Tag: music

The Song Remains The Same – One

On By bigbadburchIn The Song Remains The Same6 Comments

It’s time to play the game again, this is where I dig up a bunch of different songs with the same title and see which one I like the best. I don’t keep an index of these, if you’re curious what I’ve done before just head over to the category on the right and it’ll show you my other posts.

Today I’m doing one that I was going to do awhile back, but instead I got sidetracked and decided to write about an album instead. It’s time to talk about “that one song,” ever famous in music conversation but no one really knows what one song it is. After all this time we can finally answer the question – yes, I know that one song.

A whole bunch of artists have songs called One. I’ve chosen six from artists I know and/or respect. Spoiler alert – I did not choose Creed. Also spoiler alert – if you think you know which one I’m going to pick as the winner, well, you’d be right, this one is obvious as obvious gets. This one is a bit bigger than normal so let’s have at it.

Alanis Morissette

I was very, VERY into Alanis when she burst on the scene, she had quite an effect on 17 year old boys. But I quickly moved on to other territory and haven’t really kept up with Alanis that much since her big break. This is from the 1998 album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which sold a lot and I won’t say much more about because the title is taking up a lot of space.

I haven’t ever heard this song before, as I don’t think I ever listened to this album in full. It’s a pretty good song, not anything that’ll set the world on fire but I’m honestly digging it quite a bit. While Alanis won’t win today’s contest, I can say I should maybe visit more of her work someday.

Fates Warning

This band is a pretty well known quantity in metal but I’ll be honest – I’m not all that familiar with them. For whatever reason I’ve never spent a lot of time with them and it’s been years since I’ve heard them at all.

I was kind of shocked to find that this is, by far, FW’s most streamed song on Spotify. I’m pretty sure the 2000 album it came from didn’t make waves, in fact I can’t find a damn thing about it. But this is apparently a very popular song for some reason. It has far more streams than anything from their popular albums.

This is a really good song, one that would be in contention for today’s crown if it wasn’t for that one song. If nothing else, this reminds me that I really need to brush up on Fates Warning.

Harry Nilsson

A well-respected but perhaps underrated artist, Nilsson had some success in the late 60’s and early 70’s. I know some of his stuff but he’s someone I haven’t spent a ton of time with and also one I should probably add to the to-do list.

Nilsson composed One and released it on his 1968 album Aerial Ballet. It wasn’t a hit for him at the time, but the song would soon get pretty big off a cover version by Three Dog Night. Since this series doesn’t consider cover songs (kind of goes against the whole exercise), I’ll only be looking at Nilsson’s original tune. The song has been widely covered even beyond Three Dog Night, though their version is probably the most well-known.

Nilsson’s OG composition is a good tune. I’m not overly familiar with it but I have heard it before, and it’s been in a bunch of movie soundtracks and stuff like that. I don’t have much criteria to rate how it should place in this contest but I’d give it good marks if I were actually handing out scores.

Simple Plan

Ok, we have a bit of history on ye olde website – as long as I was looking over everything correctly, Simple Plan is the first band to appear in these contests more than once. They were on the Jump one, which they obviously lost, and now they compete in the One gauntlet, which they also have obviously lost.

As I said last time, pop punk isn’t really my bag. I also don’t shit on it just because it’s there to do, and this song is ok. I will say it’s just ok – it’s kind of slow and doesn’t go anywhere. It doesn’t have a leg in this race but hey, maybe at the rate they keep popping up on these, they might sneak away with a win.

U2

It’s time for one of the two very, very well-known versions of One. U2 released this on their 1991 mega-album and direction-changing Achtung Baby. The single was a massive hit and people fall all over themselves to this day to talk about how great it is.

The song was kind of a bridge between what they did in the 80’s and their new direction. Not that the new direction did them any harm – this album was stupid successful. But One was a callback to more familiar U2 material, something for the old folks I guess.

I’ll say this – it’s a really good song. I haven’t heard it in a long time and this is a nice, sad tune. I figured I’d think it was good but I’m a bit taken aback, this is a really great song.

It’s time to sort through the murk and pick a winner. Alanis had a nice tune, as did Harry Nilsson. The metalhead in me would default to Fates Warning, who has a nice offering even with my lack of familiarity. But the U2 song truly did knock me back a bit. They are the clear winner – of second place. Today’s blatantly obvious winner?

Metallica

That’s it, folks. That’s the post. See you next time.

Megadeth – The System Has Failed (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week7 Comments

This week’s album is a band’s reformation effort, though also a reconfiguration in terms of how the band operated and who it worked with. It is noted as a new beginning and a return to form.

Megadeth – The System Has Failed

Released September 14, 2004 via Sanctuary Records

My Favorite Tracks – Kick The Chair, Blackmail The Universe, The Scorpion

The story leading up to The System Has Failed is quite a whopper. In 2002, with Megadeth’s fortunes on the low end of things, Dave Mustaine suffered an arm injury and was not sure if he would ever be able to play guitar again. He disbanded Megadeth and spent time healing his arm and building up to playing guitar again. His rehab was successful and he was able to resume his mastery of the instrument.

Mustaine set out to record a solo album but was held up by contractual obligations, hence the new effort would bear the title Megadeth. With this new mandate in mind, Mustaine gathered a group of session musicians and held the creative reigns of the new album. Megadeth was now Dave Mustaine and Company, a configuration that has held up to this day.

Notable among the session players on the album is Chris Poland, former Megadeth guitarist for the band’s classic Peace Sells … But Who’s Buying? Poland contributed solos to this album, though his time back with Mustaine would be short-lived.

Megadeth had been on the downslide since the late 1990’s and the ill-received Risk album. An attempted return to form with The World Needs A Hero met with mixed results, and so fan perspective was skeptical after the mess of the band’s breakup and “reformation” under a Mustaine dictatorship.

The only way to reignite fan interest would be to deliver the goods. With 12 tracks going for a 48 minute runtime, did Dave deliver? The album cover certainly brought the old vibes back, but what about the music? I’ll get into that in more detail, though the short answer is yes.

Blackmail The Universe

The opener sets a harrowing and urgent tone, as a mock news piece details a terrorist attack on the US President. The leader of the free world is missing and the nation is in chaos about how to respond. Megadeth are no strangers to the world ending via nuclear holocaust and that is the ultimate fate of everything here.

The song is fantastic and was instantly hailed as one of the band’s best in years. The music was explosive and the twisted fate of the world was communicated in powerful fashion. Though in a new form, Megadeth was back.

Die Dead Enough

The album’s lead single is a mid-tempo affair, more in line with what was issued on albums like Cryptic Writings. The song was originally conceived for a movie soundtrack but the deal fell through and it found its home here. Die Dead Enough seems an odd premise but the action sequence sort of vibe works pretty well with the music.

Kick The Chair

Any concerns about Megadeth’s standing were lifted when Kick The Chair hit peoples’ ears. This was Megadeth back in form – snarling, angry and lashing out at a broken system. Kick The Chair takes aim at the justice system and its corrupted ties with money and power. This is a precise thrash masterpiece and one of the best Megadeth songs in years.

The Scorpion

A twisted guitar passage stands out as Mustaine recalls the fable about a scorpion hitching a ride across a river from a frog and stinging the frog, dooming both animals to death. The “scorpion” in this case is a human doing bad things simply because they will. A fantastic song even without the thrash.

Tears In A Vial

A more melodic tune in line with Megadeth’s “commercial” work of the 1990’s. It’s a song about someone walking away from some kind of relationship or thing. While the song veers into more accessible territory it’s still pretty good – the dark secret about Megadeth’s “radio rock” phase is that a lot of it was actually good.

I Know Jack

A very brief interlude at only 40 seconds. No lyrics here, instead a famous 1988 quote from US Senator and Vice Presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen is played over the riff. Bentsen was attacking rival Dan Quayle, who had compared himself to JFK. In fairness to Quayle, he was only comparing his time in Congress with JFK, but Bentsen’s response became pretty famous in political circles. Quayle, despite his bungling nature, would still wind up as Vice President under George Bush, mostly because we don’t vote for vice presidents.

Why is this track here? I have no idea.

Back In The Day

Here Mustaine pays tribute to the old thrash scene of the early ’80’s. A good track though maybe not as “thrashy” as one would expect from a song talking about that very thing.

Something That I’m Not

Mustaine launches a shot at someone who betrayed him on this song. It is most likely about Lars Ulrich. This song was a bit after Metallica’s Some Kind Of Monster film, which features Dave in a scene that gets mocked a lot. Dave apparently asked not to be in the film but his request was ignored, hence this song. A few years later everyone would start getting along better and the Big Four stuff would happen. The song itself isn’t really my cup of tea.

Truth Be Told

Here we have Mustaine handing out Bible references, probably in line with his “born again” status that happened sometime after his arm injury. The song is pretty good and doesn’t suffer for its religious influences, it ties in Bible stories with its points pretty well.

Mustaine would go on to use his religious beliefs to influence concert promoters to keep other bands off of festival line-ups that Megadeth were playing, most notably Rotting Christ and Dissection. The attempts were not always successful and it generated a lot of nastiness in the metal community at the time.

Of Mice And Men

While sharing a name with John Steinbeck’s famous story, the song has no other connection to the book. Here Dave is reflecting on his life and offering wisdom gained through experience. It’s another track that feels like it could have come from Cryptic Writings and it’s one I don’t mind hearing.

My Kingdom

After the interlude Shadow Of Deth, the album’s closer comes with Dave coming back to claim his kingdom after years away. He is directly referring to how Megadeth pursued areas outside of thrash and now the band is back and ready to get back to it. The song itself kind of misses the mark but the goods were delivered with the album as a whole.

The System Has Failed was a return to prominence for Megadeth – the album charted in several countries, including number 18 in the US. Reviews were positive and fan reception was good after several years in the murk and the break-up.

Initially this album was advertised as Megadeth’s last, with Dave wishing to do a Megadeth farewell tour and then pursue solo music. That did not quite happen and Megadeth would remain in existence to this day. It could be said that, in a way, it really is a Dave Mustaine solo project with a different name. The twists and turns of what happened with Megadeth’s lineups in the 2000’s could literally fill a book and is far more than I wish to get into here. In short, a new band was assembled for touring and members would come and go for years after, with no shortage of drama and weird shit.

But Dave Mustaine did successfully right the ship with The System Has Failed. While the back half of the album trails off some, the front is loaded with some of the best Megadeth songs in years. The new era had begun and more highlights were on the horizon.

Tales From The Stage – Iron Maiden 2013

On By bigbadburchIn live music5 Comments

Today I’m gonna go somewhere back in time to what is now astonishingly nine years ago. I first saw Iron Maiden in 2000, now in 2022 I’ve seen them four times. The concert I detail today was my second time seeing them.

Maiden were touring a retro set this time around – it was based on the 1988 Maiden England tour. The set lists between 1988 and 2013 would differ a bit, I’ll get into that below. I was personally very excited for this one – while Maiden alternate between “legacy” sets and current material a fair bit, this tour was paying homage to my favorite era of the band.

The show was in what used to be called the Sprint Center in Kansas City. For those unaware of the “unique” geography of Middle America, Kansas City is partially in the state of Kansas but a lot of it is in Missouri, and arguably the most significant stuff. (The same is true for St. Louis – a lot of it is in Missouri but a part is in Illinois). And to continue with the unimportant trivia, the Sprint Center is now known as the T-Mobile Center because Sprint and T-Mobile merged a few years ago.

The show was on a Saturday and it’s also important to note that Maiden had not played in Missouri for 13 years at this point – exactly the last time I saw them. The Sprint Center is located near a fairly large entertainment district in KC and the place was electric hours before the show. We had a few adult beverages in the area with a legion of people in Maiden gear before heading into the arena.

One other minor note about the venue – I’ve seen Maiden twice now in this same arena and both times the place was top-notch at getting people into the venue in a timely fashion. This point will come in handy in the future when I get into the time I saw Maiden in a different city with a much less capable entry mechanism. But no such issues in KC.

Most any show has an opening act, and Iron Maiden brought a doozy for this tour – Megadeth were the support for this tour. It made for a stellar tour package but did raise an interesting question – what exactly were Megadeth going to play in an opening slot? They have more than enough material to air out a two hour headline set, so what did they go for in slot an hour or less?

They stuck to the hits, of course. All but one of their nine songs came from their classic run of albums from 1986 through 1992. The lone exception was Kingmaker, from their just-released Super Collider. The album is regarded as a flop in the Megadeth lexicon, though Kingmaker is cited as a highlight track. The song worked fine in their set and I wasn’t bothered by it. The classics played were fantastic and Megadeth was in fine form. Somewhat sadly, to date this still marks the only time I’ve seen them live.

With the crowd ready to go, Iron Maiden took the stage. It was sheer joy after the day-long party outside the arena and Megadeth’s opening set. As mentioned before, the set was a retro offering. The set list closely mimicked the 1988 Maiden England tour list, with a few exceptions. We did not get Killers, Heaven Can Wait or Die With Your Boots On in 2013. Instead two songs from Fear Of The Dark were thrown in – Afraid To Shoot Strangers, and the ever-present title track. I would have personally rather had the old songs in but I wasn’t put off too bad by the decision.

Overall the set was fantastic and it was a trip through the highlights of Maiden’s career. The Maiden England set is a de facto greatest hits, omitting the reunion stuff but hitting on the band’s classic era when they were in top form. The set naturally included many of Maiden’s hit songs, including The Trooper and Number Of The Beast, alongside Wasted Years, 2 Minutes To Midnight, Run To The Hills and Aces High in the encore.

The real highlight of a Maiden England retrospective is the focus on stuff from Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, which was the current album when the original Maiden England tour was rolling along. The 2013 edition featured five songs from that album, including the opening salvo of Moonchild and Can I Play With Madness? Hearing the title track toward the end of the set was a massive highlight and the band went all out for that presentation. This is a set with no real valleys, but hearing Seventh Son live was the definite peak.

The Seventh Son… love was not over with the title track. Maiden brought The Evil That Men Do out in the encore and that was a massive highlight. I was just a hair too young to see the band live on the original tour when this first came out, but here was my chance all these years later to hear it in concert and it was spectacular. Hearing all of this stuff from way back when was a massive treat, I never expected this kind of a set with the way Maiden have leaned hard into the new material in the reunion era.

There were a few “hidden gems” in the set, in a manner of speaking. They were songs played on the original tour but the band saw fit to bring them back and play them in 2013. Most fans wouldn’t have bet on hearing these songs in the reunion era. The Phantom Of The Opera was played for the first time in a long time, and The Clairvoyant was part of the Seventh Son love fest.

But the true jewel of the evening was The Prisoner. This cut from The Number Of The Beast has been one of the more underrated gems of the Maiden lexicon and I was over the moon to get to hear it live. This was again another chance to live in an era I wasn’t originally able to participate in.

The September 2013 concert is a very special one in my memory. It was my second time seeing my favorite band live. A whole bunch of my friends from town made the trek too, I’ve honestly never been in such a huge place with so many familiar faces. The pre-party before the show was something to behold, with Maiden fans of all ages converging and celebrating this massive event. And while it’s hard to ignore the first time I saw them when I wonder what my favorite show of all time was, this one is certainly a contender. Can’t go wrong when your favorite band does a retrospective tour of their golden era. I always have been someone searching for his wasted year, but I did get to live one of my golden ones.

No easily found footage from the show I went to, but here’s some stuff from both bands that year.

Live Plus One – The Iron Maiden Singles Series

On By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Singles Series39 Comments

It’s time to kick off the Iron Maiden singles series. Today’s initial offering gives a nice glimpse into something uncommon within the Maiden official release series – live material with Paul Di’Anno on vocals. This also marks some of Maiden’s earliest live recordings.

There are a few different versions of this EP, I have and will be going over the original Japanese pressing containing four tracks. There is a later Greek pressing with additional tracks but it isn’t cheap while this Japanese version is pretty easy to obtain.

Also of note – my copy is a corrected version. There is a misprint version, the error is on the back in the bottom right corner. The corrected copy says “Play Loud” while the misspelled version says “Play Roud.” And yes, the misprint is a collector’s item that goes for even more than the Greek pressing with extra tracks.

Anyway, enough of yammering about different versions, let’s get into the songs. Three of the songs are live from a show at The Marquee Club in London during July 1980. The Marquee was a very historic club for decades and was a highlight spot for the emerging metal scene of the 1980’s. It was of special importance to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal scene, which is obviously what we’re talking about here.

Sanctuary

The lead-off track is noteworthy as this is the only official place to find this recording. The other tracks would all be re-released on other material later. The song was part of the debut album but initially only offered on North American pressings.

This version is pretty good, it’s decent sounding for a 1980 live recording. Di’Anno’s vocals come out clearer than anything but the band is recognizable. I always enjoyed this song quite a bit so having another live version of it with the OG singer works for me.

Phantom Of The Opera

Another song from the debut record, the band rips through it in a bit of rough and tumble fashion but that’s very fitting for the early era of Maiden. It is the full 7 minutes of the song as presented on the studio record so the band didn’t truncate it at all (they never really do that anyway).

Drifter

This is a track that would appear on the second album Killers but that album was several months away still, so the band were airing this one out early. This is a really good version featuring some call and response stuff between Di’Anno and the crowd, it’s the kind of stuff that makes live recordings worth it.

Women In Uniform

The last song is the “plus one” alluded to by the EP’s title. This is a studio recording and also a cover song, originally done by Australian band Skyhooks in 1978. There are some discussion points around this cover song – both with the troubled story of Maiden’s recording of it and also how the song is viewed in a modern context. But since this very single is coming up in a few weeks I’ll save those discussions for then.

That wraps up the first of the singles series. Now the ball is rolling and it’ll be a monster when it reaches the bottom of the hill. If this wasn’t enough for you, you’re in luck because in a few short weeks 3 of the 4 same songs come up again.

The Iron Maiden Singles Series

Live! + One (you are here)

Running Free

Sanctuary

Women In Uniform

Maiden Japan

Purgatory

Twilight Zone/Wrathchild

Run To The Hills

The Number Of The Beast

Flight Of Icarus

The Trooper

2 Minutes To Midnight

Aces High

Run To The Hills (live)

Running Free (live)

Stranger In A Strange Land

Wasted Years

The Clairvoyant

Infinite Dreams

Bring Your Daughter … To The Slaughter

Holy Smoke

Be Quick Or Be Dead

From Here To Eternity

Virus

Out Of The Silent Planet

Rainmaker

Different World

The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg

Empire Of The Clouds

New Post Series Coming In 2023

On By bigbadburchIn An Album A Day3 Comments

My original intent in 2023 was to press on with the goal of doing four posts a week. I’m in a bit better position than I was last summer and I’ll have enough time to dedicate to making sure I post as much as I personally want.

I’ve had an idea for something for awhile now, but I haven’t gotten around to running with it yet. And also, this today isn’t about that one. That future one will probably see the light of day in the next month or two and take over Fridays.

But I was also sort of inspired with an idea that I’ve used before on a different site. It kind of came to me as the year was ending/beginning and I saw people doing lists of the books they read and wanted to read the next year.

The premise is simple – why not take that same approach to albums? I have a shelf full of CD’s, another full of records and a pile of digital stuff that I’ve barely put a dent in. Plus streaming access gives me almost everything I could ever want to hear, so why not dedicate some time to making sure I listen to some of it?

What I’m going to do specifically is listen to an album a day, at least statistically. By the end of the year I should have covered 365 albums. It’s not hard to play at least one album a day, hell there are days I listen to several. This should be a piece of cake as a “resolution” in the loosest possible terms.

I’m not going to post every day about an album. My typical kinds of posts will remain. What I’ll do with this new “album a day” series is update it once a week on Saturdays, recapping seven albums I played the week prior. It won’t be full-on reviews obviously, rather I’ll give a quick paragraph to each.

I won’t be using this to discuss things like, say, Somewhere In Time that I’ve listened to a trillion times. Playing something like that is almost cheating in this instance. Rather I’ll give a focus to albums I haven’t heard in a long time or ever. I’ll also use it as a means to judge if something in my collection even needs to be there. I have a bunch of CDs that I got from record label “grab bag” sales that I’ve barely gone through, this would be a good way to give those some attention and see if I should keep or lose them. That won’t apply to every album I cover but will be a small part of what I do with this new gig.

I’ll also give time to new releases that catch my eye/ear. I don’t do reviews of new music normally, as I feel like it takes a lot of time to sit with an album before getting to detailed about it. I’d rather cover a variety of other topics so I don’t dedicate the time to do those kind of reviews. This will allow me to cover a few things that come around that won’t be candidates for my end of year list but I still want to cover.

And it’s also worth noting that the albums here don’t have to be noteworthy or even good. I’d never use my Album Of The Week feature on something I think sucks, unless the band is super important to me and I feel like I can get detailed about it. I might very well not like something I play on here and will be more than happy to discuss it.

It’s a bit funny that I “stumbled” into this idea because I actually tried it out as a blog back maybe nine years ago. The entire blog’s premise was that I would do this exact thing. I posted once, possibly twice before losing focus and not doing it any further. I just wasn’t ready to blog again, or at least not ready to put any real effort into it. Now that I am at least somewhat committed to running with one for awhile, this becomes an easy way to get a bit more content out there. It’s far more of a time investment listening to albums than it is to write a small bit about them and I listen to stuff a fair bit anyway, so it’s a win-win.

So the “Album A Day” series will kick of NEXT Saturday, January 14. I need a week to play an album a day so the final 2023 “AAD” column would hit in the first week of 2024. It’s a bit odd of a time frame but I think it’ll work out. It’s not like anything is riding on me doing it in a certain scope of time.

As for the other new series, I do expect to get that off the ground sometime in February. It’s a pretty easy thing to write that won’t take up much of my time, I just need to mess with it a bit to get the ball rolling. Once that gets going I’ll have posts six days a week, which is honestly more than what I was aiming for but I think it’ll pan out. The biggest adjustment will be me getting the other posts ready in time, something I got a bit of a leg up on at the end of 2022 so it should be smooth sailing.

Thank you all who read my stuff, I hope my plans for this year give you something to enjoy, crack up about or whatever it may be. As for the rest of this week, the Iron Maiden singles series kicks off tomorrow and, well, the Friday post also just happens to be about Maiden. See you then.

The following song is from something that will be on the first post of the new series.

Carcass – Surgical Steel (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week2 Comments

Kicking off the new year with a whale of an album. This was a long-anticipated reunion record that actually managed to not only live up to the hype but exceed it. Playing together for six years before recording might have helped with that.

Carcass – Surgical Steel

Released September 2013 via Nuclear Blast Records

My Favorite Tracks – Thrasher’s Abbatoir, The Granulating Dark Satanic Mills, Captive Bolt Pistol

Discussing Carcass does require a bit of backstory to provide context for the reunion. Carcass were a pioneering band of the “extreme metal era” of the early 1990’s. Beginning as a grindcore outfit, the band morphed into a melodic death metal machine that captured attention with albums like Necrotism and especially Heartwork. The group dissolved in 1996 but got the reunion bug in 2007 and began touring again. After a series of very well-received tours the band shuffled a few members and set about recording their first album in nearly 20 years.

Bassist/vocalist Jeff Walker and guitarist Bill Steer were still around from the band’s heyday. Guitarist Michael Amott had been part of the reunion tours but left the band to focus on his main gig Arch Enemy. Original drummer Ken Owen was unable to rejoin Carcass due to health problems but would provide backing vocals on the record. He was replaced initially by Daniel Erlandsson from Arch Enemy, but Dan Wilding would join as the new drummer for the recording.

The album comes in with a fairly lean run time of 51 minutes but there are 12 tracks, 11 to discuss. Also, Carcass lyrics and titles are often dense and sometimes unclear in meaning so this will be fun.

Thrasher’s Abbatoir

After the instrumental intro 1985, Carcass kicks off its first new song in decades on a banging note. The song has a go at all of the -tion words, which was a common thing to laugh about in the early 90’s death metal scene with a million bands like Suffocation, Incantation and other -tions running around. The song is dreadfully simple yet brilliantly executed, Carcass is very much open for business again.

Cadaver Pouch Conveyor System

The Carcass lyric writing method often involves opening a medical dictionary and throwing a lot of words together. This is in full force here, as I have no clue what a cadaver pouch conveyor system is. I’m sure the other 8 billion people on the planet share my confusion. There is stuff about death and mutilation in the lyrics but this isn’t a concept album so I’ll say the song is great and move on.

A Congealed Clot Of Blood

The medical concept here is far more understandable, but the song is actually about holy war or some shit like that. Whatever – the riffs are massive and the hooks in plentiful supply and Carcass is bashing its way through its return album.

The Master Butcher’s Apron

The tempo slows down a bit here which helps take in the lyrics which are about the slaughter of humans, or perhaps the slaughter of animals or something. I don’t really know, it’s very dense stuff, just headbang to it.

Noncompliance To ASTM F899-12 Standard

It sounds really complicated but this is perhaps the most logical song title here. The F899-12 Standard, or whatever, is a series of guidelines for how surgical instruments can be manufactured. So, noncompliance with that would meant the surgical tools are substandard. The song itself is about death and stuff, which is a likely consequence of having subpar surgical equipment.

The Granulating Dark Satanic Mills

Ok, so maybe this one is actually the most logical and coherent of the song meanings presented. The Dark Satanic Mills refer to Industrial Revolution-era England and the soulless nature of the architecture and work. And, for once, the song’s lyrics have to do with the title. There’s some involvement with/influence from legendary English poet William Blake here too.

But wait, there’s more! The chorus of the song is simply a sequence of numbers and presents a mystery. The numbers are 6026961. This means nothing to anyone and wouldn’t even work as a set of lottery numbers. But, if you remove the 666 from the sequence, you’re left with 0291, which is apparently a code having to do with US livestock standards. This has never been confirmed as the “true” meaning but it seems the most logical option.

Also the song is fantastic, possibly the best on the album.

Unfit For Human Consumption

We have yet another pretty easy to grasp song here. It’s discussing the food supply and how nasty it can be, long a favorite topic of conversation for the vegetarian-minded Carcass members. The lyrics do get into pretty awful detail, which is fitting since this is death metal after all.

316L Grade Surgical Steel

This serves a sort of a title track. The song seems to actually be a break-up song rather than an essay about surgical steel.

Captive Bolt Pistol

More about the food supply here, this is the device which is meant to instantaneously kill livestock with a blow to the head. The song does not sing the praises of the device.

Mount Of Execution

We depart the world of medical supplies and the food chain for a look at religion’s ills. The song is slower paced and very nicely done, with somber guitar work and a methodical vocal delivery. The song is a beefy one at over 8 minutes and changes tack toward the end, leaving out on a militant riff.

Intensive Battery Brooding

We end the album on yet another “what are you talking about?” title. The song is actually about a thing called Blue Peacock, which was a British Cold-War era idea to use live chickens as a way to keep landmine wiring warm. The mines were going to be planted to halt a Soviet Army advance across Europe. Oh, and the mines were nuclear. What a stupid fucking idea.

In other news, this song was actually a bonus track on certain CD editions of the album. It’s included on the Spotify version so I kept it on here.

Surgical Steel was a hit out of the gate. It was a brilliant return to recorded form for one of extreme metal’s most hallowed bands. This genre of music doesn’t often hit sales charts but this album did break through on several nations’ charts, including both the US and UK.

The critical reception to the album was very positive and fan reaction was tremendous – people were over the moon that the new album was not only good but one of the best the band had done. In a cynical music world where reunions are often brief flashes in the pan, Carcass showed tremendous staying power with lights-out live shows and now a monster of a record.

Nearly a decade later, the shine on Carcass has not faded. They are still considered one of extreme metal’s most significant acts. Rather than join the “release an album every year” fray, they have only put out one more since 2013 – Torn Arteries was a hit on year-end lists and charts in 2021. They continue touring and keeping their top-flight brand of melo-death afloat in an age where multiple generations of bands directly bearing Carcass influence have come and even gone. But a lot of the rub for modern day Carcass worship came from 2013 and Surgical Steel. They are an act who truly took over two different eras and reign as kings of the art form today.

Bronson Arroyo – Covering The Bases

On By bigbadburchIn Reviews4 Comments

I’m gonna close out 2022 with a curveball from 2005. A few weeks back I was doing a write-up on a song when I discovered the existence of this curiosity. After looking into it a bit I decided to take the plunge and get a copy so I could see what’s up with it.

This album of cover tunes comes from Bronson Arroyo, a former Major League baseball pitcher who had a long career from 2000 through to 2017. He was a part of the 2004 Boston Red Sox World Series Championship team, which rankles me because I’m a St. Louis Cardinals fan. Arroyo was the guy trying to tag Alex Rodriguez in game 6 of the ALCS when A-Rod slapped the ball out of his hand, that was a pretty infamous baseball play.

Arroyo spent the bulk of his career with the Cincinnati Reds, which also rankles me because I’m a St. Louis Cardinals fan. At any rate, Arroyo had a pretty nice career – he lasted a long time as a pitcher and was durable for the bulk of his stay in Cincinnati, only having issues through the 2010’s when he hopped around on a few teams before his retirement in 2017.

What I wasn’t really aware of was that Arroyo was also a musician and had cut a covers album in 2005, when Arroyo was still a member of the Red Sox. This isn’t some rinky-dink project either – dude had to have spent some serious coin on this album. There was an entire production team and some world-class session musicians were brought in to play, including Michael Landau, Kenny Aronoff and Leland Sklar. Also appearing on a few tracks is Mike Inez, of Alice In Chains and Ozzy fame. Arroyo sticks to singing on this album but does play guitar.

Covering The Bases offers up 12 songs, all of which are pretty well known in some regard. Most all of them besides the final track are alt-rock standards of the 1990’s, letting us know where Arroyo’s tastes evolve from. I’ll go ahead and run through everything here to see what we’ve got, it’ll be a long post but whatever. I’m not familiar with a handful of the originals but others I know pretty well.

Slide

Originally a big hit for the Goo Goo Dolls in 1998, Arroyo’s album leads off with what sounds like a very faithful rendition of the OG tune. I’m not radically familiar with the original nor am I a fan of the band but I’d say Arroyo and company nailed this one.

Down In A Hole

The Alice In Chains classic is how I came across this album. I was gearing up my post about it when I noticed that Bronson Arroyo was listed as having done a cover version. This is pretty well done, the music hits the song and stays accurate to the original. Arroyo and his backing singers keep stuff at a lower register, which is understandable as few people are going to touch Layne Stayley and Jerry Cantrell’s voices. It is curious that Mike Inez played other songs on this record but not on the one from the band he is in, but there’s no real info to go on about that.

Also of note – the title is misprinted as “Down In The Hole” on the back cover and inner booklet.

The Freshmen

This was originally done by The Verve Pipe. I recall the song but I’ve never sat and listened to the band so I’m not overly familiar with it. It’s not something I really want to jam out to but I’ll say that it fits the album Arroyo has put together pretty well.

Everlong

No real introduction needed, this is the massive Foo Fighters hit. It’s an accurate version of the song, it’s all performed true to the original. There is a brief spoken word bit from Stephen King on here, which is odd but a nice touch.

Black

This is a Pearl Jam song, I’m sure I say to people who know that damn good and well. I’m not at all a fan of PJ so I’ll bow out of this one, other than to say this cover sounds like I guess it’s supposed to.

Pardon Me

One song from the year 2000 here, this was the big hit that launched Incubus into superstardom. It’s done well here but I was never a fan of Incubus and I actively dislike this song so I’m moving on.

Something’s Always Wrong

This tune comes from Toad The Wet Sprocket. This is a band I’m honestly not familiar with at all. This song was a hit in its day but I don’t remember it in the least. I do recognize their big hit All I Want but it took a minute and that’s the only one I recall. Anyway, this version Arroyo does is good and again sticks with the original in execution.

A bit of fun baseball trivia here – playing guitar is Theo Epstein, who was general manager of the Boston Red Sox when Arroyo was there. Not many albums can boast Theo as a cameo player.

Plush

The massive Stone Temple Pilots hit gets a rendition here. No more “I don’t know or like this” for me – this is an amazing song. Arroyo handles the vocals well here, not an easy feat considering the prowess of the late Scott Weiland.

Shimmer

Up next is the initial hit from alt-rockers Fuel. I did kind of listen to these guys a bit way back when though it’s been a very long time since I’ve heard their stuff. It’s a nice change of pace here to have something more uptempo and it’s again a well-done version of the song, pretty well in line with the original.

Hunger Strike

Now this Temple Of The Dog cover could have been scary, as while Bronson can sing pretty well, his range isn’t going to get into Chris Cornell territory or anywhere near it. But there is nothing to fear as the group surely knew their limitations and brought session musician Amy Keys in to handle the higher range parts. This one is a bit divergent from the original, as Bronson handles the bulk of vocals, as if Eddie Vedder had done the lion’s share of the original. Overall it works well for all involved.

Best I’ve Ever Had (Grey Sky Morning)

This was a song from Vertical Horizon, who I’m not familiar with and I really want to be. Bronson gets up into a bit of a higher range here and the song fits the other selections to keep a pretty unified feel going, but I can do without the song itself.

Dirty Water

The album ends with a different tune – this goes back to 1965 and The Standells. The song is a Boston sports anthem which makes it a logical conclusion here. Bronson is not alone for this swansong – fellow Red Sox Johnny Damon and Kevin Youkilis are along to shoot the breeze about random stuff through the song. It’s a fun way to end the record and a nice tribute to Boston from Arroyo fresh off the World Series win.

While this is a bit of a curiosity project, I’d say overall it turned out pretty well for Arroyo. He got people who knew what they were doing to execute faithful versions of the songs, and it’s clear that Bronson has talent as a musician. While there were no real chances taken on the album and everything was played as it sounds, this isn’t at all a bad effort. I think Bronson and company did a good job of selecting songs that flow well together and give this the feel of an album, as opposed to just being a collection of cover songs as so many of those wind up being. There was clearly a high level of thought and care put into this.

It is a bit “ironic” perhaps that Arroyo shows Boston so much love on the final song and in the liner notes – in less than a year after releasing this album, the very guy who played guitar on Plush would trade Bronson to the Reds. I’m sure that’s not a big deal all things considered, as Arroyo got a ring in Boston and obviously enjoyed his time there, but it’s a bit of a funny thing to point out.

This is, to date, the only album Arroyo has released. He has played out live plenty of times, including hosting a concert of Pearl Jam covers after his final MLB game in 2017. But, after all this time, he hasn’t chosen to cut another album. Obviously that’s his business, but it does seem odd that he hasn’t done something else since he threw down on this one so early in his career.

As I close, here’s a note – this isn’t available on streaming that I know of and the YT videos I posted are bootleg links so they might go away. The only real way to have this is to get a physical copy, which set me back $4.25, and $4 of that was shipping. I will say I’ve spent far more on far worse, Bronson did a pretty good job on his album.

Why did Tower Records go out of business again?

Pre-Game – The Iron Maiden Singles Series

On By bigbadburchIn Iron Maiden Singles Series4 Comments

I’m getting everything set up to kick off my run through the Iron Maiden singles series. I’ll begin it next Thursday and it will run until its conclusion. Right now that appears to be sometime in June, though I expect the list will grow between now and then.

As it stands, everything I have in my collection is a vinyl single. There are some CD singles I want to get and as they aren’t expensive it will be the area I focus my collecting on the next few months so the list will grow a bit. This could run through the bulk of the summer if I get the ones I have my eye on. The vinyl list might grow some as well. And obviously I will revisit the list when I acquire new ones after I’ve made my initial run through.

This is by no means a complete collection of Iron Maiden singles. They have a bunch and there are a few that carry insane prices. My collection will never be complete, short of winning the lottery or finally getting that huge contract from a baseball team that I’ve been patiently waiting on for decades. But I’ve been able to gather a fair collection together and the Maiden stuff I have would be the absolute last I’d part with, only in an absolute catastrophe would I unload anything.

I am simply using the order these pop up on in Discogs sorted by year, so I don’t know if the exact release dates are in proper order. It’s not that big of a deal – everything will come out in the wash. Also I am including what would probably be considered EP’s here. Maiden only have a few released truly considered EP’s and I don’t see any point in keeping them out of what is a huge list anyway.

That’s about all for now, the series kicks off next Thursday. Until then, up the irons!

The Iron Maiden Singles Series

Live! + One

Running Free

Sanctuary

Women In Uniform

Maiden Japan

Purgatory

Twilight Zone/Wrathchild

Run To The Hills

The Number Of The Beast

Flight Of Icarus

The Trooper

2 Minutes To Midnight

Aces High

Run To The Hills (live)

Running Free (live)

Stranger In A Strange Land

Wasted Years

The Clairvoyant

Infinite Dreams

From Here To Eternity

Out Of The Silent Planet

The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg

Empire Of The Clouds

Dwight Yoakam – A Thousand Miles From Nowhere

On By bigbadburchIn S-Tier Songs3 Comments

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

Today I’m switching genres and offering up the first country song to appear on the list. It was a hit in the early 90’s, a time in country that is now being looked back on fondly. The song and artist both had a degree of crossover appeal, which lent to some exposure to a wider audience.

Dwight Yoakam – A Thousand Miles From Nowhere

Today’s song hails from Dwight’s 1993 opus This Time, which was a multi-platinum hit. It had three singles each hit number 2 on the Billboard Country singles chart. The album itself peaked at number 4 on the country chart and hit number 25 on the mainstream chart, no small feat for a country record.

A Thousand Miles From Nowhere is a bit of a departure from “pure country” standards, though Dwight Yoakam has always been a bit off in left field anyway. He’s perhaps the poster boy for the phrase “too rock for country, too country for rock.”

Our song today is a sad tale, though, not a number to rock out to. The song puts its narrator in the aftermath of a break-up and the desolate feelings associated with that. The lyrics paint a vivid picture of someone drifting along, remembering what was said at the end of their split. This is a completely broken person who has nowhere to be and isn’t even at nowhere.

The song is almost the literal opposite of the hit from The Proclaimers, I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles). The latter sees someone willing to walk a thousand miles for their love, while Dwight is so far gone that he’s a thousand miles from nothing. And in a bit of an ironic twist, The Proclaimers’ song would hit the charts in a second life just after Dwight’s song released.

The music video for A Thousand Miles From Nowhere is noteworthy. It is a simple yet visually breathtaking film that sees Dwight singing while riding in a train car across the Arizona desert. The beautiful simplicity of the shots lend weight to the sad song. For a bit of trivia, country singler Kelly Willis is the woman standing in the stream as Dwight’s train crosses a bridge at about 1:35 in the video.

I am extending myself a bit here as my memory of 30 years ago isn’t going to be spot on, but I am pretty sure the video got airplay on MTV. It was not common at all for MTV to play country but again, Dwight hasn’t always fit the country mold. I know I saw the video quite a bit when it released and I never watched the country music channel so I’m assuming MTV is where I saw it. It sounds logical, as MTV played Chris Issak frequently and this song sounds like one that could slot perfectly alongside his work. I’m happy for any correction to this from anyone who knows for sure, but I can’t imagine where else I would have seen the video as much as I did back then.

The song would appear in two movie soundtracks – the 1993 film Red Rock West used a demo recording of it as the film hit theaters before the song and album were released. And the 1994 comedy Chasers used the tune as well. In 2018 the song came up again, this time as a cover version from artist Jesse Woods used in a Yeti coolers ad.

Why is this an S-Tier song?

A Thousand Miles From Nowhere is a somber tale of loss and rejection. It paints its images vividly, the words pour out the heartbreak and desolation. The video adds to the presentation with its majestic scenes of a lone man traveling across the gorgeous desert. Everything adds up to an expression of how sad can be beautiful.

Album Of The Week – December 26, 2022

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week7 Comments

It’s time to end 2022. I’ve already done my top albums list for the year, so for the last AOTW I’ll just pick something and go with it. Here we have a good collection of songs, though wrapped in one of the most hideous album covers in history. Given the band, that was no small sin.

Iron Maiden – Dance Of Death

Released September 2003 via EMI Records

My Favorite Tracks – Paschendale, Dance Of Death, Face In The Sand

Before I even get into the album itself, I’ll take a minute to discuss the awful cover art. The art was commissioned to David Patchett, who has done some great work on album covers by British doom band Cathedral. Patchett submitted the Grim Reaper Eddie design with a few shadowy monks behind him to the band. Band and management felt the design looked empty, so they countered with some computer-generated figures to fill out the piece. Patchett did his best to work with what he was given, but ultimately decided to remain uncredited as the cover artist. The cover itself has been universally reviled since it was revealed to the world.

I made this point some time ago when I talked about some bad album covers, but just imagine – being an artist engaged in the trade of making album covers and NOT wanting your name associated with an Iron Maiden album cover. The band who became known through their iconic album covers. This cover art was certainly a gross misstep and the blame lies squarely within the Maiden camp for it.

Thankfully the album itself holds up. It is 11 songs clocking in at near 68 minutes, which seemed a bit long then but is virtually an EP for Iron Maiden now. Though the album got released on different days of the same week across the world, everyone got the same version so it’s go time.

Wildest Dreams

The album opener is also one of two released singles, though nothing was officially released ahead of the album. The band encouraged people to record the song live and distribute it via Internet during the golden age of file sharing, which many did.

The song is a pretty simple rock tune. It’s one of those motivational ones that talks about letting go of the past and setting out to get “it,” whatever it is. The song is not particularly well-regarded in the scope of Iron Maiden opening tracks but I think it’s a bit better than it gets credit for.

Rainmaker

The other single from the album, this was a track primarily composed by guitarist Dave Murray. Smiling Dave has largely stepped away from songwriting as the band as gone on so this is a rare treat. It has a very catchy Murray riff and the lyrics tend with the business of washing away unpleasantness and starting anew.

No More Lies

This wasn’t a single but did wind up the subject of a souvenir EP. The song sees its narrator facing the inevitable end of mortality and deciding to take it upon his or her self to achieve what they feel they have left to do in life. So far the themes of the songs have been very life-based and more realistic than the epic fantasy tales of Maiden yore.

Montsegur

Here Maiden get pretty hard and tackle a 1244 AD castle siege. I know as much about it as you do. Apparently it was pretty brutal. Despite the harder nature of the track, there is a fair bit of Maiden melody in this one.

Dance Of Death

The title track was composed by Steve Harris and Janick Gers and stands as one of Maiden’s most epic title songs. It is a tale of someone joining the danse macabre and barely making it out with his live, promising to only dance again when it’s time for him to do the dance of death.

This is a massive composition with epic arrangement and Bruce Dickinson really going all out on the vocals. While other songs got selected as singles, this is one of two from the album considered among Maiden’s best and makes one wonder why they didn’t just release this one on its own instead.

Gates Of Tomorrow

Back to a more straightforward rock track that has something do do with taking self responsibility as opposed to waiting for some cosmic force to save you, or at least something like that. It’s not my favorite by any means but it’s still a decent listen.

New Frontier

A very rare gem here – this is the sole songwriting credit attributed to drummer Nicko McBrain in Maiden history. The song is pretty bright and melodic but the story is dark – it’s a tale of someone cloning humans and coming to regret it, a sort of Frankenstein thing.

Paschendale

It’s back to war now and to World War I, the setting being the Third Battle of Ypres, also known as the Battle of Passchendale. The battle was massive and cost several hundred thousand lives, analysis of the battle takes up millions of pages.

In terms of the song, this is one of Iron Maiden’s most epic achievements. It is a massive presentation that recounts the story of but one of the great many who died on the battlefield in the controversial fight. The song features soaring verses and plenty of splendid guitar work. I do feel like the massively positive reception to this track helped inspire Maiden’s direction forward, as many more of these epic-type songs were to come in the post-reunion era. Paschendale is a heavyweight contender for the best Maiden track since the reunion.

Face In The Sand

I talked about this song a bit before when I discussed the songs Iron Maiden have yet to play live. While the album and this track came and went without much fanfare, I feel like this is honestly one of the band’s most underrated moments. It’s another epic track that builds to a huge explosion and I think it’s almost criminal that the song doesn’t get the same kind of love I have for it.

The song deals with the modern day consumption of news and media and how it warps perspective. Everyone is waiting for the end, yet it never comes despite being told over and over again how it’s just around the corner. Even outside of the song’s intent, this is a pretty grim apocalyptic track.

Age Of Innocence

Heading to the album’s close is this track about crime and punishment and how the world was changing. I don’t entirely agree with some of the song’s conclusions but it’s a nice tune overall. For a bit of fun, the No More Lies EP has a hidden bonus track that features Nick McBrain “singing” this song. While Maiden have a long history of essentially wanking off on their B-sides, this one is outright hilarious.

Journeyman

This album closer marks yet another first for Iron Maiden – it is their only fully acoustic song. It was originally done electric and that version is on the already mentioned No More Lies EP, but they chose to go acoustic here. The track can start arguments among fans but I see nothing wrong with it, it’s a pretty good song.

Dance Of Death had a nice market reception even with its hideous cover art. The album charted well in a great deal of countries, showcasing the worldwide power of the band and establishing that they were indeed back and their reunion wasn’t a fluke or short-lived thing.

The album might not be the highest-regarded product of the reunion era but it still carries some quality with it and a few of the band’s biggest highlights. It’s also great for a deeper section of Maiden trivia, as there are many “first and only” moments on the album. It’s great for a deep dive into Maiden lore to see all of the things that only happened here, with Nicko’s songwriting, the acoustic track and others I might not have even mentioned. The album cover sucks, but the album itself is pretty good.