Pictured (l-r): Willie Adler (Lamb of God), Dave Witte (Municipal Waste), Allison, Chris Adler (Lamb of God), and Roope Latvala (Children of Bodom).
Get 'em up! Your devil horns, that is. In order to honor the death of Metal legend Ronnie James Dio on Sunday, I've decided to shout at the devil with my fellow Metal fans, and to give you Metal virgins a crash course in Metal 101. Think “Hot for Teacher” (Van Halen was Pop Metal). Read on to pop your Metal cherry.
Dio replaced Ozzy Osbourne as Black Sabbath's frontman in 1979. His first album with the group, Heaven and Hell, went platinum, followed by 1981's Mob Rules. Dio left Sabbath shortly after to start his own group, Dio, where the legacy of RJD continued. Although he wasn't the very first to use the infamous "devil horns," Dio did help popularize the "corna" and said that his superstitious Southern Italian grandma used to make the gesture to ward off the evil eye. Oh mio, Dio!
Although it has been noted that Metal's roots date back to 18th century classical musicians like Bach and Vivaldi, Metal hit masses in the late '60s with bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Cream, MC5, Blue Cheer, The Stooges, and Jimi Hendrix, who were all instrumental in introducing Metal as a blues-based sound. From there, Metal took on a mind of its own as subgenres like Power Metal, Progressive Metal, Original Hard Rock, Early Punk, Shock Rock, New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Glam Metal, Pop Metal, Stoner Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal, Thrash Metal, and Original Hardcore sprouted, and it continuously moshed its way into classes like Grunge, Goth Metal, Metalcore, Grindcore, Hard Alternative, Industrial Metal, Norwegian Black Metal, Swedish Death Metal, Nu Metal, and the New Wave of American Metal (Lamb of God). Damn, that's a Metal mouthful.
"Sound Advice" Trivia Moment: When I was an exec at Epic Records, I A&R'ed Lamb of God's Sacrament, album whose single "Redneck" earned a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance. I ended up in the video for the song, so try and identify my handful of cameos, Where's Waldo style. Consider yourself Allison Hagendorf Music Maxim-ized.
Lamb of God's "Redneck" Video
My "Sound Advice" this week is for you to polish your Metal intelligence by familiarizing yourself with 25 Metal melodies that make me feel all shiny inside.
1. Led Zeppelin—"Whole Lotta Love"
2. Pantera—"Walk"
3. Mercyful Fate—"Come to the Sabbath"
4. AC/DC—"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"
5. Metallica—"Enter Sandman"
6. Ozzy Osbourne—"Crazy Train"
7. Black Sabbath—"Paranoid"
8. Slayer—"South of Heaven"
9. Iron Maiden—"Hallowed Be Thy Name"
10. Judas Priest—"Breaking the Law"
11. Deep Purple—"Smoke On the Water"
12. Queensrÿche—"Jet City Woman"
13. Rob Zombie—"Dragula"
14. Lamb of God—"Laid to Rest"
15. Scorpions—"Rock You Like a Hurricane"
16. KISS—"I Want You"
17. Twisted Sister—"I Wanna Rock"
18. Quiet Riot—"C*m On Feel the Noize"
19. Baroness—"The Birthing"
20. Accept—"Balls to the Wall"
21. Blue Cheer—"Summertime Blues"
22. Megadeth—"Holy Wars…The Punishment Due"
23. Anthrax—"Indians"
24. Motörhead—"Ace of Spades"
And to honor the passing of our adored Devil Horn Hero, our final soundtrack selection, No. 25, is Black Sabbath's "Heaven and Hell" because Heaven just got some more Metal. RIP Ronnie James Dio.
Allison Hagendorf is a media personality, music consultant, and branded-content producer. She is the newest host on Fuse, where you can catch her each week interviewing today's most buzz-worthy celebrities and artists, and chatting about mega-hits from today's biggest music stars. You can find Allison on Twitter and join her Facebook fan page.
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