Definitely a contributor to the modern style, but the story is complex. I'm going to lay it at the feet of Mesa-Boogie who started making small-sized amplifiers with incredible power and a stacked pre-amp stage for people like Country Joe and the Fish.
Boogie started out making amps that sustained forever due to the gain structure at the -front- of the amp, it's pre-amp tubes, rather than the -back end- of the amp, it's power output tubes. Black Sabbath's distortion, for example, is almost entirely based on the latter, output tubes distorting. The knock on this is that most people couldn't play their amps at arena volume, which is what you have to do to get the output tube distortion.
Eddie van Halen essentially stood on his head, technically, to get this sound out of his Marshalls in the clubs in Pasadena. He used dummy loads to soak up the power going to the speaker cabinet and a Variac, a voltage regulator, to change the power the amplifier saw and make it's output tubes roar more.
Mesa-Boogie developed lines of amplifiers that generated intense and very tight distortion through cascaded pre-amp stages, the exact opposite of the first approach. It really caught on with metal players, particularly, Metallica. The amp lines evolved even more to give one, essentially, insta-raging metal distortion simply by plugging into the amplifier and a huge number of the bands in heavy rock use this in clubs, records and on the big stages now.
It produced a very noticeable change in style although it's probably not particularly important to the average slob. Output tube distortion requires more work from your hands and attack. Undoctored, it's more dynamic, but not necessarily better, depending on your taste. "Modern" distortion is stiffer in dynamic, which lends itself to many types of metal music the kids like now. However, the two types are not mutually exclusive. A good guitar player can get to either using old or new.
― George Smith, Wednesday, 22 December 2004 19:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 19:52 (nineteen years ago) link
Heheh. I had actually written about 3 paragraphs about Fender, Marshall and Mesa but then decided my post was already too fucken long.
Though I agree about Mesa "inventing" or at least ushering in the hugely compressed multiple gainstage distortion, you could even make it a little simpler and say that the addition of the master volume to many amps around that time (and the rise of preamp distortion in general) was the beginning of the "modern" thing.
Dammit now I'm pissed I'm at work and not at home playing guitar.
― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 20:21 (nineteen years ago) link
Yeah, agreed. My old amps surely weren't built to deliver the exciting metal sound on demand. The British had the Dallas Rangemaster. I had an Electro-Harmonix LPB-1.
― George Smith, Wednesday, 22 December 2004 20:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 22 December 2004 20:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Thursday, 23 December 2004 04:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― Myonga Von Banshee (Myonga Von Bontee), Thursday, 23 December 2004 14:06 (nineteen years ago) link
We're heavy metal, OK? Heavy Metal, Heavy Metal, Heavy bloody Metal.
Just like your fuckin' head.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 23 December 2004 14:24 (nineteen years ago) link
Same here, good stuff!
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 23 December 2004 14:29 (nineteen years ago) link
Yeah, the Lizards. "Cold Hearted Kings." Last album, "Rule," featured John Garner, dug up from Sir Lord Baltimore, to sing. New album sacked him and it didn't hurt, as far as I can tell.
The Navajo Code Talkers, who I've mentioned briefly elsewhere. Quebecois biker rock led by girls. The guitarists have a Link Wray thing going on, which is greaser right from the original source. This year's/last year's "Vanilla Fudge" records. The Zolar-X archival release.
Most metros in the US have at least half a dozen such bands, most of whom have done or do their own releases in this vein. Poobah comes to mind, too.
― George Smith, Thursday, 23 December 2004 23:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― George Smith, Thursday, 23 December 2004 23:52 (nineteen years ago) link
!!!!!
Why was I not informed?! Greatest drummer-who-sings EVAH!
― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Friday, 24 December 2004 09:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― George Smith, Friday, 24 December 2004 17:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 24 December 2004 17:45 (nineteen years ago) link
From the description for this Iron Magazine record. Applies as well to the frankly superb Aktor - Paranoia album also from Jussi Lehtisalo and Tomi Leppänen (with Chris Black of Dawnbringer in this case.)
https://ironmagazine.bandcamp.com/album/queen-of-hell
Can you cite examples of this nexus / original stuff that sounds like this, well known or obscure?
― Noel Emits, Monday, 20 March 2017 15:31 (seven years ago) link
^^^
"...lazer-buzzing, intergalactic HARD ROCKIN' at that nexus of 1980 where greasy 'n' galloping heavy metal, Sunset-strippin' hard rock, and space-cased AOR all crossed DNA for one brief moment."
― Noel Emits, Monday, 20 March 2017 15:34 (seven years ago) link
Tried to start a thread but it wasn't having it. The AOR element is also important.
― Noel Emits, Monday, 20 March 2017 15:36 (seven years ago) link
the frankly superb Aktor - Paranoia album
sidestepping your question, but i LOVE that aktor album.
can't search for anything atm, but i started a thread some years back about aor dino rockers making "new wave" styled pop albums c. 1981 (e.g., blue oyster cult's cultosaurus erectus). iirc, some of the suggestions made would fit in pretty well here.
― The sandwiches looked quite dank. (contenderizer), Monday, 20 March 2017 16:11 (seven years ago) link
So you did, it was even bumped recently. I'll have a look through that, thanks.
1981 = year of 70s dino rockers w modren/wavo comeback LPs
― Noel Emits, Monday, 20 March 2017 16:21 (seven years ago) link
the quote from the queen of hell bandcamp page makes me think of stuff like nazareth's no mean city and priest's british steel
― The sandwiches looked quite dank. (contenderizer), Monday, 20 March 2017 16:25 (seven years ago) link
I'll use this to post about High Spirits again, love this band and fits this:
https://highspiritsmetal.bandcamp.com/album/motivator
― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 20 March 2017 16:35 (seven years ago) link
otm (for contemporary echoes of these psychic wars, anyway). was gonna say i think of aktor's paranoia as a chris black joint more than a circle peeps poject.
― The sandwiches looked quite dank. (contenderizer), Monday, 20 March 2017 16:39 (seven years ago) link
hawkwind - levitation
are we sure this Iron Magazine isn't a Ween side project? talk about self-aware
― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 20 March 2017 16:49 (seven years ago) link
i guess if it were ween the tunes would be better tho
Mastodon have been retreating backward from heavy metal to hard rock in recent years. There's a song on the new album that's basically .38 Special.
― Don Van Gorp, midwest regional VP, marketing (誤訳侮辱), Monday, 20 March 2017 16:51 (seven years ago) link
xp danko jones always bring that vibe. have some friends who like them. i don't.
― The sandwiches looked quite dank. (contenderizer), Monday, 20 March 2017 16:53 (seven years ago) link