Review Summary: Well, the time has come, the people must be told...
"He looks to be a wizard or perhaps a magic man.
With eyes of liquid fire, golden staff within his hand.
And he rides above the mountain with the secret that he holds -
the time has come, the people must be told"
Metal.
What is metal, exactly?
Heavy music made by long-haired, bike riding badboys wearing denim and leather with heavily intonated instruments and production?
Lyrics telling the government, society, everything and everyone else (especially your ex-girlfriend) to f%#k right off?
That's the culture, yes.
But, as for the music?
No.
A layman would look for his metallic dosage on, say, platforms such as youtube and metal-archives.com for reference.
The former is a damn good choice, the latter is damn well awful choice - and I will tell you why.
Take this, our band here, Ashbury - a country/blues rock band with unmistakable hard rock and metal influences (hell, even metal songs outright, one of them on this album).
They're called to play on various festivals and occassions - one of them being Frost & Fire, a metal festival.
A fan opened up a page for them on the archives - it was taken down.
Why?
"Not metal".
"Don't let no fool supersede you,
'cause fools, they don't know nothin' at all..."
- 'Mystery Man', Ashbury
Take another, Praying Mantis.
An unquestionably excellent band - messing with mutliple genres; hard rock, AOR, disco and, above all, metal.
A band interconnected with the penultimate metal band, Iron Maiden (Dennis Stratton, Clive Burr and Di'Anno), that rose to fame in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal itself with their first two releases - "The Soundhouse Tapes, Part 2" (Part 1 was Iron Maiden's, apparently) and, their most famous release, "Time Tells No Lies" (listed on wikipedia as no other genre other than 'heavy metal').
Calling them just a 'metal band' would be an insult - but with songs like "Captured City", "Panic in the Streets", "Rich City Kids", "Children of the Earth", "Can't See the Angels" and "Wasted Years" (yes), calling them as such would not exactly make you the wrongest man on this island Earth.
Same story.
A fan opened a page - it was taken down - and a forum thread was started, debating over it. Within said forum, an admin said something along the lines of 'stop asking for a Mantis page, they're not metal'.
I can't find that post, apparently it was either taken down or I'm suffering from audiovisual schizophrenia.
But, for the sake of argument, take my word for it.
Either way, these two bands are blacklisted.
"The esteem they hold has not been earned,
but money talks so loudly..."
- 'Rich City Kids', Praying Mantis
You know what is on the archive, though?
Apocalytica.
A mostly instrumental band using cellos, violins and drums - that rose to fame through their Metallica covers.
Listen on the archive as 'symphonic heavy metal'.
Know what else is in there?
Black Sabbath.
The progenitors of this genre - the 'end all, be all' of metal - accurately listed genre-wise as 'heavy/doom metal'.
Their first album wasn't even a metal album - it was a clear-cut blues rock record inspired by blues, jazz, country and the burgeoning rock scene at the time.
Look at the recommended listening tab I've put for you - it's right there - put "Endless Skies" and "Black Sabbath LP" next to one another and you would get basically two fruits of the same metallic tree.
Reader.
Metal isn't an instrument. It isn't a production. It isn't a person or a group of people singing about this or that.
It most certainly isn't an elitist a$$clown cloistered up in his ivory tower, looking down at you with his nose in the air, all condescending-like, flicking his finger as if he's the arbiter of metal, telling you what it is and, especially, what it isn't.
"Are you metal?
Are you man?
You've changed in life since you began.
Ladies digging gold from you,
well they still dig.
Now you're through..."
- 'The Writ', Black Sabbath
Metal is a feeling.
The feeling that puts you into a fist-clenching, jaw-grinding, stand-up-and-shout, 'f%&k yeah' screaming high.
You wanna talk lyrics?
Working class struggles and everyday occurences (Black Sabbath, 'Wicked World').
Satan, hell and all that... (insert black metal here).
Wizards, warriors, dragons and demons (do I even have to direct you to Dio?)
Denim, leather and the bike life (Saxon and, our lord and saviour, Lemmy and his band, Motorhead).
Getting stone-dead drunk and having a good time (I'm gonna be a bro here and recommend an underground band, Hammerhead and their song 'Ton of Bricks').
Do I have to bring alien invasions into it? (gonna be bro again, Ancient Empire and their song 'Resistance') (hell, hear their album 'Other World', you won't be sorry).
Your girlfriend ('Warning', 'Victim of Changes', Sabbath and Priest).
'Planet Caravan' is about floating in space - something Hawkwind could easily make - are they metal?
'Raw Deal' is about a bar brawl or a homoerotic orgy (depending on how you read it).
'Island of Domination' is about... Scratch that, actually, not getting into that.
Um...
Wanna talk music?
'Warning' is a literal 10-minute blues jam - and it's still more metal than anything Korn will put out or will ever be (yes).
'Raw Deal' is a 6-minute hard rock song - 4 minutes of which are the same slow riff in repetition - and it's still more metal than anything Slipknot can ever hope to be (everything after 'All Hope is Gone' - are you serious with this?)
Deep Aeon's 'Element 24' - the guy literally rings up the phone in the middle of the song and orders a pizza (yes).
Check them out, by the way, highly recommended.
I could go on, but I think my point is made.
Metal is a feeling - and this band, Ashbury - the Davis brothers from Arizona, Rob and Randy - deliver it with passion and iron fury, leaving you off with 9 tracks and begging for more.
The rest of the musicians are guest-appearances.
"One of our financial backers – who also came up with the Ashbury Rocker logo – was a heavy metal fan at the time. He suggested we write a song with a ‘metal edge’. I had my guitar in hand and immediately took off on the opening riff of ‘Vengeance’. Rob added the melody line and lyrics, loosely based on ‘Lord Of The Rings’… the Dark Lord… the Nine Rings and Black Riders. and the song was completely finished within 15-20 minutes. We got a big thumbs up! It’s probably one of the most popular songs on the album with metal fans."
- Randy Davis, interview with James Blackford, 2016 - Iron Fist, Heavy Metal Magazine
Acoustic songs with supplementary electric fills.
In fact, the best part of this entire release is the fact that all the electric, heavy grit is tertiary to the acoustic "country road" vibe these legends give off.
Or, rather, strum off.
Mystical, emotional and personal lyrics -often of the storytelling kind ('Warning', 'Madman', 'Mystery Man').
The passion - exotic.
The delivery - magical.
Just good music - beautiful and a pleasure to listen to.
Highlights?
Roll a die, what did you get?
A six?
Track 6 - Hard Fight.
Is it a kinda-sorta moapy track? Yes.
Is it deep, beautifully and tearfully well written? Yes.
Is that solo ramming you at the end one of the best you've ever f#@king heard? You bet it is.
Now, roll a D&D die.
A nine?
"I had already written ‘Madman’ and an epic poem titled ‘Endless Skies’, which Randy would later rework and put to music, but now I began thinking of expanding the song writing."
- Rob Davis
Track 9 - Endless Skies
The true, encapsulating, all-encompassing highlight.
They even bring a piano into it.
I can't even describe it with words - it brings a tear to the eye.
The eye of the truly receptive listener, of course.
But, truth is - this whole album is a highlight.
Even the cover art is exactly what it is - a work of art.
"The guy that did our logo knew an artist named Ernie Polo, who was painting a wall mural in a local mall. We described to him what we wanted and he painted the original on canvas, quite a bit larger than an album cover."
- Randy Davis
A perfect depiction of the first song, it's story, this album, this review and what I'm trying to tell you.
Do not miss out on this album and this band - give it a listen.
Rock hard, ride free and speak no evil.
Until the next time.
"But his words had gone unheeded, nothing more that could be done.
He returned into the mountains from where he had begun.
Now he watches from the heavens as the Void is drawing near.
And the prophet's words are ringing
All too clear..."
