In 1982, Van Halen and Ozzy Osbourne were the heaviest things going, and “Crazy Train” was the heaviest metal I could imagine. Deep Purple sounded heavier, but Ozzy looked like he was possessed by the Devil, and the Devil is definitely more metal. (My mother would probably argue that Motley Crue and Guns N’ Roses are metal, but they definitely weigh in at hard rock on the almighty Metal Scale.)

In that era, and until about 1990, metal bands all had long hair. It was a prerequisite. If someone wanted to audition for your band, a band member might ask, “Does he have long hair?” The correct answer was yes, but it was common to hear, “No, but he’s growing it out. It’ll be long by the time we get our demo tape finished.” Then, metal icons Kerry King (Slayer), Scott Ian (Anthrax), and Chris Cornell (Soundgarden) all shaved their heads, leaving all us fans and metal musicians questioning our shampoo bills and the amount of time we spent blow-drying our locks.

Today, “metal” encompasses so many styles and sub-genres of music it’s almost impossible to imagine what a band sounds like based on the simple description of “metal.” There’s Heavy Metal, Death Metal, Doom Metal and Black Metal. There’s Neoclassical Metal, Grind Core, Hard Core, Melodi-Core, Thrash Metal, Hate, Goth, Old School, Nu, Power, Christian, Pop, and Rap Metal, never mind the regional twists. Bands from Scandinavian countries, like Sweden’s Opeth, sound worlds apart form the metal bands of the northeastern United States, like Kill Switch Engage or Shadows Fall.

You get the point. The term metal is so broad and encompasses so many styles of music, senses of fashion, and types of people, it’s almost impossible to define with words. To understand what metal is, one must experience it, the way people are doing every Wednesday night at the Dover Brick House.
A long, handsome space with brick walls, the room is one of the finest concert venues in the Seacoast, with giant pant-waving subwoofers and a light show that may be visible from outer space. I spent the last few weeks attending religiously, paying my $3 tithe to the Metal Gods, and getting a healthy dose of sonic blitzkrieg from nearly every genre of metal and a few loosely connected indie and hard rock hybrids. And the audiences, to my pleasant surprise, were as diverse as the music. The one thing that tied them all together seemed to be slammin’ loud guitars.

N.H. metal ambassadors Candy Striper Death Orgy hosted the most straight-up shot of metal dished out at the Brick House this winter (CSDO happened to be present at the very first metal show I attended back in 1989, opening for Nuclear Assault). Martyrvore (who eats a healthy diet of religious and political icons), Crotalus (Latin for rattlesnake) and Burden of Liberty are among the many other bands that made appearances in January, delivering head-bashing sets of straight-up old school metal with long hair. Crotalus made a deadly strike to the nostalgia nerve with a blistering rendition of Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper.”

Other memorable performances include the more modern sounds from Maine’s goth-industrial Hour Past, who went retro-new-wave with a stellar dark metal version of Simple Minds’ “Don’t You Forget About Me.” Massachusetts bred Nu Metal quartet Dipthong delivered a dynamic set ranging from mellow soundscapes to Tool-esque bludgeoning riffs. Another tasty surprise came in the form of Portland’s Coscades, a foursome of indie kids who probably can’t grow beards yet but delivered an awesome set of loud indie-eclecticism that Jeff Buckley and Sunny Day Real Estate fans would devour.

Metal Night has been such a great success that the club will likely be adding one Saturday a month to the Metal menu for the fans who can’t stay out too late on a work night. So put your boots on and get the ice packs ready to ease your aching necks after a night of head banging.