Not only is this meat-grinding, teeth gnashing, morsel of machine-head gone tee-hee a grandiose exercise into the sonic escarpments of EXCESS (the kind of rabid self-indulgence that is the gamey undergarment of all heavy music), it also proves one and for all that heavy metal music cannot be wiped away from the highly structured cosmos of rock ’n’ roll.
Since the early days of metal it was obvious to even the casual cough-syruped observer that this music was destined to become the folk music of the future. Not the clean, precise, droneathons of boring synthesizers that was to become the muzak of the technocrats. Metal music was to be the last remaining populist musical form. It was (is) a kind of music that wallows in its own pretensions, its own facial distortions, its own inbred sense of the absurd.
The early years of metallic chaos were rifled with bands doing hopped up, LOUD, versions of hootenanny type folk songs. Nazareth slid into the Noise Hall of Huh when they covered not only a Joni Mitchell song, “This Flight Tonight,” but also (gasp ’n’ sigh) Dylan’s “The Ballad of Hollis Brown,” turning it into a top-ranking primer of lead ’n’ steel kvetching. It stands right up there alongside “D.O.A.,” “IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA” and “We Will Fall.” The song is an agonizing eight minutes of sheer gulpy ennui, textured with pure noise. It also points up some interesting “What-Ifs” like: what if Dylan had decided upon Black Sabbath rather than the Band when he went electric? Then we’d have bone-crushing editions of “Sad Eyed Lady of the Low Lands,” “Desolation Row,” and a myriad of others. But Dylan missed the boat.
The Judas Priesties haven’t: they’ve stuck to the tradition on this new album by doing a fierce cover version of Joan Baez’s “Diamonds and Rust.” Unleashed in the East is a bit of iconnosonicism that hits the technosoul right off by being on of the first “live” albums recorded in Japan NOT to be recorded at Budokan. It was recorded at Koseinekin Hall and Nakano Sun Plaza Hall...where they are, I haven’t the slightest. But at least the kids of America will know that Japan lets music be played in more than one place.
The album is LOUD, NOISY, and complete with all the right kinds of songs. Like all good jazz albums that are made more impressive by their carefully crafted use of titles to augment the music, heavy metal also gets an aura of specialness when the correct titles are brought into play. Titles are important because, unlike its floundering child, punk music, heavy metal isn’t political, it isn’t economic or even social; what it is, is pure unadulterated sneer music. So all the titles have to have that sneer quotient in ’em; and the Priests know how to do ’em right. Track tags like “Exciter,” “Sinner,” “Ripper,” “Genocide” and “Tyrant” all show the listener the kind of attitude the album has before they even listen to it.
So the Priests have tradition, and genre savvy. One more thing is crucial--they need the right amount of fiery guitar sounds, and they have it with guitarists Glen Tipton and K.K. Downing. While neither one can hold a decibel to Tony Iommi, together they are the Dante and Virgil of heavy metal, titupping their way through hell into the gasping boredom of Purgatory. They’d never make it to heaven, they are too, too loud.
Unleashed in the East is raw, rabid and rowdy, Judas Priest bowing to the sonic-kiblah of the great god of the greasy heart. That’s the way uh-huh, uh-huh, I like it, that’s the way...
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