My Mega Mixed Tape

When I was a kid... well, really a kid, teenager, young adult and even into my in-denial age, I loved making mixed tapes for friends.  I loved making them many times more than the recipients of them actually liked getting them.  I'd plan out the tracks and the order of them.  I'd do the math to figure out how to maximize the song content on a 90 minute cassette tape, which was about the longest that would actually work for a couple weeks or so.  I've wondered how many of those that I've spent arduous hours planning, assembling and labeling ever got listened to.  Chances are, it's a small percentage.

About 20 years ago, I was a big fan of heavy metal music.  Still am as a matter of fact.  But back then, shifts in the cultural landscape were afoot that caused worry for this young metalhead, and I'm sure many other disciples of the rock.  KNAC, Southern California's metal station at the time, had started playing more and more grunge, and fewer and fewer blistering, awe-inspiring guitar solos.  Nirvana had hit in a big way, and so had follow-ons Soundgarden, Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam.  It seemed that a swirling vortex of lethargic and lackadaisical guitar playing had opened over Seattle and it was sucking my home, L.A., the land of Hollywood and hair, toward it.  The intense energy and impressive technical playing of metal music, which had been gaining popularity for about 10 years or so, suddenly gave way to strummy, complainy, albeit still somewhat heavy rock.

Looking back, I get it.  Several years of big solos, big shrieks and big hair had worn listeners out.  It was over the top music with an over the top image.  Sure it still appealed to skinny kids who fantasized about being muscle-bound, armored kids (with horned helmets and a chalice of grog), but to many, it came across as lacking subtlety, and by extension, hipness.

By the time 1998 had rolled around, I figured metal was dead or dying.  Sure I had heard a few more recent bands that played variations of it, but gone were Headbangers' Ball and any obvious radio sources for discovering interesting, heavy and technical metal.  I had convinced myself that replaying old Metallica and Black Sabbath albums over and over would be a satisfactory way to live out the rest of my listening days... and really, could a music fan really hope for anything more?

About that time, I met a guy named Chris who knew a lot more about metal than I did, especially about what had been happening with the music since grunge had overwhelmed it in terms of popularity.  He turned me on to a few excellent bands of the 90s and also to a great resource for the questing metal explorer, The BNR Metal Pages.  I've discovered a ton of music thanks to Brian Russ, the site's proprietor, and am still a reader of the site today, 15 years later.

A while back, BNR published a countdown of his favorite all-time songs.  It was really fun to follow, and the guy has great taste (if you can consider metal tasteful, which I do).  It got me thinking about the music that I love and how much I'd like to make a huge mixed tape, like BNR did, to share some great music with my friends.  I considered posting it on Facebook, but my friend Krista suggested a blog format instead.  Having never blogged before, I thought it might be fun to give it a try.  Who knows?  Maybe I'll have something else to say along the way, or once the mixed tape is done.

So here goes... my mega mixed tape for you, my friend.  This list contains my top 100 metal bands, which will probably have changed by the time I'm done posting it.  But I bet it'll still be close.  Stay tuned for number 100...