The article title can be a little deceiving, but we are giving you a double shot off what if’s today as we explore What If… Part 6: Metal Goes Jazz. This is one of of my favorite types of What If’s because they take an album cover and they retro it which sometimes looks cooler than the original. Rafael Melandi is a Brazilian designer who is also the Creative Director at the São Paulo agency Opera Communications. He recently did a project on his own that he calls Metazz which sees him take classic metal album covers and he gives the album covers the high modern styled look that was associated with mid century jazz album artwork. To check out some of those on your own, just click here. You are going to be surprised at how some of them actually work really well as I loved the look of some of them. I’m not saying that they could forever replace the original album artwork, but they’re cool looking.
I was trying to think of something special to have for the 50TH album of the week post on this blog. I had Pantera’s Vulgar Display Of Power as the 25TH album of the week and rightfully so as it’s my favorite album from them. So, since Mötley Crüe announced that they were going to do their final tour yesterday in a press conference which you can read about 
T.N.T (Terror In Tinseltown) is the intro to the album that kicks off with a solo from Mick Mars before we get some EMT’s speaking and police sirens before it kicks into the title track and first single off the record. Dr. Feelgood is the only gold certified single that Mötley Crüe ever had in their careers and it’s a track about the rise and fall of a Mexican drug lord. Slice Of Your Pie starts with a real bluesy beginning before it gets real heavy and sleazy. You can only imagine what the lyrics are about and it’s not food their talking about. Rattlesnake Shake continues the trend with a sleaze tinged blues track all about the way a woman moves her hips that leaves you hypnotized. Then the epic and amazing shot out of a cannon, freight train going a 1000 MPH, turbo charged I want to drive my car way past 100 Kickstart My Heart is next on the album. According to wikipedia, “The introduction is a classic example of a Floyd Rose bridge trick, in which Mick Mars drops three consecutive strings resulting in sound similar to a motorcycle shifting gears, borrowed from the similar-sounding intro to Montrose’s Bad Motor Scooter.” The song is about the 1987 overdose that Nikki went through, but I have to say that this may be one of the most ultimate rock songs of all time.
Without You is the power ballad on the record which is rumored to be about Tommy Lee’s relationship with Heather Locklear. The song features Mick playing a slide guitar during the intro and solo to give the song a little something extra. Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S) is a kick ass rock song about lesbianism which is still a concert staple to this day. Sticky Sweet is the power chord heavy sleaze rock song while She Goes Down gets a little naughty with the sound effects and you don’t have to be a genius to figure out what the song is about. Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away) was always an ultimate must have track from this album in my opinion cause you can relate to it in so many ways. I always felt that it just spoke about life even though it has obvious references to their lives. Nikki once said that he heard it as a line from a film that he couldn’t remember (which was Heartbreak Ridge from 1986) and he also could have heard it in a Blondie song (doubt it) called Just Go Away.
Time For Change is the socially conscious Mötley Crüe at work, but the song features Sebastian Bach and Bob Dowd doing background vocals for the track as well as Bob Rock playing bass on the track. The album features various rock stars doing appearances on the record like Steven Tyler doing the intro to Slice Of Your Pie and background vocals for Sticky Sweet along with Bryan Adams. Robin Zander does background vocals on She Goes Down, Jack Blades On Same Ol Situation and Sticky Sweet. The other element different about this record was the fact that the album also featured background singers for the whole record that the band also brought out on tour with them in Donna McDaniel and Emi Canyn. I am giving this album four and the half stars out of five because it is the ultimate Crüe album that helped cement them as the kings of sleaze. I can not wait to see the Crüe this summer on their final tour ever.
To help celebrate the 25TH album of the week that I have done for this blog, I have decided to pick an album that had a great impact on my life. Pantera was a band that was coming off the success of their first official label release Cowboys From Hell and all the touring they had done for that album. Phil Anselmo (Vocals), Dimebag Darrell (Guitars), Rex Brown (Bass), and Vinny Paul (Drums) would go back into the studio to create one of the greatest metal albums of all time in my opinion called Vulgar Display of Power. The album has been called the defining album of the Groove Metal genre that Pantera would create and the album cover is iconic in it’s own right. Brad Guice, who had been the photographer that shot the cover for Cowboys… also shot the cover for this album. After rejecting an album cover the company had presented them, they used a cover in which a man was paid $10 for every punch he took to the face which according to Vinny Paul was about 30 times. Although, Brad Guice claims the man named Sean Cross was never actually hit. The album would be released on February 10, 1992 and as they say the rest is history.
Mouth For War is one of the most kick ass songs to open up an album with it’s intensity that never quits about using all the hate inside you and channeling it to do something productive. A New Level is the next track on the album and it’s a song that hits you like a sledgehammer or a heavy metal engine and you can see the cylinders slamming in place to get the machine moving. The lyrics to me represents the idea that you can take all the BS that has happened in your life and use it to further yourself by taking it to the next level. Walk is one of the most recognizable songs that Pantera has. It’s the equivalent of Crazy Train for Ozzy, you’ve heard it millions of times, but it makes the hairs on your arms rise when you hear it. The song is played at a time signature of 12/8 and is a simple riff to play, but one of the best. Zakk Wylde once said you don’t have to make the songs complicated with fancy riffs in order to make a great rock and roll song. F***ing Hostile is a track that is just blazing fast and aggressive as all hell when you hear it. This Love is a very melodic song that gets heavy during the chorus and is a track that Vinny Paul has claimed was about a relationship that Phil had that went south.
Rise is another track on that album that leaves a blaze of fury in it’s path. I always felt the lyrics were about teaching us to think above what the man wants you to think. Think about it for a second. In a line in the song Phil says, “Taught when we’re young to hate one another, It’s time to have a new reign of power.” All I know is that it’s time to rise. No Good (Attack The Radical) is a very different type of song on the album where in the verses you almost feel as if Phil is rapping before he sings the chorus which may have just influenced the next generation of Metal (Nu-Metal). The song primarily deals with issues of racism and all of the things that are wrong with society. Live In A Hole has a real groovin, funky beat to it with Rex’s bass playing before Dime’s amazing abilities on the guitar take over the song. The track’s sound is a precursor to Far Beyond Driven in my opinion. Regular People (Conceit) starts with hammering drum riffs from Vinnie before Dime comes in and takes over proving why Dave Mustaine was justified in wanting him for Megadeth. My favorite line in the song is when Phil out of nowhere says, “You ain’t got the balls son, I crush your rush.” That is why I loved Pantera because they had attitude which was missing in metal in 1992.
In By Demons Be Driven, Pantera uses that effect that Slayer was known for where the song would fade up like they were rising from the ashes. It’s one of the most badass songs on the record that hits you like a freight train from beginning to end. Hollow is the last song on the record and it was written in the same vein as Cemetary Gates where one person called it a ballad. There’s melody with harmonized guitars and Phil sings in a softer tone in the first half of the song until after dime’s solo where things get a little heavier. The song seems to be about a close friend that slipped in a comatose or vegetative state. This was an album that had saved metal because Metallica had certainly swerved into the mainstream with The Black Album and Nirvana was ruling the airwaves. So, for that we have to thank the mighty Pantera for everything they did. I am giving the album five stars out of five because it deserves it.
Moshpits And Movies 