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

1985 – Part 11

Exciter – Long Love The Loud

The fantasy style album covers always get me interested.

So Exciter is basically the NWOBHM, played faster, with a lot of double time drumming, alternate picked guitar riffs and banshee wails.

And as I’m nearing the last three songs, all of the previous songs have bled into each other, apart from the first song, the instrumental “Fall Out”.

But then when I was about to give up, “Born To Die” started, a slower groove and more like a hard rock cut with a chorus hook that reminds me of “Balls To The Wall”.

“Wake Up Screaming” moves around my headspace, like a doom metal cut. The bass groove in the first verse is excellent. Vocally, the banshee wails have gotten just too much and they detract a lot from the music.

“Feel The Knife” sounds like “Neon Nights” but I reckon Adrian Smith was influenced by its simplicity for “The Wicker Man” many years later.

Check it out.

Vicious Rumours – Soldiers In The Night

The guitar playing on this is excellent.

The instrumental song “Premonition” is less than a minute and it’s perfect. And of course, it had to be Vinnie Moore.

For those who don’t know, “Mind’s Eye”, Vinnie Moore’s first solo release in 1986, is one of those essential guitar instrumental albums that people of the genre should own.

And in his time so far he worked with other artists the main ones being Alice Cooper and for the last 15 or so years, he’s been the guitarist in U.F.O.

The band is on Shrapnel, so you get an idea that there’s going to be a lot of guitar.

“Ride (Into The Sun)” could have come from the “Kill Em All” album, while “Medusa” could have come from “Shout At The Devil”. Over the riffs, Moore burns his way through the Dorian and Aeolian scales.

“Soldiers Of The Night” could have been a Judas Priest cut and “Murder” could have come from the “Diary Of A Madman” album. “March Or Die” feels like a “Ride The Lightning” cut and “Blitz The World” is like a Motorhead cut, think “Overkill”.

And then there is “Invader”, which is Vinnie Moore’s “Eruption” full of classical lines, arpeggios, volume swells which sound like a violin and all the other guitar techniques like tapping, legato lines, fast picked alternate lines, string skipping and anything else he could find.

Finally, “Blistering Winds” sounds like a song from the “Bark At The Moon” album.

In other words, the band merges all these different hard rock, metal, NWOBHM, speed metal and LA Metal styles into a cohesive album. The great Martin Popoff mentioned em in “The Collector’s Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties”.

And in the same way that “Steeler” and “Alcatrazz” were used to launch Yngwie Malmsteen, Vicious Rumours was used to launch Vinnie Moore.

Black N Blue – Without Love

Geffen tried really hard to break the band to the masses. Apart from teaming the band to work with outside writers, they also got Bruce Fairbairn to produce. Bob Rock is there as well as an engineer/mixer and so is Mike Fraser as an additional engineer.

“Rockin’ On Heaven’s Door” written by Jamie St. James and Tommy Thayer kicks off the album, a light metal cut, influenced by “Lick It Up” in the intro, before it gets rocking into an AC/DC style groove. And the Chorus, man I swear Bon Jovi used it for “Edge Of A Broken Heart”. Maybe Bruce Fairbairn recommended it to Jovi.

“Without Love” is a co-write between Jaime St. James and Jim Vallance. It’s written for the charts and the hearts of the teens.

“Stop The Lightning” brings back the St. James and Thayer partnership, so you get more guitars and more rock.

“Miss Mystery” is basically a pop song. A co-write between St. James, Thayer and Vallance. It could have come from a Bryan Adams album.

“Bombastic Plastic” has this “Stormbringer” like riff which is cool, but the song is so/so. “We Got The Fire” has Mike Reno on backing vocals and it sounds like a Loverboy cut on steroids.

Magnum – On A Story Tellers Night

I got into the band in the late 80’s and worked backwards. This is their fifth studio album, the first one on Polydor after parting with the notorious non-royalty paying Jet Records.

From the opening guitar riff of “How Far Jerusalem” I was hooked. And then the vocals from Bob Catley came in, a cross between Steve Walsh from Kansas, Paul Rodgers from Bad Company and his own style.

“Just Like An Arrow” is a pop song dressed up with metal guitar licks and power chords. Listen to how guitarist Tony Clarkin makes it all work. “On A Storytellers Night” starts off with some chords on the keyboards, a calm before the melodic rock takes over.

“Before First Light” has a Van Halen riff. Can you guess it?

“Les Morts Dansant” has a major key riff that reminds me of a Don Henley song, but when it kicks in to distortion, it reminds me of those 70’s acts like Sweet, Slade, Styx and Angel.

Other songs to check out are “Two Hearts”, “Steal Your Heart”

Running Wild – Branded and Exiled

These guys always had riffs which I liked. Nice head banging riffs.

To know what I mean, check out the main riff to opening track “Branded And Exiled”. Or “Realm Of Shades”.

The guitar lead break on “Realm Of Shades” is also worthy, starting off with a memorable harmony before it moves into separate solos.

“Fight The Oppression” is a Metallica cut from the “Kill Em All” album. “Marching To Die” is Scorpions, just a bit harder and faster.

Vocally it’s raw and the drumming is very metronomic, but hey, no one said that Running Wild is a pop act.

And the series is nearing completion. I have one more post for 2000 (the twelfth post) and one more for 1985.

1977 is already finished up within 10 posts.

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

2000 – Part 11

Pain Of Salvation – The Perfect Element Part 1

I saw a flyer in a magazine that mentioned “progressive” and I was interested. So I downloaded it, as it wasn’t available in Australia at that point in time.

I burned it to a CD, put it on the stereo, pressed play and became a fan. Its progressive because it has so many different styles/genres throughout the songs.

“In The Flesh” has this Queensryche/Bad Company feel merged with Marillion merged with Porcupine Tree before it goes to a Dream Theater like feel from “Images And Words”. And it moves between these things effortlessly.

Make sure you hang around until the 7.20 minute mark, just so you could hear that piano riff before the song segues into “Ashes”.

“Ashes” at four minutes and 20 seconds is brilliant. The melancholic mood created from the lightly distorted arpeggios is hypnotic. There is a fuzzed out lead and a spoken/lightly sung vocal melody.

And when the Chorus kicks in, with that “Zombie” feel, and the line, “As we walk through the ashes, I whisper your name”. Brilliant.

And this song segues into “Morning On Earth” with that musical box/xylophone riff. You need to listen to it, to understand what I mean.

“Idioglossia” continues the genre appropriation and they even bring back that chorus vocal melody from “Ashes”.

Check out “Her Voices” especially the last three minutes when the choir/voices come in. It made me feel like I was in the “Conan The Barbarian” movie.

The riffs in “King Of Loss” are some of my favourites.

And this song segues into “Reconciliation” which brings back that musical box/xylophone riff from “Morning On Earth” but this time on electric guitar and the full band.

“Song For The Innocent” feels like the last two minutes of “Comfortably Numb”.

“Falling” is like “Sorrow” from Pink Floyd and it segues into the 10 minute closer “The Perfect Element”.

An excellent end to an excellent album.

Apocalyptica – Cult

I have a guilty pleasure listening to rock and metal songs adapted to violin, cellos or to a string quartet or orchestra.

It highlights how great and musical the songs are from musicians who have been labelled as evil, devil worshippers, addicts, bad influences, alcoholics and many more.

Apocalyptica is one such band that takes metal songs and adapts them to cellos. In clean tone and with distortion.

And they made a career by adapting Metallica tracks to the cellos, but on this one, they branch out with original tunes and a couple of tasty cover adaptions chucked in.

So “Cult” is their third full-length LP.

The names of Eicca Toppinen (who apart from playing the cello also carries out the arrangements, double bass and percussion), Max Lilja, Paavo Lötjönen and Perttu Kivilaakso are easy to forget, but their devotion to their instrument and heavy metal music is .

The haunting melody to “Romance” is unforgettable and cinematic.

Other songs, like “In Memoriam” and “Hyperventilation” have some great sections.

“Hope” has a melody that reminds of Iron Maiden songs.

And then the covers, which I always enjoy.

“Hall of the Mountain King”, a haunting adaption of “Until It Sleeps” from Metallica and “Fight Fire with Fire” which has the cellos smoking as they generate speed to play that fast intro after the acoustic section.

Marilyn Manson – Holy Wood

Back then I wanted to listen to it because it had John 5 on guitars and the majority of the songs have John 5 as the musical writer or co-writer with bassist Twiggy Ramirez.

“Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)” is album number 4. Wikipedia tells me it’s a rock opera concept album, connecting “Antichrist Superstar” from 1996 and “Mechanical Animals” from 1998.

“The Fight Song” sounds like it could have come from the band Blur. At 34 million streams on Spotify, it’s tiny compared to the 192 million streams “Sweet Dreams” has. The other big song on Spotify is “The Beautiful People” at 177 million streams, so it’s no surprise they recreated that song for “Disposable Teens”.

“Target Audience” begins with an arpeggio riff that reminds me of “Only Women Bleed” from Alice Cooper before it gets into that industrial staccato style riffs.

My favourite is “In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death” and how a simple acoustic song percolates until it explodes.

“The Nobodies” has a normal drum beat, but its effects are from dance music while John 5 plays a guitar riff in the intro that sounds like a distorted piano.

And I realised that it’s those slower songs which percolate and then explode which become favourites, like “Coma Black”.

And Marilyn Manson is in the news today more than ever before, with his label dropping him after numerous women and his most recent partner accusing him of grooming and sexual/physical abuse.

Nevermore – Dead Heart in a Dead World

Readers of the blog know that I am a fan of Sanctuary, the previous band to vocalist Warrel Dane (RIP) and bassist Jim Sheppard.

Jeff Loomis is on guitars. He once auditioned for the coveted Megadeth guitar spot but lost out to Marty Friedman. Van Williams is on drums.

So all the lyrics are written by Dane and the music by Loomis, except the covers, which on this album, they have “The Sound Of Silence” from Simon & Garfunkel.

“Dead Heart in a Dead World” is the fourth studio album and the sound of the 7 string dominates.

“We Disintegrate” blasts out with some serious riffage. The drumming in the intro reminds me of “Hanger 18”.

“Inside Four Walls” lyrically feels like a cut from the “Empire” album from Queensryche as it questions the American way of life. Musically, its technical and it reminds me more of the metal that Megadeth plays and the Swedish melodic death metal bands.

“The River Dragon Has Come” has a nice acoustic intro with a melodic lead before it moves into a metal like cut, more groove orientated than the previous songs.

“The Heart Collector” has a slower distorted intro with a melodic lead that gets my attention. Then the verses are acoustic, classical, like Rainbow and Uli Jon Roth era Scorpions.

“Engines of Hate” is probably what people wanted from Metallica during this time. It’s fast, its angry and technical.

“The Sound of Silence” is a cover just by using the lyrics. The music is all new by Loomis, thrash like and the vocal melodies are different.

“Insignificant” is a slower groove but powerful. “Believe in Nothing” is the single. It was also covered by All That Remains in 2008 and also released as a single, I think. It’s more of a hard rock track and an excellent one at that.

If you like your metal to have some technicality to it, then give Nevermore a listen.

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A to Z of Making It, Influenced, Music, Unsung Heroes

Brian Wheat on Lefsetz

Here is the link to the Spotify podcast.

We are all flawed. As fans of music, we used to see our favourite artists as indestructible and confident, free of any issues and ailments and worries.

And then the books started coming and we started to read that was never the case.

They all suffer from confidence issues, fearful of their next step and they cope with various health and growing up issues by medicating themselves via illegal drugs, alcohols or prescriptions.

Brian Wheat has health issues and he’s had them for a long time. And you wouldn’t even know he had any issues. On stage, he always smiled and rocked out.

A lot of ground is covered.

Wheat talks about how Tesla make more money now than what they did on Geffen Records. “Mechanical Resonance” sold a lot and they didn’t make no money, because they were naïve.

They thought that when David Geffen and his team did something for them, it was out of the goodness of their hearts. But the labels don’t do anything without charging for it and the band was in debt.

He talks about Cliff Burnstein, Peter Mensch and Tom Zutuat and how Tesla wouldn’t be where they are today without them, but Burnstein didn’t want to work with them after they reformed, calling them a nostalgic act, in the early 2000’s.

Burnstein, Mensch and Zutuat didn’t want to put “Love Song” on the album. According to them, it was three songs in one song and it didn’t belong. The band stood their ground and they threatened to drop “Lazy Days, Crazy Nights” which was Burnstein’s favourite song.

But “Love Song” blew up (there was also a story there, about how the band and Burnstein had to go to Zutuat to get label budget approval to release another single as the first two singles bombed and the label was preparing to stop pushing the album).

And the band made sure they reminded management and the label about “Love Song” whenever they disagreed on things.

Wheat said that Tesla was difficult for Q Prime to manage because they were sort of a B Level band, as Tesla never got to the level of success of Def Leppard, Metallica and Guns N Roses.

The Tesla break-up is discussed which was strange to listen to as they just made a new deal with Geffen, released “Bust A Nut”, they toured hard and it went Gold, but it wasn’t platinum and they heard along the grapevine that Geffen was going to drop em. Burnstein even said to em, “that they are done. Their career is over.”

And I’m like “wow”. Even though there’s a cult like fan base for the band, the label and management decided that it’s over. Tesla is a working band. They make their money, on the road.

But the band already had some issues with each other and as soon as they lost label and management support they went on hiatus for 5 years.

And during that time Wheat had no money.

He got some publishing money but in order to survive he had to mortgage his house and hustle with others to produce bands and do demos. Jeff Keith even got a job as a DJ in a strip club, Frank Hannon was landscaping and Troy Lucketta was roofing.

Because Tesla’s bread and butter is the live arena.

Wheat talks about his relationships, his friendship with Ross Halfin, his small label to help young bands, his recording studio and actually being the son of the milkman.

Give it a listen.

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Music, My Stories

The Week In Destroyer Of Harmony History – 24 January to 30 January

4 Years Ago

I was writing about the glorious year that was 1983. My fifth post on the year involved Night Ranger, Gary Moore, Marillion and Michael Schenker.

Music magazines became my filters to tell me what’s good and not.

  • Faces, Hit Parader and Circus up until 1988.
  • Guitar World from 1986 to current day.
  • Guitar For The Practicing Musician from 1987 to when it was absorbed by Guitar One and then until Guitar One was absorbed by Guitar World in the early 2000’s.
  • Metal Edge between 1989 to about 1998.
  • RIP for a few years around 1989 and 1990 and I think it also went bust.
  • Hot Metal (an Australian mag) from 1989 to when it ended and in the early 2000’s Metal Hammer became a filter.
  • Kerrang was another mag I purchased here and there.

8 Years Ago

I did a post on the January 1986 issue of Guitar World.

Part 1 is about Malmsteen.

Part 2 is an interview with Dave Meniketti from Y&T, in which he rates other guitarists.

Part 1

It mentioned in the magazine that Billy Sheehan would be joining David Lee Roth on his new solo project and that DLR is also trying to get Yngwie Malmsteen in there. 

Who would have thought how interconnected Malmsteen and Steve Vai where at that time. 

Malmsteen came to America and played in Alcatrazz. He left that band to do Rising Force.

Alcatrazz hired Steve Vai as his replacement. 

DLR is looking at putting a new band together post Van Halen and Malmsteen is sought out, however it is Vai that gets the job.

“I’d rather have people dislike my style than change it,” he says. “If someone says, ‘Hey, Yngwie, you play too damn much’ –- I don’t care. The way I play is the way I like to play. If people like it – great.  If they don’t, it’s still fine with me.”

I think 35 years later; it’s safe to say that Yngwie didn’t conform to any record label standard.

The magazine came out in January 1986. 

Malmsteen was promoting “Marching Out” which came out October 1985. 

In September of 86 he released “Trilogy”. 

Three albums in three years as a solo artist. 

In total if you include the Steeler and Alcatrazz releases that is six releases in four years.

Remember Malmsteen’s motto, it’s all about the music. 

Releasing frequently was how it was done back in the day so that artists could get traction and that is how it should be done in this day and age. 

Six album releases in four years. 

A total of 50 songs over a 48 month (as one Alcatrazz album was a live release). A song a month should be the aim of every artist as a minimum. And its something which artists do on streaming services these days.

Funny that.

Part 2 – Dave Meniketti Shoots His Mouth Off.

That is the title of the segment by Bob Grossweiner. It’s very hard to find anyone these days that is honest in their views of other contemporary musicians.

This article got me started in seeking out the music by Y&T.

Anyway let’s get to some of his views;

Dave Murray and Adrian Smith (Iron Maiden): “I don’t like them. Both are poor to adequate guitarists”. 

Iron Maiden is coming off the mega successful “Powerslave” World Tour which resulted in the also mega successful “Live After Death”. Ballsy by Meniketti.

Mick Mars (Motley Crue): “Not the greatest player but a great guy. He’s not inspired and he’s very sloppy. He sounds like he picked up a guitar two years ago.”

Mick Mars likes the blues and along his path to play the blues he ended up in Motley Crue and the rest is history. 

Chris Holmes (WASP): “I don’t like him. It’s bullshit guitar playing.”

Holmes was more noise and appearances for me.

Matthias Jabs and Rudolph Schenker (Scorpions), K.K Downing and Glen Tipton (Judas Priest): “Guitarists to fill holes where solos are. I don’t find them inspiring soloists.”

A bit harsh on the Scorpions and Judas Priest duo, especially when the Scorpions where coming off the success of “Love at First Sting” and Judas Priest where on a commercial roll that started with “British Steel” in 1980.

Nevertheless Meniketti was asked his views and he gave them and I became a fan in the process, without even hearing a note of his music.

George Lynch (Dokken): “He reminds me a lot of the Los Angeles guitarists. Good and technical but relying a lot on the bar. He gets boring after a while.”

As Lynch got older and wiser, even he himself commented on his overuse of too much distortion and whammy.

Meniketti spoke highly about Yngwie Malmsteen, Carlos Cavazo (Quiet Riot), Eric Clapton, Van Halen, Gary Moore, Angus Young, Neil Schon, Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townsend, Ted Nugent, Ronnie Montrose, John Sykes, Ritchie Blackmore and Billy Gibbons.

For Neal Schon, he mention how he learned a lot from Neal, how Clapton is a master and not a clone, how Hendrix was his biggest influence, how Billy Gibbons is the ultimate R&B influence in Rock N Roll and how Jeff Beck is an innovator.
 
And in case you didn’t know, Meniketti was asked to join Whitesnake at one stage and Ozzy Osbourne’s new solo band before Randy Rhoads came on the scene.

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

Thunder Bay Down Under Summertime Spin Series – The Screaming Jets

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”.

The debut album “All for One” came out in April 1991. It went to Number 2 on the Australian charts and it was certified Gold in the Australian market.

But The Screaming Jets had some serious momentum coming into the album release.

They formed in January 1989, in Newcastle with singer Dave Gleeson, drummer Brad Heaney, guitarists Richard Lara and Grant Walmsley and bass guitarist Paul Woseen.

By November, they won the first ever National Band Competition run by radio broadcaster Triple J.

They released an EP in 1990 called “The Scorching Adventures of the Screaming Jets” and they toured with The Angels around Australia.

Australian rock music historian, Ian McFarlane, said that “All for One” included the flash of early Van Halen mixed with the traditional sounds of AC/DC and The Angels.

I reckon there is definitely a Kiss influence, some of the British blues rock influences and an overall punk like feel. Maybe that’s more from the production than anything.

The album kicks off with “C’Mon”.

A foot stomping AC/DC style groove with a ringing pedal point over the chords. This one is written by Lara and Gleeson.

I watch my TV screen, life flashing before me

Australians were pretty good at wasting their time in front of the silver screen during this period that advertisements were made to show the unhealthy aspect of our infatuation which they then made into TV commercials so we could notice em.

I hear the radio and the songs they play, makin’ my stomach turn

Once upon a time we had rock stations run by music fans and DJs who played deep cuts.

By the end of the 80s, the radio stations became corporations with investors and stock prices and suddenly it wasn’t about the music but profits and payola and playing the same songs over and over and over again.

I see the plastic people, leading plastic lives, Substitute child, disposable wife

Nothing much has changed. Fake people still lead fake lives. They just to glorify it with social media.

“Better” written by Walmsley is a stand out. The bands I was in the late 90s used to cover it.

They said you’d never get anywhere,
Well they don’t care and it’s just not fair
That you know, and I know better.

“Better” became like a national anthem in Australia. The whole groove of the song is infectious. It was the album’s lead single and it peaked at number 4 on the Australian Singles Chart.

“Needle” is written by the bassist Paul Woseen. It has a Dokken style riff with a punk vibe. It’s strange to write it as a description but it works.

The guitarists Lara and Walmsley took influences from everywhere but played the riffs in a loose swingy way.

“Shine On” is also written by Woseen and its a bluesy dirge like “The Jack” but lyrically it’s very different.

“Stop the World” is written by Woseen and Gleeson. The lead break from Richard Lara is worthy.

“Blue Sashes” has a feel from The Angels but the riff ideas feel like they came from the Sunset Strip.

“F.R.C.” (aka “Fat Rich Cunts”) is written by Woosen. It’s one of my favourites on the album.

You drive your fast car,
All over the town,
You got your offices up, 50 floors from the ground.
You hire your slaves to bid for you,
You’ve got a couple of wives and a mistress or two.
And I can’t wait to see you tumble and fall.

I worked as an insurance broker once upon a time. Most of the people around me had second or third marriages, partners on the side and a cocaine habit to match.

The ones further up the corporate ladder had us as slaves running errands for em. And I thought of this song.

You fat, fat, fat rich cunts.

The war cry. Because back in those times most of the people in power fitted those words. They were men who had weight issues.

It changed when the techies became the rockstars.

Following the album’s release, the group relocated to the UK where they based themselves for over two years.

They toured there, the rest of Europe and the US as they supported varied hard rock and heavy metal bands.

The band would release a lot more albums through the 90s and 2000’s. But that story is for a record vault post. Sometime in the future.

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

Trivium – “What The Dead Men Say”. 2020 Album You Might Have Missed

“What The Dead Men Say” from Trivium came out just as the whole world was going into lockdown or already was into lockdown in April, 2020.

Everything was stopped.

They could have delayed the release like so many other artists but they didn’t. It hit streaming services without a physical release.

The songs “Catastrophist” and “What The Dead Men Say” are in their top 5 most popular songs on Spotify.

But my favourite is “The Defiant”.

There are people who surround celebrities, CEO’s and leaders and they allow or enable these people to get away with things that they normally shouldn’t get away with.

In order to stop these people from doing something wrong, someone within their circle needs to break rank and stand for something.

Be the defiant person in between the innocent who are affected, and don’t worry that it’s going to affect your career.

Explicit deviance
Don’t have to hide
Display their wealth of sin
Right ‘fore our eyes

Complicit in ruin
Protect with lies
Defenestrate, destroy
Mock and victimize

People don’t speak out because they are afraid of what would happen if they do.

And if they do speak out, the powerful perpetrators and their enablers will do their best to make their life a living hell, via social media and whatever other means necessary.

I stand in defiance of your ways
(The defiant, the defiant)

Be the defiant one.

Because Trivium defied 2020 and thrived.

Vocalist and guitarist Matt Heafy was an early adopter of Twitch, and even prior to the lockdown, he had built a community on Twitch for people to chill out while he practices songs, does covers, chats or plays computer games with em.

He is keeping in touch with his fan base and connecting with them. By doing this via Twitch, he also gets an income.

Stand and be defiant to the traditional money making avenues in the recording industry and make something different happen. There are ways.

You just need to think differently.

On top of that, apart from releasing an excellent Trivium album, he has a new EP out and he finally finished his Black Metal album with Ihsahn.

And if you want to read a fantastic track by track review, head over to the Music Radar website.

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

Catharsis

“Catharsis” from Machine Head, had its three year anniversary a few days ago.

I posted a review here, not long after it came out.

As the review stated, I have no issues with lyrics of any kind and I do not have a problem with artists I like, taking a stance and commenting on what they see is the state of the world. Opinions are important whether a person agrees or disagrees with them.

So it’s no surprise that on “Catharsis”, Robb Flynn is giving his take on the world. It’s not pretty, but no one said the six o’clock news is pretty.

Most of the songs were written during the time of Trump’s running for President and election. There is despair, anger and some forecasting as to what the future would look like, under a Trump presidency in the lyrics of the songs.

And Robb Flynn was right with every word.

Check out the song “Bastards” with its catch phrase of “Don’t let the bastards wear you down”. Because it happened. All of the lies and the hate speech wore everyone down. Even internationally, our news bulletins spent a lot of time fact checking Trump’s claims and others just basically laughed at him and made unflattering jokes about him.

Robb copped a lot of flak for taking a stand on politics, from U.S magazine writers, U.S music websites/blogs and U.S fans. It was an American thing. As Dee Snider said on Twitter recently, a lot of metal fans in the U.S, are also Trump supporters and was anyone really surprised when the majority of writers for the U.S metal magazines and websites came out as Trump supporters. Especially the ones, on the more extreme side of metal.

And what was surprising about all this, was how many of the U.S “fans” and “writers” kept posting that Robb Flynn should just keep his views on politics to himself and just sing.

But politics have been a big part of Machine Head. The songs, “A Thousand Lies”, “Clenching The Fists Of Dissent”, “Halo”, “In The Presence Of My Enemies” and “A Farewell To Arms” are all political.

What did these guys think he was writing about?

Making cookies.

I believe that Machine Head is more popular outside the U.S and the international audience stood with Robb Flynn on this. We didn’t have the U.S problem.

Is the album bloated?

Yep, a few songs too many. At 75 minutes long, it’s a lot to take in, especially in a world that has a lot of distractions and people just don’t know how to manage their time effectively.

Is it the best Machine Head album?

Depends on what you grew up with. I like “The Blackening”, “Through The Ashes Of Empires”, “Supercharger” but my favourite is “Unto The Locust”. It’s the most focused and at seven songs, it’s pretty much all killer.

And the message of standing your ground is important. It’s easier said than done, because to stand your ground, means that you need to move out of your comfort zone.

Because standing bye and watching the unacceptable become the acceptable is not an option.

Play it loud.

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

Bodyswerve

I’m reading the book “Working Class Man” from Jimmy Barnes. A review will be coming soon.

And I just finished the chapter that covered his first solo album “Bodyswerve” released in 1984.

I always saw Barnesy as indestructible, taking the world head on, with no fucks given.

But there was fear. He was like all of us. Unsure of choices and decisions.

He had the uncertainty and fear of going it alone after Cold Chisel broke up and the fear he had of coming up with songs for his first solo album.

He kept comparing his writing to Don Walker’s from Cold Chisel, but they are very different writers.

He persevered and kept on writing and he delivered.

Once the songs were written, he had to assemble a band.

He got people he felt “safe with”.

Drummer Ray Arnott recorded with Barnes on Cold Chisel’s final album, “Twentieth Century”. Bruce Howe was the bass player and founder of Fraternity, a band that Barnes had sung with for a short time in 1975 after Bon Scott left.

Bruce Howe was a hard taskmaster back in the day and he should be credited for pushing Bon Scott and Barnesy vocally, and by doing so they both developed their high octane singing style.

Mal Eastick had played with “Stars” and second guitarist Chris Stockley, was selected because he played, “old-style rock, like Little Richard and Gene Vincent”.

And then they went on the road, playing small pubs. They fine tuned the songs and when they went into the studio to record, the energy of the band and their tightness, transferred onto the tape.

And the rest is history.

The album dropped, people were expecting it and went straight to Number 1 in Australia. Jimmy Barnes was reborn as a solo artist.

Listen to the riff and groove of “Vision”.

Then there’s this soul style groove for “Daylight” which reminds me of “Mustang Sally” but it’s more hard rock as the guitar riff wouldn’t be out of place on an AC/DC album.

And what a beautiful combination it is, merging soul with hard rock.

“Promise Me You’ll Call” is a slower tempo song, ballad like, with a soul rock vocal melody.

“No Second Prize” has that “Stand By Me” feel, all rocked up, 80s style. And it became an Aussie pub rock classic.

“Boys Cry Out For War” has a riff which reminds me of “T Rex”. And I like it, as it romps it’s way through my brain.

“Paradise” is a rewrite of his “Rising Sun” song from his Cold Chisel days. A 12 bar rock and roll blues romp.

“A Change Is Gonna Come” is another blues like ballad.

“Fire” and “World On Fire” close the album.

Two great rockers which are virtually ignored.

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

1985 – Part 10

Supertramp – Brother Where You Bound

Album number 8. It’s also the first album without original member Roger Hodgson, which left Rick Davies as the main songwriter and singer.

According to A&M Records, the album went Gold, but the RIAA hasn’t certified it as yet.

The glory days of the band were behind them.

And then I heard “Brother Where You Bound”, the title track. At 16 minutes and 30 seconds long, it’s a tour de force, with Thin Lizzy’s Scott Gorham on rhythm guitar and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour on the guitar solos.

During the intro, there is an ominous keyboard synth droning while politician speeches are intermixed with readings from George Orwell’s “1984”.

Its self-indulgent in some sections, it reminds me of ELP, The Alan Parsons Project, Pink Floyd and other jazz rock fusion artists. But a ballsy move, regardless.

King Kobra – Ready To Strike

I always saw the ads for King Kobra but my finances limited my purchases. So in the 2000’s I finally listened to the full albums from em.

King Kobra are Mark Free (now known as Marcie Free) on vocals, David Michael-Philips and Mick Sweda on guitar, Johnny Rod on bass and Carmine Appice on drums.

“Ready To Strike” opens the album with mournful arpeggios and a classical inspired guitar solo before it kicks in to a head banging riff.

“Hunger” is a Kick Axe song.

How good is the intro?

Free starts his chant while the toms and guitars are in synchronicity. It reminds me of the “Rock Star” movie with Mark Wahlberg.

“Shake Up” has a similar intro to “Hunger” but that’s about it. This one is a melodic rock cut, virtually unknown. Carmine Appice’s drumming is thunderous in the intro and his rolls between bars are perfect.

“Breakin’ Out” reminds me of Y&T. Its high energy and the drumming of Appice in the verses has this “Radar Love” shuffle, which Tommy Lee also used in “Kick Start My Heart” a few years later.

One thing about King Kobra that would have worked against em is their choice of song titles.

“Tough Guys” is a perfect example.

Musically and melodically the song is excellent, but the title is terrible and the lyrics about “the world’s greatest lie being that tough guys don’t cry” are a miss.

“Second Thoughts” is typical of the melodic rock being played during this period. Think of “Tears Are Falling” from Kiss.

Raven – Stay Hard

They stormed the U.S a few years earlier and then watched all the bands who opened for them get bigger, while they stayed within their cult audience.

So album number 4 is also their first for Atlantic.

“On And On” is excellent musically and “Restless Child” sounds like an UFO cut. These two cuts stand out because they have this mainstream feel to them which I like.

Instrumental closer “The Bottom Line” has the riffs and little melodic leads, but the horn section was a bad idea.

The writing was on the wall.

Rough Cutt – Rough Cutt

This band was more famous for the members who departed it and the management team of Ronnie James Dio and Wendy Dio than their music.

In version 1, they had Jake E Lee on guitars and Claude Schnell on keyboards. Well, Lee would join Ozzy and Schnell would join Dio.

Version 2 had Craig Goldy on guitars and Chris Hager joined from Ratt. Well, Goldy would take the spot left vacant by Vivian Campbell in Dio.

And finally they had enough stability, a record deal and their debut album.

Produced by Tom Allom. If you own a Judas Priest album, you will know who he is.

“Take Her” had a committee of songwriters in Chris Hager, bassist Matt Thorr, vocalist Paul Shortino, drummer Dave Alford, previous guitarist Craig Goldy and Ronnie James Dio.

There is a misplaced cover of “Piece of My Heart”.

There is another cover called “Never Gonna Die” from Australian band, The Choirboys, who had a hit with it in Australia. Shortino misses the energy that Gable brings to it.

“Dreamin’ Again” sounds a lot like a Dio cut from “The Last In Line” album. This one is written by Alford, Hager, Thorr, Shortino and Wendy Dio. It moves between a slower tempo acoustic verse into a distorted Chorus with harmony vocals. The lead break is also guitar hero worthy. It has melody, shred, harmonies and pentatonic lines.

“Black Widow” opens up Side 2. Its written by Amir Derakh, Alford, Thorr, Shortino and W. Dio. I can’t stress how much this sounds like a Dio cut. The feel and tempo is slow driving, the way Dio likes it. The song title is overused and it doesn’t do the music justice.

Actually overused rock titles became a big problem for rock and metal bands.

Like “Kids Will Rock”. The title has been used before, and they even borrowed from “The Kids Are Back”.

Then you have song titles like “You Keep Breaking My Heart” “Dressed to Kill” and “She’s Too Hott”.

It’s probably a good reason why albums like “Slippery When Wet”, “Appetite For Destruction”, “Hysteria”, “Dr Feelgood” and the Black album, broke out in a big way, with the main singles having titles unique enough to separate them from the generic.

Amir Derakh on guitars has a few song writing credits and he is the one who had a pretty interesting career. While most of his guitar contemporaries had retired in the 90’s, Amir was the guitar synthesizer player in the rock band Orgy.

Coney Hatch – Friction

It’s not on Spotify, which is a pain as the album is solid and a great piece of melodic hard rock.

They were on Mercury/Polygram.

Bon Jovi hadn’t broken big yet, but when they did break big in under a year, the label would put the rest of their roster on the backburner.

How good is that pulsing bass riff on “This Aint Love”?

It lays the foundation for whatever riff the guitarists wanted to do and to be honest it wouldn’t be out of place on an AC/DC album.

“She’s Gone” is pure AOR Melodic rock and I like it, especially that small lead break after the Chorus. Even the main lead break is pretty cool.

“Wrong Side Of Town” reminds me of an Y&T cut and god damn, the bass is prominent and pulsing on this song as well.

How catchy is the guitar riff to “Girl From Last Night’s Dream”?

And give the solo section a listen as well.

“Coming To Get You” has a 10 second intro that reminds me of “Dog Eat Dog” from AC/DC before it moves into a more generic Zeppelin like riff.

Then there is “Fantasy”, another melodic rock riff which is memorable.

“He’s A Champion” brings back the hard rock edge of the opening song “This Ain’t Love”. This time the riff reminds me of “In The City” from Joe Walsh.

“State Line” and “Burning Love” close off the album. One is a fast rocker and the closer is a hard rocker with a melodic rock chorus.

Such a good album and virtually unknown in Australia.

Since 1977 is done and dusted, back to 2000 for Part 11.

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

Dystopia

“Dystopia” is one of my favourite Megadeth records in the 2000’s. It’s five years old right now but it feels like yesterday.

Hell, I’m writing about 2000, 1985 and 1977 releases at the moment and even those albums feel like they got released yesterday.

Time does go bye. Way too quickly.

The last few days, I was listening to my Spotify 2016 playlist. Man, so many good songs released during the year and not enough time to listen to everything.

If you are an artist releasing music right now, it’s never been easier, but if you want to get heard above the noise, it’s never been harder.

There is so much new music being released and it’s all competing with each other and it’s also competing with the history of music.

“Dystopia” is a rejuvenated Megadeth. While most of the songs are still written by Dave Mustaine, the performances of new guys, Chris Adler and Kiko Loureiro are energetic.

Lyrically, Mustaine is at his spittiest best.

The drumming from Chris Adler, who at the time was still a member of Lamb Of God, is powerful, technical and when needed an enhancer to the riffs. Kiko Loureiro on guitar, shreds with the best of em, his style a unique combination of so many guitar heroes and his Brazilian roots.

“The Threat Is Real” kicks off the album at full throttle speed. “Dystopia” has musical similarities to “Hanger 18”. I guess you can’t keep a good riff down.

“Fatal Illusion” completes the three punch knockout to kick off the album. It’s got chromatics and a sinister groove to kick it off and then the bass riff kicks in at high octane speeds and once the whole band is in, the driving double kick from Adler stands out and its circle pit time.

There is a section which I call the “Flatline” section. It starts off with the sound of a heart monitor and a beating heart, with a Motorhead influenced riff playing underneath, and once the flat line sound begins, the riff becomes dominant.

“Bullet To The Brain” starts off with an acoustic arpeggio riff which sounds ominous and then the heavy groove kicks in. It’s Megadeth at their best, working with tempo changes and grooves. It’s all 4/4 but it sounds progressive because of the tempo changes.

“Post American World” has a lot of musical similarities to “Symphony Of Destruction” and I like it. Check out the lead break from Kiko on this one.

“Poisonous Shadows” starts off with a Spanish/Flamenco like guitar intro as it builds into a metal behemoth with a Chorus that is memorable. And it ends with a solemn piano playing the chords and vocal melody of the Chorus.

“Conquer Or Die” also starts off with a Spanish/Flamenco like guitar intro before it morphs into a classical like guitar section ala “Randy Rhoads – Dee”. This goes on for about 80 seconds and then the distortion kicks in and the leads kick in. Under 4 minutes, it’s a cool instrumental.

The piece d’resistance is “Lying In State”. The speed of the song is what metal is about.

And the whole section from about the 2.30 minute mark to the end. Just listen to the riffs and how Chris Adler enhances em.

The album should have ended here, but we get another three more tracks called “The Emperor”, “Foreign Policy” and “Melt The Ice Away”.

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