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.

Just two tracks from Burn Fucking Halo..

Here's one guilty pleasure: Burn Halo 

Just two fuckin tracks then move on to heavier stuff.. I'm on the rueful mood right now for not deliverin' the 'can listen to from start to finish'  label on this record. But if you want some adolescent rage rock n roll, you're in for a ride with 'Dirty Little Girl' and 'Save Me'. 

I really don't find these folks heavy, but those two tracks actually do rock, albeit in a fun childish way.  There's some cheesy sexual innuendos in 'Dirty' that seasoned rockers have dropped lyrically when making music late in life (for obvious reasons), but the main riff is just fine. 


And it's got Synyster Gates guesting on the solo. Nothing to get too excited about that, shred-wise, but you must expect he'll come out shootin' with a handsome Shecter. 

'Save Me', steering them to the public eye via some wrestling entertainment soundtrack deal, sounds something like from the Creed genre. Whatever you call that nonsense. But still-  good melodies, hooks and loud guitars sure pulled it off. 

That's some crazy album cover though. That got me checkin' them out in the first place. I imagined dry country, cactus, a double scatter gun, muscle car and what kind of music that scene would make. You see some album artwork like that after watching Kevin Bacon go after them rapshit gangbangers in the movie Death Sentence.. you sure would be expecting more than just two good tracks. 




In any case, I'm glad there are two new rock songs that have been in constant rotation in my playlist.

Player for Save Me

Official video for Dirty Little Girl.


Warning: The lead singer's overexposure and nasty attempts at being sleazy can get to you at times.

Hell N' Diesel - high velocity hard rock in a sea of Glam.

Blogging about Hell N' Diesel makes up for lengthy content. It gives me one fine reason to add another post in less than a week without writing a great deal.

That's because there's really nothing much to write about them, and I mean no sarcasm in that. Quite literally, there's virtually nothing to be found significant after almost two months of searchin' the web. Official site is on 'htm-test', their MySpace account is nothing more than a plain media player.. the only thing you find in Wiki is their line-up, written in, well maybe, Swedish. The album I downloaded did not even have the proper title, Passion for Flower was how I  grabbed it. Hardly even my Glam guru  friend Harry knows anything about this band, and he knows them all- from the least important foxy posers during the Sunset Strip heydays up to the most legit musicians from this recent uprising in Sweden. Yes, there are more than a just a couple of 'glam revivalists' from Sweden. There's a revolution going on, and I'll write about that one soon.

I'm glad that on this note, there's something new I can hand on to Harry that he doesn't know yet. It's another matter if he'll dig this or not. Consider yourself lucky, I will not be writing about this band if this shit ain't worth your time. This record has been playing from start to finish on all my long road trips as of late.  Hell N' Diesel, as I would put it, is the flipside to this whole Swedish Sleaze stew that's been emerging. Somewhat like Guns N Roses was to the whole L.A. scene. Not because they don't sport the whole shitty fashion sense that these new bands from Sweden seem to still replicate (in point of fact, save for the pop metal lead singer, it's Crazy Town I do observe in them), but for the sole reason that Hell N' Diesel is the most aggressive-sounding from the lot. It may be a phenomenon, or some observable fact for them to be an antithesis to the scene in which they came from. But then again it may be strategy if the chronicles of GnR history were to be the basis.

There's one official clip from You Tube that fortunately they were able to put some budget into. Not the best one from their record I guarantee you that. First time I heard this, Motley Crue's Power to the Music instantly came to my mind. I hope this doesn't deter you from getting your hands on their powerful record, and as well I'm giving you the heads-up that the guitar solos you'll find here are so Slash-like, and the singing voice you may take  for Jani Lane's any time of the day. 

Just think of Hell N' Diesel this way: a street gang carrying with them a whole arsenal of everything that is heavy, raunchy and dirty about the eighties.  Now blast away!

Ratt tune by Lamb of God? How about Swamp Rat by Lamb of God!

Im not exactly sure if I heard it right. But several times of playing it back tells me Willie Adler said it was a Ratt tune they played when they jammed with street musicians in Japan. That bit I'm talkin about was from their Walk With Me In Hell dvd if you remember. 

I'm not your biggest Ratt fan. It's like Nobody Rides For Free and nothing else for me, so I really can't tell if that was a Ratt song or not. But I got curious, LOG playing Ratt? Awesome! But bad audio from an illegally downloaded copy and lack of related info hinder me from laying it down to you shit-confirmed. So I kept on searchin the web.. kept on typing those keywords Ratt-song-Lamb-of-God.. Instead, I frequently got directed to some Yahoo Answers link with a query to find the song 'Swamp Rat' by Lamb of God. Apparently, the person behind the question found this insane commercial video with an insane heavy tune, and some folk told him what that song was.

Not that I exhumed my older LOG records to rectify the matter - but I got addicted to that almost literally insane You Tube video. And now I'm sharin' it to you! 

I hope you identify with this too. 


Horns Up!

New Ozzy album Scream - nothing more than an inescapable Gus G vs Zakk Wylde spotlight?

Congratulations to me, I have now ceased giving you heads-ups on upcoming albums that totally stoke me out. I reckon its better that I keep my mouth shut til I get to listen to new stuff. Only then I suppose it is apt to speak to you about how my metal guts are responding to such record, rather than not get back to you after saying my hear ye's!   Apologies for that..

I've come victorious now, you may be clued-up there's a whole lotta new stuff that's gonna rain down on our metal asses- and I'm holdin my horses. That is not to say though that I have reserved my keenness on Ozzy's new album Scream, in all honesty I wasn't really mighty stirred up about that. For one, I was quite disappointed with Ozzy's recent record Black Rain. I found almost all tracks dull, save for I Don't Wanna Stop, even if that song too is too much of a 'template' in the Ozzy/Zakk sense. Next, I knew this new record was going to be a stand-off between Zakk Wylde and Gus G. And I hate measurin' up guitarists from a technical standpoint. Nevertheless, any 'review' of this album renders the impossibility of not pitting those two guitarists against each other. So I'll stick to their styles, not the techniques, if that is where this leads to.

I like Zakk, you may have noticed that before. But the reason I got tired of Ozzy was Zakk as well. I love Pride & Glory, BLS and Live in Budokan, but succeeding Ozzy albums started sounding like BLS. It has gotten a little too old with Zakk's redundancy of vibratos and pinch harmonics on almost every single goddamn riff. In the end, it would be the reason of Ozzy's letting go of Zakk (which he would later recant in his Guitar World interview that Zakk's alcoholism was the main concern).


One more reason why I could not give a further fuck about this new record, (besides having the most lame album title any established heavy musician can come up with),  was how the Prince of Darkness himself constantly barked of callin' it quits.

But everything happened so fast. All of a sudden they're flying Gus G in and eventually putting this material out. So I got the album, and listened..

Funny thing is, unexcited as I am, I'm actually liking this record. I can't walk you through track after track this early, but I have a few points to mention. And the most surprising of all is that I'm still hearing Zakk on this record! His slow  fee-fie-foe-fum riffs on the song Soul Sucker, his descending pick tapping/scratching, double stops and scales on the solo of Let Me Hear You Scream.. there's always something reminiscent about the Old Berserker in almost every track! Did Zakk make it to the laying of the groundwork of this record before he got fired? I don't think so. Not if his style shows mostly on Gus G's solo rather than on the whole song structure. Was it some conscious effort on the part of the production team. Maybe. For what purpose I have no idea.


An outstanding remark I have for this record is Ozzy's singing. Man, it's hard to put your trust on something knowing the industry has truly raised the bar technology-wise, but live footage tells me it's legit. Check the one from Jimmy Kimmel below then compare it to the subsequent official video. I must say that with his singing alone on this record, my respect for Ozzy has increased tenfold. I no longer have this contempt for his vise grip, clamp-through-the-throat  and linear style of singing. And considering that he's old for a singer already- he had every friggin' right  to name this album as he damn pleased. Scream. Indeed.

I think it's becoming evident by now that I'm a reborn Ozzy fan. 


I can't even sing all the tracks in this record yet, so I guess it's just that initial gut feel about something that's genuine that made me admire this recent offering. And there's not even a killer First Track to strap me on an Acme warhead through the entirety of the album. Let It Die, which is clearly an attempt to be accessible to the younger fans, just don't get me off. I skip it, as a matter of fact. It's not modern but just rap metal. And a plain one at that. The rest I can say modern though, with very much prudent use of synths and keyboards without getting too Reznor-ish. 


Lyrics? nothing too weighty. I didn't expect that from Ozzy. I bet he still clings on the angry teenager poetry as it has always been his sig from the very first Sabbath record up to Black Rain. It may be Sharon's pre-approved marketing standard for all we know. 


All things considered, I think this is a great record nonetheless. And even if all other maniacs are coming up with positive reviews I must come clean and state that I loved this record first before I had browsed on them. But it sure adds a little more gratification hearing them put this up in the same league as Bark At The Moon. Others have even declared that there's nothing inferior about the singles here even if played next to big classics such as Crazy Train or No More Tears. 


In the end I would gladly like to drop the perception that Scream is nothing but a gladiator arena of past and present guitarists. Much more than that, it is a celebration of Ozzy's ever vibrant career. Though he may be old enough to bite heads of bats and pigeons, he proved us through this record that he's here to stay and not bore us along the way. 


Now I had just realized I don't think I can go on handing Tony Iommi all the heavy metal credit. It ain't a good way to present historical facts, massaging details to tailor-fit for listeners. I blame Sam Dunn for this attitude, Ozzy was as much a part of Sabbath as Iommy is. Period. 

The Last Vegas - Whatever Gets You Off !

The Last Vegas - it's been forever trying to write about this band and their record Whatever Gets You Off. It has taken so long because I can't embed the fucking video of their single! Goddamn ElevenSevenMusic for that.

This is THE post, if you will. I'm finally admitting, not without a trickle of courage, that I SO dig  Glam Rock. Or Glam Metal, Hollywood Rock, 80's metal, Sleaze Rock, Spandex Rock. Choose how you label this genre of unforgivable looks, there's some good music involved, that's for damn sure.

I've always bantered on myself that I'm a half-thrash metal, half-hard rock type of person. That's because I really can't seem to slice up where the boundaries lie. Thrash represents the dark side in me- I hold on to this music in times of angst and dejection, headbangin' in my man-cave or swaying back and forth in such ominous cacophony as I manhandle my demons. 


Call it psycho but I ain't slashin' my wrists in such an emo-esque manner! 

Hard Rock, on the other hand, stands for the badass in me. The debauchery, the cowboy boots and my love for alcohol!


I'd say if it were to be based on personality and just that alone, I'm one notch more of a hard rock guy.

Notwithstanding the abovementioned split personality psycho babble, blastin my speakers with tracks from Whatever Gets You Off made me think how much of a Glam fan I am. And I figured that's because it's the one sub-genre of this very wonderful umbrella of heavy music that makes me such a teen forever. Whether I'm thrash or hard rock doesn't seem to matter anymore. I will always be this kid who will never outgrow, despite the silly looks and moves, my love for Poison, Ratt and Bang Tango. There's just so much fun to miss!

       

That's it, Whatever Gets You Off is a fun record in general. Though I can't say the 'fun' part is still stuck in the eighties. The Last Vegas, in spite of being a Nikki Sixx 'gem' has kind of re-modeled themselves into this one big dirty ball of sleaze rockers playing some serious abrasive type of rock n roll. Yes it's still rock n roll to my ears, and I believe to yours too, if you listen more seriously. The one thing that drags them to the metal category, in my opinion, is their use of heavy and modern distortion. But then if you briefly shove those effects aside, you'll be cleared to an underside of boogie-based rhythm chords and lots and lots of Rolling Stones type of swagger.

Get this album now whether you relate to all my sentiments or not. As for how I manage playing this record, I have given two stars for each and every song since I can play the album in its entirety. There's not one lifeless piece in here, and the first track of the same title sure gets me off I just might crown it my five stars. 

In Whatever Gets You Off, the way in which the end of the chorus jumps right back at (yes, at, not to..just like a cat) the next verse is so insane in its execution! It's like hitting someone with a baseball bat and just totally forgetting about it as you resume playing guitar! 

Now since there's just no embedding that official vid, and I can't even download the badmother and upload it back here in blogger's crappy player, do check out HELL!. Trust me, you will surely bookmark that one.

Zakk Wylde guitar giveaway!

No matter how shitty-sounding your guitar is, aesthetics work at the end of the day.




(Ain't that the truth!)

I guess I'm trolling here no matter how much I hate debates. I still hold on to my opinion, don't get me wrong,  the guitar should sound fine. But isn't playing in front of many people the reason why we started rockin' at all? Club or arena, for damn sure I want my guitar mean-looking as hell if I am to shake my ass in front of people!

Point is, if I have all the money in the world, I can get good guitar brands with quality sound. Now the issue is not the quality, but the 'type' of sound. And yes, of course, the looks. If I want to play blues straight away, I'd get a Strat. And not just a Strat, but a Road-worn Strat. But I'm not your full-on blues guy, I also play metal rhythm. Now we should be talking Dean, or ESP in that regard. But no matter how many designs I look into, I still go back full circle to Zakk Wylde's Bullseye.

It's gonna be my 'safe queen' if ever I get my hands on one.

Win Zakk Wylde's Guitar!

Check out Classic Rock for all the details. The actual sweepstakes site is in Facebook though.

For whatever reason my eyes swept past again on all the details and were caught suddenly on that 'only persons residing in United Kingdom..' eligibility of the raffle. Man, I almost lost all interest to read on further. Often as well I'd find videos in Metal Hammer and Classic Rock, which, upon clicking, slaps you right off in the face with 'streaming only available in the uk'. Whenever I see that one hell of a disclaimer I always feel the urge to give my childhood buddy and former bandmate/drummer Vincent, who's now based in the UK, a buzz to check those things out. But in this case, I reckon it's not much of a reason of a disturbance to him, or any of my other friends in that country, who are now all too busy with Wimbledon, and are in mourning of the Three Lions' recent trouncing from Germany. Besides, my buddy's a drummer and the prize here ain't no drumkit. 

But off I went on to read more.. Fact of the matter is, I only saw the SG top half of the guitar in the pic above. Now I wanted to learn more about it and how Epiphone plans to pull-off the Bullseye pattern famous with the Les Paul, on the not-so-rounded body of an SG. Problem is, details say its half SG top and half flying V bottom. Curiosity is at an all-time high already as I cant even imagine the bullseye rings in an SG, let alone in a hybrid of two famous designs. Damn the extra effort of going to Google images.. but I'm saving you the hassle of that.

I can't say I'm particularly excited about this one. But I'm pretty much sure I don't want something that reminds me of snorkeling and agitating some starfish underwater. 

Always have been drooling over the bullseye design. It defines everything I love about Zakk Wylde -his playing, his attitude, his 'wrestler' stance, his fist-pumping, muscle-flexing, saliva-spittin', water-sproutin' antics and most of all, his blindingly fast pentatonics. He rips those leads and you're caught in a hypnotic trance. It's the same effect when you look into the rings of the Bullseye pattern!

However, as with this Epiphone ZV, Zakk has a tendency to use designs not so in-sync with his image. I did not like his take on the dotted Flying V pattern ala- Randy Rhoads, and more especially his bottle cap riddling off the Les Paul top. He better be sober when conceptualizing Guitar models, or else it gets too weird, not wild. And it says so in the Black Label Society site, which I quote "Here is a tip for the faint of heart - never put these three things together: Zakk Wylde, a bar napkin, and a pencil." I was thinking sarcasm, except it was not. I got it from the complete Gibson* Zakk Wylde ZV promotional donwloadable pdf that you can get here.

*you heard right, Epiphone is a subsidiary of Gibson but they maintain different production plants.

I think I'll be satisfied dreaming of just the orange Buzzsaw for now..

Guns N' Roses Family Tree Double CD

I'm a big GnR crackhead always at the ready for my fix, but I called in sick on the last fanclub hieros gamos and entirely missed this piece of news here.

Guns N' Roses Family Tree

released on the Argentina record label Music Brokers Arg., May 2010.

If you are all too familiar with long-standing bands which have become somewhat like 'revolving doors' for different members, you might have ended up going to forums and sites trying to see who's the bassist, guitarist, or even singer for a particular point in a band's career. Say you've got numerous Whitesnake albums, and you have been impressed with the second lead guitar solo of this one song, but dunno of it's Doug Aldrich or Vivian Campbell who's playing (Doug has become some sort of replacement for every band Vivian has ever been to that he almost kind of replicated the 'delivery' of the latter), then you end up tracing the band's 'Family Tree'.

They're scattered all over the internet, those Family Trees. Whitesnake, DiO, Def Leppard and even to some degree, yes, Guns N' Roses. Not that they have really been a 'revolving door' band for the better part of their career, but some crazy-ass fans just kept on documenting its members and session musicians off of their Sunset Strip days up to the present Entropy of a line-up. You might not all be willing to agree that the current line-up is still GnR, but great band they may be, I, as well, belong to the camp which prefer them better left as "Axl & Friends". 


As I have originally intended to write this online resource for friends who have stopped researching on new material, I found the urge to write this and inform them of this 'must-download' stuff. Problem though, is that if you're probably one of them GnR die-hard fans with too much time on your hands, you must have amassed enough mp3's of your heroes that you may find nothing new in here.. 


Save for, maybe, the original studio version of Nice Boys. 


Nonetheless, I reluctantly loaded my iPod with this double album and duplicated some of my other files in the process. I noticed I already have some of the tracks from my Roots of Guns N Roses - Gilby Clarke and Fred Coury re-mastered, L.A. Guns studio recordings, Tribute to Aerosmith..etc..


But I'm having mighty grand time comparing the quality of those same tracks. My eardrums may be  all too hammered but I figured right off the bat that the ones from this Family Tree compilation seem to have been quality mastered before distribution. I may just as well end up saving the tracks from this record instead.


Tracklist: 

CD1

1  Anything Goes  -  Hollywood Rose
2  Welcome To The Jungle  -  Gilby Clarke, Tracii Guns & Kevin Dubrow (Quiet Riot)
3  No More Mr.Nice Guy  -  Slash & Roger Daltrey (The Who)
4  Sex Action  -  L.A. Guns
5  Sweet Child O Mine  -  Gilby Clarke
6  Killing Time  -  Hollywood Rose
7  Elected  -  Duff Mckagan, Matt Sorum, Steve Jones (Sex Pistols) & Billy Duffy (The Cult)
8  My Michelle  -  L.A. Guns
9  It’s So Easy  -  Tracii Guns, Gilby Clarke & Fred Coury (Cinderella)
10 Last Cigarette  -  Hollywood Rose Feat. Teddy Zigzag

11 You’re Crazy  -  Gilby Clarke, Tracii Guns & Stevie Ranchelle (Tuff)
12 Nice Boys  -  Guns N’ Roses (Rare Track – Original GnR Lineup)


CD2
13 Pour Some Sugar On Me  -  L.A.Guns
14 Rocker  -  Hollywood Rose
15 Mr. Brownstone  -  Bang Tango Feat Tracii Guns & Gilby Clarke
16 Toys In The Attic  -  Tracii Guns & Stephen Pearcy (Ratt)
17 Jailbreak  -  Hollywood Rose Feat Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones)
18 Used To Love Her  -  Gilby Clarke, Tracii Guns & John Corabi (Motley Crue)
19 Gypsy  -  Slash & Tommy Shaw (Styx)
20 Wanted Dead Or Alive  -  L.A.Guns
21 Patience  -  Gilby Clarke, Tracii Guns & John Corabi (Motley Crue)
22 Don’t Cry  -  Spike (Quireboys), Tracii Guns & Gilby Clarke
23 Shadow Of Your Love  -  Hollywood Rose
24 Lay It Down  -  Stephen Pearcy (Ratt) & Tracii Guns




Now if only you can show me that one golden link to a fine copy of those Rumbo Tapes...

The Big Four of Thrash - first picture together in one room!!!!

To what may be the most outstanding photograph in the annals of heavy music...

I only have a few words to say, you see I was thrilled with some news that might be good enough to get your asses all fired up, but I'm shoving that aside lest it gets in the way of this killer of a boulder!!!

Stole this from Megadeth.com. The biggest event in the history of Thrash, and Heavy Metal  in general, happens tonight in Warsaw, Poland at the Sonisphere Festival.

For the story behind that picture above, click HELL!

Damn you Jeff Hanneman!!! Where the fuck were you when they were raisin them devil horns?!!!

EDIT 17 June:

More pictures from BLABBERMOUTH..

I am practically in tears.. (WTF?)

Randy Blythe, Emerson Knives and New Emerson Brand Apparel Bushido shirts!!

I got another Emerson shirt for me last Christmas, paid for the damned shipping costs with a chunk of my bonus, but it was worth every fuckin' penny. Wanna know why? 'Cause there's nothing else in the world like the one I got!

I just can't stop 'bout my other hobby now, can I?

Well, I could have. Really. Except that Trivium is so Japanese and so Heavy Metal that it's almost impossible to delineate the boundaries. I can rant on further, but just think about this: a meteorite may hit Earth and blow us all to oblivion but Japan will still be boilin' with Heavy Music!

I don't know why. Maybe it's in their samurai blood. Lots of hard to deny facts about that. For one, Anvil who's from the other side of the globe seems to have almost lost its fanbase in North America but still maintains a loyal following in Japan soil. Marty Friedman. Tyrants of The Rising Sun. All the sold-out shows in Budokan which eventually turned out to be the best-selling live albums of all time. There are just more than a thousand reasons to get Japan-inspired tattoos.

And shirts..

Further, that previous post on Emerson Knives and Emerson Brand Apparel could have been my last one too. But PULP just released those Lamb Of God photos again, in their 'Slam issue.

And I know there's a bunch of folks out there sittin' around and just wonderin' 'hey that's Mesa Boogie on John Campbell's shirt, but that is not the FUCK SUBTLETY shirt that Randy's wearing, right? what is that?'

We all know Randy loves books, survival lessons, bullwhips, grilling and the outdoor in general. Apparently he also loves fighting knives. And not just plain fighting knives, but the best ones he can get. Emerson Knives.

And he says so in that shirt he's wearing.

So now he has got me talking about those clothes again. Emerson Brand Apparel is just so dang cool. I can switch from Japanese to American Classic Tattoo themes in just one browsing. 

Or even Southern US themes!


Check this next shirt out. In faded charcoal hue, the design gives more of a Hard Rock swagger rather than Heavy Metal ferocity. And it's so perfect, not just for my conservative ass, but for the next Razorback gig as well!

It's just about the only band in this godforsaken country that I reserve the right to tag as 'rock', so i'll be wearin' this!

1979! If it ain't my year, baby, it's somethin' else! What an honor to be born in that same year when Emerson Knives started gearing up for world domination.

Black Tide's Light From Above is totally off the charts Old School Metal!

Them Magic City kids can kick your teenybopper asses anytime of the day.

  

I must say, it ain't that frustrating after all, quittin' on the idiot box and all its mighty crap. People talkin' shit left and right 'bout who's winning the fuckin' elections, the NBA games.. never gave a dirty rat's ass about basketball.

But it was cool 'accidentally' seeing the final American Idol episode, with Bret Michaels finally back and rockin hard!

Hell, but look at what dwellin' in my filthy wormhole has gotten me into. Longliveheavymusic discoverd Black Tide! A tad too late for some metalhead who's been out hunting for some real music as of late, I know. But pardon me, I've been lookin' at the other direction, re-exploring the Hard Rock side of the word 'heavy'. That's what I do whenever I feel jaded about evil stuff, the Devil's Third, camo shorts and unkempt hair- i switch back to fun rock n roll! 

These past few weeks got me takin' a crack at the few hard rock items I had been waiting for, and it has been a long wait since the last output from Airbourne. Yet I still have this yearning to dig up quite some more after one spinning of No Guts, No Glory. True I can't go anywhere near as 'judging' it, and I won't. It's just that everything sounded too simple and basic from start to finish..

 

So forward I went to catch up on some of the more complex rock that's been out there for a while but I haven't checked out yet. I can give this self-titled one from Black Water Rising additional stars, maybe, after a couple more times I sit around with it. But I guess it's my longing for raw energy, power or chi..or whatever the fuck you wanna call it, that seems to never dwindle down.





Thank heaven for the parents who squirted out Black Tide.

More than a million hits on You Tube and I might still be playing John Corabi-era Motley Crue when all of these are happening! 

My ultimate memory of kids playing real heavy music was that of Death Angel's video from way before when they were just starting out. Andy Galeon was14 years old at the time and he ripped skins not thinking that his arm may only be as thick as those Vic Firths that we have today. I was blown away. Completely.


Had I seen that before the upper fucking echelons of the music business decided they would cash in on Silverchair ( and eventually Hanson, Moffats..  p'Tui! apologies all you alternagrunge lovers but I see no difference in them all ), it might have been a less boring time for me during the early 90's. I could imagine just how many people I would have debated that those kids aren't the be-all and end-all of teenage musicianship.

Well, we got a new breed here. 


from Wiki:

"The band started touring and gained a position on the second stage of Ozzfest, but were kicked off the tour because the stage was sponsored by Jagermeister and all of the members of Black Tide were under the legal drinking age. Although the band was no longer appearing on the second stage, Black Tide was able to be the opening act on the main stage in some areas...They are well known partly due to their age. They are all under the age of 21 and two members are still in High School. Also the lead singer is still 15."

Totally stoked. From first to the last track, Light From Above is full-on high velocity old school metal! It's been a long time since I had last gotten my hands on one album where I just kept on clicking 5 star ratings,  track after track, in my iTunes Library.

Sure enough everything is so ProTools these days, and I see where the skeptics are coming from. But hell we can always check with live footage. Try that one on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Man, do they deliver! Only complain on them live was the singing, which seemed to be low-pitched already. But I can't whine any much further about someone who's not even old enough to buy liquor and play really technical stuff!  

Also, don't crucify this author for branding them heavy metal, I must admit I was thinking sleaze rock when I first heard them. Some had even gone as far as '..sounds like Guns N Roses' in their reviews. But I'll pass on that. It's the riff-driven definition of 80's metal (virtually forgotten these days) that really grabs the music of this band if you listen more closely. Not so textbook on their part however, which means it can also be dubbed... FRESH. Hell, I don't even know how to explain the possibility of that. All I know is I fear maybe someday they will 'mature' musically, and experiment too far. But that's stating ahead of everything, might as well get fired up first with what they have to offer at the moment. 

This album is killer, man. I can't even find the words. I may be old school, but I have always believed that this same formula of heavy music is what we all true fans battle to push forth to the next century. If this can't be labeled as carrying the torch, I don't know what else can. Justin 'Gay Beaver' Beiber? Gimme a fuckin break.



EDIT 9 June: yes that last sentence baffles logic and obscures the flow of thought coz he's not even metal, but i'm not editing it for bashing purposes..i dont even know who he is :)