Metal Monday: Metal Essentials – NWOBHM

posted in: Features • Rock

If a person is to consider themselves a metalhead, they had best know the roots”the basics. Be aware of all subgenres, who dominates them and know the albums that helped shape that subgenre. For the next few weeks, I’ll be schooling you on some essential metal albums from metal’s biggest subgenres; making sure you know the biggest and the best in the metal world while giving you some essential albums to add to your metal collection.

This week features the little brother of the original metal movement, NWOBHM ( New Wave of British Heavy Metal).

If one were to ask you “What metal album cover is the most metal of all?” what would you say? The first album that comes to mind for me is Judas Priest‘s 1990 release Painkiller. The cover depicts the character called the Painkiller, a winged knight, jumping a steel motorcycle that is also a dragon with sawblades for wheels over a city being consumed by a volcano. The album starts with 15 second drum solo opening to the eponymous track, and is unrelenting for the remaining 46 minutes. A step in a more extreme and heavy direction than Judas Priest’s earlier albums, Painkiller is the pinnacle of a raw, evil heavy metal album. Out of all Judas Priest albums, Rob Halford’s voice is at its most sinister and powerful.

It’s no secret that the better the riff, the better the metal song. Using this logic, Diamond Head’s 1980 monster Lightning to the Nations could be considered the best NWOBHM album ever. From front to back, this record is simply great riff after great riff. With a sound all their own, they continue the tradition  of writing somewhat dark lyrics over incredibly thick riffs and emotive guitar solos set by Black Sabbath. Diamond Head just do so in a faster way. Incidently, Lightning to the Nations played a huge role in the sound of bands such as Metallica, who covered two songs from Lightning to the Nations on their Garage, Inc. compilation in 1998.

An album that could easily be considered the pinnacle of NWOBHM, Iron Maiden‘s Powerslave features everything you could ever want or need in a metal album (well, almost). Songs about dogfighting in jets (“Aces High”) and songs about stories kids learn in high school (“Rime of the Ancient Mariner”). Once you hear this album, you know almost instantly why Bruce Dickinson (vocals) and Steve Harris (bass) are regarded as some of the best musicians in metal. If you were to walk down the street and shout “Two! Minutes! To…” chances are someone within shouting distance could finish that line. Not as famous as “Run to the Hills” but still pretty famous in its own right. Cut after cut, Powerslave delivers something new but undeniably heavy metal. To top off the album, Powerslave features one of my favorite closing lyrics ever: “And the tale goes on, and on, and on, and on…”

So there you have them: three killer NWOBHM albums sure to tickle your metal fancy. In case you were unaware, NWOBHM makes some pretty great driving music. Go buy these albums if you don’t already have them, and take a trip with some buddies ”wailing the lyrics to the songs all the way. I’m pretty sure Bruce Dickinson would have it no other way.