Anyway, this particular year is best remembered for one thing: Ordinarily the Eurovision Song Contest is an exercise in cheesy music and tactical voting, but in 2006 the established order were given the fright of their lives when rubber-suited Finnish loons Lordi won by a frigging landslide.
Further amusement was provided by the various tabloid hacks who insisted on calling Lordi "Death Metal"
In other news, a brave attempt was made to revive the legendary Monsters Of Rock festival with a Classic-Rock friendly lineup ( Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Journey, Thunder, Queensryche, Ted Nugent and Roadstar.) Although I can attest to it being a good day's entertainment, the attendance was nowhere near what was hoped for and there has never been a sequel.
On the subject of festivals, The Bloodstock Festival was held for the last time at Derby's Assembly rooms and was marred by ugly incidents during the "Deathstars" set. After this the promoters would concentrate on the increasingly popular Bloodstock Outdoor Festival.
And finally, veterans Saxon were due to play Dubai's Desert Rock Festival until local authorities found out they'd recorded a song called "Crusader" . This went down about as well as you'd expect and the Yorkshiremen were unceremoniously ditched from the lineup.
Enough waffling. Time for some music.
We shall start with some Gallic fans of the 1980s.
Black Rain - No Life Till Metal
Honour to: Insrc
Breaking my "No instrumentals" rule here -
partly because it's a nice, smooth little number,
mainly because I like the band name.
3D In Your Face - Metal Fears (USA 2006)
Honour to: JoeEduard
Picking up the pace with a Power Metal band infused with a touch of Prog
Landsemk - Angeles Del Metal (Venezuela)
Honour to: stratovariuss2009
The next two are also South American but go in for differing flavours of Thrash Metal.
First, heads down, neckbreaking stuff.
Necrolisis - Devastador Metal (Costa Rica)
Honour to: THRASHxINSIDE
This next lot remind me of Kreator - the vocals mainly.
They also mix up the tempo to good effect.
Witchtrap - B.L.M.D (Black Leather Metal Damnation) (Colombia)
Honour to: darkesslocomotionjF
Slowing it down again with these crunchy-but-melodic Germans
Probably my favourite track out of this batch
Redkey - Metal Head (Germany)
Honour to: GiwrgosKoklas
I'm honestly not sure how to classify this next one. See what you think
Lions - Metal Heavy Lady (USA)
Honour to: mufasa999o9
Have some MeloDeath
Kalmah - Bitter Metallic Side (Finland)
Honour to: TheLastZombieFreak
If I hadn't seen the track info I'd swear the next came out in about 1980.
NWOBHM with a touch of Boogie.
Helvetets Port - Heavy Metal Night (Sweden)
Honour to: petrankaras
And finally, the band that inspired Metallica, among others, to take
Metal and make it faster and nastier.
Venom - Metal Black (UK)
Honour to: CountMozenrath
That's it for now folks. See you next time for more of the same.
Melody is SO key in metal, isn't it? It separates the platinum from the tin, so to speak.
ReplyDeleteWell yes. People tend to look at me funny when I tell them I like the more tuneful end of heavy metal. The melody is still there, you just need to get used to hearing it.
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