Various Artists - Heavy Metal [Box Set] (CD)

All Music Guide

Heavy metal is the most resilient of rock genres, withstanding the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune as well as fathomless fallow periods. At times, it ruled the charts, others it was in exile, but it thrived in its outsider status. Throughout it all, it was never in critical favor, yet never without a passionate cult audience that called it their own. Often, these were adolescent males, particularly in the early days of its existence, but the thing about metal audiences is, they're faithful. Some outgrew the music, but a lot didn't and their fidelity extended to their patronage of artists, as they stuck through bands through thick and thin, giving the true metal gods long, long careers. In turn, metal wound up being one of the only rock genres with a long sense of history, one that respects and honors the past as it regenerates for the future. There's a lineage to heavy metal, a clear progression from band to band and phase to phase, one that is accepted by historians and fans, ...even if they wind up arguing semantics about who belongs and who doesn't. All this makes a set like Rhino's 2007 fourdisc box Heavy Metal a bit easier to assemble, really: there is a story to be told, one that is commonly accepted, one that can't quite be fcked up. And, more or less, the compilers of Heavy Metal don't fck it up, at least for a good portion it. Fault should not be laid at their feet for the absence of the twin titans of Black Sabbath with Ozzy and Led Zeppelin that's like complaining that the Beatles and the Rolling Stones aren't on a British Invasion box, knowing full well they'll never be licensed anyway, so why complain? Besides, there are other M.I.A.s missed as much as either Sabbath or Zep, such as Aerosmith and AC/DC, the bands that got dirtier than anybody in the '70s. Other '70s titans that straddle the metallic line aren't here Queen, Cheap Trick, Blue Öyster Cult but the most crucial absence is Van Halen, who ushered in all the guitar pyrotechnics and shiny good times of mainstream metal of the '80s. And once we're in the '80s, there are some big guys missing as well, such as Mötley Crüe, the kings of the Sunset strip scene; Def Leppard, the guys who made metal slick and huge; Bon Jovi, who crossed it over; and Guns N' Roses, who made the mainstream grimy again. Read more Less