NWOBHM Discussion Thread

[Dodens Grav]

As most of you know by now, I've been writing for Examiner.com since the beginning of the year. Most of my writing has been just small news stories, but I decided to tackle something a little larger this time that I think is worthy of being a topic of discussion. It's an introduction to the NWOBHM movement of sorts that tries to zoom in to every level of the scene, from Iron Maiden to Damascus, from Diamond Head and Angel Witch to Marquis de Sade and Weapon.

As always, please feel free to share my articles via social media and "like" them on facebook. I would copy/paste the entire thing here, but you would have to click on the story anyway to get to all of the links that I provide to resources and songs to listen to, so here's just a few bits of the 2000 words:

NWOBHM was more than Iron Maiden's birthplace and Metallica's playground - pt. 1

If the acronym NWOBHM means anything to the casual observer, it is at best the musical movement that ultimately spawned Iron Maiden, among the largest heavy metal acts in the genre’s history; either that, or an early source of inspiration for Metallica. Yet the richness and depth of the NWOBHM scene is a treasure trove of obscure and genuine early heavy metal untainted by the movement toward extremity that would emerge just a few short years later when the infusion of punk influences helped to form thrash, death, and black metal.

So what is the NWOBHM, exactly? To begin with, it is not a genre, nor sub-genre. Rather, the name describes a movement. It stands for New Wave of British Heavy Metal, a term coined by Sounds Magazine writer Geoff Barton in 1979 to give a name to the burgeoning heavy music scene that had begun to emerge in England beginning in the mid to late 70s. In other words, it's just heavy metal, in its purest sense, from the birthplace of the genre.

NWOBHM was more than Iron Maiden's birthplace and Metallica's playground - pt. 2

As previously stated, however, Iron Maiden was not alone in the early British heavy metal scene, nor is the band’s commercial success necessarily a testament to their superiority over all of the other bands that contributed to the NWOBHM movement. Some of the earliest bands to establish this movement include Saxon, Diamond Head, Savage, Quartz, Mythra, Holocaust, Jameson Raid, Angel Witch, White Spirit, and, yes, even Def Leppard, all of whom boast a date of formation before 1980.

While Def Leppard may have achieved the most commercial success out of this group, however, the band’s most financially lucrative material came after they left their early roots behind. It was bands such as Angel Witch and Diamond Head that would establish the future sound of the genre, both of whom would be cited by the aforementioned Metallica as a significant early influence.

Metallica’s umbrella of influence is indeed heavily oriented toward the NWOBHM; it was also not much of a secret. Thanks to drummer Lars Ulrich’s extensive music collection and the band’s early insatiable desire for new music, much of Metallica’s early career can be tied directly to NWOBHM. In the booklet from 1998's Garage Inc. release, which anthologizes all of their cover songs throughout their history up to that point, the band notes that their first ever live show in March 1982 included “everything they knew”: 3 originals, and 7 covers, “all pulled from Ulrich’s deep library of British underground-metal vinyl”.

NWOBHM was more than Iron Maiden's birthplace and Metallica's playground - pt. 3

Yet another band covered by Metallica for that inaugural live show is Savage. The song in question, “Let it Loose”, later also covered on an early Metallica demo, was first released as a split with a few other NWOBHM bands in 1981. Both this and the Weapon song represented a movement toward a faster, grittier, and more ‘metallic’ sound that the early thrash metal bands such as Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Dark Angel would later run with, so it’s no surprise that these two songs in particular struck the band in their youth.

Of the other two NWOBHM acts featured in the band’s set that night, Blitzkrieg is perhaps the more notable. Covering the band’s eponymous song (first released in 1980), Metallica would take quite a liking to it over the years, later recording it (along with Diamond Head’s “Am I Evil?”) as the B-side for the 1984 Creeping Death single.

NWOBHM was more than Iron Maiden's birthplace and Metallica's playground - pt. 4

Such is how a preliminary history lesson of the NWOBHM movement might run. It would be a disservice, however, to look at it as simply an antiquated period of musical development that would eventually go on to influence the heavy metal bands of today. Indeed, the quality that is left to be uncovered amongst the ruins of this fallen empire is well worth exploring. One must keep in mind that for every Iron Maiden that managed to even release a proper full-length LP, there are a dozen bands like Marquis de Sade or Tyrant that would never be afforded the opportunity to get past the demo or 7” single stage.

Largely thanks to the work of record labels such as Neat, Shadow Kingdom, Buried by Time and Dust, High Roller, Steel Legacy, and others, many of these minor recordings once thought lost to time have been revived, however. The rise of the internet and subsequent proliferation of the availability of information unsurprisingly led to an increased interest in older music, the NWOBHM movement most certainly included.

It started with Castle Communication and Neat Records, the Newcastle, England based label primarily responsible for driving the movement by signing many of the more commercially noteworthy bands at the time, including Venom, Tygers of Pan Tang, Jaguar, Raven, and Bitzkrieg. The label, which was subsumed by Sanctuary Records in 1995, released a number of compilations consisting of songs from various singles in their catalog starting in the early 00s, and then began reissuing some of the classic full-length recordings from the larger acts aforementioned on their roster.

NWOBHM was more than Iron Maiden's birthplace and Metallica's playground - pt. 5

Among the lesser known bands of the early British heavy metal scene have also some of the more interesting and rewarding recordings, including those by the likes of Legend, Damascus, Pagan Altar, Bleak House, Trespass, Aragorn, White Spirit, and Dragonslayer. Therein is a wide variety of influences, some of which retain a strong blues influence inherited from the likes of Deep Purple, while others begin to point toward a harder edge.

White Spirit and Legend are two of the earliest bands of their era to release a full-length album, the former in 1980 and the latter the year after. White Spirit in particular retains a strong hard rock influence, which at the time drew heavy comparisons to the likes of the aforementioned Deep Purple, as well as Styx.

Typically best known as the first band of Janick Gers, who would later join Iron Maiden, the band’s “Red Skies” from White Spirit's self-titled LP (recently reissued on vinyl by High Roller Records) showcases a keyboard display that Jon Lord would envy. Meanwhile, Legend’s balance of musicianship, sensitivity, and deceptively heavy tone makes the project one of the more intriguing acts from the scene, as testified by “Hiroshima” from the band’s debut self-titled LP (reissued on vinyl by Svart Records).

[SomeGuyDude]

You're a damn good writer, dude. I don't know enough about the subject to pick apart the factuality of the article, but it was a great read and good job for getting in the Examiner! Hopefully they'll let you write more like this!

[Dodens Grav]

Thanks for the compliment, but feel free to use this thread as a discussion of NWOBHM and its influence in general, even if you just have questions I or others can attempt to answer.

[Svetovid]

I have a question. I know most say Judas Priest aren't NWoBHM, but I'm sure they played their part in laying foundations for it. I am not experienced at all with the scene other than with Iron Maiden, and what I would like to know is are there any bands that have a sound similar to the more progressive parts of Sad Wings of Destinty and Stained Class? Dreamer Deceiver and Beyond the Realms of Death are some of my favorite songs and I'm looking for more progressive styles similar to older Judas Priest. I figure the best way to explore a style of music I know nothing about is to ask someone like you. I'd also like any suggestions you have outside of NWoBHM if you have any.

[Dodens Grav]

Well, Judas Priest is not technically part of the NWOBHM simply because the band predates the movement. In fact, the NWOBHM is largely predicated on bands deriving significant influence from them, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Motörhead, etc. They can be considered godfathers of of the movement, so to speak, and, of course, Priest's popularity during that time period of 79-84, give or take, no doubt greatly contributed to the rise of the movement as well. Having Iron Maiden tag along on world tours in 82, for example, was a gigantic step, propelling Maiden into the international spotlight.

That said, it's really hard to say that any one band truly could ever recapture what Judas Priest did in the 70s, particularly on Sad Wings of Destiny and Stained Class. You could say that just about any British heavy metal band of the early 80s take their cues from Priest, but the influence lies more in the duel guitar harmonies, the imagery, and the prototypical riff formation (I often describe the verse riff in "Stained Class" as the first true archetypal "heavy metal" riff from which the later convention would descend), rather than the unique qualities of the band that actually makes them special. In all honesty, not much can be accurately compared to Priest's 70s material through Stained Class with a straight face. For one, Priest never formed as a heavy metal band. They didn't spend much time in the minor leagues and put their albums out on bigger labels with bigger recording budgets. Nevertheless, I could point toward a few bands, admittedly whose over Priest influence may vary, and many of whom retain a strong connection to 70s heavy rock, that may be of interest:

Trespass - Stormchild
Bleak House - Flight of the Salamander
Triarchy - Save the Khan
Jaguar - Run for Your Life
Tokyo Blade - Midnight Rendezvouz

Still some more personal favorites from the NWOBHM:

Legend - Torture
Satan - Trial by Fire (Blind Guardian also does a great cover of this one)
Blitzkrieg - Inferno (same vocalist - Brian Ross - as Satan)
Mythra - Killer
White Spirit - Cheetah
Savage - Let it Loose
Witchfynde - Leaving Nadir
Aragorn - Black Ice
Hell - Save Us from Those Who Would Save Us

Of course, these are a few that everybody should know:

Venom - Don't Burn the Witch
Angel Witch - Hades Paradise
Diamond Head - The Prince
Witchfinder General - Witchfinder General

Of course England was not the only country inspired by the likes of Judas Priest during the late 70s and early 80s, and the NWOBHM movement inspired a lot of bands in a lot of places, from the US and Germany to Holland and Japan. Here's just a small smattering of the metal explosion that occurred in the early 80s from around the world:

Cirith Ungol - I'm Alive (US, Frost and Fire, 1980)
Jonah Quizz - Förstör Inte Ditt Liv (vocalist is Johan Langquist of Candlemass fame) (Sweden, 1980)
Riot - Swords and Tequila (US, Fire Down Under, 1981)
Accept - Breaker (Germany, Breaker, 1981)
Manowar - Battle Hymn (US, Battle Hymns, 1982)
Queensrÿche - The Lady Wore Black (US, Queensrÿche, 1982)
Mercyful Fate - Doomed by the Living Dead (Denmark, Mercyful Fate, 1982)
Savatage - Sirens (US, Sirens, 1983)
Savage Grace - Too Young to Die (US, The Dominatress, 1983)
Sabbrabells - Black Hill (Japan, Sabbrabells, 1983)
Exciter - Rising of the Dead (Canada, Heavy Metal Maniac, 1983)
Ostrogoth - Full Moon's Eyes (Belgium, Full Moon's Eyes, 1983)
Sortilege - Amazone (France, Sortilege, 1983)
Oz - Black Candles (Sweden, Fire in the Brain, 1983)
Stormwitch - Thunderland (Germany, Walpurgis Night, 1983)
Warlord - Child of the Damned (US, Deliver Us, 1983)
Satan Jokers - Les fils du metal (France, Les fils du metal, 1983)
Future Tense - Nightmare (Holland, Battle of Metal, 1983)
Evil Blood - Midnight in Sodom (Croatia, Midnight in Sodom, 1983)
Brocas Helm - Into the Ithilstone (US, Into Battle, 1984)
Fates Warning - Damnation (US, Night on Bröcken, 1984)
Witch Cross - Killer Dogs (Denmark, Fit for Fight, 1984)
Evil - Evil's Message/Evil (Denmark, Evil's Message, 1984)
Witchkiller - Day of the Saxons (Canada, Day of the Saxons, 1984)
Omen - Death Rider (US, Battle Cry, 1984)
Running Wild - Diabolic Force (Germany, Gates to Purgatory, 1984)
Nightmare - Waiting for the Twilight (France, Waiting for the Twilight, 1984)
Jag Panzer - The Crucifix (US, Ample Destruction, 1984)
Griffin - Hawk the Slayer (US, Flight of the Griffin, 1984)
Nemesis - In God We Trust (pre-Candlemass) (Sweden, The Day of Retribution, 1984)
Grave Digger - Tyrant (Germany, Heavy Metal Breakdown, 1984)
Metal Church - Beyond the Black (US, Metal Church, 1984)
ADX - Caligula (France, Execution, 1985)
Slauter Xstroyes - Winter Kill (US, Winter Kill, 1985)
Kat - Metal i pieklo (Poland, 666, 1985/6)
Bulldozer - Fallen Angel (Italy, The Day of Wrath, 1985)
Sacred Blade - Of the Sun + Moon (Canada, Of the Sun + Moon, 1986)

[Svetovid]

Wow. Thanks for all of the suggestions, I'll get to checking them out right away. I definitely wasn't expecting such a detailed answer, thanks for taking the time to come up with it. I'll let you know what I think. Again, I really appreciate it.

[Dodens Grav]

Well, I had some time to kill, and it's there for everybody else's benefit as well for a future resource.

V5 or unknown, can you change the title of this thread to NWOBHM? I'd like to make this a general discussion thread rather than just an avenue to discuss the article I wrote.

[Master_Yoda77]

TURN THE CROSS UPSIDE DOWN
FEEL THE EVIL GROW
BURN THE CHURCHES TO THE GROUND
SATAN'S WICKED SHOW

[AllShallFall]

Originally Posted by Master_Yoda77

TURN THE CROSS UPSIDE DOWN
FEEL THE EVIL GROW
BURN THE CHURCHES TO THE GROUND
SATAN'S WICKED SHOW

Great lyrics. What're they from?

[rms]

Pretty solid read to an unknown NWOBHM listener, but it's great that High Roller and BBTAD find these great records, but sadly only seem to put them out on vinyl

[SentinelSlain]

Originally Posted by AllShallFall

Great lyrics. What're they from?

OZ - Turn the Cross Upside Down.

[AllShallFall]

Originally Posted by SentinelSlain

OZ - Turn the Cross Upside Down.

Cool. i'll look them up

[sevag00]

Great recommendations Dodens. I'm not a big NWOBHM fan, butt i'll check those out.

[SentinelSlain]

Check this song out too guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WOCx...ure=plpp_video