How can you pass up an album with “Stargazer” as its title?
Black Majesty is from Melbourne, Australia. The band is made up of John Cavaliere on vocals, Steve Janevski and Hanny Mohamed on guitars with Pavel Konvalinka on drums. There is no bassist listed.
Steve Janevski on guitar lists George Lynch, Zakk Wylde, John Sykes, Michael Wilton & Chris DeGarmo, Warren Demartini, Ronnie Letekro as his favourite guitarists. All great influences to have.
And apart from playing in Black Majesty (Power Melodic Metal), he also plays in Wicked Smile (Heavy Rock) and The Radio Sun (AOR Melodic Rock).
“Stargazer” was released in 2012.
Falling
The lead breaks are excellent. Steve Janevski and Hanny Mohamed showcase their abilities from the outset.
Lost Highway
Harmony guitars and fast double kick start the song off.
Voice Of Change
A killer Chorus and another killer lead break section. Actually killer lead breaks as there are a few.
Killing Hand
It has a “Paris Is Burning” riff to start off and I like it.
Check out the Chorus. Great vocal melodies, fast double kick and the guitars just play power chords.
As it’s becoming the norm, the lead breaks on this album are guitar hero moments.
Journey To The Soul
How good are the harmony guitars in the intro, before it moves into a Maiden like groove?
Holy Hillers
Another great harmony guitar intro.
Symphony Of Death
The slow Intro reminds of Queensryche circa first two albums and once the gallop riff starts, Helloween and Maiden come to mind.
But the lead breaks. Guitar hero stuff again.
It starts off with an open string harmony lick, then each guitarist gets a chance to shred and tap away before coming back to the open string harmonies to close the solo.
Edge Of The World
It’s blasting fast and loud.
And when it comes to instrumental section, Janevski and Mohamed don’t disappoint.
Stargazer
As soon as the Intro leads start, the song could have appeared on “Brave New World” and people would think Maiden wrote it.
The lead section part of the song is essential listening. it starts off with a sing-a-long harmony lead before it goes into individual solos. And man, what solos they are.
By the end of it, you can only press repeat.
If there is a criticism, the drums seem to be on cruise control with the stock fast double kick patterns Power Metal music is known for.
Steve Janevski and Hanny Mohamed deserve special mention here on guitars.
Vocalist John Cavaliere is a multi-octave vocalist. His voice and style ranges between David Coverdale, Bruce Dickinson, Geoff Tate and Michael Kiske but still sounding unique enough to be original.
I’m not a huge Power Metal fan but I do listen to bands that play that style purely for the guitar playing.
If you like Power Metal, you’ll like this. If you like Melodic Metal you’ll like this. If you like Heavy Metal, you’ll like this.
Daughtry dropped a new album recently and it’s great to hear the hard rock side kick back in after a couple of albums that lived in a popular rock/beats area. Even the metal sites are reviewing the new album.
A review of the new Daughtry will come soon, but it did get me in the mood to listen to earlier Daughtry and so let’s kick off the next Record Vault series with the debut album.
Daughtry is the debut album, released in 2006 by RCA Records. He came to fame by competing in American Idol, but he didn’t win Idol, however he’s had a bigger career then the actual winner Taylor Hicks. I guess the kiddies voting don’t really purchase records.
It’s Not Over
The Bm to A to G chord progression is familiar (think “Kryptonite” from Three Doors Down) but it’s the tone of Chris Daughtry’s voice which hooks me in.
Chris Daughtry, Gregg Wattenberg, Mark Wilkerson and Brett Young are listed as the songwriters and what a song they wrote, sitting at 90.325 million streams on Spotify. But it’s not the most streamed from Daughtry. That goes to “Over You”.
And if the songwriter names are familiar, well, if you own a Train or John Legend or Goo Goo Dolls album, you will see Gregg Wattenberg listed as a producer and writer. Mark Wilkerson was the lead singer and guitarist for Course Of Nature, a rock band which was also known as COG. The Chorus was written by Brett Young, a singer in the same season of American Idol as Daughtry.
It’s also certified 2x Platinum as a single in the U.S. Back in 2007, it got a Gold certification for CD physical sales of the single in the U.S.
Used To
Daughtry, Howard Benson and Zac Maloy are listed as the songwriters.
A simple drum and bass groove start the song, but it’s the repeating guitar arpeggios in the verse which moves the song along.
Another infectious chorus.
We used to have this figured out / We used to breathe without a doubt
So what changes as we get older. As we learn more, do we fear more.
Home
Sitting at 76.8 million streams on Spotify. Certified 3x Platinum in the U.S as a digital single, with its most recent certification happening in September 2019. Back in 2008, it got a Gold certification for CD physical sales of the single in the U.S.
And as an artist, this is exactly what you want. People still consuming your songs, many years after they’ve been released.
It’s written by Chris Daughtry.
My favourite song on the album. It crosses over to so many different styles and genres. If you like Southern Rock, you’ll like this. If you like Country Rock, you’ll like this. If you like Hard Rock, you’ll like this.
And the message of returning home after been away for a while is a message that everyone can understand and relate to.
Over You
This is the most streamed Daughtry track, at 116.8 million streams. And it also has a 2x Platinum in September 2019, for digital sales in the U.S.
Written by Daughtry and Brian Howes it could have appeared on a Jovi album at the time.
It’s a mid-tempo rocker and Daughtry’s vocals are excellent.
And Brian Howes is a Canadian songwriter who has written songs with Adelitas Way, Airbourne, Caleb Johnson, Halestorm, Hedley, Hinder, Nickelback, Rev Theory and Skillet to name a few. A lot of chart cred right there. So if the song sounds familiar, I’m sure some of the melodies from Howes would have been reused.
Crashed
Written by Daughtry, Nina Ossoff, Dana Calitri and Kathy Sommer and the Chorus is catchy.
Feels Like Tonight
Max Martin, Luke Gottwald and Shep Solomon are the writers. These guys wouldn’t come cheap. I would be surprised if Daughtry is listed as re-couped for this album. I am sure the record label creative accountants still have him in debt, even though its 6x Platinum in the U.S.
It starts off like “Chasing Cars”. That’s what writers of hits do. Take what came before and tweak it.
And of course, a Max Martin /Dr Luke song, isn’t a song without a massive Chorus.
What I Want
Written by Daughtry and Howes and features Slash.
Just by featuring Slash, the song already has a hard rock swagger to it more like the “Velvet Revolver” swagger. But it’s short. Just over 2 minutes long.
Breakdown
The songs which are solely written by Chris Daughtry highlight his skills and style as a writer. “Home” showcases his story telling and use of simple chords to deliver an emotive vocal melody.
“Breakdown” is also written by Chris Daughtry.
It’s actually a rewrite and combination of two songs “Conviction” and “Break Down” previously recorded by Daughtry’s former hard rock/alternative metal band, “Absent Element”.
This one percolates, living in the grey area between soft rock and hard rock.
Check out the head banging riff at 2.30.
Gone
Written by Chris Daughtry, it starts off slow, ballad like but by the end of it, it becomes a great melodic rock song.
There and Back Again
Written by Daughtry and Brent Smith from Shinedown who also plays guitar on it.
It feels like a track that would appear on “The Sound Of Madness”. It’s heavy and it rocks hard.
All These Lives
Written by Daughtry and Mitch Allan, it’s in the soft rock domain moving between acoustic verses and distorted choruses.
What About Now
Written by Ben Moody, David Hodges and Joshua Hartzler.
Moody and Hodges had a certain style of writing. They both came to fame via the “Fallen” album from Evanescence and when Moody left the band mid tour, he became a songwriter for other artists. Kelly Clarkson recorded a few of their songs, I think, “Because Of You” was written by Moody and Hodges.
Well this one follows in that vein. It has a piano riff which at the start reminds me of “Alone” from Heart.
Sorry
Written by Daughtry, Alexander Rethwisch, Christopher Langton, Konstantin Rethwisch and Matthias Weber. A lot of writers.
It lives in this acoustic Fuel/Alice In Chains space because it reminds me of Fuel’s “Something Like Human” album and “Sap” from Alice In Chains.
For a debut album from an American Idol contestant who came 5th, every cent was spent by the label on getting the correct songs as evidenced by the different songwriters on each song.
And he had a lot of musicians on the debut album. Phil
X who performs with Bon Jovi now, is on lead and rhythm guitars. The excellent Josh Freese is on drums. Paul Bushnell plays bass except on “What About Now” which is Chris Chaney. Producer Howard Benson also plays keyboards on the album and Chris Lord-Alge is mixing. These guys and production team don’t come cheap.
In an era of low sales, Daughtry also showed that great music can still sell. In Australia and New Zealand it went Gold. In the UK its certified Silver. In Canada its certified 2x Platinum and in the U.S, its certified 6x Platinum.
The album produced 7 singles. Yep, 7, but then again, every song on the album could be a single, hence the different writers.
And Daughtry sings for most of the album so his voice is left, front and right.
Critics did write, what is the point of having Slash appear on a 2 minute track. Or what would have happened if music took the lead in a song instead of Daughtry singing over everything.
But then again, critics don’t normally sell 6 million albums in the U.S.
Opeth is a Swedish progressive metal/rock band from Stockholm, formed in 1989. The group has been through several personnel changes, including the replacement of every single original member. Lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt has remained Opeth’s primary driving force since the departure of original vocalist David Isberg in 1992.
Opeth has consistently incorporated progressive, folk, blues, classical, and jazz influences into its usually lengthy compositions, as well as strong influences from death metal, especially in their early works.
The band rarely made live appearances supporting their first four albums, but since conducting their first world tour after the 2001 release of Blackwater Park, they have led several major world tours.
So “Morningrise” is part off the “first four” albums.
It’s the second one, released on 24 June 1996.
Opeth for this album is Mikael Åkerfeldt on vocals and guitars, Peter Lindgren on guitars, Johan De Farfalla on bass and Anders Nordin on drums, percussion. All lyrics are by Akerfeldt and music is by Akerfeldt and Lindgren.
Åkerfeldt has mentioned that “The Number of the Beast” by Iron Maiden and “Lick It Up” by Kiss made him a metal head, but he also was heavily influenced by “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” by Black Sabbath and his favorite metal album is “Sad Wings of Destiny” by Judas Priest.
Lindgren had a nice diet of Iron Maiden growing up and was heavily influenced by “Master of Puppets” from Metallica along with ’70s progressive rock band Camel.
So with similar influences as mine I was more than interested to listen.
I didn’t hear this album until 2005/06 as I started listening to em after “Blackwater Park”.
5 songs clocking in at 60 something minutes.
Advent
The song is almost 14 minutes long as it moves between sludgy grooves, acoustic guitars and fast double kick metal like passages.
Vocally, Opeth during this period was more death metal like with some clean vocal passages.
At 3.20, this acoustic guitar riff kicks in, arpeggio based and very Rush sounding and I’m like where did that come from.
It becomes abrasive again with death metal vocals which don’t impress but the music does impress.
At the 6 minute mark, a different acoustic arpeggio riff kicks in and this time, the vocals are in clean tone and I’m all in.
At 8 minutes a Thin Lizzy/Iron Maiden/Helloween like galloping riff kicks in which is great to play on the guitar.
But it gets better, there is this metallic riff at 9.20 which has a jazz like bass line behind it with double kick drums. It feels unsettling and jarring.
The Night And The Silent Water
At 11 minutes long, it’s another short song.
Im not a fan of the death metal vocals, but goddamn I really like the music and it’s movement between distortion and acoustic.
Around the 8 minute mark, this “Children Of The Grave” feel/gallop starts. It keeps building until the guitars explode into playing octave melodies.
Nectar
At 10 minutes long it’s maybe the shortest song on the album.
The music is very Iron Maiden”ish” like. There is this riff that kicks in at the 2 minute mark, which is excellent.
At 7 minutes there is another acoustic like arpeggio passage which comes out of nowhere and yet it fits nicely. And the last 90 seconds has a riff which appeared on a Dream Theater album in a few years’ time.
Black Rose Immortal
Almost 20 minutes long.
The song has a lot of harmony leads that feel like they are influenced by Thin Lizzy as it’s got that major key Celtic like vibe.
Check out the Maiden like instrumental sections from 7.30 and the excellent volume swell section around 9.30 to 9.43 which is way too short. But hypnotic and very violin line.
To Bid You Farwell
Another 11 minute song to close the album. A “Fade To Black” like arpeggio riff starts it off.
And the song percolates in the acoustic domain until it explodes into distortion at the 7 minute mark.
The amount of acoustic progressions in this song, another person could have written 10 different songs.
The vocals are clean tone and make sure you check out the bluesy kicks at the 4 minute mark.
And it returns back to the acoustics for the last 90 seconds to end the album on somber note. Like Empire Strikes Back.
Man, the Scorpions sure know how to cause a bit of controversy with their album covers. Remember “Virgin Killer” or “Lovedrive” and to a lesser extent “Animal Magnetism”. Well, you can add “Pure Instinct” to the list.
And all of this controversy generated an alternative cover, with the Scorpion guys acting like animals..
And the music catalog of Scorpions is all over the place when it comes to streaming services. This album like many others from the Scorpions is not available on streaming services like Spotify, Deezer or Apple, but hey YouTube has it.
So “Pure Instinct” is album thirteen. Released in 1996 it’s basically forgotten.
Klaus Meine is on vocals, Rudolf Schenker on rhythm guitars, Matthias Jabs on lead guitars and Ralph Rieckermann on bass. For drums they used a session player (aka a “Hired Gun”) called Curt Cress.
The main Producer is Erwin Musper with 80s legend Keith Olsen, producing tracks 1 and 7.
“Wild Child”
Produced by Keith Olsen.
Bag pipes play a Celtic like melody before the crunchy guitars of Rudolf Schenker kick in. Its classic Scorpions delivering a kick ass rock song.
Check out the lead breaks from Mattias Jabs especially the outro solo.
And to close out, the bag pipe melody is back in. Musically it’s as good as any hard rock track from the Scorpions.
“But the Best for You”
Klaus Meine wrote the song.
It’s more Bryan Adams in the Intro than the Euro Scorpions Rock and the verses are very heavily influenced by ELP and the song “From The Beginning”.
What is it with that ELP track?
Dokken covered the ELP track a year before on “Dysfunctional”.
The Chorus also has that “You Give Love A Bad Name” vibe.
“Does Anyone Know”
Another Meine composition and its the first ballad on the album.
Another day has just begun Life goes on there’s no return How can I trust anyone When honesty is such a dirty word
A breakdown in a relationship is not easy especially when you’ve been deceived.
The guitar solo from Jabs is excellent, reminding me a bit of a certain UFO guitarist who did time in Scorpions.
“Stone in My Shoe”
The hard rock of Schenker is back and its got that 70’s feel.
“Soul Behind the Face”
The intro remimds of the Uli Jon Roth era with a bit of Neal Schon.
And even though the acoustic guitar is prominent in the verses, i class the song as a rocker.
And Meine’s lyrics are better here, questioning who he’s real friends are.
And What a Chorus!.
“Oh Girl (I Wanna Be with You)”
A mix of “No One Like You” and “Passion Rules the Game”.
“When You Came into My Life”
A ballad written by Meine and Schenker along with Titiek Puspa and James F. Sundah.
The intro arpeggios remind me of something, but I cant remember what.
The acoustic lead break by Jabs is brief.
“Where the River Flows”
I thought of Collective Soul when I saw this title, even though their version came after. A rock song but with a strummed acoustic as the main focal point.
Under suburban skies Where life is bleeding Where concrete skies are grey There’s plenty of room for dreaming
My hometown has sure changed. Suburbia has moved from the house into the apartment which goes up many levels.
“Time Will Call Your Name”
It’s like a long lost cut from Led Zep III.
“You and I”
A boring ballad to me but it got played live.
“Are You the One?”
A ballad to close the album with.
Skip.
And the album was a Top 10 album in Germany and Finland. It was also a Top 20 album in France, Switzerland and Austria.
It was also certified Gold in Germany, France and Finland.
In the end, it was a release to keep the Scorpions brand going. But the songs feel dull and uninspired. Other artists who had fame in the 80s ask struggled during this period, unsure of what to write, how to sound and how they fit in. Like when Slayer delivered a Nu-Metal album, you knew as a fan that bands were doing it tough.
Klaus Meine at 48 years of age was still writing about “Wild Child’s” and other irrelevant 80s cliches. But on some songs he showed us that there is a questioning human behind the rock star bravado.
I don’t own it. Between 2016 and 2019, I didn’t buy a lot of music as streaming was becoming king.
Released in 2018 and after the success of “The Sound Of Silence”, it was inevitable that the sound of Disturbed would evolve to include a lot of acoustic guitars.
In the interviews leading up to the release, the guys in the band mentioned that the classic rock music they grew up with, influenced the writing of this album.
And this time around, Kevin Churko is also listed as a songwriter along with the band (like how Mutt Lange was listed as a writer with the bands he worked with) and the song “Uninvited Guest” has Dianne Warren as a co-writer. Yes the “I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing” Dianne.
Are You Ready
A throwback to the first two albums in musical style, lyrics and vocal phrasing with an anthemic Chorus.
No More
It’s got a riff and drum groove that reminds me of “The Beautiful People” from Marylyn Manson.
In the Chorus, if you like Swedish Hard Rock or Euro Hard Rock, then you’ll get your fix here.
A Reason To Fight
One of the first acoustic tracks on the album, about not giving up when the demon inside you wants you to. Not a favorite.
In Another Time
The start feels poppy, but then a “Kashmir” like riff kicks in.
The way the verses are delivered vocally is more in line with the popular charting songs.
And the Chorus. Huge.
Stronger On Your Own
A drum groove that reminds me of the first album from Imagine Dragons is prominent but the song still sounds like Disturbed with a bit of Shinedown.
Hold On To Memories
A simple strummed progression on the acoustic guitar starts it off, and then a melodic acoustic lead kicks in.
Draiman is hopeful, sending a message to take the ones you love and hold em close, and to make the most of your life.
And the song remains in the acoustic domain throughout, like “A Reason To Fight”.
Saviour Of Nothing
The heavy rock is back.
But the song was pedestrian, until the interlude section from 2.40 got me interested.
Then a lead break started, first with some Digitech Whammy effects and the shred kicked in after.
Watch You Burn
The acoustic guitars are back, more Led Zeppelin like especially the interlude.
The Best Ones Lie
Its back to the Disturbed Hard Rock sound.
Already Gone
Acoustic guitars are back again with a “Stairway To Heaven” like intro.
This is the best of the acoustic guitar songs and the only one that should have been included. The feel of it is almost Country Rock and Draiman’s bass/baritone like delivery is perfect.
Now for the bonus tracks.
The Sound Of Silence (Live with Myles Kennedy)
It’s a great track and Disturbed have done it justice with their re-interpretation.
This Venom
It’s a bonus track, but the Chorus is better than some of the album tracks.
Check out the whole interlude and lead section part.
Are You Ready (Sam DeJong Remix)
It’s an Imagine Dragons song with this remix and I like it.
Uninvited Guest
Another acoustic guitar led song.
Give it a listen just for the orchestra.
And the album at this point in time doesn’t have any certifications. Time will tell if people will keep listening to it. If I had to rank all the albums, this is my least favorite.
Labelled as Nu-Metal. I never understood what that label meant. Even though I hated the “hair metal” tag back in the late 80’s, it was easily understood why the record labels and media outlets labelled bands with that term.
But Nu-Metal always had me confused. To me it’s all just music.
The bands that started to make inroads in the early 2000’s, had the same aggression and rage as a lot of the bands I grew up with. Just because they didn’t have guitar solos, had shorter hair, dressed differently and played syncopated riffs, it didn’t make them that much different.
And the majority of these bands had even bigger arena rock choruses than the bands who made it in the 80’s and still had a level of success without MTV pushing them, which was very different to the 80’s as all the bands then got to a million in sales on the back of the exposure MTV generated.
The vocal tones of singers in the 2000’s were different as well.
Growing up in the 80’s my ears got used to the Bruce Dickinson, Geoff Tate, Sebastian Bach, Ronnie James Dio, Tom Kiefer and David Coverdale style vocals.
And then in the 90’s with the advent of Grunge, Kurt Cobain, Layne Staley and Eddie Vedder (along with others) changed what a vocalist should sound like.
Rob Thomas, Trent Reznor and Jonathan Davis further changed the expectations. And I was like a pariah within my hard rock friends, who hated all of these singers because they didn’t have the range of the metal and hard rock singers of the 80’s.
Back to Adema, the album came out in 2001, but I didn’t hear it until 2003. I have written about them in a Record Vault post, previously.
Adema is Mark Chavez on vocals, Tim Fluckey on lead guitar and keyboards, Mike Ransom on rhythm guitar, Dave DeRoo on bass and Kris Kohls on drums.
Everyone
The Intro riff reminds me of P.O.D and Godsmack.
The Chorus reminds me of Korn. I like how songs do that.
Everyone is the same Quick to point the blame All I know is that life is a struggle
Truth right there.
Blow It Away
So many influences here.
The Intro music reminds me of Godsmack.
In the verses, there is a Nirvana bass feel, with Korn like guitar embellishments.
Lyrically, it’s a nasty song about a relationship gone bad and if you’ve seen American Psycho, you will know what the singer is thinking.
Giving In
The Intro hooks me in, with its combination of Deftones and “Come Undone” from Duran Duran.
And it’s one of my favourite tracks on the album, about giving in to your addictions or giving in to the darkness that loneliness brings due to your addictions.
Freaking Out
The rapped verses have enough melody to keep me interested and the music/feel of the song reminds me of New Order.
The Way You Like It
My second favourite and the flow of the song is great, with a catchy Chorus.
More Linkin Park like.
Close Friends
A bass riff in the verses which reminds me of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.
Do What You Want To Do
Aggressive song about living the life you want to live.
Skin
Phased out chorused guitars shimmer and glimmer in the verses over a jazz-rock fusion drum groove. Then the Chorus riff kicks in, abrasive, compared to the verses.
Pain Inside
It’s got all the synth electronics that bands were using back in the day.
The chorus gospel effect on the guitars gets me interested and the verse drum and bass groove keeps the momentum going.
Once the power chords come crashing in for the Chorus, I’m sold.
Speculum
The acoustic guitar gets some use but it’s not a ballad.
There’s so many people dying You complain about your situation
Death gives perspective.
Drowning
The intro riff reminds me of Muse.
It’s like a needle in my spine It stings inside Poisons me with time I can’t deal with your lies
Relationships are tough. They could lift you up or bury you.
Trust
It feels like a song from “The Crow” movie with a bit of “Come Undone” by Duran Duran as an influence.
I’m so alone, empty and lost, it’s easier to let you go Time will erode the shame and the fault, it’s easier to let you go
We become focused on achieving something and when we do, we realize we also lost something along the way, like a relationship that you didn’t want to lose.
And that’s the album.
The band was active up to 2009 and then disappeared, only to resurface in 2021 with a new song and possibly a new album.
But it all started here. The debut gave them the valuable rookie card.
It’s the last album I purchased and much later than its release date at a discounted price. At the time I was still endeavouring at keeping my Disturbed collection intact.
So “Immortalized” is the comeback album after the hiatus, released on August 21, 2015 by Reprise Records. It’s also the comeback album for “The Guy”, the Disturbed mascot.
Between “Asylum” and “Immortalized”, there is a five year gap. “The Lost Children” doesn’t count here as it was an album of leftover tracks.
One song defines this album and it’s the cover of “The Sound of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel. As soon as it was released as a single it went to Platinum, and by November 2017, it was 3x Platinum and right now its getting close to 4x Platinum.
The album itself was certified Platinum in January 2018. So in an era of no sales, Disturbed is still pulling good numbers.
The band members David Draiman (vocals), Dan Donegan (guitar) and Mike Wengren (drums) perform on the album. Bass player John Moyer was not present, due to working with Adrenaline Mob and Art of Anarchy so Donegan did the bass. But Moyer is still pictured in the booklet.
Kevin Churko is producing and his run of certifications continues similar to Olsen and Werman back in the 80s.
The reviews at the time were not kind to the album with sentences like “It won’t change the minds of those who weren’t fans before” or “Immortalized” is fans-only release as it feeds the target audience”.
But hindsight is a wonderful thing and “The Sound Of Silence” for better or for worse brought in a whole new audience.
“The Eye of the Storm” (Intro)
You hear the sound of a vinyl record starting, all dusty and then a demented tremolo effect arpeggio starts, complemented by a guitar lead.
“Immortalized”
The Intro riff is classic Disturbed.
“Secure a legacy that will never die, be immortalized”
What kind of legacy is up to you?
“The Vengeful One”
It reminds me of “Louder Than Hell” from Motley Crue. And I like it.
The drum groove sets the pace and then one of my favourite riffs on the album just explodes the same way it does on “Louder Than Hell”.
Pure head banging bliss.
“The rabid media plays their role / Stoking the flames of war to no surprise / Only too eager to sell their souls / For the apocalypse must be televised”
There are no views for happy moments. Chaos, death and destruction gets people glued to their screens.
“Open Your Eyes”
It’s catchy and easily digestible.
This song has John Feldmann (from the band Goldfinger, plus he has a history of writing and producing other artists like Papa Roach, Black Veil Brides, 5 Seconds Of Summer) and Nick Furlong (another songwriter who has worked with Papa Roach, Good Charlotte, All Time Low, 5 Seconds Of Summer) as co-writers, along with Draiman, Donegan and Wengren.
But regardless of the songwriters, it’s still a Disturbed cut, through and through.
You’re hypnotized, demoralized Believe every line that they sell you Start channelling whatever will remains Discern from what’s fiction and what is true
Open your eyes
People need to read more critically and research different point of views. But with social media being such a massive force of nature, it’s very easy to surround yourself in an echo chamber, hearing the same thing, over and over and over again, until you believe it is true and you refuse to see another point of view, which could be true.
“The Light”
A hard rock song, reminding me of “My Hero” from Foo Fighters in certain sections.
And how good is the vocal melody in the Chorus. Pure AOR Melodic Rock.
Four punch knockout combo right there.
“What Are You Waiting For”
I wasn’t surprised that they had a cut that sounded like Five Finger Death Punch on the album. The track is also co-written with John Feldman.
The lead break has a lot of the Digitech Whammy Pedal effects.
“You’re Mine”
The electronic element is back, then again, Draiman’s side project “Device” did sound like this.
“Who”
The riff is a derivative of “Indestructible” and the gang vocal chants are here.
“Save Our Last Goodbye”
It starts off with a person leaving messages on a phone.
The heavy songs were getting derivative at this point in time although I still enjoy listening to em, just to hear what Draiman does with the vocal melodies, or if there is a guitar lead or an interlude that makes me bang the head.
And this song from 3.07 has this Judas Priest like riff in the Interlude which definitely gets the head banging.
In the last minute, it breaks down to a piano and Draiman’s falsetto before building up again.
By the end of it, the person is still calling the number to leave a message and the number is no longer active.
“Fire It Up”
I feel like they started off with an idea to do a song like “We Will Rock You” but once it went through the Disturbed blender, it ended up sounding like “Fire It Up” and if anything it feels like a Godsmack track, with the lyrical line, “when I fire it up, it feels alright”.
“The Sound of Silence”
My brother was singing this song on the day he died from a brain aneurysm and he’s not even a Disturbed fan, but he heard the song on a TV show and it stuck with him.
And I didn’t really care about this song or this version, but a life experience has changed that.
“Never Wrong”
It’s a throwback to the debut album, with a repeating lyrical line done in the Draiman drawl.
“Who Taught You How to Hate”
A great title.
A long time ago I came across a quote like “a child’s life is like a blank sheet of paper, which every person leaves a mark on”.
So how did that child grow up to hate?
Now for the bonus tracks, “Tyrant”, “Legion Of Monsters” and “The Brave And The Bold”.
“Tyrant”
I like the lead break.
“Legion of Monsters”
Inspired by a Rolling Stone article on the Boston Marathon Bomber. It’s angry and energetic.
“The Brave and the Bold”
I like the Blues Rock riff to start off the song. The Chorus is pure Disturbed and the lead break is excellent as there are a lot of Randy Rhoads type licks chucked in and I like it.
For comeback albums, it was well received and while the reviewers said the album is for hard-core fans only, this album actually grew Disturbed’s fan base.
In Australia, Canada and the U.S, the album went to Number 1. In Austria, Finland, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K, it was a Top 10 album. In Belgium, Holland and Portugal it was a Top 20 album.
For certifications, it was certified Platinum in Australia, Canada, Germany, Norway and the U.S. It was certified Gold in Austria, New Zealand, Sweden and the U.K.
The “Immortalized” tour was earning on average $200K in B level cities (using California as a guide, San Diego is classed as a B level city) and about $400K in A Level cities (like Los Angeles) a night.
Good or bad, acoustic guitar songs would become very prominent on the next album “Evolution” released in 2018.
The touring cycle was done and the bad was starting a trek of shows to commemorate “The Sickness” 20 year Anniversary before COVID-19 put a halt to proceedings.
I was reading “Shut Up and Give Me The Mic” and it got me into a Snider mood, so I listened to “Desperado – Bloodied But Unbowed”.
For the uninitiated Desperado also includes Clive Burr (RIP) on drums, Bernie Tormè (RIP) on guitars and Marc Russel on bass.
The project never saw a proper release due to Elektra, pulling the CD from the shelves, two weeks before its release.
Back in the heyday of the record labels, as a musician, your career was in the hands of the record labels. The record company moguls had the power to make or break not only musical careers but the financial lives of individuals.
Vito Bratta is one of the most searched artists on the internet, especially around what he is doing right now. I can’t believe that a talent like Vito, just walked away from it all and stopped writing music.
But he hinted at his departure in past interviews.
In a “Guitar World” interview from July 1991, Vito said that on the “Big Game” record, everyone commented on his playing, but hardly anyone said anything about the songs. And that bothered him.
Brad Tolinski, the person who was conducting the interview mentioned to Vito that it seemed that he made a conscious effort to play differently on “Mane Attraction” and that there are less broken arpeggios and other styling’s that Vito is renowned for.
I remember picking up the Metal Edge magazine from 1988 and seeing an update from Motley Crue. In the pre-Internet era, the only way to get information from our favourite bands was via magazines and MTV.
Metal Edge was happy to report that the band was busy at work on their fifth album and that “Monsterous” is one title they werep considering along with “SSRR” which stands for “Sex, Sex, and Rock ‘N Roll”.
“Some Kind Of Monster” was doing the rounds on free to air TV at the time. Basically, Kirk and Lars are beholden to James Hetfield. That’s the message I got out of the documentary
During the whole “James in rehab” period, Kirk and Lars did nothing and could do nothing. The band was on hold until James was ready.
The King had arrived from Avenged Sevenfold. You can read my review here. And even though the album sounded like other albums, all publicity is good publicity.
De Mont is from Sydney, Australia and is made up of Craig Morrison on vocals, Peter James on keyboards, Terry Mandryk on guitar, Grant Byrne on bass and Rodney Willnet on drums.
Signed to Alberts, who were AC/DC’s Australian label in the early days and George Young was one of the producers and songwriters at the label.
Man, they had some serious promotion behind them.
When Skid Row came to town, De Mont was opening. When Motley Crue hit Australia on the “Dr Feelgood” tour, De Mont was again the lucky band tasked with opening the show.
“Body Language” is the debut studio album released in 1989 on Giant Records.
The album’s style is simply AOR Rock.
Move On You
A fast keyboard synth riff starts the song which reminds me.
Musically, once the guitars kick in, it feels like a Bryan Adams rock cut.
Terry Mandryk is virtually unknown, but he lets loose some excellent guitar work on this, especially in the solo. I read on one of the YouTube videos that he used to be in a metal band based on the Central Coast called “Stark Raven.
I Want Your Body
It was released as a single.
The drum beat to kick it off, reminds of Robert Palmer and his “Addicted To Love” song.
Wild Boy
There is a cool synth lick to start the song off, before all hell breaks loose.
And the lead break from Mandryk is guitar hero worthy.
So Easy
It’s a ballad.
And wait for the lead break by Mandryk. And with each emotive bend, it will have you pulling all the orgasmic faces lead guitar players do.
In My Dreams
Big guitars and synths kick off this song.
And what a Chorus. Excellent.
My favorite song on the album.
Close To The Edge
One of the singles. For some reason I have it on 7 inch single and cassette.
Synth chords kick it off, before the band comes crashing in.
The verses are different, unique and when the Chorus kicks in, it rocks but it felt lacking.
Strange World
A guitar riff dominates the song.
Shake It Up
A skip.
Too Late
A ballad. More pop rock than soft rock.
Sex Attention
The horns make it sound sleazy. It reminds me of a few tracks from the “A Little Aint Enough” album by David Lee Roth.
They released one more album “R.I.P.PED” in 1991 (I just found that out) and then like so many other bands, they disappeared.
According to the bio of Craig Morrison who is an artist in Nashville, a management label dispute led to De Mont disbanding.
I watched it last night, however it was released in 2016.
Eric Singer is a legend and the doco cemented that for me.
Between 2004 and 2008, Kiss wouldn’t tour when Alice Cooper was touring and Alice wouldn’t tour when Kiss was touring.
All because of Eric Singer. Both acts had him as a Hired Gun.
And what happened to Billy Joel?
He turned down being produced by George “Beatles” Martin because Martin wanted to use session guys and Joel was loyal to his current band members only to boot 1/2 of em a few years later and then drummer Liberty DeVitto sometime after that after he asked for a pay rise.
Jason Hook from Five Finger Death Punch is involved as Producer so there is a focus on heavy metal/rock acts.
And I didn’t know his past pre FFDP, as the touring guitarist for Mandy Moore and Hillary Duff. It didn’t mention if he played on the albums of those artists. And while these touring gigs could be lucrative, they can also end abruptly.
But it was the Hillary Duff gig that got him noticed by Alice Cooper, so when that finished up, Alice was there.
And there was a bass player who was a hired gun for the band Filter, was paid hardly nothing and said it was his worst experience ever and now he does voice overs.
The guitar player for Pink’s band was mentioned. I forgot his name so I just googled him.
Justin Derrico.
There is footage of him jamming. Derrico brings out some Mixolydian lines, string skipping and sweeps. The dude can play but the last time he played on a Pink album was in 2012 for “The Truth About Love”.
You get to hear how Jason Newsted borrowed money from his friends to fly out for the Metallica bass player audition after Cliff Burton’s death. Once he got the gig, he was put on $500 a week until he became a full member a year later.
Or Derek St Holmes, who sang “Stranglehold” but was never part of the band and people believed that the voice of St Holmes was Ted Nugent.
Rudy Sarzo is there as well, as his stints in Ozzy and Whitesnake were as a hired gun.
The documentary focused on the death of Randy Rhoads and showed footage of the crash, which I think took away from what they were trying to achieve with the doco but as a Randy Rhoads fan I was still glued to the TV screen. They could have spoken about the death like they did for Cliff Burton. I suppose there is never an easy way of dealing with these kind of things.
And Steve Lukather did a lot of session work but his main focal point was writing a song for George Benson. And it’s well known that Lukather and Eddie Van Halen were involved in “Beat It”. Lukather made sure to mention how he played the bass and guitar riff.
But.
At what state was “Beat It” in, before Lukather came and did the bass and guitar riff.
Was it just a keyboard song originally and Lukather needed to come up with something?
Was there a scratch riff for him to refer to?
Or was there someone else’s “Hired Gun” idea there for him to build on?
Or was he given the demo version and told to play it like that but in his style?
Some “unknown” Hired Guns to me are Brett Garsed who did work with John Farnham and Nelson along with Carl Verheyen who was a hired gun for Supertramp before becoming a member and he did a lot of session work for other artists, sometimes without even been credited.
And of course when Bob Ezrin was talking about “hired guns” playing on albums and not being credited, I immediately thought of Kiss and how towards the late 70’s, they started to get different players to perform on songs, but still sold the idea that the band members played on all the tracks to their fan base.
In the end, I wanted a bit more from “Hired Gun” however it was still a cool to watch.
destroyerofharmony 