Heavy Metal Bassist Of The Week: Steve Harris

Steve Harris, a self-taught bass player, founded the band Iron Maiden in 1975. As the band's principle composer and lyricist, Harris lead Maiden to fame and glory through the years. Iron Maiden, the fathers (or gods) of heavy metal, has had many members and a lot of slight changes in their music the entire time they have been together. From "Iron Maiden", to "The Number of the Beast", to "Powerslave", to "A Matter of Life and Death", you can hear the subtle changes in types of metal and musical exploration. Thank god Steve Harris didn't become a pro footballer like he wanted to, because if he did, there would be no Iron Maiden, and without Iron Maiden, metal today would be crap. Let's all give thanks to Steve Harris, not just for being a talented bassist,keyboard player, producer, editor, and director, but for creating the powerful beast that was and still is Iron Maiden. Steve Harris is definately one of the founding fathers of heavy metal, and should be honored and worshipped by all metal fans.

Heavy Metal Guitarist Of The Week: Marty Friedman

Marty Friedman started out as a solo recording artist for Shrapnel. He then joined forces with Jason Becker to form the powerful duo, Cacophony. Famous for their Speed Metal sound and use of exotic scales, Friedman only made two studio albums for Cacophony with Becker. After Cacophony, Friedman caught the attention of Dave Mustaine of Megadeth because of his raw talent and his ability to shred on all sorts of metal sounds. Friedman played with Megadeth on all albums from Rust In Peace to Risk. Since leaving Megadeth, Marty Friedman has put out many solo albums in which he explores different styles such as, speed metal, thrash metal, neo-classical metal, progressive metal, and many other exotic types of music. He now lives in Tokyo, Japan and is a huge celebrity there, making appearances in many television shows and at a lot of gigantic concerts. Because of his diverse, powerful, exotic, and just plain good playing and music, Marty Friedman definately deserves to be called one of the best guitarists ever, and also this week's Heavy Metal Guitarist Of The Week.

Heavy Metal Vocalist Of The Week: Ronnie James Dio

Ronnie James Dio was born Ronald James Padavona on July 10, 1942 in New Hampshire. He is known by many as the one of the best Heavy Metal singers of all time and is also famous for popularizing the "moloich" in Heavy Metal. The "moloich" (shown in the picture above) is now the sign for Heavy Metal. Many believe this is the sign of Satan, but that is untrue. This sign is an Italian tradition for blocking the "evil eye" or cursing/hexing another person.

Dio has been the frontman of many bands in the past. Bands such as Elf (1970-1975), Rainbow (1975-1978), Black Sabbath (1979-1982/1991-1993), and his own band Dio (1983-1989/1993-Present) have been famous for their raunchy sounding, powerful vocals. Dio is now touring with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Vinnie Appice as Heaven and Hell.

Dio is still singing and ruling his world of metal and is more than deserving of the title of The Godfather of Heavy Metal. Thank you Dio for your inspiration and seemingly effortless and consistantly great vocals for all these years.

Battle Of The Bands: Countries, Decades, and Genres

There are many different types of metal, and different ways to look at, and categorize these bands. One way to categorize a metal band is by country. Many people use stereotypes to build their opinion of a band, and when you categorize a band by the country they're from, it's hard not to do this. For example, if a band is from Norway, in many peoples minds, they're a hard Black Metal band that is likely to worship Satan. It's a cool idea I guess, but in reality, there are other bands out of Norway that are nothing like that. Another way of categorizing a metal band is by decade, or the year they started or released an album. For many people, this is what distinguishes the band between old metal and new metal; good metal and bad metal, if that's the way you think. BUT, there are many bands today that don't sound new and scream. The "last" way to categorize metal is by genre, but this is flawed in many ways. For example, many people who like Thrash Metal, don't like Power Metal. The Thrash fans think Power Metal is all poppy and soft like Europe or something. It really isn't. There are so many Power Metal bands that are heavier and more hardcore than a lot of the thrash bands.

Countries of Heavy Metal*(excluding Death Metal):

Norway- Black Metal, Death Punk, some Symphonic Metal, etc.

Sweden- Power Metal, Neo-Classical Metal, Pop Metal etc.

Germany- Power Metal, Neo-Classical Metal, Symphonic Metal, Pop Metal, etc.

Brazil- Power Metal, Thrash Metal, Neo-Classical Metal, etc.

America- Thrash Metal, Pop Metal, some Power Metal, Progressive Metal, etc.

*includes countries whose main musical exports are metal.

The point is, no metal is better than any other metal, it's about opinion and what you like.

Email Me!

Hello, Hello. I just wanted to add my email address just incase it doesn't show it on here. Please email me at liljtorkrench@aol.com or joshtorreziscool@yahoo.com if you would like me to post something on here. I'll post anything you send me so email away. Just be sure to title the email appropriately or leave a little note inside saying you want me to post it in the blog.

I'd probably just copy and paste your post on here unless I can figure out a better way of doing it. As an example, here is something I wrote in a forum on myspace...

Gimmicks

Bands like Manowar, Kiss, and Motley Crue have forever astounded us with being the loudest, craziest, and biggest bands in the world. But before these bands were known as the titles mentioned, they had gimmicks. Ways of making themselves noticed. Manowar, for example, portrayed themselves as these strong powerful men that dominated over all, when, in reality they were a bunch of average sized guys that could've been beat up by Janet Reno. (Of course, Janet Reno is huge and could kick all our asses.) But they built up these egos that went forever and came to be the loudest band in the world. Kiss was just a group of guys that wanted to be famous, wanted money, and wanted attention. They weren't even a heavy metal band (or even a hard rock band), but they got into the genre by being big and shiny. They were crazed men that I try not to let effect the way I hear their music, but it does. (By the way, I DON"T really like Kiss.) Motley Crue, in a different way, had a gimmick. They were glitter, glam, tough, hard, and tried to be the most lavish band around, even though, I think, a little band called Odin took that title. Gimmick, gimmick, it's all about the gimmick. Even solo artists such as Bumblefoot, who I really like, have to have a gimmick. It's rediculous I think. I say stick to what you are, like Iron Maiden did. Sure you could say Eddie was a gimmick, but I see him as more of a mascot. Iron Maiden set the standard, in a way, they didn't need a gimmick, and even if they had one, I didn't and still don't see it. Now... Judas Priest... You could say their gimmick was the leather, but I think that that was just how they were. (Plus Rob Halford's sexuality coming out.) They were trying to find themselves and their way since they started. Before ghe leather they looked like hippies and K.K. Downing (looking very flamboyant by the way) had a lighter style, with feathery shirts and bell bottom pants.Anyway, all bands have gimmicks nowadays and I don't really like it. I think it's stupid. Get rid of the gimmicks please so I can see you for what you really are and not just a moog. And make your music how you really want it and not how people tell you it's supposed to be. GIMMICKS BEWARE, I"M OUT TO GET YOU!

Welcome

Hello and welcome to the Metal Asylum Blog. This blog is just a place where anybody who likes or loves metal can post or read on what kinds of metal there are, what people like, what people hate, and maybe don't understand. My name is Josh and I love metal. Why else would I make this blog? I'll be posting information on what I like and the different types of metal. Please post responses, questions, or ideas that you have. I, and probably many of you, will also be bashing rap a lot, but that's just a habbit. So start posting and keep thrashin'!