Category Archives: Unsung Heroes

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

Victims Of The Future

On 6 February 2021, it will be 10 years since Gary Moore passed away.

Once “Still Got The Blues” got traction and started selling, Moore did his best to distance himself from his 80’s output as he went to the blues.

“My favourite of those is Wild Frontier because it was made just after Phil [Lynott] died. I was thinking about him a lot at the time, hence its Celtic influences. It’s a reflective record, whereas this [picks up Victims Of The Future] is just one of my feeble attempts at heavy rock.”
GARY MOORE

Feeble attempt or not, “Victims Of The Future” is an excellent heavy rock record.

I picked this album up on LP via a second hand music shop in the 90’s. It was an interview with guitarist Al Pitrelli in 1992 that got me interested.

You see, back in 1992, Pitrelli was in Widowmaker. For those that don’t know, Widowmaker was Dee Snider’s second attempt to kick start his post – Twisted Sister music career. His first attempt, Desperado was pulled from release a week before the album was meant to hit the streets by Elektra boss, Bob Krasnow.

Snider missed out on the final glory years of MTV and hard rock music between 1988 and 1991.

Anyway, “Blood and Bullets” from Widowmaker hits the streets and the obligatory interviews follow. At that time I purchased an issue of “Guitarist” and Al spoke a lot about Phrygian mode scales in the interview. He referenced Gary Moore a lot as an example and his emotive lead in “Empty Rooms”.

So it was a no-brainer when I saw the album for $2 and the supergroup of musicians recording it. Apart from Gary Moore, you had, Ian Paice (Deep Purple) on drums, Neil Carter (UFO) on keyboards, Neil Murray (Whitesnake), Mo Foster and Bob Daisley (Rainbow, Ozzy) all contributing bass parts.

But the labels in 1983 still had no idea how to market metal/rock acts.

Virgin Records was originally known in the 70’s for signing progressive rock bands and by the late Seventies/Early 80’s, they had punk rock bands and new wave bands. It was only a matter of time before they started to accumulate hard rock and metal bands because no label wanted to be beaten by another label.

Gary Moore started off with MCA for “Back On The Streets” and changed to Virgin for “Corridors Of Power” and he remained there until 1997.

There was a label format for the single releases. A melodic rock/AOR type of song, a cover and a ballad. And like clockwork, Virgin decided the singles to be released as; “Hold on to Love”, “Shapes of Things” and “Empty Rooms”.

“Victims Of The Future” gave Gary Moore traction but no certifications. They came with the next album “Run For Cover” and the certifications continued well into the late 90’s.

“Victims of the Future”

It’s a brilliant song, written by Moore, Neil Carter, Ian Paice and Neil Murray.

Searching each day for the answers
Watching our hopes disappear
Set on a course for disaster
Living our lives in fear
Our leaders leave us in confusion
For them there’s only one solution

Caught in the fight for survival
Trapped with our backs to the wall
Are we just lambs to the slaughter?
Who wait for the axe to fall?
Our world is headed for destruction
Our fate is in the hands of fools

I plagiarized/stole the whole first two verses for my major art project as it was based on “War”. It was a mixed media project that involved making a miniature coffin and on top of the coffin, I had the two verses written there, sort of like an Eulogy. Inside the coffin, I had drawings of all things war. Of course, Rattlehead and Eddie made appearances in there as well.

Shadows of the past,
Victims of the future
How long will it last?
Victims of the future

You would think our leaders would learn from their mistakes or the mistakes from the past, but no, they don’t. Narcissists go into politics. It’s all about them and their viewpoint. They enrich themselves and their supporters.

Into the verbal arena,
Armed with the lies that they tell
They’re fighting for world domination

Nothing has changed over the last 100 plus years and nothing will change in the next 100 plus years. It’s all about dominance.

And Gary Moore was dominant as a hard rock guitar hero. If he liked it or not, hard rock gave him a few victory laps.

Check it out.

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

1985 – Part 9

Exodus – Bonded By Blood

I didn’t hear this until the Napster era. I wanted to hear it a long time ago because it was Kirk Hammet’s origin band, but every time it came to deciding what to spend my money on, this wasn’t it.

“Bonded by Blood” was originally titled “A Lesson in Violence”, but had its name changed when a suitable cover idea could not be found. The song “Impaler” was originally to be featured on this album, but it was abandoned when Kirk Hammett took the main riff with him to Metallica and used it for “Trapped Under Ice”. The song however was resurrected on the “Tempo Of The Damned” album released in 2004.

And the thrash metal acts which came from San Francisco, there was a lot of crossover of riffs, similar to the LA Sunset Strip crossover. The way the riffs flow on this album I expected to hear Hetfield’s or Araya’s or Mustaine’s voice. They are almost interchangeable.

Paul Baloff as a vocalist was different. He snarled, growled, spat and screamed his way through songs with his chainsaw like delivery. I got it, understood it, but I wasn’t a fan of it.

Anthrax – Spreading The Disease

I like Anthrax because they played hard and fast and had groove and melodic vocals. This is Joey Belladonna’s first album with them, having replaced Matt Fallon who replaced Neil Turbin.

After the blistering speed of “A.I.R”, its back to traditional metal with “Lone Justice”, my favourite track on the album. “Madhouse” continues the traditional metal vibe but with a lot of groove and at 32.5 million streams it’s their Spotify star.

“Stand Or Fall” is a speed metal track and with Belladonna’s delivery, it can be classed as the embryo to power metal. And it still sounds to me that they are singing “Sand The Floor” instead of “Stand Or Fall”.

The 1.18 minute intro to “The Enemy” is desk breaking stuff. “Armed And Dangerous” is armed with acoustic guitars and a tonne of melody for about 1.20 and then it explodes. “Medusa” has one of those head banging riffs which is synonymous with heavy metal.

Loudness – Thunder In The East

If you want your Loudness treatment, head over to mikeladano and read his reviews.

“Thunder In The East” is not on Spotify, so I had to head over to YouTube to hear it in full as I’ve only heard “Crazy Nights” from this album. It still amazes me how some music is missing from Spotify and other streaming services.

YouTube actually showed the labels and publishers what the people want when it started. Access to music and they also wanted to upload their catalogues, so others could listen and comment and so forth. And what we have is some bastardised version of that with Content ID.

This album from the outset reminds of Bonfire and their “Fireworks” album which came a few years after. Produced by Max Norman, it has all the bells and whistles of a quality production.

Akira Takasaki brings out his metal riffs. “Crazy Nights” kicks it off, but “Like Hell” is so like Judas Priest’s “Electric Eye” that it quickly became a favourite. And in the lead break, Takasaki leverages Malmsteen for the fast shred and Rhoads/Lynch tapped solos from “Flying High Again” and “Tooth And Nail” for the tapping sections.

“Heavy Chains” starts off with a clean tone arpeggio riff with a melodic lead over it. I’m always a sucker for these kind of songs as they move from these clean tone intros into an aggressive epic song. The vocals from Minoru Niihara are excellent. And the song is more power Viking metal than the Nordic bands. The whole interlude and lead break is worthy of your attention.

“Get Away” blasts out of the gates and so far it’s a four punch knockout. Especially when Takasaki goes into his “Burn” from Deep Purple inspired solo.

“We Could Be Together” is traditional heavy metal with Niihara delivering a Steve Perry like vocal in the verses and then going all falsetto in the pre chorus and chorus. Perfect.

And the album doesn’t really let up on the high quality song writing, with “Run For Your Life” kicking off side B, especially that palm muted arpeggio riff in the Chorus and it ends with the ballad “Never Change Your Mind”.

Alcatrazz – Disturbing The Peace

Alcatrazz with Malmsteen was like Rainbow. Alcatrazz with Vai was like Rainbow with alot more fusion added.

“God Blessed Video” kicks off the album and you hear the old Rainbow influences with the Vai fusion in the music.

“Mercy” is excellent musically, but Bonnet’s lyrics are a mess with killing queens in Africa and India or something like that. But check out the lead break from Vai.

“Wire And Wood” has Vai starring in the first 30 seconds. “Desert Diamond” again has Vai starring in the intro, using the guitar like a sitar. Musically the song is excellent. “Stripper” is speed rock in the vein of “Highway Star”. “Painted Lover” has a riff that has appeared in a DLR song here and there.

Lee Aaron – Call Of The Wild

This album surprised me. It’s a brilliant piece of melodic rock.

Bob Ezrin is there as keyboardist and executive producer. Bob Halligan Jr has a co-write with Mark Ribler on the song “Line Of Fire”. The very underrated John Albani is on guitars and is one of the main songwriters on the album.

“Rock Me All Over” and “Runnin’ From The Fire” are a lethal 2 punch knockout.

And then there is “Barely Holdin’ On”. It’s written by a songwriter called Joe Cerisano and man the lyrics.

Growing up, you were taught to believe
That everyone was created equal in the master plan

Everything is about control. Go to school and study so you can memorise everything and pass the tests because you have a great memory. Then you get a chance to work. The higher your education, the better the pay. Well it’s a load of B.S

Oh I’m sick an’ tired of waiting for tomorrow
Promising me the world.. that I’ been hoping for..
Oh I wanna live, an’ I wanna feel
The things in my life, that I’ been searching, for.. so long….

Build your own dreams people and not someone else’s. It’s easier said than done.

The Bob Halligan Jr cuts, “Line Of Fire” and “Beat Em Up” are underrated songs.

“Paradise” is so Scorpions, its perfect. This track is written by Aaron, Albani with Dick Wagner. And those lead breaks after the solo, so Boston like and yet so Scorpions like.

“Danger Zone” continues with the melodic guitar leads and hooks.

Warlock – Hellbound

“Hellbound” is like a Motorhead meets Deep Purple “Highway Star” cut. Musically its ferocious and of course Doro Pesch on vocals is brilliant. And there is a “Burn” like solo which got me interested.

“All Night” is one of those fist pumping anthems. The embryo to “All We Are”.

“Out Of Control” has a traditional metal riff in the verses and a super melodic chorus with clean tone arpeggios over a distorted riff.

“Time To Die” sounds like “Stay Hungry” from Twisted Sister and I love it. And the good riffs keep on coming with “Shout It Out”.

April Wine – Walking Through Fire

It’s not on Spotify but it’s on YouTube.

A contractual obligation to the band’s record label, to whom they still owed one album. The album is a mixture of AOR melodic rock gems, hard rock and blues rock because of the different songwriters involved.

“Wanted Dead Or Alive” is written by Jeff Cannata and Michael Soldan. It has a keyboard riff which is AOR Heaven. Cannata and Soldan released this song with their own band, Arc Angel back in 1983. The U.S press dismissed the band as Boston/Kansas clones, while Europe took to em.

And then CBS dropped em.

The AOR Rock continues with “Love Has Remembered Me” which is written by vocalist/guitarist Myles Goodwyn.

“Open Soul Surgery” is written by Jim Vallance and it has a Robert Palmer “Addicted To Love” feel in the verses crossed with “All Right Now” from Free. “All It Will Ever Be” is written by Goodwyn and it sounds like a pop song that I cant remember right now but nevertheless I like it.

And just like that, the album came out and the band was done.

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

Alexi Laiho 1979 – 2021

Dead at 41.

Alexi Laiho picked up the guitar after seeing the clip for Steve Vai’s “For the Love of God” on MTV. And along with Zakk Wylde, Jake E. Lee, Randy Rhoads, Dimebag, Yngwie Malmsteen and Paul Gilbert, these are the guitarists he looked up to.

I’m not a fan of the extreme vocals but the music always had me interested. Steve Vai on his Twitter tribute to Alexi credits him for introducing a brand of “hi octane, intense Metal at its most brutal and beautiful.”

Laiho and Vai even shared a Guitar World cover together.

Extreme melodic death metal is not the o everyone’s liking so here are a few selections in which the riffs and the lead breaks showcase his talent.

“Punch Me I Bleed” from the “Are You Dead Yet?” album released in 2005. The riffs remind me of the Pantera groove metal and the lead breaks from Alexi showcase his ability.

“Angels Don’t Kill” from the “Hate Crew Deathroll” album is like a traditional metal cut in the music department. But the solo is a must listen.

“Triple Corpse Hammer-blow” is also from the “Hate Crew Deathroll” album and it has a solo section that came from “Over The Mountain”.

“Not My Funeral” from the “Relentless Revkless Forever” album released in 2011 is one my favourite solos. Go to the 3.30 mark to hear it.

To me, he’s basically an 80s guitar hero in the 2000’s and he will be missed.

Check out this ESP Guitars 2 minute short on YouTube. If you haven’t heard his riffs and leads, you will hear em on this video and some cool stories.

Did you notice the style and look of his guitars.

Or this from the EMG YouTube site.

Another guitar hero gone too soon.

Rest In Peace.

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

Evergrey – Eternal Nocturnal

Those lead breaks from Henrik Danhage.

Wow.

So many Guitar Hero moments here, full of melody, emotion and when required, putting the foot to the floor and shredding.

And those tapping licks and legato taps over multiple strings. I’m smashing my guitar right now.

The “Eternal Nocturnal” is that help/support or voice or friend that you need in certain times.

As the lyrics in the Chorus state, it will be the hope when you fall, the shelter when you need a home and in the end it will be there when the time has come.

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

Thunder Bay Down Under Summertime Spin Series – Cold Chisel

Here is the usual prologue.

My blogger pal Deke over at Thunder Bay had a cool Northern Hemisphere Summertime Series between July and August.

Each week, he wrote about albums he spun during the summer.

Well, the real Earth summer is between December, January and February in the Southern Hemisphere.

So the good act that Thunder Bay is, boarded a Qantas plane, landed in Sydney, survived 14 days quarantine in a Sydney hotel and is finally here to present the “Thunder Bay Down Under Summertime Series”.

“East” is the third studio album by Australian rock band Cold Chisel, released in June 1980 and produced by Mark Opitz.

The album was a massive success in the Australian market and it was the only Cold Chisel album to chart in America via its release on the Elektra label.

They did a 5 week tour in the North American market during this album run and never went back. A certain A&R guy called Tom Zutuat was given an ultimatum from the label, if he wanted to sign Motley Crue he had to let Cold Chisel go.

The band at this stage weren’t a successful recording band although their shows would sell out so the album was a deliberate attempt to write hits but in the way that they write.

The beauty of Cold Chisel is the variation.

Vocalist Jimmy Barnes is the soul, blues rock guy. Pianist and main songwriter, Don Walker is the Springsteen/Dylan storyteller. Ian Moss is the heavy rock guy ala Blackmore from Purple. Drummer Steve Prestwich is the prog rock dude and bassist Phil Small brings the pop rock.

Put it all together and the sounds which come out is Cold Chisel.

“Standing On The Outside”, written by Don Walker kicks of the album in rocking fashion.

“No amount of work’s gonna buy my way to Freedom”

We have been sold the dream that if we work hard enough, we will be somebody. But that’s not the case for everybody. For every person who makes it there are millions who don’t.

The themes of the “working class man struggling financially” would appear on a lot of songs from Chisel and even on songs when the members went solo. Because even though Australia is seen as the “lucky country”, it sure costs a lot to live in it.

“Never Before” is written by Ian Moss and its progressive, a fusion of so many different styles, almost Police like.

“Choirgirl” is a Don Walker cut and he writes about abortion and the rights of a woman to choose, which at the time was part of the national debate.

“Rising Sun” from Jimmy Barnes romps it’s way through the 12 bar blues as he references his brief relationship with his future wife which ended at the time when she went back to Japan, hence the lyric of the rising sun stealing his baby away.

“My Baby” from bassist Phil Small is my favourite. That vocal melody lead played on the guitar by Ian Moss during the intro deserves to be listened to.

The killer cuts continue with “Tomorrow”, which is another Don Walker track about a person who comes out of jail, can’t catch a break trying to make it legit and ends up on the wrong side of the law again.

“Cheap Wine” is a classic in Australia.

Cheap wine and a three-day growth

When you’re on the booze, tidiness and keeping appearances go out the window.

I’m sitting on the beach drinkin’ rocket fuels

Australia is surrounded by beaches and there’s nothing more Australian than going down the beach and having a few.

“Star Hotel” is written about the riot that took place there on the night it was closing up for good.

And the most underrated star of the album is Mark Opitz.

Finally the band had a producer who allowed them to do what they best, which is to play and he wanted to capture that live sound and energy on record. Bob Rock had the same ideals for the “Black” album from Metallica.

The album sounded fantastic on any system or format.

Check it out.

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Bob Lefsetz – Tom Werman Interview

Here is the Spotify link.

His first production credit was a co-production on a Ted Nugent album, because he remixed the album with the engineer to make it sound great in radio.

Werman was an A&R guy for six years at Epic. Epic wasn’t big on rock music and the label during the time passed on a few bands that Werman brought to them like Kiss, Rush and Lynyrd Skynyrd but he was allowed to sign Reo Speedwagon.

So Werman was really looking for an artist to deliver a platinum album so he could justify his A&R existence. The Ashboy Dukes just broke up and Nugent was available. He was the artist that Werman wanted and he convinced the label to sign him.

The debut self-titled Ted Nugent album went platinum and suddenly Werman was known as a producer.

Then the Cheap Trick project came along. Werman signed em based on a recommendation by producer Jack Douglas to see em perform live in a packed strip club.

Douglas produced the first Cheap Trick album and Werman did the second one “In Color” as Douglas was busy with Aerosmith.

Werman was focused on getting a pop sound that would translate well on to the radio. That was his thing. Because if the band got radio play, they would sell a lot of records.

He spoke about the Cheap Trick “In Color” album and how the band had a lot of material which is typical of a band in the early stages of a record deal as they’ve had their whole lifetime to amass a catalogue of songs.

He missed out on being involved on the “Budokan” album because he was working with Ted Nugent at the time. And the last album he produced “Dream Police” was put on hold for 8 months because of the good business the “Budokan” album was doing. And then the relationship ended and the band went with George Martin, to release an album that didn’t do great business compared to the Werman albums.

Werman at the time was at CBS and when he asked for a pay raise, he was turned down and he left to work with Elektra.

Krasnow (the Elektra head) wanted to drop Motley Crue, as he saw them as an embarrassment, but then “Shout At The Devil”blew up and that was that.

Werman enjoyed working with Mick Mars, a highly underrated guitar player. He went out for sushi with Nikki Sixx the day after he was pronounced dead. He also said that Nikki produced some nice fiction with “The Heroin Diaries”.

“Tooth And Nail” from Dokken was the other album he did at the time.

Two platinum albums to start off his Elektra career.

He got a call from Doug Morris (the president of Atlantic) to work with Twisted Sister. They had success in Europe with the “You Can’t Stop Rock’N’Roll” album and Atlantic wanted a new album to be unleashed on the US market.

That album of course is “Stay Hungry”.

But after the album was done and approved, Werman and Snider fell out. And still to this day, they are at odds.

He saw the writing on the wall at the start of the 90s. His production values were not liked by the new breed of bands and getting production gigs with these bands didn’t lead to any success and traction because he was known as the producer of Motley Crue and Poison.

He still gets paid from all the albums he produced. He said the payments were healthy up until 1999 and then the payments went down and kept on going down up to 2009 and since 2010 the royalty payments started to increase and they have been increasing ever since.

Streaming has increased the amount of royalties and he gets paid enough to not care if the labels even skim a bit on the royalty.

He hasn’t done any production since he checked out of the music business but if there was an artist that would have gotten him in the chair, it would have been Dave Grohl and The Foo Fighters.

Werman produced records are all over my collection and his production values played a big part in the soundtrack of my youth.

Thank you.

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

John Sykes – Dawning Of A Brand New Day

If the album ever gets released remains to be seen, but what we have here is a 5 minute song of heaviness and melody.

Tony Franklin shared it on Twitter and I clicked on it. Franklin also mentioned that he didn’t play on the recording but has jammed the song with Sykes.

And the riff to kick it off.

Brilliant.

The Chorus riff and melody.

Brilliant.

The lead break is memorable.

That outro riff.

Brilliant.

And the track was recorded four years ago, for the solo album, “Sy-Ops”, which is way overdue but scheduled for release later this year.

The thing with Sykes is his variation.

There are metal songs with big riffs like this track, hard rock songs with big riffs, blues rock songs, sleazy rock songs and of course big guitar ballads.

And in case you are not aware, “Out Alive” and “Gates Of Hell” also got a YouTube release over the last three years.

“Out Alive” captures his Thin Lizzy and Judas Priest influences while “Gates Of Hell” continues his epic songwriting style from “Valley Of The Kings”.

2021 is already better.

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

The Record Vault And Thunder Bay Down Under Summertime Spin Series – Candy Harlots

Here is the usual prologue.

My blogger pal Deke over at Thunder Bay had a cool Northern Hemisphere Summertime Series between July and August.

Each week, he wrote about albums he spun during the summer.

Well, the real Earth summer is between December, January and February in the Southern Hemisphere.

So the good act that Thunder Bay is, boarded a Qantas plane, landed in Sydney, survived 14 days quarantine in a Sydney hotel and is finally here to present the “Thunder Bay Down Under Summertime Series” with the great act “The Record Vault” opening up.

“Five Wicked Ways” the debut album from Candy Harlots finally came out in May 1992 after a long 5 years of trying to get a record deal.

Candy Harlots started in 1987 in Sydney by guitarist Ron Barrett, drummer Tony Cardinal, vocalist Mark Easton and bass guitarist Nick Szentkuti. Guitarist Marc De Hugar joined soon after.

Szentkuti was replaced by Scott Millard and then Leeno Dee. The addition of Dee on bass also gave them another songwriter on top of Easton and Barrett.

The band eventually got a record deal from Virgin Records after three shows but their manager turned it down.

And the guys couldn’t sign the contract themselves because their management deal didn’t allow them to do it without their manager approving it.

In between bad management decisions they still wrote and toured. They opened up for The Cult, Cheap Trick, DAD, Kings Of The Sun and The Angels.

But they still couldn’t get a major deal apart from the Virgin deal. So they released their debut 7″ single Red Hot Rocket in April 1989 on a small indie label.

A follow-up single entitled Danger (backed with Wrap 2 Arms) was released in May 1990.

They jammed and partied with members of Skid Row and Motley Crue.

Then tragedy struck.

In October 1990, founding guitarist Ron Barrett died after an asthma attack, at the age of 26.

Peter Masi was recruited. But the changes didn’t end here.

In February, 1991, guitarist Marc De Hugar was replaced by Phil Bowley.

And a month later, vocalist Mark Easton left after a final performance with Candy Harlots. The only founding member left at this point is drummer Tony Cardinal.

New vocalist Tony ‘Aiz’ Lynch joined the band soon afterwards. By now their management deal had also expired. And Virgin Records came knocking again and signed the band.

The Lynch-led line-up received greater media attention than the Easton-fronted group, and they remained popular with the Australian hard rock and heavy metal fraternity, gaining many new fans through Virgin-backed promotional activities.

In 1991, the “Danger” single got re-recorded and released with the new version of the band. I purchased the cassette single and CD single.

“The Tease Tapes” also came out in 1991 as a promotional release with “Hot Metal” magazine, to promote the upcoming album which was scheduled to be released in October.

But October came and went and still no album.

Then at the start of 1992, the “Foreplay” EP came out, which would have three songs from the album plus a cover from The Kinks.

And finally in May 1992, “Five Wicked Ways” came out.

The Candy Harlots had the LA sleaze of Motley Crue, Guns N Roses, Ratt and Poison. They could be like Skid Row, AC/DC and Kiss when they wanted to be.

“Backstreet Boys” kicks off the album with its AC/DC riffs. “Sister’s Crazy” is more grown up, a modern sounding pop song about the whole “Fallen Angel” and “Runaway” story.

“Danger” is back and its a melodic rock anthem. “Cheat On Me” is typical hard rock with a bit of punk sleaze.

My favorite is “Where No One Dares”. It’s a slow rock song with excellent guitar playing.

“My Flame” starts off with a pulsing bass riff and a bluesy riff that would make Georgie Satellites proud.

“The Lady Shakes” has Cardinal beating those drums to kick off the song before a bass riff kicks in that reminds me of Rachel Bolan.

“Wrap 2 Arms” is a Ron Barrett cut and its resurrected here, which is a good tribute to their founding guitarist. It’s sleazy and dripping with melted rock along with “The Wildest Way”.

Then the big Aiz Lynch penned “What Are We Fighting For” comes in at track 10 and so far it’s all killer and no filler.

“Mercenary Baby” is funky and rock like. “The Other Side Of Love” feels like a Dokken cut and the album is rounded with an acoustic “Devils Blues”.

And they released a few singles from the album in “Sister’s Crazy” and “What Are We Fighting For” with extra unreleased tracks and cover songs.

Like an AC/DC cover in “Can I Sit Next To You Girl”.

And then Aiz Lynch was fired.

The band got new singers, changed their name and then it ended.

But that small output is as good as any of the big bands.

Check em out.

And all the best in the New Year.

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

2020 Summary

This is it, the final wrap up from the thousands of words written in 2020. Here are the stand out albums for each month.

January
Storm Force – Age Of Fear

February
The Night Flight Orchestra – Aeromantic

March
Harem Scarem – Change The World

April
Trivium – What The Dead Men Say

May
Vandenberg – 2020

June
Protest The Hero – Palimpsest

July
Bush – The Kingdom
Long Distance Calling – How Do We Want To Live?

August
John Petrucci – Terminal Velocity

September
Vanishing Point – Dead Elysium

October
Smith And Myers – Volume 1 and Volume 2

November
AC/DC – PWR UP

And here is a “best of” list of stand alone single releases.

January
Free Spirits Rising – “I Would Love To Rock The World”

February
Machine Head – “Circle The Drain”
Royal Bliss – “Feeling Whitney”

March
Collateral – “Mr Big Shot”

April
Free Spirits Rising – “Moon Of Forever”
Spoken – “Awaken Me”

May
Dee Snider – “Prove Me Wrong”
Shinedown – “Atlas Falls”

June
Free Spirits Rising – “Landing In Heaven”

July
Night Demon – “Vysteria”

August
Daughtry – “World On Fire”

September
Rise Against – “Broken Dreams Inc.”

October
The Night Flight Orchestra – “Impossible”

November
The Night Flight Orchestra – “Paper Moon”
Machine Head – “My Hands Are Empty”
Protest The Hero – “Protect The Land”

Enjoy.

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

Best Of November 2020

November had eight posts on the new release front.

Part 1 is here.

Part 2 is here.

Part 3 is here.

Part 4 is here.

Part 5 is here.

Part 6 is here.

Part 7 is here.

Part 8 is here.

For single song releases, System Of A Down released “Protect The Land” and “Genocidal Humanoidz” as their response to Azerbaijan and Turkey’s bombing of an Armenian settlement inside Azerbaijan called Nagorno-Karabakh, which the Armenians call Artsakh.

The Night Flight Orchestra released their retro classic rock Christmas song in “Paper Moon”.

Machine Head released “My Hands Are Empty”.

And a lot of artists dropped new albums in November.

Stan Bush dropped “Dare To Dream”. If you like the 80s you will like this.

Black Stone Cherry took their modern day heavy blues rock and gave us “The Human Condition”.

Firekind is a three piece band from England and “What I Have Found Is Already Lost” is the album. They move between “genres”. There are classic rockers, modern rockers, pop songs, progressive rock songs, acoustic songs and so much more on this album.

Ellefson released “No Cover”, an excellent covers album, with a Def Leppard “On Through The Night” cover. And to make it even better, there is a blistering cover of “Wasted” by Def Leppard as well.

Iron Maiden released “Legacy Of The Beast”, celebrating 40 years of Maiden and recorded in Mexico City. We get some Blaze material (“Sign of the Cross” and “The Clansman”) and one DiAnno track (“Iron Maiden”) plus “For The Greater Good Of God” gets its first live release.

Sole Syndicate is a hard rock band from Sweden. “Last Days Of Eden” is their second album, and the traditional heavy metal like Rainbow, Scorpions and Judas Priest come to mind.

Fates Warning is one of the first progressive metal bands I got into. For a prog band to succeed there has to be a song. If there isn’t a song, then all of the flash and technical interludes over complex time changes mean nothing. Jim Matheos can craft a song and he doesn’t need to create complex interludes with millions of notes. Sometimes an atmospheric mood or groove is enough.

And for those Armored Saint fans, bassist Joey Vera has been doing work with Fates Warning since 2000 and he’s still rocking and progging away with em.

Chris Stapleton released a good blues/rock album in the style of John Fogerty and Steve Earle. The first three tracks are a triple combo knockout with “Starting Over”, “Devil Always Made Me Think Twice” (which sounds like it came from the same family tree of “Old Man Down The Road” by John Fogerty) and “Cold” which is basically a re-write of a Paolo Nutini song called “Iron Sky”.

And the album which reigned supreme for me in November is from AC/DC.

The mighty Acca Dacca return with one of the best album titles ever in “Power Up”. Their return was met with enough fandom, and it pushed their album into number 1 with decent sales.

“Realize” storms out of the gate with its “For Those About To Rock” intro before it starts cranking with its “Problem Child/Sin City” vibe.

And I’m all in.

“Shot In The Dark” is better than a walk in the park, with its instantly recognisable riff, which people state sounds like “Rock N Roll Train” and “Rock N Roll Train” sounds like other AC/DC songs, because Angus and Malcolm are brilliant at creating derivative versions of the same riff.

Tracks like “Through The Mists Of Time” is AC/DC bringing in something extra and the way the Chorus happens, well it’s just a little bit different. In Australia, a band called Choirboys did songs like this.

“Kick You When You’re Down” makes me pick up the guitar to learn that intro riff.

“Demon Fire” is fast blues. It sounds like Airbourne’s “Blood In The Water”. “Let There Be Rock” comes to mind and so does “Safe in New York City” and “Caught With Your Pants Down”.

Other favourites are “Money Shot” and “Code Red”.

Power up for what’s left of 2020 and rock on.

Check it out. If you haven’t already.

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