Malleus Trollheartus: Heavy Metal Heaven

[Trollheart]

I don't get it. Surely if you come to a forum you should have a basic grasp of Latin, or at least, words I've made up? All right then if you insist: malleus is Latin for hammer, and trollheartus is an ancient word that first comes to us from the famous codex called Eh Fabricus Meo Suckeria, which I think means, roughly translated, this is absolutely true, I did not make it up and if you say I did that's libel and I'll see you in court. Roughly. Look, it's a perfectly cromulent word, so can we stop arguing about it? Okay then, so this is basically Trollheart's Hammer, or the Hammer of Trollheart, which means you can forget your acoustic, violen-led love ballads and songs about dancing the night away, cos here it's all heavy, all metal, all the time.

Except, of course, when it isn't.

Thing is,while Progressive Rock was my first love, from an early age I was also a Metalhead, though there were only certain types of metal I listened to. Nothing "extreme" appealed to me, particularly the vocals. If a singer screamed, screeched, roared or grunted, hissed or shrieked or was otherwise unintelligible to me, I didn't want to know. Iron Maiden, Saxon, Virgin Steele – I was all over that shit. Power Metal, NWOBHM, Progressive Metal of course, Symphonic/Gothic – all these subgenres I could listen to. But throw a Thrash or Speed Metal album my way, or a Doom or Death one, not a chance. I was, I guess to some extent, a Metal lightweight (an aluminium Metaller?) or any other derogatory or derisory name you wish to call me. I liked Metal, but only some Metal.

Then I grew a pair, opened my ears and listened to others who knew a lot more about metal than I did, and finally began to appreciate the Metal I had disregarded and written off. Over a period of three years I decided to delve deeper into the Metal that had been, up to then, unknown to me, and ran Metal Month, which was exactly what it says on the tin: a whole month dedicated to Metal. Initially, this consisted of a month of basic reviews of albums, but during Metal Month II this was expanded  greatly, widening the scope, both of what I listened to, and of what I wrote, so that there were dedicated sections to particular subgenres, featured artists, examinations of Metal across the world, and a whole lot more. I'll be reprinting what I consider the best parts here, spread out over the journal.

Now, there's no way I would presume to consider myself an expert on Metal at this point, but at least now when someone says "Ulver" or "Blut Aus Nord" or "Darkthrone" to me, I know what they're talking about and can remember the music they play. Subgenres that have been a mystery to me – Black Metal, Viking Metal, Doom Metal, Death Metal to name but a few – are slowly beginning to give up their secrets and allow me to enjoy them. No longer do I shudder when I hear a death growl or a screech, and stop the track. It's still not my preferred form of vocals, I admit, but I've learned to appreciate all the "extreme" vocals and not only endure them but actually, well, not enjoy them exactly, but let's say appreciate them. I don't run off screaming into the night when I hear Emperor, for instance, let's put it that way.

Here I will be sharing my relatively newfound love of Heavy Metal, and inviting you to come along as I continue my education in this varied and diverse subgenre of music. This won't though just be a parade of album reviews, though there will be plenty of them too. I have a lot planned, and as usual, some of it may actually come to pass. We might even get the odd heavy metal ballad in there, you never know. There will be a linked table of contents so that finding the article you want will be a lot easier and it will be constantly updated as I add new stuff.

Anyone is of course welcome to comment, suggest, even maybe participate if they wish. I'm always open to recommendations, though how soon I get to them depends on my workload, which as usual is quite heavy. Metal.


I would also like to warn any purists against telling me that this or that album/artist is not metal. I will be researching all the stuff I put in here, but in general if it has "metal" in its description and if I can find the band on any of the main metal sites, it'll be considered acceptable to be featured here. You may argue that, of course, but don't expect to change my mind.

[Trollheart]

Wild Cat - Tygers of Pan Tang - MCA (1981)


I don't really think I can recall another instance of a band starting off as total heavy metal/rock and changing so completely into an AOR/soft-rock outfit, but that's exactly what happened with the Tygers of Pan Tang, who had a great chance to be one of THE heavy rock bands of the early eighties, and threw it all away. When I first heard Wild Cat, their debut album, I was completely hooked. This was headbangin' stuff, but with enough melody to stand out from the likes of Motorhead, Saxon et al. In fact, the first I heard of them was the single "Suzie Smiled", and then I HAD to get the album. My brother ended up getting it, and becoming a loyal Tygers fan, but I was crestfallen when they released the followup, Spellbound, as it just wasn't what I had expected. It was nothing like the debut, and as their career went on it went from bad to worse. But enough of the history lesson. Let's concentrate on this excellent debut, and try to put the subsequent mistakes behind us.

The album kicks off with some heavy drumming courtesy of Brian Dick, with the growling guitar of Robb Weir as "Euthanasia" gets us going, and although it's not in the same class as some of the later songs, it's a solid rocker that leaves you in no doubt as to what to expect. The swaggering vocals of Jess Cox typified the Tygers' sound, and I feel they really lost something when he left after this album. For me, he WAS the voice of the Tygers, and cheap imitations just didn't cut it. Much better is "Slave to Freedom", with some great axe work by Weir, and solid bass from Richard Laws, who on the album went by the name of "Rocky". This is one of the longer tracks on the album, and gives Weir freedom to indulge in the solos he was to repeat throughout the album, and other later ones, when allowed his head. It settles down into a nice sort of bluesy groove halfway through, but of course that doesn't last and we're soon into the dirty, heads-down rock and roll that was the Tygers' trademark.

Look, let's be clear about one thing: the Tygers weren't - originally - about subtlety. They didn't write deep lyrics, they didn't do complicated keyboard solos (mainly cause they didn't use a keyboard player!) and they didn't do ballads. Every song on this album is either fast, or just slightly less fast. The Tygers didn't do slow. But as an honest metal album, you'd search to find one as good. The rockin' continues with "Don't Touch Me There", and if there's a charge to be levelled at Wild Cat it could only be of a lack of variance in the songs: most sound relatively like the others, with a few notable exceptions. But then, when they're songs of this hard rockin' quality, who cares?

One of the best tracks on the album is "Killers", also the longest, at just over six and a half minutes. The tale of gunslingers in the old West, it's a powerful, riff-laden rocker that kicks off with a great bassline from Rocky, before he's joined by Robb's snarling guitar and the whole thing plays out like the best of Thin Lizzy, with some truly spectacular solos from Robb, clearly enjoying himself as a modern-day desperado, swapping a Colt 45 for a Fender Strat. Things speed right up at the end, as the whole band goes a little crazy, one trying to outdo the other for speed, before it all comes to a powerful end.

"Fireclown", again introduced on Rocky Laws's bass, shows that the Tygers have some ideas in their lyric-writing book, as this is based on a science-fiction novel written by Micheal Moorcock, called, you guessed it, Fireclown. I should probably also mention that the band got their name from another Moorcock book (forget which one), in which an island is called Pan-Tang, so they were obviously fans of his work. Another plus for them, as far as I'm concerned! The title track could probably be a bit more memorable, but it does have some nice echo effects, and another great Robb Weir solo. Shades of the old seventies band, the Sweet, in there too. Personally though the best track for me is the one that got me into this band, "Suzie Smiled". Okay, it's nothing terribly special, another hard-rocker, but it was the first time I heard THAT guitar sound, and THAT voice, which totally turned me on to the Tygers, so it'll always remain my favourite.

The album ends on another long track, "Insanity" just beaten out by "Killers" as the longest track by a few seconds. More great solos, ch ugging guitar and thundering drums carrying along a track which really brings the album to a steamhammer ending, the way it should finish.

Look, I'm not going to make any false claims here. You're not going to find anything amazingly new here, nothing that's going to make you want to tell everyone about this album, but in a time when so many rock bands were more AOR or glam-rock than metal, the Tygers stood for pure, honest, down-to-earth no-nonsense metal, and it's such a pity their story went the way it did. Once Jess Cox left and John Sykes got into the band, things went very much the other way and the Tygers became a far softer, radio-friendly band, resulting in their eventual disbanding in 1983. Well, to be fair, there were some really nasty factors that contributed to this, mostly label pressure and an attempt to make the band into something they were not, nor wanted to be, as well as disagreements within the band and changes to the lineup, not to mention some disloyalty on the part of Sykes.

But the fact remains that if you look at the subsequent albums, Spellbound shows their symbol/mascot, the tiger, on top of a mountain, looking somewhat trapped, while the next one has him somewhat incongruously doing a "King Kong" atop a building, swatting at little planes (Tiger Moths, I believe!), and by 1982 he has been well and firmly caged. Here, he is free, wild and roaring unfettered on the album sleeve, a challenge to all comers, a beast to be feared. This tiger was not about to be caged, not in 1980!

Wild Cat is how the Tygers should have been, and how I want to remember them. Purchase or stream, hit play and listen to them roar!

TRACK LISTING

1. Euthanasia
2. Slave to Freedom
3. Don't Touch Me There
4. Money
5. Killers
6. Fireclown
7. Wild Catz
8. Suzie Smiled
9. Badger Badger
10. Insanity

[Trollheart]

Long live the King - Narnia - 1999 (Nuclear Blast)

Christian rock bands, huh? Definitely not my cup of tea. Normally. I don't profess to being a practicing Christian - I do my best to be a good person, but I don't swear allegiance to any god, and definitely not to any religion, least of all catholicism. So when I hear a band who make a living praising God in their lyrics, I usually run the other way. I would think I'm not alone in this. Were God (assuming, for the moment, that  He exists) to walk in to the Rock and Metal Pub and order a beer, I don't think too many of us would be sitting at the bar with him. We're used to more, shall we say, dark elements making up our rock and metal music. I was brought up on the likes of Maiden, Sabbath, Dio and Whitesnake, and hey, even Manowar, and these guys seldom mentioned the G word: usually their lyrics and images paid homage (jokingly, loosely or in some cases, seriously) to t'other side. Hey, as AC/DC told us once: Hell ain't a bad place to be!

Well, it probably is, but let's be honest: there was and is much more fun to be had singing about the Devil and Hell and damnation and flames and demons, than there ever was extolling the virtues of Heaven, angels, choirs and Jesus. It's just how it is. And bands who decided to throw their lot in with the Almighty tended, in the main, to get laughed at, and not considered by serious metal fans.

Well, all that changed for me when I heard Narnia for the first time.

To be perfectly honest, I just thought they were another metal band, and the Narnia in their name referred to the CS Lewis books (which it does), but then, examining those a little more closely, the books are very heavily slanted on the side of Christianity, in a way other fantasy novels are not. So when I first heard "Gates of Cair Paravel", the short introductory opening track to Long Live the King, I was impressed. Great keyboard work, cool guitars, solid drumming. This is going to be a good album, I thought.

And I wasn't wrong, though I would have to seriously change my entrenched opinions, as it happened.

"Living Water" kicks off then, and it's a humdinger, a great metal track that would not be out of place on any Iron Maiden or Van Halen album. It's only when vocalist Christian Lijegren sings "I met Jesus Christ/ He's the Son of God" that I did a doubletake. Oh no! These guys were CHRISTIAN ROCKERS, or indeed, worse, Christian Metallers! But wait, don't turn off that track yet. What's that incredible guitar and keyboard solo going on as I try to process this new information? Holy fuck, that's good! So maybe it's a Christian song, but maybe it's just this one. Let's wait and see. Man, that track is power metal at its very best! For God-botherers, these guys are amazing! So let's stick with it. For now.

Oh yes, this is much more like it! A stomper, cruncher, thumper, call it what you will, but the power of "Shelter through the pain" can't be denied. Just listen to guitarist Carljohan Grimmark play - oh no! What was that Lijegren sang? "Lord give me shelter/ Every night, every morning." Maybe it's just a generic "lord". But no, there he goes again: "Oh my Lord/ From Heaven above." Nope, it's definitely the Lord he's talking about!

Okay, so now many of you are probably saying, what's the big deal? If the music is good, what does it matter that the lyrics praise God? To be honest, you're right, but at the time I really struggled to continue with the album, as, being a non-believer, I don't like to listen to the opinion of others - well, I don't like to be pushed towards the view of others; you know, the old conversion idea - on religion and gods, especially through music. That's not why I listen to rock music. But in the end, the pure quality of the music won through, and I defeated my demons (see what I did there?) and went on to thoroughly enjoy this album.

So, differences settled then, there is no praise high enough for this band, and this album, the only one of theirs I've so far heard, though I have the rest of their discography to listen to. The musicianship is first rate, with excellent keys work by Martin Claesson, and the stupendous guitar work of the aforementioned Grimmark. It's kind of like listening to one of those eighties heavy metal albums we used all to love, stuffed with squealing guitar solos and thundering drums, powerful vocals and a keyboard player who sounds like he has been taking lessons from Rick Wakeman.

"The Mission" is a little less impressive, a little ordinary, but "What You Give is What You Get" pulls things back on track. It's kind of hard for me to evaluate the lyrics, as they're pretty much all of the "repent-and-be-saved" ilk, which makes them both samey and unimaginative, and also outside my experience, and I feel unqualified to pass judgement (no pun intended!) on them. The rhymes are a little obvious though, and I would certainly say that, even my own preconceptions and problems with them aside, the lyrics are the weak point of Narnia's formidable arsenal. Of course, if you're into this sort of thing you'll probably love it, but I would rather hear songs about cars, battles, love,  even mystical rainbows to weird lands than repeated warnings that I'm going to go to Hell.

I suppose it's a measure of just how good this album is that I'm prepared to champion Narnia's cause, despite my aversion to their lyrical content. But it is that good, you just can't avoid it. That's not to say of course that every track is excellent, but as a pure metal album this really works as a cohesive unit. "The Lost Son" is a good solid rocker, with drummer Andreas Johansson really getting to express himself, and the title cut is a bombastic, storming brute of a track, with growling guitars and heavy, powerful drumming as Lijegren affirms his fealty to God's cause: "I wanna live, wanna fight/ Yeah long live the King."

In all fairness, Narnia are not constantly trying to ram God down your throat, just staying true to their own beliefs, and it's only "Dangerous Game" that comes across as almost unendurably preachy, as Lijegren warns of the dangers of turning away from God: "Dangerous game/ You're playing with your soul/ Devil's game/ You're under his control." Rrrighttt.... Annoyingly, it's one of the best tracks on the album, with a really cool harpsichord-type intro and then careening along at breakneck pace, with the obligatory guitar solo from Grimmark, and some fine, ferocious drumming from Johansson. Damn! They almost make you WANT to turn to God! Who said heavy metal is the Devil's music?

"Star over Bethlehem", the longest track on the album, unsurprisingly celebrates the birth of Jesus, on the back of a heavy drumbeat, choral organ and whirring guitar, and there's no doubt as he sings that Christian Lijegren means every word. "I see the world with different eyes/ The Son of God has changed my life/ He is salvation." You can't deny, listening to it, that it's a real metal epic, one of those heavy crunchers that just marches along like an unstoppable army.There's a real sense of majesty, power and indeed awe about the song as it flips the finger at Satan, and yeah, I can see rockers punching the air to this, either unaware or uncaring what the message in the song is.

A nice little medieval-type outro called "Shadowlands" closes the album. I guess it brackets the album between it and the opener, "Gates of Cair Paravel". It finishes the album on a lower key note than I would have preferred, but it seems oddly appropriate, somehow.

I guess the real lesson learned here is that the music is its own power. It doesn't really matter what the singer is singing about, if you enjoy the musicianship and the arrangements, the solos and the intros and the outros. I learned this with the music of Josh Groban, some years ago. Half the time I didn't understand what he was singing - or even in what language - but I loved his music, and grew to really love the songs. So my advice here is similar: ignore the lyrics if you can/will, or let them wash over you and hey, maybe they'll change your life. Me, I can now easily listen to this album without worrying about the religious side of it, but it took a little internal struggle for me to get there. It may not take you as long, or you may not have that struggle, but if you do, please do your best to persevere, as it really is worth it.

I feel like saying now, having listened to the album, "Glory Hallelujah, I have seen the light!" I haven't, but I feel like saying it. Considering I was thinking of not listening to the whole album originally, I think I've come a long way.

Long live the King. If he exists. Maybe.

TRACK LISTING

1. Gates of Cair Paravel
2. Living Water
3. Shelter Through the Pain
4. The Mission
5. What You Give is What You Get
6. The Lost Son
7. Long Live the King
8. Dangerous Game
9. Star over Bethlehem
10. Shadowlands