Tag: metal

Album Of The Week – April 4, 2022

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week5 Comments

This week’s pick is an album that saw a band move on from their power metal roots and lean fully into the symphonic sound they had been prodding at their last few records before. The results would launch the group into the stratosphere and put them at the forefront of heavy metal in their native Finland and worldwide. The symphonic movement in metal would explode, while the very group that put it on the map would unexpectedly reconfigure after the touring cycle for this album.

Nightwish – Once

Released June 7, 2004 via Nuclear Blast Records (Europe)

My Favorite Tracks – Ghost Love Score, Planet Hell, Nemo

Keyboardist and band leader Tuomas Holopainen has always been the chief force behind Nightwish’s compositions. For Once he chose to record most of the album with orchestra accompaniment, utilizing the London Philharmonic. The album would be the most expensive to have been recorded in Finland, a record to be broken again by Nightwish years later.

While Holopainen was the band’s mastermind, its showcase would be singer Tarja Turunen. Turunen is a classically-trained soprano singer whose operatic style was an unlikely but welcome fit in heavy metal. The power and character of her singing would be the centerpiece of Nightwish’s presentation.

While Once is available in a few configurations with bonus tracks, I will be discussing the standard 11-track version most widely released.

Dark Chest Of Wonders

The opener is epic and heavy. It’s the perfect blend of symphonic composition and heavy metal attack. The song goes on a fantasy-laden adventure far from the grind of reality, a recurring theme in Holopainen’s songwriting. It’s clear through the Nightwish catalog that he wishes to go on a fantastic journey and Nightwish is his vehicle for that trip.

Wish I Had An Angel

Another heavy tune that was also one of the album’s hit singles. It features Tarja on the verses and bassist Marco Hietala belting the chorus. While the song is dripped in very intense imagery and symbology, its roots are far more basic – Holopainen spawned the concept after seeing people hit on his girlfriend while out on the town. Some people get into fights over that, Tuomas writes hit songs from it instead. While many of the songs on Once are epic and far-reaching, this song keeps it pretty simple and drives everything home.

Nemo

Written about the origins of the name Nemo, meaning nameless or no one. The song is based in more of Holopainen’s sense of loss and search for meaning. Despite the dour subject matter, the music is lush and uplifting, creating a beautiful soundscape. The song was the album’s first single and was a major hit ahead of Once’s release. It stands as the group’s most-played song live and one of the three most recognizable for the group, all which hail from this album.

Planet Hell

A heavier approach sees Nightwish tackle the scenario of the planet devolving into total chaos. That’s subject matter than any thrash band would do any day of the week, but here Nightwish wrap the harrowing ordeal up in another epic, operatic offering featuring both Tarja and Marco handling vocals.

Planet Hell would take an odd place in gaming lore a few years after its release as part of a compilation video featuring players in Runescape exploiting a glitch to attack others outside of the traditional player versus player area. It’s odd how songs sometimes get used in weird places and wind up being a piece of lore.

Creek Mary’s Blood

Holopainen wrote this song based upon a book of the same name. It is another sad account of the plight of the Native Americans, this time told in epic fashion by a group of Finnish musicians. The song’s conclusion features a poem originally written in English but subsequently read in the Lakota language by musician John Two-Hawks.

The Siren

A song clearly about the mythical sirens who would lure sailors to the rocks and their deaths with beautiful singing. It’s a perfectly fitting song to record when your singer is Tarja Turunen. The Siren was the album’s fourth and final single release.

Dead Gardens

It was reportedly written by Holopainen about a bad period of writer’s block. I’d imagine a lot of writers wish they could come up with stuff like this in down periods. This song does shade a bit toward the sound Nightwish would pursue on albums after Once.

Romanticide

We’re into a blistering track that goes for the throat and tackles more lovelorn concepts of self-worth. It’s a tale as old as time but told in grand and heavy fashion here. Tarja’s operatic delivery of the heavy-hitting chorus punctuates the affair.

Ghost Love Score

Although not released as a single, this ten-minute epic has possibly become Nightwish’s most famous song in retrospect. While the song was noted as a standout upon the album’s release, it would be years later when the YouTube song reaction community got a hold of this track that it would take on a whole new life.

Ghost Love Score is a monster of a song, offering movements and passages that stand out from the typical popular music compositions. It is a bit of a hybrid prog-opera offering that puts all of Tarja Turunen’s talents on full display, as well as the compositional strengths of Tuomas Holopainen.

The song’s theme is simple – two lovers have parted but the connection and fondness remains. It is a hauntingly mesmerizing and victorious song that couples beauty and tragedy in the most grand manner.

Despite its extended runtime and challenging architecture, Ghost Love Score would become a live staple for the band. It was difficult to imagine anyone besides Tarja handling the vocal duties on the song, but in 2013 at the Wacken festival present-day Nightwish singer Floor Jansen delivered a performance that has the Internet buzzing still almost nine years later. The line from Tarja to Floor is a story for another time but, after everything, Ghost Love Score stands as perhaps Nightwish’s most triumphant moment.

Kuolema tekee taiteilijan

This obvious cut-and-paster of a title was a single released in Finland and Japan. The song was performed entirely in Finnish, a rarity for the group. The song’s title translates to “Death Makes An Artist.” Even without a translation guide, the song conveys a sense of beauty and sadness, ever-present themes in the Nightwish discography.

Higher Than Hope

The album’s closer is one with a tragic yet triumphant story behind it. Marc Brueland was a former comic book artist in San Diego who was pitched in a seven-year battle with cancer and began doing DJ sets at a local club. One night he stumbled across a cover version of Nightwish’s Walking In The Air. This would lead to Marc getting in contact with the band and forging a friendship with Tuomas. Marc would join the band on stage for a performance of Walking In The Air.

Higher Than Hope was a song Tuomas wrote about Marc’s battle and spirit. Marc delivers the spoken word passage in the song’s mid-point interlude. Sadly Marc would pass away several months before the release of Once and was never able to hear the song he inspired. Nightwish do not play the song live unless members of the Brueland family are in attendance.

When Marc Brueland joined Nightwish on stage in 2003

Once marked the moment that Nightwish broke free from the power metal scene and established themselves as a premier act across the world. The album sold over two million copies and its songs are among the most famous from the group still to this day. It made Nightwish practically royalty in Finland and well known everywhere else.

Nightwish would embark on a successful touring cycle for Once, culminating in a show at Helsinki’s Hartwall Arena on October 25, 2005 that was immortalized on video and audio as the End Of An Era set. The name was well-chosen as, just after the show, Holopainen and the band made the shocking decision to fire Tarja Turunen from the group. The move would reverberate through the metal world and cause months, if not years, of drama and toxic chaos on the Internet.

Whatever came after, Once was a glorious moment in the sun for Nightwish. They delivered on the promise creeping into their prior few albums to break the mold and combine heavy metal with classical arrangement in a way that would spark a series of new scenes within metal. The time and expense poured into the album paid off and put the band on a new plane of existence.

Album Of The Week – March 28, 2022

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week9 Comments

This week I’m taking a dive into the album that really hooked me into music. I talked about it in an older post, now it’s time to get specific and go over the album in greater detail. I got the cassette as a Christmas gift a few months after its release and I played it over and over and over again, literally wearing out the tape and burning the album into my 12-year old brain. The results would have me chasing music all over and shape my pursuit of sound into a new decade while in my formative years.

Motley Crüe – Dr. Feelgood

Released September 1, 1989 via Elektra Records

My Favorite Tracks – Kickstart My Heart, Dr. Feelgood, Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)

Dr. Feelgood was the fifth studio album from Motley Crüe. The album would be a smash success for the group, topping charts and selling several times platinum. The group had been instrumental in starting the hair metal era of the 1980’s and would end the decade with a massive triumph. The album spawned five singles which were in constant rotation on MTV. Hair metal as a whole was winding down as the calendar turned to 1990 but one of its most important acts was still running hot.

Dr. Feelgood

After a brief intro to set the scene, the album kicks off with the title track and lead single. Dr. Feelgood is a massive, heavy song that outlines the highs and lows of Jimmy, a fictional drug dealer. The full, bombastic production of Bob Rock was a welcome change from the thin sound of the band’s two prior albums. It went a long way to reminding everyone that the Crüe had the chops to play a harder brand of rock than what the L.A. Scene had largely devolved into in the late ’80’s.

Dr. Feelgood did great as a single – it was the band’s first top ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and also their only gold-certified single.

Slice Of Your Pie

Moving on to one of the many songs on the record about sex, here we have a song full of euphemisms and sex talk that skirts the lines between clever and explicit. Even as one of the perhaps secondary tracks, this song still provides a sleazy thrill ride with the band’s rediscovered chops and improved production. The end of the song borrows from the Beatles track “She’s So Heavy” because that’s what everyone was expecting from a Motley Crüe album in 1989.

Rattlesnake Shake

Another sleazy rocker that glorifies the evils of lust and fornication. Jesus wept.

Kickstart My Heart

This song was on offer as the album’s second single. Nikki Sixx wrote it about his infamous heroin overdose in 1987 where he was apparently injected with multiple doses of adrenaline to revive him and was dead for a few minutes. The story is disputed by some but the song remains.

Kickstart My Heart quickly caught fire on release and became noted as one of the album’s standout songs. It has gone on to become the band’s signature anthem. We aren’t simply talking about a good song here – this is possibly the best song the band ever recorded, and is easily in the conversation even if not. It is a blistering effort with an interlude that perfectly sums up the Motley Crüe experience. The song is a shot of adrenaline and is found on millions of workout playlists worldwide.

Without You

It’s not hair metal without a ballad and Dr. Feelgood hosts a few. The first is this decently crafted tune that is every sappy love stereotype possible shoved into a song. The song is noted to have been written by Tommy Lee about Heather Locklear. The song did well as a single, providing the band’s second top ten showing on the Billboard Hot 100.

This is one of those songs I can go back and forth on. I’ll admit that I probably liked it a lot better when I was 12 than I do 32 years later, but it’s not a song I feel a need to skip over when I play the album. It’s a bit much but I can generally live with it.

Same Ol’ Situation

We thankfully pick the pace way back up with what was the fifth and final single released from the album. It’s a hot, fun rocker about falling for a gal who ditches the guy for another gal. The video was a performance clip, showing the band at the height of their popularity. While some might argue that people only remember the singles more because they were aired out more, I’d say this is a case of picking the right singles to air out. The song is not necessarily any “different” than several others but it packs a harder punch and gets the listener’s attention.

Sticky Sweet

Another ode to the glorious activity of hooking up. It’s simple, to the point and well executed. The lyrics offer a bit of a reference to the earlier Crüe song Ten Seconds To Love.

She Goes Down

One more sleazy number, it’s blatantly obvious what the song is going for.

Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)

This quasi-ballad and top 20 single brings a change of pace and another signature track from the Crüe. Nikki Sixx lifted the title from a movie he doesn’t remember, though many speculate that it’s a line from Heartbreak Ridge that he his using.

While the title invokes a snarky vibe the song itself does not take that path and instead sticks to the high road. This is a quintessential break up song that celebrates the love found and then parts on fond terms. The song builds to a driving conclusion that uses the title to great effect. It’s another well-done effort.

Time For Change

I’ll just get straight to it – I hate the song. I think it sucks. It’s a shitty hair metal attempt to do The Greatest Love Of All or something like that. It has always bothered me and I can’t help but wish the song would somehow fall off the record. But it’s there, and here we are at the end of the album.

Dr. Feelgood was Motley Crüe’s best-selling album, having been certified six times platinum in the United States. It provided the biggest hits of the group’s career and defied the times to put an exclamation point on a genre of music that many were bemoaning at the time and whose death was just around the corner. Motley Crüe themselves seemed poised to survive the specter of 1991 and would only join the list of hair metal casualties due to their own problems a few years later.

The album was a success for more than the band, too. Producer Bob Rock had reinvigorated the group’s sound after two albums that left something to be desired in production. A lot of people noticed his work on Dr. Feelgood, including Lars Ulrich. The Bob Rock-Metallica meetup in 1991 would alter the face of music forever.

Is Dr. Feelgood the best Motley Crüe album? Some critics think so. I would agree that it’s in the conversation but it’s also hard to ignore the sheer ferocity of those first two records. This album is a career-defining effort though and was a huge victory lap for the band at the end of the decade.

As I’ve said, this is the album I played over and over again and that set my music fandom off the scale. I had been following along with music for several years before as a young tourist, but with Dr. Feelgood I became obsessed and had to have more. My own course would go every which way and much heavier as 1991 loomed on the horizon but this album is near the top of a list of the most important albums to me. It kickstarted me into the path I’m still on today, with piles of music in multiple formats and the thing I spend a great deal of my time discussing.

Upcoming Releases, Further Into 2022

On By bigbadburchIn Upcoming Music5 Comments

The month of March is winding down and music acts are offering up new albums left and right. It’s a mixed bag this time around with no central focus on any one sound. Some big boys are coming out to play in the later stages of the pandemic and it looks like tours might fire off for real this year so out comes a whole trove of new music.

Def Leppard – Kick

The legendary British rockers are back with a new album Diamond Star Halos, due May 27 and marking their first release in seven years, which seems to be the new norm for the group. The album also hits just before the band head out on the much-hyped and delayed stadium tour with Motley Crue across the US this summer.

The new song Kick is a simple rocker that throws back to eras in rock even before Def Leppard first hit the scene. It is very hard telling what we will get with a new Def Leppard album in 2022 but the lead single is a nice, simple number to kick off the proceedings. It doesn’t entirely excite me but I am curious about what they’re gonna get up to.

Muse – Compliance

I covered a new Muse track a few months back but now we have a second single as well as full album information. Compliance is the second single from The Will Of The People which will see release on August 26.

The song is an electric-pop number that indicates Muse is going to offer a mixed bag of sounds on the new album. They have done work across several styles over the years so it might be a good approach and offer a bit of something for everyone. The song and the theme of the album as a whole have a danger of being interpreted in strange ways in today’s nasty political climate, but it wouldn’t be the first time Muse tunes have been co-opted for shitty political movements.

Blut Aus Nord – That Cannot Be Dreamed

The French avant-garde black metal unit are back with a new album Disharmonium – Undreamable Abysses, which will see release on May 20. This song is much in line with their prior work, which is nasty, atmospheric and mostly inaccessible. It’s the soundscape of nightmares and horrors, meaning the group have done their job well yet again.

Talas – Inner Mounting Flame

A bit of a surprise entry here from a band that has been inactive longer than many people have been alive. Talas were a 70’s and 80’s rock outfit featuring the talents of renowned bassist Billy Sheehan, who just celebrated his 69th birthday last Saturday.

Inner Mounting Flame is not a new song, Talas apparently played the track at live gigs just before Sheehan left the band to join with David Lee Roth. This song might be a recording from a planned yet unreleased album from that time period. It is nice to hear something from yesteryear and also from a bit of a hidden gem band like Talas. The outfit and their record label Metal Blade promise more news soon, perhaps that unreleased album will finally see the light of day.

Weezer – A Little Bit Of Love

Apparently Weezer are still an active recording group.

Joe Satriani – Pumpin’

One of the guitar’s most brilliant masters, Joe Satriani is preparing the release of his 18th solo album The Elephants Of Mars. It is a quick turnaround for the record which hits on April 8.

It has been more than a minute since I last checked in on Satriani. There isn’t a lot to say – he is one of the best axe wielders out there. Pumpin’ is a nice little jam that keeps it short and seems to be having fun.

EMF – Sister Sandinista

A big time throwback is coming seemingly out of nowhere to release a new album. EMF released 3 albums in the early 90’s and had a massive hit with the single Unbelievable. The group has toured off and on in the time since but Go Go Sapiens will mark their first new material since 1995. The album releases on April 1.

Some fans in the YouTube comments on this video are disputing how much of EMF really did the new album but I’m not up on their lineup history so it’s not a huge concern for me. It is pretty cool to hear something from a group who hit a long time ago and I figured were long gone. We’ll see how their electro-alt rock plays in 2022 but the single sounds nice.

Cave In – New Reality

A welcome surprise came last week when legendary post-rock outfit Cave In announced their reformation and new music. Heavy Pendulum will arrive on May 20. The band had been active in the past few years in order to pay tribute to fallen bandmate Caleb Scofield but were largely dormant in most of the 2010’s.

New Reality is an apt title for our present state. Cave In are joining the pandemic era with their heavy blend of post-rock and post-well, everything. It is a stellar tune that predicts good things for the upcoming new record. And in the video they get to have some fun turning Kurt Ballou’s studio into a playland.

Tales From The Stage – King Diamond, 2005

On By bigbadburchIn Memories5 Comments

It’s time for another concert recap, this time I’m going back to 2005 when I went to see one of metal’s legends live. It was my first and to date only time seeing him. The tour was supported by 3 bands that have gone on to become bigger names in the extreme metal community. There were also some snags getting to the show that led to a less than optimal experience, at least for a moment.

The show took place in April 2005 and the lineup was King Diamond with Nile, The Black Dahlia Murder and Behemoth as support. The show was at Pop’s, a large club on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River in St. Louis. It’s one of those bars that only closes down for an hour to clean up or whatever, but is the perfect size to host gigs.

At the time I lived about 100 miles from St. Louis. I was heading to the show on my own. Several friends of mine were covering a greater distance from the other side of the state (where I live now). We met up on the way and I parked my car and rode with the group.

On the way we got snarled in a large traffic jam due to a semi trailer wreck. It took a lot longer than usual to make the trek and would cost us the chance to see the opening band. When we got to the venue I had it in my head that The Black Dahlia Murder was playing first, but I was crestfallen to find that Behemoth was the one almost done with their set. I was very much looking forward to seeing Behemoth whereas I was indifferent about TBDM at the time. I think we got to see maybe two songs from Behemoth and it was a bit of a downer. But there was still plenty of metal to go.

The Black Dahlia Murder came up next. I wasn’t very familiar with them at the time and I was a bit peeved that I didn’t get to see Behemoth. Not TBDM’s fault, of course, but I wasn’t fully vested in their set. I spent time milling around and catching up with the large number of friends who made the trek to the concert. My memories are a bit muddled from attending too many shows over the years but I believe I’ve seen them at least one other time since then and gave more attention to their performance. Still they played on and have made quite the name for themselves in the years since this show.

Nile took the stage after The Black Dahlia Murder. By 2005 Nile was already a hot commodity on the death metal circuit. They were the band that essentially brought the genre back into public attention after a lull in the late 90’s. Their brand of Egyptian-themed death metal along with technical and symphonic elements had put the world on notice. This concert was a month ahead of the release of their Annihilation Of The Wicked album.

Nile had plenty of material by this time for their direct support slot. They had established themselves with now-classic albums Black Seeds Of Vengeance and In Their Darkened Shrines. The upcoming album Annihilation… would only add to their epic death metal legacy. Nile’s stage show was a no-frills presentation with mainman/guitarist Karl Sanders pausing between songs to set samples for the next tune. It stood out in contrast to the theatrical nature of King Diamond and also Behemoth, but Nile’s music brought the goods and did not require an elaborate stage set to keep up with their tour mates. The crowd was full of more old-guard metal types there to see King who might not have taken to the more extreme nature of Nile’s music but I noticed that most of the group was into the set. It was in this time that the old guard and new of metal put up a united front and offered a diverse array of touring packages that didn’t try to nitpick subgenres or suit the tastes of one segment of fans. It was all hands on deck for heavy metal’s resurgence in this time frame.

I couldn’t find a good 05 clip so 03 works

After Nile exited the stage things were set up for the main event. King Diamond had made a career of theatrics and was going to put on a splendid set. A large fence that aped the appearance of wrought iron was put up and of course plenty of fog would churn out through the performance.

King Diamond’s twin guitar attack would feature his longtime compatriot Andy LaRocque as well as Mike Weir, who had been with King both solo and in Mercyful Fate for several years. LaRocque was a world renowned guitarist and producer with a fistful of credits to his name but his main gig has often always been with King Diamond.

By this point in time King Diamond had 11 studio albums recorded so his set would hit upon several of his works. The Puppet Master was his most recently recorded effort from 2 years prior, a few of those songs were interspersed with works from his classics like Abigail, Conspiracy and Them. While King Diamond doesn’t have a signature “hit” per se, the track Welcome Home from Them might serve that station and was aired that night.

King Diamond was in fine form on stage that night, his signature falsetto ringing out bright and clear. He made plenty of time for banter between songs, referencing that he had not played in St. Louis in many years and was happy to be back. He would often call the city “San Louis” which fit his exotic persona. The haunting backdrop with the fence and fog perfectly created Halloween in April.

King and the band would air out a few Mercyful Fate tunes during the retrospective set. Come To The Sabbath and Evil saw time that night. The set hit the highlights of King’s career while also giving a bit of time to more recent tunes from Abigail II and the aforementioned Puppet Master. It left the crowd happy to have seen one of metal’s legends grace the stage in St. Louis again.

A way more recent version, but live footage from the 2005 era is hard to find

Time would go on to be kind to the acts featured on stage that night. Nile would continue their dominant run through death metal, while Behemoth and The Black Dahlia Murder have gone on to become two of the hottest tickets in metal today. King Diamond would release one more album in 2007 before a serious health scare stalled his career for a few years. He has since returned to the touring circuit and is planning a new studio record. He has also reunited Mercyful Fate, though their touring plans were cut short by the pandemic.

It was very nice to see King Diamond that night, it has to date been my only time seeing him in concert in any form. I have since seen both Behemoth and The Black Dahlia Murder again, but haven’t had the occasion to catch Nile again. It was a shame to miss Behemoth’s set that night due to traffic but the rest of the show more than made up for it.

Album Of The Week – March 6, 2022

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week5 Comments

Today’s album is widely-regarded as the magnum opus of a legendary singer’s solo career. This crown jewel of an album, coupled with the low-water mark his former band was at in the late 90’s, would result in a reunion and a new legacy.

Bruce Dickinson – The Chemical Wedding

Released September 25, 1998 via Air Raid Records UK

My Favorite Tracks – The Tower, Chemical Wedding, The Book Of Thel

The Chemical Wedding was Bruce’s 5th solo outing and his 4th since leaving Iron Maiden in 1993. Former Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith was also along for the ride, having joined with Bruce the year prior for the Accident Of Birth album. Helming the console for production and also picking up a guitar was Roy Z, whose Tribe Of Gypsies bandmates would also fill out Dickinson’s solo band.

The album’s lyrics and themes were inspired by the works of English poet and painter William Blake. Blake’s painting The Ghost Of A Flea was used as the cover art. The marriage of Blake’s themes of religion and nationality along with heavy metal would create a stunning and unique record. At a few points where Blake’s works were directly read as song intros, English shock rocker Arthur Brown provided the narration.

King In Crimson

Things open with a banger. The guitars are low and heavy and Bruce builds through a powerful pre-chorus to deliver the to-the-point chorus. Adrian and Roy Z are all over this track with an extended solo section. This is one of the songs from the album that one really wonders what it would have sounded like with Maiden.

Chemical Wedding

A more atmospheric and brooding tune, the title track evokes images of marriage and death. It’s unclear what a “chemical wedding” actually is but it sounds pretty messed up. Bruce again stays quiet through the verses then goes air raid siren on the chorus. Play to your strengths, so they say, and Bruce does just that.

The Tower

A bass line opens the track, reminiscent of that band. The song goes into another metal outing that sees Bruce attacking the vocals from the get-go. The lyrics possess a ton of symbolism that some speculate is derived from tarot cards. This blend of heavy metal and spooky, mysterious symbology persists throughout the record and creates a vibe that transcends the cliches of heavy metal songwriting.

Killing Floor

The heaviness ratchets up a few notches on this slamming tune about the Devil. Satan is out on the prowl here, seemingly attacking people through their dreams in the vein of Freddy Kruger. The pre-chorus offers a bit of a melodic reprieve before the band tears through the heavy as hell chorus. This song also got a video with Arthur Brown fittingly in the role of Satan.

Of all the music videos, this is certainly one of them

The Book Of Thel

Directly lifted from a William Blake work, both Blake’s story and Dickinson’s song ponder the inevitable loss of innocence and the bleak ultimate fate of life. The song tears through the twisted tale of Thel discovering her terrible destiny.

Gates of Urizen

More from Blake’s mythology here, Urizen is a powerful figure that represents one aspect of a central god who later fell and created the material world out of spite. The song offers a vague recounting of being at Urizen’s gates and a dark transformation happening. Despite the heavy subject matter the song is one of the lighter offerings on the record.

Jerusalem

Most Dickinson-related fare requires an epic and Jerusalem serves that purpose here. Tied to Blake’s most ambitious and ponderous work of the same name, Dickinson sings of Jerusalem being re-established in England. The lyrics hold to Blake’s vague work, not offering a clear picture of whatever symbolism is delivered here. The band are up to the task of bringing a lush soundscape to this epic tale.

Trumpets Of Jericho

Here Bruce takes a story from the Bible, one where soldiers march around the outer walls of the city of Jericho until the walls crumble. In this song the unconventional siege tactic doesn’t work, because nothing about science indicates it would work, and the walls remain. The tune discusses the feeling of futility after being unable to break the walls down.

Machine Men

This song makes use of a well-worn topic in heavy metal – the literal use of metal to create engines of war. Soulless metal monsters storm the landscape and devour humanity in their jaws. The creations here seem to be made of humans now repurposed as war machines. The song’s heaviness matches the weight of the subject matter.

The Alchemist

The album closes with a very trippy and atmospheric number. The meaning is somewhat unclear but the protagonist seems to be rejecting the ills of civilization, it is a last stand against death and decay. As the song winds to its conclusion it offers the chorus of the title track as a reprise.

The Chemical Wedding was a critically acclaimed success for Bruce Dickinson. It is widely considered his solo masterpiece. Commercial success was more elusive for this traditional metal album in 1998, just as it was for Bruce and Adrian’s former bandmates toiling in obscurity. Less than 6 months after the release of this album, Bruce and Adrian rejoined Iron Maiden for a reunion that kicked off a new legacy for that group and an era that has now lasted 23 years.

It is believed by many that The Chemical Wedding was the catalyst for the reunion, as Bruce and Adrian were outshining Iron Maiden’s maligned output of late 90’s. It seems to have been a more practical decision involving finances but this doesn’t stop fans from ranking this record highly, even slotting it ahead of some of Maiden’s classics. Many wonder what this album would have sounded like backed by Iron Maiden, though that discounts the influence of Roy Z. Rather than ponder what-ifs, the reformed Maiden pushed forward with creativity on their own terms. We get occasional live samples of what Bruce would sound like on the Blaze Bayley material, but The Chemical Wedding stands on its own as a Bruce Dickinson classic.

Type O Negative – Black No. 1

On By bigbadburchIn S-Tier Songs1 Comment

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 time hop back to 1993 and revisit a song that became a standard of alt-culture at the time. The tune was largely responsible for breaking the band and they would go on to great success for the next 17 years. Even today the song holds as a well-loved staple and a special treat around the Halloween season.

Type O Negative – Black No.1 (Little Miss Scare-All)

The unedited song

The song was released on Bloody Kisses, Type O’s breakthrough third album that catapulted the group to platinum-selling status and mainstream stars, albeit reluctantly. The group were previously a sludgy, underground entity that suddenly found themselves on MTV and airwaves with their twisted take on doom and gothic metal.

The original album take of the song clocks in at a meaty 11:15. A much-truncated version runs a hair under 5 minutes, this includes the video cut found at the bottom of this post. I don’t have ready stats about radio edits for songs but losing over 6 minutes carves out quite a bit of this tune. It’s probably not a radio edit record considering songs like Freebird and that one by Iron Butterfly, but it’s a pretty noteworthy edit. I’ll be discussing the full song for purposes of this examination, though it’s fair to say many people came to find the band through the video cut and the song’s shorter form.

The song itself exemplifies the duality of its creators – both deadly serious and full of shit. The song can be taken as, and often is, celebrated as a beacon of dark culture, but the truth is that frontman Peter Steele wrote the song to slag off a goth ex-girlfriend of his. The words and imagery were meant sarcastically, as outlined in this Revolver magazine retrospective on Bloody Kisses. And to further the irony, Peter was literally waiting in line to dump a truck full of shit as part of his job when he came up with the song.

The song’s silly-yet-serious presentation would define the tune and the group. The whole thing had the feel of a giant joke but came off with deadly execution and passed for totally serious dialog. All of the hokey goth references, everything from Lily Munster to wolfskin boots sound goofy on the surface but did truly define a valid subculture. And Black No. 1 would go on to draw more people into that subculture, one that previously wasn’t as friendly with heavy metal as many might think. This was a convergence of two different circles rather than an eye cast toward one.

The song, for all its girth, is divided into 3 movements. The first part opens in creepy fashion, introducing the song’s villainess and painting a specific vision of her gothiness. The lyrics reference everything from Halloween to makeup, clove cigarettes and the namesake black hair dye. It’s the kitchen sink of goth talking points. The song builds into a heavy chorus featuring Peter Steele’s distinct low-register chant of the title and a smooth-yet-dirty guitar tone that stood out from the pack in 1993.

The song moves into its second portion, where Steele spends several minutes singing “loving you was like loving the dead” over and over again. On the surface it sounds boring but the music provides enough variety through the passage to keep things fresh. The ultimate “gotcha” wasn’t that Peter was able to insult his ex this way, it was that he was able to make interesting and a huge hit. Of course the full-length version of the song builds to slight lyrical change that radio and MTV did not carry. The song’s final movement calms things down a bit and lets the guitar riff for a moment before the chorus/title leads everyone out into the night to either find or be their own haughty goth chick.

Black No. 1 would lead the way for Type O Negative’s charge onto the shelves of music collectors. The band blew up on MTV and began selling copies of Bloody Kisses at a breakneck pace. Peter Steele was very reluctant to take the band on tour, fearful of giving up his job and life. His feet-dragging cost the group their drummer, Sal Abruscato, who left to join Life Of Agony. Eventually Type O would hit the road and cash in on their success, becoming a mainstay on the touring circuit and selling plenty more albums until Peter Steele’s untimely death in 2010.

Why is this an S-Tier song?

Black No. 1 is a monolith of a tune that put a band on the map and kicked off a celebration of darker subcultures that endures to this day. The song itself is equal parts plodding doom and campy jeers at goths yet somehow invests the listener on its 11 minute runtime. It gave shape to Type O Negative’s direction moving forward, which would largely explore the same “droopy doom” tunes and shed any pretense of past thrash metal influence.

Even greater than the contribution to the band’s fortunes is its long-lasting impact on culture. Not a Halloween passes anymore without this song being posted all over social media. It cast a light on goth subculture, perhaps not something anyone was asking for but it happened anyway and the song went a long way to putting that scene out there for the world to see. It was a lasting influence, seen in makeup and fashion all these years later. I’m sure some people would take exception to pointing to this as the moment goth culture entered the main timeline, but I don’t know of a more telling spot where that happened.

Type O Negative struck the sonic equivalent of oil with Black No. 1. The song marked their arrival on the early 90’s alt-metal scene that they would help shape and would mostly outlast. While most of that music of the time was a brief movement that didn’t make it past 1996, Type O would go on in stride until 2010 in much the same vein as their signature hit.

I wonder what happened to the girl…

The much-edited music video version

Kreator – Violent Revolution (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week4 Comments

This week I’m going back 21 years to an album that revitalized a band’s fortunes and heralded a coming revival in thrash metal. That revival is still in full swing for both the genre and the band. An old dog came out of the wilderness of the ’90’s, learned a few new tricks, and kickstarted a new era for their already legendary name. It is also another case of an album getting new visibility due to a sorely-needed vinyl reissue that saw the light of day in late January.

Kreator – Violent Revolution

Released September 25, 2001 via Steamhammer/SPV Records

My Favorite Tracks – Violent Revolution, All Of The Same Blood, Servant In Heaven – King In Hell

Kreator were like many thrash acts that saw their fortunes fade in the 1990’s. The band had a well-regarded album with Coma Of Souls in 1990 but then began incorporating more experimental elements into their music for the remainder of the decade. While opinions vary widely on the four albums released through the rest of the 20th Century, the band had fallen from their perch as one of thrash and speed metal’s pioneering acts with their savage 80’s output.

The turn of the millennium saw Kreator refocus and return to their thrash roots. This wasn’t simply to be a nostalgia trip, though – the band looked to the north and the sounds of Swedish melodic death and thrash. The Gothenburg Sound had been one of metal’s few bright spots through the latter half of the 90’s and it fit just fine with Kreator’s thrash ethos.

The result would be Violent Revolution. Just as heavy metal entered an upswing period in the early 2000’s, Kreator were there to help lead the charge for thrash once again. This new effort would recapture the attention of lapsed fans and also find a new, younger fanbase eager to headbang along to the newly invigorated thrash legends.

Thrash metal resumes for business on the opening track Reconquering The Throne. The song feels like something that could have come from Coma Of Souls. Mille Petrozza’s scream of “reconquering the throne” sounds as much like a mission statement as a song and then the Swedish influence appears in the next guitar passages.

The Patriarch is a brief instrumental that introduces the album’s title track and magnum opus. Violent Revolution is an absolute triumph of the band’s new sound, combining the savage intent of the band who wrote songs like Flag Of Hate and Endless Pain with the new melodic push. The song not only serves to redefine Kreator’s sound but is, for better or worse, a song that has come to embody today’s dark themes of uncertainty and now all-out war.

The album continues to visit the dark and unholy with All Of The Same Blood, depicting a group of “totalitarian psychopaths” destroying everything. It is again a tune that both has the classic Kreator sound and also offers more melodic interludes to keep things fresh. Servant In Heaven – King In Hell employs the well-known metal theme of blasphemy. The song slows things down a bit to a militant march through the contrast between light and dark, Heaven and Hell.

Second Awakening continues the look at the world and society’s ills and wars over the past few thousand years. Ghetto War is another thrash marching tune that envisions some sort of uprising of the poor against the powers that be. It’s unclear if this is in reference to the modern day or a historical look at the Warsaw ghetto uprising during World War II.

Replicas Of Life sees the album’s longest runtime at over 7 minutes and also a brooding introduction that then goes into the same melodic thrash the band have now established. This song maintains the album’s themes of crushing despair, hopelessness and the living end embodied in society’s gloom. The next song Slave Machinery continues the plunge into dystopian horror, this time casting an eye to the industrial complex and its twisted, horrific form.

Violent Revolution enters its home stretch with Bitter Sweet Revenge, a song that leaves the dystopian observations aside and looks at the all-consuming quest for vengeance instead. It’s the Batman story told in music form. Mind On Fire highlights what seems to be a drug-induced fantasy trip, though still set among the ruins of society that the album uses as a backdrop. We close with System Decay, an absolute scorcher that wraps up the hellscape with a nice little bow.

Kreator struck gold with their 2001 set and helped re-establish thrash metal as a force going into the new century. They would soon be joined by many old hands like Exodus, Testament and Overkill before a whole new generation of metalheads embraced the classic thrash sound and brought the genre back from the past. The 2000s saw thrash enter the same space as black and the also-resurgent death metal to push metal as a whole forward into a new golden age. Sure it wasn’t the heights of the 80’s, but heavy metal found a more than willing crowd ready to embrace the wide variety of styles on display.

Violent Revolution set a course for Kreator going forward, one that they have yet to abandon or even tweak much. The past two decades have seem much of the same savage thrash married with Gothenburg elements that this album put on offer. The band would into the 2010’s seeing new highs in album sales and chart success and solidifying themselves as one of thrash’s most noteworthy acts.

Memories – Straight To Hell

On By bigbadburchIn Memories1 Comment

I’m winding down the main crux of my Memories series now. There is only really one more part to go after this one. This page recounts my older posts about what I’ve listened to over the years. This time I’m going to get into the years 2006-2010, which brought a very radical series of changes in my life that would reflect in what I chose to listen to during that time.

In the summer of 2006 I endured a few severe blows in life that left me regrouping. I relocated to where I am now, in the southwest of Missouri. I was more or less starting all over in every aspect of existence. Thankfully I still had plenty of friends from my last time living here, after all I’d only been gone about 18 months.

Everything that had happened left me clawing back toward that which was comforting and familiar, and few things were as much that to me as heavy metal. It did help that my network of friends in the area were also into the same thing. People had huge collections, played in bands and it was that community that I returned to that year.

“Metal” meant, by and large, the extreme side of things. The early 2000’s saw death metal return in a big way to prominence and black metal was mostly past its 90’s drama and about the music itself. A host of bands old and new were blazing paths in every different direction.

For me it was a bit more than just picking up the music again. It became more of an identity thing. I wasn’t just into harsh music, it was an embodiment of what I thought about society and people. All of the music’s yelling about war, death, Satan and how fucked humanity is wasn’t just there because it suited the music, it was in step with what I thought and how I felt. Perhaps not a good thing, I don’t know, but it was what it was at that time.

I didn’t just listen to the music – I wore the shirts, I went to the shows, I lived and breathed it. I can’t even count the number of friends I had who were in death metal bands at the time. I pretty well gave up on being a “normal” member of society and chose to exist in a counterculture pocket instead. Sure I worked like everyone else, but my spare time was focused on the music. I embraced the identity fully, both to express myself and to keep people the hell away from me.

I wouldn’t rest long just in one pocket of heavy metal. I would soon pick up far more on the doom subgenre around this time. I hadn’t previously been exposed to much of it beyond the obvious Black Sabbath, but in the late 00’s I went all in on doom. Old, new, it didn’t matter. The music suited my obviously not great mental state at the time and was a comforting presence during those years. I am far “better” now by most metrics than I was back then but doom metal is still a good part of what I enjoy these days even if I don’t explore the area as intently as I did back then.

As 2007 came around I would find myself exploring an unlikely genre, though it was entirely fitting for me at the time. A friend lent me a CD he’d picked up not long before and thought I should give it a spin. I’d heard the name for years and knew he’d been a bit different from his namesake and his chosen genre but I never took the time before to give his music a spin. The artist was Hank Williams III and the album was Straight To Hell. The results would kick me off into a new appreciation for country music.

I spun the Hank III album time and time again. While the genre was something I avoided up to that point, this rough and tumble outlaw tear was right up my alley at the time. There was obvious crossover between the outlaw country movement of the late 00’s and the heavy metal scene. But I didn’t just stop with Hank III, himself a metalhead with his own bands. I jumped in to country as a whole, visiting legends like Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings along with artists of the day like Wayne Hancock and Lucky Tubb.

As luck would have it, my area was a good place to be for that country scene. Both Wayne and Lucky played shows at least once a year in my town and I was a fixture at their shows. Hank III also came through for one of the craziest, longest and booze-soaked concerts I’ve ever seen. I wasn’t alone in my newfound love of the music – many of my friends were also picking up on Hank III.

Country would last with me even after that insurgent movement of the late 00’s slid away and became something else that would eventually find its place in mainstream music. But that outlaw scene of the time hit home with me, a thread I’ll pick up another time in another fashion.

As the decade wore down I was pretty entrenched in the sounds of underground and independent movements. I had anchored my identity to them, after all. After a bit of a struggle through 2008 I entered 2009 in a more stable place though still fully vested in these counterculture leanings. I wanted to yell at the world how messed up I thought it was and I did so through the many songs around that echoed the same sentiment. It was angst that perhaps mutated into true misanthropy, at least to a degree. If anything, I didn’t realize how much of that time would just be a pregame for society’s shitshow to come.

That is where I was as 2010 came about. I had fashioned myself as some uncaring, hateful outlaw, sick of it all and armed with the tunes to prove it. I entered a bit of a different headspace around this time as my station in life slowly improved, caring less and less about what image I projected onto society and just enjoying whatever I wanted to enjoy. And it was around this time I noticed them slinking around the same corners of the record store where I was at – the metal, the independent country and roots music. Who were these man-bun wearing, beard-clad, craft beer swilling people and why were they into the same shit I was? What did it make them, or perhaps more interestingly, what did it make me?

Questions for the next time, of course.

Upcoming Releases Spring/Summer 22

On By bigbadburchIn Upcoming Music5 Comments

The year is winding on and we’re about out of winter in this part of the globe. Music is still coming out hot and heavy as artists pent up from pandemic tour disruptions have turned to recording to get their fix. I’ve got a bit from several walks of the sonic aisle to cover this time around so let’s have at it.

Kreator – Hate Uber Alles

The German thrash legends are set to release their 15th studio album bearing the same name as this lead single on June 3rd. There is one change in the band, as former DragonForce bassist Frederic Leclercq makes his studio debut with the group.

The bassist may have changed but all else seems to be the same with camp Kreator. This song offers the same thrash with Gothenburg-accented metal the band reinvigorated themselves with over 20 years ago. This song fits in well alongside past title tracks like Enemy Of God and Hordes Of Chaos, joining the tradition of strong title songs and singles from Kreator. It’s hard to imagine that the upcoming album will be anything but the same style on offer here – thrash with topical themes dealing in the dark side of life and society.

As a note since I’m talking about them anyway – the band’s 2001 opus that reignited their career and perhaps the thrash scene as a whole, Violent Revolution, will be the album of the week this coming Monday.

Amon Amarth – Put Your Back Into The Oar

The Swedish Vikings are back again with a new single. This is apparently a standalone single and does not indicate a new album on the horizon.

In the past several years there has been a bit of a “hipster Viking” fad, fueled in no small part by Amon Amarth as well as hit TV shows like Vikings. Just as the trend came about it found many detractors and today it’s easy to find people bemoaning the presence of Viking cosplayers.

Rather than slide away from the now frowned upon trend, Amon Amarth have leaned 1000% into it. Put Your Back Into The Oar is a full-on Viking row song. It sits in fine with the group’s legacy that has seen them become one of the most visible extreme metal bands in existence. It will also no doubt stoke more flames among the detractors who have grown weary of the band’s Viking image, but that’s always part of the fun.

Brennen Leigh – If Tommy Duncan’s Voice Was Booze

It’s time to go country for a bit. I first encountered Brennen last year when she opened for Charley Crockett on tour. She put on a great set and I began exploring her catalog of absolutely old-school country.

Brennen is preparing to release a new album on May 6 titled Obsessed With The West. The album will explore Western swing and features swing legends Asleep At The Wheel backing Brennen. This is the lead single from that effort and it beckons another excellent set from Leigh. I haven’t been keeping up with country near as much as I used to but it’s nice to be reminded of the finer points of the genre now and again.

Destruction – Diabolical

We didn’t get enough German thrash yet, so long time act Destruction have been kind enough to present their new effort. This song is taken from the album of the same name and is due April 8.

The song is signature Destruction and indicates that we are in for yet another thrash gem. The video gives screen time to the band’s Mad Butcher mascot as he, uh, enjoys a snack. It seems as though Germany might make a huge impact on metal this year, what with Destruction, Kreator and Blind Guardian all with albums in queue.

Dream Widow – March Of The Insane

This new thrash act came out of nowhere with a blistering track that recalls Midnight and Toxic Holocaust, very dirty and gritty thrash which is a sound right up my alley. This band should rocket straight to the top of the metal scene ….

… except that they’re already very popular. Dream Widow is actually the Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl and company recorded this and an entire album’s worth of thrash for their upcoming horror-comedy film Studio 666. This album is getting a release “any day now” according to Grohl and may see the light of day by the time this post goes live on Wednesday, February 23rd. However exactly it goes down I’m quite impressed by this and will look forward to hearing what they got up to in terms of a full album.

Robin Trower – No More Worlds To Conquer

The legendary British guitarist is back with a new single sharing the name of a new album releasing April 29. Trower has release over 20 solo albums and that count doesn’t include his time with Procol Harum or his collaborations with Jack Bruce and others. This song offer a mellow groove and sings of someone who had it all but what he really wanted. For Trower it’s another gem in his extensive collection and it’s nice to see him still going, he’ll be 77 when the album releases.

Dorothy – Rest In Peace

This a new song from one of the 2010’s more interesting new rock prospects. Though she has yet to formally announce a new album she has released a few singles from what are presumed to be included on Gifts From The Holy Ghost, a previously announced title. The single is released just ahead of a major nationwide tour.

The song is a pretty epic and powerful tune that sees Dorothy again having at somebody, a theme she’s used to a fair bit of success on past albums. She is really, really not into whoever she is laying to rest in this song, the lyrical fare is pretty brutal towards her target. The song is well done and bodes well for the album we’ll hopefully get more news about in the near future.

Kurt Vile – Like Exploding Stones

This preview song is ahead of Kurt’s new album (watch my moves) which is due April 15. This is totally new territory for me as I haven’t heard a note of his before playing this song, I haven’t heard his stuff or his prior work with War On Drugs.

This is a very interesting track, I dig the chilled out vibe of it. It’s not something I always seek out but in the right mood I can appreciate something like this. It’s a bit hard to keep up with the enormous indie scene some times. I’ll keep an ear out for the full album when it’s out.

Halestorm – The Steeple

Halestorm are back with a new album Back From The Dead due May 6. This is the album’s second single released as the title track saw play last summer.

I have not previously been into Halestorm that much. I’ve heard great things about them from a lot of different circles but for whatever reason their music hasn’t taken with me. This song might be the one that gets it done – I’m absolutely enjoying this track. I don’t know if they’re doing something different or if I’m just in a more open place mentally or what, but I’ll be on the lookout for when this album hits.

Liam Gallagher – Everything’s Electric

On offer is the lead single from Liam’s long-announced third solo album C’Mon, You Know, out May 27 and destined to be Liam’s most-used Twitter hashtag for the next year.

The song marks Dave Grohl’s second appearance in this post. Liam had his album pretty well finished when Grohl rang with this song on offer. Liam went back to the studio and cut the track and it’s now the album’s lead single.

The song is well done and a pretty chill and “vibe-y” track. It’s not quite the all-out banger Liam was discussing months ago, so perhaps he had a different song in mind for the lead single before Dave got a hold of him. At first the tune doesn’t stand out as much as the singles from his prior release Why Me? Why Not but the song is growing on me with multiple listens. Liam will certainly want to go into the summer well-armed with songs as he is preparing a headlining set at Knebworth, the site of Oasis’ historic triumph 26 years ago. While plenty of Oasis standards will certainly get time I’m sure Liam also wants to have his solo songs stand on their own as well, if for no other reason than to keep up the perpetual sneering contest between he and his brother.

That’s a wrap on this huge edition of upcoming music. As the temperature warms up it seems like a massive amount of new music will be heading our way. Hopefully these and other acts will get to air their songs out on stage out of the shadow of the pandemic and the industry can start making up for lost time and money.

Corrosion Of Conformity – Deliverance (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week5 Comments

This week I’m going back to 1994 and taking a look at a landmark album that marked a huge transformation for the band on offer. A band once firmly in the hardcore and punk scenes would now ply their trade in stoner and southern metal and totally redefine their sound and identity. The album is getting a much-needed vinyl reissue this week as well and it’s one I’ll be glad to finally have on wax in my collection.

Corrosion Of Conformity – Deliverance

Released September 27, 1994

My Favorite Tracks – Seven Days, Broken Man, Albatross

CoC would undergo several lineup changes and stylistic shifts through the years, evolving from early harsh hardcore to a more groove-oriented sound. After solidifying what would be their most well-known lineup of Pepper Kennan on vocals and guitar, lead guitarist Woody Weatherman, bassist and sometimes vocalist Mike Dean and drummer Reed Mullin, the group began recording Deliverance and found major label Columbia Records quickly calling after they heard the demos. The band’s label Relativity Records turned down an offer to sell CoC’s contract to Sony, who in turn bought out Relativity and now had the group they wanted on their roster.

Deliverance put on offer a sound more rooted in stoner and southern rock than the the band’s past which saw hardcore and thrash albums, though 1991’s Blind did serve as a logical transition to the sound here. This beefy album features 14 tracks, though 3 are brief instrumentals and I will omit those from my recap so I can save space.

Heaven’s Not Overflowing

The album opens with a fast-paced rocker that also offers a bit of sardonic humor that can be found through a fair bit of the lyrical fare on the record. As the riffs slam along Keenen injects a series of odd and silly observations that overall add up to “jam out now because everyone’s screwed up and when it’s all over, well, the title lets you know where it all ends.”

Albatross

One of the album’s two singles that hit 19 on the Billboard charts and marks the band’s biggest mainstream success. Albatross is a haunting song that brings forth Sabbath vibes and is at home in the doom/stoner scene. It’s one of those beautifully sad songs that, while not being open about its meaning, just gets me every time. The song dirges on into a great solo from Woody in the song’s final few minutes.

Clean My Wounds

The other single from the record that also hit number 19 on the charts, this is likely the most recognizable CoC song from their entire catalog. The song and video were memed a bit before memes were a thing and it still pops up from time to time.

The song is heavy with a crunchy, simple verse riff while the music explodes in the chorus. Jesus makes his second of a few album appearances in this song and the line “Jesus help me clean my wounds/He said I cannot heal that kind” stands out as the oft-memed portion of the song. CoC would employ several musical styles on the record but this simple, to the point tune is the one that stuck with people outside of the fanbase and is still remembered today by 90’s kids.

Broken Man

After a brief instrumental the band gets back to business with a heavy yet still groovy song that offers lyrics in line with the mournful title. While stoner metal as a whole is a very repetitive genre, CoC breaks the mold and injects time changes and tempo breaks to keep the song interesting. The mix of flowing guitars and the militant verse riff create a massive song that shines on the album.

Senor Limpio

This track picks up the tempo and spirits a bit, at least musically. Lyrically the content is left a tad vague but the song seems to be about drug addiction and/or perhaps dealing and the ultimate fall from that. People have many of their own meanings for the song but a few lyrical hints do reinforce the drug theory.

Seven Days

Sandwiched between two instrumentals is my favorite song from the album. The music is heavy yet morose, entrenched in the duality of beauty and doom. The song invokes a lot of imagery from Christ’s betrayal and crucifixion and is likely from Jesus’ point of view during his final days. Of course the themes of betrayal, distrust and anger at a falling out could be universally applied but the multiple references to the crucifixion and other religious symbolism are clear.

My Grain

The tempo ratchets up again as the album rounds the corner into its final portion. The song’s meaning is a bit unclear, I’m not sure if this about migranes or if the title has some other symbolism. Whatever the case the song is a fun inclusion and picks up the headbanging pace a fair bit.

Deliverance

The title track sees Mike Dean take over vocals for a turn. The swampy tune takes aim at people under the spell of televangelists and dogmatic religious figures. Dean’s lower register drips with a smooth sardonic quality that is in contrast to Keenan’s gravelly vocals. It fits the song’s theme well and creates another standout track on the record.

Shake Like You

Another heavy as hell song that gets to the business of, well, Hell. The song attacks the war-mongering mentality of humanity and predicts the end of all things with most people burning in judgment. The lyrical fare is still sadly relevant 28 years after the album’s release, if not even more so.

Shelter

This acoustic track is a mournful dirge that might be about a breakup, at least that’s what it seems to convey. The song is almost a country track but still fits on the album. It’s a bit of a break from all the damn noise just before the record’s close.

Pearls Before Swine

The album’s closer keeps the pace slower and plods through to its conclusion. Still heavy, the doomy track references yet more religious symbolism in some kind of personal battle against people and “the devils in their eyes.” The sound of digging, perhaps a grave, closes out the record.

Deliverance was a landmark moment for Corrosion Of Conformity. It redefined the group’s sound and set them on a new trajectory that they have mostly seen through to this day. The album was the band’s biggest sales success with over 400,000 copies sold in the U.S. It was a case of found identity for a band who pounded through the 80’s underground with a variety of harsher styles.