Tag Archives: Sacred Reich

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

2019 – Part 5

And here is Part 5, the final part of my listening experience for new music released in 2019.

And a big thanks to all the various blog sites I visit, who also share their stories. Some of the artists on here, are because of these sites.

Better Part Of Me
Son Of Man
Shine
Let It Be Love
When Love Is Hated
Never Alone
Michael Sweet

“Shine” is one of the best songs Michael Sweet has written in the last decade. It sounds timeless and it could have appeared on any 80’s album, 90’s album, 2000’s album, etc.

And is there any other artist releasing as much music as Michael Sweet with his many different projects (maybe apart from George Lynch). If you want to survive in the new world, follow his lead.

Below
Leprous

Its melancholic and atmospheric and I like it.

Descending
Invincible
7empest
Pneuma
Fear Inoculum
Culling Voices
Tool

After 13 years, the album is released.

My favourite song is “Invincible” and I guess everyone is googling to see who the hell “Ponce DeLeon” is based on Maynard’s lyrics. I’m resisting doing so, as Tool is known to send people on wild goose chases.

The Rush/King Crimson intro from “7empset” gets me interested and musically the song is a summary of Tool’s career from the debut to the “Aenima” album.

Calm before the tempest comes to reign all over

And this violent windy storm will bring rain, to wash away the deceivers of society. And in typical Tool fashion, if you go the songmeanings website and type in the name of the song, you will see such peoples varied interpretations of the lyrics.

Too Far Gone
Alibi
Big Wreck

From the “But For The Sun” album. Courtesy of the excellent Thunder Bay blog. You can read Deke’s review here.

Something to Believe
Sacred Reich

From the “Awakening” album. It’s the most rocking song which remains with me long after the song is finished.

Also cool to see Dave McClain return to the band after departing Machine Head.

Out Of My Life
No Halos In Hell
Battle From Within
I Am The One
Dreams Gone Wrong
Blood Brothers
Hit Me
Man Of Eternal Rain
Kings And Queens
Lies
Cyhra

From the impressive “No Halos In Hell” album.

The excellent blog “Man Of Much Metal” did an excellent review.

White Lines
Destiny
Tygers of Pan Tang

It’s their best album since the first three albums.

Let It Shine
This Is How We Roll
Down N Outz

From the “This Is How We Roll” album, a supergroup project which involves members from Def Leppard and Quireboys like the mighty Joe Elliot on vocals.

Delirious
38 or 44
Eclipse

“Delirious” has this Vita Bratta guitar style in the guitar playing and it connects. And if you don’t know by now, they are from Sweden.

Firesoul Fly
Serpentine
Black Thunder
Pretty Maids

One thing about this band is consistency. They keep recording, keep releasing and each album is a good listen, a cross between metal, heavy rock and pop/hard rock.

Here is an excellent review over at Sonic Perspectives.

Rock And Roll Deserves To Die
In Another Life
Easter Is Cancelled
The Darkness

Read this review over at 2loud2oldmusic. It’s what got me interested in the album.

No Messiah
The Consumerist
Back In The Days
Crying Game
Learn To Walk Again
Sober
Bad Wolves

From the N.A.T.I.O.N album.

Doc Coyle is a legend. His work with God Forbid got me interested in him, but his blog posts made me a fan. Yes, his writings on social issues and music, hooked me in. This is the next step in his evolution.

And here is another excellent review over at Sonic Perspectives.

Rise
H.E.A.T

Another act from Sweden who keeps taking the old sound to sound new.

Misguided Love
Be The Believer
Another Night
This Isnt Love
Come Home
If I Could Fly
Destined To Survive
What You Want From Me
Let Me Dream
Work Of Art

From the excellent “Exhibits” album. And I will direct you over to the Sonic Perspectives website who nail the review.

And that’s a wrap for the new music released in 2019 which I liked.

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

We Don’t Live In A Happy World

One of the reasons why I got into bands like Metallica, Machine Head, Evergrey, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Twisted Sister and Queensryche (and there are many more bands) is because their lyrics reflect/reflected what was going on in the wider world at that time.

You see we are not living in a Pharell Williams’ “Happy” world.

We are living in a world that is besieged by economic problems. We are living in a world that has democratic governments undertaking surveillance on their citizens like the totalitarian regimes that our grandfathers died fighting against. We are living in a world where the majority of politicians are on the payroll of the corporations. We are living in a world that has a digital divide to go along with a class divide. We are living in a world where privacy is eroded a little bit at a time.

Some of my favourite artists had songs that just spoke to me.

They questioned the system and pointed the finger at the wrongdoers. When our governments lost their way, our heroes always told us so. When society went to hell, our heroes told us so. When epidemics happened, our heroes told us so.

We believed that music could change our lives, if not the world.

“What do you mean I don’t support your system, why do you think I’m broke”.

Dave Mustaine wrote that back in the mid-Eighties. Fast forward almost thirty years, and we are still broke supporting the system. The rich and the powerful caused a global recession and guess what, they got bailed out by the governments while we lost our jobs and homes.

Inequality exists in music as it does in economics. You’re either a winner or a loser and if you cross over, you become a global phenomenon. Think Metallica. There crossover was the “Black” album. That is their victory lap album.

“But now the holy dollar rules everybody’s lives, gotta make a million, doesn’t matter who dies.”

The above line is from “Revolution Calling” from Queensryche. Spotify cares about Spotify and they want to make millions. Taylor Swift cares about Taylor Swift and she wants to make millions.

Remember all of the suicides post GFC, especially in the Asian countries.

“Words are the bullets to this revolution”

Robb Flynn spits out the line in “Clenching the Fists of Dissent”.

We live in an information age. Everything is at our fingertips so we should put those tools to use to do our own investigations because our media reporting outlets are all owned by large corporations. They report news items that will push their agenda. They report news items that have been paid for by a marketing PR firm. Impartiality is over.

However, there are people out there that look at events and issues critically. WordPress gives us a tool to voice these opinions.

Yes they’re making lists of people interested in this
And anyone who speaks their mind is labelled anarchist

Barcodes and fingerprints, obedience identikit
It’s time to read the warning signs

COG’s “Are You Listening” released in 2009.

The tragedy of 9/11 brought about a new reality. The erosion of our rights and the erosion of our privacy. Suddenly, the Governments of democracy started to spy on its citizens much like regimes our grandfathers went to war against.

England has cameras on every street corner. This need of protection and surveillance arose due to the IRA terrorist bombings. And they still got bombed in the subways.

The NSA spies on all Americans and their answer is “IT’S OKAY, WE ARE THE GOOD GUYS.”

This was once the land of dreams
Now these dreams have turned to greed
In the midst of all this wealth
The poor are left to help themselves

A capitalist’s democracy
Why no one said that freedom’s free
Lady liberty rots away
No truth, no justice, the American way

Sacred Reich and “The American Way” released in 1990.

The problems of today existed before. However, the it is the people of today that had to bail out the rich. If the POOR or the WORKING CLASS did something fraudulent and corrupt, they would be doing time in a cell. When the RICH do something fraudulent and corrupt they end up screaming to the Government for a bail out and escape without punishment.

“We’re Not Gonna Take It” was the catch cry once upon a time. In time it will be the catch cry of a new generation.

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Music

A Capitalist Democracy

In the valley of the kings
Na-na-na
Na-na-nahh!
You’re workin’, slavin
Into death every day
Set us free

John Sykes delivers the above in the outro to the Blue Murder epic “Valley Of The Kings”. Replace the word “Kings” with the word “Rich” and you get the following verse;

In the valley of the rich
Na-na-na
Na-na-nahh!
You’re workin’, slavin
Into death every day
Set us free

And it got me thinking about what democracy actually means these days?

Wikipedia states that “Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens participate equally—either directly or through elected representatives—in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. It encompasses social, economic and cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination.”

Wikipedia also states the term originates from the Greek word dēmokratía which means “rule of the people”. It is the antonym to word aristokratia which means “rule of an elite”.

In other words, Democracy means that “the people rule”. So are the people ruling?

In 2013, the people’s’ rule comes down to ticking a box every three to four years on election day for people who have been pre-selected by the ruling elite. Sounds pretty democratic to me.

The Australian people in 2007, elected Kevin Rudd as it’s Prime Minister and by 2010, he was knifed by the Ruling Elite of the Labor Party and replaced as Prime Minister. So much for the “rule of the people”. The people voted in the Prime Minister, so shouldn’t the people have the chance to throw him out of office at the next election. Not in Australia. The Labor Party replaced him. Sounds pretty democratic to me.

What about the recent TPP negotiations led by the U.S? Did you know that the TPP has been negotiated in secrecy. The only time the public hears about the terms of the agreement are via leaks because the public should trust their elected officials to do the right thing. That fact that certain interest groups, like the record labels and the movie studios are allowed to participate in the negotiations and other groups that counteract those views are not. It sure sounds like the rule of the people.

When interest groups and copyright monopolies lobby hard, they know which politicians pockets to hit. This is where the Rule Of The Elite comes into play in democratic nations. Money and wealth is in control. The people who have it, have built up a monopoly from their ivory towers. And they will do anything to keep it.

In relation to copyright, these industries have taken a government granted monopoly that is given to a creator of works and turned it into a corporate empire, where the copyright term expires 70 to 90 years (depending on the country you reside) after the creator’s death. And they are lobbying hard to even remove current Public Domain works and place them back under Copyright. Sounds pretty democratic to me. Did the people have a say in this? Of course not, we trusted our elected politicians to take care of our needs.

In short, our ‘democracy’ is a charade. Our democracy is corrupt and riddled with bad laws, that more or less do not apply to the ruling elite. As Geoff Tate sings in “Speak”;

The rich control the government, the media the law

How many people have participated in a meaningful way in how society is organised and run? The answer to this is probably NONE.

Sacred Reich released “The American Way” back in 1990. Has anything changed in the last 23 years.

This was once the land of dreams
Now these dreams have turned to greed
In the midst of all this wealth
The poor are left to help themselves
A capitalist’s democracy
No one said that freedom’s free
Lady liberty rots away
No truth, no justice
The American way

That is the democracy we have. A capitalist democracy. We have allowed this to happen. Corey Taylor nailed it with the lyrics in “All Hope Is Gone”.

We’re the problem,
but we’re also the solution

Our fascination with accumulating wealth has allowed us to give away more and more of our freedoms. Quoting from “Eye Of The Beholder”.

Independence limited
Freedom of choice is made for you my friend
Freedom of speech is words that they will bend
Freedom no longer frees you

Freedom of choice is indeed made for you.

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