. It was the hardest thing for me to get past with, say, Baroness. And there are plenty of others. Funny!
I'm another one who has posted in multiple other album lists that the Maiden one needed to happen. Between this and the Metallica one, Stereogum, wow...just wow. And Adrien already knows how much I appreciate his work. So this is just above and beyond all hope.
Still waiting on the Motörhead one! :)
The beauty about some lyricists--the lot of Maiden--Ronnie James Dio, that Pinko Punko finds "cheesy" and that Carson finds navigating "ridiculousness," is that buried in all the preposterousness, Ronnie James Dio still expressed some TRUTH about human living that Bob Dylan or Elvis Costello or Tom Waits or Nick Cave could EVER, EVER get at using more ironic, sarcastic, or earnest approaches.
Life is not rational or logical. It is absurd. Ridiculous trumps ironic at every turn.
Neko and the band should learn a full set of Motörhead songs and bring appropriate backline to all venues to play it at the correct volume. I'd bet the majority of those "fans" more interested in playing with their phones than experiencing the music would turn tail and evacuate the venue by the time the band hit "Mean Machine" or "Snaggletooth" at 140 db. Weed out the weak. Neko is NOT music for people who don't like music.
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