Archive for the ‘Miscellaneous Metal’ Category

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Album Review: Scream

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

Ozzy is one of the undisputed legends of metal, and I’ve long enjoyed Ozzy’s stuff. This new album seems to be a solid addition to Ozzy’s catalog.

Scream certainly starts off strong with ‘Let it Die’ and ‘Let Me Hear You Scream’. Both are good, solid metal songs, bringing all of the hard, heavy sound that you’d expect from Ozzy. ‘Let Me Hear You Scream’ is an especially good one to rock out to.

The ballads on this album are another highlight. ‘Time’ especially takes advantage of Ozzy’s unique vocal style to produce a unique song that only Ozzy could have delivered properly. (That being said, if you don’t care too much for Ozzy’s voice, this wouldn’t be your cup of tea. ‘Time’ really showcases Ozzy’s vocals more than the other songs do.)

Some of the other songs later in the album are a bit weak, and less memorable than the first few tracks. I found that ‘I Want It More’ and ‘Latimer’s Mercy’ just weren’t in the same class as the first couple of songs that I mentioned above. But the stronger tracks more than make up for these deficiencies.

All together, I don’t think that this is going to be a ‘classic’ Ozzy album. However, I think it’s a a very solid album. And it definitely has a bunch of good songs on it.

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Random Song: Man on the Silver Mountain (live)

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Artist: Dio
Album: Holy Diver Live

Holy Diver Live is one of my favorite albums. Apart from my deep affection for Dio and his work, this is a really good live album. It strikes a really good balance between capturing the rough edges and improvisations of a live performance and creating a solid album of music.

This track in particular has an energy to it that is hard to pin down. I think part of it is the blazing guitar work in the solos–I’ve always liked the sound of electric guitars, and that’s part of what attracts me to songs like this. The other half of it is the solid bass work. The best songs always have a synergy between the lead guitar and the bass.

I also like this track because it’s not so rushed. Believe it or not, I’ve actually managed to collect two different live versions of this song, and the version on Holy Diver Live clocks in at over a minute longer than the other one. That means that the song has room to breathe. You can actually understand the lyrics in this version, and Dio’s voice really gets to shine. Plus, the solo isn’t anywhere near so muddy. It’s amazing how different two performances by the same artist can really be.

This is one song that really makes me regret that I never sought out tickets to see Heaven and Hell on the last tour.

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Studying Ozzy’s Genes

Friday, June 18th, 2010

The Early show reported that Ozzy Osbourne’s genes are being studied by scientists.

There has to be something to this idea. It has always seemed like rock stars go one of three ways–either the band breaks up and they get out, they die young, or they hang on forever. (Just look at Alice Cooper, Motley Crue, and the Rolling Stones.) If a scientist is going to do a study of the genetics that contribute to longevity, focusing on the survivors of rock and roll is probably going to lead to some pretty interesting results.

I just wonder what conclusions that they’re going to draw from analyzing Ozzy’s genetics. It’s rather frightening to consider that the next miracle drug–perhaps the salvation of humanity during some future pandemic–could be derived from Ozzy Osbourne.

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Bret Michaels on the Tonight Show

Friday, May 28th, 2010

I know, I know, that was on Wednesday night.  But we’ve been having bigtime storms ripping through here in the evening and making my power flicker, so I haven’t really gotten the chance to write it up before now.

Anyway, for a guy who’s been through so much lately (he and Jay Leno were cracking jokes about how he needed to get on the show before he lost any more organs), he seemed to be doing pretty well.    Most of what they talked about during the interview was Bret’s recent triumph on Celebrity Apprentice.

Personally, I think it’s great that Bret went on Celebrity Apprentice and won.  It really gave him a chance to show what a nice guy he is.  Granted, Rock of Love may have made him a major celebrity again, but it didn’t really put the focus on Bret.  On Celebrity Apprentice, he really had a chance to show the world that he’s a great (and talented) guy.

This interview was more of the same–it showed Bret to be a really decent guy.  The whole interview really just made me like him more–he really made me want to root for him to get better, and made me happy (all over again) that he’d won.

Up until recently, I hadn’t really been much of a Bret Michaels/Poison fan.  Sure, I liked their music and I had been keeping watch on the local concert scene waiting for a chance to see him live.   But it was his appearance on Celebrity Apprentice that really let me see that he was a decent guy, with a lot of talent.  It really made me like him a whole lot more.

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Ronnie James Dio has died

Monday, May 17th, 2010

I had, like every other self-respecting metal fan, known that Ronnie James Dio had stomach cancer and had been battling that disease for some time.  I totally get what Brian May said  in the MTV article about how it just didn’t seem possible that Dio wouldn’t beat the cancer and make it through.

I suppose that part of it was that he was so much larger than life to me, both on his own as a solo act and as a part of Black Sabbath and later, Heaven and Hell.

Opening up the Google News homepage while I was on my lunch break today and seeing the MTV article of various fellow rockers eulogizing Dio was a shock.   It took a long minute for the reality of it to sink into my brain.

Dio’s solo work was what first introduced me to real heavy metal.  Sure, I’d listened to plenty of hair metal up to that point, and I certainly had an appreciation for the harder and heavier sounds to come out of that scene.  But I had yet to truly start discovering bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath.

I picked up my first Dio CD–a greatest hits collection–on the strength of Edgar Hansen saying that he liked ‘Rainbow in the Dark’ and a vague memory of the song being listed in one of those VH1 ‘best of’ countdowns and the clip being fairly awesome.  Of course, it only really took one listening for me to determine that this guy was more than just ‘fairly awesome’.

Of course, from there I went on to explore the world of heavy metal more and more.  But it was really Dio’s voice that first sold me on the concept of heavy metal.  This man could sing, and he could take you to the most amazing places with his voice.   I’ve always respected that talent, from the first time I heard his work.  Dio, and his great talents, will be sorely missed.

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Steel Panther Producing TV Pilot

Friday, May 14th, 2010

The hair metal cover/parody band Steel Panther is producing a pilot episode for Comedy Central.   There are more details, including the planned premise of the show in the original article at the Las Vegas Sun.

I can honestly say that this sounds like a great idea to me.  Yes, I do enjoy listening to hair metal, but I do realize that it’s all more than a little ridiculous.  (Hey, I enjoyed Brutal Legend, which made hair metal the butt of more than a few jokes.)

Steel Panther is really good at mining this territory for laughs too.  I’ve seen a couple of their videos, and they seem to have a good grasp of exactly how far over the top to take their act to turn it into comedy gold.  These guys are experts at manipulating every cliche that comes with the hair metal territory and turning it into entertainment.

Plus, they’re more than just jokes.  These guys, while they might have started out as a cover band, do have a pretty good grasp of how to construct songs of their own.   I remember the first time that I heard ‘Death to All but Metal’ — my first thought was that they could have released it as an un-ironic song in the 80′s and they would have had a hit with it.

All together, I’d say that they’re pretty good candidates to do a show of this type.  They have the right attitude to make it really entertaining.  I’d say that this shows way more promise than that “Livin’ on a Prayer” TV show that I heard about awhile ago.  Personally, I’ll be watching to see what comes of this.  Hopefully Comedy Central will pick up the pilot.  If they do, I’ll be tuning in for that.

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Bret Michaels is out of the hospital

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

According to the BBC, Bret Michaels was released from the hospital. He’s even planning on resuming his tour later in the summer.

I’m glad to hear that he’s going to make a full recovery. He was too young to go.

When I found out that he’d been admitted to the hospital and was in critical condition, it hit me far harder than I had thought it would. Sure, I liked his music, but it’s not like I thought about him or Poison every day.

But his work, especially with Poison, was one of the driving forces that shaped my love of hard rock. Bon Jovi might have introduced me to the world of hard rock and hair metal. But it was Poison, along with Motley Crue and Whitesnake that truly drew me into the world of hard rock. They were the bands that truly opened my mind to the possibilities out there as I explored.

I had picked up my first Poison CD (one of their greatest hits compilations) shortly before going on vacation with my friends. Before I left, I transferred every song off that CD to my mp3 player and I took that with me. It ended up providing the soundtrack to that vacation. I still remember driving through the dunes on the outskirts of Sea Isle City with ‘I Want Action’ playing on the car stereo, in the orange light of late afternoon.

When I heard that Bret was in critical condition, it was a complete shock. (The fact that I first heard about it from a comment on an unrelated blog post didn’t help. At first I thought it was just a mean joke, but a quick Google News scan turned up that it was true.) It didn’t seem possible that he could be gone already. It was a strange moment–and a big reminder of not only the mortality of my heroes, but my own as well. It kind of shook me up.

Anyway, I’m just glad that he’s going to recover. The man has amazing talents, and deserves a long, full life. I can’t be the only person that Bret’s music has influenced so deeply. To lose someone with a gift like that would be a loss for all of us.

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‘Paranoid’ Documentary Will Be Released Soon

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

The Black Sabbath album Paranoid is going to be the subject of a documentary.  (The full article is available at Gibson.)

This is another documentary that I’m going to have to keep an eye out for.  (I still haven’t found a copy of the Anvil movie in a local store.  I’m going to have to give up and resort to Amazon.)

This is one of the best Black Sabbath albums of all time.  And it was highly influential in shaping my taste in music.  Black Sabbath was one of the first bands that I really explored after I finally figured out that metal and hard rock were the way to go when it came to what I truly enjoyed.  And I’ve always had a weakness for music documentaries.  (I guess that traces back to when I was in college and I used to leave ‘Behind the Music’ on the TV while I did my homework.)

Some people find that documentaries and stuff like ‘Behind the Music’ ruins their appreciation for the music after they see it.  I find that it increases my appreciation for the music once I know more about the creative process that it came from.    Especially in a band like Black Sabbath, where the influence of their music is so widespread.  The more I know, the more I can understand the common threads that tie the music together, and the differences that bring it to life.

Anyway, this sounds really interesting.

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“Suck” Trailer is Out

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

I blogged awhile ago about the upcoming movie “Suck“. It initially caught my interest because Alice Cooper is involved in it, as well as Iggy Pop.

Now, according to Consequence of Sound, the movie made its debut at South by Southwest. Not sure how I missed this–I’m usually up on what’s going on with Alice’s career. (They’ve got more information on the movie, along with the trailer and a sort of pre-review.)

I think I’ll be interested in seeing this, if only to see what Alice, Iggy Pop and Malcolm McDowell can do with this. I suspect those three, at least, will be awesome. The trailer wasn’t exactly clear on what McDowell’s role is, but he looks like a ‘hunter’ stereotype to me, and that could be a good one if played for laughs properly.

Alice’s one line in the trailer “You’re thirty pounds of junk food and one retail job away from killing yourself” is a good one, though I’m not sure why he’s playing a bartender.

Also, with the list of artists appearing on the soundtrack, this movie could be a good one, at least when it comes to the soundtrack.

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So I finished Brutal Legend…

Monday, February 15th, 2010

I finally finished Brutal Legend this past weekend. It’s taken me awhile to finish the game, even though I didn’t find the main story mode to be particularly difficult or long. (Having the Xbox decide to develop the Red Ring of Death does tend to put a crimp in my gaming schedule.) Honestly, I could have done with a longer story mode. I didn’t find anything to be all that great about the multiplayer mode, especially since none of my friends have Brutal Legend. If a few of my friends were interested in playing some stage battles, I might get more mileage out of it. But as it stands, the multiplayer mode holds no real interest. (Most of my friends would rather play Halo Wars.)

The rest of my follow-up is after the jump. Consider yourself warned: there are spoilers after this point, so if you’re haven’t beat the game yourself and don’t want the end spoiled STOP NOW.
(more…)

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