Category: Album of the Week

Metallica – Ride The Lightning (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week6 Comments

This week it’s time to dust off an all-time metal classic. One of heavy metal’s most important bands and one of their most significant albums. I haven’t had the occasion yet to discuss Metallica besides in passing mention, now it’s time for my first exploration into a band who will certainly be discussed here more in the future.

Metallica – Ride The Lightning

Released July 27, 1984 via Megaforce Records

My Favorite Tracks – For Whom The Bell Tolls, Creeping Death, Fade To Black

The album had an immediate impact on the market, selling out of its original pressing in a few months and forcing the band’s move to a major label as they outgrew underground infrastructure. As Metallica entered a supernova period of growth, they gave rise to a heaver version of metal than what was being favored by radio and MTV.

But even as Metallica brought forth the ferocity that would be a hallmark of heavy metal to come, they also displayed a refined songwriting approach that would serve them in the future as they went from being one of metal’s biggest bands to the biggest band in the world. Their musical evolution would being on Ride The Lightning.

Books could, and likely have, been written about this record. I’ll not bother with too much exposition, instead I’ll go in to the 8 songs on Ride The Lightning track-by-track and get under the hood of one of metal’s greatest albums.

Fight Fire With Fire

The album opens with a short, melodic intro that belies the sheer force to come. Fight Fire With Fire is the song that connects this record to Metallica’s savage debut Kill ‘Em All. It is pummeling and unrelenting throughout its 4:44 runtime. This misanthropic plea for nuclear annihilation sets an image and tone that would be ever-present in the oft-pessimistic world of metal.

Ride The Lightning

The title track marks one of two writing contributions from former guitarist Dave Mustaine, he of subsequent Megadeth fame. The song chugs along to the lament of a convicted killer being executed by electrocution. (Shocking, I know). The track flies along in a precise, militant manner while James Hetfield executes some of his best early vocal work in the higher register, his screaming sounding like the pleading of a condemned man.

For Whom The Bell Tolls

It’s time now for one of Metallica’s most iconic and beloved songs. For Whom The Bell Tolls is a long-celebrated staple of the band’s live set and is always in the conversation when discussing the band’s best songs. The song was inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s novel of the same name and depicts a particularly brutal sequence where a group of 5 soldiers die in an airstrike after capturing a hill.

Everything about this song is pure magic – Cliff Burton’s effect-drenched bass intro, the lyrics, the frenetic music. It all just works on a level few bands ever achieve.

I did read Hemingway’s book after hearing Metallica’s song. Hey, at least I like the song.

Fade To Black

Perhaps the most unique track on the album, Metallica have a go at a power ballad. For a band that had so heavily thrown the gauntlet into thrash metal, a subgenre they were helping invent, Fade To Black marks the first sign that more than savage heavy metal was to come from the group.

This song, like the preceding track, fires on all cylinders. The guitar work is gorgeous and perfectly suited to the morose subject matter. James Hetfield delivers haunting vocals that portray someone giving up on life. While such is common lyrical fare in metal music, very few acts execute it on this level.

Trapped Under Ice

Now for the first of two songs that are, at best, considered less than their fellows on Ride The Lightning. Trapped Under Ice is a perfectly fine thrasher that doesn’t break new ground or anything, but also isn’t a total stinker. It fits fine on the record, it’s sufficiently thrashy and I don’t feel it should be as maligned as it sometimes is. It might stick out a bit on an album with at least 3 of the band’s best-ever works, but in the end only a few songs can be the greatest. Not everything has to be best ever or worst ever, there’s plenty of room in the middle, and Trapped Under Ice fits just fine there.

Escape

The second, and the truest version of, what the hell were they thinking? Escape was apparently an attempt at a radio single that was apparently forced on them by the record label. James Hetfield supposedly hates the song, an opinion shared by a lot of Metallica fans. This song is the runt of the litter on the album, whereas the records before and after this tend to lack for a lesser track.

I honestly have no real problem with Escape. It’s still heavy enough, it has some attitude, and I never feel the need to skip it when I play the album. I’m used to it and I’m not that offended by it. No, it’s not great and it does ding the record, but it’s not that big of a deal in the end. It didn’t become a single and the 3 songs that needed to be singles did, so no harm no foul.

Creeping Death

It’s back to business in full for Metallica on the last vocal track of the record. Creeping Death is an epic headbanger about the biblical story of plagues in Egypt. This is thrash at its finest as the band shreds through verse and chorus in true Old Testament style (not to be confused with Testament the band).

The song’s mid section offers a breakdown that translates to one of music’s iconic live moments, with thousands of people screaming “Die!” along with the band. Sunday school at church was never as badass as Metallica.

The Call Of Ktulu

The record closes with a great instrumental piece that fits with the album musically and provides an interesting listen, something that some instrumentals find hard to do. The song would mark the end of leftover Dave Mustaine riffs for Metallica, something I’m sure they were happy to move on from just as Mustaine was about to start his own legacy.

Ride The Lightning is one of heavy metal’s all-time classic albums. It bridged a few gaps between their raw beginning and the polished sound to come, but also offered its own weight in thrash metal gold. Metallica would go on to become a massive band in the 80’s without the benefit of radio play, an effort owing to the force of their music.

It’s long been argued that some old-school die hards have a problem with recognizing anything beyond Metallica’s first four albums. Plenty of those arguments can be had another time but, for the sake of the albums themselves, just listen to them and then ask yourself why people wouldn’t be hung up on them. They are high points of heavy metal and lie on the summit of the genre.

Emma Ruth Rundle – Engine Of Hell (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week2 Comments

It’s been a productive past few years for Emma Ruth Rundle. Her 2018 album On Dark Horses captured a lot of attention from many circles and her 2020 collaboration with Thou, May Our Chambers Be Full, offered a work even greater than the sum of its parts.

As the decade shifted and the pandemic hit, Emma shifted gears and promised a sparse, minimal album that veers away from the sonic wars of her recent work. And she has delivered exactly that – this new album features her voice, piano, guitar and little else beyond a guest vocal and cello.

Emma Ruth Rundle – Engine Of Hell

Released November 5, 2021 via Sargent House Records

My Favorite Tracks – The Company, Return, Razor’s Edge

I could waste words on questioning if this stylistic turn is a risk or not, but there’s no need to ponder the question. While Engine Of Hell is a shift it’s certainly not a departure. Emma’s 2016 effort Marked For Death bears some similarities to this new album, with moments that are sparse and harrowing. This album might forego the effects pedals and sonic range but it fits well within the body of work Emma has already created.

This album is apparently a very intense therapy session for Emma, as she has discussed how she is processing traumatic events of her past through these songs. She adds layers to the lyrics so that the bare meaning is concealed. And that’s the point of art, of course – it doesn’t do much for anyone to just grab a guitar and bitch about how things suck. It’s the shaping and twisting of form and the resulting work that gets attention. It’s also what allows the listener to find their own meanings to the songs.

On a record where minimalism is the theme, every word sang and note played becomes important. Emma’s delivery on this record is very deliberate and methodical – each chord strummed or piano key hit seems to be there for a reason. Album opener and lead single Return showcases this deliberate form of arrangement, it seems that every note is there for a purpose. It’s a realm away from finding a decent hook or melody and then shoehorning words that sound nice on top of it.

Engine Of Hell differs from Emma’s past work in that there is no hope or triumph to be found here. The music may be gentle but the subject matter is heavier than death metal. The happy ending is either down the road or not to be found. This album isn’t for the faint of heart.

With any music, and especially a record like this that’s extremely personal yet wrapped in enough layers to keep the true meaning hidden, the listener will find their own meanings and draw their own conclusions. In my own listening, I can say that The Company and Return are the songs that hold the highest order of meaning to me. The rest of the album offers bits and pieces that resonate, but the album as a whole is a very enjoyable listen even without having some personally identifying connection with a lot of it.

Engine Of Hell is not a casual listening experience with a hit single or a feel-good vibe. It is an album to be consumed whole – and one that might consume the listener whole, depending on one’s strength of spirit. It is a beautiful, haunting piece of art from one of the best musical artists in circulation today.

Oasis – (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week4 Comments

This coming Friday the 19th marks the long-awaited official release of the landmark Oasis concert at Knebworth 1996. I will be waiting a moment for my package with everything to arrive from Europe so to bide my time I’ll talk about the band’s landmark second album.

Oasis – (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?

Released October 2, 1995 via Creation Records

My Favorite Tracks – Champagne Supernova, Don’t Look Back In Anger, Morning Glory

Oasis entered the release cycle for What’s The Story … in a singles chart battle with Britrock rivals Blur. The end result would see Oasis become one of the biggest bands on the planet, with over 20 million copies of the album sold and one of music’s most recognized songs living on for decades after its release. The album was the UK’s best selling of the 1990’s and it marked the pinnacle of the Britrock movement.

This is my favorite Oasis record and, like so many others, my jumping-on point for the band. It was a changing time in music as well as my life – I had just graduated high school a few months before its release and would be on the other side of the world a few months after it. These songs would be with me as I entered a new phase of my life and left childhood behind. And music in the late 90’s would not be what it was in the early 90’s, that much is for sure.

It’s only fitting to tackle this record track-by-track, there’s a lot to talk about here.

Hello

The album opens with a nice, steady rocker that’s bright but also gets a bit in your face. The song serves its titled purpose well – it’s a nice introduction to the album about to unfold. Some nice, washed out guitars compliment the album’s compressed mix (apparently compressed because no one besides Noel Gallagher could play their instruments…) The song doesn’t do much besides say “hello,” and it does that just fine.

Roll With It

The album’s lead single was the focus of a chart battle with countrymen Blur in 1995. Blur’s Country House would edge out this song as the winner of the week’s battle, but What’s The Story… would obliterate The Great Escape in album sales. The chart battle was a media invention that pitted the British everyman that Oasis represented versus a more upper class, artsy vibe offered by Blur. Honestly the whole thing was kind of a lame, media-contrived mess and I don’t put much stock in the war between the bands other than noting its historical significance.

Roll With It is a perfectly fine song but an odd choice for a lead single given what else lies on this record. This song doesn’t punch as high or hard as others but that doesn’t make it a bad song. It’s still a nice tune and fits the vibe of the record well.

Wonderwall

Here we are – the immortal, titanic song from this record, from Oasis and from Britrock as a whole. This song took over airwaves of all forms and lives on today as one of the 90’s most recognizable hits. Wonderwall was the second song recorded before 2000 to hit over a billion streams on Spotify, trailing only Queen’s epic Bohemian Rhapsody. It is often found on polls of “Best Britrock Songs Ever” behind maybe only Live Forever or Pulp’s smash hit Common People.

Wonderwall is a mainstream sensation, even to this day it’s near impossible to escape hearing it. But it’s also a huge point of debate amongst Oasis diehards – is the song worth the attention it gets or is it possibly the worst song on the record? I’ve ran into this argument on many occasions and especially in the past few years as Oasis nostalgia has a lot of people revisiting their work.

The truth is that no, it’s not the worst song on the record. It is an expertly-crafted song and most likely deserves the fanfare it gets. I wouldn’t say it’s the best song on the record but I won’t throw Wonderwall under a bus just because it took on a life of its own, even if I feel the next track is the one that should have seen the supernova of attention.

This tune is often cited as a love song but there is confusion as to its real meaning, a discussion taken up on the song’s Wikipedia page. That confusion is owing to the song’s creator, Noel Gallagher. Noel did state that it was a song dedicated to his then-wife, but after divorcing that wife he said the song was about “an imaginary friend who’s gonna save you from yourself.” Of course we probably won’t know the truth of the matter as Gallaghers and historical facts tend to not get on together at times, but I do like the alternate meaning of the song he proposed later.

Whatever the case, Wonderwall lives on in the hearts and ears of both willing listeners and people sick to death of it. It is the defining moment of this album and the Oasis legacy.

Don’t Look Back In Anger

I could write another essay about this song. Thankfully, I already have. Don’t Look Back In Anger was my third selection to my list of S-Tier Songs, those being what I consider the greatest of the great songs. That post covers the major points I’d want to address.

There is the question of this song’s place in history – is this the true crown jewel of the record? Did Wonderwall steal the thunder from this tune, which has become entwined with British culture? Was Noel’s decision to handle vocals on it instead of Liam what held this song back?

There’s an argument to be made that DLBIA was a bit held back, but there is no stopping popular culture. Wonderwall became the sensation and this song rode in the backseat. But in the years since it has quietly taken the driver’s seat as the album’s premier song. Its message is universally resonant and it has been a part of triumphant and tragic moments in culture over the decades since its release.

And yes, while objectivity is rather impossible when looking at music, I would say that in an objective sense this is the best song on the album. It isn’t my favorite, we’ll get to that in a bit. But there’s no denying how powerful and impactful DLBIA is.

Hey Now!

The album’s fifth cut is the one that many feel drags down the record. Many evaluators put the band’s debut Definitely Maybe ahead of What’s The Story… and Hey Now! Is exhibit A in the arguments. This tune is certainly meandering and ponderous and probably isn’t going to win many “best of the bunch” awards from anyone but the most contrarian of listeners.

I don’t look at the song as harshly as others but I do get the arguments. I don’t mind hearing it and I can play the album as a whole just fine without needing to skip this. There is no danger of this song appearing in a future S-Tier Song post, but that’s fine.

Some Might Say

The album’s mid section picks back up after a brief interlude with another of the album’s singles. Some Might Say might sit a bit under the radar in the wake of Wonderwall, DLBIA and Champagne Supernova, but the song brings its own weight to the table.

The song moves through some silly but great lyrical observations along with simple yet well-placed guitar work and the sum becomes greater than the parts. Liam drawls through the verses before belting out a powerful chorus full of some very interesting word choices. It’s one of several Oasis songs that is total nonsense yet still totally brilliant.

Cast No Shadow

This haunting, melancholy song was written by Noel to his friend, Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft. This interview with Noel spells out more of the background behind the song and Noel and Richard’s relationship.

The song is absolutely gorgeous and also depressing. I definitely feel the vibe coming from it, the desperation of trudging through life and just being plowed over by everyone and everything around you. It is a shitty thing to identify with but it’s there, no getting around it.

Cast No Shadow is a quiet favorite of many fans as well as the band, Liam has said it’s one of his favorites and he often includes it in his present-day solo sets. It’s just yet another example of how amazing Noel was at songwriting in this time.

She’s Electric

The band is back with another fun, silly tune about a girl and a crazy relationship, or lack thereof with the protagonist. There’s a nice mix of the usual lyrical nonsense often found in Oasis songs and a very interesting narrative of a guy and girl who are or aren’t about one another, kind of hard to say.

The song is really nice and I enjoy it when it comes on. It won’t ever be accused of being the best on the record but it certainly still has a place here.

Morning Glory

The album’s quasi-title track is an absolute banger. It comes in loud and runs red hot. Oasis only really “rocked out” a few times on their debut and this marks the only example of it here. While I clearly don’t find much fault with the band’s music, I do wish they had done a bit more of these headbangers.

The song is obviously about the band’s favorite party favor – cocaine. The white line is ubiquitous with rock n roll and Oasis did not shy away from their consumption of it in the 1990’s. It would lead to numerous issues for the band through their height of popularity and would mark their coming descent from the top of the mountain just around the bend in 1997, but it also gave us this magnificent tune.

Champagne Supernova

The album’s closing track and fifth single takes a different turn, bringing a trippy and atmospheric vibe to close out the record. The song did extremely well worldwide and is often the second most-recognized track behind the gargantuan Wonderwall.

The song is, like many other Oasis tunes, total lyrical nonsense. It is perhaps the most famous example of words simply meaning whatever the listener wishes them to mean. Noel has made no effort to shine greater meaning to the words, only indicating that it means what the fans who sing every word back to him want it to mean.

This song is also my favorite Oasis track. It is simply splendid and it flows with just killer vibes that can’t be faked or conjured out of thin air. The song always takes me back to the mid 1990’s when I was in continental Europe as part of the US Navy. It was that perfect time between adolescence and adulthood where it seemed like the world was in my hands. It was all too brief of course, those moments are just that – moments. But it was a moment I’ll take with me as I drift into middle age.

Outside of my own personal connection, the song resonated with multiple generations of Oasis fans. It was one of the band’s most-played songs live and is often found in the solo sets of both Gallagher brothers. People far and wide still wonder just what the hell a Champagne Supernova is.

(What’s The Story) Morning Glory saw Oasis truly conquer the music world in the mid 90’s. It is today the fifth-best selling album in the UK and only Adele has topped its sales numbers with an album since. Oasis would ride the wave as conquering heroes into a series of landmark festival shows in 1996, with two epic concerts at Knebworth being the exclamation point on their career and the Britrock movement as a whole. The band would live on until their 2009 implosion, but were unable to attain the same stratospheric heights reached with this album.

Many words have been said about Oasis and the Gallagher brothers, some reverent and some reviled. But there is no question that for a time in 1995, they changed the shape and face of music. They lost a chart battle to Blur in the beginning of the album’s release cycle, but in the end they conquered everything.

Lamb Of God – Ashes Of The Wake (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week3 Comments

This week’s AOTW pick is a classic from 2004 that saw one of metal’s rising stars reach new heights and start to secure their place as the genre’s premier act. The album is largely based thematically on the second U.S.-Iraq War and features one of the best 3-song (if not 5-song) opening album sequences ever put to record. The new gods of groove metal arrived in 2004 to headbang through the new millennium.

Lamb Of God – Ashes Of The Wake

Released August 31, 2004 via Epic Records

My Favorite Tracks – Laid To Rest, Hourglass, Now You’ve Got Something To Die For

The album leads off with Laid To Rest – a track that is one of LoG’s most popular songs to this day. The song is one of a few that doesn’t betray its meaning right away – it could be about a victim haunting their killer, as is often surmised. That same concept could play out with the album’s overall theme of looking at the U.S. Wars in the Middle East. Perhaps a “collateral damage” victim is looking for their killers.

Or, the song could simply be a damn break-up tune. That’s what it sounds like to me. There’s definitely something under there to pull that conclusion out, even if the result is quite screwed up. I don’t necessarily recommend screaming “Destroy yourself – see who gives a fuck” over and over again if you’re trying to get over somebody, but hey, it’s there if you need it.

The next few songs jump more overtly into the issue of the wars in the Middle East. Hourglass is a sharp warning of the dangers of nation-building, warnings that have largely come to pass. Now You’ve Got Something To Die For gets into the true cost of war, that being the piles of bodies wrapped in flags and dollars.

The Faded Line continues the harrowing exploration of the cost of war, this time looking at the loss of faith and connection to one’s country, vision and values. It’s a definite standout and one I can truly connect with, it’s kind of shit living in a place where I can’t connect with the ideals that so many among me are rabidly shouting in defense of.

Ashes Of The Wake goes on to explore a handful of other themes. Omerta is a clear visitation of the Mafia’s “code of silence” and the brutal consequences of violating it. There’s more political musing on One Gun, and Break You is about some specifically unidentified heavy stuff.

The album’s title track takes a different approach to outlining the horrors of war. An interview with a Marine who saw combat in Iraq presents the harsh realities of the orders the combatants were given. The song offers a handful of guitar solos, including guest shots from Testament’s Alex Skolnick and Chris Poland, formerly of Megadeth.

Lamb Of God were one of the many bands lumped into the “New Wave Of American Heavy Metal” tag in the early 00’s. That tag got a bit confusing over time and grouped many dissimilar acts together. Either way, Lamb Of God separated themselves from the pack with Ashes Of The Wake. The road ahead would see even more success and exposure for the group through the rest of the 00’s.

Body Count – Bloodlust (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week2 Comments

This week I’m grabbing one of my favorite albums from recent memory. It’s now 4 years old and it’s a record that shifted the band’s profile and also highlighted significant political issues within modern America. One song in particular from this album would get re-released as a single after massive racial tensions engulfed the country in 2020.

And yes, this post will discuss politics. It’s not always my bag and not where I want to go with my blog but it’s unavoidable when discussing this album. Deal with it, I guess.

Body Count – Bloodlust

Released March 31, 2017 via Century Media Records

My Favorite Tracks – No Lives Matter, Civil War, Here I Go Again

Body Count arrived on the scene in the early ’90’s in mega controversial fashion, as Ice T’s metal band found themselves with a banned song in the form of Cop Killer. The band would go on for years to earn a legit reputation for banging music and consistent gigging. The group went on a long hiatus before returning in the mid 2010’s with a refined focus on Manslaughter.

Bloodlust arrived in early 2017, just after a bitter political battle in 2016’s U.S. Presidential elections. Tensions were at an all-time high after the most vile and cancerous arguments presented in public forums I’ve ever seen, and this Body Count record would explore many of the issues in a manner fitting of the savage climate of the time.

I’m going track-by-track this week, as this record deserves the specific attention.

Civil War

The album begins with a mock emergency announcement, one real-sounding enough to scare people who might be within earshot. (It’s happened to me more than once). Dave Mustaine narrates an official government announcement of martial law before the song starts.

Civil War is just like it sounds – a brutal exploration of things breaking bad in America. When this album came out things were looking pretty grim here. It might seem calmer in 2021 than then but there’s still a lot of contempt and resentment for any different perspective today, so I don’t know if the threat has really dissipated.

Mustaine lends an excellent guitar solo to the track and the band slams through dystopian violence gone horribly wrong. It’s a great song but also extra unsettling due to the very real possibility that something could kick off.

The Ski Mask Way

This song sees Ice T and company explore the topic of high-profile robbery. Today’s influencer culture has people flashing their goods more than ever before and this leads to a dark subculture of those people being targeted by thieves. These aren’t the two-bit thieves who make off with your rusted Huffy bicycle at 2:00 AM, these are the pros who will do anything to get what they want.

This Is Why We Ride

One of Bloodlust‘s feature tracks discusses the real issues behind ghetto violence in America. People might complain that Ice T is rich and doesn’t have a voice in the matter, but I’d wager he knows more about the issue than some white guy filming a YouTube video in the huge truck he’s balls deep in debt on.

The song is excellent, a real standout on the record. It pairs a great guitar hook with an actual depiction of the issues truly behind street violence, stuff far deeper than most average people would ever care to explore or discuss. It’s essential listening on a record packed with great tracks and on a topic lighting fires across the country.

All Love Is Lost

This dark, heavy song of betrayal and mistrust features legendary Sepultura and Soulfly mainman Max Cavalera. Max screams along in his distinct growl to a brutal, militant pummeling as Ice T laments the loss of bonds between someone once trusted.

The accompanying music video stands out for this song. Ice T’s Law And Order SVU co-star Kelli Giddish has a go at revenge against her philandering husband. In Body Count world, revenge has an ugly finish.

Raining Blood/Postmortem

A pair of covers come next. Ice T gives a brief spoken intro where he discusses the reasons for forming Body Count and the main influences behind the music. One of those is obviously Slayer, and Body Count covers two songs from the seminal Reign In Blood. It’s an interesting take on the songs, fits the record well, and also goes to showcase Slayer’s influence on the rest of the album.

God, Please Believe Me

A brief interlude offers a lament/prayer. It’s a fitting piece that helps pause the action a bit.

Walk With Me

This song kicks straight in with guest vocals from Lamb Of God’s Randy Blythe. There always seems to be a lot of walking involved with Lamb Of God, I guess this is a muthafuckin’ invitation to hike. I don’t know.

Anyway this is another nice cut. Randy and Ice T collaborate well to another savage metal offering. This is another exploration of murder and psychosis, something Ice T has done quite a bit over the years.

Here I Go Again

This track continues the murder “ballad” exploration. This song was apparently a leftover track from Ice T’s 1996 solo album Return Of The Real. I don’t have an official citation for that but it sounds nice so let’s roll with it.

This is one sick, twisted tale of a killer on the prowl. It’s a fantastic cut and builds to a great climax where the killer attacks himself without realizing it. It’s not just a hollow, gory tale – this is some excellent storytelling set to a nice, groovy pace. It’s easily one of my favorites from the record.

No Lives Matter

The Black Lives Matter movement entered discourse in the latter part of the last decade. It started an extremely heated and divisive argument with counter-protest shouts of All Lives Matter. And on the edges, disaffected and nihilistic edgelords made memes proclaiming the inevitable No Lives Matter. Won’t lie, I shared a few of those myself.

Body Count takes the “No Lives Matter” phrase and re-purposes it for real discussion of the issues. After a spoken intro shredding apart the “All Lives Matter” response, Body Count delivers one of the most important and light-of-truth shining songs in recent memory.

No Lives Matter breaks the issues down to what it really is – divisions and hatred that distract from the true center of power and control, and the actual bottom line of it all – money. People look around and look down to find targets for their rage instead of looking up at the true source of society’s misery.

This song would find renewed prominence in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd sparked a renewed wave of protests in the midst of the pandemic and a bitter presidential election. The truth is the truth, and sadly it will probably rear its ugly head again.

Bloodlust

The album’s title track is pretty simply stated – humans like to kill. It’s a vicious, hellbent track that pounds home the twisted desire to maim and slaughter. It’s kind of hard to tell how much of it is Ice T’s fantasy musings about murder and how much is a very real examination of the ills of humankind.

Black Hoodie

The album’s closer goes again into the issues of race in America, this time shining light on police killings of black people. As Ice T says in the intro – he’s been talking about this shit for over 20 years. It isn’t a new issue, but in today’s information-saturated climate, it’s an issue that gets a lot more play than it did way back when.

Honestly, I’ll just let the song speak for itself. The issues discussed are so raw and so viciously debated that I really can’t add much to it. All I’ll say is that it feels like I live in a sick, brutal society that places no real value on human life.

Clearly Bloodlust is loaded with red hot social/political discourse and also its namesake bloodlust. The two tend to go hand-in-hand, after all. The record struck a nerve with me right away, elevating Body Count from “curiosity side project” status to one of metal’s most interesting and hard-hitting bands. I would go so far as to call Bloodlust my favorite album of the 2010’s, but there is some competition in that regard I wouldn’t hear until the decade was over.

Either way Bloodlust remains a seminal moment in music from recent memory. Everything the album discusses is still sadly in play, it’s not anything I see changing anytime soon. It’s impossible to remove the social commentary from the record, but outside of it exists a fantastic, slamming metal album. The album’s musical guests, metal legends all, add true weight to their songs and are far beyond just cursory appearances. It’s a record that is a total pleasure to listen to, even in the face of some very harsh issues facing civilization today.

Illuminati Hotties – Let Me Do One More (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week2 Comments

This week I’m going with a recent album and one from an artist I hadn’t heard of until said album’s release. I was browsing the social sites and saw a post from Consequence, Pitchfork or whatever hipster music aggregator when I saw a write-up for a new record from an act totally unfamiliar to me. Out of curiosity I pushed play and well, now here we are with a new album of the week.

Illuminati Hotties – Let Me Do One More

Released October 1, 2021 via Snack Shack Tracks/Hopeless Records

Favorite Tracks – Pool Hopping, Joni: LA’s No. 1 Health Goth, Kickflip

Illuminati Hotties is a band formed by producer and engineer Sarah Tudzin. The music could be described as along indie rock or pop punk lines (modern genre descriptors outside of metal are kind of beyond me).

Sarah and her band have already dealt with record label problems a whole two albums in and this album was a delayed release after fulfilling contractual obligations with a thrown-together effort in 2020. It’s nice to see the same old problems in the music industry take new forms all these years later.

Let Me Do One More is a fun album with a variety of songs to fit about any mood or atmosphere. Opening track Pool Hopping sets a fun and fast tone, which is carried forward with the totally copy-and-pasteable title MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA. Things turn toward the reflective and melancholy with Threatening Each Other Re: Capitalism.

The album offers a nice mixed bag of songs, showcasing a variety of styles and themes rather than honing in on one specific thing that works and running with it. It’s kind of a throwback to when more artists explored different areas of sound rather than just reinventing the same sound many times over.

There are a lot of interesting and subtle quirks about this album – from unconventional song titles and style-shifting breaks like the spoken conclusion of uvvp. It’s clear that this isn’t just a “pick up guitar and make some noise” effort – there was some clear focus on arrangement and atmosphere. I suppose that would be expected from someone who has spent time in every part of the music-making process.

In the end, Let Me Do One More is an engaging album with a lot of fun and some tunes for thought. It’s nice to find something out of my typical music circles to enjoy. Hopefully there’s much more to come from Illuminati Hotties, whatever obstacles record labels might throw in the way.

Nine Inch Nails – Broken (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week3 Comments

This week I’m heading back to the early ’90’s for my AOTW pick. This record, by definition really an EP, was one of the most formative things I’ve ever heard and it’s also a set of songs that I’m very personally connected to after all these years. I’ve talked about a few of my favorite acts in the early stages of this site but now it’s time for my first dive into another of my all-time favorites.

Nine Inch Nails – Broken

Released September 22, 1992 via Nothing Records

Favorite Tracks – Wish, Last, Gave Up

The mini album features two instrumentals – opener Pinion and Help Me I Am In Hell in the middle of the effort. Both are fine and I’m not usually bothered by instrumentals or interlude-style things but certainly they are not the main event on Broken.

The show truly kicks off with Wish – a vicious, heavy as hell trip through self-hatred that wound up winning a Grammy in 1993 for Best Metal Performance. It was my first real introduction to the band as I didn’t remember much of the debut Pretty Hate Machine but I was primed and ready for NIN when Wish hit MTV. It’s easily one of my favorite songs from NIN and just songs overall.

Last is next and is another splendid take on self-dejection and the disposable nature of humanity. The pounding riff is superb and there are some fantastic lyrics in the song – “my lips may promise but my heart is a whore” being chief among them.

Happiness In Slavery hits with some crazy stuff about bondage or whatever. I certainly wasn’t in tune with what the song was talking about when I was 15. Regardless I still dig the track, there’s a shade more melody to it than the rest of the EP while still retaining the depths of heaviness found elsewhere.

The proper portion of Broken ends on another angst-ridden, depressive song that I consider a total masterwork. Gave Up is a sonic pummeling and some of the most messed up lyrics ever to be found in any mainstream music release. Trent Reznor masks some of his vocals in an almost black metal wail but the message of utter hopelessness is still conveyed in full measure.

The EP concludes with two bonus tracks – a cover of Adam Ant’s Physical and a quasi-cover of Pigface’s Suck. Reznor was a member of Pigface when Suck was originally recorded so it’s more of his own rendition of the song than a cover per se.

The physical album release provides some interesting trivia. The original CD release offered Physical and Suck on a 3-inch bonus mini CD. Both original and reissued versions of the vinyl have those songs on a separate 7-inch record. I think I had the normal CD way back when with the two extra songs tacked on after a lot of hidden silent tracks, kind of a thing in ’90’s CD releases.

I won’t get too much into it but there was also a film for Broken that was, let’s just say, flat out disgusting. I never saw the whole thing but bits I did watch were pretty messed up. Most of Wish made it onto MTV but the band apparently had to edit part of the video’s end out. I guess it’s not hard to get a DVD-quality version of the entire film on the ‘Net today but honestly that sort of snuff or whatever isn’t my gig so I don’t mess with it.

The three songs I mentioned as my favorites at the start – Wish, Last and Gave up – do hold pretty high personal connections with me. They are interwoven at multiple points in my life and mean different things depending on specifically what was up. It could be old friends who fell away, exes I should have never messed with in the first place, terrible heartbreak or just good old fashioned self-loathing and lack of worth. A copy of Broken is far cheaper than therapy, but I’m guessing that the album is also not anyone’s definition of self-care. I don’t know, I just roll with it.

Broken was a major shift for Nine Inch Nails in 1992 and would herald the magnum opus that was to come a few years later. But this EP itself is one of the high points of an extensive catalog of masterful recordings. Trent Reznor joined the likes of Ministry and others in a pursuit of dark, industrial metal and crafted an excellent, soul-crushing EP that was perhaps too dark for anyone’s good but would still go on to platinum sales status. It’s been one of the most valued and most important musical works in my life, and it’s definitely on my list of music I’d have to have on desert island.

W.A.S.P. (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week2 Comments

There’s no real huge occasion for this week’s pick other than I recently scored a sweet copy of this on vinyl at my local record shop. Let’s head back to 1984 for one of rock and metal’s best debut albums.

W.A.S.P. – self-titled

Released August 17, 1984 via Capitol Records

Favorite Tracks – I Wanna Be Somebody, The Flame, The Torture Never Stops

WASP weren’t messing around with this collection of sleaze and riffage. The band had already made a name for themselves with raunchy, over-the-top theatrics on stage prior to their debut album drop. The band and album shocked and awed their way to rock stardom in the down and dirty prime of the 1980’s.

The album would court controversy before its release. The intended first single Animal (Fuck Like A Beast) drew the ire of watchdog groups, including the Parent’s Resource Music Center. The infamous PMRC, a collection of senators’ wives who were busybodies with nothing better to do, decided to try and moralize music. Their list of the “Filthy Fifteen” songs included WASP’s first-ever single. As a result, the band’s label decided to drop the song from the album. Of course, as with much that the PMRC lamented back then, both the album and the banned song would become highly sought after. Thank you, PMRC, for letting us know where to look for music.

If you were to pick up this CD in a shop or look this up on Spotify, you will find Animal in its place as the album’s lead track. In 1998 the album was reiussed, both restoring Animal and adding two bonus tracks. I’m personally not a huge fan of bonus tracks on the original portion of a reissued album – I’d rather things be kept separate from the known recording. But in this case I’m happy to have Animal on the reissue and honestly I’m more used to it at this point than I was without it. In contrast, the vinyl I picked up awhile back is an original press and doesn’t have it.

And yes I do like the song Animal. It’s not the best on the album but it’s a cool tune. I think the uproar over it was more funny than anything and was mainly due to the naughty word in the sub-title. It’s a bit of interesting lore and trivia from back when people tried to play morality police with popular music. Even more tidbit trivia – Blackie Lawless refuses to play the song live anymore due to his personal beliefs. Odd, but there’s enough of a WASP back catalog to not need it I suppose.

Animal is just one song though. This album is loaded with killer selections from rock and metal’s prime. Album opener by default I Wanna Be Somebody is a classic, one of the band’s most celebrated tracks. I know I’ve been there and many others likely have after a miserable grind at an unfulfilling job – I wanna freaking be somebody. Alas, we press on, lost to time and without the fame and notoriety of Blackie.

The album’s closer hits on a similar issue – The Torture Never Stops is totally about work. The band’s image from back then might lead a person to think that the song is some dark S&M romp but nah, that shit’s about work. It’s something darker and more hardcore than any sex dungeon could ever be (unless that is your job, I dunno).

Inbetween is a selection of all killer, no filler cuts. And also a lot of spelling things out with periods – L.O.V.E. Machine, B.A.D., hell the band name W.A.S.P. C’mon, this is kind of annoying to type out. But the songs are worth the suffering.

Sleeping (In The Fire) is a nice ballad-like track that sees the band set down the shred and offer some melody while still bringing the power. Tormentor and On Your Knees bring more of the hard and sleazy sound that WASP would become known for. And School Daze knocks the hallowed “class life” that was such a huge thing in America and a natural point of rebellion for many of the nation’s youth.

WASP’s debut album marked the beginning of a legacy that walked lines between hair, glam, shock rock and true heavy metal. Chris Holmes would become a guitar idol even in the midst of a less-than-savory portrayal on film a few years later. And band leader Blackie Lawless has left a very complicated legacy in his wake, but in the context of this debut album there is no disputing the power and prestige.

I did grow up in a semi-sheltered home but honestly my parents never really messed with my music much. But this album was one I kept hidden from plain sight – I knew the reputation WASP had and I wasn’t going to risk having this gem ripped away from me in the name of protecting my fragile psyche from this raw, primal power. Now that I’m all grown up I can freely play Fuck Like A Beast all I want.

WASP’s debut album was a metal classic and would start the band on a path to some unique and rocking albums throughout the ’80’s. The band truly cemented their place as one of hard rock and metal’s defining acts in a crowded era, and they crossed subgenres and defied categorization with an intense, well-executed set of songs that brought rapt attention from an eager fanbase. Blackie Lawless could wear a Skil Saw as a codpiece all he wants, but at the end of the day he and the band brought the tunes to back that brash sort of theatrics off.

Wraith – Undo The Chains (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week1 Comment

Back around 2005 something interesting happened in the metal underground. A thrash revival kicked off, with a new generation of bands either paying homage to the sounds of the 1980’s or taking the sound in new directions. Thrash may have suffered along with metal as a whole in the ’90’s but it came back strong a decade later.

The curious thing about this thrash resurgence is that it really hasn’t ended after 16 years. It didn’t come on then flame out like many pop retro movements do – instead it hung around, with many of the bands responsible now elder statesmen of their own scene, while newer acts emerge to this day to keep thrash alive.

Wraith is one such band plying their trade in thrash circles. Formed in 2016, this American outfit have already had several descriptors thrown on them – speed, punk, thrash, and the noted pre-suffix “blackened-” have all been used in attempts to sum up what these guys are up to. And a few weeks ago they released a new effort that has captured the attention of many in the metal realm.

Wraith – Undo The Chains

Released September 24, 2021 via Redefining Darkness Records

Favorite Tracks – Gatemaster, Mistress Of The Void, Disgusting

I hadn’t heard Wraith, or even of them, until the album’s release. Undo The Chains was getting traction in discussion on Twitter so I looked it up and gave it a spin. It wasn’t hard to get straight into as the band offer 12 songs in a lean 32 minutes. I’ve been on a kick of very ponderous and atmospheric stuff this year so finding an antidote to that has been very nice.

The album’s title-track intro serves as a set-up for what’s to come – dirty, pounding thrash that doesn’t take a note off and drives the point home like a nail gun. This isn’t going to be an exercise in experimentation or atmosphere, this is going to stomp from start to finish.

Wraith bill themselves as “no bullshit speed and thrash,” and that is exactly what is presented on Undo The Chains. There are no acoustic intros or time signature-altering interludes – this just goes from start to finish in a down and dirty, headbanging good time. Thrash and musical technicality can and do go together well, but there’s no need for it here. The album just goes straight for the throat and hangs on for its lean playtime.

It’s all pretty simple – if you like thrash, check this album out. It’s a whole half hour of your time. Any more words I spend talking about it would just be pointless exercises in vomiting exposition and aren’t worth the effort. If you don’t like thrash, you probably aren’t reading this paragraph.

Metal has been around a very long time and the scene still runs strong. Wraith are proof positive that this shit isn’t going to end anytime soon. Calling Undo The Chains simple would be a disservice, but calling it uncomplicated and straight to the point gets more at the matter. Crack open a cold one, turn it up to 11, and let the whole neighborhood jam out to Wraith.

Emma Ruth Rundle – On Dark Horses (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week3 Comments

Sometimes I don’t get to things right away in music. Ok, sometimes I don’t get to things right away at all. But hey, this is about the music so let’s keep on topic.

I’ve often been very guilty of not checking things out in a timely fashion. It is easier than ever to explore unheard artists through streaming platforms, YouTube, etc. And social media offers more music recommendations than a person could ever really keep up with.

And maybe that’s the problem – there’s too much. Too many artists, too many scenes, too much information. It is a problem in this day and age and it has some pretty brutal consequences sometimes. But again, this is just about the music, I’m not gonna deep-dive on some philosophical tangent about society.

Anyway, I’ve seen the name Emma Ruth Rundle around for a few years, I guess since the album I’m about to discuss came out. I first actually heard her in 2020 on her collaboration album with sludge lords Thou, May Our Chambers Be Full. I thought that was pretty cool stuff but 2020 was a psycho year for me and I didn’t have a lot of spare time to explore ERR any further.

Then earlier this year I finally found myself blessed with some spare time and a willingness to explore more artists that I hadn’t been in the right space to give a chance to previously. I drifted over to Spotify, saw the kind of cute/funny cover to this album, and pushed play.

Emma Ruth Rundle – On Dark Horses

Released September 14, 2018 via Sargent House Records

Favorite Tracks – Dead Set Eyes, Darkhorse, Fever Dreams

Holy shit, man. Holy shit.

I’ve had several landmark moments of artist and album discovery in the past. But I’ll be honest – I thought those days were behind me. I’ve heard plenty of awesome stuff over the past years but I haven’t really been hit by an album since 2007. I had figured those days were behind me and I was just going to drift along until oblivion on a nostalgia kick, as though the magic was dead and my golden age was over.

But nah, here I am again.

On Dark Horses is an absolute masterpiece. The sometimes harrowing, other times triumphant lyrics wrapped in a light/harsh contrast study soundscape is just a whole other world of music than what I normally listen to. This is definitely its own thing and exists purely outside most musical descriptors, well, besides stuff like amazing or spectacular.

For this week I’m going to take the album track-by-track, that’s a little easier for me when tackling something I’ve come into more recently.

Fever Dreams

The album opener just goes straight into how things are going to be for the next forty minutes. This song sounds exactly like what its title suggests – a fever dream. The music flows with dissonant melody while Emma’s lyrics convey the delirium and loss of reality associated with the subject matter. The song is a standout on an album full of choice songs.

Control

This song lets the music do the talking. The vocals kind of blend in to the battle between noise and light going on with the guitars. It has a shoegaze vibe to it, which would be familiar ground for ERR. But overall it’s a war of sounds that we are all winners in.

Darkhorse

One of the album’s highlight cuts, Darkhorse is a steady march toward a powerful, triumphant conclusion. Emma has discussed some of the very personal meaning behind this song in interviews. I’ll leave that sort of stuff alone since I can gather that it’s pretty deep stuff and I’m far too uninformed to offer some opinion on it.

But this song? Yeah it’s stellar. This quasi-title track is an open advertisement for how amazing this whole album is. There are some powerful lyrics in here – “smile like you mean it and just cast the light of Hell right out of here” is a gem of wordsmithing. Unlike the aural assault of Control, Darkhorse’s music contains its power and complements the vocals.

Races

We get to the album’s halfway point with a chill vibe kind of song. I wouldn’t say it meanders but it does drift along toward a celebration of the night. Having been a night owl for a lot of the past 20 years I can dig it. Even now that I’m back in total daywalker mode I can still appreciate what’s going on here. It’s a smooth, gently-flowing tune that helps balance the sometimes heavy shit going on lyrically.

Dead Set Eyes

As for that “sometimes heavy shit,” here it is. Emma has said that this song is about her leaving Los Angeles. Well, I don’t know what happened there but damn it must’ve been big.

This song leapt out at me when I first played the album. Lyrically soul-crushing and sonically monstrous, it’s the perfect song to get a metalhead on board with ERR. It’s my favorite song from the record and honestly just one of the best songs I’ve ever heard, period. Nothing else I write about it will do it any justice.

Light Song

This tune is another slow and steady march on to something. This time it’s a love song and it’s very well done. As the immortal Paris Hilton would say, “that’s hot.”

There are more songs about love than probably any other topic. It’s not my main cup of tea – to be honest, other than 80’s hair metal anthems, I’m not much of a love song guy. Most of my music collection deals with war, death and Satan.

But this is a fantastic opus about being into it with someone. The imagery of going into the water works well with the heavy yet flowing riff. It’s a different take on a love ballad and a very welcome one.

Apathy On The Indiana Border

This track is a more gently rolling musical number, quite atmospheric in nature as the riffs hang in the background. The title would indicate the song is about apathy but the density of some of the lyrics might obfuscate any clear message.

I decided to go straight to the source for this one and pull up a 2020 interview with Kerrang! Magazine where Emma explains the song.

“This song took so long to write, and I still kind of hate it! Lyrically, it’s about having the intense presence of apathy following you through your life. It’s about the manifestation of inaction, and not being able to feel or do anything. It still feels somehow unnatural to me when I perform it.”

I do get that. Indifference can be a blessing or a curse, depending on circumstance. It’s at times useful but it’s an obstacle and perhaps crippling other times. I’ve had my own dance with that over time and even today I can cop to that being a factor.

As for the song I don’t agree with Emma’s assessment – I think it’s a fantastic tune, gliding along while the opaque lyrical content flows along with it.

You Don’t Have To Cry

This intense album closes on a somber, sweet number that delivers an antidote to some of the heavier stuff conjured earlier in the tracklist. There is a lot going on lyrically which I don’t entirely pick up, but I take the song at face value as a nice way to close out a monster of a record.

On Dark Horses became an instant classic in my music library and has resonated with many people since its 2018 release. I could say that I regret not checking it out when it first hit. But, given the very screwed up nature of the past few years, maybe holding off on it wasn’t the worst idea. It was an album that certainly helped ease the tension of pandemic trauma and political discord ravaging the world today. I certainly can’t complain about having it around when I needed it, that’s for sure.

Of course this album is not Emma’s only one. Exploring her other projects and other solo releases has been an absolute pleasure. And in about a month she will release a new solo album, one with an apparently different style and direction than found here or even elsewhere in her catalog. Even without the benefit of years of hindsight, I can state without reservation that Emma Ruth Rundle is one of the best artists I’ve ever heard.