HYLI Vol. XC- Classic Country 101 and Power Metal 101
More playlists! We tackle some important genres with Andy covering Power Metal and Patrick covering classics of Country.
Hey friends, its me, Andy, the only one who does the intros in 2024! Patrick can’t really pull his weight anymore huh? Sad. Oh well, that means he doesn’t control the narrative anymore. It’s just us. You and me. The cinema is a complete disaster at the moment. Unbearable February. Maybe go see a concert instead of going to see Wonka, or Argylle, or Madame Web. Go see your local jazz guy play in your local little Jazz hole. Sounds like a better use of time. Love you (Patrick: to be clear I saw the motion picture The Beekeeper and had a great time despite whatever dubious ideas the director seemed to have about HRC and Hunter Biden lol).
Classic Country 101
Patrick: Until I was in my mid-20s, I hated country music (Andy: same). My primary takeaway regarding country music was it was something for my father to like, and I didn’t want to like anything he liked. Like most things about my early to mid-20s, I wish I wasn’t such a dumbass and just tried listening to the music even though I didn’t care for the guy showing it to me because, now, it is some of my favorite shit in the world (Andy: not same).
To be clear, the majority of recognizable modern country - your Luke Bryans and Morgan Wallens of the world - absolutely fucking suck shit (Andy: yep!). If that is your idea of country, I can see most normal people in the world hating that shit with a passion. But country has a rich, deep history - similar to almost every other genre out there - and was built off some of the sickest music ever.
I started this off with the father, the son and the holy spirit of country music, to me. Merle, Waylon and Willie. To me, anyone out there in the world could listen to these three guys and become a fan of country. Merle has the best voice, Waylon is the “coolest,” and Willie is the best writer. Together, the “outlaw country” forefathers essentially changed the course of country music forever. I could go song by song but in the interest of being brief and not writing 5K words, I will just say that if you don’t like “Lonesome, On’ry and Mean,” I don’t know what you’re doing here. After 90 (fuck) volumes of this newsletter, I feel like you have to at least trust my taste somewhat. This song is 10/10 fucking perfect and rocks.
Of course, I mixed in some other guys here. You have some that predate the outlaw triumvirate from above (Hank Williams & Johnny Cash), some that wrote songs for those guys but never reached that level of fame (Kris Kristofferson & Townes Van Zandt) and some that are only really “country” in the sense that they sing with an accent (Guy Clark & John Prine) but kinda are more akin to Bob Dylan than to Willie Nelson. All of these tracks are awesome and rock and I truly think there’s something for anyone in them. To fill it out, I threw in “Wichita Lineman,” which might be thee perfect country song, and tracks by lesser-knowns and also-rans like Johnny Paycheck, Gary Stewart (peep Wednesday’s great cover of this song), and Roger Miller. Country has gone through a lot of twists and turns since most of these guys operated in the 1960s and 1970s but, if you squint hard enough, you can see the influence these guys had on artists today. Their imprint is left on country guys today like Sturgill Simpson and Jason Isbell, indie-rockers who flirted with country in the past like Wilco, Pinegrove and Ryan Adams (shitty annoying dudes but the influence is clear), and shoegaze bands like Wednesday and Cloakroom. Hope You Like It.
Andy: Oh no……oooooh noooo… Is there any way I get out of this without making Patrick furious at me? A ‘Country’ playlist?! What is this dude doing? He knows and loves me with all of my faults (Patrick: really pushing this notion) and he still chooses to give me 53 minutes of country music! A genre I’ve never connected with in my life! I’m so sorry to everyone. As always, I’ll do my best.
The guitar and harmonica on “Lonesome, On’ry and Mean” are an absolute blast. The harmonica is fun as shit and it is pretty lame that only country gets to really use it (Patrick: your other favorite genre Folk Music uses it constantly, as does The Blues lol). It basically can only go hard. I love every single use of the harmonica instrument on this entire playlist. The Nelson and Jennings songs were enjoyable.
Merle Haggard and I are not on the same page for what makes a song good or fun. I can see why real country music people vibe with it but we aren’t compatible. I’ll just leave it there. I almost feel the same about Glen Campbell but “Wichita Lineman” has this weird almost smooth jazz influence that I vibe with? Even though I kinda think it sucks? You know what I mean.
Kris Kristofferson begins to bring it back to the good stuff with “Me and Bobby McGee.” “La la-la la me and Bobby McGee” is a fucking great chorus man. “Take This Job And Shove It” started off as an ass song but then turned into a fucking bop that woulda put me in the pit. Fuck the man. Fuck a job. I’m with you ‘Johnny Paycheck.’ Such vitriol when he says “Shove it” I love it. I love the little breakdowns here. Great song.
I did a Johnny Cash deep dive around the time I found a Halo: Combat Evolved gameplay video set to his cover of Nine Inch Nails “Hurt.” I’ve enjoyed a lot of his stuff. His voice is sick and he is angsty as shit, so it works for me. I’ve always enjoyed him.
Listen, I think this was a great playlist to introduce me to Country. I’m shocked Patrick did this good of a job honestly (Patrick: thanks?). There is definitely a realm of country music that I could be into. There is also a massive amount of it that I am not about. Overall, I … think I liked it?
Power Metal 101
Andy: Power Metal is fun. There isn’t a much better word to describe the genre. For me, it is the antithesis of Black Metal. It’s filled with grandiose harmonies, keyboards and orchestral influences—just dudes having fun! They love dragons, fire, war, fantasy, Tolkien and being cool (Patrick: really a stretch of the word cool here) (Andy: they think they are cool). I wouldn’t say I 'love' the genre. I don’t seek out new bands, but modern-day staples like Blind Guardian and DragonForce do make their way into my rotation regularly. IMO it is fun to have fun.
The roots of Power Metal can be traced back to bands like Helloween, whose 1988 staple "I Want Out" is not only a cornerstone of power metal but also a massive influence on the bands that followed. "Rebellion in Dreamland" from Gamma Ray has a fun chorus and solos. You can see the genre begin to take shape here. This entire playlist is filled with some awesome, catchy choruses and some sick solos. The guitars go at it. Is it all cheesy? Yeah, for sure (Patrick: 1000%). But, that is part of the charm. If you try to take it too seriously you’re gonna have a bad time. Have fun!
The 1990s to early 2000s were somewhat of a golden age for power metal, with bands like Stratovarius, Blind Guardian, and Rhapsody (of Fire) pushing the genre to the next level. "Black Diamond" by Stratovarius and "Battlefield" by Blind Guardian showcased the increased technical proficiency and lyrical storytelling that became synonymous with power metal at the time. Meanwhile, Rhapsody (of Fire)'s "Emerald Sword" brought more of the orchestral cinematic quality to the genre, creating the sub-genre of symphonic power metal.
Blind Guardian, to me, is the most important band, simply because I feel they’ve been influential and successful in basically every era. “Battlefield” is such an absolute banger, man. Should have probably gone with something from Nightfall in Middle Earth but we already covered that. I could truly do a Blind Guardian 101 playlist with no problem. Great band!
The guitar work from DragonForce can probably be attributed to pushing power metal to the mainstream and, subsequently, its biggest heights for the casual fan. Obviously, “Through the Fire and Flames” is the go-to, but I know you/everyone has heard that, so I went with “Fury of the Storm” from their second album I love. Unironically, one of the most fun shows I’ve ever been to was seeing Dragonforce at a House of Blues during the Inhuman Rampage tour. Sabaton knows how to put on a show. I think they had an actual tank on stage with them for a while? I spun “Ghost Division” a ton during my high school years, so that's what I picked for them.
I really don’t have anything groundbreaking to say about the genre. It is simply fun. Who doesn’t like songs about dragons with epic choruses? Losers, that's who. Have fun with it. Hope you like it.
Patrick: I genuinely did not have any fun at all (Andy: man WHAT are you doing). I realize this sounds insane, with black metal guys caking on full faces of makeup, but my main takeaway from this playlist was that Power Metal just absolutely reeks of theater kid energy (Andy: oh yeah I don’t disagree here). I just know all of these vocalists are dying for a chance to play The Phantom on Broadway or the West End or wherever the big theater scene is located in Japan. Theater kids were not for me when I was 16 years old, nor are they now at 34 (Andy: the original DragonForce singer is now in Skid Row lol).
The thing about this is that, while the guitars absolutely shred, all of these bands seem Charmin-level soft. They’re shredding but for who/for what? (Andy: Dragons? Swords? Glory?) To what end? It just feels like notes for the sake of playing notes with dudes who really, really want to be Ronnie James Dio shrieking over them (Andy: Dio rules? You okay?) (Patrick: not a shot at all at the GOAT but the imitations suck). I get that this music is meant to be somewhat positive, which can be a nice break from all the black metal and death metal out there, but it feels like the metal-equivalent of music playing at Starbucks to me.
“Battlefield” was cool. I’ve heard the name Blind Guardian enough to know they transcend through whatever conceptions I have holding Power Metal back and can break through. Same goes to DragonForce and I enjoyed “Fullmoon” from Sonata Arctica enough to potentially check them out despite not hearing of them before but, fuck, this was a slog. Maybe Andy did too good of a job with his Death Metal course last year. I know he’ll have the wrong takeaway here and think I want some beatdown or something next (I Do Not) (Andy: tbh seems like you’re begging for it). but I think I have learned to appreciate metal enough at this point to acknowledge that this shit is dorky (Andy: it is) and lame (Andy: it isn’t). I’m not even going to attack them for being nerds who seem like they love dragons and orcs or whatever. I’m just bored. I didn’t have fun.
(Andy: if you would have told me I’d enjoy a Country playlist more than Patrick enjoyed a Power Metal playlist I woulda called you a dumb shit but … here we are. Wild timeline we live in)