Friday Q&A: 7/4/2014

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Welcome to Friday Q&A. Every week, we’ll put up a question for the staff, friends, bands, and you, the reader, to answer.

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This Week’s Q

Alright, it’s the 4th of July. It’s BBQ time. You’ve got delectables cooking/steaming/charring away. People are mingling, having a good time. You reach into your crate of metal for the perfect record. What is it?

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Show No Mercy. It’s my perfect party album–it’s old-school and fun and has a ton of songs on it that even non-metalheads know, and it’s also great for drinking. Still classic thrash, so it’s not too crowd-pandering, but tasty and at times hilarious so as not to scare off the uninitiated. Also, it’s good for drinking. Plus, it’s American–I don’t want guests at my July 4th bash listening to some mystical Scandinavian tinkle-time horses hit while we’re celebrating the day we were given freedom from the hated British. We listen to pure American satanic speed metal. Also, this album is very good for drinking.

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For someone who is something of a hermit, I’m strangely obsessed with this topic. In my younger years, I even created detailed mixtape commandments because, holy shit, the OCD RUNS DEEP. These days though, I think if you’re reaching beyond the Big Four, Sabbath, Priest, Maiden, etc., you’re just being a dick. Hey, a party isn’t the time to flex your obscure wax digging muscles (unless you’re Aesop Dekker, Fenriz, or these guys, then flex away and let me see the labels before you re-sleeve the goods, thanks). Sorry, but familiarity will always win out over trying too hard. So with that in mind, I think I’d reach for Diamond Head’s Diamond Nights. Sure it’s a compilation, but it collects everything necessary from the band and includes the original versions of jams most metalheads have heard. Air guitar opportunities come early and often courtesy of Brian “This Part Needs a Solo” Tatler. Sean Harris sounds like he’s doing Led Zeppelin II karaoke mid-orgasm, sharpening hooks with that extra ‘ooo.’ All in all, it’s palatable to short-hairs, but it has an edge. It’s infectious. It’s electric. Sorry, that should be, “It’s elllllllllleeeeecticoooooooooooooooooyeah.”

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You may not call all of these metal but they’re all heavy as fuck, would rock any party, are all old school with sing-along familiarity, and they were the first three that entered my mind. . .

Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, Alice Cooper’s Killer, and my top pick. . . the Stooges’ Raw Power. Everyone wishes they could BBQ with “a heart full of napalm!”

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I’m hesitant to think of a full album that I’d put on at a party, but I know damn well what the ultimate heavy metal party SONG is. If you want to get rowdy, the song you want is Riot’s “Swords and Tequila,” the opening track off that band’s 1981 album Fire Down Under (actually, go ahead and jam the whole record). It’s pure American classic metal, complete with a driving rhythm, a sweet chug-then-flourish riff, and one of those unforgettable choruses that stays in your mind for days. There was a time when pop-metal was a good thing, and Riot’s a great example of that. I still think contemporary metal could learn a lot from Riot, rather than making fun of them for their constantly absurd album covers. Seriously, swords and tequila, what else do you want out of a party? Shout-out to my good friend Mahlon for turning me on to this awesome band.

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The Art of Partying. Yeah, this might seem cliche, but it’s such a raucous summertime album. Fast, riffy rethrash with no more pressing concerns than beer drinking, face ripping, toilets exploding, and food fights. It’s every hot summer afternoon spent watching six bands play at a skatepark, interspersed with blunts and forties. Plus, TAOP contains what I believe to be the single greatest singalong in thrash metal history, replete with the sound of beer cans opening. American-made music that’s gonna FUCK! YOU! UP!

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You’ve read ours, now what’s yours? Let us know below and enjoy your weekend.

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