Album Of The Week – June 13, 2022

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week14 Comments

This week it’s time look at a much-anticipated album that marked a reunion. It wasn’t to be just a reunion album though, it would kickstart a new chapter for the band that now marks their longest era and has continued to this day.

Iron Maiden – Brave New World

Released May 29, 2000 via EMI

My Favorite Tracks – Blood Brothers, Dream Of Mirrors, Ghost Of The Navigator

Brave New World was released to the world with a lot of suspense and anticipation. What were Iron Maiden going to sound like in the new millennium? The group had ruled the 1980’s with their epic take on heavy metal, yet the 90’s saw the band founder as times and members changed.

Maiden were an afterthought by 1998, when former singer Bruce Dickinson released an acclaimed masterpiece with The Chemical Wedding. (My post on that album here). The album saw Dickinson working with former Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith and the consensus was that the two ex-members outdid Steve Harris and the remaining group.

In 1999 the two entities decided to reconvene and start a new chapter for the once-legendary Maiden. Dickinson’s replacement Blaze Bayley would exit, but rather than jettison Adrian’s replacement guitarist Janick Gers, the group made the decision to function as a three-guitar outfit. The group toured a “hey we’re back!”/greatest hits set and then got to work on was going to be a highly judged reunion album. Nostalgia tours are fine and honestly probably the best way to reintroduce one’s self, but could Iron Maiden be a relevant force in the 2000’s?

The answer would be yes, as we’ll see in the 10 tracks with a run time of 67 minutes.

The Wicker Man

Iron Maiden have a solid history of hot opening tracks and The Wicker Man would add to that. The song is a simple one with an identifiable riff and with the world’s easiest chorus to sing along to, a stated goal of the tune. The title is borrowed from the 1973 British film but the song’s words do not tell that tale, instead presenting a hodgepodge that keeps the song moving.

Ghost Of The Navigator

This song heads back to the high seas, a place the band previously explored on their beloved epic Rime Of The Ancient Mariner. The lyrics use a difficult sea voyage as a metaphor for life and death. The music is bright and melodic while also moving and hitting hard – after several years of sounding dark and dour, the signature Iron Maiden sound is back.

Brave New World

The title track is vintage Maiden – galloping riffs and bass lines, guitars all over, and a one-line chorus that repeats many, many times. That repetition is a sticking point for some listeners but it never really bothered me.

Blood Brothers

A song written by Steve Harris after the death of his father. The song highlights the hardships of mortality and the “great beyond” after life. Blood Brothers was a much-discussed track when the album released and has been featured in Maiden’s live set several times in the years since. The chorus has been a rallying cry for Maiden fans in the reunion era.

The Mercenary

We’re on to one of a handful of songs from the band’s prior era that was used for this album. It’s a pretty simple affair about a soldier of fortune. While not being one of the album’s standout moments, the song still gets the job done well and is far above “filler” status.

Dream Of Mirrors

Another track conceived during the Virtual XI sessions. The song is a long epic, running over nine minutes and providing the first hint that reunion-era Maiden were unconcerned with song length. The song depicts the confusion and non-linear form of dreams and how harrowing they can be. The band knocked their first reunion epic out of the park and provided a template for many more to come.

The Fallen Angel

An uptempo number about good and evil, this song is one of the least-heralded among the fanbase from Brave New World but still isn’t lacking for quality. It’s nice to hear the band let loose a bit after keeping things mid-pace (save The Mercenary).

The Nomad

Off into another nine-minute monster and this time we’re in the desert on high adventure. Steve Harris stated the song was inspired by the epic film Lawrence Of Arabia. The Nomad does not suffer for its length – the atmosphere invoked by the music and each guitarist getting a solo keeps things moving along just fine.

Out Of The Silent Planet

We’re getting to the close with the penultimate track and also the album’s second single. The song was based on an old sci-fi film called Forbidden Planet, about aliens who tore their own planet up and are now targeting us. Although the song was released as a single, it was rarely played live during the touring cycle for the album. While the song gets mixed reactions I personally have no issue with it.

The Thin Line Between Love And Hate

We close with another lengthy track at over eight minutes. It’s your usual song about the choices between good and evil and the ultimate consequences of those choices. You know, typical pop fare. The song doesn’t break any new ground or anything but is still a nice way to close out this epic return to form record.

Brave New World marked a huge milestone in the career of Iron Maiden. The album charted well across Europe and was beloved by a long-suffering fanbase that thought the group’s best moments were 20 years behind them. Tours for the new album saw half or more of the record being aired out live, Maiden were not content to go out as a pure legacy act. The line between playing classics and new material would be an issue several years later but that is another story unrelated to this album.

This album was very, very important in so many ways. It brought the band back into the spotlight, it rejuvenated the fanbase and it succeeded as a recording without leaning on past glories. Maiden were able to record songs they wanted to on their own terms, they didn’t try to revisit the past or move in some experimental direction.

And most importantly – it was just the beginning. The “reunion” era of Iron Maiden is now in its 23rd year, with the group having cut six albums and are heading out on tour yet again. Their reputation and legacy have only grown in the past two decades and they are rightfully heralded as one of heavy metal’s most significant acts. While opinions on their reunion albums differ, there is no arguing with the success they have had in this period.

On Scene And Identity – Edgelord

On By bigbadburchIn On Scene And Identity2 Comments

It’s time for another entry to my occasional series looking at aspects of scene and identity in music. Sometimes they can get a bit personal and heavy in subject matter but today’s won’t be anything like that.

Today I’ll be looking at the (mainly) Internet phenomenon of the “edgelord.” It is commonplace today to see edgy comments in every corner of social media. It might be people just saying extreme things to get a rise out of people but that aspect of it isn’t really what I’m looking at.

Also wrapped in the edgelord identity is the insatiable need to communicate “I don’t give a shit.” It is that disaffected, nihilistic aspect I’ll be examining today as it relates to music. I will also wrap a few other things into it, like perpetual negativity. There will probably also be a little bit about gatekeeping, though that’s certainly its own topic overall.

The Internet and music have had a hell of a relationship – the ‘Net totally altered music distribution and price mechanisms. It gave bands a platform to reach far more listeners than print media and replaced that media as the leading source of news and information. It allows music collections and rare releases to be identified and cataloged. And all this is just the tip of the Internet iceberg when it comes to music.

One other thing it did? It allows fans of music to speak their minds on songs, albums, bands and issues of the day. It used to be very tough to run into other fans of underground or independent music before the Internet, now legions of fans of the same thing are just a click away.

And, since pretty much everyone has Internet access, we all get to read a whole bunch of bullshit.

It isn’t hard to find – just read the comments of any piece of music news on social media or anywhere. I’m sure the people who drop in here on the regular know exactly what I’m talking about – some piece of music news, maybe nothing more than a new single from a band or even less significant than that, and the comment section will be filled with trolls either slagging off the band or proudly broadcasting just how much they don’t care about said news and band. It’s as if broadcasting indifference is its own art form now. And sure, it’s nothing new, this has been going on for many years.

It is all over the place, certainly not limited to music. I’ve seen it around for eons, dating back to the early 00’s in message boards and the like, before social media. It’s like some people take it as a challenge to communicate how much they don’t give a shit about whatever thing is being discussed. I think that’s mutated into its own behavior subset over the past several years, it certainly plays out in political discussions. It’s as if not giving a damn and proving that point at every turn is its own political party (oh wait … it is).

But back to music – honestly, it does get to be a drag reading comments and seeing all of this shit. Between the “LOOK AT ME I DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT SO AND SO” and the widespread negativity, it makes reading comments not worth it. Reading them does become its own perverse form of entertainment and drama, but what a waste of time.

I don’t know if I can really speculate what the causes are for this sort of thing. I do think gatekeeping is a part of it, or at least some feeble attempt to gatekeep. It’s like “Hey, look how cool I am not giving a shit about band X” and the part that’s left off the comment is “because my taste is so much better.” It’s at least a part of it for some people anyway, I’m sure the pure flexing over how cool it is to be a disaffected asshole who doesn’t care about anyone or anything is a big reason for it all.

I can’t say I was entirely immune to this in my past. I think I was as guilty as many others of thinking that I should broadcast every stupid impulse thought to a public audience. I’m not sure how much I got into the “edgelord flexing about apathy” thing as much as I did the “I’m better than you because I listen to stuff you haven’t heard of” deal (its own obvious entry in this series). Maybe it’s sad that it took until my 30’s but I finally grew up, at least in this aspect.

The edgelord phenomenon can be found in any music discussion, regardless of genre or popularity. I doubt the London Philharmonic can make a post without someone trying to prove how cool they are about not giving a damn about whatever the Philharmonic is doing. It’s very evident when any of the old hair metal acts have news about anything. The splintering factions and constant line-up changes are their own form of parody and comment memes, and the edgelords are always out in full force on one of those articles. It’s great that you don’t give a shit about the latest volley between Phil Lewis and Steve Riley, does anyone else give a shit that you don’t?

And I’ll go ahead and make this point – the edgelording is especially bad when the subject is women. Have a look through comments on any article about Phoebe Bridgers or Billie Eilish – holy shit, is it bad. I can’t make any great claims about what that says regarding society, but I do think it validates what many feel about how much crap women take. It doesn’t stop with those two, of course – I’ve noticed it on articles about any known woman you can name in music. Just the sheer amount of venom brought toward women in music and elsewhere is something I’ve absolutely noticed.

I can go on and on about specific instances of the edgelord, they are everywhere. But what’s the point, really? Me writing this isn’t going to change anything. People will make snide comments on things on the Internet. Nothing I write or say is going to stop it. No edgelord is likely to read this post, much less alter their behavior. That’s not my goal anyway, I’m just observing. Sure, the whole edgelord thing might point to some deep-seated psychological issues in society – what is the cost of spending time, thought and energy to demonstrate apathy? I’m sure there’s something there but I’m not the one to find it.

I would ask one question of the edgelord – why waste the time? I honestly couldn’t find the time in the day to do everything else I do and also spend all that time commenting about how much I don’t care about things I see that I don’t care about. Between work, writing this blog, reading others’ blogs, using social media and other stuff, hobbies and other interests, I don’t feel like wasting time commenting about what I don’t care about is a productive use of time. The edgelord disagrees, obviously, but I think that wasteful use of time is one of the adverse byproducts of this whole phenomenon.

Again, at the end of it all, there’s not much I can do about the case of the edgelord. There are plenty of them, they seem to love wallowing in negativity and apathy, and so it goes. I can read music news without paying mind to the useless comments of the “I don’t care” crowd. They can go on fulfilling their life’s greater purposes by demonstrating to the world at large that they are too cool to care.

After all – why should I give a shit?

Sonata Arctica – Don’t Say A Word

On By bigbadburchIn S-Tier Songs9 Comments

This post was part of a series that I called S-Tier Songs. I later decided to abandon the series in favor of a simpler Song of the Week format. I am keeping these posts as I wrote them but removing the old page that linked to the list of S-Tier Songs, so that is why these posts might look a bit odd. Enjoy.

Today I’m going to delve into the world of power metal, though this pick is from an act that broke out of that categorization. The song on it’s own is a gruesome tale of lovelorn heartbreak and just how far a person can go in that desperate mindset. As we’ll see, the song isn’t in isolation and is part of a long-running story told in several songs across the band’s career.

Sonata Arctica – Don’t Say A Word

Note – the video is an edit that cuts a spoken word portion from the song. The full album version is posted at the end of this post from Spotify.

Our song today hails from Sonata Arctica’s fourth album Reckoning Night, released in September 2004. Don’t Say A Word was given advanced release as an EP the month prior to the full-length.

Sonata Arctica had made a name for themselves in the early 2000’s power metal scene but also had quickly showcased that there was more to their songwriting chops than the typical fare found in the genre. Though replete with guitar and keyboard riffs as well as soaring vocals, the band exercised a higher form of songwriting on tracks like Fullmoon and The End Of This Chapter that separated them from the pack. On Reckoning Night they began the process of departing the usual power metal scene altogether – still incorporating its structure but also bringing in new influences and stylistic departures to liven things up. It would be a prelude to the next phase of their career, where the group would pursue different directions than the power metal they’d come up on.

While the album has a share of standout songs, none ring quite as true or hard as Don’t Say A Word. It is a lively track despite its dark content. Both guitars and keyboards ring with melody through an uptempo affair. Singer and band mainman Tony Kakko’s voice soars in some parts and goes hauntingly quiet in others, doing well to tell this messed up story. The track does a great job of keeping a balance between flowing music and darker, heavier parts. Sonata Arctica didn’t abandon their calling cards on this track or album, they simply repurposed and refined them.

The lyrical matter is very dark and disturbing – it is from the perspective of a scorned lover seeking the ultimate retribution for their pain. There is no room for ambiguity – the subject intends to end the life of his former mistress. The message is communicated in very eloquent fashion through the lyrics, this certainly isn’t a Cannibal Corpse song.

The song paints a terrible picture of the subject’s suffering – the love that’s meant to fade away, I tolerate your hate as long as you’re afraid, all I wanted was to be with you and suffer everyday. These are heavy and desperate thoughts, far beyond the stock thoughts often communicated in typical “break-up” songs. Obviously this work is removed from that, though the same general sentiments remain.

Purely taken on its own, Don’t Say A Word weaves a dark tale of a jilted lover who sets out to murder his fallen object of desire. It is a great song despite its treacherous story. And, as luck would have it, there is a lot more story to the principal actors in the song than what’s in this lone tune.

In 2006 Sonata Arctica released the album Unia and on it was a track named Caleb. That song serves as a prequel to Don’t Say A Word and also the aforementioned The End Of This Chapter. Caleb the song gives background on Caleb the man, the dark subject of today’s song. Caleb had a pretty bad childhood, wound up in and then out of a relationship with a woman who he then sets out to smite in Don’t Say A Word. The background provided from the song Caleb helps explain Don’t Say A Word’s chorus, where Caleb refers back to things his mother said.

The saga has been added to occasionally over the years, the song Juliet finally giving a name to the woman and seeing her enact (seemingly) cold revenge on Caleb. The band performed the entire saga live in the 2010’s, just before adding to it again in 2019 with The Last Of The Lambs, which is possibly an alternate ending to Juliet’s grim conclusion.

I’ll admit that I’m not very well-read on the Caleb Saga as a whole, a lot of fan theories tend to cloud the truth. It may be something I dive into on a future post, but as it stands and through piecing together interview fragments with Tony Kakko over the years, it would seem that the saga has six songs currently. And while most of them do tell a fairly coherent story, there might be more than one ending as I mentioned above. Either way, Don’t Say A Word plays an integral role in the story and is immediately after The End Of This Chapter in chronology.

Why is this an S-Tier song?

Don’t Say A Word is a fantastic melodic metal tune that stands out well in a band’s catalog already somewhat crowded with signature songs. It tells a harrowing, pained story that would later be expanded on in a rare lore-building exercise. It’s not every day we get that in music, especially spaced out across several albums and years. But even on its own the lyrics deliver a gripping tale beyond the conventions of a lot of popular music.

Album Of The Week – June 6, 2022

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week7 Comments

So I had my album of the week post all written up and ready to go. I usually get them sorted the week prior and line out the posting itself on Sunday evening. Earlier in the day I noticed the date and recalled that June 6 is a special day (for some) – it is the International Day Of Slayer.

This was first conceived for June 6, 2006 (666, get it?) and has run every year since, at least as far as I know. There are no big parties or festivals that I know of. The point of the day is simple – listen to Slayer.

Since this year’s International Day Of Slayer falls on a Monday, I decided to switch gears and cover a Slayer album for the AOTW. I just hope I can find a shorter one so I can bang this out real quick…

Slayer – Reign In Blood

Released October 7, 1986 via Def Jam Records

My Favorite Tracks – Raining Blood, Altar Of Sacrifice, Angel Of Death

Slayer released their third studio effort after jumping labels, from Metal Blade to Rick Rubin’s Def Jam Records. Rick Rubin’s production efforts would see Slayer transform their sound from their early days into a whole other beast.

Reign In Blood is an impossibly fast and brutal record. 10 tracks clock in with a 28:55 runtime, a ridiculous running time for a full-length album in the 1980’s. 7 of the songs come in with a sub-3 minute clock and one is under 2 minutes. It’s pretty insane for something not actually an EP.

The album is a cornerstone in the realm of thrash. It was the most brutal and fast record around, even when considering the metal underground. Not much was going on like this at the time, even early death metal wasn’t flailing along at this pace.

It will take me longer to discuss the album than to listen to it, so let’s have at it. Even with the almost stupid runtimes, there are highlights and things to discuss here.

Angel Of Death

The thrash assault begins right of the bat, as the band pounds out an intro that leads to a sick Tom Araya scream. The resulting song outlines the life and crimes of Dr. Josef Mengele, a Nazi war criminal who conducted horrific, inhuman experiments on concentration camp victims. The song is the longest on the album at nearly 5 minutes and is also the most “conventional” in terms of verse-chorus-solo-etc structure.

There was controversy around the song – Def Jam’s distributor Columbia Records did not want to release Angel Of Death, so Geffen Records stepped in and distributed the album (though without their name on it). Slayer have been hounded by accusations of Nazism and racism due to the song, and echoes of that argument still play out today. The band members have repeatedly denied such viewpoints, offering that they were simply recounting history through the song. I think it’s much ado about nothing and I don’t conflate history-based lyrics with automatic support for the topic at hand.

Piece By Piece

It’s a really short song that doesn’t actually move at the fastest pace ever, the band kind of “chills” a bit (relative to how “chill” one can be with Reign In Blood). In a shocking twist, the song is about chopping someone up. No one saw that coming.

Necrophobic

This song is about being fearful of and morbidly obsessed with means of death. It’s very fast and the shortest song on the album, which probably deserves a trophy.

Altar Of Sacrifice

One of the album’s highlights, the song delves into ritual sacrifice, Hell and all that kind of stuff. It gets the thrashing job done in neck-snapping fashion, with plenty of dissonant riffage from Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman.

Jesus Saves

Slayer make up for their Satanic last track with a song about Jesus. I’m sure everyone can figure out the real angle here. For such a relentless album, the band lets this tune marinate at mid-pace for a minute before getting down to business in the other two minutes. The extremely brief chorus is one of the album’s more well-known bits.

Criminally Insane

It’s barely over two minutes long. The song’s meaning is found in the self-explanatory title. It’s Slayer. Nothing more to say.

Reborn

Another fast and short number about someone who is killed but then reborn through black magic or something. There are quite a few words in this song, which is also barely over two minutes.

Epidemic

Everyone is beating the shit out of their instruments for another two minutes. Fun fact – drummer Dave Lombardo quit Slayer after the tour for this album. Rick Rubin was able to talk him back into the studio after a bit of time off. I’d probably quit too if I had to play drums like that for a fucking year.

Postmortem

Nearing the end now and a song that’s a bit more fleshed-out than the bits and pieces we’ve been getting. Though the song is called Postmortem, the lyrics are about the lead-up to that state. Another scream from Tom Araya in here, something he’d quit doing much of after this album. The song closes with an ultra-fast section that was probably about the fastest thing in music at the time.

Raining Blood

The album closer is the star of this show and is most likely Slayer’s best-known song. There might a be a few others that are somewhat readily known, but Raining Blood is definitely the band’s signature anthem.

A bit of thunder and an eerie quiet lead in to the track. It’s more like the sickening quiet before a tornado than it is a welcome respite. The immortal riff comes in, then the band pounds its way to the breakdown where the riff again makes its home. We get the familiar call of “raining blood!” from Tom Araya, then the band goes off the rails to close the song and album. A thunderstorm takes us home.

Reign In Blood was Slayer’s magnum opus and was a master class in brutal thrash metal that sent the scene into a maelstrom. Many other thrash bands felt like quitting, feeling unable to even touch what they’d heard. The album also had an outsized influence on the burgeoning extreme metal scene, providing a new template for brutality and speed. Many folks were paying attention.

Slayer’s album would leave such a mark that the band themselves never bothered trying to top it again. In contrast, the band turned the tempo down a lot on future releases. While some fans were disappointed with the move away from breakneck-paced thrash, I’d say it was a wise decision. There is no topping your magnum opus, many musical acts have learned that sad fact the hard way. Slayer instead pursued other ground, remaining a heavy, dissonant force while not even attempting to do Reign In Blood II. And Slayer would eventually retire in 2019 due mainly to Tom Araya’s neck problems derived from headbanging, so no need to push the envelope again.

So it is June 6, International Day Of Slayer. And here is one of the craziest albums ever recorded. Enjoy.

The Song Remains The Same – Hysteria

On By bigbadburchIn The Song Remains The Same7 Comments

Time again for that fun little game where I line up a bunch of different songs with the same name and see what’s what. The first one I did was a total no-contest but this time around we’ve got a fight on our hands. I’m personally familiar with two of the songs and have been discovering some other stuff as I’ve searched around for more with the same name.

Our song today is Hysteria. One entry will be ultra-obvious and another almost as evident. But beyond those this is a decently-used song title so I had to sort them down a bit. We have a range of contenders from different parts of the music spectrum to choose from today.

As always with these, this is not a complete list of artists who’ve recorded a song with this name. There are quite a few for this one and I’m not including everyone.

Ceremony

I’ll lead off with a new-to-me band that I found by searching “hysteria” on Spotify. This was the first unfamiliar result that came up and, well, I guess I’m the one who has been missing out. Ceremony are a punk rock outfit from California and are noted for changing their formula across albums.

Ceremony’s version of Hysteria comes from their 2012 album Zoo and was a single release as well. This is a really nice song and I’ve been jamming out to more of the band since running across them for this post. And this tune will bear consideration in the final voting even with the heavyweights it’s up against.

Def Leppard

Likely the most known variant of this song, it’s the title track from the 1987 album where the British rockers literally took over the world. This album was all-conquering and was everywhere for eons. Hysteria is one of the album’s seven (!) singles.

Not much to discuss here, this is one early favorite to win the contest. They do have obvious competition and some not-as-obvious, but winning this would just be another day at the park for this monstrous song and album.

Poppy

This one is interesting – it’s from an artist who started on YouTube by acting like an android or something then eventually wound up doing her own music. Her version of Hysteria is from her 2021 album Flux.

This cut is honestly pretty cool. Poppy appears to operate somewhat in the dreampop/shoegaze space, stuff I’m cool with but not radically familiar with either. While I don’t think this song has what it takes to win this little contest I can say I didn’t mind at all checking it out.

Gothic Sex

This name showed up when I looked on a website that catalogs this “different song, same name” stuff I’m looking for. Just imagine what you’d get if you searched for “gothic sex” on Google. The band was active in the 1990’s but does not appear to have been active since the turn of the millennium and information about them is far more scarce than people engaging in the activity.

Hysteria is from their 1994 album Divided We Fall. The song is kinda cool, kinda goofy. I don’t mind it but I don’t think this new-to-me entrant will be walking away with the trophy today.

Muse

The other known quantity in this exercise, the other British rockers are here with a hit song from their hit album. It comes from their 2003 album Absolution, regarded by several to be their best.

Hysteria features one of music’s most well-done bass lines and is a dark descent into falling apart over being into someone who can’t be had. The video features Justin Theroux having a shirtless shitfit. This version of Hysteria is right up alongside Def Leppard’s as a favorite to win the contest.

Scooter

This German outfit is apparently very successful, is described as a “happy hardcore” rave/techno outfit, and I don’t want to talk about them anymore or go over any of this shit so here’s the song that’s clearly not going to win my award chosen by me.

I’ll go ahead and cut off the entries here because I’m not doing any more of that. Out of six contestants there are three worth considering – Ceremony, Def Leppard and Muse. Ceremony’s entry is nice but I’ll have to pass it over in favor of one of the two British rock acts.

But now I have a much bigger decision on my hands than it may seem to some. Yes, Leppard’s title track is part of one of music’s most celebrated albums. But the Muse effort is from what’s widely recognized as their best albums and it’s also, at least on my list, close to the top of their best overall songs.

I went over both tracks for a little while and I even thought about calling it a tie. But that’s a cop-out. After much deliberation, the winner is Muse.

It does seem odd to pick against the titanic Def Leppard track, but Muse does edge it out for me. Maybe it was shirtless Justin Theroux who put it over the top.

Congrats to the winners and all of the entrants (except Scooter wtf was that) and I’ll be back later for another battle of different songs that are the same.

Album Of The Week – May 30, 2022

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week9 Comments

I’ve been at this blog about nearly 10 months now, something like that. I’ve done an album of the week almost every week, besides a few that I took off. While I’ve covered a wealth of stuff, from classic rock, hair metal, Britrock, death metal and points elsewhere, each album I’ve covered so far has a common thread – I like the albums. Every single one is an album I’ve played and enjoyed to at least some degree.

Today that changes. For the first time in my album of the week history, I will discuss a record that I honestly almost can’t stand the existence of. It has a few (very few) redeeming qualities, which generates enough interest for me to give it the AOTW treatment. It is a record that is infamous for being bad among the group’s fanbase, though like anything it does have its supporters. I’m not one of them.

Motley Crue – Theatre Of Pain

Released June 21, 1985 via Elektra Records

My Favorite Tracks – Home Sweet Home, Louder Than Hell

This isn’t a case of “well, everyone else hates this album so I will too.” It’s also not a case of “everyone hates this album so I’ll be contrarian and proclaim my love for it.” I never was able to get into this record and I’m not sure if I’ve played the whole thing through 10 or more times in all my decades of listening to the band. I’ve played the other 80’s Crue albums thousands of times each. I just don’t really like this one. The production is crap and most of the songs aren’t worth the time.

But there are a few worthy tunes here so I’ll have a go at running through them.

City Boy Blues

A decent but pretty uninspired album opener. It doesn’t set a great tone to start things off.

Smokin’ In The Boys Room

Here we have what became a massive hit for the group – a cover of a 1970’s Brownsville Station song that the Crue did up their way, made a funny video for, and laughed all the way to the bank. The song is performed well and is a highlight on the album. It’s also one of those that was overplayed to death in its era and I don’t seek out to hear on that basis. It’s something I liked but wasn’t looking to hear five times a day for a year straight.

Louder Than Hell

Up next we find a bit of civilization, it’s a proper Motley Crue song. It sounds like a leftover track from Shout At The Devil and in fact it is. The song works great despite the lame ass production. It would sound even better if someone turned the knobs more competently.

Keep Your Eye On The Money

This song is ok, it’s a cut above other things on the album but is still a bit down overall. Seems like the band was flailing a bit for ideas during recording.

Home Sweet Home

It’s new territory for Motley Crue – a proper ballad. Rather than go the sappy love route, the group composed this sweet yet somber tune. It was a drastic shift for a group that went balls out in the metal end of the pool for their first two records.

And it works magnificently. It’s easily the best ballad the group ever did and it’s the standout of this album. It sounded even better outside of the shoddy production of the album – both in the single cut that was sent to radio and the 1991 remix. But the band got the job done here and did so in grand fashion.

This would’ve been a decent EP if it ended here…

Tonight (We Need A Lover)

Mick Mars is really good on this. That’s about all I can find to say about it. The song does decently enough until after Mick’s solo where it goes into some bad territory for a moment.

Use It Or Lose It

A nice riff here but that’s about it, besides that the song is just fluff. It’s an ok rock tune but it’s also a few minutes of nothing.

Save Our Souls

Suitably heavy in the verses but the chorus is too much. Save my soul from the second side of this tepid album.

Raise Your Hands To Rock

Well, I raised my hands, where’s the rock? This is total fifth-rate hair metal filler. It also doesn’t even sound like a finished song, like they just threw some shit down and said “we’re good.”

Fight For Your Rights

Sure, I guess? A solid sentiment but there’s nothing going on with the song. A real dud of a closer on a second side that doesn’t have much of anything going on.

Theatre Of Pain would be a success for the Crue. It sold four million copies and its singles got significant airplay. It shifted the tone of music from a headbanging riot to a rock approach, something that would play out in force as the 1980’s wore on. The band morphed their own image from leather rebels to glam dolls to suit the style, something that became a calling card for the hair metal scene as image overtook musical substance in importance.

For me I found a few awesome songs, a couple that were ok and then a bunch of filler. Many of the tracks here just don’t have anything to them beyond some good guitar work. Again, this was not an album I played much at all. I’d get my Home Sweet Home fix from the Decade of Decadence compilation in 1991, and Louder Than Hell could be added to a mix tape or burned CD, then later digital playlists. My vinyl copy of this album is in pristine condition, played one time. I didn’t seek it out, either – it came in a box set.

Some might say it’s hard to argue with success, and Motley Crue did commercially well on the record and also shifted the music landscape. But that doesn’t make this a good album. It’s so uninspired that I don’t feel like bothering with the umlauts in the band’s name. The scene from The Dirt movie where Vince Neil tells Doc McGhee that the album sucks is spot on.

Van Halen – Runnin’ With The Devil

On By bigbadburchIn S-Tier Songs5 Comments

This post was part of a series that I called S-Tier Songs. I later decided to abandon the series in favor of a simpler Song of the Week format. I am keeping these posts as I wrote them but removing the old page that linked to the list of S-Tier Songs, so that is why these posts might look a bit odd. Enjoy.

Today it’s finally time to touch greatness. It’s a famous cut from one of the best debut albums ever recorded and from rock music’s most important and influential bands. The song is heavy, thunderous, totally absurd and completely amazing.

Van Halen – Runnin’ With The Devil

Our song today is the opening track from the self-titled debut that would set the music world on fire and reinvent rock for a new decade. Van Halen would conquer stage and charts for a very long time and they did not dawdle around on their first album.

Runnin’ With The Devil opens the illustrious Van Halen career with a slower-paced affair that riffs along and pounds its message home through one of music’s tightest rhythm sections and the signature vocals of one David Lee Roth. It is a party song and headbanger rolled into one and it truly gets the party started on one of rock’s ultimate albums.

Everything that would come to define Van Halen is present on Runnin’ With The Devil. Of course there is Eddie Van Halen, six-string extraordinaire and on the Mount Rushmore of guitar. Eddie keeps most of his work to rhythm here, noodling around a bit during the verses then slamming home the point on the chorus. Of course the song features an EVH solo, what Van Halen song doesn’t? It is the first official notes of the guy widely considered to be (at least) the next most-important player to Jimi Hendrix.

But the band Van Halen was never just about Eddie, even if discussions about EVH could last from now until the end of humanity without treading worn ground. Another signpost of the Van Halen sound was the interplay between bassist Michael Anthony and drummer Alex Van Halen. Alex brought the pain to the drums, completely evident on this track. And Michael Anthony pinned down the rhythm with the bass.

Of course, on Runnin’ With The Devil, the bass part doesn’t get any simpler. You could take a person who has never played an instrument and have them playing this part of the song in 15 minutes, no problem. But that isn’t the point. When Michael’s bass gets going with Alex’s drums and also Eddie’s rhythm playing, it generates this fucking unreal heaviness and drive that bands have been trying and largely failing to replicate ever since. It is present on many Van Halen works over the years, yes even the Sammy Hagar records, but is in abundance on our song today.

And all of that, a trademark of Van Halen’s rock dominance for nearly two decades, takes a back seat to the star of this tune. It is David Lee Roth who sings and scats his way to an all-time classic performance. The verses go by without anything to get carried away by, but then the band takes up the chorus proper while Dave lets loose on whatever the hell he feels like doing. On the first chorus he adds his own thing in his soaring voice. On the second chorus he goes to another planet and pulls out a rant that has nothing to do with anything but just fits the song perfectly. His diatribe has led to circulation of the isolated vocal track for the song and it lives on in rock fame and infamy.

And Dave fills the song with various shrieks in whatever places he feels they should go. It’s something not just any singer could do, but Dave just fooled around in the studio and threw them in wherever he pleased. It’s one of several points of comparison between DLR and Michael Jackson, who was a huge fan of Van Halen and Roth. People the world over sought to play guitar like Eddie Van Halen with varying degrees of success, but there isn’t a long list of singers who could touch what David Lee Roth was doing in his prime. It took no less than the King of Pop to perform on par to Roth.

And as with any song, the words have their meaning. Well, except this one. No one really knows what the hell Roth is singing about and no one really cares. It might be about choosing to live that nomadic lifestyle as a rock star out on the road all the time as opposed to choosing a “stable” at-home life, but who knows? I don’t.

Why is this an S-Tier Song?

Runnin’ With The Devil is an assembly of talent and performance without peer, both in 1978 and even to this day. It lays the groundwork for a decades-long sound executed by the brothers Van Halen and Michael Anthony. And it features the nonsensical, over the top yet fantastic vocal stylings of David Lee Roth. It is one of many songs from the group that would go on to inform and influence the Los Angeles rock scene into the early 1980’s and define the music for the decade. Van Halen would cause the world to rock out with them, but the group stood alone in terms of talent and execution.

Upcoming New Releases – The Heat Is On

On By bigbadburchIn Upcoming Music5 Comments

We’re getting to the end of the school year and into summer around here. In terms of new music it seems like acts are hitting the road in droves and the interesting upcoming albums list is maybe dwindling a bit. But there are still some new albums queued up for release so I’ll have a look at some lead singles from upcoming albums. Not a ton this time but some compelling stuff.

Behemoth – Ov My Herculean Exile

Leading off with the Polish extreme metal stalwarts Behemoth, whose new album Opvs Contra Natvram arrives September 16. The provided video is pretty intense fare, though nothing unusual for Behemoth. It’s a bit of a mini horror movie.

The song is interesting but not particularly dynamic in terms of Behemoth. The group have been one of extreme metal’s bigger draws for several years now. In that time band leader Nergal has dealt with various controversies, including being charged with blasphemy by the Polish government multiple times. He has also muddied his own puddle a time or two, like when he invented a story about being thrown out of a gym for wearing a Darkthrone shirt for reasons unclear to anyone beyond him.

The new album is inspired by Nergal’s hatred of social media and “cancel culture,” a statement that hasn’t been playing well on social media. Will a pointed outlook and a less-than-stellar album see Behemoth’s time at top come to an end, or will the album proper offer up enough to keep the group afloat? Guess we’ll see this fall.

The Chats – 6L GTR

Australia’s punk sensations are back with a new album, Get Fucked, out August 19. The band has just wrapped up a US tour, getting out post-pandemic a few years after their 2017 viral smash hit Smoko took over the Internet.

The new song is really good and pretty much just what you’d expect from The Chats. I will certainly line up to get fucked this coming August.

Grave Digger – Hell Is My Purgatory

The venerable German institution is back with their 21st (!) studio album Symbol Of Eternity, out August 26. The band sound in fine form here after all these years, not that anything has been stopping them anyway. Grave Digger often do theme-based albums and appear to be on a Knights Templar kick here. I’m sure the new record will be a fine addition to their stupidly huge discography.

Iconic – Fast As You Can

Hey everyone, it’s another Frontiers Records throw-together group. Michael Sweet is in this one, along with Tommy Aldridge and some other folks from around the rock universe. The music is fine but of course there is a fair bit of Frontiers fatigue these days. Will this project stand out from the mountain of others? Second Skin is out just around the corner on June 17.

Municipal Waste – High Speed Steel

It’s been quite some time now since Municipal Waste helped put thrash metal back on the map and they have returned for another round with Electrified Brain out on July 1. It’s business as usual for the group and sounds like another must-have record on release. Usually these retro metal waves come and go, but this thrash one has been around for eons now and shows no signs of going away.

Chat Pile – Slaughterhouse

No you’re not seeing double – Chat Pile is distinct from The Chats. This group is an Oklahoma-based noise rock outfit that put out a few EP’s and are now prepping their full-length debut album for release. God’s Country will be released July 29. It is dark, noisy and fucked up, which is often just how I like it. It sounds like the world looks right now, which isn’t good for the world but is great for Chat Pile.

Lorna Shore – Sun//Eater

The main event is here and is the first track from the most hotly-anticipated extreme metal release of 2022. Last year Lorna Shore took over the internet with their three-song EP And I Return To Nothingness on the strength of To The Hellfire, which wound up with my 2021 Song Of The Year Award. Now the deathcore collective has the unenviable task of following that up with a full-length. That comes in the form of Pain Remains, which will see release this October.

While To The Hellfire generated unseen amounts of hype, it also set a bar very, very high for whatever comes next. Sun//Eater delivers the symphonic, “blackened” deathcore that Lorna Shore showcased on last year’s EP. It’s a fine addition that showcases vocalist Will Ramos and the band’s dynamics without resting on the laurels of …Hellfire. Time will render verdict on the new record but the hype train for Lorna Shore is chugging along now with the full-length on the horizon.

That does it for this month’s edition of upcoming releases. Conspicuous by its absence is any new Megadeth material even though the new album has been ready “any day now” for like three years and is supposed to be out in July. It feels like Ben Stein’s iconic scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off where I’m standing in the front of class calling out “Mustaine? Mustaine?” over and over again when I type these. Maybe next month…

Album Of The Week – May 23, 2022

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week8 Comments

With this week’s album pick it’s time to go country. It’s the second album from a third-generation star who would begin sowing the seeds of rebellion against the Nashville establishment (especially his own record label) and those taken aback at someone going his own way as opposed to living in the shadow of his father’s and grandfather’s legacies.

Hank Williams III – Lovesick, Broke And Driftin’

Released January 29, 2002 via Curb Records

My Favorite Tracks – Cecil Brown, Mississippi Mud, One Horse Town

It took three years for Hank III to see the release of his second album. His debut Rising Outlaw was marred by Hank’s unhappiness with a sterile country sound and being largely a covers album. His second effort was recorded in a few weeks at home and is all original compositions save for the last track. This would be an album Hank could be proud of and tour behind, unlike his debut which he talked down in the music press.

The atmosphere found on this album does not invoke the kind of “country” found in a warehouse-sized bar on the suburb outskirts that plays more dance music than country. This is the backwoods, dirt road kind of country where the only civilization to be found is a shady dive bar or a nondescript liquor store. There are 13 tracks to get through on this album so let’s have at it.

7 Months, 39 Days

We begin with a bit of a trucker’s song, though this trucker booked an extended stay at the county sheriff’s hotel. It’s a fun song that sees the subject at the end of his lockup and hitting the highway to get the hell out of dodge. The upbeat tempo is slowed down at the end to give a bit of atmosphere to the number.

Broke, Lovesick And Driftin’

This song settles into a more slow and somber feel, something in abundance on this record. It’s an ode to the lonely lifestyle of a honkytonk drifter, playing tunes from town to town and not having a stable, anchored home life. While a lament, the tune doesn’t do anything to discourage said lifestyle.

Cecil Brown

This melancholy tune was written about someone Hank knew growing up in southwest Missouri (about 100 miles from where I live currently). It’s a haunting account of someone who didn’t fit in where he was and the alienation and abandonment just flow forth from the mournful song.

And I do definitely “feel” this song to a degree. I also grew up in a small Missouri town where I didn’t fit in much at all. I won’t say my childhood was bad by any stretch, but there was a lot of alienation and ultimately getting the hell out of there to find a sense of self somewhere else. It’s a song I truly do identify with.

Lovin’ And Huggin’

The tempo is back up for this fun and brief number about being in and out of love. The song is as simple as it gets but is also very fun and expertly placed in album sequence to cut the weight of the prior track.

One Horse Town

This is an old-time country tune that plods through life being down and out in nowhere. It’s the kind of song that people who don’t listen to country think country is. Even with the cliched feel the song evokes its atmosphere very well and handles traditional country expertly. It keeps things upbeat despite the low down struggle.

Mississippi Mud

This song is cited by many as their favorite from the album, it is the consensus pick for the star of the show. It’s another fun number that stays out of the city and finds fun out on the backroads. Nothing like partying out away from it all.

Whiskey, Weed And Women

Another lament about life lost to the 3 W’s, as it were. The song certainly captures that old-time feel, though it does go all-in on the country cliches. Maybe not the strongest effort around but it does flow with the rest of the album pretty well.

Trashville

The pace picks up big time here for Hank’s first open shot fired at Nashville’s establishment. For its time the song was quite the talking point to hear someone from the Williams family and a Curb Records employee going at the establishment like this. But Trashville was just a warm-up, and a few years later Hank would release a track that makes this sound downright pedestrian by comparison.

Walkin’ With Sorrow

Yet again Hank is drinking his way through loneliness and sorrow. This time he offers up a bit of yodeling to the old-time dirge, something in line with his legendary grandfather.

5 Shots Of Whiskey

Again here we are with the alcohol and loneliness. This song does feel a bit more fleshed out than the other laments that really just string a few phrases together and rely on the music to carry the tunes. There is a story to these lyrics and a reason for the depression.

Nighttime Ramblin’ Man

Turn it up to 11 for this one, this is a total barn-burner. It’s an ode to partying and raising hell and is also a sign of things to come from Hank III. While the title borrows in part from a Hank Sr song, III makes this all his own and puts his own signature on the line. Rising Outlaw may have been the name of III’s first album but this song is where the outlaw truly rises.

Callin’ Your Name

One more down in the dumps tune, this time Hank is calling out to the Lord for help and mercy. The lyrical tone is slightly different but the song doesn’t really set itself apart from the sundry other sad songs on the album.

Atlantic City

The only song not written by Hank III on the album, this Bruce Springsteen cover was previously recorded for a Springsteen tribute album and was appended to this record by the label. The cover is well done, ramping up the country feel of Springsteen’s country-adjacent effort. Note that this song isn’t available on streaming. Some versions of the album have a bit of a “hidden” song on the same track as Atlantic City, with a radio DJ announcement and another performance of Walkin’ With Sorrow.

Lovesick, Broke And Driftin’ would mark what Hank III felt was his true debut album. Almost entirely composed by him, he bucked Nashville trends and his record label’s direction to cut the album he wanted to make. He had reluctantly began a music career in country due to a legal order to come up with money, so now he was able to begin functioning on his own terms.

And yes, while the album has several highlights, some of it does get a bit derivative. Many of the slower, sad songs are really pedestrian and don’t offer a ton in the way of dynamic songwriting or structure. There still is something to them, perhaps a bit of a callback to Hank Sr. and his way with pulling at the heartstrings. The songs do work but after an album’s worth they kind of run together a bit.

For Hank III this album was really the beginning. He would wind up in court with Curb Records over his contract and desire for creative control and his next album four years later would truly cement him as his own performer and forge an insurgent outlaw country scene that would shift music’s landscape. But this album showed that Hank III knew where the music he was making came from. He would absolutely blaze his own trail and get far out of the long shadow cast by his family name, but he still knew his way around country music. With drink in hand and sorrow in heart, the party was just getting started.

The Song Remains The Same – Breaking The Silence

On By bigbadburchIn The Song Remains The Same4 Comments

I’m gonna start a new series today. This is one that has been on my mind for quite some time but I just never got around to fiddling with it. The time is now, I suppose.

The premise is simple – in music, there are a lot of different artists and bands. Many of those artists record songs with the same title, though the songs themselves can be radically different. The goal here is to have a look at some of these songs and see which one I’m into the most (if at all). It will also introduce songs from genres I don’t typically listen to (not today, but in the future). Note that this is NOT about cover songs, these are all original artist recordings going up against each other.

This is really meant for fun more than anything – there are more piles of different songs with the same name than I can practically get to in my life time. Ones like today are pretty easy, while stuff like “I Want You” or “I’ll Be There For You” could have books written about them.

To get this series kicked off I’m going with one that sees four different artists having the same song title. All of the bands are in the general category of metal, though they take on different forms. Three are groups I at least appreciate, if not enjoy and one is a group I haven’t listened to in almost 20 years and wasn’t chomping at the bit to hear again now. But a project is a project so press on I must.

A perpetual disclaimer for this series – this should not be taken as a complete list of songs with the same name. I’m using the first few websites I find in Google for my “research” on this and this isn’t a scholarly exercise. Feel free to mention anything missed on these if you know of one or more that got missed.

Today’s inaugural Song Remains The Same, uh, song? Breaking The Silence

I have found four different recordings of a song called Breaking The Silence. Two are from bands I am familiar but not well acquainted with, one is from a group I am vastly familiar with, and one is from a band I never fell over myself to know in any capacity. Let’s have at it.

Breaking Benjamin

This group is a 2000’s alt-metal outfit from the US. I’m sure they are pretty well known, they were all over early 2000’s radio and I saw their name around a lot. They aren’t a group I’ve ever sought out to listen to and, save for this exercise, I doubt I ever will. Let’s see what we get here. The song comes from their 2015 album Dark Before Dawn.

The song is generally pretty good. Pretty decent clean passages, I’m not personally into the “rappy” bits but they don’t ruin anything. It isn’t my thing but I’ll give credit where credit is due and say that I think it’s alright.

Firewind

This group is one I’m familiar with. I’ve heard their stuff before but I’ve never owned it or been heavily invested in it. The group is from Greece and is helmed by guitarist Gus G, the same guy who did a stint with Ozzy Osbourne. The cut is from their 2006 album Allegiance and the song was released as a single in Greece in 2007.

The song is fine. It’s in a style of power metal that isn’t entirely for me but I can appreciate what they’re doing. I suppose it’s indicative of why I never got into the band in the first place. But they definitely know how to play and to put a song together.

H.E.A.T.

This is a Swedish hard rock group that probably needs no introduction across most of my readership. Their take on Breaking The Silence comes from their 2012 album Address The Nation, which was the first to feature vocalist Erik Gronwall. Of course, Grownall has now gone on to helm Skid Row. I’m personally not overly familiar with them and have only heard them in bits and pieces.

This is really good. I like what I’m hearing here. Just a very nice rock anthem. This is clearly a band I’m going to have to give more attention to, I have been missing out.

And if this whole thing ended here, we’d have a clear winner. As it is, the boys will have to settle for silver today.

Queensryche

Let’s be real – this was never a contest. Also, is this a good time to mention that Operation: Mindcrime is my favorite album of all time?

Even though this could be taken as a set-up, I don’t think there was any real chance the other contenders were going to topple Queensryche here. It’s the Seattle outfit at the height of their creativity in the late 80’s and a well-known cut from their acclaimed masterpiece. They just nailed everything on this album, including this track that sees the story’s protagonist out in the wind after the death of his lady friend. Perfectly executed, perfectly produced, it’s all there.

And that does it for the first installment of The Song Remains The Same. This one was in the can from the moment I decided to do it (and it wasn’t actually where this was supposed to begin, a story for another time). In the future I’ll try to provide a bit more suspense to the results but there was no messing around with a cut from my favorite album ever.