The Classic Metal Album Review:
Title: The Wall
Artist: Pink Floyd
Label: Columbia Records
Release Date: 1979

Rating: 5 Skulls
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    • Death's Review:
    How does one sum up one of the greatest achievements in recorded music of all time, metal or not? You can't. The Wall has meant so many things to so many people over so many years, I don't think there is much more that can be said to put into an overall musical perspective. But viewing from the "metal classic" angle may shed new light. Metal classic you say? Pink Floyd? Absolutely. First and foremost, thinking back when this album came out, people might have actually thought of it as metal, or at least "hard rock." I betcha some of the same people that liked Judas Priest, The Who and AC/DC were Pink Floyd fans. But of course Pink Floyd were also an art rock band, equal parts Yes, Genesis and ELP. But the relevance of this album to the 2005 metal scene is greater than you think:
    1. The Wall (along with The Who's Tommy) is definitely one of the most prominent inspirations for the concept album, something the metal scene has embraced as wholeheartedly as any other sub-genre. Albums like Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime and Dream Theater's Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From a Memory owe a great debt of gratitude.

    2. Pink Floyd's brand of spacey headphone metal inspired many bands making their way in the metal scene today with a mellower, deeper sound, such as Amorphis, Anathema, Katatonia, and to a lesser extent, Opeth.

    3. The dark, disaffected, alienated and anti-establishment lyrical themes can be found carried on in all sorts of bands such as Life of Agony, Korn, and Queensryche (although probably none quite so proficient as Roger Waters at his finest).

    4. The intense imagery associated with the film version of the music and the killer gatefold album artwork rivals that of any of today's records for completeness of packing, concept and theme.

    5. The riffs are intense and the David Gilmore guitar playing is stellar, and thus Pink Floyd songs have successfully been morphed into metal covers by bands like Shadows Fall, Voivod, Wrathchild America, Kittie and Korn.

    So if you are not already familiar with this masterpiece cast aside your preconceptions, forget about the later-era non-Roger Waters versions of the band that produced mediocre albums like A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell, get real comfortable, make sure you are adequately focused and dive into the all-encompassing world that is The Wall. Then move on to other great records like the very depressing The Final Cut, and killer 1970's material like The Dark Side of the Moon, Animals, and Wish You ere Here. Trust me. This is some of the most quality time you can ever spend with music. If you let it, it will change your life, as it has for millions who have come before you.
    5 out of 5
    DEATH  Email Death

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