Until a comment was left on the Journey Revelation review post I made last year, I hadn’t. The comment I’ll get to in a bit and it had nothing to do with Journey’s first album, but sometimes it’s something totally unrelated that makes me go hmm.

I didn’t realize that Steve Perry was absent from the first three albums Journey released and founding member and keyboardist Gregg Rolie (official website: greggrollie.com) was lead vocals. I mean maybe I did, but some cobwebs in the brain cleared when I read who the band lineup was after hearing a very different original singer. Rollie was a very good singer for the type of Journey music of this era.

The original lineup of Journey in the mid 70s was not about syrupy ballads and pop anthems, barely the same band. When I first listened to the very first song ever by Journey on their self-titled album called “Of A Lifetime” I dug it instantly. Wow, who are these guys, I thought. The guitar riff is barely the Journey you and I both know. In fact if you don’t like the heavy guitar based rock of the 70s, you won’t like this incarnation of Journey. But for me? A guy who’s ears feast on long, catchy guitar solos in songs like Freebird and Highway Song, bring it on.

As I listened more and more to the first album what struck me was that Journey shouldn’t have tried to copy their era with Steve Perry. They did that with Steve Augeri and seem to be trying that with Arnel Pineda. What about going back to their first three albums and trying that version of Journey?

Before you laugh at how poor this would probably do commercially think past the dollars and cents aspect for a minute. The music industry isn’t exactly what it once was and radical thinking might be necessary recipe for more bands. Props to Neal Schon for using YouTube to find their new singer, but I wish he would have gone back in time and looked at where Journey started for their next journey.

Reader Rob O. asks what my thoughts are on Revelation a year later. Rob, I still wouldn’t change the review grade and none of the songs grab me the way I would have liked other than the one mentioned in the review. Instead, I’m listening to Journey’s first album and will likely be buying the other two with Rollie on lead vocals. Maybe this says something about my taste as commercially these albums weren’t remotely comparable to the Journey of 80s, but hey I haven’t based my music tastes on commercial results.

Interesting historical note that Gregg Rolie stuck around for the first two albums (Infinity and Evolution) where Steve Perry sang lead vocals. These two albums have some of my favorite popular Journey songs on them like Wheel In The Sky, Anytime and Lights and perhaps my favorite Journey ballad: Too Late.

Rollie didn’t mind Perry coming in to sing lead vocals according to a vintagerock interview:

I liked having a lead singer. It didn’t bother me at all. I had been that and playing keyboards and harmonica. It was pretty spread out. I thought it was a new challenge, a new way to go. Why not? Steve Perry had a great voice. It was that simple.

Rollie is still touring but not playing much, if any, Journey music so I probably stand alone in my musical sentiments. Whether you agree or disagree, give the first Journey album a listen and compare. I prefer the 70s to the 2000s, but hey I haven’t liked the majority of new music put out by bands that were hot twenty or more years ago.

While the Ozzy lawsuit aimed at Iommi seems to be trying to make Ozzy part of the story it’s obvious that fans like this don’t care these days what the boys call themselves. Right now the band Heaven & Hell are cashing in on the Black Sabbath name, catalog and history.

And another Sabbath alumni vocalist Tony Martin is trying to do the same thing with his band named after Sabbath album: Headless Cross:

He continued, "So the idea is to commemorate 20 years since ‘Headless Cross’ and I can reveal that some of the songs have NEVER been done live before… like ‘Black Moon’… It’s a REALLY complex track, but we’re gonna bring it to the stage and show it off. Also, we’ve just left behind the anniversary of ‘Eternal Idol’, so there’s gonna be some more off that album too like ‘Born To Lose’.

Actually, Martin claims this wasn’t his idea, it was the promoter’s but hey, why not do this?  Good for them, I say. Ozzy should have made a new album with Sabbath during the Ozzfest years. I’d say the chance of that happening any time soon due to these new legal tangles is unlikely.

Now can we see Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan go out and form a band called Born Again please. In 9th grade if I’d known better I’d have been at that concert when they rolled through Green Bay, Wisconsin. Speaking of Deep Purple, here is a video of 1,683 people playing Smoke On the Water in Kansas City.

Sabbath with Tony Martin is an era which I haven’t listened to very much but will probably be buying those albums in the coming days as I liked the live version of Headless Cross performed in Brazil in 2008.

Sabbath fans, let’s just hope Ozzy doesn’t die from an ATV accident or anything else before one day the original Black Sabbath lineup can make one more new album together. Hey, the Eagles and Van Halen (sans Michael Anthony) got back together and did it, so why not Sabbath?

Heaven & Hell is playing at the WaMu theater in Seattle on Saturday August 8. Despite being a lukewarm fan of The Devil You Know there is no doubt these guys are a huge part of heavy metal history and I’d like to see them play the Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules stuff live.

I just showed our youngest teen the trailer and he said: “looks like a sweet game.” It’s coming out October 13, er, Rocktober 13 of course for both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Oh, and if you were wondering about face melting attacks? Check. Assuming you pull off a ripping guitar solo, that is.

Throwing up the Dio horns, this game does not have permission to suck.

This same line-up was responsible for arguably the last respectable Black Sabbath album Dehumanizer. A few of those tracks are my favorites from the Dio-era Sabbath.

Many have argued that Black Sabbath without Ozzy and Bill Ward on drums isn’t the Black Sabbath. I’d love to see Ozzy and Ward get together with Iommi and Butler and make at least one more Sabbath album but I’m not sure Ozzy has the vocal chops left. Also, this kind of sniping from former bandmates won’t help.

There’s no doubt musically it could happen. Also from the first and last time I’d seen them together at Ozzfest Ozzy seemed to be going through the motions rather than pulling some surprise songs from their legendary catalog. We’ve all heard War Pigs and Paranoid, but what about something less predictable?

At any rate, the Heaven & Hell lineup, quite wisely, are ensuring they won’t meet Sharon Osbourne’s wraith by using the name of their greatest Black Sabbath hit for the new music.

Whatever they want to call themselves officially it’s still Black Sabbath to me. When they toured as Heaven and Hell a couple years back and released a live album, they played almost all old Sabbath stuff and you can bet the tour with the new album satanically titled The Devil You Know there will be Dio-era Sabbath songs.

That all aside, the new album sports a modest 10 songs:

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW Track Listing
1. “Atom And Evil”
2. “Fear”
3. “Bible Black”
4. “Double The Pain”
5. “Rock And Roll Angel”
6. “The Turn Of The Screw”
7. “Eating The Cannibals”
8. “Follow The Tears”
9. “Neverwhere”
10. “Breaking Into Heaven”

Wal-mart has two exclusive covers of the CD, according to the Heaven & Hell official website:

offers an alternate cover featuring the traditional Black Sabbath devil logo.  While choosing the album artwork, the band narrowed it down to two covers, both of which will be available exclusively at WalMart.

Meanwhile, Best Buy, where I went to buy my copy of the CD is including an exclusive DVD showing unreleased video of the making of the CD. The suggested retail price for the CD is $18.99 while the digital version is already available on AmazonMP3 for $9.99. I almost pulled the AmazonMP3 trigger, but decided I’d rather have the CD version. I eagerly waited for Best Buy to open at 10am so I could be there making the purchase.

To my surprise, Best Buy was running a sale for the CD for the same price as the digital version, $9.99.

As I drove around throughout the day, I’ve listened to the album and here are the various tracks, organized by heavy to mellow, not by the track line-up listed above.

Heavy

“Atom and Evil” – catchy verse riff that reminds us why Tony Iommi is known as a riff master in rhythm circles and by Ozzy.
“Fear”
“Double The Pain”
“The Turn Of The Screw”
“Follow The Tears”
“Neverwhere”
“Eating The Cannibals”
“Breaking Into Heaven”

Mixed heavy and mellow

“Bible Black” – I wish we’d hear more Iommi acoustic guitar music. How about an unplugged Sabbath album someday?

“Rock And Roll Angel” – more nice acoustic work in what might be the most mellow song on the album and yet it’s not a ballad.

Overall this album is just OK. It’s no Dehumanizer and a long way from the Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules albumes. It’s not bad, but it’s not that great either and have already replaced the CD in the player with something else. I’m glad they put out an album but with the exception of Bible Black and Rock and Roll Angel, I’m not super excited about any of these songs.

Grade: C+

Now here it is a few months later:

T61 did something that never ceases making me go hmm on the web: started changing what passionate users of the site liked. Too many websites have chosen this silly path. They have momentum, buzz, and then decide to change things for the worse. Why? It’s one thing to make updates and add features but sites that have unique features should build upon these unique strengths and tear away non-unique weaknesses.

In a word: listen.

And boy has T61 stopped listening. They started removing features that were useful like an artist being able to provide news updates: gone. They also started clamping down on areas to allow and discuss criticism of the site on the site openly. Bizarre.

T61 member arcadia, who has been with the site much longer than myself or any friends invited, summarizes the issues in a post titled "The Death of TheSixtyOne":

A complete site redesign without forums to even report glitches, let alone to express members’ concerns. I have to laugh at the fact that the designers had the nerve to include a section called “zeitgeist” after going to such lengths to ignore the people who tried to make this once magical place their home on this crazy world wide web. Sorry, you can’t post anything but bugs in these forums. Sorry, you can’t post on that person’s wall anymore. Sorry, you can’t post anything on this site but blips… on the walls of the people you already know. Sorry, no more tuneboxes. Sorry.

Word to those building websites for the rest of us out here to like and recommend to our friends: don’t change what we like. We can spend time at any website out there for as little or as long as we like. If we tell you we like feature ABC, then keep them, enhance them if you must, don’t distort and destroy.

Why does this happen on the web? Wish I had the answer, but don’t. It’s frustrating seeing ruined potential.

Xbox 360  [14 games]

1. Lips [Xbox.com] - buy from Amazon 
   Suggested retail: $69.99 with two wireless microphones
   Features: sing along with songs in MP3 format on your Zune (no lyrics)

   Release date: available now

2. Guitar Hero World Tour [Xbox.com] - buy from Amazon
   Suggested retail: $59.99 game only
   $99.99 with guitar
   $189.99 with drums, guitar and microphone (wired)
   Features: studio that allows creating original music and sharing with other GH players
   - All original songs, no cover versions

   Release date: 10/27/2008

3. Rock Revolution - buy from Amazon

   Suggested retail: $49.99 game only
   $129.99 with 7 button drum kit
   Features: can use special 7-button drum kit or Rock Band drums
   - all songs are covers, not the original masters
   - studio mode allows original music creation

   Release date: game now, package with drum kit 11/10/2008

4. Rock Band 2 [Xbox.com] - buy from Amazon
   Suggested retail: $59.99 game only
   $189.99 with drums, guitar and microphone
   Features:

5. Release date: available

6. Rock Band [Xbox.com] - buy from Amazon
   Suggested retail: $59.99 game only
   $129.99 with drums, guitar and microphone
   Features: first game to offer play as band mode
   - good line-up of music to play through
   - plays all DLC content for Rock Band 2
   - can transfer RB songs to Rock Band 2 for $5
   Release date: available
7. Guitar Hero II [Xbox.com] - buy from Amazon
   Xbox.com] - Suggested retail: $59.99 with guitar

   Release date: available

8. Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock [Xbox.com] - buy from Amazon
   Suggested retail: $59.99 game only
   $99.99 with wireless guitar 

   Release date: available

9. Guitar Hero Aerosmith [Xbox.com] - buy from Amazon
   Suggested retail: $59.99 game only
   $99.99 with wireless guitar

   Release date: available

10. Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol Encore [Xbox.com]
    Suggested retail: $69.99 with wired microphone
    Features: vocals only
    Release date: available
11. Disney Sing It [Xbox.com]
    Suggested retail: $59.99
    Features: vocals only
    - 35 songs from Disney Channel Original Series and Movies
    Release date: 10/21/2008
12. High School Musical 3 Dance [Xbox.com]
    Suggested retail: $69.99
    Features: dance to music only
    Release date: 10/28/2008
13. Dance Dance Revolution Universe 2 [Xbox.com]
    Suggested retail: $69.99
    Features: dance to music only
    Release date: available
14. Dance Dance Revolution Universe [Xbox.com]
    Suggested retail: $59.99
    Features: dance to music only
    Release date: available

Playstation 3

1. Rock Band 2 [Playstation.com]
2. Rock Band [Playstation.com]
3. Guitar Hero World Tour [Playstation.com]
4. Guitar Hero Aerosmith [Playstation.com]
5. Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock [Playstation.com]
6. Disney Sing It! [Playstation.com]

Playstation 2

1. Popstar Guitar
2. Rock Band [Playstation.com]
3. Guitar Hero World Tour [Playstation.com]
4. Guitar Hero Encore Rock The 80s [Playstation.com]
5. Guitar Hero Aerosmith [Playstation.com]
6. Guitar Hero III [Playstation.com]
7. Guitar Hero II [Playstation.com]
8. Guitar Hero [Playstation.com]
9. Dance Dance Revolution X [Playstation.com]
10. High School Musical 3: Senior Year Dance [Playstation.com]

PSP

1. Beats [Playstation.com]

Nintendo Wii [15 / 327 games]

1. Wii Music [Wiimusic.com] - buy from Amazon
2. Popstar Guitar [popstar.com]
3. Rock Band 2 [Nintendo.com]
4. Rock Band [Nintendo.com]
5. Guitar Hero World Tour [Nintendo.com]
6. Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock [Nintendo.com]
7. Guitar Hero Aerosmith [Nintendo.com]
8. Rock Revolution [Nintendo.com]
9. Battle of the Bands [Nintendo.com]
10. Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 2 [Nintendo.com]
11. Samba De Amigo [Nintendo.com]
12. Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol Encore [Nintendo.com]
13. Boogie Superstar [Nintendo.com]
14. Boogie [Nintendo.com]
15. Disney Sing It [Nintendo.com]
16. High School Musical Sing It [Nintendo.com]

Nintendo DS [3 / 392 games]

1. Guitar Hero On Tour [Nintendo.com]
2. Jam Sessions [Nintendo.com]
3. Rock Revolution [Nintendo.com]

PC

1. Guitar Praise [guitarpraise.com]
2. JamLegend [jamlegend.com]
3. Guitar Rising [guitarrising.com]
   Features: will use real guitar plugging in through supplied USB adapter (source: Gamespot). Will debut with 30 songs across several difficulty levels (easy to expert). Notes will scroll from right to left and look similar to guitar tablature.
   Release date: 2009, date not yet announced

Mac

1. Guitar Praise [guitarpraise.com]
2. JamLegend [jamlegend.com]

Linux

1. JamLegend [jamlegend.com]

An EMI spokeswoman said: "We have been working hard to secure agreement with Apple Corps. to make the Beatles’ legendary recording catalog available to fans in digital form. Unfortunately the various parties involved have been unable to reach agreement but we really hope everyone can make progress soon."

Please somebody tell me this newest impasse has nothing to do with Jacko. No, it has to do with piracy concerns and also the long running trademark dispute between Apple Corps and Apple the company. McCartney wants their music on iTunes to happen but it’s not only up to him.

Meanwhile, the Rock Band game featuring The Beatles is moving full steam ahead, with the blessing of McCartney, Starr and Apple Corps and should be available by holiday season 2009.

Broadcast live Friday November 21, 2008 2pm PST / 5pm EST / 10pm GMT
Streaming audio: 66.154.0.129:8200

What happened on Hmmcast #184

• *Live original music by tabites: “Don’t Break The Chain” (sans bass version), “Economic Ruin”, “Hand in Hand”, “Parallel Beings”

After listening, I know one place I will be this Sunday besides watching the Seahawks get beat again.

Yes, you can now listen to every Chinese Democracy track in or out of order for free streaming and after the first listen through I figuratively wiped my brow.

Wow.

There are some powerful, mind bending guitar riffs in here. If like me you miss the days when songs were layered with catchy guitar solos, you are in for a serious treat when you listen to what’s behind the Chinese Democracy curtain. Major kill switch, guitar bending, screaming action on some of these tracks.

Sure, the guitar wizard Slash isn’t there — and no disrespect is intended by the title of this post or the following admission — but you don’t end up missing him that much. This is either a testament to it taking nearly 20 15 years to get this GNR album published or the reality that there are 2008 guitar wizards in the making. I saw this 8-year old kid on YouTube yesterday that might grow up to be a future guitar god, who knows.

But what does Slash think about it? He has already weighed in — and likes it:

To tell you the truth: I already listened to it. At first I thought that I would never listen to it until it’s released, but someone handed it to me and I was in my car and I was like, "Okay, let’s give it a try." So I listened to it: It’s a really good record. It’s very different from what the original GUNS N’ ROSES sounded like, but it’s a great statement by Axl. Now you understand where he was heading all this time. It’s a record that the original GUNS N’ ROSES could never possibly make. And at the same time it just shows you how brilliant Axl is. So it was a relief for me to actually hear it.

Like former GNR guitarist I too felt prepared for disappointment and was pleasantly surprised by how good this album sounds. This had Spore-like hype written all over it but unlike Spore, Chinese Democracy delivers.

Track listing and notes

1. "Chinese Democracy" - for a title track and intro to the album, I suppose it works, but it had a bit too much going on for my taste. Not that I don’t like complex music, but this one feels like you need an Iron Maiden type lineup of multiple guitarists to pull it off faithfully live. I like music that doesn’t feel too much like it was over-processed and this track just oozes over-production. This doesn’t take away from it being a decent song melodically, but stripped down a bit I bet this would have rocked more. The guitar solo foreshadows perfectly (3:26) that this will be a guitar album that kicks ass.
2. "Shackler’s Revenge" - this has been available and playable on Rock Band 2 for awhile now. One of the weakest vocal tracks IMO. A little too new wave sounding for me, although love the guitar work. Fun to play this on Rock Band.
3. "Better" - Ironically, this is where the album starts to pick up some serious steam for me. I’d heard a bootleg of this a few years back and enjoyed it then. Professionally mixed it sounds even better. Catchy verse and chorus. Layered with some thundering power chords. This could have been a B-side cut — and a good one — on Use Your Illusion II. If you were worried if Axl could still sing, this track answers with an exclamation mark. Great track.
4. "Street of Dreams" - the first mellow track on the album, heavy in the keyboard area. Axl’s verse vocals seem off the first few listens, like he’s singing in a can or something but it grew on me after a few listens. This isn’t "November Rain" or "Patience" but it’s pretty good.
5. "If The World" - has a groovy 70s-era riff going.  Almost like this could be something you heard playing in the background of a Shaft movie.
6. "There Was A Time" - an almost religious song like opening and closing, quickly replaced by a guitar moaning in the background and catchy beat. One of the best guitar solos on the album. 5:21 listen for the liberal kill switch. I think it’s songs like this that will have budding guitarists everywhere adding kill switches to their axes.
7. "Catcher In The Rye" - second mellow song. Just OK. Kind of a Bon Jovi-ish la-la-la chorus part that didn’t work very well for me. Too much layering and overdubbing here again.
8. "Scraped" - a vocal assault opening that leads into a "Rocket Queen" type riff. Digging it, especially the wah-wah guitar solo.
9. "Sorry" - Sebastian Bach of Skid Row sings backup vocals on this haunting third mellow track.  This is one where the tons of layering guitars and overdubs actually works quite well. Might be the best lyrics of any song on the album or at least the easiest to understand. Liner notes needed.
10. "Riad N’ The Bedouins" - easily wins the strangest song title award. A beginning with a theme that moves into an upbeat, rocking moaning intro. I don’t have any idea what this song is about but it jams.
11. "I.R.S" - (somewhat) mellow track #4. Better than "Catcher in the Rye" but not as good as "Sorry" and "Street of Dreams"
12. "Madagascar" - mellow track #5. There is some similarity to the last track with this one, although the beat is different. Gotta dig the clips of King’s famous "I have a dream" interspersed with the "Failure to co-mun-nicate" clip in "Civil War" — nice way to pay homage.
13. "This is Love" - this is the sixth and final mellow track complete with piano, keyboard and vocals only opening. When the guitar comes in around a minute in the song, it’s surprisingly subdued but effective. Axl layered vocals are nice. This kind of reminds me a bit of Black Sabbath "Changes" in the overall feel, though the melody is nothing like it. At 2:15 the guitar power chords start to color the song leading to a heavy, somber solo. Cheap guitar solo nowhere to be found on this album. Thanks GNR!
14. "Prostitute" - the drumbeat to this one reminds me a bit of "Locomotion" on Illusion 2. This might be my sleeper favorite of the album with the gripping melody. Some nice Axl screams before the guitar wailing. I thought at first, hey this solo was short, but stay with it as more riffing assaults your ears (in a good way) at 4:23. Oh yeah this is good. Are we going to be left with a piano outro? The drums fade into the distance and keyboards dominate. You can imagine smoke rising through the stage. And then like that it’s just … over.

Can’t stop listening to these tracks on MySpace.

Kudos aside, back down to earth it’s clear that Chinese Democracy isn’t Appetite For Destruction. There is no smoking gun of a song like "Sweet Child O’ Mine" on here, but there are several very good, catchy heavy tracks like "Better" that will get plenty of rotation. The guitar work alone deserves high marks.

Axl would likely be the first to say that creating another Appetitle wasn’t what he was trying to do. I believed he’d botch up Chinese Democracy, but there are brushes of brilliance on this album. Axl might be difficult to get along with, but there’s no denying he’s got major talent and knows the recipe for good music.

Appetite is a classic and even if the original GNR got back together I doubt they could bring back the fire and magic of that album. I’d put Chinese Democracy somewhere between Use Your Illusion I (which I didn’t much care for) and Use Your Illusion II (which is a classic). The 6 of 14 mellow songs make it feel very Use Your Illusion 2 like as far as overall theme. It’s world’s better than the crap on Spaghetti Incident. Although they are two completely different types of albums, I put it about on par with Lies.

Where does this work for a grade? The wait was much too long, but it feels worth it in a few of these songs. The overall vibe of the album is thumbs up. Easily one of my favorite albums of the year among the best of the new music by 80s bands. A few of the tracks are weak, but even the weakest are better than expected. And hey, don’t forget your free Dr. Pepper! Now I’m stoked for a live GNR concert. Grade: A-

$39.99 and standalone. You do not need Rock Band or Rock Band 2, however you do get a code on the back page of the manual to transfer the game tracks to either Rock Band or Rock Band 2. More like download since you download through Xbox Live with a one time use code.

It’s a short one, we played through this in less than a couple hours on expert difficulty. There are some AC/DC specific achievements like getting 5 stars on drums on Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.

Is it worth $39.99 USD? If you are an AC/DC and Rock Band fan you’ve already bought it and played through it, if not, well, it might be a bit pricey as an introduction to both franchises. I’d spend a few more bucks and get Rock Band 2.