#33 - Judas Priest

One of the earliest and most important bands in the history of metal, Judas Priest not so much burst as eased on to the scene in and throughout the 1970's, starting with their foundation as a bar band in Birmingham, England in 1969 and culminating in their breakthrough record, British Steel in 1980, which featured mega-hits "Living After Midnight" and "Breaking the Law and also my daughter's favorite Priest song, "You Don't Have to Be Old to Be Wise"  (She's a year older than I was when that album was released!)  The band stayed at its commercial peak for a few years, which included album gems Point of Entry, Screaming for Vengeance and Defenders of the Faith, and singles "Heading out to the Highway", "You've Got Another Thing Comin'", "Electric Eye" and "Freewheel Burning".  As great as their output over those years was, I don't think I'd be that big a fan if it wasn't for their preceding and following phases.  In the 70's, they mixed all kinds of styles, covering songs by Joan Baez, Spooky Tooth and Fleetwood Mac, with a pioneering twin guitar sound and, for the time, astounding vocal range and vibrato.  Those early years influenced a host of thrash and NWOBHM bands for years that followed.  In the 90's, they recruited speed metal band Racer X's drummer, Scott Travis, whose level of technique was well beyond the rest of the band's, and twenty years after their formation, guitarists K.K. Downing and Glen Tipton buckled down and learned advanced lead guitar solo playing - particularly sweep picking - and upped the proficiency level of the band by a wide margin.  I've always been really impressed that they took the kind of time and expended the kind of effort that it must have taken to do that so late in their already successful careers, and that's one of the reasons I admire them as much as I do.

I mentioned Judas Priest's transformation over the years, and also their fantastic lead vocalist Rob Halford, who is unquestionably one of the most influential and talented singers in the history of heavy metal.  I'm going to give you a taste of both, with one of my favorites from their second album, 1976's Sad Wings of Destiny, "Victim of Changes" followed by one of their best from the first post-Scott Travis addition album, the title track to 1990's Painkiller.  Enjoy the classic progressive and the blistering speed metal of this seminal band.

#34 - Metallica

For any of you wondering when you were going to get a band you've heard of, here you go.  Metallica may be the biggest name metal band of all time, and not without reason.  One of the earliest thrash metal bands, they generated considerable buzz in the burgeoning underground metal scene in 1982 thanks largely to their enormous energy on both stage and record.  Like a lot of people, I didn't hear Metallica until they already had three albums in the can, one of them certified gold, and had played shows for tens of thousands despite minimal radio play and having never (yet) released a music video during MTV's heyday.  Metallica wasn't just speed and bluster though.  Their first four albums, aside from their huge influence on the decades of heavy rock that have passed since, were musically inventive and flirted with some of the characteristics that became associated with progressive metal, specifically longer and more elaborate compositional forms, and use of mixed meters.  With their fifth album in 1992, Metallica changed direction, aiming for a more accessible and commercially viable sound, more obviously embracing their punk and alternative musical influences and the widespread acclaim that had built up around them.  I kind of lost interest in them soon after that, but for their fantastic first four albums and the fact that most modern metal has their stamp in it, Metallica remains one of my all-time favorite bands.

A lot of people view 1986's Master of Puppets album as Metallica's pinnacle, and I think an argument could probably be made for any of their first four.  For me, their recording career highlight is 1988's ...And Justice for All, probably because it's the most progressive of their releases.  The songs are long with frequent tempo changes, and the production is colder and more clinical sounding than on their earlier albums.  My favorite song on it, and probably my favorite in their entire catalog, was their biggest hit to date when it was released.  It's hard to imagine a song like this having the kind of popularity on release that it did then.  It's just too demanding of the listener.  "One" tells the story of a soldier horribly maimed in battle awakening from his coma to the realization that he's been left with no limbs or means of communication with the world around him.  The music tells the story as much as the lyrics, beginning peacefully, somewhat blearily, and rising to despair, desperation and finally rage perhaps tinged with madness.  It's a rare work, one in which popularity and art somehow managed to meet in the same place at the same time.  Give it a listen below, and I'll also include an old live performance from before their first album to give you a sense of why these guys were so infectious in their formative years.  As you watch it, contrast with what you can remember listening to in early 1983 (if you can remember that far back).

#35 - Dream Theater

When one thinks of "Progressive Metal", if one knows that that actually is a thing, the first band one probably thinks of is the enormously influential New York band Dream Theater.  The last of the proverbial "Big Three" (along with prog metal godfathers Queensrÿche and Fates Warning), Dream Theater blew open the commercial doors typically closed to progressive metal in 1992, with their surprise hit "Pull Me Under" off of their second album, Images and Words.  Between their initial release, When Dream and Day Unite, and this follow up, they had jettisoned their first singer, Charlie Dominici, and settled on an approach with relatively wide appeal, embracing occasional rock ballads, occasional AOR anthems and, less occasionally, mind-boggling feats of musical acrobatics alike.

I've always held some ambivalence about Dream Theater.  There's no denying their incredible musicianship and technical prowess.  They've done as much as anyone in popularizing challenging rock music.  Aesthetically, though, I have a tough time with some of their music.  Some of it is just too croon-y and light for my taste.  I think my biggest problem is with long-time vocalist James LaBrie.  He's a gifted singer, no doubt, but his at-times breathy delivery is tough for me to take.  On the other hand, there are moments of true metal heaviness... in fact, pretty much all of the album Train of Thought rocks extremely hard, and is still rhythmically and formally imaginative.  And almost all of their albums at least have moments like that.  When they're good, they're among the best in the business.  Even when they're not, they're in the conversation.  For me, their highlights include the afore-mentioned Train of Thought, most of their third release Awake, and especially their EP A Change of Seasons, which follows.  As ever, all five members of the band are in rare form on this song.  In particular, you'll get a taste of band leader Mike Portnoy's soloistic drumming style (although he left the band in 2010).  It also features a lot of twisty instrumental ensemble sections and solos by smoking guitarist John Petrucci and personal favorite keyboardist and fellow Burbank resident Derek Sherinian.  It's my favorite DT moment (if you can call a 23 minute epic a "moment"), but every one of their thirteen albums is recommended, and for the best live video recording of a rock band I've ever seen, check out Live at Budokan.  Without further ado, here's the progressive metal masterpiece "A Change of Seasons".