So, this week's Tuesday Ten. It's kinda ended up as a Tuesday Twenty, in fact. Let me explain…After the apparent controversy of a negative list last week, it's time for something rather more positive. So what did I settle on? Well, I recently passed three years of having tcf in Sheffield (at the same venue for all that time, too), so in celebration-ish, here are the top five played from each of tcf and Stormblast (although to clarify, these include every set ever recorded on my website, but the general pattern is the same).
Where does the twenty come, you ask? Well, due to a number of "equal placings", there are 15 tracks in the Stormblast top five…
This wasn't all that surprising, to be honest.
- 01 Cyanotic | Order Out Of Chaos
This being a favorite of all of the regular tcf DJs since it's release back in 2005 has ensured it's position at the top. Well, that and the fact that industrial-metal doesn't get any better than this. If you still haven't heard it yet, try the video here, or download the mp3 here. - 02 Collide | Euphoria
In it's various versions, this remains one of my favorite tracks ever. The video mix and the Emirian Mix (the latter a Charlie Clouser remix) are two tracks that I get asked 'who is this' by random people the most. - 03 Laibach | Tanz Mit Laibach
Requested endlessly, this one, and who am I to argue? Laibach pay homage to D.A.F. in probably their most commercial moment yet. Also immortalised, of course, by a certain set of military kittens… - 04 Suicide Commando | Cause Of Death: Suicide
SC's best moment full-stop, and again this is a track that is played repeatedly thanks to a few different versions. The original, sprawling eight-minute-plus version is the best (the single edit fucks with the pacing), but the incredible Try Again Remix by Converter is worth hearing too. - 05 Skinny Puppy | Pro-Test
Another track that has got requested a lot over time, and is the one track from the more recent material that has stood up very well indeed to many plays. The crazy breakdancing video is worth seeing, too.
As noted above, rather more than five appear, although there is one track that is top of the tree.
- 01 In Flames | System
This has been a popular track every since I started tcf well over three years ago, and of course became part of Stormblast sets since. In Flames have moved into the metal mainstream somewhat since the release of the album this comes from (Reroute To Remain), and in my opinion they never bettered their melodic death metal sound after this track. Video here. - =02 Children of Bodom | Needled 24/7
=02 Dimmu Borgir | Puritania
=02 Prong | Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your NeckThree very different songs, and of the first two…while Children of Bodom are all a little tongue-in-cheek (and never more than the cheesey thrash-metal airguitar fest of this track – video here), Dimmu are deadly serious. The similarity, of course, is that both tracks are immensely popular. The Bodom track gets even the most ardent serious Black Metaller grinning and throwing shapes, while the Dimmu track is one that is again requested a lot. This is all the more surprising with it having been such a departure from their previous output at the time – a much heavier reliance on electronics and programming than ever before, and the tempo slowed right down to an enormous chugging rhythm. A good live video of it here.
The last track is now a mainly long-forgotten nineties masterpiece from New York band Prong. Mixing thrash metal with an industrial production, Snap Your Fingers… (video) was for some time a monster of a dancefloor track. Fashions change, of course, so it is rarely heard now, but I still play it from time to time.
- =03 Red Harvest | AEP
=03 Fear Factory | Demanufacture
=03 Lamb of God | Laid To Rest
=03 Slayer | Angel Of DeathAt number three, there are four songs, which can be neatly dealt with in pairs, as it were.
The first two are two very different industrial metal tracks – firstly the Norwegian Industrial Black Metal of Red Harvest, with the wall of noise that is AEP (live video). The jarring, sudden intro never fails to make people jump. Fear Factory's classic track is another oft-requested track, the opener to the album where everything just clicked. They haven't made any album that has come close since, either. (live video)
The other two are something old, and something new. The new (ish) is the crunching, snarling metal of Lamb of God, one of the few newer-metal bands that have a good following in the extreme metal scene. Laid To Rest is one of their strongest moments (video). The old is the evergreen Angel of Death, another endlessly requested track, and I don't think anyone is ever going to get tired of this. It's always fun to play this, too – as the level of, umm, "audience interaction" is unsurpassed by any other track. Just in case you have never heard it, here it is in live form.
- =04 White Zombie | Super-Charger Heaven
=04 Meshuggah | Future Breed Machine
=04 The Haunted | D.O.A.
=04 Interlock | SkinlessAgain a mix of the old and the new. Another classic mid-nineties cut – Rob Zombie appears nowadays to have given up trying to match his old band's output, of which Super-Charger Heaven (video) is a perfect example of why they were so great. Not played so much nowadays, as it kinda falls between the two stools of tcf and Stormblast, but it does get requested from time-to-time…
Meshuggah's impossibly complicated groove (each band member appears to be playing in a different time signature on this track, and somehow it all holds together) is another very, very popular sound, and this track – incredibly now more than ten years old – is still my favorite. Watch the apparently impossible playing and rhythms in this live video.
Yet more Gothenberg metal now, from The Haunted. D.O.A. comes from the wonderfully-titled album One Kill Wonder, and their Slayer-influenced sound was rarely much louder than this. The video is great, too. Finally we have the London-based industrial metal of Interlock – of which Skinless (video) is by far their most popular track.
- =05 The Haunted | Dark Intentions/Bury Your Dead
=05 Mastodon | Blood & Thunder
=05 Cannibal Corpse | Hammer Smashed FaceFinally, another strange mix of tracks. Firstly, more Haunted – this time from older album
The Haunted Made Me Do It (which made for some good T-shirts, never mind a great album), these two linked tracks open the album, and are always played live back-to-back, too. Hence playing them together in DJ sets, too – Dark Intentions being one of the best metal instrumentals I have ever heard. (Bury Your Dead video)Mastodon are another very, very musically talented band that at points go into the realm of self-indulgent. Not here, though, with the ultra-tight opener to their album Leviathan – a concept album about Moby Dick! – which has turned into something of a often-requested anthem. The video, like the subject matter, is all a little strange…
Lastly is some proper, old-school death metal – Cannibal Corpse. Another endlessly-requested track, now 15 years old and it hasn't aged a day. Most bizarrely they appeared in Ace Ventura, apparently at the request of Jim Carrey!