There was no doubt that we had to post this today, given what has just happened. Lemmy was the quintessential rock god: his imposing and hugely powerful vocal and bass work left no question unanswered as to who was in charge of the roost. He meant brutal, hard business with every tune he produced, eschewing the theatricality of his contemporaries for a focus purely on the music. And yet, it certainly wasn’t noise for the sake of noise: there was cohesion and tightness to the equally powerful melodies and rhythms. So today I leave you with my (and probably many others) favourite Motörhead tune and say a sad farewell to a true legend of the rock world.

I’m no metal head, but I certainly enjoy the music at times. I just find the culture behind metal and related genres to be inherently comical and a bit naff. As such, I tend to enjoy Tenacious D’s output because they wonderfully lampoon the whole image of metal, while still delivering some pretty rockin’ tunes. True metal heads probably want to slap me quite hard now!

Anyway, here is a tune from their film, The Pick of Destiny, once again starring Dave Grohl as Beelzebub himself. If I’m not mistaken, according to the Tenacious D canon, this is the song that Tribute is about. And it’s a corker of a tune!

You know how Christmas carols are complete rubbish? Christopher Lee has come to the rescue! Aside from being one hell of a notable vampire, a Bond villain, and a insanely badass wizard, Lee is also a heavy metal artist. Sir, my hat and many others are off to you! I will stack hats on my head and take them all off to you! Here is his version of Jingle Bells, which will no doubt save you from the carolling doldrums this day brings.

On that note, either/or wishes you a happy Christmas! Enjoy the snow/immense heat (depending on where you are).

Unfortunately, I can’t find a full stream of the song, so you’ll have to make do with the official excerpt. You should totally buy it, though!

Everyone loves Swedish gothic metal, right? Of course you do, that is a highly comical question. Next time, I’ll make sure not to waste your time with silly queries and instead just bring you an explosion of Swedish gothic metal.

If, perhaps, you are not so enamoured with the idea of Swedish gothic metal, then this is possibly the best song to introduce you to it. It’s certainly not what you may normally associate with metal: it’s actually a rather catchy bit of hard rock, and there’s no trace of a slightly racist ‘hurdy gurdy’ anywhere!

The world’s ending! Subsequently, this will be our last post ever!!!! And since the world’s ending (and either/or by extension), you need some suitable apocalypse music (and I used Ace of Spades the other day).

Star of many an insane Guitar Hero 3 YouTube video, this is possibly the most absurd song I know. Having said that, it’s also totally friggin’ rad, so enjoy doomsday and go out with a bang (so to speak).

Edit: oh dang we’re still here!!

I find it a little bit difficult taking Marilyn’s image seriously, though I’m probably not in his target demographic (read: not even close). However, I think the over-the-top nature of it makes the music highly amusing and somewhat enjoyable as a result. Who knows! Some people love it, so all power to them, but I’ll take it in small doses, thanks.

This is his cover of the the most iconic tune in the film The Nightmare Before Christmas. Surprisingly, it works quite well: I particularly like his screaming, and it doesn’t lose the fun of the original version either. Who’d have thought a song composed by Danny Elfman would end up working in favour of Manson’s music? Not I!

Note: This band is apparently in the process of making a new website, which means they took all their stuff down, which means… I’ll re-host the files… sometime. Sorry for the inconvenience.

This post marks another first for this intrepid blog: an actual entry in the metal category! There probably won’t be many other entries in this category, so savor them while you can. 8 Foot Sativa is the most consistently heavy metal band I’ve heard that doesn’t devolve into the ugly mess that is death metal. That is, there are pounding riffs, pounding drums, and screaming, but you can make out a few words in the songs. Either way, it’s good stuff, if you are a metal type of person. You might want to stick their first two albums, however; their third is horrendous, and they’ve got a new singer for the fourth, which is never a good sign.

Downloads

From Season For Assault
Season For Assault – (MP3, 1.9 MB)

From 8 Foot Sativa
8 Foot Sativa – (MP3, 1.6 MB)