THE SWORD

The Sword are yet another American metal band founded in Austin, Texas, who seem to play classic metal with a bit of an ironic smirk. Ben Snakepit from punk greats J. Church was in an early version of the band. The Sword demonstrate that paying attention to metal traditions, whether in a winking way (as in hipsters wearing vintage Iron Maiden shirts) or seriously is always a great career move.

Discography: Age of Winters (Kemado, 2006); The Sword/Witchcraft [split] (Kemado, 2007); Gods of the Earth (Kemado, 2008), Warp Riders (2010).

Suicidal Tendencies were/are one of the earliest hardcore punk bands to crossover to a heavy metal style and one of the few to so ardently embrace heavy metal and remain true to the overall metal sound well after the punk revival of the early nineties. The band was started as an allegedly gang-affiliated hardcore band from Venice Beach and put out what many consider to be one of the best hardcore albums of all time, Suicidal Tendencies, released in 1983, which contained the classic tracks “I Shot Reagan,” “I Saw Your Mommy,” and “Institutionalized,” which became popular due to a clever video that received MTV airplay. The song was later used in the classic punk film Repo Man.

SUICIDAL TENDENCIES

But by the second record and after several personnel changes, the band, led by lead singer and visionary Mike Muir, had decided to go in a crossover direction and the next record, Join the Army, with its metalesque cover (which has strong
similarities to the art used on many Megaforce releases, including the first Storm Troopers of Death record) fit in nicely with the growing thrash movement. This album spawned a minor hit single with “Possessed to Skate.” The next record, How Will I Laugh, saw the band complete their transformation into a thrash metal band.

Mike Muir

Subsequent records were increasingly hit and miss and the band floundered for many years with Muir seeming to lose interest at times. The most egregious example of this was a pointless remake of the first album. Eventually with the introduction of future Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, the band moved in a more funk direction, culminating in the Infectious Grooves side project with Muir, Trujillo, and Stephen Perkins of Jane’s Addiction, which improbably became as popular as Suicidal Tendencies in some parts of the world. At this writing the band is still touring both as Infectious Grooves and as Suicidal Tendencies.

Discography: Suicidal Tendencies (Frontier, 1983); Join the Army (Caroline, 1987); How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can’t Even Smile Today? (Epic, 1988).

St. Vitus were a sludge metal band, sometimes categorized as an early doom metal band, with connections to the punk scene, mainly through their affiliation with the legendary SST punk label led by Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn. St. Vitus were probably named after the Black Sabbath song but may also have been a reference to the spastic disease-inspired dance from the Middle Ages. The band also toured extensively with punk bands such as Black Flag, leading to an interesting intermingling of audiences. The band gained an extra dose of power with the addition of former Obsessed guitarist Wino, who replaced original vocalist Reagers for the Born Too Late record.

ST. VITUS

Despite their popularity in the underground punk and metal scenes, St. Vitus never seemed to make an impact on the metal world and broke up for good in 1995, after a reunion of the original lineup with Reagles singing for the Die Healing record. Recently the albums were remastered and rereleased by Southern Lord Records, a label that knows a good slow doom band when they hear it. Despite their alliance with SST and Wino’s acclaim in the underground and stoner metal communities, St. Vitus was a criminally neglected band and is ripe for discovery. The SST records are all worth buying, especially the ones with Wino.

Discography: St. Vitus (SST, 1984); Hallow’s Victim (SST, 1985); Born Too Late (SST, 1986); Mournful Cries (SST, 1988); V (Roadrunner, 1990); COD (Nuclear Blast, 1992); Die Healing (Hellhound, 1995); Little Motor Mouth (Black Market Music, 2001); Live (Southern Lord Records, 2005).

During the heyday of the Christian rock scene, most Christian rock bands stayed away from metal and its satanic influences and “rock and roll all night and party every day” ethos. Most bands however, did not have the prostelyzing power, or extreme bad taste in clothing, that the Christian band members in Stryper had. (Stryper’s name stood for Salvation Through Redemption Yielding Peace Encouragement and Righteousness) Originally formed in the early eighties as Roxx Regime by the brothers Michael and Robert Sweet, the band started out as a secular metal band but were inspired by friend Ken Metcalf (who also toured with the band as a keyboard player and touring evangelist) in 1982 and decided to preach an evangelical Christian message via heavy metal.

STRYPER

The band, in their garish beelike costumes, was almost instantaneously successful.nTheir debut record, Soldier’s Under Command, went gold and established Stryper as one of the most popular metal, much less the most popular Christian, bands in the world. Their next record, To Hell with the Devil, was even more successful, going platinum and establishing Stryper as a major touring act. However, balancing commercial success with an evangelical Christian message proved difficult for Stryper to manage, and their next record, In God We Trust, was a major hit but was criticized by many fans for abandoning the Christian theme for more pop-ready commercialsounding songs such as “Always There for You.” Deciding suddenly that the secular world might be more lucrative, Stryper changed directions and costumes for the Against the Law record, which featured no songs that were explicitly about God or religion. Naturally the Christian fan base reacted with outrage at what many evangelicals considered to be the band choosing mammon over God.

STRYPER

After releasing a greatest hits record, frontman Sweet departed, leading the band to dwindle to a halt and the band dissolved with members playing in various Christian bands. In 2003, the band reunited to play several shows, and after some successful tour, a new record was rereleased in 2005. Stryper continued to tour to acclaim from old stalwart fans, as well as new fans in the Christian music industry. Stryper may have been labeled an anomaly by the mainstream metal press, but many both inside and outside the evangelical community welcomed Stryper’s message of hope and positivity.

It is unclear how many fans were converted, or even affected, by Stryper’s lyrics, or by the free copies of the New Testament that the band gave out for free to the audience, but at their height of popularity millions of people, Christian and non-Christian, were buying Stryper records. While Stryper may not have been the most successful metal band, they stand out as a stark contrast to the numerous black metal bands who claim to represent the true metal underground.

Discography: The Yellow and Black Attack [EP] (Hollywood, 1984); Soldiers Under Command (Hollywood, 1985); To Hell with the Devil (Hollywood, 1986); In God We Trust (Hollywood, 1988); Against the Law (Hollywood, 1990); Reborn (Big3, 2005); Live in Puerto Rico (Immortal, 2007), Murder By Pride (2009); The Covering (2011).

Beginning guitar at the age of seven, the Brooklyn-bred Stevens quickly became a progressive rock aficionado of bands like Yes, ELP, and King Crimson. After playing on the Manhattan club scene for a number of years, Stevens met up with ex-Generation X singer Billy Idol, who had moved to New York to start a solo career. Marrying Stevens’ hard rock edge and Idol’s sneering punk stance to an often dance-music beat, the two soon found themselves with a formidable and marketable hybrid style that was complemented by the pair’s striking visual image of Idol’s neo-Elvis blond spikes and Stevens’ black mane and painted fingernails. Debuting their act just as MTV was beginning, the pair experienced massive success with the albums Billy Idol (1982) and Rebel Yell (1983), with heavy airplay on radio and MTV.

Stevens also collaborated with other artists during the mid-eighties, including Michael Jackson, Robert Palmer, and the Thompson Twins. In 1986 Stevens won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for his work with keyboardist Harold Faltermeyer on “Top Gun Anthem,” which appeared on the hit soundtrack to the popular Tom Cruise movie Top Gun.

After Idol’s disappointing Whiplash Smile (which used drum machines instead of drummer Thommy Price, whose unique sound and groove had powered previous Idol releases), Stevens left to pursue his own more rocking muse. Signed to Chrysalis Records, he released Atomic Playboys with vocalist Perry McCarty and drummer Price in 1989. Stevens’ trademark sonic and visual style was in evidence, although the album went in a more hard rock direction, stripped as it was of punk and dance influences. Even so, it also showcased Stevens’ growing competence on flamenco and jazz styles. Although Stevens toured for the album, the futuristic glam image that accompanied the album (and found Stevens decked out in headto- toe black vinyl) didn’t quite fit in with the hair metal of the day and failed to find much of an audience beyond guitar enthusiasts.

Steve Stevens

After the turn of the decade, Stevens hooked up with former Hanoi Rocks vocalist Michael Monroe to form the group Jerusalem Slim, which unfortunately never released any material even though the pairing seemed inspired. 1993 saw Stevens collaborating with ex-Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil for the singer’s solo debut Exposed and its subsequent tour.

Later in the nineties, Stevens participated in a project spearheaded by groundbreaking drummer Terry Bozzio, which also featured renowned bassist Tony Levin. The resulting group, Bozzio Levin Stevens, released two albums of improvisational progressive rock that did much to show how broad Stevens’ musical palette had become. The group released Black Light Syndrome in 1997 and Situation Dangerous in 2002.

In 1999 Stevens released his second solo record, Flamenco A Go-Go, an album of infectious flamenco guitar over electronica rhythm tracks. 2002 saw him finally reuniting with his former partner Billy Idol for an episode of VH1 Storytellers. In 2005, he collaborated with Idol on Devil’s Playground, an album in which the duo combined Idol’s punk influences with much heavier rock, while leaving the pop and dance elements of their previous work behind. In 2008, Stevens released Memory Crash, an album of instrumental hard rock that showcased his rock guitar chops and featured a cover of Robin Trower’s “Day of the Eagle” in collaboration with Doug Pinnick of King’s X.

Discography: Atomic Playboys (Warner Bros., 1989); Flamenco A Go-Go (Ark 21, 1999); Steve Stevens (Wea International, 2000); Memory Crash (Magna Carta, 2008).

Static X is a fast and heavy band with grindcore and industrial aspects thrown in for good measure. Led by the cleverly coiffed leader/singer/guitarist Wayne Static, who plays a new breed of metal, one that is unceasingly brutal, but in strange ways danceable as well. The band was started by Static. The first record is perhaps the most brutal, and also the most “sellable” metal record ever made, with numerous tracks licensed to video games (a promotional tactic the band uses to this day). Fukuda left for several years, and was replaced by Tripp Eisen, who in a particularly embarrassing incident was dismissed due to a scandal involving statutory rape of two underaged girls (Harris, 2005).

STATIC-X

Fukuda returned and reinvigorated the band, leading to Cannibal, one of the most brutal industrial albums ever made. While Static X may have used video games to sell their songs, they are almost literally the embodiment of the video game aesthetic and a key influence on bands who use computers and samples in order to reach new and brutal depths for heavy metal.

Discography: Wisconsin Death Trip (Warner Bros., 1999); Machine (Warner Bros., 2001); Shadow Zone (Warner Bros., 2003); Beneath … Between … Beyond (Warner Bros., 2004); Start a War (Warner Bros., 2005); Cannibal (Warner Bros., 2007); Cult of Static (2009).

Spread Eagle

Featuring a down and dirty streetwise image that was akin to an east coast version of Guns N’ Roses, New York City’s Spread Eagle should have had a chance to rival that band in some of its popularity, but coming late in the game they never quite had the chance to show what they were capable of. Releasing their stellar self-titled debut in 1990, the band stood out with a gritty image and sound. Fronted by vocalist Ray West, whose snarling vocals were a match for Axel’s wail, they also possessed a sleeper guitar hero in Paul DiBartolo, whose casual, devilmay-care demeanor belied a highly developed technique.

Spread Eagle in 2010

Standout tracks like “Broken City” and “Switchblade Serenade” were at once gritty and slyly complex in their compositional sophistication, down and dirty songs that musically went beyond the street punk veneer they hid behind. After receiving some initial attention, the album lagged in sales, and the follow-up Open to the Public released in 1993 stiffed due to lack of promotion and the rising popularity of alternative rock.

The band (minus original guitarist DiBartolo) has recently reunited, and their original debut was rereleased in 2006 and is well worth seeking out.

Discography: Spread Eagle (MCA, 1990); Open to the Public (MCA, 1993).

Spinal Tap may or may not be the best metal band of all time, featuring lead singer and guitarist David St. Hubbins, guitarist Nigel Tufnel, bassist Derek Smalls, in later years keyboardist Viv Savage, and a variety of drummers who usually died in bizarre gardening accidents or by choking on someone else’s vomit. The band started as the Thamesmen, before becoming the Originals and then the New Originals, when they found that another band already had that name.

Christopher Guest (as Nigel Tufnel) in the hit 1984 movie This Is Spinal Tap.

After leaving their garage rock and psychedelic phases, Spinal Tap began to tour more regularly and as their sound became more metallic, they began to adapt a more tolerant misogyny as epitomized in songs such as “Big Bottom,” “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You, Tonight,” in which lyrics such as “you’re too young and I’m too well hung” epitomized exactly what the band wanted to do with the ladies backstage. Spinal Tap were also maligned unfairly by critics, who hailed their concept album Shark Sandwich as “shit sandwich.” Although Spinal Tap failed to chart in later years, they did help expand the metal lexicon with their grandiose stage sets, including in one notable instance clear plastic pods, one of which failed to open, trapping bassist Derek Smalls inside. In a notably metal moment, the band designed a giant Stonehenge prop to come down, but because the designer mistook inches for feet, the Stonehenge set was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf.

Although the band went through its sets of ups and downs, they remained popular in Japan, where they were last seen doing a successful comeback tour to rapturous fans. The band was largely forgotten by many Americans (who also failed to remember the Rutles, the legendary band who were a “legend that would last a lunchtime”), but most metal fans know them from the documentary that acclaimed filmmaker Rob Reiner did about them in 1984 called This is Spinal Tap. There is an urban legend circulating in the metal community that the documentary is actually a “mockumentary” due to the extreme silliness of the events chronicled in the film, but when comparing it to the film The Decline of Western Civilization, Part II: The Metal Years or a Dio or W.A.S.P. stage set, it is clear that This Is Spinal Tap is just a well-shot documentary about a typical British metal band.

Sadly, few of Spinal Tap’s records are in print, but the two compilations listed below are well worth investing in for serious students of metalology. (Note for gullible readers: This Is Spinal Tap was actually a “mockumentary” directed by Rob Reiner and created by McKean, Guest, and Shearer).

Discography: This is Spinal Tap (Polydor 1984, 2000); Break Like the Wind (MCA, 1992). There were many other Spinal Tap albums, such as Shark Sandwich, which are naturally long out of print due to the incompetence of record label owners and the bad taste of various jealous A&R men, but are well worth seeking out at yard sales or at Salvation Army stores.)

Roy Mayorga (drums, replaced by Joe Nunez). When Max Cavalera left Sepultura in 1996, it looked like both the end of his career and of the band he had founded. While Sepultura found considerable success without Cavalera, Cavalera also found new success and new purpose with his new band, Soulfly. In terms of a comparison with Sepultura, Soulfly is more of a combination of nu metal, extreme heavy thrash, reggae, gypsy music, and world music.

SOULFLY

The first record saw Soulfly take stumbling first steps, but by the time of the Dark Ages record, Cavalera was challenging Sepultura as the true master of dark thrash, although constant personnel changes have made it difficult for the band to have a cohesive lineup. For thrash fans, Soulfly is an essential addition to the thrash canon and a worthy successor to Cavalera’s work in Sepultura. After making up with his brother Igor, Cavalera has also begun recording new material as a side project with his brother, called Cavalera Conspiracy.

Max Cavalera

Discography: Soulfly (Roadrunner, 1998); Primitive (Roadrunner, 2000); III (Roadrunner, 2002); Prophecy (Roadrun); ner, 2004); Dark Ages (Roadrunner, 2005); Maximum Soulfly/ Sepultura [split] (United States dist., 2006); Conquer (2008); Omen (2010).

SOILENT GREEN

Soilent Green is a sludgy grindcore band that is almost as famous for the tragedies that have surrounded them as their exceptional music. The band started in 1988 in a suburb of New Orleans and quickly established themselves as one of the finest and fastest grindcore bands in the United States. Although the band started in the eighties, they did not get to record their brutal attack on record until 1995, after changing vocalists. The band likes to joke that a black cloud hangs over them, and there may be something to what they say. In 2001 a significant van accident severely hurt Patton and Williams, and the band was barely back on the road before yet another van crash occurred in the spring of 2002, which injured Falgoust so badly that he was unable to walk for several months. In 2003 bassist Scott Williams was killed by his roommate, and in 2005 former vocalist Glenn Rambo was killed in Hurricane Katrina. The band’s tragedies inspired the concept record Inevitable Collapse about tragedy and the nature of life and resistance.

Discography: Pussysould (Dwell Records, 1995); A String of Lies (Relapse Records, 1998); Sewn Mouth Secrets (Relapse Records, 1998); A Deleted Symphony for the Beaten Down (Relapse Records, 2001); Confrontation (Relapse Records, 2005); Inevitable Collapse in the Presence of Conviction (Metal Blade Records, 2008).