The Fairweather Metal Fan Goes On Two-Week "Home Alone" Bender

Friday is fun because it's music. So playlists, links, and music chat. Today it's Very Metal. My two-week bender on the hard stuff. Lol.

It was two years ago, almost to the day, that I wrote about thrash metal. And made this playlist - my idea of a starter kit:

It was fun revisiting thrash at the time. I listened to it a bit in high school, and at various times, since - but always rather fleetingly.

In Praise of Thrash

I always describe myself as a fairweather metal fan - and I truly believe I do this out of respect to the lifers; the fans that make it a lifestyle choice and therefore live accordingly - patched up (as it were) and just laser-focused on the genre. For me, music is a melting pot and I want to be able to dip in and out. I might go on a jazz binge, or favour a particular band’s catalogue for a time (deep dives have been all the rage for me across the last five or six years). But I’ll listen to Serge Gainsbourg and Suicidal Tendencies, I’ll play my Beatles albums and my Billie Holiday records too. I’ll then follow up on both by listening to Neil Young or George Benson or Joni Mitchell or, well, you get the point…

Let me just add that this week I have planned a trip to Auckland in March to see two favourite artists a couple of nights apart: Graham Nash and Mr. Bungle. Am I the only person in New Zealand double-featuring those two musical acts that weekend? Maybe. But it’s not stunt-journalism. It’s just my brand. I am there for Graham Nash - member of CSN and/or Y, erstwhile Hollie, nearly Mr Joni Mitchell, and creator of one of the greatest debut solo albums of all time, of all time?

But I am equally there for for Mr. Bungle - one of the musical places Mike Patton calls home, and in their reincarnation as death metal group (going right back to their beginnings, and after a near 20-year hiatus) they feature one of my all time favourite drummers (Dave Lombardo from Slayer) and one of my favourite rhythm guitarists in metal (Scott Ian of Anthrax).

But if I’m using Bungle and Nash as the yardstick for how far I stretch, my yard has had hell of a heavy metal raking these past two weeks. (Cue Judas Priest: “Raking The Lawn/Raking The Lawn…”).

It’s been more Bungle than Nash. It’’s been more Patton than anything. I’ve played all of the Faith No More albums, most of the Fantomas ones too, all the Bungles, and then all sorts of associated acts - many Melvins (they’re also touring here with Bungle by the way) and then it’s been a bunch of classic thrash albums from The Big Four (Slayer, Anthrax, Metallica and Megadeth), and lots of things that aren’t metal at all, but in the context, when played alongside, are most certainly metal-adjacent (ie: Nine Inch Nails).

I guess it started when I took in Obituary. What a gig!

But, also, it started, because I have been home alone. And what I worked out about myself this last fortnight, is I generally don’t like listening to metal on headphones. I will, when I’m in the zone (I’ve been working this week to so many great Melvins sludgers, and to the first four albums by Metallica, and to some other Patton projects). But I really like the chance to blast my metal and heavy rock out loud. I’m not trying to teach the neighbourhood a lesson, or anything. But it needs to be heard open-eared, and in open air.

What this also tells me about myself is that I’m actually quite considerate. When Katy and Oscar return from their getaway this weekend, I’ll fold the metal music away like a faded gig t-shirt. Because it’s not music they love, so I won’t taunt them. They are people I love so much that I’ll help find common-ground music for the family, and/or give over the stereo to them, and their choices.

I mentioned that idea (listening to metal out loud, not under headphones, and particularly so while I’m home alone) in this piece above that is ostensibly about Metallica. It’s another of the revelations from this burst of metal appreciation: I can now agree/concede that Master of Puppets really is the best Metallica album.

Maybe that’s obvious - but for years I would argue that Ride The Lightning really is the one, but it took listening to Puppets on CD to make it all click for me. This is Metallica’s peak. This is the band firing on all cylinders for the final time.

But the biggest discovery/reminder of the last two weeks has been just how much I love Black Sabbath. And how so many roads lead to, or come from them.

I’ve always adored the Paranoid album, to me it’s a Top 20 album (any/all genres, eras). It’s just one of the records of my life. I listen to it in a way similar to how I listen to John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme or DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing or Cliff Martinez’ score for Solaris or Suzanne Vega’s Nine Objects of Desire, or, yeah, The Beatles’ Abbey Road, which is to say I listen to it with one ear focussed on past listens, me remembering exactly where I was when I first heard it, when I first had my mind blown by it. And the other ear is, I guess, listening to it in some future sense - still finding new things to enjoy about it.

Now, I love other Sabbath albums - particularly the records either side of Paranoid, but in listening to all of the Ozzy-era albums I realise those first four are as vital as any four albums by The Beatles or Led Zeppelin or Dylan or Tom Petty, or, well, whoever you care to name.

This, again, might not be a revelation to you. But it was to me. A belated eureka moment.

Dirty Spoons' First Show of 2024: Common Room, Hastings, Saturday, January 20

But the two weeks are up (it’s been closer to three, in fact). Tomorrow I head for Hawke’s Bay because the Dirty Spoons gig is on this week. I’ve also squeezed in listening to the Lizard Prom EP a bunch because a) it’s fucking great! And b) we’re lucky to have Tyley from the band running a solo set as our opener.

So the metal music, and associated noise and tunes, will all get folded away, and I’ll possibly go back to listening to solo albums by The Beatles, and all sorts of movie soundtracks, and whatever else. I’ll be looking forward to hearing about the music my wife and child have both been listening to on their holiday. And, of course, to listening to some of it too. And to whatever you suggest I try next below.

But my metal streak had a great polish this past fortnight. I signed it off fittingly, late on Thursday night by watching this great Mr Bungle live show. Only a few weeks to wait until I see them for reals. EXCITING!

Now, I wonder what metal-adjacent bands you can recommend me? And of course I have some music for you that’s not metal at all. It is in fact the world’s longest Substack-affiliated weekly running playlist series: It is Vol. 152 of A Little Something For The Weekend…Sounds Good! And, yeah, I think it’s quite good eh. Maybe you will too.

Thanks for reading. And listening. And happy weekend!