Various Artists - 'Headbanger's Bible'
(2005) WSM
Now you are talking my language - 45 metal tracks spread over
3 discs! This promo album was sent to me through the post for
review purposes, so I carried out my duty to rock by whacking
these songs on my car stereo to find how these three discs flowed.
Let's just say, it made me drive faster and the volume got cranked
up past a respectable level, especially on Judas Priest's 'Breaking
The Law'. These discs contain some pretty obvious metal staples
that any self-respecting fan already owns, your 'Paranoid',
your 'Born To Be Wild', your 'School's Out', but
a classic is a classic is a classic… A less obvious inclusion
is the original 'Smokin' In The Boys Room' by Brownsville
Station which was later covered by the drug-snorting Motley Crue.
It's not particularly metal though, which defies the compilation's
bold statement on the cover: "45 Megatrons of Metal Mayhem"
as many of these tracks veer closer to bluesy classic rock than
hard-hitting combustive metal. Argent with their 'God Gave
Rock'n'Roll To You' is another case in point, covered years
later by Kiss for friends Bill And Ted who had a most bogus time.
Good song, but hardly metal. Come on, where's the AC/DC, Iron
Maiden even Aerosmith? There are some huge name artists noticeably
missing, including Led Zeppelin, but the Zep probably charged
too much for royalties. Also, the album complier at Warner Music
must be a massive David Lee Roth fan because FOUR of his songs
are included: two solo performances in the poppy, massively catchy
'Just Like Paradise' and 'Yankee Rose' those intro
has Mad Dave talking to a guitar sound about his favourite subject:
girls. Add his former band Van Halen's 'Jump' and 'Panama'
from album '1984' to the list and the track selection is certainly
biased. Talking mathematics, artists with two tracks on 'Headbanger's
Bible' include Gary Moore, ZZ Top and Motorhead. No prizes that
'Ace of Spades' was chosen, as it's one of the most relentlessly
rocking song in Satan's existence.
I could be here all day disputing or analysing the choice
of songs, as there many welcome inclusions and plenty of tracks
I have never owned/heard before. Man, I can't believe I've never
heard Grand Funk Railroad's cover of '60s smash hit 'Locomotion'
before; it's fairly faithful to the original but not funky like
the band name suggest. When I saw Georgia Satellities with 'Battleship
Chains' on this album I was thinking "never heard of
it!", but I'm convinced I've been to a few bars that have
played this song during my alcohol sessions, as it's awfully
familiar, good song too. The majority of songs are from the seventies,
a few from the eighties and the odd three or four approaching
modern day (i.e - less than 15 years old). The only "modern"
artist featured is The Darkness which could be seen as a cynical
move to cash in on the current "classic rock" faze
they helped make fashionable again. Hell, to make it even more
obvious that The Darkness have made the likes of Motorhead and
Rainbow "cool" again is Queen's 'Killer Queen'
sequenced as the first track on the entire album, with The Darkness
with their biggest hit 'I Believe In A Thing Called Love'
the first track on the second compact disc, or vinyl if you're
a traditional metal fan. I'm surprised and contented to see The
Wildhearts represented with their nineties 'Sick Of Drugs'
minor single as they embody the soul of rock'n'roll as strongly
as most bands. Faith No More and Ugly Kid Joe are also represented,
the former with the super-commercial (by their standards) 'From
Out Of No-Where' and the latter with ultra-bratty yet lovable
'Everything About You', so moving onto the hidden gems;
Montrose are a band I've been conscious about for many years
but never listened to, so their 'Space Station #5' is
a pleasant highlight, surrounding heavily processed vocals and
guitar noodling with a solid groove and some uncultivated Led
Zeppelin bombast. Jo Jo Gunne is not exactly a heavyweight artist
when surrounded by the more recognisable Alice Cooper and Steppenwolf
who contribute the immortal 'Born To Be Wild', but 'Run
Run Run' holds it's own amongst the stiff competition, a
Southern fried rocker with sprightly vocals and a decent fret-board
workout.
So plenty to get your teeth, and many all-time classics that
you have heard hundreds of times before and glaring omissions
and a track selection likely to create many arguments. Come on,
no compilation is going to satisfy every listener, that's why
I make my own various artist compilations, meaning I can't complain
about the song-listing on my customised discs. Going back to
the 'Bible of All Metal, Ahem' aka 'Headbanger's Bible',
it's a decent attempt to cover all possible bases and will make
you hark back to a time when the guitar solo ruled, men with
funny perms wore spandex and groupies were as loose as they came,
just ask David Lee Roth.
This album was provided by PR gurus http://www.quitegreat.co.uk
Created - 7Apr 2005