Columbia Records

Yer Metal Is OIde: Alice In Chains – Alice In Chains

Yer Metal Is OIde: Alice In Chains – Alice In Chains

“Seattle rock legends Alice In Chains may not strictly qualify as metal, but they are widely regarded within the metal community, especially compared to the other big name bands of the famed grunge era, which tend to polarize metalheads. Perhaps it’s the blanket of sorrow and darkness enveloping their sound, coupled with the sludge and doom influences, that compliment their hard rock core and melancholic acoustic forays. Although Alice In Chains are still chugging along admirably to the present day, it was the band’s ’90s heyday and era with doomed frontman Layne Staley that remains the classic and defining era of the band.” Alice lives.

Yer Metal Is Olde: Judas Priest – Painkiller

Yer Metal Is Olde: Judas Priest – Painkiller

“Overrated. That’s the most recent Twitter post I saw about Painkiller, the specimen of metallic glory that is thirty years olde now. Listen, this album is only overrated if you rank it at the very top of Judas Priest’s long and glorious discography; however, it is most certainly amongst their best albums, and amongst the best that the heavy metalverse had to offer in 1990. And as 2020 draws to a slow and painful close, we can all use some Painkiller to help us get through these last few weeks. Let’s take a look back at this album, and see just why it deserves some extra attention.” PAIN!

Yer Metal is (25 Years) Olde: Carcass – Heartwork

Yer Metal is (25 Years) Olde: Carcass – Heartwork

Heartwork, the fourth album by Liverpool’s Carcass, was an anomaly in 1993 for several reasons. Sure, the signs existed on 1991’s Necroticism – Descanting the Insalubrious that the Brits were growing more proficient at their instruments, and were slowly leaving their goregrind roots behind them. But while Necroticism kept one foot in their murky, surgically grotesque past, Heartwork, saw Carcass eschewing gory lyrics and guitarist Bill Steer’s growls entirely, trimming the fat considerably, and saw them streamline their attack with incredible lead guitar work, hooks galore, and a simplified verse/chorus/verse approach, angering their diehard fanbase.” Still working.