Picking up on the story of my musical journey I started a couple of months ago before heading off to Indonesia... 1983...I dont think I can put into words... oh...you noticed I skipped 1980-1983...those were my lost years and Ill delve into them when I work up the guts...or get drunk enough...to do so. So Ill start over... I dont think I can adequately put into words just how huge 1983 was for me in the formation of my musical tastes. You can throw any other year you want at me in that decade...86...88...90...as far as Im concerned 83 was the year Metal broke in the US the way 94 was the year that many people point to Punk breaking in the US (though Id still argue it was 1980 or 81 though on a smaller scale). Not for Maiden. Not for Priest. Not for Scorps. Those bands were already on their way for metal Nirvana. Im talking about the second, third, fourth, and even fifth tier metal bands getting airplay here...and not just on Rampage Radio. KOME was HUGE for those bands in 83. And not just for albums but for EPs as well. The two most obvious examples are Ratt and Queenryche so Ill skip over them though Queen of The Ryche remains my all time favorite Ryche song even though it hits a little too close to Maiden-land. Three bands in particular I want to cite here... https://youtube/watch?v=Y0YkW2RzNMI Highway Chile broke here but it broke for Headbangers. I bought the album for that song and it was immediately eclipsed by the first song on the album. The rest of the record mostly sucked and the lyrics for this song are kind of lame but the music was grabbed my balls and wouldnt let go. What I didnt know until today was this track was originally put out on demo in 1981 which means it was ahead of its time or at the very least right there on the cutting edge of what the NWOBHM was doing at the time. https://youtube/watch?v=nWqo8aeYjW0 Tsunamis big hit was The Runaround but it was the not as often heard on radio Call off the dogs that I couldnt shake off. There was something mean about this song at the time...a kind of edge I hadnt heard before on radio from a band...that made the song stick with me. https://youtube/watch?v=8kgP0GtmeZQ Some people might point to Accepts Balls to the Wall or maybe Queen of the Reyche as the songs that really pushed the boundaries of what AOR would tolerate in 83 but for me it will always be Warlords Child of the Damned. Looking back Im surprised this song ever got played on mainstream radio...and it was off a freaking EP. https://youtube/watch?v=-kD2fmocAtY A close second to Child of the Damned in terms of pushing boundaries on commercial radio would be Saxons This Town Rocks. Full on intensity...more intense than what radio was playing with the more polished Maiden tunes at the time. Had KOME kept going down this path a little longer I am convinced Metallicas Kill Em All would have gotten airplay on KOME five years before it finally did. Maybe not the faster songs but certainly Four Horsemen. There is nothing that Four Horsemen did that you couldnt have found on KOME in 83. It is because KOME detoured off into hair metal with the far more accessible musical swill of the time that my progression to Thrash Metal was retarded by several years until the day... ...but thats the next chapter of this story.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 00:31:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015