[翻譯] 美國鞭金史（完）
噢耶！！貼完了！！*＊ˋ( ￣▽￣)ˊ＊*
Part V: Countdown to Extinction
其五：毀滅倒數
With 1991’s multiplatinum Metallica, a.k.a. “The Black Album,” Metallica
vaulted themselves forever out of the thrash genre and simply became the
biggest hard-rock band in the world. In retrospect, the group timed its
stylistic transition perfectly: Just a few weeks after Metallica debuted on
the Billboard charts, Nirvana released Nevermind, and thrash metal suddenly
became yesterday’s news. Journalists and A&R scouts alike caught the first
plane to Seattle to try and cash in on the hot new “grunge” movement, while
thrash found itself relegated to the same dumpster as its nemesis, hair
metal. The more established acts managed to soldier on, but the twin tide of
media indifference and major-label ignorance proved too much for most thrash
bands to swim against.
隨著1991年的白金專輯《Metallica》，又稱「黑專輯」，的推出，Metallica從此脫離了
鞭金，而成為世上最紅的重搖滾樂團。回顧起來，樂團的風格轉型正是時候。就在《
Metallica》登上告示牌排行榜後幾個星期，Nirvana推出了《Nevermind》，鞭金突然之
間變成了明日黃花。記者和A&R星探全都搭著飛機到西雅圖，好趕上新的一波「油漬搖滾
」運動熱潮，而鞭金發現自己被丟到了和它的宿敵髮型金屬一樣的垃圾箱。那些比較成功
的樂團試著堅守下去，但在媒體的漠不關心和大廠的忽略雙重夾殺下，大多數的鞭金樂團
都無法順利渡過難關。
SLAGEL Major labels ruined it. Before grunge came along, metal had become so
cool that every major label had to go out and sign a bunch of metal bands.
They had no idea of what this music was, what to do with it. They had no real
fans at the labels. They just knew that something was happening, so any band
that was selling a bunch of records got offered these huge major-label deals.
The scene went from being a really cool, genuine scene, to being a huge,
corporate-metal, gargantuan thing that was horrible.
那些大唱片公司毀了一切。在油漬搖滾出來之前，金屬樂變得大受歡迎，每個大廠都想
分一杯羹，簽了一堆金屬樂團。他們不懂這種音樂，根本不知道該拿它怎麼辦；他們底
下沒有真正熱愛鞭金的人。他們只知道有什麼事正在發生，於是任何賣了些唱片的團都
拿到了大廠的合約。整個風潮從一種很酷、很真誠的東西，變成了很紅、商業化、龐大
的事，真是糟透了。
JONNY Z All these other bands were coming out, and they weren’t as good as
the masters. And it just got to the point where it was getting really stale.
一堆新團如雨後春筍冒出，但他們和那些經典團實在差得遠。也就是這時候起，一切開始
腐壞。
BILLY At the time, there was almost 200 stations across the country that
would play metal. And then, just, like, overnight, it went down to, like, 20
stations. Heavy metal was a bad word, you know?
那時候，本來全國差不多有200個電台會播金屬樂。然後，好像一夕之間，突然就銳減到
，差不多20個。「金屬樂」那時是很糟糕的字，你知道嗎？
SLAGEL It was such a huge backlash. Thrash got lumped in with hair metal,
Poison, and all that other garbage, and that kind of ruined it for everybody.
It’s funny, because Metal Blade did marketing for a lot of those grunge bands
—Faith No More, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Alice in Chains. I knew those guys,
and they all were huge fans of metal. But they couldn’t say it to the press.
They could only talk about their “cool” influences!
那時候真的出現了很大的反彈。鞭金被和髮型金屬混為一談，像是Poison，還有其他的垃
圾，害大家對它倒胃口。很好笑，因為Metal Blade行銷一大堆這些油漬搖滾樂團──
Faith No More、Soundgarden、Nirvana、Alice in Chains。我認識這些人。他們全都很
迷金屬樂，但他們不能在媒體上說，他們只能說受到哪些很「酷」的音樂影響。
MUSTAINE Was the rug pulled out from under us? That’s a good way to put it,
but there never really was a rug. That would imply that someone had laid down
a carpet for us, but we’d been walking on broken glass the whole time. I
look at it like this: When the grunge scene started, it just showed the lack
of loyalty of a lot of the fair-weather fans that were there in the Eighties,
and it made me understand that your core audience is a handful of your
overall sales.
我們腳下的地毯被抽走了嗎？這的確是個不錯的形容方式，不過從來就不曾真的有過
什麼地毯。因為那表示曾有人為我們舖了毯子，但一直以來我們都是走在碎玻璃上。我是
這樣看的：當油漬搖滾開始流行，也顯示出80年代那些見風轉舵的歌迷毫無忠誠度可言，
這讓我了解你的核心樂迷只佔了唱片總銷量的一小部分。
HOLT When Capitol dropped Exodus [after 1992’s Force of Habit], it was the
best thing we could have hoped for, except that I was tired of doing it. We
could have easily gone back to being a bigger fish on a small label, but it
felt like a job, and I just didn’t want to do it anymore.
當Capitol公司中止與Exodus的合約（就在1992年的《Force of Habit》之後），那真是
我們夢寐以求的事，無奈我對所做的事很厭倦了。我們可以很輕易地回去當小廠中的大團
，但這樣感覺一切只是工作，我再也不想繼續了。
ERNST To be honest, I think it was time for a change. People had played
thrash as hard and as fast as they could, and bands were looking to do
different things. Metallica’s Black Album slowed it down a bit, and it was a
lot different than …And Justice for All. You look at the Anthrax albums
around that time—when they moved from Island to Elektra—[original singer]
Joey Belladonna was leaving, and [his replacement] John Bush was coming in.
They had slowed down and become almost more of an old-school metal band.
坦白說，我想那是該改變的時候了。玩鞭的大家已經盡其所能把它玩到又猛又快了，樂團
開始試著做一些不一樣的東西。Metallica的黑專輯速度比較慢，而且它和《…And
Justice for All》差別很大。你看看Anthrax那時期的作品──他們從Island跳槽到
Elektra後──（原始主唱）Joey Belladonna離開了，（繼任的）John Bush加入。他們
的速度變慢，而且幾乎聽起更像是一個老學校金屬團。
FRIEND Musically and message-wise, I always thought Anthrax got stronger with
John Bush. [1993’s] Sound of White Noise may be, song for song, the
strongest Anthrax record. But it’s not remembered now, because of the
climate in the music industry at the time it came out.
就音樂上和信息內涵上來說，我一直認為Anthrax和John Bush一起時變得更茁壯了。（
1993年的）《Sound of White Noise》可能是，從每首歌來看都是，Anthrax最堅強的一
張專輯。但因為它推出時音樂產業氣候的關係，現在沒人記得它。
IAN The first sense we had of anything on the negative side wasn’t until
late ’94, after the whole Sound of White Noise tour cycle was done, because
even that record was huge for us. Elektra had gone through a huge shakeup,
and everyone we’d worked with over a two-year period was gone, and the new
regime wasn’t thrilled about having us on their roster. They were
straight-up like, “We would never have signed you, and we don’t want to
release your next record.”
不用等到94年年底，我們做完《Sound of White Noise》的全部巡迴，就已經有點可以感
到負面的事情要發生了，雖然那張專輯對我們來說真的很成功。Elektra剛經歷大改組，
和我們工作超過兩年以上的人都走了，公司新的上層對把我們留在旗下一點都沒興趣。
他們就很直接了當地說，「是我們的話就不會簽你們了，我們也不想發你們的下一張專輯
。」
ADLER By ’94, other than replacing the records you’d already worn out, it
was tough to find new thrash stuff to listen to. Now, as I look back, there
were still good bands out there trying to do it, but it was just so shunned.
Nobody cared. At the time, it seemed like everything had dried up, where in
reality the support for it had dried up. That’s why [Burn the Priest, Lamb
of God’s original incarnation] started jamming in the first place—because
we wanted to hear some new thrash, and we couldn’t buy it anywhere.
在94年，除了把你已經聽到爛了專輯換成新的以外，很難找到新的鞭金作品來聽。從現在
回顧，其實還是有很多好團試著玩鞭，但它就是這樣被大家避開，沒人理睬。那時候，它
就好像完全乾涸了，而事實上支持它的泉源也真的乾涸了。那就是一開始我們（Burn
the Priest，Lamb of God的前身）為什麼玩團──因為我們想聽新的鞭金作品，但我們
到處都買不到。
IAN If Elektra had been behind [1995’s] Stomp 442 like they were behind
Sound of White Noise, Stomp would have probably been another gold record, but
they just walked away. We were able to get out of our deal, and we walked
with our masters. They even had to pay us for the third record, which we
never made for them. But the damage was done, because by ’96–’97, the
whole music world had changed. We were out there looking for a new record
deal, and people were like, “Oh, Anthrax? That’s an Eighties band.” We
were like, Hey, this shit’s still big—Pantera had a No. 1 record recently,
Metallica’s still huge, and Megadeth’s still kickin’ ass! But everyone was
like, “Yeah, but your last record only sold 100,000 copies. We’re not
interested.”
假如Elektra支持（1995年的）《Stomp 442》，就像他們支持《Sound of White Noise》
那樣，《Stomp》說不定可以賣到金唱片，但他們就對它置之不理。我們最後把合約給解
了，帶著我們的母帶離開。他們甚至必須付我們第三張專輯的錢，就算我們根本沒幫他們
做出來。但傷害已經造成，因為在96、97年左右，整個音樂界都改變了。我們到處找尋新
的唱片合約，大家說，「噢，Anthrax，那是80年代的團了。」我們說，「嘿，這種音樂
依然很紅啊──Pantera最近才拿了排行榜冠軍，Metallica依然超受歡迎，Megadeth依然
很讚！」但每個人的反應都是，「對啦，不過你們的新專輯只賣了10萬張，我們沒興趣。
」
FRIEND Pantera really were in line to be the next Metallica, but they chose
to stay true to their Texas metal. They just had to write their “Enter
Sandman,” but they consciously stepped away from it.
Pantera那時與成為下一個Metallica真的只有一線之隔，但他們選擇忠於他們的德州金屬
。他們只需要寫出他們的〈Enter Sandman〉就好了，但他們自發自覺地選擇不這麼做。
IAN From ’96 all the way through ’02, it was a really hard, hard time for
this band, and I think Megadeth and Slayer had their hard times, too. And
truthfully, if it wasn’t for Pantera to be the one band of our ilk still
flying that flag in the Nineties, the whole thing could have died. But
Pantera took us on tour. They took Slayer on tour. They did everything they
could to keep that scene from going away.
從1996年一直到2002年，這段期間對我們團來說真的很難、很難熬；我想Megadeth和
Slayer也不好過。而說真的，要不是有Pantera和我們同一陣營，在90年代繼續高舉這張
大旗，整個鞭金大概完蛋了。但Pantera帶我們一起巡迴、帶Slayer一起巡迴，他們盡一
切努力，好讓鞭金免於消失。
KING We kept going along. Our shows were smaller, our album sales were
smaller, but not to the point where we couldn’t still succeed and be Slayer.
Stuff like we were doing was so real and so street, it stuck around.
我們繼續走我們的路線。我們的表演規模變小了，我們的唱片銷量變差了，但從來沒有到
讓我們做不下去、不能繼續當Slayer的地步。我們做的這些東西如此真誠、如此街頭，它
不會從你身邊消失。
Part VI: Epilogue
其六：尾聲
Like Godzilla lying in suspended animation under some desolate arctic ice
flow, American thrash metal kept a low profile for the second half of the
Nineties and the first few years of the new century, biding its time while
nu-metal enjoyed its 15 minutes in the spotlight. But the last few years have
seen thrash return with a vengeance, spearheaded by a new generation of bands
like Lamb of God, Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage, Trivium, and Chimaira—who
in turn are reverently shining the spotlight back on such headbanging
forefathers as Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer, Exodus, and Testament,
all of whom are still alive and killing.
就像哥吉拉在荒涼的北極冰川中冬眠，美國鞭金在90年代後半以及本世紀之初沉潛著，在
nu-meta享受它短暫的風光時靜待良機。但在近幾年，鞭金似乎捲土重來，在新一代樂團
如Lamb of God、Shadows Fall、Killswitch Engage、Trivium和Chimaira的領頭下──
他們恭敬地將舞台的燈光又帶回了如Metallica、Megadeth、Anthrax、Slayer、Exodus和
Testament等，這些依然健在而且繼續從事著殺戮事業的金屬樂前輩們身上。
KING I kind of forecasted it when Disturbed and Godsmack started getting
popular. People get into hard rock—soft metal, so to speak—and then they
outgrow it, and they need more. It’s like a drug. They need the faster, they
need the heavier. They need the band that sings about things you’re not
supposed to talk about. And it’s gonna bring ‘em right down Slayer
Boulevard.
我在Disturbed和Godsmack開始走紅時就有點預料到了。人們開始迷重搖滾──比較「軟
」的金屬樂，可以這樣說吧──然後胃口被養大，他們想要更多。這有點像吸毒，他們需
要更快、更重的音樂；他們需要那些唱著你不該談論的事的樂團。這將會引領他們走上通
往Slayer的康莊大道。
HAMMETT It’s great to see that thrash wasn’t just some passing fad, which
it really did seem like when grunge came around, and then when the whole
rap-metal/nu-metal thing came around. But now we’re in the new millennium,
and metal’s back on track!
能看到鞭金並不是曇花一現的風潮真的很棒。在油漬搖滾和後來的rap-metal／nu-metal
音樂出現時，一度看起來真的像是這樣。但現在，我們步入了新的千禧年，而金屬樂又重
回軌道了！
MUSTAINE Thrash endures because we’re the disenfranchised youth of America,
and somebody has to play the music that will soothe the savage beast in all
of us.
鞭金歷久彌新，因為我們是遭受剝奪的青年，有人必須出來演奏這樣的音樂，安撫我們心
中那頭兇殘的野獸。
（高仕艷 譯）
--
I had nothing but the embittered sun...
我一無所有，除卻那怨毒的太陽……
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
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沒關係 我願意等（嬌羞）
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我是在Revolver網站上看的，他們沒標日期Orz
不過好像是2007年吧@@
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一時手誤XDDD 已經改過了 感謝jarvik7大的提醒
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不敢當 板上資深鞭迷太多啦
我只是個小小翻譯官而已:$
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很期待有高手撰文介紹～～
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※ 編輯: coolfly (1.165.174.235), 01/03/2018 22:07:39