Category Archives: Music

A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Music, My Stories, Piracy

Certified Sales And Reach

I’m digging the data that comes from Stream N Destroy.

Based on RIAA certifications (total album units certified by the RIAA) Iron Maiden has 6.5 million sales in the US.

Megadeth and Tesla are also sitting at the same certification amount across their catalogue.

Who do you reckon has the biggest audience when it comes to playing live from the 3 bands?

Which tells me that Iron Maiden must be the most heavily pirated band there is. Their sales of recorded music compared to their sales of concert tickets and merchandise just don’t correlate. They get the same attendance as Metallica would get, yet the difference in certified album units between the bands is huge.

Metallica is at 63 million certified units.

While Megadeth and Tesla do play live, the crowds they get compared to Maiden are very different but they have the same amount of certified album sales.

So sales of recorded music does not correlate to massive concert attendances.

David Lee Roth, Muse and Dokken are sitting at 3.5M certified units but Muse plays gigs to 15,000 people and are headliners for certain European summer festivals.

Dokken even at their height didn’t play venues that big nor did David Lee Roth as a solo artist.

Like with Maiden, the sales of certified units don’t correlate with the concert attendances.

Since the sales don’t correlate to the increased demand for concert tickets, is it illegal downloading or the access to music via streaming driving the growth?

Standard
Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories

August 2020 – Part 1

I guess John Kalodner was really onto something when he got David Coverdale to reimagine some of the older Whitesnake songs for future Whitesnake releases.

In case you are not aware, “Here I Go Again”, “Crying In The Rain” and “Fool For Your Loving” all appeared on early Whitesnake albums before getting a reimagined feel and sound in 1987 and 1989.

So fast forward 33 years later from those innovative 80s days and reimagined tracks are a real phenomenon.

Because even though artists took offence to what Daniel Ek said about being more prolific in releasing product, deep down they know it’s true, especially if they want to stay relevant in the modern world. Because news travels fast and dies fast.

Last week’s release is forgotten and replaced by this week’s release. This is true for the casual fans, who make up the majority, while super fans will spend weeks on the same release, like how I’m overdosing on Vanishing Point’s new album “Dead Elysium” right now.

Break In (Reimagined)– Halestorm (feat. Amy Lee)

Halestorm released an EP called ‘Reimagined’ EP on August 14, 2020. And they get it. They always break up the album cycle with a covers EP in between. This time around, they did one cover song and a few reimagined tracks.

“Break In” appeared on ‘The Strange Case Of…’ album released in 2012. And the way it’s done, its haunting. It’s a perfect duet between Lzzy Hale and Amy Lee.

We Stich These Wounds (Reimagined) – Black Veil Brides

They wanted to do this reimagined album a while back, but their contract with Universal didn’t allow them, nor was the label interested in re-recordings. But that contract is now done and dusted and the band is on Sumerian Records.

I like the music on the “We Stich These Wounds” album. They are basic metal riffs in the way that I know metal and the lead breaks are 80’s like shred which basically combines EVH, Randy Rhoads and Yngwie Malmsteen. Overall the sound is updated and better than the lo-fi style of mix on the original.

This album is like a companion to the original, the way the re-release of “Under The Blade” on Atlantic is a companion piece to the original pressing of the album on “Secret Records”.

Make Love Great Again – Stryper

There has to be a distortion pedal called Stryper because their high treble distortion is unique enough to warrant a distortion pedal.

Musically this song is excellent and heavy. There’s no mellowing out for Michael Sweet as he gets older.

There’s a culture
That’s building walls
Just like vultures
Consuming all

We are back to having civil unrest based on skin and race. All of the laws about discrimination in the last 50 years, are not worth the paper they are printed on, especially when people need to take to the streets to show that their lives matter.

But hope is alive, it never died
Make love great again
Fight for it till the end

It’s how we survive. Work hard and make our luck and we hope to live a better life. But not everyone sees it the same. Lie, steal and manipulate is their way to a better life. And if they get away with it, then others believe they need to do the same thing as well. Until it all comes crashing down, the way it did for all those predators in the meToo movement.

Space Truckin’ – Ace Frehley

I’ve always loved the groove on this song. Especially that 12 bar blues chromatic riff in the Chorus.

While his original creativity takes time, it’s okay to rock out to songs that you like.

And Ace really brings the energy on this.

Again – Black Stone Cherry

Have I told ya that I’m a fan.

Black Stone Cherry and their brand of heavy melodic groove rock influenced by blues grooves from the 70’s is perfect for my ears.

How good does this start off, with the bass drum acting like a click and a guitar riff.

You’re lost and so confused from a choice you couldn’t choose
I know just how it feels cause I felt that somewhere too

Don’t deny yourself the life you want to live because you are worried about not being good enough or how you will be judged by others or because it’s risky. Because that benefits no one, especially you. So don’t let the odds stop you from doing what you know in your heart and mind you are meant to do. Because there are so many of us in that space.

Burning Blade – Andy James

One of the best instrumental guitar players doing the rounds at the moment in the field of heavy rock and melodic metal.

In Trance – Night Demon with Uli Jon Roth

Night Demon might not have the most eye catching name, but the brand of metal they play is rooted in the metal I like, which is the NWOBHM and 80’s LA Sunset Strip Metal and 80’s German/Scandinavian Metal. Plus they get Uli Jon Roth to appear live with them.

Down In A Hole – Khemmis

Man, this cover version of one of my favourite AIC songs, is epic doom metal. It makes Bathory’s “Twilight Of The Gods” sound light compared to the down tuned lead in this song. And I don’t know anything about this band, except they keep appearing on playlists.

For The Love Of Metal (Live) – Dee Snider

Dee is the true “Leader of the Pack”. He still brings the goods live while his contemporaries have resorted to backing tracks and retirement. He voices his opinions and whether you agree or disagree, you need to respect.

And this live accompaniment to the excellent album is worth it, as Dee brings out classics from his TS days, plus his solo career releases.

How good is the opening song, “Lies Are A Business” and I forgot how heavy “The Beast” from TS is?

The band is in fine form, but the star is Dee and his banter between the songs. He’s like a comedian. And the best celebration is hearing so many different songs from so many different projects all in the one set list. There are Twisted Sister songs, Widowmaker songs and of course, Dee Snider solo songs, especially from the last two releases, plus you get an original studio song “Prove Me Wrong”.

It’s perfect.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

Standard
Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Count Your Days – Vanishing Point

It starts off with crunching guitars and an octave lead which gels with the symphonic elements. Then the singing starts.

The day when I waved goodbye I remember it well

These momentous days of saying goodbye to someone are engraved in our minds. One chapter ends and a new one begins, for better or worse. And it’s hard to say goodbye to something, because of fear. The fear of the unknown, the fear of other people’s opinions or the sadness that comes.

Once the Chorus kicks in, it takes a stock standard heavy rock track into AOR territory.

I took a look inside and I felt the great divide
In a world I fear that’s giving in to lies

The world was always giving in to lies. People believed what they read from the various newspapers and books. Reading critically is not easy, because it means you need to take another opposing view in mind. And people don’t want to take in a view that opposes their current beliefs.

And George Orwell is trending today on Twitter with this quote from 1984;

“Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. Which had not been merely altered it had been actually destroyed. Everything faded into the mist. The past is erased. The erasure was forgotten. The lie became truth”.

And that melodic harmony lead break in the Outro.

The emotions it evokes, just makes me press repeat. On the YouTube video clip its shortened, so make sure you get the 6 minute plus version, so you can hear this lead break repeated endlessly before it fades out.

The YouTube video clip on AFM records has over 104K views, while on Spotify it has 17,586 streams. The data tells me that the melodic metal fans prefer to sample free and buy, instead of paying a monthly fee for streaming.

Vanishing Point have been in the game for 23 years, mainly vocalist Silvio Massaro and guitarist Chris Porcianko. And it takes a while to get people to really recognise you. The way this song has grown on YouTube, no other song of theirs has had that same amount of growth in such a short period of time.

To compare, the excellent “When Truth Lies” from their 2014 album “Distant Is The Sun” is at 140K views on YouTube.

If you like melodic metal then “Count Your Days” is your fix.

Standard
Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Salvus

Its track 4 on the new Vanishing Point album, “Dead Elysium”. I’m presuming “Salvus” is a combination of Salvation and Us.

A few distorted chords, the orchestral synths and then a guitar lead. Just before the minute mark, it all becomes quiet, just a vocal melody and some choir synths.

Staring at the edge
Reaching out to the world
Feels like I’m alone

The way this section comes in, I felt like I was alone, at the edge of the world. The movie “City Of Angels” comes to mind, how the character played by Nicholas Cage, stands at the beach, at sunrise, listening to some choral symphony being played in the atmosphere.

Then the drums and bass come in, no guitar as yet, because when they do come in again at the 1.38 mark for the pre-chorus, they are effective.

You don’t have to change the world
I will keep you safe

With all that is happening in the world, it’s hard to even feel safe. No one really knows what is going on at the moment and in years to come, some of the decisions made will be looked back with agreeance or disagreement. The only thing I can do is promise to keep my loved ones safe.

Bring our dark to light

Kids these days have been sold a lie via social media. They constantly see posts of people in faraway places, smiling and laughing and they believe they need to have the same life. They don’t, but there is a FOMO effect happening here, the fear of missing out. Each person has a different journey in life, a different path to walk on. No paths are the same, even if the road they are on is the same.

Standard
A to Z of Making It, Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

The Fall

Six years between albums.

“Distant Is The Sun” came out in 2014 and now we have “Dead Elysium”.

Before “Distant Is The Sun”, “The Fourth Season” came out in 2007, a seven year wait.

The thing with Vanishing Point is that they write the music that makes them happy. With Silvio Massaro behind the mic and Chris Porcianko on guitars, they act as the mainstays and the main writers within the band which came to my attention in 1997 with their debut album “In Thought”.

And while Massaro was on vocals for the debut the guitarist wasn’t Porcianko. The guitarist’s on the debut were handled by Andrew Whitehead and founder Tom Vucur. Porcianko joined the band after the debut album was done and never left.

Vucur left during the writing of “Distant To The Sun”, which meant they had to restart again as they couldn’t use his riffs.

And here we are in 2020, so far removed from normality. Our grandkids will be asking us, what was it like in the pandemic.

While the title track could have come from an Evergrey album, it’s tracks like “The Fall”, “Salvus” and “Count Your Days” which provide the variation.

I should of seen the signs

Foresight is a wonderful thing but in real time we aren’t the best at seeing the subtle signs.

“I can make believe or I can take the fall”

How I would love to escape sometimes instead of facing reality.

Throughout my life I’ve been knocked on my arse so many times by people and by society in general, that once I’ve fallen the only way up, is to stand again.

Slowly.

Sometimes with broken bones.

“I won’t give up, give in”

It’s repeated in the outro, like a mantra, a new awakening and a new awareness.

Don’t give up and don’t give in. I swear by these words.

And the guitar work from Porcianko is brilliant. A true guitar hero.

Standard
Copyright, Music, My Stories

Scale

From a streaming point of view, the basic rule of scale is to increase the subscribers, so more artists are sharing the pool of money. This increase of subscribers doesn’t require an increase in resources and there’s no extra effort needed.

And this might mean that each and every stream might be worth less per stream but the lump sum should be higher.

But streaming doesn’t have scale from one company alone.

Combined it might, once you add YouTube to the mix. But have you seen the numbers on YouTube of popular songs compared to their Spotify numbers. Their lower which might correlate that people have made the transition to Spotify streaming.

And entities becomes more valuable as more people use them. It’s a big reason why record labels became valuable, as we had to use them to get our fix of music.

But we don’t need to use the labels today. However streaming companies do need to use them, hence the reason why the streaming companies are the labels biggest client and the labels don’t care the rest, especially us fans.

And the labels profit even more from all the innovations that happen in streaming. But it’s the artists that make the connections with fans.

So are the streaming providers the real problem or the labels?

Standard
Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

The Record Vault – Crimson Glory

From Sarasota, Florida, Crimson Glory started off in 1979. One of their earlier band names was “Beowulf”, one of my favourite stories.

The line-up which is known to me as the classic line up had vocalist Midnight, guitarist Jon Drenning and Ben Jackson, bassist Jeff Lords and drummer Dana Burnell.

Their style of metal was pioneering and along with bands like Queensryche, Fates Warning and Watchtower, (with Dream Theater added in a few years later), they are seen as pioneers of the U.S prog metal movement.

And because their original style still had traditional NWOBHM influences, they were able to tour with such diverse acts like Celtic Frost, Anthrax, Metallica, Ozzy, Queensryche and Doro.

The masquerade mask angle was strange to begin with, but I understood their message, that the music should lead the way, not how they looked but by the third album the masks ceased to be and hard rock abs were on display.

Now if you like hard rock/blues rock, then check out their third album “Strange And Beautiful” first and go backwards, otherwise, if your preference is metal, then start with the debut and go forward.

Crimson Glory

The self-titled debut came out in 1986 but I didn’t hear it until 89, along with the second album.

And the Dio-era Black Sabbath style was immediate to me, but there was some Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Scorpions and a little but if UFO. And the vocals, so distinct and unique, very Geoff Tate like, but still original. The references to those bands is important because in 1989, I was looking forward to hearing metal albums from those bands.

But.

Scorpion’s didn’t really amuse me with “Savage Amusement” in 87, UFO still powdered their noses and had no recording contract, Queensryche went hard rock (which was a good thing) but I also liked their metal style, Iron Maiden lost an important band member and went even more streamlined with “No Prayer For The Dying” and Black Sabbath was still trying to replenish their worth and value after the “Born Again” debacle while Dio was starting to lose his star power from 5 years before.

So I went looking elsewhere for my metal fix and Crimson Glory filled the void.

And I like to play the guitar, so any album that makes me pick up the guitar to learn the songs gets my attention, and this is what the Crimson Glory albums do. Overall the riffage is excellent.

“Valhalla” sizzles as it kicks off the album, with chugging chords and harmonizing leads with a pretty wicked solo.

“Dragon Lady” starts off with a Midnight wail, harmony guitars and then a Deep Purple “Stormbringer” like riff in the verses. Make sure you check out the Chorus, which has a combination of harmony guitars and an AOR rock chorus. But it’s the harmony lead lick that comes after the Chorus that really gets me hooked.

“Heart Of Steel” starts off with acoustic guitars and harmony leads. It reminds me of 70’s Scorpions with Uli Jon Roth on guitars, with a nod to the song “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. And it’s probably their most catchiest and at 5 minutes long it doesn’t get boring. Especially the guitar playing and those harmony leads. The last 15 seconds is that good, the only thing you can do is press repeat.

“Azrael” is the song to listen to from the debut. The intro is a mix of acoustic guitars, symphonic voices, violins and Midnight’s unique voice which sounds like Geoff Tate from “The Warning” album. This then leads in to one of the best metal tracks I have heard with harmony guitars and galloping riffs.

“Mayday” is the fastest song on the album, relentless like “Screaming For Vengeance” and that ball tearing falsetto from Midnight rattled my windows.

“Queen of the Masquerade” is more hard rock than heavy metal with the “I Love Rock N Roll” chords in the verses and some serious shred.

“Angels of War” is very reminiscent of Iron Maiden while closer “Lost Reflection” is a haunting acoustic piece, built on two chords and Midnight’s gloomy and mournful vocals. From 3.10, distorted guitars crash in with reverb drums and after 30 seconds it fades out to how it started.

Transcendence

They really hit a peak with this album, released in 1988. It was talked about in the same breath as “Operation: Mindcrime”, “Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son” and “Keeper Of The Seven Keys pt. II”.

That intro riff in “Lady Of Winter” is metal fists in the air worthy and Midnight is more focused on his vocal delivery than the vocal gymnastics this time.

“Red Sharks” sounds like it came from a Mercyful Fate album with its all guns blazing riffage and double kick drumming. But its Midnight’s vocals which take it out of the Earth, as his voice moves between operatic, falsetto, tenor and baritone. Make sure you check out the guitar solos.

“Painted Skies” is my favourite, with the acoustic intro and a haunting Midnight vocal melody before it explodes for the Chorus. It’s probably the best Queensryche song that Queensryche didn’t write.

“Spread your wings you can fly, but the dark is never free, in painted skies that chain the colours of your dream”

It’s all in metaphors.

The harmony leads which mimic the chorus vocal line need to be heard. And the solos after that as well. Brilliant songs within a song construction.

“Masque Of The Red Death” has one of the best intro riffs and “In Dark Places” has this riff groove which rumbles along like Kashmir from Led Zeppelin.

The first 70 seconds of “Where Dragon’s Rule”. Listen to it.

“Lonely” starts off similar to “Painted Skies” and when the harmony guitars kick in, it’s massive. And the harmony lead break at the end is similar to “Heart Of Steel” from the debut album.

The closer “Transcendence” is fitting to close the album with acoustic guitars, a chilling choir, a Midnight vocal line that sounds like it came from the Misty Mountains that Robert Plant used to frequent.

A sign of things to come.

Strange And Beautiful

Released in 1991.

So much change happened in the 90’s and the world was never going to be the same again. While the first two albums put Crimson Glory on the metal map, the third one on Atlantic, would alienate their fan base and the band.

They went from a five piece to a four piece with one guitarist departing and not being replaced. They changed drummers. They changed labels from Roadrunner to Atlantic. New musical trends started emerging and artists tried to incorporate some of those sounds into their own sound. They got in outside writers. And Crimson Glory took of their masks, showed their abs and went back to their 70’s roots for this album, which seemed to be the trend that all bands were doing.

If you want to hear how Led Zeppelin would have sounded in the 90’s then this is the album for you.

Musically, this album has no resemblance to the sound of the previous two albums. This is a blues rock album with some progressive elements and hard rock overtones. Even Midnight sounds like he was the vocalist in Guns N Roses, The Cult, Cinderella or Led Zeppelin, depending on the song.

And I like it.

“Strange And Beautiful” and “Starchamber” are two tracks that immediately scream Led Zeppelin. The influence is clear, but these songs are not copycats. They stand on their own. Especially that intro riff to “Strange And Beautiful”. Listen to it.

“In The Mood” has Midnight delivering a vocal line reminiscent of Ian Astbury and Axl Rose. “The Chant” could have come from a Cinderella album, which is not surprising as it was written by outside writers.

“Promised Land” starts off with various chants and world instruments before it moves into a riff which Jake E Lee would be proud off. Hell this track would have been a perfect Badlands track.

“Love and Dreams” sounds like it came from a Bad Company album, especially the first two albums.

“Deep Inside Your Heart” starts off acoustically like “Painted Skies” and “Azrael”, a nod to their first two albums. But it’s a power ballad of the highest quality. The Chorus is massive and catchy, while the guitar work from Drenning is guitar hero worthy.

“Dance On Fire” feels like a Blue Murder song and “Far Away” could have come from a CCR album in the 60’s.

And everyone that I know judged this album on being the successor to “Transcendence” and saw it as a miserable failure, but to me it was a perfect progression of a band needing a progression.

In the years after, guitarist Jon Drenning said that “Strange and Beautiful” was more or less a Midnight solo album, and when the album got panned, Midnight didn’t stay in the band long enough to tour on the album. But if that is the case, why does Drenning have so many songwriting credits on the album?

In other words he was all in with this change.

And while it might have been a Midnight solo album, it’s his vocals which unifies this album with the first two albums. And Drenning on the guitar showcases his abilities even more moving between metal, rock, blues and folk and pulling out techniques like slide guitar, fast alternate picking, legato techniques and what not. A true guitar hero.

Sink your teeth into “Strange And Beautiful”, “Promised Land”, “The Chant” and “Deep Inside Your Heart” first.

And Midnight left the band, paving the way for others to fill his spot like Todd Le Torre who we all know as the current Queensryche vocalist.

In the 2000’s Midnight passed away from a stomach aneurysm and the world lost a great talent.

Standard
A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Originality And Competing With The History Of Recorded 🎶

Everyone who wants to play can play in the music industry. It doesn’t mean you’ll get paid for it. It doesn’t mean that you are entitled to be paid for it.

Creating art and finding connections with art happens at curious times for people. When we lived in the monoculture created by MTV, the chances were high for an artist to connect based on their music video being put on rotation.

How long those connections lasted was a different thing entirely?

And the system of the old legacy players would like to tell artists that if they don’t chart they don’t exist, but if you look at what’s in the streaming top 50 it doesn’t correlate to the Billboard charts top 50 or any other chart. And what was old and done is back again. “Bohemian Rhapsody” is back and so is “In The Air Tonight”. And the Black album outsells them all.

Previously the general viewpoint was that the artists new release was competing against other artists new releases for people’s attention. Now, the new release is competing against the whole history of recorded music for people’s attention.

It’s always been about longevity.

The first week numbers in 10 years are irrelevant, but whether you can last and sustain, is important.

How relevant are the first week numbers for Dokken, Quiet Riot, Skid Row, Ratt and White Lion today?

Zilch.

And there will be heirs of artists and failed artists who believe that someone else’s hit song is from an idea of theirs.

To quote Adam Grant, “Originality doesn’t mean being first, it means being different and better.”

Standard
Copyright, Music, My Stories, Stupidity

Feed The Copyright

It’s not even funny how much money the legal fraternity makes from music and Copyright issues. The legal teams of labels, artists and the heirs of artists make money from Copyright disputes. The legal teams of the same group make money from just representing those groups in contract negotiations and so forth.

But depending on what you read, streaming services are the problem because they don’t pay enough. Because these services also make money. While the streaming companies are running at a loss, the value of the people at the top of the Executive doesn’t diminish and their stock value is high.

Everyone is making money from so many different things except the artist. But it’s the artist who creates the content that engages with a person, who then becomes a fan and decides to spend their money on the artist.

This is what happens when artists are never allowed to be in the negotiation room when legislation is being drawn up.

When Corporations like the record labels are involved in the negotiations with their list of politicians on their payroll, well legislation looks very one sided. And when the labels get artists involved like Sonny Bono, these artists gets a handsome payday from the labels for their involvement which is probably a lot more than they would get from sales or even streams of their recorded music at that point in time.

So artists are now waiting for a judge to clarify whether they can reclaim their rights from record labels, even though the Copyright legislation states that they can.

The labels are digging deep with their counter arguments to prove that the termination requests are invalid. There best one is to say that the songs are “works for hire” which means that the label was an employer and the artist an employee, however the label didn’t meet any commitments that an employer needs to meet to be classed as an employer like annual leave, long service leave, sick leave, retirement pension contributions and yearly review of said salary and bonuses and so forth.

And the lawyers make even more money.

Remember when the streaming bodies disagreed with the Copyright Royalty Board on the new rates they need to pay to songwriters for streaming.

Well this disagreement went to an Appeals Tribunal and it’s all going back to the Copyright Royalty Board to renegotiate/review and to be a bit more transparent as to how the CRB do things or come up with things. Of course, this will be another public relations nightmare for Spotify, but then again they are the labels biggest client.

And it’s more money from the artists diverted to lawyers.

Standard
Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories

1985 – Part 5

Megadeth – Killing Is My Business

My relationship with Megadeth started with the “Rust In Peace” album in 1990. That was a wow moment for me, in relation to song construction, guitar playing and pushing the boundaries of thrash metal even further and more progressive.

So I started collecting more Megadeth albums. “So Far So Good So What” and then “Countdown To Extinction” was released. Then I went back to “Peace Sells” and then “Youthanasia” came out.

Then I went back to the debut, and it was the mid 90’s. And I thought it was average. I couldn’t hear a song that I liked but each song had sections/riffs which got me interested. And it infuriated me.

I suppose that’s what you get, when you spend half of your $8K recording budget on drugs and alcohol and then had to fire the producer because you couldn’t afford him, which meant you had to produce the album.

“Loved To Deth” has this open string pull off riff that I like. “Killing Is My Business” is the NWOBHM movement on steroids and speed and other hallucinogens. The first 90 seconds of “The Skull Beneath The Skin” is groove metal mixed with speed. “Rattlehead” is so fast, it’s a speed metal anthem. 

Whatever Metallica was, Megadeth was going to be faster and more aggressive.

“Chosen Ones” has this “Jump In The Fire” style riff and it’s probably their slowest song. “Mechanix” is 4 minutes of relentless anger. And I’m sure everyone knows that this song became “The Four Horseman” when Mustaine was in Metallica. When he played it live with Megadeth at a Sydney concert he merged the two songs and it was a perfect homage to both.

And Mustaine didn’t want to sing, but after spending six months searching for a vocalist, he took on the reins. It was like Deja-vu as James Hetfield also didn’t want to sing, but did it due to a lack of suitable vocalists.  

Savatage – Power Of The Night

There is a Savatage before “Gutter Ballet” and a Savatage post the death of Criss Oliva for me.

This album is pre “Gutter Ballet” and it’s a band trying to find their sound and style. Max Norman is producing. 5 years before, he was doing Ozzy with Randy and 5 years later he would do Megadeth and Lynch Mob albums.

I like the intro riff to “Power Of The Night”. “Hard As Love” has a title which is a product of its time, but while this kind of title would have worked for Danger Danger or Bulletboys, it felt wrong with Savatage. But musically, its brilliant, catchy.

“Fountain Of Youth” is the embryo of what Savatage would become. The musical structure and different grooves would become more prominent on the albums that came after.

But the album is hit and miss in the lyrics department.

Kick Axe – Welcome To The Club

I picked up their first two albums in the 90’s because I saw that Spencer Proffer was involved.

They are a very underrated band from Canada and I like “Welcome To The Club” more than the debut album “Vices”.

“Welcome To The Club” is a different kind of track, rooted in hard rock, but those clean tone arpeggios give the song a very UK Pop sound. Then you have a song like “Feels Good Don’t Stop” which swings, grooves and rocks its way all the way while “Comin’ After You” feels like a Marillion song while “Make Your Move” is a hard rock song through and through.

How good is the intro to “Never Let Go”? And overall, I feel like I am listening to a Y&T cut merged with Triumph.

“Hellraisers” has some serious good riffage in the intro and verses.

“Can’t Take It With You” has those big “I Love It Loud” drums but the riffage and vocal melodies would have given birth to the recent Swedish Melodic Rock movement. It sounds like H.E.A.T built a career on songs like these.

“Too Loud… Too Old” sounds like an unchained and frantic VH song and it also reminds me of a blog I visit regularly called 2Loud2OldMusic.

The way the staccato bass rolls in “Feel The Power” gets the foot tapping. Check out those harmony leads as well.

And the album closes with a cover song, “With A Little Help From My Friends” but even though Lennon and McCartney wrote it, the definitive version is from Joe Cocker.

Keel – The Right To Rock

Gene Simmons is producing under his label Gold Mountain Records while Steve Riley plays drums on the album but left to join WASP.

The band had three songs written before they got sent to the studio (“The Right To Rock”, “Back To The City” and “Electric Love”), so they covered three Gene Simmons demos (“Easier Said Than Done”, “So Many Girls, So Little Time” and “Get Down”) and re-recorded three songs from the debut album (“Speed Demon”, “Tonight You’re Mine” became “You’re The Victim (I’m The Crime)” and the Rolling Stones cover “Let’s Spend The Night Together”).

I still like the intro to “The Right To Rock”, it’s perfect for the time.

“All of my life I’ve been fighting for the right to make my stand” and we are still fighting to make our stand. It will never stop.

“I’m gonna do it my way or not do it all” sounded so easy back then, but as you grow up, you start to realise that it’s not that easy to do things your way and still participate in society. In order to live, you need money and to get money you need to work. If doing things your way, generates money, great, if it doesn’t, then you need to work for someone else and suddenly you are not doing it your way.

“Back To The City” is interchangeable with their other songs and I really like the Rolling Stones cover “Let’s Spend The Night Together”.

The verse riff of the Gene Simmons penned “So Many Girls, So Little Time” is pure heavy metal. “Electric Love” is melodic rock, with Ron Keel delivering a vocal line at 11. “Speed Demon” is pure NWOBHM with Ron Keel again delivering a vocal line at 11. There’s just 11 in his delivery and that’s it. 

“Get Down” is another Simmons cut which feels like a re-write of “I Love It Loud” but lyrically, its dumb. “You’re The Victim (I’m The Crime)” is another cut inspired by the NWOBHM, with fast “Overkill” double kick drumming in the intro.

Even though the album is a mixture of new songs, re-recordings and Gene Simmons penned songs, Keel earned “The Right To Rock” after it.

Also if you’ve seen a Y&T cover on A&M Records, a Foreigner cover or some different posters around the Mad Max and Star Wars movies, then there is a pretty good chance you’ve seen the artwork of John Taylor Dismukes.

Autograph – That’s The Stuff 

Autograph were either loathed or liked. There was no in between.

I liked the first album “Sign In Please” and loathed the second album “That’s The Stuff” which really wasn’t the stuff.

And the second track “Take No Prisoners” is a rewrite of “Turn Up The Radio”. This is an album that is lacking in ideas and very hard to listen to.

Standard