Defenders of the Heavy Metal Faith #1: American Bands That Kept the Torch Lit in the 1990s

In more mainstream circles, people talk to death the common perception of how metal died in the ’90s, killed by big record labels and grunge, the torch only carried on by Pantera and maybe Death, depending on who’s pounding a shitty beer and telling the story. More underground-minded genre enthusiasts will rightfully scoff, pointing out how metal had not so much died as changed–after all, the ’90s had huge heights in visibility, popularity, and quality for first death metal and then black metal, and amazing bands and albums continued doing what they were doing the entire time.

While it’s very much true that metal did not die during those days, there’s certainly a kernel of truth to that sentiment in regards to anything that was not death or black metal. Thrash died a very visible and very quick death in the wake of more extreme genres. Very few bands were still going after 1992 or 1993 without having transitioned to groove metal, and heavy metal suffered much of the same fate. Remaining bands giving heavy metal a shot were derided as living in the past, as dinosaurs, as outdated, as fools. There was not much of a fanbase in the United States for heavy metal that was not flirting with the then-rising European-style power metal sound (and even then, there wasn’t much for bands that did for years to come!), nor was there much in the way of label support. Shows where they could be found at all were largely under attended or empty–and yet, a handful of the most true-hearted heavy metal maniacs continued to pursue their craft, completely without regard to trends, popularity, or even being able to afford to keep going.

It’s easy to look at the proliferation of heavy metal in the last twenty or so years and forget that there was a time that it was not so; for those bands that lived through those years the time following has been a once-unimagined gift of success after the harsh slog of an uncaring world in the 1990s. Then as is now, most of the fanbase of a “successful” American heavy metal band was in Europe. Unlike now there was not a corresponding one in the States and without the internet or ability to make it over to Europe, many of those bands did not even know that there was a fanbase there until they’d risked everything to self-finance a studio album or even later. An extreme example of this comes from Mark Shelton (of Manilla Road fame, sadly deceased a few years ago). As is recounted in the biography of his website, he had no idea that his band even had a significant fanbase in Europe until he was playing to thousands at a festival in 2000; that sort of experience is the one that almost all of the bands left in America playing the genre had.

This series is an attempt to shine some light on some of my favorite bands from the period. This week, I will be focusing on Twisted Tower Dire, Cauldron Born, October 31, and The Lord Weird Slough Feg.

The Lord Weird Slough Feg

Though The Lord Weird Slough Feg formed in Pennsylvania in 1990, they moved to San Francisco, California almost immediately afterwards and have been located there ever since. After a rich experience playing house parties and having fun playing around Penn State, they realized quickly that San Francisco was not so tolerant of their old stylings. The way that Mike put it in an interview we did for my fanzine was that they were “hated, so much.” They “played gigs and people would go what the fuck are you doing, you sound like Iron Maiden. They thought we were hicks… that didn’t know what was going on.” Grunge was in, punk was in, heavy metal was out.

Despite this adverse attitude pushing against them, Mike and The Lord Weird Slough Feg kept at it and managed to record their first album for a self-release in 1996, as is documented in this interview about the album. Weird, charismatic, and full of a terrible energy that drives through the length of the album, this is even now a great place to start with the band because it tells a story of exactly what they’re about: being The Lord Weird Slough Feg, being their own people, and doing whatever the fuck they want no matter what. There are some bands that are easy to compare them to but then as now nobody sounds quite like The Lord Weird Slough Feg other than bands directly aping them. Not many bands define the undying spirit of heavy metal like The Lord Weird Slough Feg does: uncaring of anything but what they wanted to do, and determined to make their music work for their own sake.

…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bv2iz0fLmg&ab_channel=CrystalLogik

…

Twisted Tower Dire

Unlike their friends and sometimes touring partners in The Lord Weird Slough Feg, Twisted Tower Dire never experienced a time of acceptance in their earliest years; they formed in 1995 with the explicit goal of helping to revive true heavy metal, and their early years are marked by that challenge. I recall from old interviews that founding guitarist Scott Waldrop cited Candlemass and Iron Maiden as formational influences and that is exactly what the oldest Twisted Tower Dire material sounds like: a primordial, self-discovered brand of epic heavy metal untainted by modernity, ancient and eternal in its powerful, ethereal melodic riffing and twisty (twisted?), catchy songwriting.

After years of honing their sound and after going through a variety of members, Twisted Tower Dire ended up with the rock-solid lineup that recorded their debut album The Curse of Twisted Tower in 1999, which was released on Rich Walker’s (of Solstice fame) label The Miskatonic Foundation. Triumphant and hopeful, it was a shining beacon at the end of the 1990s of heavy metal’s supremacy that reflected all of the young bands goals and hopes for heavy metal to come back- as indeed it did. Not long after the band made their first appearance at Wacken in Germany in 2000, proving that perseverance and a staunch refusal to follow what everyone else is doing is not a death knell for a sufficiently powerful band.

…

…

October 31

Something must have been in the water in Virginia in the 1990s, because another of the strongest supporters of ancient metal also came from there: Arlington’s own October 31. Unlike the other bands in this list, October 31 was partially the brainchild of a genuine metal scene veteran, King Fowley, who started his main band Deceased in 1984 and plays in both Deceased and October 31 to this very day. On a phone call with Brian Williams, King and Brian lamented the complete absence of old heavy metal, declaiming the absence of new bands in line with Saxon, Grim Reaper, or Anvil. They decided to give that exact sound a shot and just a couple years later released The Fire Awaits You, the most convincing replication of 1980s heavy metal this side of the actual ‘80s, complete with a mega-cult cover song of Canadian heroes Witchkiller.

In an interesting inversion of some of the bands on this list and of almost all of the ones I expect to write about in future iterations, October 31’s strong reception for a time overshadowed King’s main band Deceased despite three strong Deceased records on Relapse Records through the 1990s. Something about the catchiness and authenticity that October 31 exuded gave them a voice across the world, and their second album, Meet Thy Maker in 1999, was released on Metal Blade Records to strong sales, especially (as is typical of 1990s heavy metal) in Europe. In spite of being a newer band, October 31 made it to Europe before Deceased, and those early records remain cult legends in the heavy metal community. Also worth noting is the band’s strong alliance with their brothers in Twisted Tower Dire, with both bands sharing the same bassist these last 20 years and at one point having a lineup that shared as many as three members.

…

…

Cauldron Born

The story of Cauldron Born is a story of the unwavering vision of a single man: Howie Bentley. Atlanta in the 1990s was not ready for true heavy metal and as such Howie had a tremendously difficult time even having a band, let alone all of the other problems universal to bands in the genre from the time. Nearly every year in which Cauldron Born existed came with a new singer and in the earliest years of the band Howie was playing bass himself and relying on session musicians to play drums and bass. Despite this he persevered to make his dream a reality, ignoring the extreme metal of the time that he didn’t care as much for to write the riffy, virtuosic material that lived then as it does now in his heart.

In an interview with Howie last year, he described how blown away he was by finding a magazine with King Diamond on the cover in 1994 and how difficult it could be to find musicians that cared about that sort of thing at the time. He kept going and his hard work networking and writing music paid off, with Italian label Underground Symphony releasing Cauldron Born’s first album Born of the Cauldron in 1997. All these years later it stands tall not only as a monument to Howie’s dream but against all other heavy metal ever released in the style, proof that any obstacles can be overcome to write amazing music by those who dare to do so.

…

…