Hall of the Mountain King

Where did I go?

2025-10-21T22:02:00.000-07:00

If you've stumbled into this page, I can only imagine that you're likely lost among the glittering ruins of the world wide web. But just in case you're actually looking for the guy who used to write music reviews here on the regular, I thought I'd update.

First, I'm pretty busy writing books and stories these days, so I'm writing fewer music reviews. I've got quite a few fantasy and horror stories and one middle-grade novel out there right now, with more on the way in the very near future. If you want to check out what's available, you can visit my Amazon page. You can also find me at fredwritesfantasy.com. If you see something you think you'd like and want to pick it up, that would be awesome.

I am still writing the occasional music review or article. They come a little less frequently, but they're still coming. I'm collecting those, along with my book reviews, updates on my stories, and the occasional random thought over on my Fred Rants Substack. If you're still interested in keeping up with my ramblings, please subscribe there.

I can't say for sure that this page will never come back. It's faded and been resurrected a number of times since I started doing this back in the mid-1990s, and I'll never say never. But I do believe that it's unlikely. I will leave the library of past reviews up, so feel free to browse those, and if you like what you see, come join me on the Substack.

Best of 2024: Hard rock and metal

2025-01-12T18:23:00.000-08:00

Though there were some fantastic releases by a few classic bands in 2024, I didn’t feel that it was, overall, nearly as strong as some other years in recent memory for hard rock and heavy metal. The year also brought a few notably disappointing highly-anticipated albums from bands who have been very dependable in recent years, like Zeal & Ardor or Ad Infinitum.

While a few surprises are scattered among my 15 favorite releases of the year, I’m struck by the lack of newer and younger bands in my picks. A few debut albums show up on the list, but most are at least partially made up of veterans that I’ve been listening to for years. I’m willing to admit that maybe with everything going on in my life that 2024 was perhaps a year of musical comfort food for me.

Here are my thoughts on the year in hard rock and metal:

METAL MOMENT OF THE YEAR: Metal got perhaps its biggest global stage ever in 2024, being featured in the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. And we’re not talking a glorified pop act with a few heavy guitar riffs. No, it was progressive death metal band Gojira offering up an epic performance of “Mea Culpa (Ah Ca Ira),” a take on the song “Ca Ira” from the French Revolution. Complete with shooting towers of flame and a finale with streamers that resembled spraying blood, it was not what most of us expected to see at the Olympics, but it was awesome. I’ll admit that I mostly ignored everything else about the ceremony and the games, wasn’t even watching live when it happened, but I jumped online just as soon as I heard to find the clip. It was a bit of vindication for an old metalhead who has, for the most part, seen the heavier end pushed into the dark corners.

BEST EP: KIUAS – SAMOOJA: PYHIIVAELLUS: Kiuas was one of my favorite discoveries of the mid-2000s with a sound that was really all their own, blending power, folk metal, and death metal, while occasionally branching out into thrash or black metal territories. After 14 years away, this EP came as a very pleasant surprise to me. All three of the full songs on the album are very strong, but the star for me is “Through Purgatory,” which really captures the sound and feel that I loved on their debut Spirit of Ukko. Starting with a softer acoustic intro and Ilja Jalkanen’s distinctive vocals and building to a big dramatic chorus that showcases the band’s power. Here’s hoping that we hear more from them soon.

Standout songs: “Through Purgatory,” “The Pilgrimage,” “From the Anchorage”

No. 15. SEBASTIAN BACH – CHILD WITHIN THE MAN: I really enjoyed Skid Row’s return to form in 2022, and I really hoped it would inspire Sebastian Bach to go hard. The lead single from this album, “What Do I Got to Lose?” (which thankfully uses proper grammar in the chorus and not the nails-on-chalkboard usage of the title), seemed to indicate that might be the case, coming out with a heavier edge more akin to the classic Skids. While there are some very strong pieces here, like the catchy chorus of “Freedom” and the aggressive riffing of “Vendetta,” there are also a number of forgettable tunes, too, which has typically been the Sebastian Bach formula. It’s a solid and enjoyable album, but not quite what I was hoping to hear.

Standout songs: “Everybody Bleeds,” “Freedom,” “(Hold On) To the Dream,” “What Do I Got to Lose,” “Vendetta”

No. 14. COREY GLOVER’S UNIVERSE – COREY GLOVER’S UNIVERSE: I had a little trouble finding this one when I went back to revisit it for my Best of 2024 list. Originally released under the band name Sonic Universe, apparently there was some dispute that led to a change to Corey Glover’s Universe. As the name would suggest, it’s the latest project of the Living Colour frontman, which also includes guitarist Mike Orlando (Adrenaline Mob), and bassist Booker King (Santana). It also won’t come as a huge surprise that the band sounds a lot like Glover’s primary outfit. Universe’s songs may take a few musical chances here and there that you wouldn’t hear in Living Colour, and it’s perhaps not quite as dedicated to the hook, it’s still right in the funk metal ballpark. That becomes clear from the opening track, “I Am,” probably the strongest song here.

Standout songs: “I Am,” “It Is What It Is,” “Turn a Blind Eye,” “My Desire,” “Higher,” “Come What May”

No. 13. DOMINUM – HEY LIVING PEOPLE: It seems that Napalm Records has never met a gimmick they didn’t like – pirates, dwarves, knights, space wizards, and now, zombies. This album was technically released in 2023, but since it came out on Dec. 29, I’m counting it as ’24. While there are a few more generic numbers here, Dominum largely delivers huge hooks that are punchy and quirky. I particularly love the Savatage and Queen-inspired “We All Taste the Same,” which was probably one of my most listened songs of the year, starting with a soft piano ballad and building to a bombastic and dramatic theatrical crescendo. That’s where they’re at their best, as on the infectious chorus of the opening “Immortalis Dominum” or the ’80s pop-flavored “Better Shoot Yourself.” On the downside, there are three covers – Dead or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record),” Midnight Oil’s “Beds are Burning,” and Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy,” which is the only one that fares sort of well.

Standout songs: “Immortalis Dominum,” “We All Taste the Same,” “Better Shoot Yourself,” “The Chosen Ones,” “Bad Guy”

No. 12. CATEGORY 7 – CATEGORY 7: This metal supergroup brings together incredible talents – vocalist John Bush (Armored Saint, Anthrax), guitarist Phil Demmel (Violence, Machine Head), guitarist Mike Orlando (Adrenaline Mob, Corey Glover’s Universe), drummer Jason Bittner (Shadows Fall), and bassist Jack Gibson (Exodus). With that lineup, you would expect a mind-blowing experience, but as with most supergroups, they deliver a solid album that doesn’t quite live up to what you imagined. With so many great musicians in the band, the songs typically end up being vehicles for them to show off their skills to the detriment of the overall composition. As a result, the tunes here are often amazing while you’re listening to them, but many of them don’t have the big hooks that stick with you later on.

Standout songs: “In Stitches,” “Apple of Discord,” “Exhausted,” “Runaway Truck,” “White Flags and Bayonets”

No. 11. DURBIN – SCREAMING STEEL: I am an unabashed fan of American Idol alum James Durbin’s 2021 debut release under this moniker, The Beast Awakens. It was a fun and passionate love letter to classic heavy metal. The follow-up is not quite as strong, but still very enjoyable. Of course, he was also competing against fantastic albums from some of those folks he pays homage to, like Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson and Judas Priest. There is a treasure trove of Easter eggs on the album for old-school metal fans as Durbin throws out the references almost non-stop. It’s definitely campy, but I don’t care. I’m still throwing horns and banging my head. The strongest track is also one of the shortest, “The Worshipper 1897,” which is basically a homage to Ronnie James Dio, and it made me wish that Dio had been around to possibly do a guest turn. I honestly thought I’d never listen to an album by a former American Idol contestant, but here we are, two records strong.

Standout songs: “The Worshipper 1897,” “Screaming Steel,” “Where They Stand,” “Made of Metal,” “Beyond the Night,” “Hallows,” “Power of the Reaper”

No. 10. MARILYN MANSON – ONE ASSASSINATION UNDER GOD: CHAPTER 1: I’ve had less time with this album than most of the others on the list, and I think it may be a grower, but right now it’s a tough call. It has some of the best work that he’s done in years, with the raging “Raise the Red Flag” being one of my favorite tunes of ’24. It’s an obvious nod to the accusations and legal issues that he’s faced recently, but the chorus punch – “my red flag is your white one soaked in blood” – is just a fantastic lyric. He spends a lot of time in Mechanical Animals territory, of course, but also dips back to the Antichrist Superstar sound for “Nod If You Understand.” Manson also delivers a catchy glam rock bopper on “Sacrilegious” and, naturally, works out his Bowie fetish in several places. But as strong as the really good songs are, it’s a very uneven record overall, with two or three of the nine songs on the short album not really being memorable after a few listens.

Standout songs: “One Assassination Under God,” “As Sick as the Secrets Within,” “Sacrilegious,” “Raise the Red Flag”

No. 9. CROSSBONE SKULLY – EVIL WORLD MACHINE: Here’s another “new” band that’s not. Put together by Alice Cooper bassist Tommy Henriksen and drummer Glen Sobel, and produced by Mutt Lange, who was responsible for a lot of the music that it mimics, Crossbone Skully features an ensemble cast with guest shots from the likes of Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx and Def Leppard’s Phil Collen, as well as spoken word appearances from Cooper, Johnny Depp and Joe Perry. I would say its heavily influenced by AC/DC and early Def Leppard, but the truth is that much of it is almost paint-by-numbers copy of that classic hard rock formula. It’s still a lot of fun, though. They also take a couple of bizarre side trips into Dropkick Murphys-style Celtic punk (“Let’s Bust the Trust”) or Alice Cooper’s horror rock (“I Am the Wolf”). It’s simplistic, it’s catchy, and that’s what make it so enjoyable.

Standout songs: “The Boom Went the Boom,” “Evil World Machine,” “Money, Sex, or God,” “Everyone’s on Dope,” “Ima Bone Machine,” “I’m Unbreakable”

No. 8. KERRY KING – FROM HELL I RISE: I love when an artist steps out of their regular band and does something completely unique and unexpected. Ah, who the hell am I kidding? We all knew what this album was going to be, and that’s exactly what Kerry King delivers. It’s Slayer 2.0. I’m not even mad at him, though, because it has some pretty good Slayer tunes on it. King bucked what everybody expected, bypassing Phil Anselmo and choosing Mark Osegueda of Death Angel as his vocalist. It turned out to be a very good decision, as Osegueda is able to mimic the roars of Slayer vocalist Tom Araya, but brings a great energy to these songs. The tunes here are a mix of what you’d expect, some blazing thrashers, some mid-tempo melodic pieces, and a couple of heavily punk-influenced numbers. While I admit that the record didn’t have much staying power for me, only lasting a couple of months in my rotation, it was a nice little blast of Slayer-style energy.

Standout songs: “Residue,” “Idle Hands,” “Trophies of the Tyrant,” “Crucifixation,” “Toxic,” “Two Fists”

No. 7. KISSIN’ DYNAMITE – BACK WITH A BANG: German rockers Kissin’ Dynamite were at the forefront of the resurgence of glitzy 1980s-style hard rock in the 2010s, and they’re still waving that flag 14 years later on their latest release. While Back with a Bang is a little heavy on ballads and lighter fare for my tastes, the songs that hit for me hit hard. The driving “My Monster” and the blues-rock stomp “The Devil is a Woman” are as good as anything the band has ever released, and the former became the linchpin in the soundtrack of a novel that I wrote this year, so there’s no surprise that it was one of my most listened songs. They’re at their absolute best when they’re partying like it’s 1986, and there’s plenty of that to be found here.

Standout songs: “Back with a Bang,” “My Monster,” “Queen of the Night,” “The Devil is a Woman,” “More is More,” “Learn to Fly,” “When the Lights Go Out”

No. 6. BODY COUNT – MERCILESS: It’s been interesting to watch the progression of Body Count from their debut in the early ’90s when Ice-T set out to give his friend Ernie C a platform to showcase his guitar skills. Those early albums were raw, energetic and fun, but at times, sounded like they didn’t quite fully grasp the metal thing. All these years later, they are a well-polished metal machine. While it’s a little more uneven than some of Body Count’s recent releases, Merciless is still very solid. The record features guest shots from some heavyweights including George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher (Cannibal Corpse), Joe Bad (Fit for an Autopsy), Howard Jones (Killswitch Engage) and Max Cavalera (Sepultura, Soulfly). As they’ve done on the last few records, they also include a cover, and this one is surprising – Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb.” While it’s less a cover and more of a reimagining that uses some bits of the original song, it’s remarkable in the fact that David Gilmour was fully on board. Merciless hits hard and continues the hot streak Ice-T and company have been on for the last decade or so since returning to the scene.

Standout songs: “Merciless,” “The Purge,” “Psychopath,” “Fuck What You Heard,” “Do or Die,” “Comfortably Numb,” “Drug Lords”

No. 5. THE DEAD DAISIES – LIGHT ‘EM UP: I was thrilled when singer John Corabi (The Scream, Motley Crue) returned to the fold with the Dead Daisies. While I respect what Glenn Hughes has done over the years, I never felt that he was the right voice for this band. What we get here is exactly what we’ve come to expect from the Dead Daisies – 10 tracks of no-nonsense, straight up hard rock heavily influenced by the bands of the 1970s and ’80s. There’s not a whole lot more to say about it. It’s just good, high-energy rock ‘n’ roll.

Standout songs: “Light ’Em Up,” “I Wanna Be Your Bitch,” “I’m Gonna Ride,” “Back to Zero,” “My Way and the Highway”

No. 4. JERRY CANTRELL – I WANT BLOOD: If you’ve been craving the feel of early Alice in Chains, I Want Blood is about as close as you’re going to get. Though I’ve liked some of the stuff he’s done with the reformed band, it’s never hit me the same way. And Cantrell’s last solo outing, 2021’s Brighten, was, as the title suggests, very jangly and pretty upbeat. So I hit play on the first single “Vilified” not expecting much. I got punched right in the gut with a heavy, grooving riff that sent me back to the early ’90s. That was followed by the melancholy “Afterglow,” and all of a sudden I was very interested. The nine songs on this album all have that same darkness and feel, and this record honestly feels like the natural follow up to Alice in Chains’ 1995 self-titled album, the last with late vocalist Layne Staley. It also makes me a little sad because I would have loved to hear what this album could have been with Staley, though Cantrell does very good homage to him on songs like “Off the Rails.” It’s heavy, it’s dark, it’s got those great harmonies. It’s pretty much everything I want from Cantrell.

Standout songs: There’s not a bad one here.

No. 3. BRUCE DICKINSON – THE MANDRAKE PROJECT: I’ve often said that I prefer Bruce Dickinson’s solo work to most of what Iron Maiden has put out over the past 25 years or so. His last three, starting with 1997’s Accident of Birth, have been both entertaining and consistent. While I think The Mandrake Project is a little more uneven than those three, it’s still quite good and finds Dickinson exploring some different sounds in addition to Maiden-esque tunes and those that are more like his previous solo work. “Rain on the Graves” is the first example, it has an almost bluesy feel that hits a little out of left field. I saw some reviewers call it “country.” It’s far from that, but you can hear perhaps a little bit of Johnny Cash influence in his verse delivery. He follows that up with “Resurrection Men,” which sounds a bit like the music that might accompany a Clint Eastwood spaghetti Western. For those looking for a more familiar sound, “Afterglow of Ragnarok,” “Many Doors to Hell,” and “Mistress of Mercy” fit the bill. Then there’s “Eternity Has Failed” for Iron Maiden fans. It will be very familiar as a modified version of it, “If Eternity Should Fail,” appeared on The Book of Souls (and was one of the strongest songs on that album). The last two tracks hit a little lull, with “Shadow of the Gods” turning into a kick ass song about halfway through after dragging for the first half and “Sonata (Immortal Beloved)” being a bit of a snooze. But the first eight reinforce my preference for latter-day Dickinson.

Standout songs: “Afterglow of Ragnarok,” “Many Doors to Hell,” “Rain on the Graves,” “Resurrection Men,” “Fingers in the Wounds,” “Eternity Has Failed,” “Mistress of Mercy”

No. 2. KITTIE – FIRE: At the beginning of the year, when I was thinking about what some of my favorite records of 2024 might be, Kittie was not on the bingo card. Yet, here we are. The band blasted onto the scene during the rise of nu-metal in the late 1990s and caught attention as a bit of an oddity at the time – a band of teenage girls playing heavy music. Their debut blew up largely on the strength of the single “Brackish,” but a heavier sophomore album didn’t produce the same results, and they pretty much disappeared – at least from my radar. Then the first single from this album, “Eyes Wide Open,” hit my ears and immediately got my attention. It’s a grooving chunk of heaviness in the vein of Lamb of God or Pantera. As the songs started to trickle out it became even more interesting with the mix of pummeling riffs and melodic interludes. At times, they go almost poppy, like the infectious chorus of “One Foot in the Grave,” but then they turn around and punch you in the face with a snarling basher like “I Still Wear This Crown.” Fire is by far the surprise of the year for me, as well as the comeback of the year. It’s Kittie’s best work by a long shot.

Standout songs: “Fire,” “I Still Wear This Crown,” “Vultures,” “We are Shadows,” “Wound,” “One Foot in the Grave,” “Grime,” “Eyes Wide Open”

No. 1. JUDAS PRIEST – INVINCIBLE SHIELD: In 2018, Judas Priest did the unimaginable for a heavy metal band with nearly 50 years under its belt. They released one of their strongest albums: Firepower, could hold its own with any of their classic albums. That was just a fluke, right? They can’t possibly do it again. Except, they did. Six years later, we have Invincible Shield, an album heavily influenced by their 1980s sound and once again packed with killer songs. While there’s still a lot of the feel of Firepower in the songs here, it pulls more from their 1980s catalog, even veering surprisingly into Turbo territory with the synth-heavy intro to “Panic Attack.” There’s a trip into the early ’90s and their heaviest album, Painkiller, on the title track. There are just straight-up bangers like “Trial By Fire,” and there’s some homage to Black Sabbath on “Escape from Reality” with its grooving slab of a riff and a latter-day Ozzy Osbourne vocal section from Rob Halford on an interlude after the second chorus. While a lot of bands this far into their career tend to rest on their laurels and their reputation, going through the motions on newer records, Priest refuses to do that, and while not every song quite hits the mark, the vast majority do. Realistically, I know we have a limited number of albums left from Judas Priest, and it’s nice to see them closing out their career with strong material.

Standout songs: “The Serpent and the King,” “Invincible Shield,” “Gates of Hell,” “As God is my Witness,” “Trial By Fire,” Escape from Reality,” “The Lodger”

Best of 2024: Country and Southern Rock

2025-01-10T17:54:00.000-08:00

For some reason, 2024 brought a lot more country and Southern rock to my playlist than usual. There’s always some mixed in, but at least according to Spotify, three of my top five bands and four of my top five songs of the year were country or Southern rock – and I can’t deny that the genres produced two of my absolute favorite albums of 2024. I’m still a metal guy through and through, so I’m sure there’s some great stuff out there that I missed that will leave the true aficionados of country shaking their heads, but here’s a look at my favorites for what it’s worth:

No. 10. JOHNNY BLUE SKES – PASSAGE DU DESIR: I’m firmly in the camp of folks who wish that Sturgill Simpson would return to the traditional country of High Top Mountain or even the psychedelia of Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, but I guess we just have to accept he’s not going to do that. The things he’s done since then have been a mixed bag, some I liked and some I really disliked. Now comes his alter ego Johnny Blue Skies, a mix of country, blues, blue-eyed soul and at least one song that has some ’80s pop leanings. While I like it, Passage Du Desir is very much a mood record for me and not something I’d listen to regularly. I’m still more drawn to the songs here that lean to the country side of his sound.

Standout songs: “Scooter Blues,” “Who I Am,” “Mint Tea,” “One for the Road”

No. 9. JACKSON TAYLOR AND THE SINNERS – IN MEMPHIS: This would probably rank a little higher on my list except for the fact that most of the material is not really new. Much of it has been dripped out in singles released over the last three or four years. The songs on In Memphis are, perhaps, a little less rowdy and raucous than what we’ve come to expect from Jackson Taylor, but it’s still the rowdier songs that I enjoy the best. The highlights for me are the infectious “Angels (Can’t Fly)” and the harder rocking “Blessed 45,” his love letter to the television show Supernatural.

Standout songs: “Used to be Bad,” “Johnny Without June,” “Angels (Can’t Fly),” “Blessed 45,” “One Night or a Lifetime”

No. 8. RED CLAY STRAYS – MADE BY THESE MOMENTS: If you’re looking for an album that represents, at one time or another over the course of 11 songs, just about everything that classic country and Southern rock have to offer, Made by These Moments is the one that you’re looking for. On their second album, the Red Clay Strays run the gamut from tear-jerking sad songs to soulful country blues to hand-clapping gospel to hard-driving Southern rockers with maybe even a touch of cowpunk on the opening riff of “Ramblin’.” The sound has a real ’70s vibe to my ears, but singer Brandon Coleman boasts a classic voice that adapts to fit the feel of whatever the song calls for. While they scored a hit with “Wanna Be Loved,” it’s no surprise that the darker tunes like “Drowning” and “Devil in My Ear” are the ones that I’m more drawn to.

Standout songs: “Disaster,” “Wasting Time,” “No One Else Like Me,” “Ramblin’,” “Drowning,” “Devil in My Ear”

No. 7. JAMEY JOHNSON – MIDNIGHT GASOLINE: If there’s one artist that’s been sorely missed in country music, it’s Jamey Johnson. Finally, 12 years after his last album and 14 years after his last collection of original music, he returned in 2024. Midnight Gasoline was worth the wait. While I don’t feel like the album is quite as strong as a whole as That Lonesome Song or The Guitar Song, Johnson still has the songwriting chops we know and love. Among the 12 songs here, we get heartfelt tear-jerkers, plaintive reflections, rowdy good-timers, a couple of songs that are just silly fun, and a cover of one of my favorite Charlie Daniels Band tunes, “Trudy.” It’s nice to have him back.

Standout songs: “Bad Guy,” “Midnight Gasoline,” “Someday When I’m Old,” “Trudy,” “One More Time,” “Saturday Night in New Orleans,” “Sober,” “I’m Tired of it All,” “What You Answer To”

No. 6. TAYLOR HUNNICUTT – ALABAMA SOUND/WITH ALL DUE RESPECT: My introduction to Taylor Hunnicutt came when I saw her open for the Steel Woods earlier in 2024. I admit that I groaned a little when I found out Taylor was a woman. While I realize that it’s completely a “me” problem, I often find the twang in female country vocals a little off-putting. Then, she stormed the stage with her band and delivered about a 45-minute set of stomping Southern rock that instantly made me a fan. Taylor Hunnicutt wears her influences on her sleeve but puts her own spin on them. The storytelling of “Saw Blade Hill” puts me in mind of Steve Earle’s “Copperhead Road.” There’s a hard-driving down-and-out blues feel to “Undone,” there are shades of Stevie Nicks in “Trail of a Broken Heart,” a definite nod to Tom Petty on “Runaway,” and her hard-rocking version of Blackfoot’s “Left Turn on a Red Light” was the highlight of her live set. These two records would have been Top 5 country/Southern rock releases for me in just about any other year, but she had some tough competition this year.

Standout songs: “Saw Blade Hill,” “Trail of a Broken Heart,” “Alabama Sound,” “Undone,” “Runaway,” “Left Turn on a Red Light”

No. 5. JOE CLARK AND THE PEACEMAKERS – HILLBILLY VOODOO: Joe Clark was another nice accidental find in 2024. I stumbled across a video of him doing a partial version of “Wish a Mfer Would” as a solo acoustic performance before this album was released. While it’s obviously a song meant to get a reaction, it intrigued me about the rest of the album. Clark delivers a raw and rough-around-the-edges blend of country and Southern rock with a lot of ’70s influence. “G.A.S.S.” was probably one of my most-listened songs of the year, hitting close to home since my give a shit ship also sailed in many respects this year. But aside from the rowdy ones like the two aforementioned pair, he’s also able to deliver some thoughtful and soulful tunes as well. It’s certainly not as polished as many of the other records on this list, but that’s part of the appeal.

Standout songs: “Enemy,” “It Is What It Is,” “I’m Gone,” “Hillbilly Voodoo,” “Little Miss Innocent,” “G.A.S.S.,” “Wish a MferWould”

No. 4. JOSH MELOY – WHERE YOU CAME FROM: While I’ve enjoyed Josh Meloy’s grittier tunes like “Natural Born Killer” and “Met the Devil in Oklahoma,” he’s always had just a few too many breakup songs for my tastes, something that even he joked about when I saw him open for Cody Jinks a few years back. While the breakup songs are still here, this album is far more balanced in subject matter and also takes a few risks that are fun. I’m particularly fond of the swinging, jazzy sound of “Son of a Sinner,” which has become my favorite of the 11 tracks. Granted, it’s still the gritty tunes like “Trouble” and “Backroads” that I keep returning to, but I even have to admit that some of the breakup tunes on this album are pretty good.

Standout songs: “Where You Came From,” “Killin’ Me Inside,” “Not This Time Around,” “Son of a Sinner,” “Trouble,” “Backroads”

No. 3. NATIVE HOWL – SONS OF DESTRUCTION: Here’s the dilemma – do you put “thrashgrass” under country and Southern rock or hard rock and metal? While there’s certainly a little more rock on Sons of Destruction than their previous records, I still think the bluegrass and country elements are stronger. This album would have ranked high on either list. I’ve been a fan since I heard their signature tune “Thunderhead” seven or eight years ago, but they earned a deal with Sumerian Records on a YouTube competition for unsigned bands that was judged by, among others, Alice Cooper and Lzzy Hale of Halestorm, who also appears on this record on a re-recording of “Mercy.” Sons of Destruction is a bit more refined than some of their past work, but they don’t lose any of their uniqueness, whether it’s a hard-hitting number like the title track, a dark and melancholy piece like “Devil I’ve Become,” or an absolutely fantastic cover of Johnny Cash’s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down.”

Standout songs: “Mercy,” “BOG,” “Sons of Destruction,” “Waco,” “Stockholm Syndrome,” “Wide is the River,” “God’s Gonna Cut You Down,” “Devil I’ve Become”

No. 2. BLACKBERRY SMOKE – BE RIGHT HERE: Back in February, I was convinced that this would be my album of the year. I’ve told my story about The Whippoorwill and its impact on me a few times now when writing about Blackberry Smoke, and finally, they recorded an album that felt very much like that one without all of the personal baggage and association. Be Right Here delivers exactly what I want from Blackberry Smoke, a rootsy Southern album that sits right in that perfect pocket between country and rock with some fantastic songwriting that really speaks to me and where I’m at in life. While The Whippoorwill was a record for getting me through one of the hardest periods of my life, Be Right Here was one for better times, for a time of exploration and kind of figuring out who I am later in life. I don’t know that it will have the kind of impact on others that it did on me, but I do know that it’s filled with great songs that any fan of the twangier side of Southern rock should be able to enjoy.

Standout songs: “Dig a Hole,” “Hammer and the Nail,” “Like It Was Yesterday,” “Azalea,” “Don’t Mind if I Do,” “Whatcha Know Good,” “Little Bit Crazy”

No. 1. CODY JINKS – CHANGE THE GAME: So what could dethrone an album with the impact of Blackberry Smoke’s Be Right Here? One with probably the two most personally meaningful songs of the year for me. The Whippoorwill back in 2012 was probably the last and only time that a non-metal album was my favorite of the year, but if I had to pick a winner across genres this year, Cody Jinks’ Change the Game would be it. And it’s largely because of those two songs – “Sober Thing” and “What You Love.” The first one kind of struck me out of the blue. I don’t struggle with sobriety, and I never have, but there were still a lot of sentiments expressed in “Sober Thing” that hit me very close to home. The lyric that really punched me in the gut was, “I’ve been fighting regrets and memories/Time has not healed me like I thought it would.” I think lines like that and those about finding himself are relatable to most of us. But it’s the second song that really gets down to where I’m living right now. It was a year where I realized that I have often played life safe and, as Jinks sings in “What You Love,” wasted a lot of days on dreams that don’t fill me. Though it’s a soft song, this one became sort of a rallying cry for me this year. Beyond those two, there are a lot of really good songs, many of them more upbeat, like the rebellious title track, the uptempo (though still dark lyrically) “A Few More Ghosts,” or the driving “I Can’t Complain” (another favorite). Is it Cody Jinks’ strongest record front to back? I don’t know. But it was the one that I needed this year.

Standout songs: “Sober Thing,” “Outlaws and Mustangs,” “I Can’t Complain,” “Take this Bottle,” “Deceiver’s Blues,” “A Few More Ghosts,” “Change the Game,” “What You Love”

Review: Zeal & Ardor, "Greif"

2024-09-10T22:20:00.000-07:00

Inevitably when you have a unique band that is truly creative, there comes a time when they want to step away from what they've done in the past and try something very different. Sometimes that new direction is really good, more often it's not so great. That moment has come for Zeal & Ardor on Greif, and it leaves me with really mixed feelings as they seem to have dropped many of the things that I loved about their previous records.

What's hot?

Zeal & Ardor continues to push boundaries, but this time those boundaries may challenge fans of the band's previous work. There are still a few really nice examples of what they do best. "Hide in Shade" stands out as one of those. And some of the newer touches to the music are interesting, if not quite as heavy or catchy as I'd often like.

What's not?

Much of what's on Greif sounds more like something that bandleader Manuel Gagneux would do with his other project, Birdmask, than Zeal & Ardor. What made the band unique was the blending of traditionally black music -- gospel and spirituals -- with screaming satanic black metal. Both are missing through most of this record. There's also a lot of drone here. Oddly, one of the heavier songs on the record, "Clawing Out," is also one of my least favorite because it's a bit boring.

The verdict

As soon as I learned this album was coming, it became one of my most anticipated records of the year. Their self-titled album from 2022 was far and away my favorite of that year. While I'm hoping that it grows on me with repeated listens, at this point, it's likely to be the most disappointing. It's not that I dislike it. There's good stuff here, but it just doesn't hit me like their older albums.

Check out: "Kilonova," "Go Home My Friend," "369," "Thrill," "Sugarcoat," "Hide in Shade," "To My Ilk"

Consider: "Fend You Off," "Are You the Only One Now?" "Disease," "Thrill"

Skip: "Clawing Out," "Une Ville Vide," "Solace"

Get Greif.

Get Zeal & Ardor.

Review: Wage War, "Stigma"

2024-07-12T22:07:00.000-07:00

Overview

Normally, I'm a fan of bands with identity crises, but I find Wage War to be pretty frustrating. On the one hand, they'll deliver an awesome heavy tune like "Death Roll" from their 2021 album Manic, then they'll turn around and give you one of the most generic and uninteresting radio rock tunes that you've ever heard. I find it hard to believe that anyone can enjoy both sides of the band equally, but apparently, they're out there. Stigma is no different in that I find myself really enjoying about half the album.

What's hot?

There are some great catchy and heavy tunes throughout the album. "Tombstone" and "Nail5" are standouts for me with the first being the closest to a "Death Roll" style banger, and the latter being the catchy song with the heavy hook, similar maybe to "Manic." I like the blend of nu metal with some techno and industrial beats, and though not all the heavy songs are as good as those two, they're at least interesting.

What's not?

You already know the answer here. It's the half the record that is just bland, uninspired radio rock to my ears. Songs like "Magnetic" and "Blur" just offer nothing for me. Both have decent hooks, I guess, for the style, but I just don't find them interesting at all.

The Verdict

Like much of Wage War's previous work, I'll be stuck listening to maybe four or five songs here that I quite enjoy and skipping the rest.

Check out: "Tombstone," Nail5," "Self-Sacrifice," "Happy Hunting," "In My Blood"

Consider: "The Show's About to Start"

Skip: "Blur," "Magnetic," "Hellbent," "Is This How It Ends?"

Get Stigma.

Review: Dominum, "Hey Living People"

2024-06-24T21:48:00.000-07:00

Overview

Pitches at Napalm Records must be crazy.

Band: Our gimmick is that we're not musicians, we're actually ...

Napalm: Say no more. Here's a contract.

I joke, but pirates, werewolves, dwarves, gladiators, dinosaurs, and apparently, now zombies.

Dominum is an artsy power metal band with a zombie gimmick and an interesting sound that sets them a bit apart from the pack with flavors of Savatage, Queen and others.

What's hot?

The star of this show for me is "We All Taste the Same," which has a heavy Savatage influence. Naturally, I love it. It starts with a soft piano line before a dramatic explosion of sound. It's incredibly catchy with some nice harmonies. Dominum are at their best when they keep things quirky, like the infectious chorus of opening track "Immortalis Dominum" or the 1980s pop flavored "Better Shoot Yourself." There are plenty of hummable passages all over the album.

What's not?

When the songs are not interesting, they're really not interesting. "Half Alive" and "Frankenstein," for example, lack most of what makes the band unique and are more along the lines of standard power metal. It's also cover heavy, with three -- Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)," Midnight Oil's "Beds are Burning" and Billie Eilish's "Bad Guy." Surprisingly, the Eilish cover is by far the most interesting.

The verdict

Hey Living People is a lot of fun, if a bit inconsistent. There's a lot of promise here, especially on tracks like "We All Taste the Same." I hope they lean into that quirkiness and uniqueness in future outings.

Check out: "Immortalis Dominum," "We All Taste the Same," "Better Shoot Yourself," "The Chosen Ones"

Consider: "Danger Danger," "Hey Living People," "Cannibal Corpses," "Patient Zero," "Bad Guy"

Skip: "Frankenstein," "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)," "Half Alive," "Beds are Burning"

Get Hey Living People.

Review: Kiuas, "Samooja: Pyhiinvaellus"

2024-06-18T20:32:00.000-07:00

Overview

Kiuas was one of my favorite mid-2000s discoveries. They had a sound that was really all their own at the time -- a blend of power, folk, and death metal, with occasional forays into thrashier territory or blackened realms (though there's really none of the more extreme end here). They released four great albums on Spinefarm Records, including two fantastic ones in their debut for the label Spirit of Ukko and their 2008 album The New Dark Age, then after 2010's Lustdriven, they disappeared.

I was surprised a few months back to see an unfamiliar song from them pop up as a recommendation from Spotify, and I immediately clicked on it to find that they had released a new EP, Samooja: Pyhiinvaellus, which translates to Samoa: Pilgrimage. I was thrilled to hear new music from them again.

What's hot?

While all three of the full songs on the album are very strong, the star for me is "Through Purgatory," which really captures the feel of the band that I loved on Spirit of Ukko. It opens with an acoustic intro that puts me right in mind of that album, and singer Ilja Jalkanen delivers those distinctive vocals that I loved. Then we hit the big dramatic heavy chorus that showcases the band's power. "From the Anchorage" and "The Pilgrimage" are both solid efforts as well, highlighting the dramatic flair that the band is known for and both have memorable melodies and big sing-along choruses. The latter also gives us a verse in Jalkanen's native tongue.

What's not?

Well, there are only four songs here, and one of them, "The Mariner's Poem," is really just an intro piece. Can I have a whole album please?

The verdict

After 14 years away, Kiuas still has it. In the time they've been gone, more and more bands have started to try to create that alchemy of styles that I first heard on Spirit of Ukko, but Kiuas remains one of the strongest examples and still has quite a lot that sets them apart from the competition. Here's hoping they're back for good.

Check out: "Through Purgatory," "The Pilgrimage," "From the Anchorage"

Consider: "The Mariner's Poem"

Get Samooja: Pyhiinvaellus at Amazon.

Get Spirit of Ukko at Amazon.

Get The New Dark Age at Amazon.

Get Lustdriven at Amazon.

Review: Blackberry Smoke, "Be Right Here"

2024-06-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

I consider Blackberry Smoke’s 2012 album The Whippoorwill to be one of the greatest Southern rock albums of all time, and yet I haven’t listened to it in years. It was a record that arrived in the darkest hour of my life and seemed written for me.

I identified with nearly every song on it, and I’m not being dramatic when I say that it played a huge role in helping me survive the turmoil and return to the land of the living again. And therein lies the problem. While I’ll still occasionally rock out to “Sleeping Dogs” or “Shakin’ Hands with the Holy Ghost,” some of my favorite songs from The Whippoorwill – like “Ain’t Much Left of Me” and the title track – are too tightly tied to that darkness for me to comfortably revisit. They hold emotions and feelings that are better left in the past.

For years now, I’ve wished that Blackberry Smoke could release another album that hit the way that The Whippoorwill did so I could enjoy it in better times. While I’ve liked most of what they’ve done, it’s never quite reached that pinnacle. But Be Right Here may be the record that I’ve been waiting for them to make.

The first thing that I noticed on hearing early singles like “Dig a Hole” and “Little Bit Crazy” was that they had that same earthy, grooving sound that made me love Blackberry Smoke’s 2012 album. Be Right Here is, I believe, the first time they’ve recaptured that. It just feels like The Whippoorwill. It also has the same variety from good-timing rockers to plaintive reflections on life and everything in between – and most of the songs have something to say directly to me and kind of reflect where I am in life right now.

Chief among those is the slinky groove of “Whatcha Know Good.” It’s a perfect reflection of how I feel about our current world that seems so full of anger and bad news. The song tells the tale of a guy who is trying to float along on the river of life and rise above the negativity around him as he tells us, “don’t bring me no bad news, the only thing that I ask of you, one time if you could, whatcha know good?” It doesn’t hurt that the song has an incredibly memorable chorus hook, and it’s hard not to fall into the laid back groove and join him on the riverbank even if, as Charlie Starr sings, the fish don’t bite.

It’s a similar thought to the one expressed in “Dig a Hole,” which features a big, funky guitar riff as its centerpiece as Starr asks us, “let’s all say what we came to say, ain’t enough time for the games we play.”

Fittingly, a couple of the songs on the album remind us that sometimes we have to travel through the bad times to find the good ones. “Azalea” offers up a strange mix of plaintive vocal and story with a surprisingly upbeat musical accompaniment. It’s a story of someone leaving home behind and searching for themselves with the reminder that “time will bring the rain, you can bloom again the same.” “Other Side of the Light” hits a little more on the nose of the message with lyrics from Starr about helping each other through dark times and reminding us that “darkness is just the other side of the light.”

Of course, it’s not all about the messages. It wouldn’t be a Blackberry Smoke album without some straight up good-timing Southern rockers, and Be Right Here is loaded with them.

The first one out of the gate was “Little Bit Crazy,” released a few months before the album hit. It’s a driving juke-joint strutter that reminds me quite a bit of “Six Ways to Sunday” from The Whippoorwill. It’s the kind of song that you can’t possibly listen to and not get a smile on your face. “Don’t Mind If I Do,” on the other hand, will make you want to take on the world. It brings an infectious swing, and it’s just another feel-good moment on a record that has plenty of them. I can easily see fans waving a beer in the air and singing along with the chorus in some dark and smoky bar room. There’s also a nice shift of gear mid-song that leads to a smoking guitar solo. Both tracks are Southern rock at its finest.

There’s a nice bit of dark humor that’s very relatable on “Hammer and the Nail,” a foot-stomping tune driven by Britt Turner’s bass drum. We meet a guy who has had some of the worst luck, but he’s made peace with it. When Starr sings “beating the odds and coming up roses ain’t my story to tell,” I feel it. I’m sure I won’t be the only one, either. The band veers into blues rock territory for “Like It Was Yesterday,” a head-bobbing celebration of living in the moment with another nice solo that blends screaming slide with tasty bends from the second guitar.

I talk a lot about the lyrics and messages of the songs because they are so relatable and most of them do speak to me. But make no mistake, the musicianship is on point as well. Nearly every song on Be Right Here has a memorable hook that will stick with you long after it’s over – whether that be a huge guitar riff or a unique vocal melody from Charlie Starr or a combination of both.

Like The Whippoorwill before it, Be Right Here is a musical celebration of life in all its phases, emotions and experiences, and almost anyone is likely to find something to connect with in both the themes and the grooves. It delivers exactly what I want … no, exactly what I need … from Blackberry Smoke. After a few albums that I felt had a little too much polish on them, this one feels very organic and natural. I hope there is a lot more to come from the band in this vein. I guarantee, I’ll be right here for it.

Review: Durbin, "Screaming Steel"

2024-06-10T22:12:00.000-07:00

Overview

After years of trying to cash in on his "American Idol" fame with more radio-friendly rock fare, James Durbin turned to his passion for 1980s metal on his 2021 album The Beast Awakens. While the style is not likely to land him on top of the charts, it did seem like he was having more fun. He's continued that on the follow-up Screaming Steel, wearing his influences on his sleeves and basically writing another love letter to classic metal.

What's hot?

The record is a treasure trove of Easter eggs and inside references for fans of classic metal. It starts in the title track, where Durbin throws out references to classic bands and songs almost non-stop. Is it campy? Absolutely. Do I care? Not at all. I'm banging my head and shouting them out along with him. The strongest performance on the album, in my opinion, though, is one of the shortest tracks here, the Dio tribute "The Worshipper 1897." I love the whole delivery, and it makes me wish that Dio was still around to maybe do a guest shot on it.

What's not?

While songs like "The Worshipper" stand out, there are several songs on the record that kind of blend together. Even though I've been listening to the album for several months, there are still a few songs on it, like "Blazing High" and "Rebirth" that I couldn't tell you a whole lot about without going in and listening to them again.

The verdict

While I don't think Screaming Steel is as strong as The Beast Awakens, I still quite enjoy it. With some of those classic 1980s bands putting out great music this year, though, it's not quite as nostalgic as it would have been in the leaner years. I would like to see Durbin explore a little more melodically and make some of the less memorable songs stand out. I also know he loses credibility in the eyes of many metal fans because of his history on "American Idol." Honestly, I never thought I'd listen to an album by a former "Idol," but here we are, and it's a lot of fun.

Check out: "The Worshipper 1897," "Screaming Steel," "Where they Stand," "Made of Metal," "Beyond the Night," "Hallows," "Power of the Reaper"
Consider: "Blazing High," "Tear Them Down," "Rebirth"
Skip: None

Best of 2023, Part 2: In Flames, Avatar, Metallica, Nita Strauss, Overkill

2024-01-03T22:14:00.000-08:00

Continuing my list of top 20 albums of 2023:

No. 10. NITA STRAUSS – THE CALL OF THE VOID: The long-time Alice Cooper guitar slinger delivers her second solo album, this time shaking things up with a whole host of guest artists (including the boss), as well as some incredible instrumental pieces. The songs with guest stars do tend to take on the flavor of the guest’s band, but that’s honestly not a problem at all as it brings great variety from the melodic death metal influence of “The Wolf You Feed,” featuring Arch Enemy vocalist Alissa White-Gluz, to the quirky nu metal of “Dead Inside,” featuring David Draiman of Disturbed, to the all-out hard rock of “Victorious,” featuring Dorothy. But it’s not just guest vocalists that Strauss brings on as we get a shredder's dream collab with Marty Friedman on “Surfacing,” to close the record. Call of the Void is a solid album that should appeal not only to guitar fans, but fans of great rock songs.

Standout songs: “Summer Storm,” “The Wolf You Feed,” “Victorious,” “Winner Takes All,” “Kintsugi,” “Surfacing”

No. 9. AYRON JONES – CHRONICLES OF THE KID: I’d heard Ayron Jones a number of times before this record, but the songs I’d heard always struck me as kind of generic blues rock – not bad, but not something that grabbed me. Then I heard lead single “Filthy” from Chronicles of the Kid. There was something different in there, bringing in some hip-hop influence and what struck me as much more of Jones’ personality injected than I’d heard before. Then he rolled out “Blood in the Water,” and I was completely sold. It’s a very emotional and incredibly well-written track that easily was one of my Top 5 most listened songs of the year. There are moments of sheer triumph, moments of sadness, and moments of questioning, particularly on “My America,” which manages to be both critical and patriotic at the same time. I think I need to explore a little more of Ayron Jones’ back catalog and see if I missed more songs like those on Chronicles of the Kid.

Standout songs: “Blood in the Water,” “The Title,” “My America,” “Filthy,” “Get High,” “On Two Feet I Stand”

No. 8. ARCHON ANGEL – II: Some of the best news that I heard in 2023 was that we were likely getting a new Savatage record in 2024. Some of the worst was that, due to a back injury for founder Jon Oliva, we probably weren’t getting it. But at least we have the next best thing in former vocalist Zakk Stevens’ Archon Angel. While this album features a little less of the Savatage sound than their 2020 debut Fallen, there’s still enough here to satisfy me. “Wake of Emptiness” is an epic powerhouse, another favorite song of the year, and they give me some awesome counterpoint vocals on a couple of tunes, which is a must for any Savatage-related project in my mind. In a world where I can’t have Savatage, long live Archon Angel.

Standout songs: “Wake of Emptiness,” “Avenging the Dragon,” “Fortress,” “Quicksand,” “Afterburn,” “Lake of Fire”

No. 7. DELAIN – DARK WATERS: When I heard a version of Delain was getting back together, I thought it was a bad idea. I didn’t think they’d ever be able to replace former vocalist Charlotte Wessels, but I’ll be damned if they didn’t. New singer Diana Leah has every bit of the power and personality, and Dark Waters may have been the surprise of the year for me for that reason. The band picks up right where they left off, bashing out super heavy tunes like “The Quest and the Curse,” alongside some 1980s pop-inspired vocal lines like the choruses of “Mirror of Night” and “Moth to a Flame.” It’s probably a more consistently heavy record than 2020’s Apocalypse and Chill, and I’m always up for a guest appearance from Marko Hietala, which we get here on “Invictus.”

Standout songs: “The Quest and the Curse,” “Beneath,” “Mirror of Night,” “The Cold,” “Moth to a Flame,” “Invictus”

No. 6. WINGER – SEVEN: If Delain wasn’t the surprise of the year, this one certainly was. Winger is probably one of the most maligned bands to come out of the late 1980s. Due in no small part to MTV’s “Beavis and Butthead,” they became one of the bands often held up as an example of what was wrong with the era, despite the fact that they’re a group of talented guys. That said, I really hadn’t paid that much attention to them since 1993’s Pull and had no idea they had seven albums. Then I clicked on the first single “Proud Desperado” and was impressed by a sound that was a little grittier than I remembered. That follows through much of this record on songs like the slinky “Voodoo Fire” or the hard-hitting “Stick the Knife in and Twist.” There are times when they slip back into the more clean cut sound that I remember from the late ‘80s, even in the songs that do have the grittier sound, but overall this is a Winger that I like much better. And honestly, if there were nothing else of note on the album, the emotional “Tears of Blood” would make it worth the price.

Standout songs: “Proud Desperado,” “Heaven’s Falling,” “Tears of Blood,” “Voodoo Fire,” “Stick the Knife in and Twist,” “One Light to Burn”

No. 5. AD INFINITUM – CHAPTER III – DOWNFALL: Here’s Melissa Bonny’s second appearance on my list. She’s been a regular for a few years, but she’s an outstanding talent, and the projects she gets involved with just all seem to be top notch. This third album from the symphonic metal outfit Ad Infinitum delivers exactly what we came to expect with the first two. It’s a perfect blend of often djent-like heaviness with beautiful melodic passages. And Bonny’s vocals are on point as always, whether she’s performing the part of the beauty or the beast. From the bouncy pop flavor of “Upside Down” to the dark and mysterious hooks of “Seth” and “Ravenous,” Chapter III contains some of their best work to date.

Standout songs: “Eternal Rains,” “Upside Down,” “Seth,” “From the Ashes,” “The Underworld,” “Ravenous,” “Architect of Paradise,” “The Serpent’s Downfall”

No. 4. OVERKILL – SCORCHED: When it comes to classic thrash bands, there’s probably not one that’s been more consistent over the years than Overkill. While their contemporaries played around with genres like alternative, grunge, nu metal and industrial, Overkill kept doing Overkill things. That’s both good and bad. While it did keep them consistent, it also kept them a little flat and same-sounding at times. There’s a little of that on Scorched, but more often we get what I consider Overkill at its best – when they incorporate a little more melody and a few big hooks into what they do. I feel that here on things like the strutting verse of “Wicked Place” and the almost funky groove of “Bag o’ Bones.” Pick any random song on this album, and if you’re familiar with Overkill, you’ll instantly know who it is, but there’s also enough variety and even a few earworms to make you want to come back to it over and over.

Standout songs: “Scorched,” “Goin’ Home,” “The Surgeon,” “Twist of the Wick,” “Wicked Place," “Won’t be Comin’ Back,” “Know Her Name,” “Bag o’ Bones”

No. 3. METALLICA – 72 SEASONS: As always, a new Metallica album is a polarizing event. There’s a group of fans who loves everything they do. There’s another group of fans who hates almost everything they’ve done since 1988. Then there are those of us caught between those two groups who have accepted that the band will never return to those 1980s thrash roots but are willing to approach what they’re doing with an open mind. I’ve liked a good bit of what Metallica has put out since 2008’s Death Magnetic … and disliked a lot of it, too. I’m also on record as not hating St. Anger. But 72 Seasons, I think, is the best material they’ve released in at least 30 years. There are elements of pretty much everything they’ve done, good and bad.

No, you won’t find any straight-up ‘80s thrashers, though “Shadows Follow” comes close, and with a rawer mix, I’m confident “Lux Aeterna” would fit right in on Kill ‘Em All, but there are flashes of that thrash sound woven in, like the galloping “Motorbreath”-esque verse of “Room of Mirrors.” There’s also a heavy Sabbath influence that comes through on songs like “You Must Burn!” and “Inamorata,” and even, yes some grungy feel on “Crown of Barbed Wire.” I’ll admit that this record didn’t hold up to my initial excitement over it. Some of the songs faded a little over the year and repeated listens, but I still think it’s a great album with very few skips.

Standout songs: “72 Seasons,” “Shadows Follow,” “Screaming Suicide,” “You Must Burn!,” “Lux Aeterna,” “Crown of Barbed Wire,” “If Darkness Had a Son,” “Too Far Gone?”

No. 2. AVATAR – DANCE DEVIL DANCE: Here’s perhaps the least surprising entry on my list, only surprising perhaps in that it’s not No. 1. I’ve got nothing at all bad to say about Avatar. I love the way that they blend influences and sounds to produce some lively and unexpected songs, and they’re one of the best live acts going right now. On Dance Devil Dance, you’ve got everything from death metal to doo wop, both in the same song in at least one instance (“Train.”) There’s the slinky title track which blends heaviness with some classic ‘80s metal sounds, including a Rob Halford-like vocal delivery from Johannes Eckerstrom (the band’s definitely-not-secret weapon) on the chorus.

Then there’s “Chimp Mosh Pit,” which brings to mind a heavier version of early Jane’s Addiction. “Gotta Wanna Riot” gives subtle nods to, of all things, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs’ “Wooly Bully.” Then there’s the centerpiece, probably my most listened song of the last year, the disco glam rocker “The Dirt I’m Buried In.” It’s not often when the most popular song on an album is also my favorite, but this is the rare exception, an incredibly catchy earworm that just won’t go away and doesn’t get old.

Standout songs: “Dance Devil Dance,” “Chimp Mosh Pit,” “Valley of Disease,” “On the Beach,” “Do You Feel in Control?,” “Gotta Wanna Riot,” “The Dirt I’m Buried In,” “Hazmat Suit,” “Train”

No. 1. IN FLAMES – FOREGONE: I knew when this was released back in February, it would end up being high on my list. I didn’t think it would be my favorite, but it stuck with me more than any other album this year, and I just kept returning to it over and over. The band has gone through a lot of evolutions over the past 30 years, evolving from death metal to things that barely resembled metal and in no way, shape, or form death metal. Though there have been flashes here and there over the last 20 years, 2002’s Reroute to Remain was probably the last record that I’d consider really good – until this one. Is it the second coming of 2000’s Clayman? Nope. But it is the launch of an intriguing and enjoyable new chapter in the band’s sound. There are elements of their early heaviness throughout the record, but they’re blended with some of the more melodic stylings that have been the norm over the last 20 years or so. And it just works.

Almost every song on the record delivers a great heavy guitar riff, even lighter fare like “Pure Light of Mind” or “Cynosure,” (which also features an awesome bass line). They bash out a few fast and heavy tunes like “Foregone, Pt. 1” and “The Great Deceiver,” the latter of which shows some nice cheeky humor with the line “Joey was right, this is the final countdown,” a reference to Europe singer Joey Tempest and their most famous hit. But they also have some great hooks that those early records didn’t have, particularly on songs like “State of Slow Decay” and “End the Transmission.” I’m more excited about new music from In Flames right now than I’ve been in a long time, and I hope they continue in this vein.

Standout songs: “State of Slow Decay,” “Meet Your Maker,” “Foregone, Pt. 2,” “The Great Deceiver,” “In the Dark,” “A Dialogue in B Flat Minor,” “Cynosure,” “End the Transmission”

Best of 2023, Part 1: Icon of Sin, Extreme, Texas Hippie Coalition, Burning Witches, Gloryhammer, Angus McSix

2024-01-01T22:00:00.000-08:00

This was another surprisingly good music year for me. Perhaps not as strong as 2022, but still solid enough to produce a Best of 2023 list that includes a lot of very familiar faces and a few newcomers:

No. 20. GRYMHEART – HELLISH HUNT: There were several albums competing for this last spot on my list, including solid new efforts from Prong and Spirit Adrift. In the end, though, Grymheart’s debut album was just too much fun to deny. From the first time I stumbled across “Ignis Fatuus,” I knew this was my kind of band – a blend of folk metal, power metal, and extreme metal with some super addictive melodies. The lyrics are, at times, pretty awful, but since the only Hungarian words I know I learned from Alestorm, I really can’t knock them for their English lyrics.

Standout songs: “Ignis Fatuus,” “My Hellish Hunt,” “Fenrir’s Sons,” “Monsters Among Us”

No. 19. CODY PARKS AND THE DIRTY SOUTH – SMOTHERED AND COVERED: If you’ve ever thought you needed a mashup of Pantera’s “Cowboys from Hell” and John Michael Montgomery’s “Grundy County Auction” in your life – and who hasn’t? – this is the collection for you. Honestly, I find Parks’ original stuff a little too much on the bro-country side of things lyrically, but he does very interesting covers. His version of John Anderson’s “Seminole Wind” from 2019 is phenomenal. The star of this collection is “Thunder Cash ’69,” a blending of White Zombie’s “Thunder Kiss ‘65” and Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” which works way better than it should. He also delivers a solid version of Charlie Daniels’ “Long Haired Country Boy,” though the Every Mother’s Nightmare version is still my favorite hard-rock take on the song. Completing the album is a fairly straight version of Alice In Chains’ “Nutshell” and everyone’s go-to “outlaw” cover, “Ain’t Living Long Like This.” Parks does have an annoying tendency to change lyrics unnecessarily for what seems like cheap shock value (that’s not really shocking these days), but otherwise they’re solid.

Standout songs: “Grundy County Cowboys,” “Thunder Cash ’69,” “Long Haired Country Boy”

No. 18. BURNING WITCHES –THE DARK TOWER: I’ve been a huge fan of Burning Witches since first hearing them five or six years ago. Their throwback ‘80s traditional metal style just hits perfectly for me, and I’ve often jokingly called them Judas Priestess. They might take that just a little far on this record with “World on Fire,” which might as well be Priest’s “Judas Rising,” but it’s still fun. They don’t really shake things up here, but instead do what they do best and deliver a solid collection of throwback metal songs, along with the expected covers – this time Ozzy Osbourne’s “Shot in the Dark” and W.A.S.P.’s “I Wanna Be Somebody.”

Standout songs: “The Dark Tower,” “Renegade,” “World on Fire,” “Arrow of Time,” “Doomed to Die”

No. 17. DARK SIDE OF THE MOON – METAMORPHOSIS: Here’s the first of two entries for vocalist Melissa Bonny on my Best of 2023 list. Her latest project focuses on metal covers of songs from movies, TV, and video games, and some of them are fantastic. “Double Trouble/Lumos! (Hedwig’s Theme),” a blending of music from the Harry Potter movies and the lines of Shakespeare’s famous witches, got a lot of play time for me this year. There’s also a couple of great Tolkien-related covers in “Misty Mountains” from “The Hobbit” and “May It Be” from the Lord of the Rings movies. I wish they had been able to wrangle Marko Hietala to do a verse on “Misty Mountains,” as that would have been incredible, but they did get Charlotte Wessels for “May It Be.” Granted much of this album is mood music, not everyday listening, but it’s interesting and awesome.

Standout songs: “Misty Mountains,” “Double Trouble/Lumos! (Hedwig’s Theme),” “May It Be,” “The Hanging Tree,” “Jenny of Oldstones”

No. 16. ANGUS McSIX – ANGUS McSIX AND THE SWORD OF POWER: The petty is strong with this one. Thomas Winkler changes from the green leather of Angus McFife to the golden armor of Angus McSix and fires a few shots along the way, particularly on lead single “Master of the Universe,” which tells of Angus “drowning in the fire” (the McFife version sacrificed himself in a volcano at the end of Gloryhammer’s last outing) and being reborn “one better.” Drama aside, it’s fun, catchy and feels a little like his old band.

Winkler also hits a home run with the disco metal tune “Laser Shooting Dinosaur,” about his steed that not coincidentally devours unicorns (the unofficial Gloryhammer mascot). It’s utterly ridiculous in every way, and I just couldn’t get enough of it this year.

In other areas, though, this album feels a little too much on the generic power metal side musically. It did grow on me quite a bit as the year went on, but I’d still like a little more interesting flavor from what is, essentially, an all-star power metal band. And I do appreciate the small nod to one of my favorite power metal songs ever, Blind Guardian’s “Bright Eyes,” in the bonus track.

Standout songs: “Master of the Universe,” “Sixcalibur,” “Laser Shooting Dinosaur,” “Starlord of the Sixtus Stellar System,” “The Key to Eternity,” “Fireflies of Doom,” “Just a Fool Will Play Tricks on Angus McSix”

No. 15. GLORYHAMMER – RETURN OF THE KINGDOM OF FIFE: These two bands are probably not going to like me connecting them like this, but they’ve meant more to me than a silly band that sings about space wizards probably should, and I’m having trouble separating them. Either one can feel free to smite a fat, ugly goblin named Fred in a future song. Overall, I think Chris Bowes’ songwriting is still strong, but I’m admittedly struggling a little with new vocalist Sozos Michael. I just don’t think he embodies the character as well, and even in the storyline of Return to the Kingdom of Fife, Angus McFife II seems, at times, to be a background character in his own story. There’s a little bit of letdown story-wise in the deus ex machina Star Lords who come down at the end and kill everyone except Angus, who they promote to Star Lord for some reason. (I’m guessing the representative from the Sixtus Solar System didn’t get a vote.) It’s a far cry from the big endings of the last two records that involved destroying the earth and our hero sacrificing himself.

Musically, while still good, it’s probably the least interesting of their records for me. I guess “Sword Lord of the Goblin Horde” really highlights the frustration that kept this record out of my Top 10. It has an outstanding chorus, but when we move the verse, we veer into a less interesting and more generic power metal sound. That said, there are songs that still go very hard on this album. “Brothers of Crail” will stand up with any of their previous albums, “Wasteland Warrior Hoots Patrol” provides an interesting hard rock edge (and a sax solo), and “Holy Flaming Hammer of Unholy Cosmic Frost” is a winner both title-wise and musically. At the end of the day, though, I’m much more likely to pick up Space 1992: Rise of the Chaos Wizards or Legends from Beyond the Galactic Terrorvortex when I need my space wizard fix.

Standout songs: “Holy Flaming Hammer of Unholy Cosmic Frost,” “Wasteland Warrior Hoots Patrol,” “Brothers of Crail,” “Keeper of the Celestial Flame of Abernethy”

No. 14. GHOST HOUNDS – FIRST LAST TIME: When it comes to Southern rock laced with Stevie Ray Vaughan-style blues, Ghost Hounds really don’t do anything that much differently than a lot of other bands, but man do they do it well. When I heard “Last Train to Nowhere” for the first time, I was immediately hooked. It has a fantastic groove, it’s soulful, and I just feel it. Vocalist Tré Nation reminds me a lot of Chris Stapleton in the emotion that he puts into his voice, and the band bounces back and forth from blues to country to near hard rock (and even the odd cover of John Denver’s “Country Roads”) over the course of the 10 songs here, and they do it seamlessly.

Standout songs: “Last Train to Nowhere,” “Dirty Angel,” “Make it Shake,” “Here No More”

No. 13. TEXAS HIPPIE COALITION – THE NAME LIVES ON: This one is probably my favorite album from Texas Hippie Coalition since 2012’s Peacemaker. It really digs back into the Texas and Southern rock origins of the band (not that those ever went away, but they were muted on some efforts). The Name Lives On is entertaining from front to back with some great grooves and swagger. But there are also some standout performances, most notably “I Teach Angels How to Fly,” which finds braggadocious frontman Big Dad Ritch delivering some almost introspective and reflective lyrics – well, at least as close as he’ll probably ever get. Elsewhere on the album, Ritch is his normal cocky self as he tells us to keep his name out of our mouths or that we picked the wrong one to try to push around. This is what I want from Texas Hippie Coalition.

Standout songs: “Hell Hounds,” “I Come from the Dirt,” “License to Kill,” “Keep My Name Out of Your Mouth,” “I Teach Angels How to Fly,” “The Name Lives On”

No. 12. EXTREME – SIX: This album was another grower for me after some initial disappointment. Basically, I thought the album didn’t keep the promise of the incredible first three singles – “Rise,” “#Rebel,” and “Banshee.” Those were all hard-rocking, heavy grooving songs that got me super excited for this release. The rest of the album is a mixed bag, heavy on ballads and with a little experimentation. There’s even one song, “Beautiful Girls,” that I listened to once and never need to hear again in life. (It’s not a Van Halen cover, but rather something that sounds like background music from a T-Mobile commercial.) While those first three songs remain far and away my favorites on the record (“Banshee,” a better Aerosmith song than Tyler and Perry have recorded in ages, being at the top), there’s some good stuff in the latter half of the album, too, including a couple of the ballads. I may gripe that it’s not exactly what I wanted or expected, but I’ll never complain about new music from Extreme.

Standout songs: “Rise,” “#Rebel,” “Banshee,” “The Mask,” “Save Me,” “Hurricane,” “Here’s to the Losers”

No. 11. ICON OF SIN – LEGENDS: Vocalist Raphael Mendes first caught my attention with his spot-on covers of Bruce Dickinson-era Iron Maiden on YouTube. He sounds uncannily like the legendary frontman, so it’s no surprise that his band sounds a lot like a blending of Iron Maiden and Dickinson’s solo work. Normally, the sound-alike nature of it would be a turn off for me, but Icon of Sin really scratches an itch for me that most modern-day Maiden doesn’t. Listening to Legends, I sometimes forget that it’s not Bruce Dickinson belting out these big vocal lines, and musically the gallop is there on some tracks, the heaviness on some, and the big dramatics, too. It’s hard to not like the heavy early Queensryche-meets-Iron Maiden sound of “Night Force” or the epic feel of my current personal favorite “Black Sails and Dark Waters.” Though I suspect Dickinson will deliver something closer to what I’m looking for on his solo album next year, this may be the closest thing we have to the classic Maiden sound right now.

Standout songs: “Cimmerian,” “Night Force,” “In the Mouth of Madness,” “Heart of the Wolf,” “Black Sails and Dark Waters”

Review: Metallica, "72 Seasons"

2023-04-21T13:35:00.000-07:00

Metallica’s 72 Seasons will, no doubt, be one of the most loved metal albums of the year. It will also be one of the most hated.

That’s the spot the band has found itself in with every album released since the early ’90s. (Except maybe St. Anger, which is pretty much reviled by most.) You could make the argument that it goes back farther than that. There are fans that will say … And Justice for All was the beginning of the end because they did a music video for “One,” and I’ve heard arguments at one time or another as to why every album since Kill ‘Em All has sucked.

I’m guilty, too. I was furious when the self-titled Black Album came out in 1991, and all of a sudden people who had been making fun of me for listening to Metallica for years were driving around blasting “Enter Sandman.” I felt strangely betrayed. I dislike the song immensely to this day, though I did eventually come around to the album with time. Since then, it’s been a mixed bag for me.

I still don’t speak of Load, I like St. Anger more than most people, I really liked Death Magnetic, and I thought Hardwired was middle-of-the-road with four or five good songs and a bunch that I don’t even remember seven years later.

But 72 Seasons is head and shoulders above all of those records since 1991. There’s an energy to the songs here that I haven’t felt in Metallica for more than 30 years. It’s a celebration of everything they’ve done over the years – good, bad and ugly – as well as a tribute to much of the music that they love with plenty of nods to Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy, NWOBHM bands and even later acts like Alice in Chains.

When I say that it’s a mix of everything they’ve done, I don’t mean there are songs on the album that sound like something off Master of Puppets. That ship sailed a long time ago, and it ain’t coming back. What I mean is that there are flavors of everything that they’ve done. Take, for example, the main riff of “Lux Aeterna.” If it was presented with the guitar tones and production of Kill ‘Em All, it would not be at all out of place on that album.

72 Seasons is peppered with those. I even hear a few St. Anger bits, though those are few and far between. Most obvious, naturally, are the nods to the Black Album, and this record is filled with them. From the chugging e-chord of “You Must Burn!” that brings to mind “Sad But True,” to the main riff of “Sleepwalk My Life Away” which is essentially “Enter Sandman” with the serial numbers scraped off, to the melodic and lyrical tip of the hat to “My Friend of Misery” on album-closer “Inamorata,” they’re not even hiding the attempt to draw the parallels.

Metallica kicks off 72 Seasons the same way that they closed Hardwired, with a blazing heavy thrasher right out of the gate in the title track. If you were listening to the albums in order, “Spit Out the Bone” from Hardwired would feed right into this one seamlessly. It’s an opening salvo that makes the statement that even though they’re not going back to those old-school thrash roots, they haven’t forgotten them – and they’re no longer trying to hide from them.

Second track “Shadows Follow” continues in a similar vein. It has a little more of a Black Album sound to it, but the thrashy elements are also heavily in play. It’s the strongest 1-2 punch to kick off a Metallica album possibly since the “Blackened”/“… And Justice for All” combo in 1988. They stick with the speedier side of things for third track, “Screaming Suicide.” In my opinion, it was the weakest of the four songs they released prior to the full album, but it’s grown on me in context.

From there, things settle down into a more mid-tempo pace beginning with “Sleepwalk My Life Away.” As I previously mentioned, the main riff of this one is a modified “Enter Sandman,” and they’re even giving the eye-wink on it with the related titles. As we get to the bridge and chorus, though, “Sleepwalk” pulls in more of the hard-rock influences of the Load / Re-Load era. It’s one of my least favorite tracks, for obvious reasons given the description and my above statements, but it’s still not bad at all. And even if it had been, that would have been forgiven when “You Must Burn!” cranks up next.

This is absolutely one of my favorite songs on 72 Seasons. “You Must Burn!” has that open plodding e-chord chug of “Sad But True,” as I noted, but the real influence here is Sabbath. The slab of power chord riffage beneath the verse and chorus drips with Tony Iommi essence, and even the lyrics offer a nod to the originators. But then let’s talk about what happens after the second verse when Metallica delivers another Black Sabbath-inspired riff overlayed by a very un-Metallica higher-pitched vocal.

Then the true treat of the song arrives, a bluesy groove that kicks in around the 4:26 mark that is, I believe, the best groove that’s ever appeared on a Metallica album – and it features a rare Kirk Hammett use of a wah pedal for its intended purpose rather than just as color for his solos (although, he uses it that way, too). “You Must Burn!” alone is worth the price of 72 Seasons in my mind.

Not to let things get settled in too much, they speed things back up with lead single “Lux Aeterna,” which James Hetfield revealed was his choice for the title of the record. The song was a perfect pick to introduce 72 Seasons. It has a raw rock ‘n’ roll energy that’s been missing from the band for a while in my opinion. It really does have that Kill ‘Em All feel with the blend of riffs that borrow heavily from late ’70s / early ’80s British metal and a punkish attitude. If you gave it the right mix, tone and James Hetfield barking out vocals like he used to, I’m 100 percent convinced that it would fit on their first record.

The back half of the album doesn’t have quite as many highlights as the front half, but there’s not anything that I’d consider awful here. “Crown of Barbed Wire” offers up a blend of ’70s influences and Alice in Chains flavor. Honestly, when Hetfield moans out “So tight, this crown of barbed wire” – not so much the first time, but the later instances in the song – it makes me really wish we could hear the late Layne Staley deliver the line in a guest shot.

“Chasing Light” is another melding of Black Album and Load eras, but it has a great riff and an interesting chorus that’s again a little out of character for the band. Of the four early release songs, “If Darkness Had a Son” was probably the most one-note performance, but there’s something almost hypnotic about the song for me with Hetfield’s open e-string chugs and the lead lick that Hammett lays over them.

If there’s a song on 72 Seasons that might get the skip button from me, it’s “Too Far Gone?” It has a nice riff, and there’s a cool nod to Thin Lizzy in there, but it’s the one here that’s just not for me. “Room of Mirrors” brings back the Kill ‘Em All feel in the rhythm section of Lars Ulrich and Rob Trujillo. That piece is very reminiscent of “Motorbreath,” though nothing else about the song is as Hetfield sings a fairly melodic verse with a lyrical nod to Death Magnetic.

72 Seasons closes just as strong as it opened with the 11-minute “Inamorata,” which deserves all the praise that it will get in some circles. Another Black Sabbath-influenced slab of slower-paced metal, this is the longest song Metallica has ever recorded – but doesn’t really feel like it. Their 1970s hard rock influences come to play all over this track, and yes, there’s a lot of Load in it, too, but I’m willing to overlook that this once. There’s an interlude in which Ulrich and Trujillo take center stage that puts me in mind of the slower portion of Judas Priest’s “Victim of Changes” when Hetfield begins singing. Coming out of that, the remainder of “Inamorata” is very Thin Lizzy-influenced (minus a dip back into Sabbath for the chorus again).

Outside of the songs, another thing to note is that 72 Seasons sounds really good. Metallica has a not-so-great latter-day history with production – from the infamous garbage can snares of St. Anger to the too-loud clipping of Death Magnetic. They’ve fixed that here with a mix that could be compared to Bob Rock’s work on the Black Album.

When 72 Seasons closes, I immediately want to dive in again and give it another listen. That hasn’t happened with a Metallica record in a long time, not even Death Magnetic, which was my favorite of the post-1992 albums by a long shot.

Many metal fans will have made up their mind long before any music from this album was released that they hated it, and that’s fine. I’d love to have another incredible thrash record from Metallica, too. But if you’re looking for a 1980s thrash record, I’d suggest you check out Overkill’s Scorched which was released on the same day as 72 Seasons. It’s quite good and very much the ‘80s thrash that they’ve always done. Metallica isn’t that band anymore and never will be.

What Metallica is, however, is a band that sounds like they’re having fun making music again. 72 Seasons has great energy, and I love how they’ve packed it with little Easter eggs, both musical and lyrical for fans. Is it the equal of any of their first five records? No. Is it the best thing they’ve done since those five albums? In my opinion, absolutely – and it’s not that close.

Debate that all you want. While you’re arguing, I’m going to be over here banging my head and enjoying Metallica like I haven’t in many years.

Review: Ward Davis at the Louisiana Grandstand (March 3, 2023)

2023-03-09T13:51:00.000-08:00

When Ward Davis’ solo acoustic performance at the Louisiana Grandstand theater was announced, I almost decided to skip it. I’d just seen Davis with his full band back in the fall and had a heavy concert slate for 2023 already. I logged in on the day tickets went on sale, and it just so happened that there were still a couple of front row center-section seats left at a price less than I paid for one upper deck ticket to see his friend Cody Jinks a week later. I couldn’t pass that up, and it was a fortuitous turn of events because I really would have hated to miss this show.

This was my first visit to the venue, and you kind of have to know what you’re looking for. It’s a historical-looking unmarked red-brick building with white columns, and if not for the valet parking sign pointing around to the side, I would have wondered if I were in the right place. Walking in, the building has the feel of a place that country greats might have played back in the 1950s. Two staircases to either side of the entrance lead to the upstairs theater, about a 500-ish capacity place with wooden auditorium-style seats, a smallish stage and red curtains. It definitely had the feel of a place where you could have seen Hank Sr.

So, it’s already a cool venue, and for my money, Ward Davis stands as one of the best songwriters out there right now. That’s a perfect pairing.

Davis’ guitar began to play before the curtain opened, and he delivered a brand-new song right out of the gate, the first of several that we’d hear over the 90 minutes or so that he played. He followed that up with the more familiar “Sounds of Chains,” a dark tune about revenge on a cheating lover and the ultimate punishment for it. With the crowd warmed up with a couple of tunes, Davis brought out the other part of the show, and we soon learned that he’s just as great a storyteller as he is a song writer.

The stories started with the performance of a couple of songs that he wrote with Cody Jinks, “I’m Not the Devil” and “Same Kind of Crazy as Me.” He drew chuckles from the crowd with his yarns and jokes about Jinks, including of course, the story of his arrest for possession in Hays, Kansas, and Jinks “dog-cussing” the police as he came to get him out of jail.

He also told the story of the night that he met Jinks when he played an opening slot for the grand payday of $150. (“Cody was just throwing around money even back then,” Davis quipped.) That meeting led to them writing “I’m Not the Devil,” and the rest is history. Davis made a tongue-in-cheek habit of dropping Cody’s name throughout the night to the point where you could have made a drinking game out of it, but it was all in good fun.

The crowd certainly enjoyed those couple of songs, and as we sang loudly along with the chorus of “Same Kind of Crazy as Me,” Davis stopped singing and just listened with a big grin. The joy in his face at hearing everyone sing his lyrics seemed very genuine, even though we knew it was definitely not the first time it had happened. In that moment it seemed there was no other place he would rather be, and the same could be said of the crowd.

The night had plenty of humor and laughs. Davis’ mother, who grew up in Shreveport, was in attendance, and he muttered a lot of joking apologies to her as he told his stories or dropped the f-bomb in the second verse of the rowdy hell-raiser “Get to Work Whiskey.” At one point, he spotted a friend in the crowd, greeted her and told the story of a high school misadventure that included him blacking out (“sorry, mama”) before joking that he probably shouldn’t just say what comes into his mind into the microphone.

The biggest apology of the night, however, came when he performed the as-yet unreleased (and perhaps never-to-be released) love song that he wrote for his wife, “The Weed in Willie’s Bowl.” Before the song, he explained that the first time he’d played it his mother was in attendance with his wife, and his mother’s face turned red “but not for the reason you may think – and when you figure it out, your face may be red, too.” Sure enough, the second verse delivered a zinger that you just don’t hear often in country music (“sorry, mama”). I won’t spoil the surprise, but the song is out there if you want to find it.

But the evening wasn’t all fun and games. On several occasions, Ward Davis got real and raw with the people who were there. The first time was in the introduction of a new song about his newfound sobriety. He was very open with the struggles that he’s had trying to give up alcohol, as well as the effect that its had on his songwriting output. As a fan who has been wondering when a new record was coming since he released the single “Another Bad Apple” last year, I walked away with a better understanding of the battle that he’s been fighting to make it happen. Davis was certainly not looking for sympathy from the audience, he was just sharing his experience and telling it like it is in a conversation with us. From the songs that he played on this night, it should be well worth the wait.

All of that didn’t keep him from singing the songs he’s written about drinking or making jokes about it, either. In one quiet moment, someone in the auditorium popped open a beer that echoed throughout. “Man, that beer cracking open sounded good,” Ward joked as he took a sip of his water and grimaced to the crowd at the taste. “Did that little spray come off of it, too?”

Perhaps the most poignant tale that he told during the night, though, was about how he celebrated his 35th birthday. Having spent 15 years trying to make it as a songwriter in Nashville, he was at rock bottom in his career. He’d had songs recorded by the likes of Sammy Kershaw and Trace Adkins, but none of them had hit for him, and he was still struggling. He’d decided that it was time to hang up the guitar and get a real job so he could pay the bills and support his family. Then he got a call. Someone wanted to record his song “Unfair Weather Friend.” And not just any someone, but two big someones – Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. Not only that, but Haggard liked the song so much that it was on the list of songs he requested be played at his funeral.

Davis got emotional as he told the story of hearing their cut for the first time on Nelson’s bus (“sorry, mama”) and what the whole thing meant to him and how it inspired him not only to not give up on his dream, but to actually take the next step and cut his own record. That led into the title track from his 2015 debut, “15 Years in a 10 Year Town.” The record featured a guest spot from Nelson and Davis’ friend Jamey Johnson on a cover of “Old Wore Out Cowboys,” one of a couple that he played on the night.

Of course, Ward played his version of “Unfair Weather Friend” after the story. He’d also played “Sunday on Bourbon Street” earlier in the night, another song that he had written that was recorded by Kershaw. It was a fitting addition for the Louisiana audience. He regaled the crowd with stories of hanging around and working with older legendary Nashville songwriters (one of which was most unimpressed with his association with Nelson and Haggard) just to hear their stories as much as to learn the craft from them.

That led to a discussion of Bob McDill and his hatred for Waylon Jennings’ “Theme from the Dukes of Hazzard,” which Davis also teased while telling the tale. He then played the second cover, “Good Ole Boys Like Me,” written as a response to the Jennings tune and recorded by Don Williams. Davis acknowledged that he’d always felt more comfortable with McDill’s vision of a “good ole boy” than Waylon’s.

Finally, Davis closed the evening with a guitar take on his piano ballad “Black Cats and Crows.” I don’t know how everyone else felt, but for me, it was the perfect ending to the night. I discovered Ward Davis a couple of years ago through, of course, Cody Jinks, and “Black Cats and Crows” was the song that really grabbed my attention. Normally, I’m not one for the song that artists use to close the set. I’m usually into the deeper cuts, but I’ll make an exception in the case of this song every time.

In the last couple of years, there’s probably not another song that I’ve listened to more, and “Black Cats and Crows” never gets old. It’s a song that speaks to me, and it was the perfect way to bring home a rollercoaster of a night that saw hell-raising good times and very emotional and real moments. More than a concert, it felt like we were sitting around the living room with Ward Davis having a couple of (non-alcoholic) drinks and shooting the shit. In the words of my 17-year-old son, it was “bleeping awesome” (“sorry, mama”). The Louisiana Grandstand has promised to have Davis back for another show soon, and we promise that we’ll be front row again.

Best of 2022, Part 2: Ozzy, Zeal & Ardor, Whiskey Myers, Parkway Drive, Amon Amarth, Alestorm, Skid Row

2023-01-04T21:48:00.000-08:00

Continuing my Best of 2022 list with the top 10:

No. 10. OZZY OSBOURNE – PATIENT NUMBER 9: Who’d have thought that an Ozzy Osbourne record would ever crack my Top 10 again? This one really kind of hit home for me despite some questionable production choices. The title track with Jeff Beck is the best thing that the Prince of Bleeping Darkness has done in ages, and there’s plenty more to like here with guest shots from Tony Iommi, Eric Clapton, Zakk Wylde and Mike McCready. Though it doesn’t quite capture the classic Ozzy energy, there are certainly shades of all of his incarnations to be found in the songs here, and it’s probably the first Ozzy album that I’ve truly enjoyed since 2001’s Down to Earth. (And yeah, I know most people dislike that one, too, but I don’t.)

Standout songs: “Patient Number 9,” “Immortal,” “No Escape from Now,” “One of those Days,” “A Thousand Shades,” “Evil Shuffle,” “Mr. Darkness”

Get Patient Number 9.

No. 9. PARKWAY DRIVE – DARKER STILL: If you’re a fan of Parkway Drive’s first few metalcore albums and think 2018’s Reverence was a complete sell out, Darker Still is not for you. Luckily for me, I really enjoyed Reverence and, let’s face it, metalcore as a genre gets pretty boring and repetitive after a minute. The Aussies push even more toward catchy and hummable hard rock here on tracks like “Ground Zero” and “Glitch,” and there’s even a hip-hop influence on “If a God Can Bleed.” There’s some heaviness still left in one of my favorites, “Like Napalm,” “Soul Bleach” and album closer “From the Heart of the Darkness,” which is probably closer to their older sound than anything else. The centerpiece, though, is the title track, which reminds me of Savatage’s dark ballads and is unlike anything the band has done before. I don’t like Darker Still quite as much as Reverence, but it’s still entertaining.

Standout songs: “Darker Still,” “Like Napalm,” “The Greatest Fear,” “From the Heart of the Darkness,” “Glitch,” “Ground Zero,” “Soul Bleach,” “Land of the Lost”

Get Darker Still.

No. 8. AMON AMARTH – THE GREAT HEATHEN ARMY: I had my doubts about this one after the first few songs trickled out, but fortunately, they were some of the weakest on the record in my opinion. The Great Heathen Army really plays into Amon Amarth’s more melodic side with a lot of classic metal influence and a couple of really enjoyable romps. The folk metal of “Heidrun” is infectious, and “Saxons and Vikings” (a duet with – who else? – Biff Byford of Saxon) is fantastic fun for old-school metal heads. In places its hummable, in others its epic, and it’s always as heavy as Thor’s hammer. This is the side of Amon Amarth that I love.

Standout songs: “Heidrun,” “Saxons and Vikings,” “The Serpent’s Trail,” “Find a Way or Make One,” “Oden Owns You All”

Get The Great Heathen Army.

No. 7. LOCUST GROVE – THE BATTLE OF LOCUST: I’ve made no secret of my love for Anti-Mortem’s 2014 album New Southern. While the reformed version of that band went down a more modern rock path with its self-titled album released last year, former guitarist Zain Smith doubled down on the attitude-laden hard southern rock with Locust Grove. The Battle of Locust is the follow-up to New Southern that I’ve been waiting eight years or so for. It’s dripping in attitude, grooves and memorable hooks from start to finish. From raging about the world around us on “Sick of It All” to the blues-rock tones of “Bluebird” to angry, grooving headbangers like “Not Worth My Time,” “Why Run” and “These Hands,” this record satisfies my need for heavy Southern fried rock that, quite frankly, there’s not enough of these days.

Standout songs: “Sick of It All,” “Why Run,” “One Foot in the Grave,” “Bluebird,” “S.O.S.,” “These Hands”

Get The Battle of Locust.

No. 6. ALESTORM – SEVENTH RUM OF A SEVENTH RUM: After 2020’s Curse of the Crystal Coconut, which included a lot of silliness even by Alestorm standards, my favorite pirate metal band got back on course with this release. While there’s still plenty of goofiness – it wouldn’t be Alestorm without it – they also dipped back into their past to deliver some songs that would have been right at home on their earliest albums, long before they traveled through time to battle Vikings, came to drink your beer or pulled out that infamous anchor. Most notably, the title track really feels like something that could have appeared on their debut Captain Morgan’s Revenge. They even saved the disastrous “Tortuga” from that last album with a metal re-imagining here, and despite my gripes at the time of release, I even came around to “Cannonball.” It’s nice to have them back at the top of my playlist.

Standout songs: “Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum,” “Under Blackened Banners,” “Magyarorszag,” “The Battle of Cape Fear River,” “Cannonball,” “Magellan’s Expedition,” “Return to Tortuga”

Get Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum.

No. 5. HELLBOUND GLORY – THE IMMORTAL HELLBOUND GLORY: NOBODY KNOWS YOU: Simply put, I believe Leroy Virgil is a poet. Even when he’s singing about subjects like burning down the Dairy Queen and robbing a cash machine, there’s something in it that speaks to me. When he takes on something more serious, it’s even better. There’s an old-school honky tonk feel to Nobody Knows You that’s a little more understated for Virgil but suits him well. There are still the fun romps that you expect like “Can’t Wait to Never See You Again,” “Word Gets Around” and “Didn’t Die Young (Aint Done Trying),” but even they have a little different feel from his usual rowdy tunes. The ghost story “13 Corners,” probably my personal favorite here, evokes the dark storytelling of Johnny Cash. But even more haunting than his ghost story is “Evacuation Song,” a mournful acknowledgement of the western wildfires. Though I do love the louder, more raucous Hellbound Glory of their early records, I think this might be Virgil’s best work to date.

Standout songs: “13 Corners,” “Evacuation Song,” “Can’t Wait to Never See you Again,” “Word Gets Around,” “My Woman’s Whiskey Kiss,” “Trouble in Mind,” “Nobody Knows You”

Get Nobody Knows YouNobody Knows You.

No. 4. SKID ROW – THE GANG’S ALL HERE: Skid Row’s first three albums are classics for me, particularly second album Slave to the Grind, which ranks as one of my favorite records ever. While I enjoyed some of the things that they did in the years after they split with vocalist Sebastian Bach and drummer Rob Affuso, I never thought that they’d deliver another album that belonged in the conversation with their early work. I was wrong. Young gun Erik Gronwall has brought a new energy to the band. A fantastic vocalist, he sounds enough like Bach to do justice to the old material, and the new music has more fire than it has in a long time. The Gang’s All Here draws on those three albums for inspiration, but also sounds fresh and not like a band trying to reproduce its glory days. This was by far the most pleasant surprise of the year for me.

Standout songs: “Hell or High Water,” “Tear It Down,” “Time Bomb,” “Resurrected,” “When the Lights Come On,” “Nowhere Fast”

Get The Gang's All Here.

No. 3. ARCH ENEMY – DECEIVERS: I’ve been happy on the last couple of albums to hear Arch Enemy stretching out a little bit. While the music here still sits firmly in the melodic death metal style that they’ve made their name on, they play here and there with some different melodic ideas, and we also get to hear Alissa White-Gluz’s natural voice a little more in the context of a heavier song on “Handshake with Hell.” I know there will be fans bemoaning the band going soft, just like there have been since their first female singer (now band manager) Angela Gossow joined in 2000. Let them bitch. White-Gluz is too good a singer to be pigeonholed into nothing but death growls. (See her collaboration with Nita Strauss, “The Wolf You Feed,” also released this year.) Michael Amott and Jeff Loomis deliver some great guitar melodies on songs like “House of Mirrors” (one of my most played of the year) and the classic metal-flavored “In the Eye of the Storm,” and this album is honestly bad ass from start to finish.

Standout songs: “House of Mirrors,” “Handshake with Hell,” “In the Eye of the Storm,” “The Watcher,” “Sunset Over the Empire,” “Spreading Black Wing,” “Poisoned Arrow”

Get Deceivers.

No. 2. WHISKEY MYERS – TORNILLO: Early Morning Shakes has always been the album that all other Whiskey Myers efforts are judged on for me (not that they’ve done a remotely bad one). But Tornillo will give it a run for its money. This album is basically a love letter to the Southern American music that influenced them, and they wear those influences on their sleeves in places, as on the Skynyrd-style romp “Feet’s” or the Stevie Ray Vaughan-like blues groove of “Bad Medicine.” They cover the bases from Southern rock to blues and even throw in some funky and more heavy rock touches. Tornillo is fun, rowdy and at times very gritty and touching, and it produced one of my absolute favorite songs of the year in “The Wolf.”

Standout songs: “The Wolf,” “Antioch,” “Mission to Mars,” “Heart of Stone,” “John Wayne,” “Feet’s,” “Whole World Gone Crazy,” “Bad Medicine”

Get Tornillo.

No. 1. ZEAL AND ARDOR – ZEAL AND ARDOR: This is the one album that has not left my player since it was released in February. I’ve always enjoyed Manuel Gagneux’s subversive blending of traditionally black music – gospel, blues, soul – with more extreme music like black metal and industrial, but he really hits his stride on this record. The blend on this Best of 2022 LP is perfect with raging metal songs like “Gotterdammerung” more soulful (ironically) offerings like “Church Burns” and the perfect mixture of the two in tunes like “Death to the Holy.” It’s very rare in 2022 to find a musical take that you haven’t heard hundreds of times before, but Zeal & Ardor are stunningly different, and while the styles mixed are often miles apart, the transitions are never jarring. Gagneux makes them sound like they fit together naturally. And maybe they do.

Standout songs: “Death to the Holy,” “Church Burns,” “Gotterdammerung,” “Run,” “Golden Liar,” “Bow,” “Feed the Machine”

Get Zeal and Ardor.

Best of 2022, Part 1: Blind Guardian, Megadeth, Soilwork, Ward Davis, Disturbed

2023-01-02T21:17:00.000-08:00

If there was one good thing that came out of the misery of 2020, it seems that a lot of artists used their lockdown time to create fantastic albums that trickled out through the year. For me, 2022 was an embarrassment of musical riches that featured some rock steady releases, some fantastic returns to form and even a couple of new discoveries.

The year wasn’t without its disappointments, and some of them were tough ones. The much-anticipated return of King’s X after a 14-year absence, for example, just didn’t connect with me the way that I’d hoped. But those were anomalies this year and certainly not the norm. I can’t remember the last time that I had 20 albums that I wanted to talk about at the end of the year, but here we are:

No. 20. HORIZON IGNITED – TOWARDS THE DYING LANDS: The second album for Finland’s Horizon Ignited was my introduction to the band. What they deliver on this first Best of 2022 honoree is not ground-breaking, but it’s very well-done melodic death metal in the vein of Soilwork and In Flames. Unfortunately for them, they were competing this year with a new record from Soilwork and four incredible songs from In Flames’ upcoming record, due in early 2023. That said, Towards the Dying Land is still a very enjoyable 40-ish minutes, and “Reveries” remains one of my favorite songs of the year.

Standout songs: “Reveries,” “Beyond Your Reach,” “Towards the Dying Lands,” “Servant,” “Eventide of Abysmal Grief”

Get Towards the Dying Lands.

No. 19. EVIL INVADERS – SHATTERING REFLECTIONS: I’ve encountered Evil Invaders a number of times over the years and found them entertaining, but never gripping enough to draw me in as a fan. Shattering Reflections scratched the right itch, though. I described it as the baby of Judas Priest and Mercyful Fate with David Wayne-era Metal Church as the godfather. There’s plenty of classic metal in the 10 tracks, along with a heaping helping of thrash and speed. Throwback metal doesn’t get much better than “In Deepest Black.”

Standout songs: “In Deepest Black,” “Die for Me,” “Hissing in Crescendo,” “Sledgehammer Justice”

Get Shattering Reflections.

No. 18. BLOODY HAMMERS – WASHED IN THE BLOOD: The two-piece outfit from Transylvania County, N.C., does its thing again – a blend of goth rock, light industrial and Misfits-style horror punk with some psychedelic leanings here and there. They’re consistent, but how much I like each of their albums really depends on whether or not I’m in the mood for it. This one hit me right. I particularly like the Misfits feel of “At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul.” It’s so inspired by them that I had to actually look it up and make sure it wasn’t a cover of some obscure Misfits rarity that I’d overlooked.

Standout songs: “At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul,” “Black Sunday,” “Phantasmagoria,” “Last Rites of Lucifer”

Get Washed in the BloodWashed in the Blood.

No. 17. KENDELL MARVEL – COME ON SUNSHINE: The first of a few non-metal albums to make the list, Kendell Marvel delivers a late ‘70s/early ‘80s country-rock style that’s heavily reminiscent of classic Hank Williams Jr. and Waylon Jennings’ rowdier side with a little bit of blues in the mix. Though I have to question getting a guest spot from Chris Stapleton – who’s arguably the best voice in country music at the moment – and only having him do backing vocals on “Don’t Tell Me How to Drink.” Marvel has a very gruff, classic country voice that works equally on everything from hell raisers to sincere ballads.

Standout songs: “Don’t Tell Me How to Drink,” “Keep Doing Your Thing,” “Come on Sunshine,” “Habits,” “Hell Bent on Hard Times”

Get Come on Sunshine.

No. 16. DISTURBED – DIVISIVE: Picking Disturbed these days on a best of list that’s largely metal will certainly be, pardon the pun, divisive. But this record is something of a return to form for the band. While it doesn’t quite capture the wild and aggressive spirit of their debut album, Divisive does blend that sound well with the more refined things that they’ve been doing more recently. Dan Donegan’s riffs are brutal and raw, but David Draiman’s vocal lines retain some of the more melodic stylings of their more recent work. I can feel Draiman’s middle fingers rising toward me as I write this, but I honestly needed more than one “o-wah-ah-ah-ah” to bring back that untamed spirit a little. Nice score getting Ann Wilson of Heart to sing a duet, too.

Standout songs: “Hey You,” “Bad Man,” “Divisive,” “Feeding the Fire,” “Part of Me”

Get Divisive.

No. 15. BLIND GUARDIAN – THE GOD MACHINE: Man, this is something that I’ve wanted for a while, and in any other year, it would probably be a Top 10 album. Blind Guardian returns to the more aggressive sound of their earlier work. They back down the symphonics and just let it rip. It’s really nice to hear the blazing guitar riffs and Hansi Kursch belting out the vocals with anger and fire. This is the Blind Guardian that I’ve missed over the last 15-ish years, and it’s nice to have them back.

Standout songs: “Deliver Us From Evil,” “Damnation,” “Violent Shadows,” “Life Beyond the Spheres,” “Blood of the Elves.”

Get The God Machine.

No. 14. MEGADETH – THE SICK, THE DYING … AND THE DEAD!: We were “promised” a lot before the release of this album. From the early riffs that Dave Mustaine allowed fans to hear snippets of down to the ellipses in the title, everything signaled a return to the band’s classic sound. What we got instead was a little faster and slightly more aggressive (in spots) version of the modern Megadeth. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but not quite what a lot of fans, myself included, were expecting. The album did give us one of the strangest duets of the year (at least until Billy Gibbons showed up on a Morris Day song in November), as Mustaine teams up with Sammy Hagar for album closer “This Planet’s on Fire,” which oddly is one of the more interesting songs, blending some Megadeth-style riffs with the big party choruses of Hagar’s work.

Standout songs: “We’ll Be Back,” “This Planet’s on Fire,” “Life in Hell,” “Killing Time,” “Police Truck,” “Night Stalkers”

Get The Sick, The Dying ... And the Dead!

No. 13. AMORPHIS – HALO: Amorphis is almost incapable of putting out a bad album (we don’t speak of 2003’s grunge-inspired Far from the Sun), but they seem to have been stuck in the same formula since 2009’s outstanding Skyforger. Halo is a great album as usual. It was an early contender and spent a lot of time in my playlist, but it really doesn’t distinguish itself all that much from their last several records. I won’t complain about another dozen albums exactly like this, but I also wouldn’t complain about a small bit of evolution either – as long as they don’t go back to grunge for inspiration.

Standout songs: “On the Dark Waters,” “The Moon,” “Seven Roads Come Together,” “Northwards,” “When the Gods Came”

Get Halo.

No. 12. WARD DAVIS – LIVE FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION IN HAYS, KANSAS: I wouldn’t normally put a live album on my end-of-year list, but this one is a lot of fun. And since I missed his incredible 2020 album Black Cats and Crows, which should have been near the top of my list that year, I figure I owe it to him. Davis returns to the scene of the crime, so to speak, to deliver a strong set of his own songs, songs he wrote with friend and collaborator Cody Jinks, and covers, including one from … Richard Marx? It’s great fun and good stuff for fans of what country music used to be.

Standout songs: “Time to Move On,” “Same Kind of Crazy as Me,” “Hurt You,” “Sounds of Chains,” “I’m Not the Devil,” “Black Cats and Crows,” “Get to Work Whiskey,” “You’re Gonna Die”

No. 11. SOILWORK – OVERGIVENHETEN: One of my favorite groups of melodic death metallers continue in the more progressive vein they’ve traveled in recent years. Sure there are still plenty of blast beats from Bastian Thusgaard and screams from Bjorn Strid that are fairly safe melodeath, but there’s also a fair bit of artsy and experimental stuff. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t. Overgivenheten is a bit uneven compared to 2019’s Verkligheten, but it still delivers some bangers – and songs like “Dreams of Nowhere” and “Death, I Hear You Calling” were staples of my playlist in the last five months of the year.

Standout songs: “Death, I Hear You Calling,” “Dreams of Nowhere,” “Valleys of Gloam,” “Electric Again,” “Vultures”

Get Overgivenheten.

Review: Skid Row, "The Gang's All Here"

2022-12-18T14:13:00.000-08:00

I didn’t see this coming.

Like many fans, I’ve longed for a reunion of the original lineup of Skid Row. While I enjoyed some of the band’s work with replacement vocalist, the late Johnny Solinger, it never quite stacked up with their earlier output. It’s become pretty clear, though, that the chasm between former vocalist Sebastian Bach and the rest of the band is too wide to bridge. So, I never expected to get a new Skid Row record that I considered on par with those first three albums.

Enter Erik Gronwall, former vocalist of the band H.E.A.T., a lifelong Skid Row fan despite being born only a couple of years before their debut album. His version of the band’s hit “18 and Life” on a Swedish TV singing competition helped earn him the nod from Skid Row after they went through a series of replacement vocalists for Solinger, including Tony Harnell (TNT) and ZP Theart (Dragonforce), and they seem to have made the right choice. Gronwall breathes new life into the band. He sounds enough like a young Bach to hit old guys like me right in the nostalgia, but he also brings enough of his own sound to not give off the tribute vibe.

I’ll admit that as Skid Row rolled out the singles ahead of the release of The Gang’s All Here, I had mixed feelings. The title track, which announced the new record, is honestly one of my least favorite songs – so it didn’t give me high hopes. But the tunes that followed all intrigued me just a little more and then I actually got to hear the whole album.

When that nasty riff that kicks off album opener “Hell or High Water” hit my ears, I was a 19-year-old kid again. Dave Sabo’s guitar is grooving, and Gronwall is screaming out the verse in his best Sebastian Bach impersonation. It was almost like getting another chance to experience the band’s landmark album Slave to the Grind for the first time. The song certainly would have been right at home on that classic. All of a sudden, I was way more interested in what the other nine songs would bring. Honestly, I don’t know why they didn’t lead with this one as they were rolling out the early tastes of the record. For me, it’s the best track on the album, but certainly not the last banger.

The other two songs that they released behind “The Gang’s All Here” have also become favorites. Initially, I was a put off by the gang vocals on “Tear It Down.” At first listen, I thought they were a little overbearing and that they stepped on the new guy’s debut. With repeated listens, though, they’ve turned into an earworm. Speaking of earworms, we move on to “Time Bomb.” Driven by Rachel Bolan’s bass line and Gronwall’s catchy little “tick, tick, tick, tick” whisper, the song builds up to a huge 1980s chorus hook that will absolutely have fans delivering the “tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, BOOM” at the top of their lungs.

One of the interesting things about this record is that the songs seem to visit all three of those first albums, from the more commercial approach of their debut to the heavier perfection of Slave to the Grind to the more aggressive and metallic style they tried on Subhuman Race. The title track obviously conjures up thoughts of that first record, both musically and with lyrical nods. The better example of the debut, though, comes on “When the Lights Go On.” Bolan’s bass and the swaggering strut of the song will almost certainly put fans in mind of “Piece of Me” from the 1989 album – and that’s not a bad thing at all.

As previously mentioned, “Hell or High Water” would have been a welcome addition to Slave, but “Not Dead Yet” also taps into the punkish energy that’s been a staple of the band’s sound on tunes like “Riot Act.” The appropriately titled “Resurrected” gives off the Subhuman Race vibes here with its bashing drums and guitar riffs. Though the chorus is probably a little more toward Skid Row’s first two albums, it’s one of the most aggressive tunes on The Gang’s All Here. And I couldn’t agree more with the sentiment.

Elsewhere, they mix it up. “Nowhere Fast” opens with a pummeling guitar and drum combo that again evokes Subhuman Race, but then shifts gears for the chorus to something more at home on the eponymous debut. The only real disappointment on the new record for me is the ballad, “October’s Song.” If you’re familiar with my tastes from previous reviews, I know you’re thinking it’s because it’s the ballad – but that’s not it.

Skid Row has a legacy of incredible ballads – “18 and Life,” “I Remember You,” “Quicksand Jesus,” “In a Darkened Room” – all fantastic. I hear a little bit of the Slave to the Grind ballads in here, but it just doesn’t stack up to me. It’s more “Wasted Time” – my least favorite song on Slave – than the others. That said, it still has its moments. The instrumental section right before the solo is really cool, and the solo itself is nice, if a bit more understated than some of the others here.

The other issue that fans may have is that it’s very hard to hear some of these songs without imagining what they would sound like with Bach in his prime. It’s just the nature of what the band delivers on this album. As awesome as Gronwall’s vocals are, he’s still no Sebastian Bach in 1991 – far from it. To be fair, though, the 2022 version of Bach is pretty far from Bach in 1991 too. His return might have energized the fan base a little, but it’s unlikely that it would have injected the energy into the band that Erik Gronwall’s arrival seemingly has.

That energy is really the power behind The Gang’s All Here. While many of the songs will remind you of Skid Row’s glory days, it doesn’t sound like a band going through the motions to try to recreate their classic albums. The songs here sound genuine and honest – like a band that’s in a similar musical mindset to when they created those early records. I think Gronwall, as the new piece of the puzzle, has to get a lot of the credit for that.

Though Skid Row has done things that I liked since the split, particularly the United World Rebellion EP, I long ago gave up on them ever again being what they once were. I may have been proven wrong as I consider a year-end list where The Gang’s All Here likely lands in the Top 5.

It’s no match for Slave to the Grind – the list of records that are is short in my mind – but The Gang’s All Here certainly belongs in the conversation with those early albums. More importantly, it sounds like the Skid Row that I know and love, and I haven’t heard that sound in quite a while. It’s a very welcome return.

Review: Ward Davis, "Live from an Undisclosed Location in Hays, Kansas"

2022-12-07T14:03:00.000-08:00

The story behind Ward Davis’ latest live album is almost as entertaining as the record itself. Back in 2017, he and his friend, fellow underground country singer Cody Jinks, were playing a show in Hays, Kansas. The previous night, they had played in Colorado, so they were well stocked on, um, herbal remedies.

After the show, Davis was hanging out by his van behind the venue while his bass player was inside the van partaking of said herbal remedies when one of Hays’ finest (alternately “Officer Asshole” and “Officer Tough Guy” in Davis’ words) knocked on the door of the van. The bass player threw the doors open while lighting up, the van was searched and Davis and his bass player ended up being put in cuffs for possession of just under an ounce of marijuana.

As Davis and his bandmate were being marched the full block from the venue to be booked at the courthouse, Jinks emerged from the building and proceeded to cuss the cops all the way to bailing Davis out, much to the chagrin of Davis and one of Jinks’ band members who were attempting to calm the situation. Davis ultimately ended up with a good story and some unsupervised probation. That’s the short version. It’s definitely worth reading Davis’ version, though.

At any rate, the incident launched an often-hilarious social media feud between Davis and the Hays Police Department that evolved into a sort of mutual respect. Davis still absolutely gives them grief at every opportunity, but he also promotes their charity work and offers congratulations for the good things they do. In turn, the Hays Police have given Davis the key to the city and an honorary badge (which they were very clear in explaining held no real power). It’s a fun story of something good coming out of a bad situation.

For Live from an Undisclosed Location in Hays, Kansas, Ward Davis returned to the scene of the crime for the first time with a lively set of his own songs, tunes that he penned with Cody Jinks and a few covers, some expected and some a bit surprising – but more on that later.

Davis opens the set with a rousing version of “Papa and Mama,” originally recorded by Ray Scott, who Davis played guitar for. After that he explains to the crowd that he never thought he’d come back to Hays, but he’s glad he did, before launching in to the rambling tune “Time to Move On.” Then (after giving the police chief a little jab), it’s on to familiar territory for any country fan with a cover of Waylon Jennings’ “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?” Davis delivers a very faithful version of the song, and while it’s almost an expected staple for underground country artists making it without radio support, it’s still fun in the set. And like I said, the covers do get a bit more, er, adventurous later on.

Davis’ close relationship with Jinks comes into focus after those opening songs, as he sprinkles a few songs they’ve written together into the set. The first one up is “Same Kind of Crazy as Me,” co-written with Jinks and Greg Jones. I hate to say it since I love Jinks’ version, but I think I like Davis’ a little better. It has a bit more swing to it, and the laid-back attitude that Davis delivers the vocal with is just a little more fitting for the subject matter to me. He continues the Jinks theme with a couple of upbeat country rockers in “Big Last Name” and “Hurt You.” The latter, about getting the last laugh on a former lover, is one of the best songs on Jinks’ 2021 release Mercy, and Davis delivers it with just as much energy and gusto here. I’m sticking with Jinks on that one, but I’m not skipping Davis’ version either.

After a cover of Johnny Cash’s “Big River,” Davis delves back into some of his big numbers, beginning with “Sounds of Chains,” which tells a familiar country music story of the wronged man who took matters into his own hands and ended up in prison. He finds God there, but there’s a twist, and the song strikes me as very much in the Johnny Cash vein. He hits some more upbeat notes with the almost pop flavor of “Nobody’s Lookin’” and “I Got You,” where Davis explains to the woman he loves that he’d be crazy to mess with his reality with drugs (weed notwithstanding, obviously). Among that run, he also throws in another song co-written with Jinks, the repentant ballad, “I’m Not the Devil” and a cover of Ed Bruce’s “Old Wore Out Cowboys,” which he recorded with Willie Nelson and Jamey Johnson.

He closes the main set with what, in my mind, is hands down Davis’ best song, “Black Cats and Crows.” The original version is a dark and moving ballad with incredible lyrics that just really hit home for me, and probably lots of other people who have been where the guy in the song is. The live version is a little bit more uptempo. It’s still good (and I’d most likely be the one to start the riot if he decided not to play it at a live show), but it loses a little of its darkness in translation. The ripping guitar solo at the end does come through very well live, though.

Then it’s time for the encore. Remember that cover I was talking about earlier? Well, this is where it comes out. Davis laments the fact that guys like he and Jinks are called outlaw when the most outlaw thing he’s done is spend about 20 minutes in the Hays jail, but says he wants to live up to the moniker a little more so “nothing’s more outlaw” than what he’s about to do. Then he launches into a cover of the 1980s Richard Marx ballad “Right Here Waiting.” Though you can almost hear the laughter in the performance, it’s actually not a bad cover of the song. After the first verse, he gives up the joke and starts off a more crowd-appropriate cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird,” so that guy that’s probably been yelling it in the back since the beginning of the show at least went home happy.

Finally, Davis sends the crowd away with two of his most raucous and rowdy tunes, “Get to Work Whiskey” and “You’re Gonna Die.” The first turns the story of a leaving lover into a fun drinking tune about the whiskey no longer pulling its weight in the relationship. At one point, he threatens “I don’t want to send you packing, but I’ll crack the seal on ol’ Jose.” It’s a fun sing-along that’s perfect for an encore. He closes with “You’re Gonna Die,” a reminder that no matter what you have or how you live, we’re all going to end the same way. It’s not nearly as morbid as it sounds, though. As far as I can tell, he’s never recorded a studio version of the song, but he should. The live version is fantastic, and his guitarist gets to show off a little more to close out the show.

Having recently had the opportunity to catch Davis live, I can say that this album is a true reflection of his performance. Though the setlist was very slightly different when I caught his show in Dubach, La. (no Richard Marx, sadly), it was a lot of fun, and Davis showed a true appreciation for the crowd, much as he does here. The banter between songs is quite a bit better on this recording, though, due to the story that he had to tell.

If you like genuine country music, and you’re not familiar with Ward Davis, I highly recommend that you check him out. He’s an incredible songwriter, one of my favorite out there right now, (see “Black Cats and Crows”) and a hell of a lot of fun in the live setting. And he’s worth a follow on Facebook just to hear his stories and see what kind of grief he’s going to give the Hays Police Department next.

Review: Ozzy Osbourne, "Patient Number 9"

2022-10-03T14:23:00.000-07:00

I gave myself a few weeks to sit with Ozzy Osbourne’s Patient Number 9 before rendering an opinion on it because I didn’t want a knee-jerk either way. I initially liked it a lot. With repeated listens, I still think it’s some of Ozzy’s best work in quite a while, though I’m not nearly as excited by it as I was a few weeks ago.

Let’s get my big complaint out of the way up front, and it’s the same as on the last album, Ordinary Man: Andrew Watt’s production sucks. There’s no nice way to put it. It’s not quite as horrible here, but it’s still bad. It’s over-compressed, muffled and muddy, and there’s this god-awful buzz that he seems to love, because it shows up all over the last two records. To me, it sounds like a busted speaker.

In places, I almost think he’s trying to give it the lo-fi sound of Ozzy’s early albums, but even if that’s the case, it falls flat – quite literally. It’s a real shame because a clear, quality, dynamic sound could have elevated both of these albums a couple of notches.

It’s particularly problematic on Patient Number 9 because you have a tremendous lineup of players joining the cast, and with a few notable exceptions, they all end up sounding kind of the same. One of those exceptions is the title track, featuring Jeff Beck, which I already talked about back when it was initially released. It’s certainly the best thing here, and honestly, probably the best solo Ozzy Osbourne tune since the ‘90s. It has a great energy, and while Beck’s solo on the heavy part gets stuck in Watt’s mud, he does get some good time when the song goes acoustic at the end.

Elsewhere on Patient Number 9, you have guest shots from luminaries like Eric Clapton and Ozzy’s former Black Sabbath mate Tony Iommi, as well as Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready and, of course, longtime Ozzy axeman Zakk Wylde. These appearances provide all of the album’s best songs.

“Immortal,” featuring McCready, sounds like something that might have come off of 1995’s Ozzmosis, but Ozzy’s vocal melody on the verse also harkens back to some of his 1980s work. I get an Ultimate Sin feel off of parts of it – not for the last time on Patient Number 9.

The Clapton guest shot, “One of Those Days,” opens in a typical newer Ozzy ballad style, and Clapton delivers some licks reminiscent of the slower parts of “Layla.” The song then builds to a good-time, poppy hard-rock chorus that’s fun and memorable. Clapton gets a better shake than most of the guest guitarists as his playing really stands out on the track, but that’s mainly because many of his lead licks come over the softer parts of the song, so there’s not as much competing. He does slice through better than Beck did on the title track, though.

Speaking of Jeff Beck, he’s back for a second appearance on the ballad “A Thousand Shades.” It’s like so many Ozzy Osbourne ballads on his mid-’90s-to-present records. It’s a good song, but not really a standout. Much the same can be said of the other ballads on Patient Number 9.

Wylde has more time than the other players, appearing on four songs. “Parasite” is a heavy tune that loses some of its impact from that buzzy guitar sound. “Mr. Darkness” does have plenty of the late-era Ozzy ballad sound on the softer parts, but there’s something in there that provides a flavor of Blizzard of Ozz or Diary of a Madman. The heavier chorus riff is maybe the most Zakk Wylde-like riff of his appearances, but it still doesn’t have the aggression that I expect from him.

“Nothing Feels Right” is a forgettable bit of ballad. “Evil Shuffle,” though, is kind of interesting and the best of the four. Despite the appearance of Iommi on a couple of songs, Wylde works out his Black Sabbath fetish on this heavy and bluesy tune. The chorus is a bit of a letdown after the punchy verse, but it’s still solid. Wylde also offers a tip of the hat to Eric Clapton after the second chorus of the song, as there’s a momentary riff that brings to mind a slow and gloomy version of Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love.”

Now, for the moments on Patient Number 9 that probably caught most people’s attention – the two collaborations with Iommi. The first one released, “Degradation Rules,” was a bit of a head-scratcher for me. With all due respect to the Divinyls, songs about self-pleasure are probably never a really good idea, but particularly not when you’re a septuagenarian. The song starts with a very Sabbath-like riff (of course) and Ozzy blowing on a harmonica. It immediately gives the vibe of one classic tune, then the lyrics come in, and I’m trying to imagine how the conversation about recording this song went.

Ozzy: Hey, Tony, you want to come play on my new album?

Iommi: We can do something Sabbath-y.

Ozzy: And I’ll play harmonica.

Iommi: Cool, so something like “The Wizard.”

Ozzy: And it’ll be about wanking off.

Iommi: [Sigh.] Whatever, just give me the check.

All jokes aside, “Degradation Rules” is not a bad song, and Iommi’s even joked in an interview that he was glad he played on it when he was told what it was about. And it’s certainly not Ozzy’s first run-in with cringy lyrics. Let’s not forget the “make you scream, make you defecate” line on 2020’s Ordinary Man.

The other Iommi song, “No Escape from Now,” recalls classic slow Black Sabbath tunes, with Ozzy using echoing effects over Iommi’s dark, broken up arpeggiations. Then they break out into a big grooving, head-banging riff for the verse. The chorus of the song almost reminds me of a Ronnie James Dio-era Sabbath tune. Iommi is the guitarist that really commands respect from Watt, though, and he’s the one who most sounds like himself. “No Escape from Now” is a very close second to the title track for the strongest performance.

The remaining three songs with Watt on guitar are a mixed bag. “Dead and Gone” gives off “Shot in the Dark” vibes and isn’t awful. “God Only Knows,” I think, might have been a much stronger song with the Tony Iommi treatment. As is, it’s another forgettable ballad with nods to Sabbath, and it doesn’t help that the mix sounds like utter crap.

The most interesting of the three is album closer, “Darkside Blues,” which is a snippet of a Delta blues-style song with Ozzy wailing over an acoustic slide guitar riff. Truthfully, I’d like to hear more of this with less of the effects on Ozzy’s voice to try to make it sound like an early 20th Century recording. I’d be down for a set of honest Ozzy blues recordings, particularly if Iommi were involved, too.

Once again, I end an Ozzy album with mixed feelings. I really want him to deliver that one badass swan-song album, and while I think Patient Number 9 is good, it’s not that. I’d love to hear a collection of the best songs from this album and Ordinary Man put together with some really good production. I think that would get us much closer. But I’d rather have an album that’s just good and not great, than no Ozzy Osbourne album at all.

Review: Whiskey Myers, "Tornillo"

2022-08-15T14:44:00.000-07:00

Whiskey Myers has never been shy about letting their roots show in their music, but on their latest release, they put them on display like a piece of fine art in a museum.

Tornillo takes the listener across the landscape of American music. There is, of course, plenty of their rowdy traditional Southern rock, but they also get a little funky, take a trip to the country, roll around in the blues and even dip their toes into arena rock – albeit very twangy arena rock.

I have to admit to being slightly disappointed with the band’s 2019 eponymous album2019 eponymous album, which was, at times, a little too much rock and not enough Southern. But the lead single from Tornillo, “John Wayne,” immediately announced that while we’d see a few new tricks with this latest evolution of Whiskey Myers, it would be well grounded in where they come from. The song opens with a funky, thumping bass line from Jamey Gleaves before vocalist Cody Cannon joins in on harmonica, kicking off a Southern groover with plenty of flash from the horns and female backing vocals that are both new touches.

I’m still not really sure what the song has to do with the Duke, but it doesn’t matter. It’s a rollicking good time only made better by the recently released video which finds the band feuding with Danny Trejo and paying tribute to ZZ Top with their costumes and dance moves.

From there, we get a gritty Southern rocker in “Antioch.” Dark storytelling has always been a hallmark of Whiskey Myers’ sound, going back to “Broken Window Serenade” from the 2011 album Firewater. “Antioch” fills that bill here, following the story of a young man who grows up in an abusive household. We watch him become confused about his role in life and angry at his father before returning home from war and ending the story in really the only way it could.

As usual, there are heart-wrenching songs like “For the Kids,” which finds the subject of the song pleading with his wife to stay together a few more years for the kids, and “maybe they won’t turn out the way we did.” It’s a solid, if fairly depressing Southern rock ballad.

Even more compelling in that vein, though, is album closer “Heart of Stone,” a subdued and quiet tune compared to the bombast found in other places on Tornillo. The soft, barren musical landscape reminds me of a latter-day Johnny Cash ballad. Cannon’s soulful vocals put a little smoother edge on things than Cash would have, but they’re still just as impactful.

While the dark songs are some of Whiskey Myers’ most powerful, Tornillo is certainly not all about the dark side. Take, for example, “Feet’s.” While the grammar in the title of the song sets my editor’s teeth on edge, it’s a fun romp straight out of the Lynyrd Skynyrd songbook. It would have been right at home on one of their 1970s records, and it’s one of several nods to the Southern rock legends here. Another comes in “Other Side,” that aforementioned arena rock influenced tune, which features a lyrical nod to “Simple Man.”

Continuing the fun theme is country rocker “Mission to Mars” which finds Cody Cannon lamenting about the state of the modern world and the “rich folks talking about going to outer space.” He decides, of course, to start his own space mission with a little bit of herbal aid from back in the woods.

A more serious lament of the current state of things comes on “Whole World Gone Crazy,” where guitarist John Jeffers takes over the vocal duties. (It’s one of two Jeffers songs on the record.) I admit that I prefer Cannon’s vocals, but this song hits very close to home for me lyrically – and I’m sure it expresses what a lot of people are thinking about the current social and political circus.

“Whole World Gone Crazy” lays out the plight of folks who just want to be left alone and live their lives trying to deal with the daily news, and people who seem to live for arguing politics as he sings: “Me, I’m just trying to get right with the man, forgive me for my sins and what I don’t understand / I’m just a good old boy, trying to make ends meet.” There’s a little bit of humor to the song, but the underlying message, I’m sure, will ring true for many folks.

Oh, and I mentioned blues, didn’t I? That would be “Bad Medicine,” where the Texas band puts another influence on display. It’s a straight-up Stevie Ray Vaughan-style blues rocker complete with a down-and-dirty groove and some hot guitar licks.

And that brings me, finally, to the highlight of Tornillo – the one song that would have made it worth the price of the whole album, even if the other 11 weren’t as awesome as they are, and that’s “The Wolf.” I’ve been wanting to hear the full version of the song since I stumbled across a YouTube video of Cannon playing it acoustic from earlier in the year. The full band version did not disappoint.

“The Wolf” starts with a mean fingerpicked guitar lick before the horns kick in, creating a dramatic atmosphere. Cannon delivers rapid-fire lyrics telling the tale of a man willing to do whatever it takes to survive and support his family. Then there’s the roughly two-minute Southern rock jam session that closes the song out – reminiscent, though I’m reluctant to make the comparison, of the closing jam of “Freebird.” The whole tune just drips bad-assery, and it’s quite possibly my favorite song in a year that’s had an embarrassment of musical riches for me.

I’ve always considered 2014’s Early Morning Shakes to be the pinnacle of Whiskey Myers’ musical prowess, but Tornillo gives that album a solid run for its money. Like Early Morning Shakes, this one will have few skips, but Tornillo might actually have more reach-over-and-crank-the-volume songs.

The heyday of Southern rock may be gone, but Whiskey Myers proves once again that it’s definitely still alive and kicking like a mule. Tornillo just further cements the fact that these guys deserve to be in the conversation with the biggest names in the genre.

Still Spinning: Pantera, "Power Metal"

2022-07-21T14:52:00.000-07:00

The announcement of a Pantera “reunion” tour in 2023 leaves me with a lot of mixed feelings. Obviously, a true reunion is impossible, and I really hope that they ultimately spin this tour as a tribute to guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell and drummer Vinnie Paul Abbot rather than a return of the band. While I’m a huge fan of guitarist Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society) and drummer Charlie Benante (Anthrax), they’re not the late Abbot brothers and this is not Pantera. That said, it would be great to hear those songs live again, and, yeah, I’ll probably go. But the announcement brought to mind another record that I’ve meant to write about for a long time, the album that featured the debut of vocalist Phil Anselmo: 1988’s Power Metal:

Normally, when I write in the Still Spinning series, they’re records overlooked by fans – but in this case, it’s a record that was buried by the band itself. In the 1980s, a very young Pantera released four albums. Their first three, Metal Magic (1983), Projects in the Jungle (1984) and I Am the Night (1985) featured vocalist Terry Glaze, with Anselmo joining for the fourth. When Pantera made its major label debut on Atlantic with Cowboys From Hell in 1990, it was with a much heavier and thrashier sound than the previous four records, which ranged from glam rock to Judas Priest-influenced heavy metal. With their newfound following of heavier music fans and the hair metal scene of the 1980s waning, Pantera did their best to cover up and ignore the existence of those first albums.

I remember reading an interview with Dime in a guitar magazine where the writer mentioned in passing that they had six records (at a time that I only knew about Cowboys From Hell and Vulgar Display of Power), and I had the guy at my local record store (remember those?) scouring all of his sources to try to find them. They had pretty much been erased everywhere, and eventually, I gave it up as a lost cause. Of course, a few years later the internet would come along, and everyone knows you can’t keep a secret there.

Honestly, I’ve always thought it was kind of a shame that they didn’t own up to them and give us some official releases once they were outed on the Web, because some of the stuff on those records is not bad at all. Well, Metal Magic is pretty bad, but Dimebag (then known as “Diamond”) and Vinnie Paul were both in high school when it was released and were really still copying their influences, particularly Kiss, at that point. As the albums progressed, they began to develop a little more edge through I Am the Night, which has far more in common with Priest than most hair metal acts.

Then, Phil Anselmo came onto the scene, and things began to move toward the heavy end of the spectrum more rapidly. On Power Metal, his first album with the band, you can already hear the sound that would shape their Atlantic debut and the groove metal that Pantera would morph into over the years. Anselmo brought a much more aggressive vocal style, though still a far cry from the screams and snarls of Vulgar Display of Power or Far Beyond Driven, and the Abbott brothers wrote music to match it. And, it’s a really a good record.

I’ll start at what is, literally, one of my favorite Pantera tunes, “Hard Ride.” Everyone laughs when I say it, but I mean, legitimately, it’s up there with “Becoming” or “Cowboys From Hell.” The song opens with a cool and dramatic flourish that drops right into a ripping hard-rock riff. Yes, lyrically, it’s a typical 1980s sex song that was supposed to be double entendre, but really wasn’t. But man, that riff gets me every time, and if I’d heard it in 1988, Pantera would have instantly moved near the top of my list of favorite bands. Anselmo’s vocals stay in the cleaner top of his range, but we hear just a little bit of the gruff to come on the chorus. It’s one of Dime’s simpler solos, but he does put his whammy flourish on the end. I can’t help it. This song just gets my head banging.

Now, back to the beginning. Power Metal opens with “Rock the World,” a full-on 1980s metal anthem about raising your fist in the air. It has a big guitar riff and a chest-thumping chorus with Anselmo wailing over backing-gang vocals from the rest of Pantera. Then the riff for the title track blazes out, offering the first glimpse of where the band would head with Cowboys From Hell. It’s a pure 1980s speed-metal track, finding Anselmo delivering his best Rob Halford impression. In places, it’s not very different at all from something like “The Art of Shredding,” which appeared on Pantera’s major label debut, and the riffing toward the end of the song hints at the more groove-oriented thrash that would show its face on Vulgar Display of Power.

The mood changes again on third song “We’ll Meet Again,” a dark rocker. Rather than the riffing of Dime, this song rests on the rhythm section of Vinnie Paul and bassist Rex Brown, then known as “Rex Rocker.” Anselmo delivers the verse in a quiet, deep spoken style that he’d use a rougher version of later on songs like “No Good (Attack the Radical).” The chorus harmonies go fully back into 1980s mode, reminding me a bit of Lillian Axe, and Dime’s Eddie Van Halen influence really shows through on the solo, which is one of the better ones on Power Metal. Honestly, I would have loved to hear what the later version of the band might have done with this song.

The picture of where Pantera was going next really shows through on “Over and Out,” which I believe they continued to play for a while after Cowboys was released. The song is very thrashy with lots of shifts and turns, and once again puts me in mind of something like “The Art of Shredding.” Following what I’d call one of the most recognizably Dime solos on the record, the song breaks out into a full-on Slayer-style thrash run. It’s probably the most aggressive song not only of Power Metal, but of the band’s entire pre-1990 catalog.

That outburst is, interestingly, followed up with a very 1980s hard rocker in “Proud to be Loud,” written by Keel guitarist Marc Ferrari, who also produced it. But, it’s a damned good 1980s rocker. The band continues to walk the balance between the speed and fury of Judas Priest and the excess and partying of ‘80s rock on tracks like “Down Below” and “Death Trap,” and close Power Metal (at least as far as I’m concerned) with the appropriately titled “Burnnn!” As suggested, it is indeed a soaring blazer with plenty of lyrics about following your metal heart and having no regrets.

There is one final song on the record, “P*S*T*88,” but the less said about it, the better. It’s an absolutely inane 1980s sex song with perhaps some of the worst chorus lyrics of the time, and that’s saying something. Perhaps with different subject matter, it wouldn’t be a bad song, as there is some interesting guitar work on it. But, hey, a lot of us were horny young men in 1988, so I’ll forgive it, especially with the strength of the other nine songs on Power Metal.

If you’re one of the few people who hasn’t checked out those early Pantera albums, they’re of course available on YouTube, and worth a listen. Most of them have at least something interesting going on – and Power Metal, well, I’ll put it up there with their best work. My bootleg version sits right alongside their five major-label records in my playlist and is superior to at least a couple of those in my opinion. It’s different than what would come later for sure, but maybe not so different as you’d think.

I’ve always wanted quality releases of those first four records, but for whatever reason, the Abbotts seemed to be embarrassed by them. There’s definitely nothing to be embarrassed by here. If I could have one request for something to help hype up this reunion tribute tour, it would be to finally get official versions of these albums, or at the very least, Power Metal. Will it happen? Probably not, but a guy can dream.

Review: Alestorm, "Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum"

2022-07-07T18:42:00.000-07:00

The pirate ship has been righted and is back on course.

I’ve been a fanboy and evangelist for Alestorm since their debut album Captain Morgan’s Revenge in 2008. Christopher Bowes and his goofy band of pirates have put plenty of smiles on my face, and I’ve shouted the band’s praises from the rooftops so loudly that a lot of people I talk music with regularly have probably wished they could make me walk the plank.

Their last lackluster outing, Curse of the Crystal Coconut, left me scratching my head by putting far more emphasis on the goofy than the pirate – and just honestly not featuring many memorable moments. But, hey, 2020 was a rough year for everyone. And so was 2021, particularly for Bowes who became embroiled in some controversy around one of his other bands, Gloryhammer. But in 2022, the world, and the seas, have opened back up. Bowes takes to them with gusto.

Alestorm announced quickly that there would be at least a partial return to their piratical ways with the first single, “Magellan’s Expedition,” the historical epic for this album, which tells the story (in Alestorm fashion, of course) of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan’s quest to voyage around the world. It was exactly what I needed to get excited about this record – majestic keyboard riffs from Bowes and Elliot Vernon, a driving rhythm, some gleeful sweeping guitar licks from Maté Bodor, and most importantly, a huge memorable chorus hook. It also has more than a little of the flavor of Gloryhammer, even down to the nonsensical Latin lyrics that close the song.

Then, as Bowes will, they kind of thumbed their noses a little bit at fans hailing a return to their original sound with the second release, “P.A.R.T.Y.” – a dance-metal number that goes all out on the goofy side of the band. It’s absolute silliness and about as far away from “Magellan’s Expedition” as you can get while staying in the same general realm. But despite the disco keyboards and the dance rhythm, it maintains the heavy guitars and enough Alestorm flavor to make it work.

Since the beginning, this band has had its serious side and its goofy side. Well, OK, its goofy side and its ridiculously goofy side. But where I like them best is where they mix those two together, and much of Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum lives in that territory, including the third single “The Battle of Cape Fear River.” The song tells, sort of, the story of Blackbeard’s last stand. Of course, in Alestorm’s version, he becomes a zombie pirate king, and the “I’m a fucking pirate” chorus kind of removes any serious historical context from the story, but it’s fantastic fun. I also appreciate the nod to Bowes’ electronic/disco outfit asdfgfa (yes, that’s the name of the project) when Blackbeard realizes that his time will come “by cannonball or flintlock or shotgun in the bum.”

You can tell that Bowes was writing for Gloryhammer at the same time he was writing this record. You hear it in several places, most notably on “Magellan’s Expedition,” and again on “Under Blackened Banners,” which with lyrics about unicorns and dragons rather than sea battles and piracy would easily fit in on any album from the other band with only slight modification. Bowes even delivers a nod to that fact with a cheeky line about getting “hammered” in the chorus. That said, it’s one of the heaviest tunes here – and oh, that chorus.

The title track is one of the most satisfying for me, though, as it offers a huge homage to where the band began. If you picked up “Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum” and put it on Captain Morgan’s Revenge or Black Sails at Midnight, it would fit right in. Vernon’s shouted backing vocals might be the only thing that would mark it as a little different. I find myself banging my head and singing along to this one maybe just a little louder than the others. Given the obvious reference to Iron Maiden, I would have liked to see them play with that a little more, though if you watch the video for the song with the closed captions on (which you should always do with Alestorm videos), we do get the nod there.

Bowes also acknowledges, in his way, the mixed reception of Curse of the Crystal Coconut a couple of a times on this album. The first is on “Bite the Hook Hand That Feeds,” which tells the story of a man who turns his back on the piratical life, and the title kind of says it all. Musically, it has a heavy Black Sails at Midnight vibe. Then, there’s the most reviled song on that last album, “Tortuga.” We get a different take on it with “Return to Tortuga,” which transforms the goofy rap into something more in line with what fans might have expected. Is it an apology? From Christopher Bowes, not likely – but I’m accepting it anyway.

As he’s been wont to do in the past, Bowes visits some of his favorite places in the world, singing the praises of Hungary on “Magyarorszag,” with melodies influenced by traditional Hungarian folk. Then, he goes to Brazil where he has a drunken naked pirate party on the beach.

He also once again tries to top “Fucked With an Anchor” with the video game-inspired melodies of “Cannonball,” where he goes for the most over-the-top offensive chorus possible. While the song is much better than the attempt on the last album, there will never be another “Anchor.”

That leaves only the ballad. I’ve come to almost expect a great drinking ballad like “Nancy the Tavern Wench” or “Bar Und Imbiss,” and I was wondering where it would come. To my surprise it was the album closer, “Wooden Leg (Part III).” Honestly, when I saw the song title, I thought it was a bit silly (not in the awesome Chris Bowes way). I wondered what they could possibly do with it. The answer is to turn it into a big sing-along, tankard-waving ballad that plays on the previous chapters with lyrics delivered in Spanish and Japanese (for the foes who took his legs).

It’s fitting in 2022, with the world getting back to normal, that my favorite pirate metal band would, as well. I’ve listened to Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum for a couple of weeks now with a smile on my face from start to finish, something that was absent for most of Curse of the Crystal Coconut, which I haven’t revisited much since its release. This one is destined to be blasting through my speakers for quite some time to come. Now, excuse me while I spit on my hands and hoist the Jolly Roger again.

Stuck in my Head: Gloryhammer, "Fly Away"

2022-05-07T19:06:00.000-07:00

A great deal of turmoil has descended upon the Kingdom of Fife since last we heard from Gloryhammer.

In the summer of 2021, the band unceremoniously fired vocalist Thomas Winkler with a brief, matter-of-fact social-media post just as live music was beginning to make a comeback. Shortly after that firing, a leaked chat transcript revealed some juvenile and offensive chatter between remaining members of the band that included racist and misogynistic jokes. An evil cloud descended upon the land, and it seemed that the former heroes might not be able to save it this time.

OK, I make a little light of what was a serious situation on both fronts. Winkler was an integral part of the band’s sound and was the absolute perfect frontman to take on the role of their main character Angus McFife. Obviously, I don’t need to explain the seriousness of the other charges.

It was also a serious bummer for fans like me. As silly as it sounds, Gloryhammer has, over the years, become a great source of musical joy for me. These goofy guys pretending to be mighty heroes of legend and singing about magical hammers, space unicorns and laser dragons never failed to brighten my mood and put a smile on my face after a horrible day. They’ve provided bonding moments with my son and given me some unforgettable live memories. They probably mean way more to me than they should, and the news saddened me all around.

After a time of silence from Gloryhammer, apologies were made and amends were begun. Then, in November, they announced a new singer, Sozos Michael (Planeswalker). Now, we finally have new music with Michael at the helm.

I intentionally waited some time to write this, as I wanted to give it an opportunity to settle with me and not deliver the knee-jerk #notmyangusmcfife reaction that I knew I was going to be my first response. And it was.

Weeks have passed now, and I’ve listened to “Fly Away” many times. I don’t love it as much as the songs that have come before, but I also don’t hate it like I did on those first couple of listens. Chris Bowes is still the primary writer, so it’s still a Gloryhammer song. The subject – Angus wishing he could fly away on a unicorn to escape his fate – is in keeping with the mythology, but also shows a different side of the hero to go with the different singer portraying him. The song also opens up some interesting avenues for the next chapter in the story.

Now the 800-pound unicorn in the castle – Sozos Michael. Stuff happens, people stop getting along, band members come and go, but a vocal change is almost always going to be a polarizing event for fans. You can look for someone who sounds very much like your former singer or you can take things in a completely different direction. Gloryhammer seems to have tried to find the middle ground. Michael’s voice definitely shows some of the qualities of Thomas Winkler, which I think they had to find. At the same time, though, I think his vocals are more … I really don’t want to use the word generic, but it’s the best descriptor. He’s more of a generic power-metal vocalist.

The reason that I love Gloryhammer while I’m not very fond of 90-plus percent of other power-metal bands is because they had qualities that made them stand out. Often, bands in the power-metal genre can sound very much alike. There’s a formula, there’s a particular vocal sound and style, and all of the bands sort of blend together. Gloryhammer cheekily poked fun at the trappings of the genre, injected some irresistible hooks and melodies, and Winkler’s vocals reached out and grabbed you somewhere uncomfortable. No matter how silly the line he was singing, he believed it, and he made you believe it. Anything that makes them sound more like the other bands in the genre is not a good thing as far as I’m concerned, and Michael’s vocals do that.

I don’t mean that as an insult to Sozos Michael. He’s a fantastic singer, probably better from a technical standpoint than Thomas Winkler. But the better technical singer is not always the better fit for the band. At this point, he simply doesn’t embody the character of Angus McFife the way that Winkler did, and because of that, the song lacks a little “oomph” for me. He’s only been in the band a few months, so maybe he’ll grow into it. After a few weeks to process this song, I’m willing to go on the ride to see.

Ultimately, “Fly Away” is a fun song with a catchy chorus that’s not out of line with what has come before, but I find myself aligned with my son’s opinion on hearing it for the first time. He bobbed his head as he listened and pronounced it, “not bad.” Then a clip of “Hootsforce” played on the promo at the end of the video, and he amended his position, by adding, “but it’s definitely not that.”

We’re both on board to hear more and maybe, with time and more music, we’ll both come around.

Review: Zeal & Ardor, "Zeal & Ardor"

2022-05-03T19:11:00.000-07:00

When a band gets classified as black metal, that’s usually going to be a hard pass. The label conjures up a certain stereotype, I suppose, that just doesn’t appeal to me. I imagine an album that sounds like it was captured on a shoebox recorder in someone’s basement, guitars that sound like angry bees and a guy in corpse paint screaming in an incoherent rasp about Satan. I expect songs that are linear with little melody and certainly nothing so mundane as a chorus or hook.

Yes, I know that’s a broad generalization of the genre and not truly representative of everything it contains, but that’s what immediately comes to mind.

There are plenty of exceptions, but none quite as exceptional as Zeal & Ardor. In fact, I wouldn’t call them black metal at all, but that seems to be the general consensus. There are elements of the music present, certainly, with occasional buzzing guitars and screams, and there’s the general disdain for religion that permeates black-metal lyrics. But there’s so much more at play here, including blues, soul and, strangely enough, a heavy gospel influence.

I love to find bands who are doing unique things, and I discovered Zeal & Ardor with their 2019 album Stranger Fruit, which I enjoyed quite a bit. But I kind of felt like their past albums were hit and miss. The songs that I liked, I really liked, but there were quite a few skips for me, too. I think they’ve found their stride on this one, though. The production on Zeal & Ardor is greatly improved over their past records, and the songs just hit harder for me, even though in many cases they’re perhaps a little less heavy.

But let’s start on the heavy end with the song that probably comes closest to that black-metal label, “Gotterdammerung.” The tune kicks off with an absolute banger of a head-bobbing riff before frontman Manuel Gagneux rips through German verses in the expected rasp. For the chorus, things mellow out a bit and Gagneux shifts to English and shows his more soulful side. The kicker comes at the end of the chorus, when he screams “GOTTERDAMMERUNG” and the song explodes back into that opening riff. If that moment doesn’t get your pulse up and your head banging, you probably shouldn’t call yourself a metal fan.

It’s that soulful side of Zeal & Ardor, though, that creates one of the most interesting and powerful tracks on the album, “Death to the Holy.” The song starts with the feel of an African-American spiritual with claps and call-and-response vocals, but it very quickly takes a darker turn as a heavy guitar comes in and Manuel Gagneux shifts to a more sinister whisper before rising to a scream for the title line in the chorus. As is often the case with this record, the gospel influence is at stark odds with the anti-religion lyrical content.

The same can be said of “Church Burns.” The song itself is a stomping, heavy blues rocker with strong gospel overtones. We get the soulful delivery and call-and-response vocals again, and I can honestly see this track getting some serious traction in the mainstream – if not for the obvious issue that will keep it from getting any mainstream attention at all. A song on that subject, honestly, should not be so catchy and infectious.

In other places, there’s almost no heaviness to be found. “Golden Liar,” for most of its four-minute run-time, is a dark and quiet piece, but that doesn’t make it any less powerful as Gagneux captivates with his vocal delivery. Even when the distorted guitars and drums come in at the end, it’s still not heavy by comparison to the other songs on Zeal & Ardor.

There are very few wasted minutes on this record, but there are a couple of tracks I’ll probably skip. “Emersion” for example, pretty much sounds like black metal-influenced elevator music to me, and the outro song “A-H-I-L” is kind of wasted space. But pretty much everything else on Zeal & Ardor is solid, and most of the songs bring something new and different to the table within their established strange mix of genres.

“Run” finds Zeal & Ardor playing with some industrial and nu-metal influences, which come out again on “I Caught You.” “Hold Your Head Low” opens up as a straight blues tune for about the first minute before descending into an atmospheric black-metal hell for the next 30 seconds or so, and then we’re back to the blues, rinse and repeat.

The bottom line is that I can pretty much guarantee that you’ve never heard anything quite like Zeal & Ardor. You may have heard the elements before, but the way that Manuel Gagneux and company put them together is something special. The subversive nature of their music is sure to be a turn off for some, but for the rest of us, it’s a powerful statement and a refreshingly original take in a musical world that doesn’t seem to have many of those anymore.

Review: Aerosmith, "1971: The Road Starts Hear"

2022-04-12T20:49:00.000-07:00

As a young boy, I was introduced to Aerosmith by my teenage aunt as we rode the backroads jamming to songs like “Walk this Way” and “Sweet Emotion.” I forgot about them for a few years, until their resurgence in the mid-1980s, at which point I went back to explore their ‘70s work and discovered that I already knew most of it.

Aerosmith was, and remains, one of the two most important musical acts in my life, along with Black Sabbath. I was obsessed with the band for many years, so obsessed in fact that my friends in high school knew that if I was a few minutes late to class, it probably meant that an Aerosmith video had come on MTV at the time that I should have been leaving in the morning, and I had delayed my departure to watch it. I sang the praises of Aerosmith until my friends were sick of hearing it and would insult the band just to get me to shut up and leave. The ‘70s version of the band was just so damned cool, though.

They’re still so damned cool. Contrary to popular opinion, I’m also a big fan of their three 1980s records following the original lineup’s reunion. After that, well, things get very spotty and there are some moments that we just shouldn’t mention – including, sadly, their only No. 1 hit.

I was excited when the band announced last year that they had discovered a rehearsal recording from 1971, a couple of years before Aerosmith’s self-titled debut was released. That record remains my second favorite, next to 1976’s Rocks, which is just a perfect hard-rock album in my opinion. I was eager to hear these early versions of some of my favorite songs.

Finally, The Road Starts Hear has arrived, and it doesn’t disappoint. The first thing you’ll notice when pushing play on this album is that the sound is quite a bit different than what we got in 1973. The performances on this album are far more rootsy and stripped back than what the songs became on the debut album. There’s a lot less crunch, but still plenty of grit and grime.

The difference is most notable on “Mama Kin,” which closes the album. The song is a certified hard-rock classic, but it’s quite a bit different here. That instantly recognizable slashing opening riff from Joe Perry is instead strummed on a clean guitar, which gives it more of a ‘60s blues-rock flavor. Steven Tyler’s attitude is also dialed down and not as in your face as the version of the song that we’re familiar with.

Being the hard rocker that I am, I prefer the 1973 version, but this one’s not bad either, and it’s interesting to see how the song and sound developed over the course of the next year or so before they recorded it.

“Dream On” also has quite a different flavor on The Road Starts Hear. It’s less of a departure from the hit version, but the piano is far more prominent here than on the studio track. Tyler’s vocals are also a little more raw and emotional, which really works well for the song. We learn, too, that the lyrics evolved over the months before they recorded the final version, as this one has an alternate take of the second verse.

They throw in a nice Beatles-esque build with the piano at the end of “Dream On” here that was cut as well. I actually like this version a lot, though. It lacks the polish, but I kind of feel like I’m hearing them in a dive bar somewhere as they developed the song.

That brings me to one of my absolute favorite Aerosmith songs, “Movin’ Out.” The version on The Road Starts Hear is actually not very different from the one that made the album. There’s a little less crunch in the guitars, Tyler’s vocal delivery is maybe a little more reserved in places (when he’s not delivering Jim Morrison-like screams away from the mic), and the band gets a little more jammy in the middle.

Where The Road Starts Hear really shines, though, are in the two blues covers – the Buster Bennett Trio’s “Reefer Head Woman” and Rufus Thomas’ “Walkin’ the Dog.”

“Walkin’ the Dog” would make the 1973 debut with a slightly faster tempo and a lot more polish than the raw performance on this recording. The basics of the studio version are here, but it’s much more laid back, with Aerosmith dropping into another jam band-style groove in the middle, and Joe Perry piping in some psychedelic licks.

There’s also a strange performance from maybe a recorder during that section. Sorry, I’m not familiar enough with the sound of wind instruments to say for sure, but it’s odd. Again, Steven Tyler puts more grit and growl into the vocals, showing signs of what he would become when he later embraced all of his frontman excess.

“Reefer Head Woman” was a live staple for the band and would later be recorded for 1979’s Night in the Ruts album. The stripped-down nature of this recording really serves the song well. It’s the absolute best performance on the record for both Perry and Tyler and by far the most clean and polished piece on The Road Starts Hear.

Tyler cranks up the attitude and soul like nowhere else on the record, and it gives Perry a platform for some tasty classic blues licks with just a bit of rock attitude. It sounds far more authentic, and I like it much better than the eventual recorded version. “Reefer Head Woman” alone is worth the price of admission.

I have to acknowledge that Aerosmith has disappointed me far more often than not over the past three decades – but there aren’t many, if any, bands that can touch their attitude and energy in the 1970s. The band isn’t quite the blues-rock force in this rehearsal that they would become over the next few years, but it’s still a solid performance. This is a nice little piece of history and a rare glimpse into the group’s roots and evolution.

It takes me back a lot of years to the time when an Aerosmith song was enough to make me late for school and refreshes my memory about just how much love I had for the band. It’s refreshing to hear this version of the band without the glitz and glam that they became known for later on. A couple of these songs will definitely make the regular rotation alongside the Aerosmith classics that are already mainstays of my listening.

Random Rants: HBO's "Peacemaker" and glam metal

2022-02-27T21:28:00.000-08:00

When director James Gunn took on the relatively obscure Guardians of the Galaxy for Marvel, he brought a chart-topping soundtrack of 1970s music that connected with audiences and became an integral part of the film’s success.

Now, Gunn has taken on an even more obscure property from DC in the HBO Max series Peacemaker, and he’s done something similar for a surprising genre. In this raunchy romp about a ridiculously goofy and often clueless anti-hero, James Gunn has injected a much-needed dose of humor and silliness into the previously mostly grim DC Comics Universe, and in the process, he’s also injected life back into the glam-metal sounds of the 1980s.

For a child of the ‘80s, the soundtrack for Peacemaker hits hard. But much of the real fun in it is that a great many of the featured bands and songs are not from that era of the glam scene, but from the more recent past. Look no further than the goofy yet endearing opening sequence which has turned Wig Wam’s 2010 track “Do Ya Wanna Taste It” into a bit of a sensation.

Sure, big bands of the 1980s, like Cinderella and Poison, get face time in the show (though neither has actual music featured), but most of the songs and artists – like the main character – are much more obscure. A few exceptions obviously exist, like the Motley Crue megahit “Home Sweet Home,” which is featured twice, once in its full glory and once as a solo piano performance by show star John Cena. But even when we visit the 1980s heyday of the music, we’re usually hearing second- and third-layer acts like Faster Pussycat, Kix, Enuff Z’nuff, Hanoi Rocks, Y&T, Vain and the Quireboys.

But that’s actually one of the things that makes the musical selections so cool. In many cases, the show shines a spotlight on deserving bands that were either overshadowed by their contemporaries, or came along after much of the glitter and sparkle had worn off the glam scene.

There’s a nice mix to how Gunn uses the music, too. Some artists get the extended-play treatment. In the first episode, for example, the Quireboys’ “I Don’t Love You Anymore” gets pretty much its full run-time as Cena dances around in tighty whities singing along with an improvised microphone that, well … it’s probably just best if you watch the show for any more detail than that.

Another example is quite possibly the most memorable sequence in the first season of the series, when aliens led by Annie Chang’s detective take over a local police station to the tune of Reckless Love’s 2016 song “Monster.” It’s a case of “perfect song / perfect scene,” as I can’t think of anything that would have choreographed better with what we’re seeing on the screen.

In other places, we may only get a brief snippet of a song. Sister Sin, for example, barely manages to get out the first line of “Fight Song” before the stereo is turned off by Jennifer Holland‘s Agent Harcourt. It’s a good enough riff and line, though, that I guarantee it sent plenty of people who weren’t familiar with the band to Google to try to find it.

Gunn also doesn’t stick strictly to the glam-metal program, taking a few minor detours on to other branches of the rock and metal tree (probably only recognized as such by metal snobs like me). Power metallers Dynazty (featuring vocalist Nils Molin of Amaranthe) close one episode with “The Human Paradox,” and long-running redneck rockers Nashville Pussy get a prime play early in the season with a driving scene set to “Come On Come On.”

One of the best songs featured in the show is a cover of Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” by composer John Murphy and vocalist Ralph Saenz (aka Steel Panther singer Michael Starr). It turns the understated indie bopper into a full-on hair metal party, albeit with a very dark lyrical twist.

With about 45 or so songs featured in the first season, naturally not all are winners. A few of the tunes chosen are kind of generic examples of the genre, and I would have chosen different tracks for a few of the bands represented. Despite the love that I have for Ralph Saenz / Michael Starr on the cover of “Pumped Up Kicks,” I can pretty much always live without Steel Panther. I guess “If You Really Really Love Me” fits, given the raunchy nature of the show, but I just find the band very frustrating as they’re a talented group of guys, but the over-the-top “comedic” sex schtick ruins what they do for me.

There’s really no point in lingering on the minor nitpicks, however, when you can just hit skip on the playlist when those crop up and probably land on a much more entertaining tune that gets the Aqua Net flowing again.

I do have one complaint about an overlooked song that really belongs on this soundtrack. There’s not a more tailor-made song in my opinion for Peacemaker than the 1984 track “Rock You” from the Canadian band Helix. The whole attitude and feel of the song is exactly the vibe of the show and its music. How about we make that happen in Season 2?

As a child of the 1980s, I have to admit that I love to bang my head and play air guitar when Lita Ford’s “Kiss Me Deadly” pops up in the show, or sing along in a horrible falsetto to Kix’s dark ballad “Don’t Close Your Eyes.” But I’m equally pleased to see recognition coming to bands from those stacks of small-label sleeved promos that I have piled up from the last 20 years or so.

Of course, modern glam rockers like Sister Sin, Santa Cruz, Kissin’ Dynamite and Hardcore Superstar do have their followings. But perhaps Peacemaker can bring them to others who didn’t keep up with the genre past the early ‘90s, and who have been longing for that sound again. I know the show has introduced me to a few new bands (even some older ones like Tigertailz, which I managed to miss the first time around in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s) and re-introduced me to a few bands that I may have reviewed an album or two from years ago and forgotten about.

While Peacemaker probably would have been fun without the interesting musical choices, its glam-metal soundtrack makes the series so much better. Like a fine wine with a good steak (or, in the case of Peacemaker, maybe a decent domestic beer with a tasty burger), it’s a perfect pairing. The fun and energy of the music matches the action and silliness of the show, and there’s also the occasional ability to find more depth in both aspects when it’s needed for the story.

I’m looking forward to seeing what musical journeys James Gunn takes us on in Season 2.