Tag: metal

Album Rankings – Motley Crüe

On By bigbadburchIn Album Rankings9 Comments

I’m going to debut a new series today, though it’s one that might not stick around in written form for too long. My original intent was to do these as videos but time to make them proves ever-elusive, and I’m tired of sitting on this content that I originally compiled a year ago.

This will be just as the title says – album rankings of a band’s discography. My rankings aren’t based on any scores, though I do intend to go back through and score each album later on. I prefer to do the rankings based on other factors and then see how differently things come out later based on scoring. There are other factors that can influence where to rank an album that doesn’t reflect in a score, and this first one will give a vivid example of that.

I’m starting out with Motley Crüe – nine total studio albums and it’s a fair shot that this is their final discography. Doesn’t matter either way, let’s get to the rankings. Of course we run from worst to first as most any sane person’s rankings do.

#9 – Generation Swine

The 1997 reunion with Vince Neil did not deliver anything I found worthwhile. I didn’t like the album when I first heard it and last year I played it for the first time since the ’90’s. I was expecting to take to more of the album this time, or at least find some songs I could call quality. I did not. There’s just nothing here I can get into and I don’t really know what they were doing here.

#8 – Theatre Of Pain

I talked about this one awhile back and I didn’t have much nice to say about it. A few songs I thought were really good, a few that were ok but lifeless production and a lot of filler make for a fairly miserable listening experience.

#7 – New Tattoo

This 2000 offering was the only Crüe record not to feature Tommy Lee. It was a pretty good return to form album, it got back to basics and offered up some good cuts. It is consistent throughout but it doesn’t have, to me, any truly breakout or defining moments. It’s a high-floor, low-ceiling kind of thing. But from here and for the rest of the list we’re talking about albums I can enjoy listening to.

#6 – Girls, Girls, Girls

The 1987 album was a success for the band and was certainly better than its predecessor. It has one of the best tracks they’ve ever done in Wild Side (already an S-Tier song), a great title track, and honestly several other songs that I found better than I remembered them to be. Its production wasn’t great but there was a lot more to like here than on that prior one.

#5 – Motley Crüe

The 1994 self-titled effort spelled the end of the band as we knew them up to this point. Vince Neil had been fired and was replaced by John Corabi. The sound was something apart from the band’s prior output but it is still well-executed and has some great moments. It’s a record that gets (I think) unfairly maligned for not having Vince, though I can understand the sound is a departure from what we were used to.

#4 – Saints Of Los Angeles

The band’s final album from 2008. It seems to be a bit overlooked, from my standing this is a fantastic album and I don’t know why people didn’t give it more of a chance. This is the sound that I thought the band would get into after hearing Primal Scream in 1991. And it’s the band not giving a damn about radio play and just saying whatever they want, it’s truly Crüe uncensored. The grit and attitude just drip from this album. If this is what happens when Sixx AM bandmates write Motley Crüe records, then do more of it.

#3 – Too Fast For Love

The debut that kicked off a whole damn scene in Los Angeles and the official beginning of this crazy band. This is raw, ferocious and just great music. Not a weak track in the bunch. There honestly isn’t much more for me to say about it – it’s just a damn great record.

#2 – Dr. Feelgood

The Crüe closed out the ’80’s in style with their biggest success. A honed and polished affair saw several huge singles and perhaps their best song ever with Kickstart My Heart. While many bands were feeling the end of the hair metal train, this group rode into the ’90’s in style.

As for why this one ranks so high, I covered the reasons when it was the Album of the Week. It was the album that flipped a switch for me and made me massively obsessed with music. It’s a super important album in my listening history and there was a strong argument that this should be number one. But…

#1 – Shout At The Devil

Their second album is just unbeatable. This is packed from top to bottom with fantastic songs and some of the best moments of the band’s career. This stuff is loud, heavy and dangerous and the band gained massive notoriety from both the music and the album imagery. Nothing here misses or is even of a lower cut than the rest, even the cover of Helter Skelter fits both musically and image-wise.

That does it for my first-ever edition of album rankings. Let me know where you agree or disagree in the comments. It might be a minute before my next round, depending on who I choose to go with.

A Story And A Song – Can I Play With Madness?

On By bigbadburchIn A Story And A Song5 Comments

Today’s song is a good one – it’s one of the singles from Iron Maiden’s 1988 masterpiece Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son. It’s one of the more recognizable tunes from the record and a fantastic track. And the video is notable too – it features Monty Python standout Graham Chapman and is one of his final acting appearances before his 1989 death.

The story goes as such – I first saw Iron Maiden in 2000. I recounted that concert and other Maiden-related things roughly a month into this blog. Of course I got a shirt from the tour and it was a unique design only available on that tour. It was a pretty nice keepsave from what is a legendary concert in my show-attending lexicon.

Let’s jump in time a few years to 2004. I wind up dating this gal. Long story short – she was kind of awful and not worth the time. While I won’t get into the particulars of it, I will say that the inevitable happened – I lost my Iron Maiden shirt at her house.

It’s worth mentioning that it was a legitimate case of loss. It does seem like people lose articles of clothing when they’re involved with someone for awhile. Sometimes people “lose” possessions in these sort of split-ups when others intentionally misappropriate items to fund their shitty drug habits and that did happen in this break-up, but the shirt itself was truly just lost in her house and never to be found by me again. I also lost a Megadeth Rust In Peace shirt in the same break-up, just some really lame shit.

But the Megadeth shirt is fairly easily replaceable, it’s just the cover of Rust In Peace, it wasn’t original anyway and the shirt gets re-issued all the time. The Iron Maiden shirt, though? That was a tour original and was not going to be easy at all to replace.

Being that this was a super urgent issue to me, I waited until roughly late 2005 or early ’06 to bother with the matter of finding the same shirt again. It sort of struck me one day that if I were going to get another one, time would be of the essence. Iron Maiden tour shirts were already fetching princely sums in the mid-00’s, and now they can be flat out obscene.

Luck was (mostly) on my side – sure as shit, someone on eBay had the same Brave New World shirt up. It was $60. That was a seemingly ludicrous price to pay for a damn band shirt, but again, consider the mitigating factors. It was a unique Maiden tour-release shirt. How bad of a mistake would it have been to NOT buy it in 2006 for $60 compared to what I’d have to pay now for the same thing? I haven’t even seen a listing for one in a long time and I doubt the price would be $60 if there was one for sale. (Edit – a few do seem to be around for sale, in the $200 price range)

The shirt was in great shape and still is all these years later. The seller also threw in a bootleg CD of the concert he attended on the tour. It was a cool touch from back when eBay wasn’t so hard up about people selling bootlegs. I haven’t seen that around for a long time but I’m kind of sure I know where it is. And it was a very good sounding bootleg, almost like it came off the soundboard.

Anyway, I was able to recover my position and get the shirt. There was one small hitch – the backs weren’t exactly the same. There is a rear art piece of Eddie in a crowd on the back, that much was the same. But my original shirt had a listing of all the US tour dates. This replacement shirt only listed one city, Irvine. It kind of sucks but it’s a relatively minor issue I can live with. I even wondered if the shirt was a bootleg but it looks fine and they spelled “Iron Maiden” correctly so I can live with it. I’d guess it’s official, it looks identical to my first one besides the dates on the back.

That’s about all there is to this silly story. All stories have morals and there are a few here – don’t date lousy people and for damn sure don’t leave prized possessions behind at their homes when you split.

And if you do, don’t wait until the secondary market is some kind of cash-gobbling monster before replacing your stuff. I dodged a bullet on that one.

The shirt in question

Album Of The Week – July 18, 2022

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week5 Comments

This week I’m going to “cheat” and save myself some time by talking about an EP. It might be short in length but its significance to metal is vast.

Queensryche – self-titled

Released September 1983 via 206 Records

The EP was a demo in the true sense of the term – the band then known as The Mob were looking for a record deal. At the time they didn’t even have a singer, they convinced Geoff Tate of rival local act Myth to handle vocal duties on the demo.

The group changed their name to Queensryche, and altered the spelling of “reich” to avoid accusations of Nazism. They also put an umlat about the “y” but I’m going to be lazy and not do that in my post today.

The EP got around in quick order and the band quickly found themselves with a major label record deal with EMI. Geoff Tate agreed to join the band in full and one of metal’s most unique acts was on its way.

Today we have a whopping four songs to discuss. There are two other versions of the EP, thankfully I should have the time and space to talk about those a little bit.

Queen Of The Reich

The EP’s opener was also released as a single with The Lady Wore Black as a b-side, so half of the EP was made available on a separate record. Environmental waste aside, the band spared no time establishing themselves as a force in the metal world. Even with the sound of a self-funded production effort, the band’s talent is evident in this blistering attack.

While the band gets down to business, the song is a showcase for the immense vocal talent of Geoff Tate. He could hang with the very best singers in metal and that is established right off the bat on this song.

And check out the music video for the song. It is … uh, just watch it.

Nightrider

The guitars of Michael Wilton and Chris DeGarmo put in some work on the second track. While still a traditional metal track, this song does offer a taste of the sound Queensryche would explore going forward.

Blinded

Another brief yet savage metal attack that shows off more of the sound the band would pursue on their full-length debut. There are definite points of comparison between Blinded and songs from The Warning, I hear some of Roads To Madness going on here. Tate goes into insane territory with his voice at the song’s close.

The Lady Wore Black

A longer effort, the EP’s closer was unfinished when Tate agreed to help record and he composed the song’s lyrics. This was an early sign that Queensryche were not interested in simply playing metal, the band were going to be a thought-provoking force that explored soundscapes from multiple directions. This song stuck around in the band’s set for a long time.

Queensryche not only established the band in and of itself but it spread quickly and got the word out about the new outfit. They would make full use of their record deal and release three magnificent albums throughout the 1980’s. This EP only hinted at what was to come.

There are a few different reissued versions of the EP. In 1988 EMI released a version with a fifth song, Prophecy. The song was played live in the band’s beginning but was actually recorded during the Rage For Order sessions. It served as a bonus track both here and on a future reissue of The Warning.

The definitive reissue of the EP was released in 2003 and has a whole heap of bonus tracks – a nine song live set recorded in Japan in 1984. This live set was available on video as Live In Tokyo and was a very welcome addition to the reissued EP. The entire EP is performed, as well as Prophecy and a few songs from The Warning. It is a great set and I was very happy with the decision to include it as the EP’s bonus material.

It’s very uncommon for a demo to be an official part of a band’s discography. Usually demos aren’t even noticed and the songs are just reworked as part of a group’s debut. Demos were typically only sought out by hardcore collectors and were curiosities. But Queensryche were able to get a lot of mileage out of their demo – it is considered an essential part of their catalog and it was even certified gold. It would mark the start of a run of albums that would both shape and defy music.

Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath (the song)

On By bigbadburchIn S-Tier Songs2 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 really simple – the first song on the first album from heavy metal’s first band. In the spirit of convenience, the group chose to name their band, song and album all the same thing.

Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath

Let’s just lead with this thought – imagine hearing this for the first time in 1970 when it came out.

Seriously – I know the 1960’s were a golden age of music and had divergent offerings from all around, but think about hearing this in 1970 for the first time.

The bells, the thunderstorm, then that RIFF. No matter what else Black Sabbath had, it has always been the riffs of Tony Iommi, the absolute god of heavy metal guitar, that made this band what it was. And the riffs in this song were the noted birth of heavy metal in general and specifically doom metal.

This was just other-worldly and I can’t imagine what it would have been like to hear it without context upon release. People can always point to Cream as a boarding ramp for Sabbath and heavy metal, but Cream didn’t tread this ground. And any other precursor to heavy metal – Hendrix, Mountain, Steppenwolf, whoever else – wasn’t here.

And I didn’t hear this until 1990. I was 13 and got a home stereo system for Christmas, I snagged this and several other classic albums on cassette to break in my system. Hell, I’d heard Ozzy solo but I hadn’t really dug into Black Sabbath. Even hearing it as a dumb kid 20 years after it first hit was a mind-altering experience. I knew Sabbath were regarded as the founders and masters of the metal I was getting die-hard into, but I didn’t know it was like this.

Everything is just so ominous – the opening riffs, the barely-there presence of Bill Ward’s drums and Geezer Butler’s bass, and Ozzy Osbourne’s haunting vocals. In lockstep with the lyrics that paint this dark and dismal picture, it is just something straight from Hell.

This dirge goes on for over four minutes, then things kick into high gear. Iommi offers a higher tempo riff, Bill and Geezer join in at full volume, and Ozzy wails away through the descent into Hell. The last minute lets Iommi head out on a solo and the band slamming along in a dissonant yet perfectly coherent mess. Heavy metal was born.

It can be said that the song, and by extension the band, was blues music mutated into a volatile concoction. Black Sabbath were a blues band named Earth before changing gears, and blues music has influenced every notable Western music movement around. It would only stand to reason that there’s a pretty direct line from the blues to this godawful, Satanic wailing. And, as Sabbath would showcase on the rest of their debut album, it was a very direct line without much padding inbetween.

But, this isn’t the blues. This is not the music of the Mississippi Delta – this is the cacophony of life in industrial hell, aka Birmingham, England in the postwar 20th Century. Heavy metal was born there and would continue to flow out of there for decades beyond.

The lyrics behind Black Sabbath are dark and occult-based. The tale behind the lyrics is both stark and amusing. It has been told both by Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler in various places, by Geezer in the liner notes to Sabbath’s 1998 live album Reunion and Ozzy’s 2010 biography I Am Ozzy. The gist is that Geezer had an occult phase and decked his apartment out in all black and with spooky decorations. Ozzy, a noted thief at this point in life, lifted a book about the occult and gave it to Geezer. Geezer woke up from a nightmare and saw a figure in black pointing at him. Geezer went to throw the book away but it had vanished. He swore off the occult and relayed the tale to Ozzy, who penned the lyrics to the song. Combine it and the legendary Iommi riffs, and a whole new thing was born.

Sabbath would go on to further and refine the heavy metal template the same year with Paranoid. But the song Black Sabbath especially would also lead to a new subset of metal down the road. Bands like Saint Vitus, Candlemass, Pentagram, Witchfinder General and Trouble would take what Sabbath established and make some memorable (and depressing) metal. Crushing dread via riff and vocal would be its own subgenre.

Why is this an S-Tier song?

Purely on its own, Black Sabbath is a crushing, haunting work that communicates dread and despair in a way not heard before its time. It is also the beginning of an entire movement in music that happens to be my favorite and is a highlight in a long catalog produced by the world’s most important and influential heavy metal band.

A demo version of the song released by Ozzy in 1997

Album Of The Week – July 4, 2022

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week4 Comments

This week it’s time to have a look at one of metal’s now-bygone bands. They were heralded yet quite underrated, always noticed but never quite breaking through to the heights many thought they ought to achieve. The album in question would be recognized by many as one of the best (if not the best) they have done.

Nevermore – This Godless Endeavor

Released July 26, 2005 via Century Media Records

My Favorite Tracks – Medicated Nation, The Psalm Of Lydia, Sentient 6

The album marked the band’s sixth effort. The core lineup of vocalist Warrel Dane, guitarist Jeff Loomis, bassist Jim Sheppard and drummer Van Williams would remain. They would be joined on guitar by Steve Smyth, formerly of Testament.

The band would continue plying their trade in a straightforward metal sound that often defied categorization. While they “fit in” with the power metal scene, they were not power metal. Elements of thrash would appear but Nevermore certainly were not a thrash act. I don’t think they ever got properly sub-categorized in the whole of their 20 year history, though no such sub-category may exist.

The album runs 11 tracks in just under an hour, and with one being a very short instrumental. I’ll get it out of the way now so I don’t have to mention it on every song – the guitar work is absolutely out of this world. Jeff Loomis is a world-class guitarist and he was complemented well by Steve Smyth. The guitars are always high points of Nevermore albums.

Born

The opener goes hard and heavy, kicked up a notch even for Nevermore. The song is an indictment of the stagnant pool of beliefs that keep society pinned down from progress.

Final Product

Another brutal number in both music and verse. More about the negative aspects of the world and how they are dragging everything down. Pretty spot on and very much unimproved from the 17 years since this song first hit.

My Acid Words

Yet again with the caustic and harsh assessments, the band does not relent via instruments and Warrel Dane goes even harder with the lyrics. It is a cold and ultimately heartless conclusion rendered in the song. I had thought that Dane had said this song had to do with his brother but I imagine that would have been an interview from a print magazine and I can’t find it to confirm. I do believe my recollection is correct, though. It was obviously a tragic story.

Bittersweet Feast

A song that several cite as their least-favorite from the record but one I enjoy. There are two distinct lyrics being delivered in the pre-chorus, which takes a moment to get used to and can easily be missed. The song is a dirge about the fat and happy minions feasting on the remains of a dying society.

Sentient 6

The music turns down a notch to deliver a quasi-ballad. Of course the ballad is not typical fare lyrically – this song is about some sort of artificial intelligence being that struggles with the questions of humanity, tries to become like humans, then ultimately decides to destroy humans. All of the songs have happy endings on this album.

Also catch the Jimi Hendrix tribute, paid lyrically in the first verse.

Medicated Nation

Another of the album’s highlights for me and a track with possibly dual meanings. The literal interpretation of society being over-medicated is very real and very well discussed here. But many speculate that the intent goes beyond that and into the media, belief systems and various ways people figuratively medicate themselves from the realities of life and civilization.

The Holocaust Of Thought

A brief instrumental at not quite 1.5 minutes long. It features solo work from guest James Murphy, a metal guitar luminary who has logged work with Death, Obituary, Cancer and Testament, among many others.

A bit of an aside – in the mid 2000’s I was on a few message boards and on one of them, some guy complained endlessly about this song being on the album. Like, it’s not even two minutes long and you probably have it on CD anyway, just skip it dude. It just cracked me up because he complained about it at every possible opportunity, like maybe he was getting a dollar per complaint from someone, I don’t know. I just wanted to make sure I have that noted for posterity’s sake.

Sell My Heart For Stones

This song does stand out in a few ways. It is another quasi-ballad, so it gives a bit of a breather. It is also has a far, far more positive outlook than what has been playing so far. It’s honestly a breath of fresh air to actually have something philosophically positive for once.

The Psalm Of Lydia

This song picks the pace back up and goes into a bit of fantasy territory, at least a shade. Lydia seems to be a mythical, prophetic figure who winds up “slaying the demons.” Perhaps Lydia is slaying the metaphorical demons being chased throughout the first part of the album, there is lyrical evidence to make that conclusion. And also this song is guitar solo after guitar solo, just a magnificent work. No clue who Lydia actually is or what this song’s true composition is about, but it gets the job done.

A Future Uncertain

Heading towards the album’s close is this ponderous affair that offers a bit more introspection and hope than the savage beginning half. The song doesn’t quite arrive at its own lyrical conclusions but that’s probably surmised by the title.

This Godless Endeavor

We close on an epic, nearly nine-minute movement that questions the meaning of life and searches for answers in the void. The song does not waste its time, rather it keeps moving with more philosophical lyrical fare and, of course, more guitar.

This Godless Endeavor was a significant work for Nevermore, the work was praised by critics and the band toured with several acts during the cycle – they would open for old friend Dave Mustaine and Megadeth and would even get a support slot with Disturbed in 2006. In hindsight it is considered one of their best two albums and is often found at number one on a lot of lists. Even back in late 2009 when I was blogging elsewhere I named it one of my top five albums of the decade of the 2000’s.

Nevermore would not get to realize much greater promise from their masterpiece. Health problems beset, well, the entire band save Jeff Loomis in 2006-07. The group would record one more album in 2010, then split up. Loomis would link up with Michael Amott in Arch Enemy, while Warrel Dane would resurrect the pre-Nevermore outfit Sanctuary. Reunion talk began in the mid 2010’s but was ended when Warrel Dane died of a heart attack in 2017.

I have always felt Nevermore was a band that was kept a bit too far under the radar. A lot of people knew them and were into them, yet they didn’t latch on in a wider fashion. Their sound was heavy but not alienating to many listeners like extreme metal often is. And the sometimes very heavy lyrical matter is dressed in a higher vocabulary that keeps it from being just some noisy ranting about the world. Maybe the really were “just” a metal band without a way to further sub-categorize them, but they certainly were not “just” a metal band.

GTA Vice City – VRock

On By bigbadburchIn Favorites1 Comment

Yesterday I talked a bit about the unique and game-making soundtrack to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Today I want to elaborate a bit on the game’s rock and metal station. If anything screams 1980’s it’s rock and metal, and the game got it right on their own metal station, V-Rock.

V-Rock was the quintessential metal hits of the mid-80’s. Here is a complete list of songs from the original release of the game (note that Bark At The Moon was removed and that Love Fist is a fictional, in-game band who I’ll get to in a bit.)

Twisted Sister – I Wanna Rock

Motley Crue – Too Young To Fall In Love

Quiet Riot – Cum On Feel The Noize

The Cult – She Sells Sanctuary

Ozzy Osbourne – Bark At The Moon

Love Fist – Dangerous Bastard

Iron Maiden – 2 Minutes To Midnight

Loverboy – Working For The Weekend

Alcatrazz – God Blessed Video

Tesla – Cumin’ Atcha Live

Autograph – Turn Up The Radio

Megadeth – Peace Sells

Anthrax – Madhouse

Slayer – Raining Blood

Judas Priest – You’ve Got Another Thing Coming

Love Fist – Fist Fury

David Lee Roth – Yankee Rose

That is quite a list of signature 80’s rock and metal. Of course I can listen to this stuff all day and night long and probably make a years-long playlist out of it, but I think this selection really captures the spirit of the time.

A radio station is more than its songs. V-Rock features everything that makes this a true 1980’s rock station. The station has hilarious transition lines like “V-Rock – for people who wear name tags to work” and “While other stations’ listeners are in school … we’re shoplifting!” A few of the commercials, like the “complete the look – goth edition” spot for the Vice City Mall are also tailored to the station.

And above all else, V-Rock has an entertaining and outright hilarious DJ. Helming the mic for the station is Lazlow, who was an intern to the station’s former DJ, Couzin Ed. Ed was fired and Lazlow given the reigns as a cost-cutting move. In fact, Couzin Ed calls in at one point to lambaste Lazlow for being unqualified to host a metal station.

Couzin Ed has been a real-life radio DJ, and Jeffery “Lazlow” Jones was also a DJ and multimedia personality when both were hired by Rockstar Games to be involved in the Grand Theft Auto series. Lazlow is in fact chiefly responsible for the success of the game’s radio stations in his role as executive producer of the soundtrack.

While very accomplished in real life, Lazlow’s in-game character is much less heralded. Lazlow is a loser, being unable to score with a local waitress and having played in marching band while Couzin Ed was doing bong hits. Lazlow even laments that V-Rock’s mascot, the Vulture, gets more airtime than he does. It makes for some entertaining drives around Vice City to listen to Lazlow get cut down by most of the population, such as when biker gang leader Mitch Baker calls in to give Lazlow shit for playing “sissy music.” And this call-in happens right after the station plays Loverboy, if I’m not mistaken.

In a bonus segment only available on the game’s officially-issued soundtrack, Lazlow is fired as the host of V-Rock. Lazlow would go on to find hosting jobs throughout the GTA series, culminating in being an actual character in Grand Theft Auto V. The real-life Lazlow would continue his involvement with Rockstar Games until 2020 when he left the company.

If having compelling music and on-air “talent” wasn’t enough, the game outdid itself by inventing its own band. Love Fist is a group of drug-addled Scotsmen who fit right in with the hair metal scene. A handful of original songs were recorded for the game and feature on V-Rock. Two other songs air in segments during Love Fist-related game content. A Love Fist EP with all four songs present was made available in 2013 for digital purchase and streaming.

The band were given members and personalities to suit the times. Lead singer Jezz Torrent (say his name in a Scottish accent…) is featured in several cutscenes as a party guest. The band also has a series of missions in-game where Tommy Vercetti must help the band escape a stalker, get their needed drugs, and get to their gig. Love Fist’s former members and mentions of their music can be found in later GTA games as well.

The music of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was great overall, and having a dedicated metal station with so much work put into it made the game that much better. I’ve spent countless hours in Vice City, driving my stolen cars and jamming to the great songs on offer. And Lazlow’s work as DJ is great. The game both celebrates and totally rips on metal culture and is a hilarious stew of satire and dark humor. In terms of video game soundtracks it just doesn’t get any better than Vice City and V-Rock.

Upcoming Releases – Dog Days Of Summer

On By bigbadburchIn Upcoming Music4 Comments

The upcoming music section had been a bit bare for awhile, not much was trickling my way. That is until last week, when the floodgates opened and everyone and their mother put out new tracks. It’s a full docket now with some expected stuff and a few surprises. And also the one I’ve been going on about for months now.

Lamb Of God – Nevermore

Nevermore is the lead single from Lamb Of God’s upcoming album Omens, due October 7. It’s a fairly quick turnaround for the groove metal purveyors, as they are only two years removed from a self-titled release.

The song is pretty good, has a bit more of the classic LoG feel that I thought was a bit lacking on the last record. I do admittedly need to give that album another spin and chance. But I like what I hear with Nevermore and am looking forward to what the new album will bring.

Bulletboys – Holy Fuck

A real blast from the past here, the Bulletboys were some great sleaze rock back in the day. I haven’t kept up with them and I gather that they haven’t been active the entire time but they have regathered and have this new song on offer. No news on an album as yet. The song is pretty good and I’m digging what they’re up to, hopefully this is the start of more to come.

Ozzy Osbourne – Patient Number 9

The Prince of Darkness is back with the lead single from his new album of the same name, which releases September 9. It will be a fairly quick release after 2020’s Ordinary Man and follow the same format – produced by Andrew Watt and featuring several guest appearances. This track features Jeff Beck providing a guitar solo.

I think this approach is good for Ozzy at this point in his life – these grab-bag collaboration albums are far better than what he was doing through most of the 2000’s. Sure, it’s all a far cry from his otherworldly solo prime, but that was eons ago and no one’s going to ever recreate that.

This song is pretty good. I do think the production has the song buried a bit and the song also kind of meanders off in the end, but it’s still a pretty good listen. With all Ozzy has dealt with recently health-wise, just being able to do albums is an achievement in and of itself.

Queensryche – In Extremis

The new effort from Queensryche, titled Digital Noise Alliance, is set for an October 7 release. It will be the fourth album to feature singer Todd La Torre, who replaced Geoff Tate in the 2010’s after a very messy split.

I’ll be upfront – this song doesn’t move me much. I do think La Torre is a brilliant singer and that the material Queensryche have done since the split is leagues better than what they were churning out with Tate in the 2000’s, but the stuff just doesn’t grab me. It is competently executed music but it, well, doesn’t feel like Queensryche. I know there is no going back to the glory days, but I have a hard time getting behind the modern incarnation of the band. Maybe something else from the new album will be more compelling.

Amon Amarth – Get In The Ring

The Swedish Viking troupe had a single earlier in the year but a bit ago they released another new song as well as details for their new album. The Great Heathen Army is just around the corner on August 5.

The song is an original composition, not a cover of the Guns N’ Roses tune. It is pretty standard Amon Amarth fare. No, the band aren’t taking creative chances but their formula has made them one of the most successful metal bands of the 2000s so why would they mess with it? I’m fine with it and will be waiting for the new disc to drop here in a month or so.

Spirit Adrift – Mass Formation Psychosis

One of the 2010’s most interesting doom prospects return with a new record. 20 Centuries Gone will hit August 19. I’ll also be checking out these guys live next month as they open for Crowbar. The new stuff sounds great, this project hasn’t missed a beat since its inception.

Megadeth – We’ll Be Back

Well, well, well – what do we have here? After months of all talk and no song, here finally is the lead single from the new Megadeth album. The record, The Sick, The Dying … And The Dead! Will see release on September 2, a slight delay from a planned July release. It’s a highly anticipated release after several years and a lot of drama.

And wow, did they spit out a banger to open things up. We’ll Be Back is top notch thrash and a relentless track from start to finish. Dave Mustaine’s vocal delivery on the verses recalls the 1986 classic Black Friday, something I presume was intentional given the small nod to it also in the lyrics. And the riffs on this song are just all over and in your face. It is quite a statement from a band that has proven to be unpredictable over the years.

The video also serves as part one of a story arc, and there were rumors swirling around that this story is the origin of Megadeth’s long-running mascot Vic Rattlehead. I can’t find any information to truly confirm that, however. Either way, we’re getting some sort of hard-boiled war story told across the songs of the new album.

That wraps up the present edition of stuff to look forward to. Now with Megadeth finally offering something I don’t really have a long-anticipated thing to pine for next. Just gonna have to see what comes down the pipe next.

Album Of The Week – June 27, 2022

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week5 Comments

I wasn’t sure what this week’s album would be, then for, uh, no reason at all I recalled this 1992 incendiary masterpiece.

Rage Against The Machine (self-titled)

Released November 3, 1992 via Epic Records

My Favorite Tracks – Bombtrack, Bullet In The Head, Killing In The Name

Rage Against The Machine exploded onto the scene in 1992 with a combination of hip-hop and metal that expressed disdain for the political machine. The album and band would become a smash success, spreading their revolutionary message to an entire generation and also shaping the tides of the transforming metal scene in the 1990’s.

The idea of combining rap and metal together was explored in a handful of places before RATM hit. (Anthrax, Ice T with Body Count, etc.). In 1992 the concept would cease being abstract and come to the front lines of music, with Rage leading the charge. The rest of the early 90’s would be filled with this caustic combination of concerned parents’ two least favorite forms of music.

For Rage it was not simply doing rap and doing metal. The band were based in groove were definitely playing metal, but were also using hip-hop elements with Tom Morello’s unconventional guitar stylings and Zack de la Rocha’s vocal delivery. This was truly blending both forms of music together into one thing, not just a mash-up of two styles.

Bombtrack

It’s a whole new ballgame from the word go – a distinct bass line leads into the explosive opener and album’s third single. The song depicts revolutionary ideology and the video outlines the struggles of Peru’s Shining Path movement. The music is other worldly, while the message behind it was perhaps a bit obscured to us in the pre-Internet early 90’s. It was much harder to just look up elaborating information on stuff like this way back when.

Killing In The Name

Likely the best-known song from the album, even people who have never sought out RATM are likely familiar with the chant “fuck you I won’t do what you tell me.” The song was written in response to police brutality, specifically the Rodney King beating and the Los Angeles riots that resulted from the not guilty verdicts in the criminal trials. The song continues to be referenced to this day – Tom Morello brought it up after off-duty cops were found to have been among the January 6, 2021 insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol building.

Take The Power Back

Another protest anthem that encourages people to throw off the shackles of Euro-centric, capitalist education and reclaim individual liberty from the corrupt system. Zack de la Rocha is in staccato rap-mode delivery on this one.

Settle For Nothing

A bleak song about the harrowing experience of growing up poor in America and choosing the gang lifestyle for what is usually the only shot at any kind of life. We’ll settle for nothing now and settle for nothing later is this super heavy tune’s ultimate and sadly accurate conclusion.

Bullet In The Head

The album’s second single, this tune outlines the role of hollow consumerism and its place in suppressing the population. Tom Morello provides a host of odd guitar flourishes here to really make the song stand out.

Know Your Enemy

This time the band takes aim at the illusion of the American Dream and the idea that it’s available for everyone. It defines the purveyors of that dream as the actual enemy to be fought, not the people of foreign lands that the country often wound up fighting. The song features a guest vocal shot from Maynard James Keenan, whose outfit Tool was just about to find their own place in the music scene.

Wake Up

This song looks at the American government’s quest to suppress the African-American political movement of the 1960’s. The song references FBI memos from J. Edgar Hoover as well as a speech from Martin Luther King Jr. The idea that the FBI led the way to dismantling the black political movement was once controversial (and probably still is in some circles) but is a generally-accepted matter of fact now.

Fistful Of Steel

No reference to any specific events this time around, this is a generally-worded protest song that encourages action. Zack de la Rocha is fired up and ready to fight, and also to take out anyone who bows down to the regime.

Township Rebellion

Here we see the band encouraging rebellion through community. As with the rest of the album, it is a visceral attack on the institutions the band sees responsible for the ills of the world (the machine being raged against, of course).

Freedom

The album closes with its fourth and final single. The song explores the controversial case of Leonard Peltier, an American Indian Movement member who was convicted of murdering two FBI agents in 1975. The case is fraught with massive legal arguments I don’t have space to elaborate on here, Wikipedia of course has a summary of key points. Peltier has been in prison since 1977 and has had many unsuccessful appeals for clemency or pardon on his behalf in the decades since.

Rage Against The Machine was an explosive album that gripped the attention of the music masses in 1992 and beyond, as the “alt-metal” sound filled a vacuum left after 1991 blew everything apart. It was clear that rap and metal were going to get together at some point, and RATM became the true focal point of that marriage. Many more bands would incorporate groove-based elements as well as hip-hop into their music which would eventually lead to the late-90’s nu-metal scene.

But this isn’t about blaming Rage for all of that. Their music put the disparate elements together in a unified focus and showed that such a combination was not only possible but viable. They weren’t the first to do it but they were the ones who got the formula down in a unified manner.

And of course the true legacy of Rage Against The Machine might lie in their politically-charged lyrical content. The band did not hold back any revolutionary thought or spare anything out of fear of reprisal – they went all-out against what they considered the evils of the day.

It is very confrontational and dark content that in some respects was missed or went over some listeners’ heads. The band were everywhere when they broke out and the album sold over three million copies, and they got even bigger with their next record. Yet to this day, people act shocked that the band were “so political.” I don’t see how people missed the true depth of their political leanings but I guess that’s just how things go. But I also have to believe it inspired a new level of hard line activism among others – recalling the 1999 Seattle protests is one such example.

The concepts RATM presented in 1992 seem to be relevant 30 years later, which is probably not a good thing. The more things change, the more they stay the same I guess. I don’t know for myself how much I feel that call to power presented here (or if it would matter if I did). But I do know that Rage Against The Machine recorded a hell of a debut album all those years ago.

The Song Remains The Same – Tormentor

On By bigbadburchIn The Song Remains The Same2 Comments

It’s time again to pit several songs with the same title against each other. This time around it is one hell of a matchup – four legendary metal bands with the same-named song. In an odd coincidence, each instance of the song is on each band’s debut record. And they were all released within two years of each other between 1983 and 1985.

Today’s song is Tormentor,as the title suggests. This was also originally going to be my first post in this series but I punted this because it’s such a tough decision. And while I’m sure many other bands (especially metal bands) have recorded songs called Tormentor, I’m pretty sure this pool of four heavyweights of the industry can’t really be topped. Let’s begin.

Destruction

The original 1985 recording
The sonically much-improved 2000’s re-recording

Starting off with the venerable German thrashers, their version of Tormentor came in 1985 on their Infernal Overkill debut. I also included their 2000’s re-recording of the song because the original is pretty rough.

Destruction is the one I’m less familiar with because I didn’t get into them until the 2000’s, while I’ve listened to the other three bands for decades. The song is good, if perhaps under-developed. It is a simple tune that gets straight to the brutal point. While I’m usually bored by re-recorded stuff, Destruction has a famously bad sounding early discography and I think the re-recording gives new life to the song.

Slayer

Back to America and 1983, where Slayer started the Tormentor game on Show No Mercy. The song was a standout for me from the album. It’s a simple yet effective riff with some badass Tom Araya wailing and the requisite tortured solo section. The verses and chorus are clearly delivered and paint a vivid picture of hunting someone down in the shadows, the delivery on this song is great.

W.A.S.P.

The video and audio are hilariously out of sync

One year ahead to 1984 and the self-titled debut of Blackie Lawless and company. W.A.S.P.’s take on Tormentor got a music video as the song was included on some obscure movie that the band also appeared in. This is also an album I covered in the Album of the Week series back last October.

Tormentor wouldn’t be considered the highlight of the debut album but the song still offers the raw, aggressive sound on offer from a startling and brilliant record. The song gets the job done and was part of a sound and image that scared the hell out of suburban America in the 1980’s.

Kreator

We’ll head back to Germany and 1985 for the final version of Tormentor. It comes from Kreator’s debut Endless Pain, a very noteworthy album in the annals of thrash metal. Tormentor is a fitting inclusion on the album and is a savage and raw attack with a snarling vocal delivery and a pounding riff through its brief three minute run. While Kreator may have shared some production woes with countrymen Destruction, Kreator were able to make it work on this buzzsaw of an album. The gruff and unpolished sound would actually go on to influence metal bands.

So there we have four songs all named Tormentor from four of metal’s most well-known and loved groups. And it’s time to sort out who wins this little contest. I can rule out Destruction early, while I do like the track I think it pales a bit in comparison to the other three.

But this is where the trouble lies. The W.A.S.P. tune is great, but the Kreator song is snarling and savage, also just how I like it. And the Slayer song is a brilliant early performance from their first era.

And after a bit of review, it is Slayer who takes home the crown. In the end their song just goes places and communicates its horror story in a way that stands out from the pack. It’s a gem of a cut from their hallowed debut and a unique piece of sound from before their turn towards more straightforward and brutal thrash. And Tom Araya’s screams on that, holy hell how did he do that?

While these games can be fun when acts from all across music have cut songs with the same name, it gets really interesting when it’s all bands from one part of the spectrum. I guess tormenting people was a common thought among metal musicians in the early 80’s, I don’t know. I would be afraid of the night if I had all these long-haired metal freaks coming at me in the dark in 1984.

Heaven Can Wait – Would Iron Maiden Replace Bruce Dickinson (again)?

On By bigbadburchIn Controversy8 Comments

This is a kind of “current events” post I’m not all that into doing, but the topic at hand is significant enough to warrant my interest. It involves my favorite band and I just talked about them on Monday, so when this bit of news dropped the same day it certainly got my attention.

Iron Maiden’s legendary singer Bruce Dickinson recently gave an interview to UK tabloid Daily Star. The interview’s contents are transcribed via this Blabbermouth.net article. In the interview, Bruce gets at the (dark) possibility of not being able to perform to his usual standard as age wears on. He is on board with the band finding a replacement singer, with Bruce perhaps making small guest spots. It would be a situation like what Glenn Tipton does with Judas Priest, making spot appearances here and there as his battle with Parkinson’s disease keeps him from touring full-time.

In the abstract I honestly don’t see anything wrong with the sentiment. I get the thought here – if I can’t do it the way it needs to be done, get someone else who can. I’m generally not opposed to a band going out without a key piece for whatever reason – it is a job and if you can function as a unit with a replacement, go for it.

But we’re not in the abstract. This is Iron Maiden, and this is Bruce Dickinson. People don’t want a replacement for Bruce because it would be insanely tough to even find one, and because we’ve been down this road before. Bruce was replaced in the 1990’s by Blaze Bayley, who found rough footing behind the mic and took a lot of heat for his tenure. While a lot of Maiden’s backslide during the 90’s isn’t the fault of Blaze at all, it is true that he had a difficult time with some of the band’s classic material. With the band unwilling to step down in tuning to help, it left Blaze hanging at times in the live department. It was one oft-cited complaint from fans of that era.

Casting someone else in the role of Bruce Dickinson just isn’t going to work. There are some very talented singers out there, but is anyone really going to replace Bruce? Even if it was limited to being a touring vocalist, I just don’t see it happening.

And Bruce doesn’t see it happening either – he flat-out says “this will never happen” in the interview, referencing both being replaced and the idea of a hologram tour. And this is what leads to the speculative but curious part of the interview – if it isn’t happening at all, why discuss the topic with the media?

I have to begin with this thought – the Daily Star is a tabloid and one with a not-always sterling reputation. While I doubt there was any deception involved here, did the paper simply lead Bruce into this line of questioning? I don’t have access to the paper itself so I didn’t see the whole interview, and we know that media types know how to lead interview subjects into lines of questioning that provide sensational headlines. I can’t say either way but it’s a possibility.

The interview sent Maiden fans into a bit of a tizzy. One possibility discussed was that Bruce was foreshadowing – maybe he knows something we don’t and that his time as Maiden’s air raid siren is nearing its end. Of course we have zero evidence of this, and also the band is presently on tour and Bruce doesn’t sound like Jon Bon Jovi, er, someone who needs to step down from his duties. I doubt this is the case and I also hope it isn’t. Bruce has survived throat cancer and was able to return to the stage, and is presently in fine form on tour.

Some fans are speculating that Bruce is talking in code here – that he is in favor of replacement of a member who can’t continue, and that the rest of the band is against it. While it’s a wild theory that leads down a few rabbit holes, it’s also purely based on speculation about things we have no information on, so I’m going to leave it at that. I don’t see enough based in reality to commit more words to the series of ideas and I don’t think that’s what Bruce is doing here.

At the end of the day I’ll take the part where Bruce says “this is never happening” as the gospel from the interview. He could very well have just been making conversation or talking off the top of his head, who knows? It gave me and others pause, but after looking at it a bit there’s probably nothing of real concern here.

Someday, of course, Iron Maiden will ride off into the sunset. That day is closer than it ever has been, but it’s also not happening tomorrow or anytime soon. They have this tour to finish, they have a planned tour to air out the Senjutsu album in its entirety, and there has been talk about new albums and other things. This lineup of the band has remained in tact for over 20 years and the band has cemented its legacy as one of metal’s greatest acts in this time. Hopefully when they do call it a day, it will be with this lineup bowing out.