That's all, folks! #1 Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band - Born To Run

The music industry in 1974 was a strange place. The last remnants of the "free love" era of the 1960's were dying out; the Beatles, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison had either died or called it quits, whilst Elvis was fading fast(and would be dead just three years later). The heavier Rock scene was picking up, but didn't reach the dizzying heights of world domination until later in the decade. 1974 was a transitional period. The romance of pop and rock culture was seeping away, and something needed to bring it back.

Enter a young Bruce Springsteen, still infatuated by the shining promise of the American dream, and thrust that raw optimism to the world with "Born To Run", his flagship of romance and righteousness.

And with it, came Springsteen's sound. A collection of instruments never before associated with the Spartan traditions of rock 'n roll, Bruce collated sax, glockenspiel, piano, organ and his now famous harmonica to create a movie score type feel - expansive, open and brash. He combined this with the raw energy of an up-and-coming club band and Springsteen's own street-poet prose.

The result was magic. Opening with the optimistic freedom of "Thunder Road", Springsteen sings of breaking free, and getting loose and experiencing a world far removed from the New Jersey turnpike. In "Night" he speaks of the mundane life - "You work 9 to 5, somehow you survive" and in the seminal title track "Born To Run", he gathers all the ingredients needed to make a blockbuster film - the characters, the hardship and the will to succeed and condenses them into 4 and a half minutes. Of Jungleland, a musical masterpiece in itself, Springsteen pens the struggles of city living almost autobiographically, set in the back drop of one long night, full of hope, dreams and misadventure. The lyrical content is wonderful, visionary; "A barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a dodge, drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain...the kids down here look just like shadows, always quiet, holding hands".

Springsteen said of Born To Run years after it's release that it's all written about "one, long summer night" - with all the characters breaking free of their respective vices under the same sky, connected by the same hopes and dreams in one period of time.

By writing of escape and happiness in his album and portraying that message to the masses, he created hope in itself. His concerts have been described as "more of a spiritual gathering than a rock concert", where people go and they feel hopeful, they share the raw faith and optimism that Springsteen felt as he wrote the album in his bedroom in New Jersey.

He created the escape for people whilst attempting to do so for himself. Rock 'N Roll was Springsteen's big break - the record label were prepared to drop him if Born To Run didn't sell - and in a way, it was ours too.

For me, this album is the musical foundation of my personality. My dad is a huge Springsteen fan, and when I was brought back from the hospital, I was sat in front of the speaker and played "Born To Run", in full. It was the first piece of music I ever heard as a living individual, and has since patterned who I am. It reminds me of childhood, of the sunny perspectives and the innocent viewpoint from which I viewed the world. When I hear Born To Run, I revert back to that innocent child, forgetting everything but the moment I am wrapped in, with a broad smile across my face.

Born To Run was written just as the music industry needed a hero. It got one, and an album to set its stall by. Springsteen has since gone on to sell millions of records, headline festivals and still to this day embarks on expansive world tours, bringing his dreams and visions to a new crowd, a new collection of faces.

Everyone needs a hope. Born To Run is mine.

#2 Metallica - Master Of Puppets

The year is 1986.

Bon Jovi, America’s latest sweet heart, has released his soon to be hit album “Slippery when Wet”. Filled with glam hits such as “Living on a Prayer” and “You Give Love A Bad Name”, the blonde boy from New Jersey capturing the hearts of lonely teenage girls everywhere, propelling his name to the top of the Billboard charts. The biggest selling song from this year, slap bang in the middle of a decade where MTV and hairspray rule supreme, is appropriately Europe’s “The Final Countdown”. It has only been 12 months since Live 8, but mainstream music has hit new heights materialistically.

In the spring of this, most sparkly of decades, 4 men from San Francisco descend upon a small studio in Denmark to record their third album. Fresh from the underground success of their previous project, the long haired, tight jeaned ruffians from the land of hope and glory hit Europe looking to build on their cult status and break the cultural zeitgeist of heavy metal.
That’s right, Heavy Metal. The style of music far left of traditional Rock ‘n’ Roll was going through a transitional phase at this point, the “Classic Rock” acts that made their name in the mid to late 70’s are fading away, from Led Zeppelin’s break up 6 years prior, to the continued decay of Heavy Metal pioneers Black Sabbath, who were so comprehensively outshone on their own headline tour by spandex donning fireworks Van Halen.

However, just bubbling under the surface, there is a new, energetic style of Metal, appropriately called “Thrash Metal”. Fusing the operatic fantasy of traditional classic Rock with the energy of Punk and New Wave of British Heavy Metal(Bands like Iron Maiden, Saxon etc), Thrash is America’s latest dent on society, beginning in 1983 and acquiring a firm following thanks to the “tape trading” movement – the 80’s version of file sharing.

By 1986, Thrash was on the verge of a breakthrough, but it was crying out for an album to really stand out, to bridge the gap between traditional metal fans, and the shiny new Thrash ones. And Metallica, the band I am reviewing today, did just that with Master of Puppets.

Released in March, Master of Puppets has all the classic hallmarks of a great piece of work, a defining Thrash album. It took the fiery energy of Thrash, the punky drum beats and aggressive strokes, and combined it with an almost ethereal spark of musicality, allowing it to transcend categories, and appeal on an almost universal level.

It begins with “Battery”, and a deep texture of acoustic guitar that ominously grows in volume, building up to a slippery, snake like riff that sets the tone for the rest of proceedings. Clocking in at 5:13, the opener is one of the shortest songs in 'Puppets, but ticks all the boxes in terms of the peerless brutality that has become associated with Metal.

The next track, “Master of Puppets”, is a superlative work of art, effortlessly blending the dark, burning nature with the contrasting beauty of a classical piece. The song hits hard until the 3:35 mark, before fading into a clean, picked guitar playing around the chord of E Minor and D. This washes into an intricate harmony guitar interlude, a solo, and then rebuilds back all the way to the main, now world famous riff. It finishes with a collection of manic laughter, and closes a curtain on what is a sumptuously satisfying 8 and a half minutes.

 A second of silence follows before the third, a deafeningly heavy tribute to a deep sea creature, and literally feels like you are taking a dive, sifting through fathoms of water. The bass heavy sound and echo sound on James Hetfield’s mic give the work a cave like openness.

The fourth, beginning with another E minor picked intro and finishing with a squealing cacophony, is ode to madness “Welcome Home(Sanitarium)”. Another fantasia esque opening complete with distorted chorus that Kurt Cobain would later make world famous in “Smells like Teen Spirit”, the song rises in emotion and perceived desperation with every upturn in volume, culminating with the “Just leave me alone!” line ¾ of the way through.

The 5^th, “Disposable Heroes” is a prog infested thrill ride through the both World War’s, focusing on the anonymity of the dead soldiers. Slowly churning at the beginning, the song explodes like a cannon after a minute and half, turning into a thrash – rock piece, varying tempos often and unexpectedly, featuring the now clichéd “group vocal” chorus of “back to the front”

The 6^th, another sniping social commentary, is “Leper Messiah”, unambiguously referring to Christianity, likening the religious movement to a visceral plague. The tempo of the piece is relatively mild, perhaps a conscience decision to allow the message, rather than the music, come to the fore.
After “Leper Messiah” reaches its conclusion, the layered bass tones of instrumental masterpiece “Orion” seep into the listeners’ consciousness. What begins with a cerebral chordal piece, slowly develops into a grinding, patient riff, accentuated with flourishes of lead guitar. Then, comes the interlude, and a moment of rare beauty. A slow bass riff, picked out with clarity and gentility, breaks into a lead passage with classical precision, culminating in a bass and guitar solo, the former being shockingly technical.

The final act of this gripping drama is “Damage Incorporated”. Unrelenting, no holds barred, the speed alone is a timely reminder that after all, this is a thrash album.

When one looks back at the thrash scene, Master Of Puppets will stand as the release that helped propel it into the mainstream metal audience. Hitting the Top 40 without any radio or video airplay, MOP is and always will be a timeless tribute to an era, music and a movement.

#3 AC/DC - Back In Black

19th Febrary 1980. Bon Scott, lead singer of AC/DC is found lifeless inside a Renault 5 in South London. Pronounced dead on his arrival to the hospital, the world wakes up to find one of the biggest Rock 'N Roll bands of the day are now without a lead singer.

It was a tragic moment that could have seen the end of AC/DC, guitarist's Malcom and Angus Young considering whether to call it time in the band in memory of Scott. However, from all the unlikely sources, it was Bon's bereaving family that gave them the nod to continue, believing it was what Scott would have wanted.

They hired "Geordie"(the name of his band, not his accent...although, he was actually a Geordie) singer Brian Johnson, a man who Bon Scott himself recommended, and set to work.

So, rejuvenated by the news that they will continue, and inspired by the sadness that had preceded the album and the willingness to cement a fitting tribute to their fallen comrade, AC/DC began work on what has since become the legendary "Back In Black" album.

Opening with a fitting nod towards Scott with a song he helped write, "Hells Bells" starts with the ominous chime of church bells before leading into the sinister riff that sets the tone for song, and the album. This was refined, this was precise. AC/DC were back, and they meant business.

Following on from the opener, "Back In Black" rattles through hit after hit on an album that packs more punch than an a four armed Chuck Norris. The sexual shenanigans in sing along rock song "You Shook Me All Night Long" and the rifforama frenzy that made the title track "Back In Black" one of the single most recognisable Rock riffs in history, "Back In Black" is AC/DC's defining album.

With "Back In Black", AC/DC made the transition from big Rock band to true gods of the industry. Selling 49 million copies to date, it is the third highest selling album ever, and the highest selling hard rock album ever. Telling statistics of the album's mass appeal. It wasn't an album that particularly had any metaphorical weight, AC/DC weren't trying to tell a story, nor were they making a political statement. It was good, honest, hard-working Rock 'N Roll for the masses. And maybe that's why it appealed to everyone. What's not to like? Riffs? Check. Vocals? Check. Wild guitar solos? Check. Check. Check.


When it all boils down, music is a motivator. A lifter. A collection of people making lots of noise that comes together to make one, big sound. And AC/DC are just that. They had a fucking massive sound, and they sold it to the world.

Back In Black: The world's greatest tribute.

#4 Guns N Roses - Appetite for Destruction

They say every city has an underbelly. An underground, that sits next to the glitz and clean streets, providing an alternate reality to modern living.
It's the same with music. For every prissy, hairbrushed pop song sent from the depths of Sony BMG, equating the concept of life and death as we know it to how much we dance in a nightclub, there is a gritter, dirtier, and perhaps more realistic musical take on things lying just under the surface.

In 1987, Guns 'N Roses were that underbelly. Emerging from a LA Rock scene diluted with Motley Crue and Poison wannabes, the famous strip was awash with make up wearing, back combing, glam rock bands.

But then, like now there was an underground. During the time that the Thrash Metal scene had moved up toward San Francisco in search of less feminine shores, Guns 'N Roses stayed, swallowing all the glitz and glam before spitting it back out in their own unique way.

And out of that particular orifice came "Appetite For Destruction", an album packed to the brim with poison, tales of sex, debauchery and over reliance on heroin. And my god, we loved it.

Opening the true to life description of city living in "Welcome to the Jungle", a song written based on an experience singer Axl Rose and rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin shared in their youth, meeting a old black man on their first foray outside home, who shrieked "Welcome to the Jungle boy - You gonna' die!".

It set the tone. The sultry, sleazy guitar tone, Axl's bluesy cries from the microphone, tied together with a rock solid rhythm-bass-drums trio were the order of the day, and it was fantastic.

Sailing through "It's so easy" and "Nighttrain", the former a fairly self explanatory description of the rockstar life style, the latter an ode to a cheap wine the band drank whilst scraping for pennies pre-record deal, Guns 'N Roses had honed a sound previously unheard, combining the raw, brash animalistic tendencies of Rock 'N Roll with well mixed precision, and even a ballad in club classic "Sweet Child 'O Mine".

The difference between G'N'R and most other bands were that the tales they told of deprivation, of poverty, addiction and lust, they were all real. This was not a record label selling a cliche', this was a Rock 'N Roll band being autobiographical.

They were four misfits who stumbled upon each other in the Los Angeles wilderness and this is the noise they made. No more, no less. And with it, they pierced the trend they went against in the first place. G'N'R becoming the bridge between the Poison's, Motley Crue's, the Bon Jovi's of the world and the heavier, dingier, more metal; acts sitting just under the surface too.

They looked great, they sounded great, they acted like rockstars before they became them and by the time they did, it didn't feel like a transition.

It is a testament to them as a band, and to "Appetite For Destruction" as an album to cement a lasting appeal and impact where so many others had failed. Motley Crue were the band of the day, but put "Girls, Girls, Girls" on after "Sweet Child 'O Mine" and the numbers singing along will drop.

They have now been entered into the prestigious "Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame", alongside Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC and so many more legendary acts as they too have become part of the rich mosaic that is the foundation of the Rock 'N Roll industry.

And they are. They are now legends, and that début album - arguably the greatest début of all time, has gone down in history too.

In every city there's an underbelly. Every industry has an underground. But not very often does a band that was so resolutely underground and anti-industry become a stadium filling, chart topping and history making. And for that, I salute Guns N' Roses, and "Appetite For Destruction".

#5 UFO - Strangers In The Night

Recorded during Rock's first and strongest grip on the music industry, UFO's live album "Strangers In The Night" was taken from their live tour of America in 1978. It is by and large, one of the more anonymous records that punctuated that era, never receiving the same admiration as other seminal works from more storied bands such as Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, or even live albums from the period, like Thin Lizzy's "Live and Dangerous" or AC/DC's "If You Want Blood".

Which is a massive shame, because it's fucking brilliant. As a live chronicle of a bands back catalogue, this is up there with the holy trinity of Classic Rock live albums(The aforementioned twosome and Deep Purple's "Made in Japan"). The prog stylings of "Love to Love You", AC/DC-esque(if only in the titling, UFO similar to the Aussie band in the tendency to use the word "Rock"in as many songs as possible) "Rock Bottom" and "Only You Can Rock Me", and my favourite, the excellent "Doctor Doctor".

For those of you who know little to nothing of UFO apart from their homage to extra-terrestrial life, never fear, I will inform you.

Formed as far back as 1969, UFO were very much part of the early British adoption of the Rock N' Roll scene and later development into the budding Heavy Metal scene.

After recruiting Scorpion's guitarist and general madcap Michael Schenker in 1973, the bands musical  breakthough came whilst recording 1977's "Lights Out" album. The band scored success with the album prompted them to record themselves in their musical peak whilst trundling around the US, which leaves us with "Strangers In The Night".

My Dad loves this album. As a big UFO fan, and therefore self appointed "defender" of UFO given the minimal fanfare that surrounds them these days, my old man felt the need to blast them out of his stereo system with an internal sense of kinship. Because, for him - and latterly myself, it was quite obvious that UFO were never going to penetrate the cultural Zeitgeist of the musical world, reaching the stadium filling, Marshall amp shattering heights of Zeppelin, AC/DC or latterly Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi or Gun N' Roses.

But that was the point. The album, the music and the band felt personal. Rather than turning into the distant, larger than life characters presented by some members of the music industry, it almost felt like one of your friends bands. Don't get me wrong, UFO are for all intents and purposes a "big band", and very comfortably support themselves to this day. It's not like they're a small garage band that my Dad discovered as a teenager and kept the tapes.

But that's not the point. The thing was aside from being a cracking band, with all the big belting choruses, guitar solo's and fills you would expect(honestly, if AC/DC or Aerosmith brought out "Doctor Doctor", it'd be massive), they were small, and therefore very close. They keep going because they rely on their fans, and their fans rely on them. It's a little heartwarming, almost to be part of a cult that relies on all its members continued loyalty to keep afloat.

And to me, that was important. The music being great helped too. The music that came out of "Lights Out" was as bold as anything came out that year(including the outbreak of Punk) - the use of keyboards, extended solos and instrumental pieces topped off by lead singer Phill Mogg's near operatic tone reminded me of the Iron Maiden led "NWBHM(New Wave of British Heavy Metal)" that came a year later, and was expertly captured in "Strangers In the Night".

The energy, the musicality and bound together by a band that is clearly at the zenith of the musical career, where talent and ambition briefly marry with the newly found professionalism and maturity that only comes with experience.

UFO - not a lot of people know who they are. And isn't that nice?

#6 Arctic Monkeys - Everything People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not.

After paranoia surrounding the ushering of the 21st Century, mainly focusing on the millenium bug and the unusual length of dominance displayed by boybands and Pokemon, the inception of the 21st Century as an era within it's own right took a while. It took a full five years before the 21st Century gained identity, rather than remain a '90's hangover.

Social networking, the instantaneous, consumer dominated age we wallow in today is present thanks to a series of changes, largely through the development of the Internet as the dominant tool in communication, and near enough everything else.

Along this theme, there is one album - to me, at least, that stand out as one of the most indicative of this new age we now take for granted.

Formed in Sheffield in 2002, but releasing their debut some 4 years, The Arctic Monkeys were brash, openly colloquial, and musically talented. Sadly a rarity, when one thinks of the "Americanisation" of the modern music industry.

However, oddly - it is not their sound I wish to focus on. After spending some years (I assume unsuccessfully) giving out their music for free at gigs on burnt CD's, the band had acquired a small amount of fans, a couple of which had set up a page on the upcoming social media site Myspace.

Utilising the sites viral and wide reaching global audience, the band's fan page reached a remarkable amount of popularity, thrusting them into a level of limelight and media hype that was previously unmarked territory for unsigned bands.

Because of the site's ability to put the band on a pedestal before a global audience, the band's first single - usually a test of the waters for labels - was released to an already established audience, guaranteeing sales.

The album did extraordinarily, selling 363,735 copies in the first week, outstripping the previous record held by Hearsay's Popstars album (reinforcing my point about the 90's hangover)

The album itself is gritty, musically accomplished and fresh to the ears. From the lyrical prose that doffs it's cap to Shakespeare in "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor" to the wedding band cynicism that slides through "Fake Tales Of San Francisco" and the beautifully choreographed "Dancing Shoes", and finally the sing along classic of the album "When The Sun Goes Down" addressing modern conceptions of villainous character, deliciously baptised "that scummy man" in Alex Turner's northern drawl.

But when I look at the album, and listen to its beguiling modernity and frank nature to notions of binge drinking and cover bands, I think of the Internet, of Myspace and the later development of the "landfill indie" scene, and most importantly - the 21st Century.

#7 - Slipknot - Slipknot

13 years on from the Slayer album that formed the basis of my last post 15 days ago, comes an album that like "Reign In Blood" before it, redefined the meaning of "extreme" metal, and well, everything else.

Originating from Des Moines, Iowa - Slipknot were formed of nine - yes, nine members, including three drummers, a DJ and a man who did "samples". They wore masks, suits that would have been standard issue in a mental asylum and spent the majority of live shows flitting between barely contained aggression and open lunacy.

Their first album, a self titled opus, began with a 30 second recording of various people claiming "the whole thing, I think it's sick", reportedly taken from interviews with members of the public about the Charles Manson murders in the late '60's.

And then, the sound hit you. A refined combination of the speed and thrash metal Slayer and Metallica had become famous for in the 80's, combined with the then modern advent of "scratches" on a DJ deck. And over the top of the musical brutality was a vocalist who could scream, sing and rap, as well as vocally replicate feelings of panic and delusion like no other.

The first full track; "(sic)" features all these elements, mixed in a raw, unrelenting fashion by Roadrunner's Ross Robinson. The line "You can't kill me 'cos I'm already inside you", repeated mantra style at the culmination of the song typifies the approach Slipknot took as a band, and sums up beautifully the effect the nine shock rockers had on the music industry, and teenagers the world over.

Because quite simply, as the album wore on, the Slipknot virus began to spread throughout the system. Suddenly, you were nodding along, tapping your feet and murmuring the lyrics to "Wait and Bleed", or "Eyeless".

It was brutal, relentless and difficult to justify any love for. But damn, it was good. You didn't know why you enjoyed it so much, but you did. In the same way Romans packed the Colosseum to see Lions tear Christians to shreds, you enjoyed the odes to psychosis, the tales of evil that poured from your speaker.

Take "Eyeless", for example. A speed garage/death metal combination that punctuates the introduction, leading into Corey Taylor's lyrics borrowed from a deranged homeless man they met in LA. "Insane, am I the only muthafucker with a brain?/I'm hearing voices but all they do is complain/" leading into the now famous "You can't see California without Marlon Brando's eyes". Genius, right?

To the listener(or maybe just me), it worked. It was new, exciting, and the most defiantly fresh thing to hit metal since Slayer's "Angel Of Death".

And defiance was definitely the word for them. For a teenager, like I was - like the millions that felt the same; Slipknot meant empowerment. Like Punk before it, and pop music's inception before that, it was the ability to say "fuck you" to modern culture, and form your own. I remember being part of this motley crue of modern metal fans in my adolescent, and while there were many disagreements about specifics in musical taste and preference; there was one constant. Slipknot.

They became the standard bearer for modern metal, the band that did it how they wanted to and became successful. I remember reading a story about Slipknot, about when a record label scout came to see them at a show, famously saying "If these make it, I'll kill myself ". Slipknot heard about this, and when they released their self titled album, sent the man a bunch of dead roses with a note "we've made it now, go kill yourself".

And while that as perhaps a bit below the belt, and hopefully a little tongue in cheek, the principle was clear; noone expected them to do it, yet here they are. On their own terms, with their own fans and playing their own, deliciously unique brand of music. And frankly, we needed them.

Slipknot have since opened the gate to bands who now know they can do it on their own terms, and shouldn't be dictated to by market concious label owners. Arguably, Slipknot changed the music industry for the better, rather than blighted it.

Yes, they may be shocking, they maybe obtuse, and even a little frightening, but their music is great and their defiance from the beginning has set a tone could have changed the landscape of the consumer centred music business we now take part in. And I, for one am glad about that.

Here's to Slipknot; the band who did what noone wanted them to do, and built a career on it.