Black Label Society's Order of The Black - A Re-inspired Zakk is Back!

Zakk is back!!

Indeed. I couldn’t find any more appropriate three words to begin this. For five years I had been growin’ roots in my ass out of snoozfest from anything post- Mafia. Even Zakk’s presence in Ozzy’s band had been of the same serving. But at fuckin’ last, fate throws in the bucket of cold water, and the beast awakens.

It could’ve been one or all factors together. Ozzy’s firing, blood clotting, alcoholism, whatever it is, there must be something that had finally summoned guts of steel to make Zakk finally put all overused stuff aside, and  bring everything ‘back to basic’. A true return to form, I must say.

Before spinning this record, I honestly felt a need to duck in a quasi-cringed manner in anticipation of a salvo of pinch harmonics and wound string vibratos, three repetitions of each for every riff. But God was I surprised to hear all those had been virtually laid to rest. It will not be until the fifth track, Black Sunday, before this record greets you with the standard BLS sound. And, besides being blown away right off the bat by the preceding tracks, it’s not that much of his ‘template’ either. Notice how it starts with a shredfest of insane legatos and howls (reminiscent of those from that Tesla song) before it explodes into the berserkin Sonic Brew fashion.

My personal pick here, Parade of The Dead, should have been placed as the first track in my opinion. It steps away as a typical southern metal song, and even farther from slow sludge that is trademark BLS. Instead, it hits you so fast on all eight cylinders and lets you feel how Zakk and his boys are so damned dead serious in doing this record. The riff is so tailored-fit for his left-right headshakin and hair-whippin’ move. It opens up with.. Exterminate..! A word that’s in the ranks of Mafia lingo makes me wonder how much of the gangster fascination made it again into this record. The first track, Crazy Horse, also as you may observe is the name of that infamous night club of Adriana from The Sopranos. It could be some Neil Young trib, but I can't help but ponder..

Anyhow, it’s a different ride for every track here but every bit is just killer. War of Heaven starts in slow dark devil’s thirds yet it ignites in a bluesy main riff. Godspeed Hellbound, which is another favorite, employs a fast chugging rhythm but one that is unmistakably fast rock n’ roll. Clearly a biker’s anthem. Chupacabra, smart title choice for such brazen display of talent. Zakk really need not prove how fast his pentatonic is, but as always, he would want it delivered raw, with no effects.

The ballads here, which have been making a fuss about how utterly creative this album is, (or how disappointingly lame and anti-climactic, depending on which perspective you’re at) are of all in an assortment of genres. Darkest Days is a soulful piano ballad. Time Waits for No One (child!), is slow classic rock in the likes of early Elton John and Bob Seger. Shallow Grave is a bit American folkish of a piano ballad, and a darn sad one at that. January, is the 80s rock acoustic session touch thrown in for the finale. There is no doubt this record is some serious display of musicianship, undermining all accusations that Zakk is but pure image antics. 

Overall, Order of The Black, in spite of being so diverse and multifarious, is one unabashed BLS smokin' record. It's evident that as much as I hate doing track by track account of songs, it was to be a necessary evil in this case. As well, I had to point out that however liberal and wide-encompassing my usage of the word metal goes, this for me is wickedly heavy rock n roll. One so heavy that it borders to the extreme its almost heavy metal.

So celebrate all you Berserkers old and new, for this one great record that can make us proud to waive the flag high once again: Strength, Determination, Merciless Forever!

Clutch's Blast Tyrant Blasts Big Time!

Here's one band I dig so much but one that's been left unnoticed for decades.

They are, for me, kind of like the Dave Matthews Band of hard rock. They are a no-frills type of band, no bullshit, never gave a dirty rat's ass about image but are real geniuses musically and lyrically. They have gone on relentless touring and have constantly put out one record after another since the early 90's. Sometimes they have even served as opening act for bands with lesser talent and flair. Yet they haven't really left the scene despite the sand dunes of music trends.

Maybe that's why they have forged such an ultimately loyal fan base. And its one that encompasses a wide array of genres, from Classic Rock fanatics to extreme metal practicioners.

Without having to resort to visual imagery or commercial packaging, they have painted a picture of a badass hard rock act through words and music only. By turning a blind eye to bigotry and imperialism, they proved it's alright to be a redneck at this day and age. They even made it cool to wear plain white t-shirts in rock again.



I can waste a year's worth of blog space here if I were to describe their brand of hard rock. And I'm sure as hell I won't even get close to defining their music. I do think though, that they shift along the lines of rock but the 'hues' change from one album to the next in their entire discography, which is one hell of a list by the way.

Blast Tyrant will probably be their most accessible record to date. It is chock-full of hard-hitting rhythms and intelligently woven lyrics, broad-ranging from life beyond the Ol' Mason-Dixon line to political jabs in comedic delivery. I have never been so lyrically amused for a long time.

This is also the record you get out when you throw in slabs of meat on the grill, smash bottles to the wall or just get plain stoned to. Almost every reviewer out there says this is a mix of stoner rock, blues and funk, and I must say to an extent it really is. What amazes me though is how homogeneous that mixture is to my ears. The mood it sets for being stoner music catches up real tight but in no way close to being Monster Magnet, it is funky without bending that much to Chili Peppers yet you can groove (but I won't) pretty fine with it. AND, get this: it is full-on Blues Rock without almost any blues soloing! There's really not much complex blues guitar licks you'd find in here but the songwriting is topnotch. Not even the real 'masters' of blues guitar have thought of taking the music to a level the way Clutch did in this record, riff-wise.

One thing I must add before you get this one is for you to clear a space, not just on your list of greatest rock records ever, but also one from your list of most gifted singers. Neil Fallon's voice may not have that much of  range, but hell, with that kind of power, who needs one in this sort of heavy rock?

The best Aerosmith Tribute Record - Not The Same Old Song and Dance.

Before I got to finishing this piece here, my good guitarist friend TJ had me stirred up with some Aerosmith news. From reliable sources, he said the band might be considering to pay us a visit here in Manila. And while I've been recently seeing nothing more than news of internal strife from Blabbermouth, I can't help but hope that there isn't going to be any resurrection of The Joe Perry Project!

Never really cared for tribute albums that much, but I knew I had to score this one the moment I saw the outside back sleeve- an all-star ensemble of my heroes paying homage to one of the greatest hard rock acts ever! 

01 Back In The Saddle (Mark Slaughter, Albert Lee, Rudy Sarzo, Frankie Banali)

02 Rag Doll (Ted Nugent, Tony Frankin, Vinnie Colaiuta, Derek Sherinian)

03 Chip Away At The Stone (Vince Neil, Blues Saraceno, Ricky Philips, Pat Torpey, Paul Taylor)

04 Last Child (Mickey Thomas, Earl Slick, Nathan East, Stephen Ferrone)

05 Sweet Emotion (Jack Blades, Tommy Shaw, Mike Inez, Randy Castillo)

06 Dream On (Ronnie James Dio, Yngwie Malmsteen, Stu Hamm, Greg Bisonette, Paul Taylor)

07 Walk This Way (Fee Waybill, Steve Lukather, Tim Bogert, Tommy Aldridge)

08 Draw The Line (Jeff Keith, Tommy Skeoch, Tony Levin, Eric Singer)

09 Same Old Song and Dance (Jack Russel, Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter, Jeff Pilson, Bobby Blotzer, Edgar Winter)

10 No Surprize (Jani Lane, Chris Holmes, Adrian Perry, Stephen Riley)

11 Toys In The Attic (Stephen Pearcy, Tracii Guns, Phil Soussan, Aynsley Dunbar)

Besides, it was '99, and everything else in the cd rack at the time represented the über nonsensical nü metal that was at its pinnacle. Conservative heavy music was in really low supply back then and I couldn't put to words  how much I wanted to wolf down anything seriously rock n' roll.

Bitchin' aside, my prior grasp of tribute albums entailed different bands doing their versions of songs assigned to each of them, and then later having the tracks compiled to make the record. The formula remains virtually the same up to the present, with some veering in the way of having a single house band type of session musicians all throughout the entire record with only the guest singers varying. This record though will be the first in my collection to host a multiple collaboration-type of cover tunes.

I'll be hard-pressed to find out who pulled the strings to make this happen, no matter how much I despise the business side of music. That's because the contributing artists here are such big names in rock that I failed to resist to do a little background check on Bob Kulick, the man who defied the corporate odds.

Fact 1, he's related to Bruce, and  Fact 2, he had his share of KISStory. 

An outstanding resume of some of the greatest productions in rock and metal doesn't solely define the man who nearly made it to becoming THE Kiss guitarist. With Ace Frehley beating him to the punch in the audition, Bob would later redeem his glory by befriending Paul Stanley and later contributing uncredited guitar tracks in many KISS records. Subsequently, he would also usher in his younger brother Bruce to the Kiss fold. 'Nuff Said.

Going back to the record.. It was a great find for such a dark phase in rock history. Not The Same Old Song & Dance remains to be one of my most played cd's, and its scratched to the innards from frequent playing. It was so great that it inspired me and my erstwhile bandmates and childhood buddies to pick up our cobwebbed instruments and get back to playing in spite of the trends. Not that the trends really mattered to us, it's just that there was no new music to fuel the inspiration.


It must be that we truly did not live the early days of Aerosmith to have that nostalgic fit and not accept any new take on their classics. No disrespect to the band but I can no longer get back to hearing the originals after being used to these new versions of heavier guitars and more complex licks. Kind of like playing Mama Kin after quite some time of imbibing the Gn'R cover. Most of the tracks covered here are from the early days, which means both Joe Perry and Brad Whitford weren't using that much of delicious, crunchy distortion effects. And it's really a break to hear those songs again with a much 'thicker' take.


Only the singing is another matter.. A bit of rearrangement gives a different flavor, but the voice from the second most famous rubber lips in rock can never be duplicated. 

Back in The Saddle remains to be my favorite here. Contrary to what I said above with regard to more distortion, Albert Lee delivered right on spot with only simply overdriven guitars. In fact, you'd mistake it for just being plain clean tone. And to be honest I really don't find Mark Slaughter's singing to be that good either. But this version, I will never trade for any other out there, most especially that one from Bas Bach and Axl Rose! 

Rag Doll kicks ass too, you'll notice Ted Nugent doing both the vocals and guitar parts. For such a hardass I think it's pretty fucking cool of him to pay tribute to the band coz as you may well know, he's not some junior fan. The Old Nuge actually thrived in hard rock glory in the same era that early Aerosmith did. And his playing seems to just get heavy as he grows old, maybe that's why many regard him as a great guitarist despite sticking to basic I-IV-V blues. Other players in his same age bracket are getting the stiff finger syndrome, but he still shoots those licks like a twenty-year old! 

And Ronnie James Dio and Yngwie Malmsteen on Dream On? Such fantastic soul-searing voice and majestic licks to add up to an already regal tune. Outstanding. Chip Away at The Stone introduced me to Blues Saraceno and I've been a fan ever since. We used to break this song apart to find out what's so special about his playing though in the end, his 'expressionism' was what we could only make different. I've got more to say about him but that again, is a tale for another day. 


Steve Lukather doing Walk This Way, Tommy Skeoch, before being kicked out of Tesla is with Jeff Keith on Draw The Line..an almost Damn Yankees take on the song Sweet Emotion with the late, great Randy Castillo.. 


Damn, better grab yourself a copy of this one and get ultimately hard rock on yourself! There's just so much cold beer waiting for me outside to be blogging, so I'll be spinning this instead!


Cheers!

Long Live Heavy Music - 1st Steamin' Anniversary!

Before I move on to anything stupid, lemme thank Blogger. Thank You. You are so fucking awesome. One inebriated moment had me seriously contemplating I should've chosen Wordpress, but things here are done so dirt cheap, and I get to be paid!!

I know there aren't many of you regularly following this ambitious attempt of a webmag, but I am grateful. As hell. Some of you may be from the upper echelons of the biz, though I am pretty much sure most of you are my damned dearest, most loyal friends.

I sure owe you all lots of explaining big time, as with regard to why I have started doing this. By now, I would have replaced that Inaugural Post link in the Shortcuts widget with this one here. Originally I was to label that previous link as "Often Edited Inaugural Post", so I could, from time to time, add bits and pieces of excuses for changing themes as my archiving progressed. But I guess I'll just make a separate post here as it adds more content, more traffic, more hits, more ad clicks and more people pissed. At least I know by that one last bit, I have come.. victorious!

Death Angel, Arch Enemy, Avenged Sevenfold and Dio. These were the four major bands that had me writing like mad. They played a big part in revving the metal engine in me. I discovered these bands a tad too late in life and still I was forever changed. Because as old school as I am, I never thought that there can still be uncharted grounds, fore and aft, as far as my tastes go. Pardon my ignorance, but we didn't have mp3 downloading back in the day!

I would like to have that same mindset applied to the breed I belong to. The breed who's wary to give that old Appetite CD (or, heaven forbid, cassette tape) it's much needed retirement. It may be the seventh copy for all I care, making up for earlier ones which may have been destroyed, lost, or worse- unreturned. 

I am no Metal Messiah, but by God, I'm gonna herd some metalheads out of their comfort zones.

So now when I meet up with old friends and ask them what they have been playing lately and get 'still the ones we grew up listening to..' for an answer- Man I swear I could've been a tiger in my past life with the way I jump on an opportunity like this.

For starters, I move forward with recommendations. Like hearing A7X brings me back to the old days, fuck the nasal singing and their shitty fashion sense, City Of Evil is quite accessible if you give it a try. I remind them oldies too, that we didn't get to buy Death Angel tapes back in junior high but they were such a lifetime to miss. I stick up for Dio being not just a mere Ozzy replacement, and I show them how Arch Enemy's sound comes close to being a bit Thrash-y.. with a fine pretty blonde bombshell for a growler. 

With luck, I am able to haul some metal asses off to finally get their hands on those basics. And then it gets all the more exciting. I tether them now on to some Lamb of God singles, Dark Tranquillity live shit, Nikki Sixx new talents, 'supergroups' like Chickenfoot, Damnocracy, Roadrunner United.. and bring forth an awareness that both the then-opposing genres of Thrash and Glam are making a feisty comeback.

As my iPod song number counts close to ten thousand, I refuse to sit in solitude, experiencing such amazing records. As if I was in Sunset Strip circa '85, going out and 'handing flyers' became my mission. But the big blockade in this chosen path lies on the reluctance of the old guard to embrace the fact that Nü Metal is dead. You see, that's one big spike in the boot for me. Every time I go on vouching for new material to classic rockers, they always think that 'new' is Nü. 

Sheeet. Can't blame them, really. But I ain't callin' it a day.

So that is how I ended being curled up in this wormhole of a blog. Besides, I never run out of metal thoughts, though recently I have been running low on friends to whine and bitch and curse to.. And I'll be caught dead before doing this through famous social networking sites. Fuck Facebook, and all the political righteous waste of bandwidth!

Since it has been a year already, finally I had surrendered to the idea that I should let my readers in to my metal treasure chest. As a result, I had rolled out a link list of other blogs I read by the sidebar on the right. Shall I lose the few readers I have to them metal gurus, so be it. Pretty damn fine consolation knowing they will be in good hands. Funny thing is, I have my own selfish reasons, but to be included in their blog roll is certainly not one of those. I may be guilty enough to admit what I've been echoing from Blabbermouth, but I don't have the audacity to not acknowledge other sites that keep my metal juices up and running.


So give me this chance to thank as well, them angels (or rather devils) on my shoulders.

Metalsucks, for constantly reminding me that it truly sucks to enjoy Avenged Sevenfold! Vince and Axl, you are true metal geniuses. You guys'll never make it to heaven, that's a fact.  

Metal Odyssey, for the astounding archives of metal album reviews. Thank you, Stone, for such profound advice. I have been trying very hard lately in being 'my own music boss'. I haven't really done my homework by a long shot, but I'm feeling a little improvement!

Bring Back Glam, for your undying cause. You are such a badass, Allyson, for having taken potshots at not truly being able to 'live' the hairmetal salad days,  yet you proved them all that you know the scene better than anyone else who did.  

SkullsNBones Heavy Metal Social Network & Blog, thank you for the community. It's a long and dirty road ahead, but I'm wishing you all the heavy metal luck. Thank you also for this last video in which I'll be wrapping all these shit up.




Lastly, thank you, readers! Takers and haters alike! 


Because as what the mighty Slayer says, 'I deny, defy and spread a little hate wordwide!!"

Led Zep's Thank You..

It takes a great surge of modesty to not discriminate other forms of music. For that, I envy the erudite and sensible musician.

Is this some sort of an apology to every destitute soul that has taken salvos of my wrath? A way of selling out on my part? I'll be damned if this can be called selling out already, 'cause I know I ain't selling "in" yet, if you know what I'm sayin'.


Consider this a confession.. but just like El Mariachi walking out of the booth, asked by the Priest if he intended to have absolution, his response was : 


Heh? Well, maybe later, Father. Cause where I am going, I'd just have to come right back.


So tomorrow for damn sure there will be lots of cursin' and cussin'  but allow me, for now, this speck of sensitivity, or moment of clearness, if you will. That's how I come to be at peace with myself whenever I hear this masterpiece. 




Can't beat the original, but I'm kind of missin' Tesla as of late.

If the sun refused to shine, I would still be loving you. 
When mountains crumble to the sea, there will still be you and me. 

Kind woman, I give you my all, Kind woman, nothing more. 

Little drops of rain whisper of the pain, tears of loves lost in the days gone by. 
My love is strong, with you there is no wrong, 
Together we shall go until we die. My, my, my. 
An inspiration is what you are to me, inspiration, look... see. 

And so today, my world it smiles, your hand in mine, we walk the miles, 
Thanks to you it will be done, for you to me are the only one. 
Happiness, no more be sad, happiness....I'm glad. 
If the sun refused to shine, I would still be loving you. 
When mountains crumble to the sea, there will still be you and me.