Thursday, October 12, 2006

My Top 5 Most Listened Headbanger Songs

IYAN’S 5 HEADBANGER AMMOS

Specially to all you heavy rock and metal fanatics out there.. reviewed!


No.5 - My Chemical Romance - Thank You For The Venom
Genre: Post-hardcore

Two years ago… MCR were so damn irritating with the whiny and annoying vocals. And of course the black and red tie attire which every emo and POP-punk wannabe (ahem, poser) tries to imitate.


Though now I like the melodic punk band because of their metal-influenced sound and their multi-guitar harmonic melodies.


The intro to this song is mind-blowing and I definitely salute their guitarist who nailed and came up with it. Excellent use of palm muting. Harmonic guitars riffs, drums and the rest are MCR-style as usual. Gerard Way is also at his usual with his hyper scream-drenched, emotional driven choruses. The 25-second guitar solo is quite awesome. One of MCR more darker themed and metallic tracks, like
Give 'Em Hell Kid.

Headbanger’s meter: High

No.4 - Stratovarius - Stratosphere

Genre: Neo-Classical Metal


A powerful neo-classical metal instrumental song introduced by my band member. It’s hard to forget the impressive intro, fantastic speed playing between a keyboard and a guitar. The bass is also outstanding.


Then at 01:44 minutes is the slower part, but the song still remains exciting. The interlude guitar solo has a lot of quality with reverbs. Reminds me of Malaysian slow rock music (jiwangan). And then again returns to the swift keyboards and guitars, followed by a slow descending guitar alongside the bass in the outro.

Lastly the guitar ascends in a burst of speed to end the whole piece in classical style. Everything ends in less than 5 minutes, not too lengthy. Great stuff.

Headbanger’s meter: High

No.3 - Trivium – Like Light to the flies
Genre: Melodic metalcore

I’m new to listening to Trivium, but there’s a lot more to come I’m sure from this top-notch metalcore band. Actually watching this music video is more thrilling than listening to the song itself.

The first guitar riff is heavy, and the second one is more incredible and heavier. Matt Heafy turns to his magnificent clean vocal on the pre-chorus. The melodic guitars lick kicks in on the chorus. One of my two favourite parts of the song is at the beginning of the bridge. Just as I thought everything ends on 3 minutes, it kept rolling and the tempo slows down to a more breathtaking and crushing rhythm.

The first solo was brilliantly metal but my other favourite part is when Matt took the lead on the second solo. His bends and hammer-ons are epic and no doubt this is the greatest solo I ever heard from an American rock band since the Guns N' Roses in the early 90’s. There’s also a clean guitar part in between the two solos. Not forgetting the hard-hitting and mighty stand-alone ‘D’ powerchord by Matt right after his solo. Trivium are the new heroes in american metal music. They rule.

Headbanger’s meter: Very High

No.2 - Helloween – Heavy metal (Is The Law)
Genre: Power/speed Metal


A not so famous 80’s heavy metal anthem but it surely kicks ass. Very traditional European kind of power/speed metal. Sounds like Iron Maiden on steriods. The double bass drumming throughout the song overwhelmed me. The speed guitars are combined with fine harmonies. The electrifying vocals are high soaring and the basslines at the middle is absolutely sick. Though the singing was not so ‘English’.

Still, not all heavy metal songs can be named 'anthems'.

Headbanger’s meter: Very High

No.1 MOST LISTENED: Job For A Cowboy – Entombment Of A Machine
Genre: Deathcore

I knew this band from a “spongebob turned metalhead” video at youtube, with their song Knee Deep, very nicely edited. You need to be ‘extreme’ here or else you’ll end up pressing the ‘Stop’ button in less than 30 seconds. Trying to get the exact words for the song kindly not needed.

Check out the ear-piercing scream at 00:24 minutes. I’ll feel like shrieking here too! Maybe not in public if I’m hearing this on the go. Followed by a fierce blast beat. And another 10 or 20 more.

Not forgetting the evil Egyptian riff at 02:32 minutes. Now I like bursting into wicked laughter as if I had ruled the whole world. And then another ruthless final riff, which slows down dreadfully at the outro. Now I felt dying a painful death after the superhero totally kicked my butt and stopped me from my evil plans. Duh. I wanna start all over again.

Headbanger’s meter: Extreme

Need these tunes on your mp3? Recommend of any better headbangin' songs? Contact me y'all!

See ya again the next 2 weeks with more!

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