Phil Demmel Jackson Guitar Clinic at GAK Brighton 20/04/13

A taste of the San Francisco Bay Area came to Brighton last night, as Phil Demmel, lead guitarist from modern thrash metal band Machine Head, gave a Jackson guitars clinic at the GAK music shop.

Along with a brief history of Jackson Guitars from the company representative who has been touring Europe alongside Phil Demmel, the modern thrash legend gave a brief talk about his guitar playing history, his influences (announcing his love of KISS), and the players who have inspired him to play- Angus Young and Randy Rhoads being the most stand out figures. The talk also traced his relationships with various guitars and members of his bands.

Of course, whilst there, a few Machine Head songs were played from the extensive back catalogue of tracks that he has worked on, along with a jam with Chris Cannella from the Jackson guitars workshop. Between these two players and plenty of choruses of “F**k yeah!” from the audience (complete with the horns \m/), the spirit of metal was certainly in residence, as huge riffs and crazy shred guitar solos were in abundance.  In that small room of barely 50 people, there was much more of an intimate atmosphere which helped bring Phil Demmel over as a really down to earth person who just happens to be in one of the planet’s biggest metal bands, touring the world. Although weeks on the road seemed to be taking their toll as my own question to him about musical influences outside the world of metal (i.e. Would one ever catch him listening to Beethoven or Miles Davis etc.) spawned a statement of solidarity with Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe in his manslaughter trial (a worthy cause in itself, but not quite what I was after as an answer).

After the talk Phil took the time for signings and photos with all the fans in the building and seemed genuinely willing to take the time to chat, despite his road-weariness.  

Diamond Plate- Generation Why?- 2-11

Anger, confusion, questioning of the government… What do these themes and emotions all have in common? They’ve been at the centre of many a lyricists mind since the dawn of time. From the early Elvis records, to the most bizarre and extreme corners of metal and out into the great beyond, the formula has been shaken and stirred over the decades. However, recently it has been allowed to settle back into an old routine. In the mid 80’s, American Metal had stagnated into the Cheesy Hair Metal scene of the LA area. Big hair and bigger clichés was what it was all about. In 1983, the beginnings of the Thrash Metal revolution attempted to shake things up and create something more exciting and fresh, which led to the creation of some of metal’s biggest selling acts. However, some 20 years later, the young, hyperactive upstart that was thrash has, itself, fallen into a bit of a rut.

This is the debut offering from Chicago Thrash Metal band Diamond Plate. As a Thrash album, it holds no surprises; fast, driving guitar riffs, heavy drums and vocals that growl and scream with the best of them. Unfortunately, there is very little of anything new, original or different about this album to any other Thrash Metal band, old or new. The songs all follow a similar format (with the exception of an interesting instrumental introduction number made from clips of old news programs). For a while there’s nothing particularly wrong with this, as they effectively establish a sound and a style in the vein of the old thrashers. However, by the time the hour-long album finishes, the formula of riff-verse-chorus-verse-solo-repeat wears a bit thin, with much of the album being interchangeable and indistinctive from the rest.

With the sheer number of Thrash Metal bands out there at the moment, there needs to be some sort of unique selling point to make them stand out from the masses (which, unfortunately, this band seems to lack). Having said that, however, as a metal album along to which one may wish to exorcise any demons with a fist in the air and the volume turned up to 11, you can do far worse. What Diamond Plate lack in subtlety and finesse, they more than make up for in raw aggression, brutality, and an obvious enthusiasm- never releasing the listener from the metaphorical steel vice of their music until the album’s well and truly over. Lyrically, ‘Generation Why?’ really does seem to attempt to critique such US policies as the war on terror in the Middle East. The unmistakeable thrash Metal guitar model rarely deviates, and there are plenty of millions-of-notes-a-second guitar solos to keep fans of virtuosic guitar pyrotechnics happy.

The album’s high points include “More Than Words”, a virtuosic, heavy groove instrumental, which gives all the musicians a chance to showcase their obvious talents. The piece even includes a Spanish flamenco style section. Solos are abound and long enough to have proper structures and build up as mini songs in their own right. The track also feels more laid back, without really slowing down the tempo. The piece has more of a Pantera, style groove than a hyperactive speed-metal feel.

Overall, this album is nothing particularly special, however it shows a band with a lot of potential for development. But as it stands, Diamond Plate are still lost amongst the masses.

Evile- Five Serpent's Teeth- 2011

In a world where metal is seemingly defined by doom and black metal, it is a rare thing to see an album that seems so influenced by some of Metal’s golden years (i.e. the early-mid 80’s), and “Five Serpent’s Teeth” the latest offering from Yorkshire Metallers Evile is exactly that, a back to basics piece of heavy metal gold. After their first album, which was produced by Flemming Rasmussen, who was involved in the making of arguably one of the best Thrash (if not the best Metal album of all time) Metallica’s Master of Puppets, the band has lost none of their classic, mid-80s Thrash sound. The influences from this collaboration are definitely still present and very obvious to all who know their old-school Metallica. With catchy, head banging riffs that make you want to raise your fist in the air, fast guitar solos and an all-out metal attitude, this is an all round great album with none of the stereotyped metal “doom and gloom”.  

The opening title track ‘Five Serpent’s Teeth” sets the scene for a consistently heavy album, it’s intense riffage is classic thrash at its best: Anthemic, and grabs you in a vicelike grip that refuses to let you go until the album’s well and truly over. ‘In Dreams of Terror’ continues in a very similar vein, which is one of my major criticisms of this album. From time to time it is hard to distinguish one track from another, as there are times when any let-up or subtlety in the song writing and playing are few and far between. ‘Cult’ is a great track, with a groove that occasionally seems to be missing from the other tracks.  ‘Eternal Empire’ and ‘Xaraya’ both follow the same formula of no holds barred, in-your-face metal. The Track ‘Origin of Oblivion’, if anything show a slightly heavier side of Evile, suggesting that they have their ears tilted ever so slightly towards more modern metal and aren’t just stuck in the 80s. ‘Centurion’ begins with an evil intro that leads into a slower song, but no less powerful. ‘In Memoriam’ shows a softer side of the band, as a musical tribute to bassist Mike Alexander.  It’s slow, melancholic melodies show a beauty of playing that the previous 7 tracks barely hint at. In my opinion, the best track on the album. The calmer atmosphere doesn’t last long however, as ‘descent into Madness’ returns straight back to the thrash mould. The closing number, ‘Long Live New Flesh’ is a killer anthem which ends the album as a call to arms for all young metal heads out there.

 Vocally, there are no soaring melodies or songs about demons and monsters, the singing is all deep and gravelly, without sounding growly or too guttural. Lyrically, there are great divides, with the song ‘In Memoriam’ dedicated to their late bass player, ‘Cult’ dealing with cultism, and ‘Origin of Oblivion’ dealing with globalisation and capitalism. The dual guitar assault here sounds huge and tight, with fast riffs and technical, lighting-fast fret board wizardry abound, so the air-guitarists out there (myself included) should be satisfied. The influences of these two guitar playing brothers (rhythm guitarist/vocalist Matt Drake and lead guitarist Ol Drake) are rarely hidden from the surface, with the odd moment of guitar harmony that could be taken straight out of any classic Judas Priest album. There are reasons why the metal community are going wild about this band, the whole album sounds like something that could have come out of the same San Francisco breeding ground that Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer emerged from.  Appropriate then that this band has, amongst many other achievements, toured with Thrash Metal titans Megadeth, won a Kawasaki Golden God Award for being “Metal as F**k.” They have played at many of the huge metal festivals in the last couple of years, including Download, Sonisphere and Wacken.   

Overall, this album, although at times a bit samey, shows the metal community that all is not lost.  Riff based classic thrash metal still exists.

The record label that has produced this have advertised this band with one simple tag-line: “Thrash is back” and is it? Hell yeah!

8/10

Originally published on my previous blog and in Lancaster University SCAN newspaper.