Various The Heavy Metal Box
The Heavy Metal Box Features 70 Songs Spotlighting the Genre's First Golden Age Between 1968 and 1991 Including Music From Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, Metallica, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Iron Butterfly, Pantera, Alice Cooper, Venom, Testament, Motorhead, Slayer, Rush, Megadeth, Kiss and More
Four-Disc Boxed Set, Packaged to Resemble an Amplifier With an Authentic Marshall Knob, Will Be Available October 2 From Rhino
Heavy metal is not for the faint of heart. The songs don't
want you to dance, shake, spin, or jump. They insist that you bang your
head. Forget nuances or subtlety, heavy metal's main concern is kicking
your ass. Rhino dives into the mosh pit with a four-disc collection of
musical wickedness that packs more fire and brimstone than an Aleister
Crowley barbeque. THE HEAVY METAL BOX will be available October 2 at all
retail outlets and at www.rhino.com for a suggested price of $64.98. The
set will be offered in limited edition packing that resembles an amplifier.
In a nod to Spinal Tap -- whose song "Big Bottom" is included in the set --
the faux-amp box features an authentic, turn-able Marshall knob allowing
you to literally turn it up to 11.
Arranged chronologically, the compilation gathers 70 choice selections from
various record labels tracing the evolution of metal during its first
golden age between 1968 and 1991. THE HEAVY METAL BOX presents more than five hours of blistering fury guaranteed to send devil horn salutes in the
air.
The genre's progenitors get their due with the supreme heaviness of Iron
Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" and the hoodlum metal mania of Blue
Cheer's cover of "Summertime Blues." "From that point on," renowned metal
journalist Mick Wall writes in the boxed set's meticulous liner notes, "the
floodgates were thrown wide open as a whole slew of next-generation rock
bands, disenchanted by the empty promises of the so-called love generation,
arrived like drunken, rabble-rousing gate-crashers at the party, intent on
ripping up the rulebook, throwing love out the window -- along with all the
flowers -- and replacing them with a distinctly unsettling ambience all
their own. From here on in, rock music would no longer be a dance. It would
be an arena to do battle in."
Along with Wall's detailed history of metal, the boxed set's exhaustive
liner notes also include rare photos, a track-by-track commentary, Ronnie
James Dio discussing metal's infamous mano cornuta salute (aka "The
Horns"), Lita Ford reflecting on her role as the "first lady of metal,"
multiple artist tributes, and more.
THE HEAVY METAL BOX invokes some of metal's biggest names with Alice
Cooper's "Billion Dollar Babies"; Black Sabbath's "Neon Knights"; "Highway
Star" by "the loudest group in the world," Deep Purple; Iron Maiden's "The
Phantom Of The Opera" with singer Paul Di'Anno and "The Number Of The
Beast" with singer Bruce Dickinson; Judas Priest's "The Ripper" and "You've
Got Another Thing Comin'"; Metallica's "Whiplash" and uber-doom-ballad
"One"; Megadeth's searing political statement "Peace Sells"; Slayer's soul
crushing "South of Heaven"; and Pantera's marriage of metal and hardcore on
"Cowboys From Hell." The boxed set also includes songs by Ted Nugent, Kiss,
W.A.S.P., Diamond Head, Venom, Living Colour, and a pair of tracks
featuring leather-lunged Lemmy Kilmister who appears on Hawkwind's "Lost
Johnny" and Motorhead's "Ace of Spades."
Metal is an immense genre and this collection spotlights its many offshoots
including progressive metal (Rush's "Working Man," Mercyful Fate's "Black
Funeral," Queensryche's "Queen Of The Reich," and Prong's "Beg To Differ");
black metal (Angel Witch's "White Witch" and Venom's "Witching Hour");
thrash/speed metal (Testament's "Trial By Fire," Raven's "Star War,"
Overkill's "Wrecking Crew," and Anthrax's "Caught In A Mosh"); boogie metal
(Rose Tattoo's "Nice Boys"); Christian metal (Stryper's "To Hell With The
Devil"); party metal (Fastway's "Say What You Will" and Krokus' "Midnite
Maniac"); and death metal (Sepultura's "Dead Embryonic Cells").
While America and Britain were metal's primary foundries, they were
certainly not the only ones. Australia birthed the fast 'n' nasty Rose
Tattoo while Germany proffered newly minted, power-first outfits like the
Michael Schenker Group and Accept. From the deceptively sleepy Switzerland
came the manic Krokus while Sweden yielded a genuine guitar god in the
Ritchie Blackmore-obsessed Yngwie J. Malmsteen. Even Japan came up with
their own version of the phenomenon in the aptly-named Loudness.
In the '80s, MTV helped bring the hair metal movement into homes across the
nation making bands such as Dokken, Ratt, Hanoi Rocks, Skid Row,
Whitesnake, Cinderella, Poison, Twisted Sister, and Quiet Riot famous
hitmakers. "By the end of the '80s," Wall writes, "heavy metal had come
full circle to the point where it was simultaneously riven by so many new
categories and subgenres that you needed an encyclopedia to make sense of
it all -- and yet it was more universally popular than ever before."
THE HEAVY METAL BOX
Track Listing
Disc 1
1. "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" -- Iron Butterfly
2. "Summertime Blues" -- Blue Cheer
3. "Easy Livin" -- Uriah Heep
4. "Highway Star" -- Deep Purple
5. "Billion Dollar Babies" -- Alice Cooper
6. "Lost Johnny" -- Hawkwind
7. "Bad Motor Scooter" -- Montrose
8. "Working Man" -- Rush
9. "Man On The Silver Mountain" -- Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow
10. "Detroit Rock City" -- Kiss
11. "The Ripper" -- Judas Priest
12. "Cat Scratch Fever" -- Ted Nugent
13. "Lights Out" -- UFO
14. "Godzilla" -- Blue Oyster Cult
15. "Demolition Boys" -- Girlschool
16. "White Witch" -- Angel Witch
17. "The Phantom Of The Opera" -- Iron Maiden
18. "Neon Knights" -- Black Sabbath
Disc 2
1. "Ace Of Spades" -- Motorhead
2. "Am I Evil?" -- Diamond Head
3. "Nice Boys" -- Rose Tattoo
4. "Attack Of The Mad Axeman" -- Michael Schenker Group
5. "Denim And Leather" -- Saxon
6. "Blitzkrieg" -- Blitzkrieg
7. "Gangland" -- Tygers Of Pan Tang
8. "Witching Hour" -- Venom
9. "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" -- Judas Priest
10. "The Number Of The Beast" -- Iron Maiden
11. "Star War" -- Raven
12. "Say What You Will" -- Fastway
13. "Black Funeral" -- Mercyful Fate
14. "Animal (F**k Like A Beast)" -- W.A.S.P.
15. "Mean Streak" -- Y&T
16. "Holy Diver" -- Dio
17. "Queen Of The Reich" -- Queensryche
18. "Whiplash" -- Metallica
Disc 3
1. "Rock You Like A Hurricane" -- Scorpions
2. "Metal Health" -- Quiet Riot
3. "Into The Fire" -- Dokken
4. "Balls To The Wall" -- Accept
5. "Round And Round" -- Ratt
6. "I Wanna Rock" -- Twisted Sister
7. "The Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" -- Hanoi Rocks
8. "Big Bottom" -- Spinal Tap
9. "Midnite Maniac" -- Krokus
10. "I'll See The Light, Tonight" -- Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force
11. "Crazy Nights" -- Loudness
12. "Shake Me" -- Cinderella
13. "Watch The Children Pray" -- Metal Church
14. "To Hell With The Devil" -- Stryper
15. "A Little Time" -- Helloween
16. "Wrecking Crew" -- Overkill
17. "Caught In A Mosh" -- Anthrax
18. "Peace Sells" -- Megadeth
Disc 4
1. "Still Of The Night" -- Whitesnake
2. "Rock Me" -- Great White
3. "Talk Dirty To Me" -- Poison
4. "Bathroom Wall" -- Faster Pussycat
5. "Hall Of The Mountain King" -- Savatage
6. "Kiss Me Deadly" -- Lita Ford
7. "Hail And Kill" -- Manowar
8. "Trial By Fire" -- Testament
9. "Welcome Home" -- King Diamond
10. "South Of Heaven" -- Slayer
11. "One" -- Metallica
12. "Cult Of Personality" -- Living Colour
13. "Youth Gone Wild" -- Skid Row
14. "Cowboys From Hell" -- Pantera
15. "Beg To Differ" -- Prong
16. "Dead Embryonic Cells" -- Sepultura
