VLVL II: Schwermetall

[Dave Monroe]

RW's RWTD is well worth reading ...

http://www.dartmouth.edu/acad-inst/upne/0-8195-5252-6.html

http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bkrev/walser-cp.php

And might I also recommend ...

Eddy, Chuck.  Stairway to Hell: The 500 Best
   Heavy Metal Albums in the Universe.  New York:
   Harmony, 1991.
 
http://www.rockcritics.com/ch_eddy_int.part1.html

Even if an awful lot of said 500 best heavy metal
albums are by Teena Marie?  But I read BB$TVs "heavy
metal" as not so much either heavy or metallic but as
more an not-quite-hip-anymore-ster's take on punk
rock, esp. its 80s West Coast hardcore mutations ...

Azzerad, Michael.  Our Band Could Be Your Life:
   Scenes From the American Indie Underground
   1981-1991.  Boston: Little, Brown, 2001.

But I am reminded here of the difference between the
punks of The Decline of the Western Civilization
(1981) and the hairmetalheads of TDOWC II (1988) ...

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0082252

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0094980

Whereas the West Coast punks of TDOWC were pretty much
unemployable Repo Man style nihilists to a person, the
presumed rock'n'roll lifestyle party on dude bands of
II all espoused the virtues of loyalty, hard work and
Good Ol' American sticktoitiveness ...

--- lorentzen-nicklaus
<lorentzen-nicklaus at t-online.de> wrote:
> 
>  * with bands from cali it's sometimes hard to tell
> which genre they wanna nourish but here,
>  in "vineland" (p. 20), we're told that the combo
> isaiah 2:4 [...] plays in, Billy Barf and the 
>  Vomitones, is a "heavy-metal band". [...]. zoyd
> feels uneasy about the 'glorification of violence'
>  many observers tend to attribute to heavy-metal
> music. myself i actually don't know much about this
>  genre but i read large parts of robert
> walser's "Running with the Devil. power, gender,
>  and madness in heavy metal music" (hanover, new
> england 1993: wesleyan university press) ...
>
> [...]
> 
>  critics and outsiders like 'u.s news and world
> report' continue to prattle that the 'primary theme'
>  of metal is nihilism, but heavy metal is rarely
> nihilistic. nihilism is frightening because it
>  undermines the myths that sustain social order and
> struggle alike; it may serve to invite or justify
>  authoritarian repression by making the world seem
> irrational. heavy metal, on the contrary, is nearly
>  always concerned with making sense of the world.
> if it offers opportunities for expressing individual
>  rage, it is largely devoted to creating communal
> bonds that will help fans weather the strains of
>  modernity....

Me, I recently picked up The Scorpions' Lovedrive LP
for "Another Piece of Meat" on vinyl, but ...

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