On October 2, Rhino will release The Heavy Metal Box, featuring 70 songs from the golden age of metal, between 1968 and 1991. Four-disc set will include music from Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, Metallica, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Iron Butterfly, Pantera, Alice Cooper, Venom, Testament, Motorhead, Slayer, Rush, Megadeth, Kiss and others.
The Heavy Metal Box Box will be available October 2 at all retail outlets and atrhino.com for a suggested price of $64.98. The set will be offered in limited edition packing that resembles an amplifier. In a nod to Spinal Tap-whose song "Big Bottom" is included in the set-the faux-amp box features an authentic, turn-able Marshall knob allowing you to literally turn it up to 11.
Arranged chronologically, the compilation gathers 70 choice selections from various record labels tracing the evolution of metal during its first golden age between 1968 and 1991. The Heavy Metal Box presents more than five hours of blistering fury guaranteed to send devil horn salutes in the air.
The genre's progenitors get their due with the supreme heaviness of Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" and the hoodlum metal mania of Blue Cheer's cover of "Summertime Blues." "From that point on," renowned metal journalist Mick Wall writes in the boxed set's meticulous liner notes, "the floodgates were thrown wide open as a whole slew of next-generation rock bands, disenchanted by the empty promises of the so-called love generation, arrived like drunken, rabble-rousing gate-crashers at the party, intent on ripping up the rulebook, throwing love out the window - along with all the flowers-and replacing them with a distinctly unsettling ambience all their own. From here on in, rock music would no longer be a dance. It would be an arena to do battle in."
Along with Wall's detailed history of metal, the boxed set's exhaustive liner notes also include rare photos, a track-by-track commentary, Ronnie James Dio discussing metal's infamous mano cornuta salute (a.k.a. "the Horns"), Lita Ford reflecting on her role as the "first lady of metal," multiple artist tributes, and more.
The Heavy Metal Box Track Listing
Disc 1
1. "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" -- Iron Butterfly
2. "Summertime Blues" -- Blue Cheer
3. "Easy Livin" -- Uriah Heep
4. "Highway Star" -- Deep Purple
5. "Billion Dollar Babies" -- Alice Cooper
6. "Lost Johnny" -- Hawkwind
7. "Bad Motor Scooter" -- Montrose
8. "Working Man" -- Rush
9. "Man on the Silver Mountain" -- Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow
10. "Detroit Rock City" -- Kiss
11. "The Ripper" -- Judas Priest
12. "Cat Scratch Fever" -- Ted Nugent
13. "Lights Out" -- UFO
14. "Godzilla" -- Blue Oyster Cult
15. "Demolition Boys" -- Girlschool
16. "White Witch" -- Angel Witch
17. "The Phantom of the Opera" -- Iron Maiden
18. "Neon Knights" -- Black Sabbath
Disc 2 1. "Ace of Spades" -- Motorhead 2. "Am I Evil?" -- Diamond Head 3. "Nice Boys" -- Rose Tattoo 4. "Attack of the Mad Axeman" -- Michael Schenker Group 5. "Denim and Leather" -- Saxon 6. "Blitzkrieg" -- Blitzkrieg 7. "Gangland" -- Tygers Of Pan Tang 8. "Witching Hour" -- Venom 9. "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" -- Judas Priest 10. "The Number of the Beast" -- Iron Maiden 11. "Star War" -- Raven 12. "Say What You Will" -- Fastway 13. "Black Funeral" -- Mercyful Fate 14. "Animal (F**k Like A Beast)" -- W.A.S.P. 15. "Mean Streak" -- Y&T 16. "Holy Diver" -- Dio 17. "Queen of the Reich" -- Queensryche 18. "Whiplash" -- Metallica
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Disc 3 1. "Rock You Like a Hurricane" -- Scorpions 2. "Metal Health" -- Quiet Riot 3. "Into the Fire" -- Dokken 4. "Balls to the Wall" -- Accept 5. "Round and Round" -- Ratt 6. "I Wanna Rock" -- Twisted Sister 7. "The Boulevard of Broken Dreams" -- Hanoi Rocks 8. "Big Bottom" -- Spinal Tap 9. "Midnite Maniac" -- Krokus 10. "I'll See the Light, Tonight" -- Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force 11. "Crazy Nights" -- Loudness 12. "Shake Me" -- Cinderella 13. "Watch the Children Pray" -- Metal Church 14. "To Hell with the Devil" -- Stryper 15. "A Little Time" -- Helloween 16. "Wrecking Crew" -- Overkill 17. "Caught in a Mosh" -- Anthrax 18. "Peace Sells" -- Megadeth
Disc 4 1. "Still of the Night" -- Whitesnake 2. "Rock Me" -- Great White 3. "Talk Dirty to Me" -- Poison 4. "Bathroom Wall" -- Faster Pussycat 5. "Hall of the Mountain King" -- Savatage 6. "Kiss Me Deadly" -- Lita Ford 7. "Hail and Kill" -- Manowar 8. "Trial By Fire" -- Testament 9. "Welcome Home" -- King Diamond 10. "South of Heaven" -- Slayer 11. "One" -- Metallica 12. "Cult of Personality" -- Living Colour 13. "Youth Gone Wild" -- Skid Row 14. "Cowboys from Hell" -- Pantera 15. "Beg to Differ" -- Prong 16. "Dead Embryonic Cells" -- Sepultura
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