Category: Song Of The Week

Megadeth – I Don’t Care

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It is Thanksgiving here in the United States and today I’d like to give thanks for having a few days off of my damn job and also for this new Megadeth song to dig into.

I Don’t Care was thrust upon the world a few weeks back on November 14th. Thanks to the aforementioned job, I am just now getting to making a post about it. The song hails from the self-titled album due to arrive on January 23rd, 2026. This is slated to be the final Megadeth record.

This song is the upcoming album’s second single and this one caused quite a stir when it hit. The song is a snarling, punk-based track that recalls the early influences of thrash while still very much being a 2025 Megadeth song. It is an interesting combination of styles, with the punk-rooted ethos combining with the clinical precision that typically defines Megadeth. The production strays clearly on the side of Megadeth’s typical sound, which might detract a bit from the punk edge but I do think it works well enough for a Megapunk song 40 years into the band’s career. And, regardless of the song’s tone and style, we do get a fair few guitar solos even in this fairly brief jaunt that just touches 3 minutes.

The lyrics here are extremely simple, it’s basically just a chorus of “I don’t care” about various things as well as a short, quietly almost-rapped verse that says quite a few bad things about someone. While the target of Dave Mustaine’s diatribe is unknown, many speculate that it might be a prominent ex-member of Megadeth. I don’t know and I’ll leave it at that until or unless more information becomes known later.

This song caused a fair bit of chatter when it was released. Some enjoyed it and others found things to dislike, whether it was the Megadeth style clashing with the more raw punk theme or the lyrics that aren’t the most mature that Mustaine has ever offered up. I personally enjoyed the song, I don’t have a problem with the slight stylistic departure from typical Megadeth. While the band’s stock in trade has usually been clockwork precision and massive amounts of guitar solos, I think it’s fair for Dave and company to branch out a bit, especially this far in and on the swansong album.

I also very much don’t care if the lyrics aren’t profound existential statements. While I enjoy plenty of metal that does have a more intellectual sheen to it and Megadeth has been a band to offer that up at times, I am also quite fine with heavy riffs and caveman bullshit coming out of someone’s mouth. A song called I Don’t Care doesn’t need to usher in a philosophical thesis, it’s allowed to be dumb. This to me isn’t so bad that it needs to be sneered upon, it’s simply fitting a theme and some songs can be fun and dumb.

I am on board the I Don’t Care train, and I’m looking forward to this album’s arrival in the dead of winter early next year. And even if I wasn’t, I am quite sure that Dave doesn’t care.

At The Gates – Windows

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A bit of a quick one today to pay futher tribute to Tomas Lindberg. Today’s song is a cut from At The Gates’ debut album The Red In The Sky Is Ours, released in 1992.

Windows is the album’s fifth song. Nothing was released as a single, this was the band’s very early days and everyone was running on shoestring budgets. Band members have retroactively lamented the album’s production due to those financial constraints and having a producer that was not familiar with heavy metal. While I do agree that production here does leave something to be desired, it’s an album I can still get through and enjoy. Many of the underground metal albums of the early 90’s did not have the best in sonic technology.

The music of Windows was composed by guitarist Anders Björler. The lyrics were penned by vocalist Tomas Lindberg and are, at their simplest, about someone going insane. There is possibly more to it, as the song might be a eulogy for Per Yngve Ohlin, aka Dead, the singer of black metal band Mayhem until his suicide in 1991. Dead’s suicide brought a ton of attention to Mayhem and many were on hand for the wild and infamous ride that the second wave of black metal would go on during the early 1990’s.

I do not know if Lindberg was singing about Dead here, the lyrics do indicate it could be so, but I can’t readily find any actual sources corroborating this. It has been a widespread rumor for years and perhaps there’s some long lost interview with Lindberg that confirms this theory. But for the purposes of this brief post I’ll have to leave it as a loose thread.

Windows is a very heavy, crushing track that fits its disturbing subject matter. The song became an early favorite of fans and endured as one of the band’s signature tracks, even after the career and genre-defining Slaughter Of The Soul was released in 1995. Windows does have placements on a few live sets both audio and video, and is also a live bonus track on the band’s 1994 album Terminal Spirit Disease.

While we wait rather sadly for the final At The Gates album to feature Tomas Lindberg, it is nice to go back to the beginning and hear At The Gates crushing it right out of the, uh, gate. From very humble beginnings, At The Gates shaped the blueprint for metal that would come for decades afterward.

Sponge – Plowed

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So I took another unscheduled break, once again due purely to laziness as opposed to any tangible event. It seems like when I get days off from holidays or whatever that I wind up writing less. Oh well, I need to get back to it as I have a huge week upcoming so I’ll do a quick go-over of this song that popped back in my head recently after a long layoff.

Sponge came around in the mid 1990’s, they got their break not terribly long after forming in 1992 in Michigan. The band did form out of the remains of a few other acts so the group was fairly seasoned and ready to go, which might help explain their fairly quick rise.

The band released their debut album Rotting Pinata in 1994, and that’s where today’s song comes from. Plowed was the second single released from the album and was the song that put the band into public visibility. The album went gold in 1995 after Sponge grabbed attention with Plowed and the follow-up single Molly (Sixteen Candles). Plowed was the band’s biggest hit, landing at 41 on the Billboard Hot 100, scoring at 9 on the Album Rock Chart and 5 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.

Plowed is a force of a song, with a classic hard rock backbone but also perfectly slotting into the burgeoning alternative rock scene of the time. It goes hard enough that a person could about headbang to it but it’s also smooth and perfectly fitting with the rock scene at the time. I know I hadn’t heard it in a long time when I pressed play on it awhile back and the song installed itself into my head, just as it did way back in ’94.

Lyrically this one is about just going on with your life, no matter what is going on around you. Things are messed up, probably now more than ever, and all you can do is just plow through and face reality. While a fair bit of alternative rock could be obtuse or even just plain full of shit lyrically, Sponge were fairly straightforward with their song concepts. And the title is apparently literal – singer Vinnie Dombroski came up with the words while shoveling snow in his driveway.

This is one of those songs that really takes a person right back to the moment in time when it was released. This is quintessential 1990’s right here, I definitely get a jolt of nostalgia when I hear it. Maybe part of it is just how long it’s been but I do think this song is a true signpost of the mid-90’s.

Plowed has appeared in a number of movies, TV shows and video games over the years. Perhaps its most fitting placement is in the 1995 flick Empire Records. The song is one of many that are in the film but not on the album’s soundtrack. While Empire Records didn’t light the world on fire when it came out, it is looked back on now as another totem of the 1990’s and I certainly regard it as a landmark of that time.

While Sponge had their “moment in the sun” during the mid 1990’s, the band has kept on through to this day, with singer Vinnie Dombroski being the long original member still around. I did discover that their most recent album is a very curious one and it’s something I’ll give a look at here in a few weeks. But for today it’s all about remembering the long-past times of 1994 and ’95 and the buzz of memories this excellent track provides. If there was a playlist or compilation record of songs that define that time period, Sponge would absolutely place on it and Plowed is a fair choice for that slot.

For reasons unclear, there isn’t an official version of the music video on YouTube. I have an unofficial copy posted above, I’ll also include the official audio only version below in case the first video does a disappearing act.

Next week will be a busy one here, as this weekend sees the release of Spinal Tap II – The End Continues. I will have my thoughts on both the movie and the soundtrack as I get back into the swing of updating once again.

Black Sabbath – War Pigs

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My tribute week (and a half) to Ozzy Osbourne wraps up with this post. Today I’ll discuss one of Black Sabbath’s most significant songs, perhaps their most profound and noted work.

In 1970 Black Sabbath released two albums – their self-titled debut, and the breakout hit record Paranoid. The latter has a whole story behind its name which directly relates to today’s song, so of course we’ll get into it.

Sabbath originally had the framework for a song they were going to call Walpurgis, which is some kind of pagan or witch’s sabbath. The record label was not cool with the name so they changed the song’s name to War Pigs. The band’s intent was also to name the album the same thing, so they devised a cover photo with someone dressed (loosely) as a pig, with a sword to indicate war-inclined thoughts, I guess.

The record label again intervened, this time because a quickly-recorded single from the record had gained a ton of traction and the label wanted the album named after that song. The record was rechristened Paranoid, but the band were stuck with the odd sword guy on the cover because there wasn’t enough time for a different concept.

Everything worked out in the end – Paranoid the album became the band’s breakthrough hit and also their signature record. Paranoid the song was the band’s biggest hit single, and War Pigs became a foundational track of heavy metal on its own.

The song opens with a plodding duel between Geezer Butler’s bass and Tony Iommi’s guitar, with Geezer anchoring the proceedings. Air raid sirens come in to generate the war atmosphere being discussed here. It’s a very effective intro for setting the tone.

The song delivers three verses without any sort of chorus or deviation. These feature short bursts of Bill Ward’s drumming with Iommi and Butler going on their own paths while Ozzy offers up the dark lyrics conflating warmongering politicians with evil and Satan. Each verse is broken up by jam-style pounding, fitting since the song was conceived out of jams the band used to do to fill time in sets in their early days.

The coupling of war-motivated politicians and evil was the original goal of lyricist Geezer Butler. Anti-war sentiment was huge around this time, as the US had mistakenly involved itself in Vietnam while UK residents were fearful of being dragged into it. Sabbath members have offered up differing opinions of just how much Vietnam played in the song’s conception – Butler considered it a central point, while Osbourne felt this was more just a general anti-war song. But there’s no denying War Pigs has a connection to the Vietnam era.

War Pigs caught fire with the crowds around the world also concerned about warmongering and became an immortal hit despite not being released as a single. The song has gone on to be one of the most covered tracks in history, both within heavy metal and beyond. It is often cited near the top of countless best of Black Sabbath lists as well as heavy metal and rock offerings. The song did not chart originally due to not being a single, but Black Sabbath’s final tour in the 2010’s did see War Pigs dance around the UK charts, and it again showed up after Ozzy’s death a few weeks ago.

War Pigs is one of heavy metal’s greatest treasures. The song has withstood the shift of time and generations to become immortalized in the collective conscious, both as an anti-war protest and as a heavy metal masterpiece. It is a true crown jewel in the legacy of heavy metal’s most iconic band, Black Sabbath.

This post concludes my Ozzy Osbourne tribute. There will be more Ozzy posts in the future, of course, but next week I will get up to some other stuff. There are a few unusual posts next Monday and Wednesday, one a commemoration and the other a hilarious story I was just made aware of last week. ‘Till then.

Ozzy Osbourne – Mama I’m Coming Home

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For the next week I’ll run several posts as a tribute to the late, great Ozzy Osbourne. I will continue covering Ozzy-related stuff next week, but I’m doing this all off the cuff so I don’t know exactly what form everything will take. You’ll find out just after I do!

Today I’ll get into the song that became Ozzy’s most successful single. We all know that Crazy Train is ubiquitous with Ozzy and is his most-recognized track, but it was Mama, I’m Coming Home that took the highest chart position of Ozzy’s solo career.

This well-known and loved ballad came to form on the 1991 album No More Tears. The album is often cited as one of Ozzy’s best, he and his music partners did a marvelous job of retooling for the 1990’s and offering up an album that was heavy and real. The songs were MTV and radio staples, and are still in rotation over 30 years later.

The song was composed by Ozzy and Zakk Wylde. The lyrics were written by Lemmy Kilminster, one of four lyrical contributions he made to No More Tears. Lemmy stated many times that he made more money from Mama, I’m Coming Home than he did from his career in Motörhead.

This ballad granted Ozzy his only solo Billboard Top 40 single, it peaked at number 28. His only other entries higher on the singles charts were collaborations with Lita Ford and Post Malone. The single also hit number 2 on the Mainstream Rock chart and was certified platinum in Canada.

Today’s song is a ballad, but one with a lot of power behind it. The song begins with some clean picking from Zakk Wylde and Ozzy ruminating through the first verse before the full band kicks in and delivers a fair bit of heft for what is considered such a tender ballad. Ozzy sings very powerfully here and the chorus soars along with the keyboard enhancements.

Lyrically this is a pretty dense and tough affair. The song is Ozzy’s lament to Sharon, who put up with a lot of Ozzy’s shit. The years just before No More Tears had some especially bad moments, but Sharon stuck with her husband through it all. The years following this song and album would be much better for the couple, both personally and professionally.

Mama, I’m Coming Home had two videos filmed for it. The first one was weird and Ozzy did not like it at all, so they went back and filmed the far more familiar second cut. The original is also really, really hard to find – my digging has not turned up a version that I could post here, so I won’t bother.

This song took a special place at Ozzy’s final show on July 5th in Birmingham. The Back To Beginning concert featured a slew of acts inspired by Ozzy and Black Sabbath, as well as brief sets from Ozzy’s solo outfit and Sabbath. Mama, I’m Coming Home was the only song played in Ozzy’s five song set that was not from the Blizzard Of Ozz album. The song’s performance was very emotional for many and clips of the performance have been among the show’s most-viewed highlights.

And of course now the song takes on a whole new meaning, as on July 22nd Ozzy truly did go home for the final time. While we are left without the powerful voice and simple charm of Ozzy Osbourne, his legacy is immortal and is etched in his songs, perhaps none more fitting of the end of the line than this sweet and somber ballad.

Judas Priest – War Pigs

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The Back To The Beginning event on July 5th in England was a historic send-off for Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath. The show took place in Birmingham, Sabbath’s hometown. My write-up of the show can be found here.

While Birmingham is where Black Sabbath hail from, Sabbath aren’t the only heavy metal institution from the area. This city is also where Judas Priest were founded, giving Birmingham the “home of heavy metal” moniker.

It would have been a natural fit for Judas Priest to appear at Back To The Beginning, but scheduling conflicts sadly kept that from happening. Priest had already agreed to appear at another landmark show – the Scorpions held their 60th anniversary concert in Hannover, Germany on the same evening as the Black Sabbath gig, and Priest were opening for the Scorpions. Former guitarist K.K. Downing was on hand for the Ozzy event, and Judas Priest sent in a video message honoring Ozzy and Sabbath.

As an additional gift of sorts, Priest also surprise released a cover of Black Sabbath’s seminal War Pigs on July 2nd. War Pigs is one of Sabbath’s top songs, as evidenced by the song’s placement as the opener at the group’s final gig. It is also the song Judas Priest have used as stage “walk-on” music for several years now.

Not that there was any doubt, but Judas Priest execute War Pigs in massive fashion. This sounds spectacular – The band is tight and this has a huge and heavy feel to it. This sounds just as War Pigs should with no huge deviations or embellishments, but also has an extra kick in the ass from a Judas Priest group that has been insanely fresh and vital sounding in their later years.

It was a total bummer that Judas Priest were unable to make the gig honoring Ozzy and Sabbath. The bands have long had a close relationship, to the degree that Rob Halford is actually a former Black Sabbath singer. Rob filled in under emergency conditions twice for Sabbath – he did two shows in 1992 when then-Sabbath singer Ronnie James Dio refused to perform, and then in 2004 Halford filled in when Ozzy was ill.

While Black Sabbath’s legacy is now likely sealed for good, Judas Priest are still kicking with no discernible end in sight. It is nice to have this memento that commemorates Sabbath’s metal immortality from another of heavy metal’s greatest practitioners.

Lamb Of God – Children Of The Grave

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Back on Saturday the 5th we had the Back To The Beginning concert, which was the final live bow for Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath. I have a huge post detailing that event here. Today I want to get into a song performed both live at the show and also released in digital studio form afterward in a bit of a surprise freebie.

Lamb Of God were one of the many acts to perform a min-set at the event. The band played their two most beloved songs, Laid To Rest and Redneck, then offered up a cover of Black Sabbath’s treasured song Children Of The Grave. It’s a song that easily could have been in Sabbath’s own set, but Ozzy had to power through both his own solo material and then the Sabbath portion so they kept things a bit shorter.

Much is made of Black Sabbath’s influence on heavy metal and here with Lamb Of God we have a case that illustrates just how long the timeline is. Lamb Of God formed in 1994 (originally known as Burn The Priest) and are now 31 years into their career. They took time to honor Sabbath, who just wrapped up 57 years in the business.

This is a faithful rendition of the original, it does a good job of retaining what makes the original work while also “sounding” like Lamb Of God. The song does suit Lamb Of God very well anyway, with the chug-a-long rhythm working great with LoG’s groove metal blueprint. It’s also interesting to hear vocalist Randy Blythe do more singing than growling here, it’s not something you get everyday.

Heavy metal covers of Black Sabbath songs are a dime a dozen, it’s pretty logical that many bands cover the band at the root of metal. But Lamb Of God offered up a very nice cover of one of Sabbath’s best songs and it commemorates the special event of Ozzy’s retirement wondefully.

Ozzy Osbourne – Bark At The Moon

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This coming weekend will feature the final performance of Ozzy Osbourne, an event I intend to cover next week. With that I figured I’d get into a song of his as a taster for the weekend.

Bark At The Moon was the title track from Ozzy’s third album, released in 1983. It was also the album’s lead single. The song hit number 21 in the UK and 12 on the US Album Rock Tracks chart. The album would go on to sell over 3 million copies in the US.

The road to Bark At The Moon was not smooth. In 1982, beloved guitarist Randy Rhodes tragically died in a small plane accident with Ozzy looking on. Ozzy would cycle through a few guitarists to replace Rhodes on tour, but later decided on Jake E. Lee for the album. There are some crazy stories from this time, one being how George Lynch was initially hired for the role and was then unceremoniously cast aside in favor of Lee. Another is Jake Lee’s royalty situation – he and Bob Daisley were forced to take buyouts on the album to hand all songwriting credits over to Ozzy. There is of course more to those stories but those are for another time.

Though the loss of Randy Rhodes is immeasurable, Ozzy would be off to the races with Jake E. Lee. Bark At The Moon features plenty of kinetic guitar work, keeping it in line with the guitar god legacy established on the first two Ozzy solo albums. Lee was certainly able to put his stamp on things, even if he didn’t receive songwriting credit for the work he did.

The music video features Ozzy committed to an asylum and being pursued by a werewolf. It’s goofy for sure but pretty fitting of the song and of MTV in those early years. One funny bit of trivia – Carmine Appice appears in the video as the drummer, though it was Tommy Aldridge who played on the album. Appice did not have a long stint in Ozzy’s band – he was dismissed and Aldridge returned for the rest of the tour.

One final bit of lore – Bark At The Moon features in a video game I bring up a lot, it being my favorite of all time – Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Well, at least it did feature for awhile. It was on the original Playstation 2 release of the game. After some time Sony Records had a series of disputes about licensing, and Bark At The Moon was removed from the game’s many re-releases over the years. It was a nice addition to the V-Rock metal station and I do miss driving around Vice City with it blaring on the car stereo.

So all these years later we come to the end of Ozzy’s career, at least in live performances. Jake E. Lee is slated to perform at the event – the specifics of his performance are unknown and it’s very unlikely he’ll play alongside Ozzy. Whatever the case, we should get a fitting final rendition to close out one of rock and metal’s craziest careers.

Castle Rat – Wizard

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Today we have something brand spanking new on offer. Castle Rat are a newer band on the scene and have made a bit of a name for themselves with their fantasy imagery and theatrical live shows. Today’s song Wizard is the first offering from their upcoming album The Bestiary, which is due on September 19th. This is the group’s second record, following last year’s Into The Realm.

Now, the thing about writing this is that I don’t know much of anything about Castle Rat. I hadn’t heard of them until this video popped up in my YouTube feed the other day. I have found out that the band is from New York and that they formed in 2019. The band uses pseudonyms for their credits but their real names are also out there, the stage names are apparently for added flair and not an identity concealment device. And that is about all I know, beyond the album information in the first paragraph. But we do have a song and video to dig into, so let’s do that.

Castle Rat are employing the tried and true doom metal/stoner rock formula here. It isn’t purely doom, though – there’s a fair bit of NWOBHM influence thrown in here. This is definitely a sound straight from the old times, not something merely built upon that. The production grants a decidedly retro feel as well. I’m not a knob geek by any means but I am curious what methods were implemented to achieve the old school feel on this.

The vibes from yesteryear don’t stop with the music. The video is a throwback to days of yore as well. Castle Rat stick with fantasy themes and the song’s battle with a wizard plays out in vintage fashion here. Sure it’s cheesy and goofy, but it’s done in a tone that can also be taken seriously. I’m sure Castle Rat, as an emerging band, do no t have unlimited access to money. But it’s plain to see that the video was filmed intentionally, it is not an old-school metal video that looks the way it does because the band’s budget was a six pack of Old Milwaukee.

So here we have Castle Rat in all their glory, openly wielding their swords and fantasy influence and playing metal so old-school that even old people think it’s old. While the band do have some detractors, it seems a fair few are enjoying what they see and hear. There’s nothing “original” or innovative here, but if that’s all anyone listened to we’d all only listen to the same six albums. Sounding good and being entertaining is quite enough, as entertainment is the point of all this, and Castle Rat have that down.

I know I will have my Dungeons and Dragons books and dice ready for the new album later this year, and hopefully I’ll be able to catch their signature live act at some point down the line. Wizard is a promising offering from Castle Rat, who seem poised to gain a fair bit of buzz in 2025.

Bolt Thrower – When Cannons Fade

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Today I’ll actually look at something from the 21st Century for once and also have a look at what, in general, stands as the final recorded track of one of death metal’s most legendary acts.

Bolt Thrower got their start in England in 1986. From then to 2015 the band cut a blistering course through extreme metal with eight albums entirely centered around the concept of war. In 2005 the band released Those Once Loyal, which stands as Bolt Thrower’s final album, though at the time the band’s demise was not at all known.

Many extreme metal acts don’t sell enough to be concerned about charts and certifications. But this album did crack the German 100, coming it at 76.

When Cannons Fade is the final track on Those Once Loyal. There are some versions of the album with a bonus track, but in most cases this standard edition would be considered the definitive tracklisting, so we’ll just go ahead and call this Bolt Thrower’s final song. That’s of course purely a matter of sequencing and may not reflect how the album was recorded at all, but it is our listening experience when the album is played in order so it’s fair to go with this concept.

Today’s song is mid-paced though perhaps on the quicker end, with a consistent and grinding rhythm throughout. We get some flashy guitar work in spots, as is common with death metal. Lyrically the song is very much about its title – the artillery rains down and then is done, leaving a scorched earth behind. The memories of the insane shell pounding remain long after the battle’s close, as is narrated in the final verse.

In the song’s final minutes the rhythm switches up as we outro to a very fitting fade out. This is a long one and the final thing that can be heard is the drumming of Martin Kearns. It would prove to be tragically fitting that Kearns would ring out Bolt Thrower’s recorded career.

Again, the end of Bolt Thrower was not right after this album or planned at all. The band made the call in 2008 to hold of on recording music but did continue to tour in occasional fashion. The band were rehearsing for an Australian tour in September 2015 when Martin Kearns died unexpectedly at age 38. This would be the end of Bolt Thrower, as a year later the remaining members announced they would lay the band to rest. The group did consider doing something in terms of a reunion show or release in tribute to Kearns but nothing has ever come about.

In the years since Kearns’ death and Bolt Thrower’s demise, the band has remained at the forefront of death metal. A new generation of bands and fans have come into the scene, and a renaissance of “old-school” death metal modeled on the early 1990’s heyday has emerged in the 2020’s. Bolt Thrower has remained a prime influence among both new fans and old heads, often the subject of discussion, memes and the like. It’s possible that their status has even improved since the end of their playing days, though of course such things are difficult to rate.

No matter the specifics, Bolt Thrower remain one of death metal’s biggest forces, even a decade past their end. When Cannons Fade serves as a fitting and perhaps eerie end to their run.