Metal Reviews

When a band apes the very chaotic form of the art they give birth to, some inevitably see it as emblematic of a mixture of the musicians personalities/creative intent. But my assertion is in the case of the drug binging fast paced lifestyles of some metal musicians, is how often this energy translates into powerful albums and how this can be differentiated from the inevitable decline this lifestyle takes upon the human body. When does a passionately destructive life such as of GG Allin cross the line to become destructive. Do you see this as merely the individual becoming indolent and letting himself go, or as the candle is lit at both ends the artist himself was born to die young? How can this be channeled beyond mere hedonism and into extreme creativity?

Lemmy immediately came to mind when reading this.
Life on the road, outside the law, whisky, speed, women, etc... my theory is the day he gives all that up, is the day Motorhead dies.

Interesting subject.

I thought of all the motley crue hedonism and how as they spiraled more and more out of control their music got shittier.

An interesting subject, Steve. If one considers the progressive rock music of the 70's and the massive amounts of acid those musician took back then and the amount of creativity they had while taking it, then one can say with confidence that it certainly helped them quite a lot. On the other hand, when a musician needs drugs to be creative and cannot create wonderful and fascinating music without taking some sort of drug then one has to wonder about the musician's ability as a whole. One perspective is that the 1970's were the days of acid and psychedelic drugs and it was a prime age for that matter. But rock music is all about individuality and strong character so one can consider not taking a drug a sign of strong character in other cases. I suppose what it comes down to is the absolute personal choice and wanting to change one's consciousness, so to speak, through the drug of choice. Although one can change their consciousness through meditation and through different and eccentric music sounds too.

I kind look at it completely opposite; when they cleaned up, they lost whatever edge they had.
And yes, Too Fast and Shout At The Devil are not bad for what they are.

Like Aerosmith; when they were fronted by the Toxic Twins, they put out their best material, when they cleaned up, we got Permanent Vacation or Pump, or whatever album came out at the time, and it has been downhill since.