My excellent friend Ned posted a great encapsulation of the NWOBHM on Facebook today. For those not “in the know,” the NWOBHM was the …ahem … New Wave of British Heavy Metal, an inarguably fertile period of music in the very early `80s wherein certain journos in the English music press tried to lend the much-maligned genre of Heavy Metal the same variety of exciting, headline-grabbing hype that was otherwise exclusively relegated to the then-current class of forward-leaning, angular post-punk and so-called New Wave bands. It didn’t entirely catch on with the masses, but it was a viable, bona fide movement all the same.
Not just a means of giving stodgy, long-haired rock purists equal time, the NWOBHM was indeed a legitimate crop of bands who were, at the very least, cribbing notes from their contemporaries in the hipper, punkier side of the tracks. While Iron Maiden to this day will vehemently deny it, their first two records with vocalist Paul Di’Anno (three, if you count the live Maiden Japan), definitely bore some of the trappings of `82-era punk rock ala Discharge, UK Subs et al, via the high-velocity rhythms and Di’Anno’s gruff, punky vocals. Tell that to bassist Steve Harris in 2022, and he’ll probably club you with his bass.
Other NWOBHM bands like Motorhead and Venom were more openly embracing of the aggressive stealth and disdain for finesse that largely marked the punk bands of the era. The former swapped members with the Damned, on occasion, and the latter even toured with Black Flag, for crying out loud.
In any case, suffice to say, I was wholly on board with all of it, and loved anything that bridged the raging chasm between the punk and hardcore records I was gobbling up and the old school metal I’d always loved. It also prompted the following two anecdotes….
I have vivid memories of coming home from Record Explosion (on 35th and Fifth Avenue ... now a shoe store) with a freshly procured copy of See You in Hell by Grim Reaper and running into two girls from my high school. Nervous chatter ensued until suddenly it seemed like it was actually "going well,"... or at least until the inevitable "what record did ya buy?" query came up. I sheepishly withdrew the album from the bag and it was as if a long corridor of what I can only call "doors of opportunity" suddenly started slamming. Such was the toll of NWOBHM fandom.
I also remember, some short years after the weepy anecdote above, having a sort of crisis on the eve of leaving for my freshman year of college. This still being the era of vinyl as dominant format (1985), I sat in my room with my unwieldy collection of LPs, having to make some "Sophie's Choice"-esque decisions about which records were coming with me, and which were staying behind. In a nutshell, all the punk, goth, hardcore, "New Wave," post-punk, etc. was a shoe-in, but when we got to the metal, while Sabbath, Venom, Maiden, Metallica, Slayer, Motorhead, Anthrax, Judas Priest and Accept all made the cut, the stack of neglected metal -- Ratt, Helix, Twisted Sister, Motley Crue, Quiet Riot, Fastway, W.A.S.P. (yes, I owned the 12" to "Fuck Like a Beast," I'll admit it) and ... yes, do wait for it ... Grim Reaper, all stayed home. It was, as they say, a moment of clarity.*
Of course, in (much) later years, as I’m keen to laboriously point out, I stopped caring about what other people might think about my listening habits, and have welcomed all those shaggy-haired prodigal sons back into the fold, so to speak.
Well, maybe not all. While I still own the LP (exiled to a sealed crate of vinyl in the dank confines of my mother’s all-too-flood-friendly Long Island basement), I can’t say I often pine to re-experience the sonic offerings of Grim Reaper.
To say that this song and video “haven’t aged well” is to demonstrate a level of selfless generosity light years beyond the grasp of Mother Teresa.
*ADDENDUM: In the anecdote about leaving some records behind when I left for college, I did not invoke the following bands, as to my mind and ears, they are not strictly "heavy metal." AC/DC (they came with), Blue Oyster Cult (they came with), Van Halen (they came with), Rush (they came with), Led Zeppelin (they came with) and Kiss (some of their stuff came with).
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