#362 The Class of 1997: Metal Albums That Defined a Surreal Year

“How many people do you think go into a bar and say: ‘I’d like an Everclear on the rocks, please…’?”

 

Looking back, 1997 seems utterly surreal…

 

To put things in perspective, 1997 marked the debut of South Park on Comedy Central, the release of Radiohead’s breakthrough, third album, OK Computer, the beginning of the final season of Seinfeld, and (of course) the arrival of Metallica’s conclusion to The Loads with Reload.

 

Perhaps one of the most surreal (and tragic) parts of 1997 was the time a bunch of children in a band called Hanson went viral with a song called MMMBop while a lesser known, criminally underrated, and FAR SUPERIOR band (with an extremely similar sounding name, consisting of former members of Helmet & Quicksand) called Handsome released their one (and only) album, Handsome, earlier that same year.  

 

Sometimes life is just too weird and utterly unfair…

 

It’s time to discover the power of “a better magical piece of paper” that is not a college degree and understand that whenever someone uses the term ‘dating’ that “we know exactly what they’re talking about”. 

 

Find out who “stayed metal the whole time”, who was “chuggin’ the D”, and who wasn’t going to metal shows “unless it was Metallica” when you JOIN US as we go back in time almost 30 years with THE CLASS OF 1997.

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Show Notes & Time Stamps:

(00:01): “Now we’re about the same height…”/ “Alright, let’s see ‘em…”/ “Has anybody had any weird diarrhea lettuce issues?” / “You had it before it was cool?”/ #BastieBoys /

“I got so freaking sick…out of both ends…also, every 5 minutes, I was having contractions…”/ “Doctor, he’s dilated…”/ #cyclospora / “So it was the exact same thing?”/

(NOTE: “Cyclospora stays dormant in your body for up to 2 weeks…) / #nightsoil /

“Reason #2 I don’t eat greens…”/ “Email Russ at RussWages@diarrhealettuce.com...” / 

***WARNING: #listenerdiscretionisadvised *** / “And frankly…tiresome.”

 

(05:50): “You wanna say the hellos and the welcomes?” / 

***WELCOME BACK TO THE BUNKERPOON CENTER FOR METAL EXCELLENCE AND THE METAL NERDERY PODCAST!!!*** / #rainylanta / 

“Because of the gudatron? The front gunt?” / “I’ve been having to find all my fat clothes…”/

“What, was it 121/81?” / #RussellsHealthReflections

 

(09:19): ***PATREON US at patreon.com/metalnerderypodcast *** /

#Doomsicle #SmogMountain #SabbathFuzzySabbath / 

“I like floral cunt, I’m gonna keep using it…” / “We speak your names…”/ “I’m just gonna go ahead and make this statement…”/ ***EMAIL US at metalnerdery@gmail.com ***/

***SOCIAL MEDIA US at #metalnerderypodcast on #YouTube #Facebook #Instagram #TikTok *** / “Are we gonna have to hire somebody to go through our emails now?” / 

“CD Samplers…?”/ ***VOICEMAIL US AT 980-666-8182!!!*** / 

#doowop (NOTE: It’s Padavona, NOT Padanova) / 

#RJD

(14:19): #TheDocket METAL NERDERY PRESENTS: THE CLASS OF 1997 /

“The year I graduated from college and got that magical piece of paper…”/ “You know what a better magical piece of paper is?” / “It makes for a much better life…”/ 

“And by ‘dating’…we know EXACTLY what they’re talking about…”/ 

“That dude’s a Dude, man…”/ “Spittin’ Crickets is such a 90’s band name…”/ 

“I gotta ask the question…where did y’all get that name?” / #hawktuah /

#RussellsReflectionsNostalgiaEdition / “That’s some red neck shit; that’s not frat boy shit…”

 

(19:02): “I will say…in 1997…we were big followers of a local heavy metal band…who released their breakthrough album…” / #RussellsSevendustReflections / 

#Sevendust BLACK (Sevendust – 1997) / “That’s a good opener…like a show opener…”

 

(23:38): #StrappingYoungLad ALL HAIL THE NEW FLESH (City – 1997) / #CanadianMetal / “Get ready…”/ “It’s like a super charged Filter…”/ “If I was still working out, that would be in the playlist for sure…”

 

(27:00): “Hold on, so it’s a different singer?”/ NOTE: This is the first Priest album with Tim “Ripper” Owens on vocals, and also the first Priest album since 1990’s Painkiller / #IcedEarth / #JudasPriest JUGULATOR (Jugulator – 1997) / “You pulling up the Jugulator?” / #moonshine / 

“How many people do you think go into a bar and say ‘I’d like an Everclear on the rocks, please…’”/ NOTE: Everclear is the active ingredient in Hunch Punch / “Chuggin’ the D…” / 

“That does not sound like Judas Priest…”/ “That’s a very different vibe…that’s a different band!”

 

(33:30): “How about some…Overkill?”/ “In 1997, were you looking for Overkill albums?” / 

“(The Hodges) stayed metal the whole time…” / #WFO #TheKillingKind / #NostalgicReflections / “I wasn’t going to metal shows…unless it was Metallica…”/ “There were a lot of used CD stores back then (in the mid to late 90’s) …” / 

#Overkill IT LIVES (From the Underground and Below – 1997) / “I love panning…”

 

(39:56): “Alright, Matt…look at the inventory of cokelines…”/ 

“Track 5…I know it doesn’t have as many cokelines…trust me…”/ “Is it more of the Forbidden Evil?” / “Imagine Forbidden doing groove stuff but it still sounds like Forbidden…”/ #Forbidden FACE DOWN HEROES (Green – 1997) / 

“This was in the Can’t Be Loud Enough…”/ OVER THE MIDDLE / 

“This sounds nothing like Forbidden Evil…”/ “That sounds like…Slayer.”

(43:20): “Did y’all ever hear that one (Demonic)?”/ “That’s where the power comes from, dude…”/ #Testament DEMONIC REFUSAL (Demonic – 1997) / “This is where (Chuck Billy) changed his voice…that’s death metal…”/ “Looks like I need a bigger rug…”/ 

“That’s definitely different Testament…”

 

(46:28): “Mark the time, please…”/ #Kreator PHOBIA (Outcast – 1997) / “Like Slayer, you always know what you’re gonna get (with Kreator) …”/ #industrialsound / “That’s different than normal Kreator…”/ “It’s almost like industrial punk…it’s almost like a Kreator side project…”

 

(48:52): “We’ve got to pay tribute to The Loads…”/ “I think that’s probably the best song on the album…but it takes forever to get there…” (Fixxxer) / 

“It might be worse than Sandman…” (Fuel) / #Metallica DEVIL’S DANCE (Reload – 1997) / “That’s a meaty bass sound…”/ “It’s like a weird, Metallica, stoner metal…”/ “Yeah, it needs a laugh right there…”/ “Under a different name, they’re good rock and roll records…”

***Go check out our Building the Perfect Load episode…*** / “Watch him pull up Queensryche…big fan from way back…more than KISS…”

(53:47): #Misfits DIG UP HER BONES (American Psycho – 1997) / 

“It’s like Peter Steele with a higher voice…”/ 

“He sounds like Peter Steele PLUS the singer from Life of Agony…”/ #Caputo / “They came back, dude…”/ “It’s like Optimus Prime can be a robot, and then he can be a truck, and then he can be a robot again..."

(56:26): “This sounds like a lovely title…I guarantee you it sounds like WASP…”/ #powerballads / “Let us know if we should do a whole episode of power ballads…” / 

“We might need some extra special relaxers for that episode (power ballads) …” / “No microdosing…we gotta go full tilt…bring sleeping bags…”/ #TheChronicles /

“Have you ever heard anybody talking in their sleep?”/ #sleeptalking #gibberish /

“He would call in air strikes…while he was at home in bed, years after the war…”/ 

“We got new chairs down here in The Bunkerpoon…I look a lot more slender because I’m hiding my gunt underneath the table…” / #WASP KILL FUCK DIE (Kill Fuck Die – 1997) / “Oh listen, it’s industrial…when L.A. Metal goes Industrial, that’s kind of a weird sign…”/ “What is it?  What’d you say?” / “That was not at all what I was expecting…”

(1:01:24): “Look at that album cover…that just screams 1976…he looks like the homeless hatchet guy…there’s a documentary about this dude…”/ “But he looked just like that dude…” / “Turn up the fuzzmeter…”/ #FuManchu EVIL EYE (The Action is Go – 1997) / “Kinda sounds like ‘I Disappear’ a little bit…”/ 

“It’s good rock and roll with a lot of fuzz on it…”

(1:04:39): “On that note, how about a little Karma to Burn…”/ 

“Hold on, that was wet and you didn’t cup…you SHOULD have cupped…”/ #instrumental / 

“I’m going in with an open mind…and a pink shirt…”/ “I don’t care…” / 

“Where are we on the whole ‘how do snakes fuck?’…” / “It IS whittled…”/ #debutalbum / 

#KarmaToBurn EIGHT (Karma To Burn – 1997) /

“This sounds like some good pre-show music…very good background music…”

(1:07:54): “Annihilator had an album out that year…”/ #recordscratch #mouthsounds / 

“That sounded almost like a record scratch…I can’t do it again…make it a button…”/ 

“All the cokelines…”/ #Annihilator MURDER (Remains – 1997) / “That’s gated…there’s your ’97 vibe…”/ “He’s gonna yell in a minute…he yelled…I heard him…”/ 

“Let’s pick another one…” / SEXECUTION / “Sexecution…that’s got to be good…” 

 

(1:12:45): “We’ve got to cleanse…”/ “What did (Annihilator) do there?” / 

“I’m hoping, for the sake of all that is evil…that Venom will sound like Venom…”/ 

“Metallica’s the ONLY band that changed in the 90’s…whatever…”/

#Venom THE EVIL ONE (Cast in Stone – 1997) / “That’s what heavy metal sounds like…” 

(1:15:41): “You know, THAT guy from THAT band…”/ “Who sings on this, him (Geezer Butler)?” / NOTE: This was NOT Burton C. Bell on vocals, it was Clark Brown on vocals…/ 

#GZR MAN IN A SUITCASE (Black Science – 1997) / “Strangely industrial? Or weirdly industrial?”

(1:17:27): “How about a little Grip Inc.? That was Dave Lombardo’s band after Slayer…”/

#GripInc PATHETIC LIAR (Nemesis – 1997) / “That has the Slayer sound to it…if you’re playing with Dave, I’m sure it’s going to sound like Slayer at some point…”

 

(1:19:44): “I was just looking up some In Flames…”/ “Let’s cup so they get the full effect…”/ #InFlames JOTUN (Whoracle – 1997) / “I think that’s what they call melodeath metal…”/ “It suits this kind of day…the gray and cloudy…” / “Nothing’s gonna impress me anymore after Psycroptic…” / “It’s the first thing we’ve heard in forever that’s really a mindblower…you keep getting away from the novelty effect…and then you hear that (Psycroptic)…”

 

(1:23:34): “Billiam never picks trash…”/ 

“We should do the most underrated bands and talk about nothing but Poison and Nickelback the whole time…”/ “You don’t shit on Nickelback and you don’t shit on Creed…”/ “It’s just fun to talk like that…” / 

NOTE: This was NOT Bruce Dickinson’s first solo album…it was his fourth / 

#BruceDickinson ROAD TO HELL (Accident of Birth – 1997) 

(1:26:38): “My only thing about that…remember when (Dave) did the thing (remixed the entire Megadeth catalog in 2004…) with the drums?”/ 

#Megadeth TRUST (Cryptic Writings – 1997) / “I think he got mostly cleaned up in the early 90’s…”/ “Would you call that rock or metal?” / “If you could take 5% (of that bass mix) and drop it in AJFA…” / “2002 was (allegedly) when (Mr. Mustaine) fully gained sobriety…”

 

(1:30:18): “I think Billiam finally found what he was looking for…”/

#MachineHead TEN TON HAMMER (The More Things Change – 1997) / “It’s weird that harmonics could be so heavy…”/ “It’s like harmonics with a cape…”

 

(1:32:10): “Awwwwwww mannnnnnn…” / 

#Pantera WHERE YOU COME FROM (Official Live: 101 Proof – 1997) / “Wait for it…”/

“They recorded (the 2 new songs) in 12 days…”/ “Should we call it Class of ’97?” / 

THANK YOU FOR JOINING US!!! / #untilthenext #outroreel