Wolves in the Throne Room – Crypt of Ancestral Knowledge (EP)
Cattle Decapitation – Terrasite
Xasthur – Inevitably Dark
Honorable mention: Iotunn – Mistland Single
By far the highlight of 2023 was my trip to Bergen, Norway this past August for the annual four-day extreme metal festival, Beyond The Gates. This year’s edition was pure perfection, with incredible performances by Deicide, Gorgoroth, Primordial, Enslaved, Dimmu Borgir, Kreator, Bolzer, Perturbator, among many others.
It seems that 2023 was also the year that live shows returned with a vengeance. There were so many great tours that it looks like things are finally getting back to normal. With all these awesome tours and festivals, 2023 was also a year that made it easy to make some lifelong friends, both closer to home (Canada) as well as overseas. No matter where I go, I now have a crew of like-minded, metal-thrashing mad friends to hangout with!
Finally, it was also the year that saw all our hard-work here at The Metal Pit grow into something incredibly special. We now have a fantastic crew of contributors who pump out world-class metal coverage. All that hard-work is being noticed as the site is growing by leaps and bounds! Onward and upward into 2024 we go!
ALBUM REVIEW – THE RODS
The Rods – Rattle The Cage
Reviewed By: Tom Elke
Review Score: 8.5
The Rods are a U.S. metal band that was started in late 1979 by drummer Carl Canedy (who was the first drummer for Manowar) and lead vocalist/guitarist David “Rock” Feinstein (Ronnie James Dio’s cousin). Adding bassist Garry Bordonaro to complete the lineup, they put out six albums, one EP and one live album through the 80s. While still remaining friends and always keeping in touch (and perhaps playing a gig here and there) the band finally reunited in 2008 to play a festival in Norway (The Rods are one of those bands that has always had that “street-cred” aura attached to them.) This prompted them to record the album Vengeance in 2011 and Brotherhood of Metal in 2019.
The Rods are now joined by bassist Freddy Villano and have a new a studio album entitled Rattle The Cage, with a release date of January 19th, 2024 on Massacre Records. The album is produced by The Rods (which of course includes Carl Canedy, who has forty plus albums to his producer credits) while being mixed & mastered by Chris Collier… giving Rattle The Cage a modern sounding metal album that still possesses The Rods’ style of traditional metal music. It sounds great!
The album features ten tracks, with a running time of approximately forty-nine minutes. It’s a mixture of tempos from slower, to mid-paced, to up-tempo tracks. There’s even some organ/keyboards spots that are sprinkled in by guest musician Lonnie Park, but it does not take anything away from The Rods classic sound… and classic sounding The Rods it is! Whether it’s great songs like ‘Hell Or High Water’, ‘Play It Loud’, ‘Now And Forever’ or the excellent title track, The Rods bring the same passion and power they brought back in their early days of existence. This is an excellent album of modern-sounding, traditional metal music.
Rattle The Cage track-listing:
Now And Forever Wolves At The Door Cry Out Loud Rattle The Cage Can’t Slow Down Metal Highways Hell Or High Water Play It Loud Shockwave Hearts Of Steel
1981 Year In Metal
Written by: Blake Mossey
News Items from 1981
January 21 – The first DeLorean automobile rolled off the assembly line. Later made famous in the Back To The Future movies.
March 30 – Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan: U.S. President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley Jr.; two police officers and Press Secretary James Brady are also wounded.
May 13 – Pope John Paul II assassination attempt: Pope John Paul II is shot by Mehmet Ali Ağca, a Turkish gunman.
June 5 – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States report that 5 men in Los Angeles have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems, the first recognized cases of AIDS.
July 9 – Donkey Kong is released, marking the first Donkey Kong and Mario smash hit arcade game developed by Nintendo in Japan.
July 29 – A worldwide television audience of over 750 million people watch the Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, UK.
August 1 – The first 24-hour video music channel MTV (Music Television) is launched in the United States and airs its first video, “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles.
August 24 – Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to murdering John Lennon in Manhattan eight months earlier.
Use of crack cocaine, a smokeable form of the drug, first reported in the United States and Caribbean.
New Wave of British Heavy Metal
1981 is going back to the time, when bands would have new albums almost every year. Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Saxon to name a few that had albums in 1980 and again in 1981. Nowadays were lucky to get a new album every 3-5 years from bands. So many classic Metal albums released in 1981 from our British Metal stalwarts. Here are a few more notable ones.
Iron Maiden – Killers The 2nd studio album from Iron Maiden. The last to feature Paul Di’Anno on vocals. The 1st Maiden album to feature Adrian Smith on guitar and the first of many to be produced by the legendary producer Martin Birch. ‘Wrathchild’ is still played live at most shows. A great Maiden album but of course adding Bruce Dickinson for the next album The Number of the Beast really broke Iron Maiden to the world. Best track: Killers
Ozzy Osbourne – Diary Of A Madman The 2nd solo album from Ozzy and sadly the last to feature the late great guitarist Randy Rhoads who died in a plane crash in 1982. Despite his short career Randy inspired so many with his guitar work on these 2 Ozzy albums and that alone makes them classics. Some would even say the last great Ozzy album. Best Track: Diary Of A Madman
Black Sabbath – Mob Rules Following up the classic DIO debut with SabbathHeaven And Hell with Mob Rules. Most would say not as good as the predesessor but still a great album with great tracks like ‘Turn Up The Night’ and ‘The Sign Of The Southern Cross’. This album also produced by Martin Birch. Dio left Sabbath after this album but only to return again about 10 years later for Dehumanizer. Best track: Turn Up The Night
Venom – Welcome To Hell Debut solo album from extreme metal band Venom. A very influential album along with their next release Black Metal as they influenced so many bands and opened the doors to more darker evil lyrics and of course creating the genre name of Black Metal with their 2nd previously mentioned album. Best Track: Welcome To Hell
Motorhead – No Sleep’til Hammersmith I think if my memory serves me well I saw this at the record store and bought it before I even heard of Motorhead before. Its my first live album I ever purchased and ‘No Class’ remains my favorite Motorhead song ever. A great introduction to the live show that was Motorhead. Best Track: No Class
Canadian Metal/Hard Rock
As a Canadian back in the year 1981 before we had the internet and being able to listen to anything we wanted we would hear a lot of Canadian bands on our local radio. Canada’s 2 biggest hard rock and bordering on Metal bands were RUSH and TRIUMPH. Both 3 piece bands. Both making big waves in the USA. And for a lot of Canadians you were either in the RUSH camp or the TRIUMPH camp. I choose Triumph. Also 1981 featured the debut album from ANVIL – Hard ‘N’ Heavy but for me their next 2 releases were their masterpieces.
RUSH – Moving Pictures Their 8th studio album Moving Pictures. Filled with shorter and more radio friendly songs then previous efforts like their classic 2112. ‘Limelight’ and ‘Tom Sawyer’ leading the way. This album sold over 5 millions copies in the USA alone. Best Track: Limelight
Triumph – Allied Forces After hearing their epic track Rock and Roll Machine from their 2nd album I was hooked on Triumph with Rik Emmett’s amazing guitar work. And this their 5th album featuring their massive hit ‘Magic Power’ but I was into the more heavy rocking songs like ‘Fool For Your Love’ and the title track. A few albums after this the band started to fall apart and just kept getting more and more commercial. Best Track: Allied Forces
The Other Stuff
Late in the year Paul Di’Anno fired from Iron Maiden and replaced by Bruce Dickinson
AC/DC released For Those About To Rock (We Salute You), really the only Brian Johnson album I enjoyed
Girlschool released their 2nd studio album Hit And Run. One of, if not the first real all female Metal bands.
Iron Maiden released a live EP titled Maiden Japan which of course was a play on words on the classic Deep Purple live album Made In Japan. It featured 5 songs with Paul Di’Anno on vocals.
Motley Crue‘s debut album Too Fast For Love was released. One of the earliest hair metal albums even though this was more raw then anything they would release after.
The Canadian animated science fiction movie titled HEAVY METAL was released featuring voices of some notable actors like John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy and Harold Ramis. And the title track of the movie done by Sammy Hagar.
Motorhead and Girlschool joined forces for a EP title St. Valentines Day Massacre featuring 3 songs, ‘Emergency’, ‘Please Don’t Touch’ and a cover of the Motorhead song ‘Bomber’. They went by the name Headgirl.
Notable Metal Bands formed in 1981—Look what is on the horizon for Metal in 1982
Anthrax
Manowar
Metallica
Mercyful Fate
Motley Crue
Overkill
Pantera
Ratt
Queensryche
Savatage
Slayer
Suicidal Tendencies
Twisted Sister
Vixen
1981 was such a great year for Metal. Make sure to check out some of our podcasts on some of the album talked about on this page. To finish it off here is my top 10 albums of 1981.
Saxon has been putting out albums for a lot of years now. And after such a while, you’d think that a band would run out of ideas and material. Well that is definitely NOT the case with the mighty Saxon.
Their 24th Studio Album – Hell, Fire And Damnation has a release date of January 19th, 2024 on Silver Lining Music. It’s produced once again by Andy Sneap and lead singer Biff Byford, with Sneap handling the mixing & mastering duties as per usual. Hell, Fire And Damnation has a running time of approximately forty-two minutes, which features nine tracks along with just over a minute opening/narration to lead off the album.
There’s a new band member playing on the album. Brian Tatler of Diamond Head fame joins Doug Scarratt on guitar. They join the aforementioned Biff Byford on lead vocals along with Nigel Glockler on drums and Nibbs Carter on bass. This lineup is rock solid, and all play great on this record.
Hell, Fire And Damnation is filled with great guitar riffs on tracks such as ‘Pirates Of The Airwaves’, ‘1066’, ‘There’s Something In Roswell’ as well as the title track. Another standout throughout the album is the trading off of lead solos between Scarratt and Tatler. It’s like they’ve been playing together for a long time… it sounds great!
Biff’s vocals have not lost anything. He’s still as strong and impressive as ever, and it shows in his performance. Very well done. Saxon wouldn’t be “The Mighty Saxon” without one of the great rhythm sections in all of metal. Nibbs Carter and Nigel Glocker are in lock-step with each other, once again delivering the goods with power and precision.
All in all, Saxon gives us yet another excellent album in Hell, Fire and Damnation. There is no filler on this Record. It is quality metal music from start to finish.
Hell, Fire And Damnation releases on January 19th, 2024 via Silver Lining Music.
MESHUGGAH, IN FLAMES, WHITECHAPEL
December 15th, 2023
Toronto, ON @ History
Photos & Words By: Miles Leblanc
If you asked me which show was going to sell out in 2023 – with all of the wonderful opportunities Toronto and the GTA in general have been graced with – this diverse lineup would not have been on my radar at all, much less being the first sold-out show of the nineteen North American tour dates (selling out within the first seventy-two hours). The tour of Meshuggah, In Flames, and Whitechapel made this happen at one of Toronto’s newest concert venues (History, in the Beaches neighbourhood of East Toronto).
WHITECHAPEL
Hailing from Tennessee, Whitechapel is a deathcore band, with huge roots in the genre often considered leaders at what they do. Having seen Whitechapel before, this performance unfortunately left me wanting more. Short and sweet was on the menu, with just six songs to give us a taste of Whitechapel’s offering. It wasn’t enough to satiate the crowd, however, Toronto did show up early and packed the floor. The band even got a crowd chant from the rabid attendees which was a sign of the night to come. Vocalist Phil Bozeman absolutely took advantage of all the real estate of the large stage of the venue, like an animal getting a large area to play in for the first time. Unfortunately, the sound was muted throughout the performance, which didn’t do the band any favours, but the energy was high, and it was an excellent opener to get the night warmed up. Closing with the song ‘The Saw Is The Law’ was the perfect choice to this short set, which managed to get the crowd warmed up for the rest of the evening.
Setlist Let Me Burn Forgiveness Is Weakness Brimstone We Are One A Bloodsoaked Symphony The Saw Is the Law
IN FLAMES
Hailing from Gothenburg, Sweden In Flames have been pioneers of what they do best (melodic death metal), and Toronto got a very good taste of this offering on this night. New bassist, Liam Wilson (Dillinger Escape Plan), was absolutely dialed in from the first note to the last. In Flames got a nice chant from the audience in-between songs (which vocalist Anders Friden jokingly gave the crowd grief over, and told them to chant for Whitechapel instead). Unfortunately, fifty-ish minutes wasn’t enough time for In Flames, even as a support act. That being said, the fifty minutes was certainly a great escape. Minus some minor issues during one of the songs, the band really showed cohesiveness, delivering on the low-end with both the drums and the bass. Anders’ vocals were on point all night, and the banter in-between songs was hilarious (joking about multiple topics), and the tag team of Bjorn and Chris was absolutely bulletproof throughout. Much like my comments about Whitechapel, In Flames could have benefited from an extra song or two (an hour would have been awesome for them in this lineup). Can’t wait to see them again… sooner then later!
Setlist The Beginning Of All Things That Will End Foregone Pt. 1 Deliver Us Darker Times Everything’s Gone All For Me Behind Space Cloud Connected State Of Slow Decay The Mirror’s Truth I Am Above Take This Life
MESHUGGAH
With seven years elapsed since Meshuggah last graced Toronto with a performance, the rabid, sold-out crowd was ready to go minutes before the intro and the opening song (the crowd chanting and stomping their feet). ‘Careless Whispers’ was the intro to the band’s performance, which brought a surge of energy out of the crowd, everyone singing, grooving, and even dancing with people around them. Meshuggah offered what I would consider to be a master class at what they do best. No one sounds like them in respect to the grinding, extreme/technical death metal fans have grown to love. For the entirety of the performance, the floor of History was non-stop movement, a literal wall-to-wall pit with bodies flying and people going in circles. There was almost next to no crowd interaction from vocalist Jens Kidman, except very minimal. It literally was a continual onslaught of technically excellent metal for close to a hour. Personally, I am very happy that ‘Bleed’ was brought back into the setlist (even if it was an encore song). ‘Demiurge’ closed out the night, an awesome closer to a bullet-proof setlist!
All in all, a wonderful Friday night of metal, from a very diverse lineup of bands, and Toronto thanked them by selling out the venue and packing it in tightly.
Setlist Careless Whisper (intro) Broken Cog Rational Gaze Perpetual Black Second Born In Dissonance Ligature Marks The Abysmal Eye Mind’s Mirrors In Death – Is Life In Death – Is Death Humiliative Future Breed Machine Bleed (encore) Demiurge (encore)
