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And here we are again, with the second of three collections of articles and informal chats over at the Facebook page, having appeared over the last year or two. This time we’re focusing on music!

So without any further ado-ing, shall we?

Finally have an answer for all those perennial “desert island discs” questions everyone seems to bring up on a fairly regular basis.

Being part of so many subcultures over the years and loving so much music as I do, it’s kind of impossible to say sure, these are my regular go tos trumping all others. It’s just not realistic.

But leaving music genres and bands and even labels aside…there are two or three producers who at least at one time could do no wrong. Scott Burns stands out in particular, the legendary death metal go to who made Florida’s Morrisound a mecca for bands all over the world.

But it’s actually one man, a former rap producer who would later develop a reputation for being overly booked and too hands off, who is at the center of this, namely Rick Rubin.

While later work even with some of the same bands would sound radically different, even poor (Slayer and Danzig in particular – Seasons and III were so thin and mids heavy they came off like one of those cereal box flexi discs), he was responsible for four albums of four very different bands that quite literally stripped them of all their expected trappings down to the basics…and the best albums of their careers.

Having long since left the gothic Tribal sound of Southern Death Cult for the stodgy Death Cult and the lame trippiness of The Cult (Love, anyone?) It was a shock and kick in the pants to hear an out of nowhere blistering hard rock album like Electric under their aegis. Closer to Bon Scott AC/DC, the Stones and Zeppelin than it ever does druggy alternative, this remains their best album by leaps and bounds.

Slayer was still going from strength to strength at this point, with South of Heaven still in them before a precipitous jump of the shark thereafter, but the crisp attack and clarity of the production left their speed and sinister aggression sounding all the more violent and surprisingly polished. Arguments abound as to which of their first three albums and two EPs are the best, but Reign in Blood has long become their signature moment and an amazing testament to sheer evil.

Trouble had a killer debut in Psalm 9, more or less taking the trail laid by Sabbath and Witchfinder General and coalescing an actual doom metal genre (St. Vitus and Pentagram were also there, so it’s debatable which of the three deserves the most credit pre-Candlemass), but stumbled badly with the quirky The Skull and the bland Run to the Light.

But after a three year break and switch of label, they came back with what may be the strongest album of their career (only rivalled by Psalm 9) and built a second career for them in more stoner leaning circles to.boot. Every track is catchy, the sound is crisp and punchy, most got radio airplay.

Danzig had long since left.behind the earworm punk of The Misfits, spending most of the 80s exploring a poorly produced form of occultically inclined gothic rock with the excellent Samhain. But that band was too esoteric and strange for most, and his penchant for self production and release to his own labels limited his influence dramatically.

Cue Rick Rubin, fresh off stripping things down to essentials for Slayer and The Cult…and boy did they manage to create an essential album. Sure, he’d drop one or two good tracks per album at least through 4. But only one of his albums outside Samhain is essential, and moreso than any from either of his earlier bands.

If I had to pick four albums to play ad nauseam? These have held up to so many plays since release you’d never believe it, and all still work.

Hats off to the man in his prime – Rick Rubin, the man who drew out exactly what these bands were really about and created their best albums thereby.

Public Service Notice 1.

Once more for the dim bulbs in the back: stop reclassifying every 80s metal act who doesnt growl or scream (and good luck finding those back then!) as “rock and roll” or “hard rock”.

That’s just some weird retroactive thing the new kids did. Trust me, bands like Lizzy Borden, Dokken, 80s Kiss, Ratt and WASP were metal, and few if any of that era would ever dispute or doubt that. A Journey fan would not go to a metal show or vice versa, unless dragged there by a girlfriend. In those days, Metallica was about the heaviest and most “extreme” things got.

I found and dived headfirst into a very young underground thrash scene in 87…which included Sepultura, Sodom, Destruction, Kreator (all later named “blackthrash”), Death and Possessed (soon to inspire an entire subgenre of death) and Bathory (ditto for black). Black metal? That was anyone who said satan enough times, meaning Mercyful Fate, Running Wild, Manowar (Hail to England era) and Venom.

You cant retcon history. “Hair metal and glam” were still metal, much less NWOBHM, power and traditional metal.

In reference to an absurd (competition website’s) assertion that Iron Maiden’s last listenable (if considerably tepid) album is somehow magically retconned into being “their greatest”.

Seventh Son? Pfft!!! Not by a long shot! Piece of Mind, the self titled, Powerslave, Number, Somewhere in Time, Killers all beat the crap out of this weak tea proggy album. Has its moments, but you can tell they’d jumped the shark, and later albums kinda sucked.

It was their last solid record, but far removed from the gravitas and power of their heyday.

Seriously…The abysmal state of metal coverage and review continues to hammer nails in its own collective coffin.

Want quality, honest coverage with a sense of humor to boot? We’ve got your fix right here, at Third Eye.

Honestly, the sheer misguidedness of the competition is staggering…

Desert Island Death Metal.
(Yeah, we finally went there.)

Someone asked for a list of essential death metal albums. For those interested:

Death – Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy. Dig those? Try the early demos from Mantas and Death. And if you dig early Death, definitely check out early Morgoth (first album and the EP) and Gruesome.

Massacre – From Beyond. Dig that, try the Mantas and Death demos (same band) and The Second Coming album.

Nihilist demos through Entombed – Left Hand Path and Clandestine. Dig that, try Nirvana 2000 or Unleashed – Where No Life Dwells through Across the open Sea.

Deicide – self titled and Legion.

Obituary – Cause of Death and Six Feet Under – Haunted (members of Obituary, Massacre and the ridiculous Cannibal Corpse. Better than most Obituary albums.)

Gorguts – Considered Dead.

Malevolent Creation – 10 Commandments and Retribution.

Vader – The Ultimate Incantation.

Pestilence – Consuming Impulse. Dig that, try the demos.

Benediction – Subconscious Terror through Transcend the Rubicon.

Bolt Thrower – IVth Crusade.

Dismember – Pieces EP. Dig that, try Like an Ever Flowing Stream.

Morbid Angel – Abominations of Desolation and Blessed are the Sick, possibly Covenant.

Cematary – Evil Shade of Grey.

Desultory – Into Eternity.

Grave – into the grave. Dig that, try the demos, especially Corpse’s Black Dawn. They stuck to style through You’ll Never See.

Cancer – Death Shall Rise and to the gory end.

Carcass – Necroticism and Heartwork.

I’d also highly recommend Monstrosity – Imperial Doom and Millenium.

Possibly Asphyx – The Rack (and to a lesser extent, Last One on Earth)

and Grotesque – In the Embrace of Evil/At the Gates – Slaughter of the Soul.

You should also check out
Possessed – Eyes of Horror,
Celtic Frost – Morbid Tales through Mega Therion
and Sepultura – Morbid Visions through Schizophrenia.

Honorable mention: the first Gorefest and first 2 Sinister albums aren’t bad,
Ditto on Resurrection – Embalmed Existence,
Immolation – Dawn of Possession
Baphomet – Dead Shall Inherit
Napalm Death – Harmony Corruption
and Amorphis – the Karelian Isthmus.

After that, it’s more for diehards or utter hype (fanboys will scream out albums I never found merit to or don’t find as worthy as everyone out there in dittohead land seems to.)

Public Service Notice 2.

General notice: if you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen.

All reviews will continue to be honest, rated against peers of similar type and genre, and judged on both subjective and objective appraisal of musical merit.

Most labels, reps and bands who’ve worked with us or taken the time to thank us (or even debate with us) over theirs have given some very strong approval, in particular for our honesty in a world filled with fanboy sycophancy and calculated lies lazily regurgitated for profit’s sake.

But every now and again, we get a dissenter. All I can say to them is farewell and all the best.

And by the way (directive deleted.) Ciao, baby.

On a particularly egregious faux-“metal” band revealing themselves as even more heinous than previously suspected.

Wow. The utter shit that mainstream culture embraces which I manage to avoid utterly never fails to shock.

Some dipshit just went on about the ridiculous Five Finger Death Punch and how he’s so dangerous because he’s going to blast some track “Jekyll and Hyde”, its “just how he feels.”

Being a comment last heard by the fat fuck who shot Dimebag because Pantera’s shitty aggro “spoke to him” , I had to see what kind of psycho bullshit these losers were putting out there (I saw one awful video of theirs that was part of one of the Rock Band or Guitar Zero games ages ago, they were clearly white trash bopping around on a dilapidated front porch. Mocked them roundly ever since, but avoided contact like they had Ebola.)

Well, guess what. They are not only trash wholly devoid of talent, but they’re clearly MAGA to boot. One asshole (the frontman) was going on about, effectively, being yet another of those right wing Domestic Terrorist Republicans, while another in a “we the people” shirt was loading a pair of AK-47/AR-15s, which the genius proceeded to shoot off at the ceiling of the room they were filming in.

Ooh, so tough and manly. I’m so scared of these enablers and supporters of mass murder by fascist Fifth Columnist elements all around our nation.

I patently refuse to even share the video, because there’s zero reason to disseminate their awful “music” and worse message any further. If you’re THAT curious, it’s easily found.

I am profoundly embarrassed for one or two folks I know that appreciate this band of boobs, and now can see yet ANOTHER link in the neverending chain of far right propaganda inflaming the dimwitted to acts of terrorism in the name of “taking America back” to the fucking Dark Ages and totalitarian oppression to the benefit of the few.

Keep it cult. Avoid the shit sandwich substitute the majors push as “metal” domestically like the plague it is, and stay tuned to us for ongoing and honest coverage of the real thing.