Let‘s talk about my gateway bands that got me into metal.
I am the third of four boys (my poor mom). So you would say that my older brothers’ musical choices had a big influence on me.
My oldest brother was a hard rock guy. He liked Styx, Foreigner, Journey, The Steve Miller Band and more. Every Saturday morning after cartoons, my brother would play those records and that’s when I would say I really started to appreciate music.
One day, my brother took me out to the local record store. I was 13 years old at the time. The store was Sam the Record Man in the Meadowvale Town Centre. I had saved up some money from my paper routes. (Do kids today even know what that is?)
I decided it was time for me to buy my first record. I remember browsing in the store for about an hour and seeing all the bands my brother listened to. But, I wanted to get something that was for me. They had an area of new Canadian music, and since I am Canadian, I thought it was cool to get a record from a Canadian Band.
Then I saw it. The album had an Anvil with a saw that was slicing into it. I thought it was so cool. I knew then that was my first album. It was Anvil’s second album, Metal on Metal. I think I paid $4.99 for the album. I remember on the way home, I opened up the record to read the sleeve of the album.
All I remember is that they are a local Toronto Band. I couldn’t wait to get home and listen to it. When I got home a raced over to my parents JVC stereo and played my record and I remember hearing Metal on Metal (the song) and was blown away.
At that moment I know that I loved the heavier stuff. And they called the music Metal. Enough about me for now!
Let’s talk Canadian Metal.
We won’t talk about Rush or Triumph. They are amazing Hard Rock bands. The 80’s brought us some really good Canadian bands like April Wine and BTO.
Some of these bands actually formed in the 70’s, but we will talk about the 80’s for now.
Because of MTV, Canada got its own music channel, Much Music, which started in 1984. I bring up Much Music because Metal bands didn’t get much radio play.
Actually, in the 80’s, my local station Q107 out of Toronto use to have a Metal show Friday night at Midnight running for an hour called the Metal Shop. That’s where I heard Metal music.
Later, Q107 did their own show and it was for two hours with local DJ Joey Vendetta.
Back to Much Music. If I remember correctly, they started playing Metal videos 3 at a time. Most of us kids didn’t have access to Much Music because it was a paid cable channel.
In Toronto on CityTv they started a show called Toronto Rocks. I do believe it aired Monday through Friday from 4:00pm to 4:30pm and would every now and then do 3 metal videos in a row. Finally, Metal got its own time slot on Wednesdays. They called it Metal Mayhem. That’s where I was able to hear Metal music growing up. The show introduced me to bands.
Lee Arron’s Metal Queen video was really cool at the time, but it is 100% cheese. Check it out below.
Helix was on regular rotation, Coney Hatch and Kick Axe. Then, we got some heavier stuff like Razor’s Evil Invaders. That song was so cool.
Exciter where the drummer was the singer. And of course there was Anvil.
Later in the 80’s came Voivod’s Pink Floyd cover of Astronomy Domine. That blew me away.What a great cover.
Annihilator’s Alice in Hell- wow, that song was so heavy.
There were a lot more great Canadian Metal bands in the 80’s.
What’s everyone’s favourite?
Until next time!
Ron (The Metal Cremator)
