OFF: Re: 80s Metal

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On 10 Sep 2008, at 08:51 , Swartz, John A. wrote:
> Funny, looking back on it, I probably prefer the stuff on Black
> Sabbath's "Heaven and Hell" and "The Mob Rules" album to the first 2
> Dio albums.  Jimmy Bain's a great bassist (with great metal tone), but
> he really can't compare with the legendary Geezer Butler (or Steve
> Harris of Iron Maiden*).  Tony Iommi and Vivian Campbell are apples  
> and
> oranges - both great in their own rights.


I'd agree with all that, though I have to say that Campbell seems to  
have turned in his best work on the first two Dio albums and his  
Whitesnake/DefLep career has been ... less exciting.  Iommi's various  
projects, whether in various Sabbath incarnations or solo have been  
uneven in and of themselves, but Iommi's guitar and writing  
contributions remain pretty solid to this day.


> * Speaking of Steve Harris, when I now listen to "Die Young" on
> Sabbath's "Heaven and Hell" album, I can't help wonder if Geezer had
> started listening to what Iron Maiden was doing - that bassline sounds
> more like a Steve Harris creation...


It wouldn't really surprise me -- it does have a relatively NWOBHM  
vibe, as far as Sabbath songs go anyway.  I have also read that the  
Harris-penned Maiden track "Children of the Damned" started with an  
inspiration from Sabbath's "Children of the Sea".


> I also got to see Black Sabbath fronted by Ian Gillian on the "Born
> Again" tour - not to everyone's taste (and sacrilege to some Sabbath
> fans), but it was good stuff.


Ah, but what _isn't_ sacrilege to some Sabbath fans?  ;)  Or any  
fans? ;)

I'm as familiar with the brief, Gillan-fronted Sabbath as with the  
Ozzy or Dio incarnations, but my understanding is that _Born Again_  
has come to enjoy a fairly substantial cult status.

> And I blame my 80s metal obsession on the fact that BOC was starting
> their commercial slide...

(Bringing us almost on topic!)  Aye, well, there's the rub.  Not that  
I was really aware of BOC at the time, nor 80s metal (though by the  
end of the decade in high school I got into Def Leppard through their  
then fame with the Hysteria album, though I quickly gravitated back  
towards the High'n'Dry album :)), but I'm rather of the opinion that  
BOC should have simply broken up in the wake of Albert's departure,  
if not after releasing _Extraterrestrial Live_ at least after RbN.   
CN should not have happened really -- whatever saving graces we might  
try to extricate from it could have easily have been saved for  
another time.  However the workload might be broken down, the twin  
departures of Al and Sandy Pearlman from the BOC orbit clearly did  
them no good in terms of actually producing reliably decent music.   
We need only compare CN and Imaginos (though that latter only came  
out in 1988, if one tracks down the demos that are floating around  
the internet, it's clear that a some sort of polished version could  
well have been released earlier had CBS actually wanted that) to see  
how that story was playing out.  Without Al and Pearlman, the writing  
talent is basically reduced to Buck -- and though that's a pretty  
good talent (!), it doesn't seem to be enough to provide a constant  
stream of new material for a band rightly or wrongly linked to a  
proto-metal reputation.

I would _like_ to say that the plan should have been (with shades of  
Sabbath) to triumphantly reform the original lineup in the latter  
1990s or for the new millennium  -- giving everyone time to, ya know,  
work out their various issues with any luck.  And that perhaps would  
have been the time to unleash the _Imaginos_ material with all new  
recordings.  As it is, I think the years of touring with the puppet  
show and a rotating cast around 2OC or 3OC have "diluted the brand".   
Sure bands like Priest and Maiden -- which are practically of an age  
with BOC, or not many years younger, even if their heydays came later  
-- have suffered their own periods of decline and fall or close to  
it, but they have also snapped back to produce at least relatively  
successful if not always amazing albums (OK, perhaps Priest's  
Nostradamus should have been reined in to half its size on a single  
disc that kept the better bits, and that still probably wouldn't have  
totally set the word alight, but hey) and tours.  Sure, Priest is out  
there on what is effectively a "Dinosaurs of Metal" tour with the Dio- 
Sabbath, Motorhead, etc.  But on the other hand, they _are_ on that  
tour, and BOC is not.

I'm not sure whether the likes of Nostradamus is better or worse  
than, say, _Curse of the Hidden Mirror_, but it's probably sold more  
copies, at least got more press, and of course came out this year  
instead of in 2001.  (Maiden's _AMOLAD_ *iš* better, though, being  
genuinely good!).  Nostradamus at least least makes an _effort_,  
whether or not it lives up to its intentions.  Will CotHM the last  
studio album to bear the BOC moniker?  Will we eventually see the  
band touring as 1OC, sans one or Eric or Buck?

Oh well -- just a bunch of rambling about ground we've covered again  
and again before.

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
http://www.carlaz.com/