Heavy metal is much maligned by the general public, the professional music press and music critics who look down their noses at it as music for lunkheads. In my teens there was a short-lived music show on Malaysian TV hosted by local DJ Patrick Teoh playing current music videos and he would almost always introduce any hard rock/metal video with a snide comment, a confirmation that DJs and critics know fuck all. The stereotype is of noisy, primitive music and gauche lyrics revolving around sex, drugs, and sword and sorcery. Nothing could be further from the truth. The level of musicianship, particularly in guitars and drums, is extremely high, much higher than in other forms of popular music (jazz and classical no longer being popular). Musically, it is distinct and is perhaps the only popular alternative to black based musical forms. And as for the lunkhead stereotype, studies (psychological so take with a pinch of salt) have shown that brighter students prefer HM over other forms of popular music. I find this believable (with some caution as it chimes with my own preferences) as HM is outsider music and one would expect the intelligent to gravitate towards more non-mainstream tastes.
As far as lyrical content goes, the last stanza in Sabbath's "Heaven and Hell" captures modern day corruption more concisely and elegantly than any bloated diatribe from critical darlings U2, Springsteen and RATM (bunch of hypocritical champagne socialists, the lot of them).
They say that life's a carousel
Spinning fast you've get to ride as well
The world is full of Kings and Queens
Who blind your eyes and steal your dreams
It's Heaven and Hell
And they tell you black is really white
The moon is just the sun at night
And when you walk in golden halls
You get to keep the gold that falls
It's Heaven and Hell
And metal has stood the test of time, the ultimate arbiter of value. Long after music fads have bitten the dust, long after ephemeral critical favourites have winked into oblivion, classic metal albums keep winning the hearts of new generations of followers. I remember a music review in 1980 by a journalist, one Swithin Monteiro (yes I'm a petty bastard with a long memory), where he gave a damning review to the Heaven and Hell album (metal, then as now, not being a critical favourite with Malaysian reviewers who tend to uncritically, heh, ape the lead of western critics in the trade press). In the same review he lauded Joan Armatrading's latest album and Gerry Rafferty's follow up to Baker Street (Gerry Rafferty being the exemplar of a one-hit wonder). It was a valuable experience because it was from then on that I started totally disregarding the opinion of so-called experts (until proven otherwise) in music, literature, art and architecture. So thanks Swithin.
For my personal musical memories, I was blessed to see Sabbath on their farewell tour, Purple (multiple times), Page & Plant, Plant again (although I would hesitate to lump LZ as metal), and Blackmore when he temporarily shelved medieval folk for a few classic rock dates (Purple and Rainbow material). I have yet to see Malmsteem live but he's younger and the opportunity should hopefully present itself one day. Sadly, I was planning on seeing Motorhead but Lemmy (pbuh) popped his clogs a couple of months before. And I never got to see Dio live. Sob.
Update.
I googled Swithin and found out that he passed away at a rather young age. RIP. Dude had a picture wearing a Beatles t-shirt, so he was alright really. But still disagree with his review of H&H which was probably swayed by the fashionable critical opinion of the day.
