Pantera's 'The Will To Survive' and the 20th Anniversary 'Cowboys Deluxe'.

Yours truly and the very best of my friends are all big, big Pantera fans. How can we afford to be not? Heck, we rode hell and high water during our four years of secondary education with almost all records from those Lone Star thrashers! Anything Pantera, myth or fact, was enough to get us through Piss High.

But damn if my peers ain't hangin around Facebook too much. This must have caught their attention already but just in case they missed this one, here it goes: 

From the Official Pantera Facebook Page: 


We will be premiering the track "The Will To Survive right here on our FB page at Noon EST on 8/30/10. Stay tuned for more details. And check out the packaging for the 3cd Deluxe 20th Anniversary Edition of Cowboys From Hell:

I was practically not stoked when Nirvana put out the then-unreleased track 'You Know You're Right' back in '02. That was supposed to be the treasure from the compilation record they had at the time. Cobain wasn't great, we all know that. He just happened to have executed his disappearance at a perfect time. Needless to say, 'previously unreleased tracks' aren't always cool. Besides, did we really need a new Nirvana song?

But Dime? Dead or not, he will always be celebrated as a metal genius. And we're missin him like hell, ain't we? Now let the wings of gratitude flutter for we can add another song to that fine collection of his works. And if that's not enough, at least with it, they've re-mastered Cowboys From Hell and added some pretty electric live shit with it.

So I'll stream this on the 30th and i'll be literally holding on to my Crescent double barrel, 12 gauge and sparks will fly everywhere in sight I promise you that! 

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!!"

The Slash incident in Milan and The Ultimate Rock N Roll Badass.

I got into revisiting Clint Eastwood movies as of late, all because Gran Torino was on Star Movies again. And yeah I'm a big fan of Western films you know that. I'm sure I can't go wrong on a marathon of big bore rifles and bad guys being sent to hell before I tuck myself in. With that I wondered, who is the ultimate Hollywood badass??

You then translate that from your mind down to Google and you get loads of garbage. For damn sure Javier Bardem's name is going to make the list, no doubt about that. But other than the funniest line from No Country For Old Men, you get other links too. Man I can't remember if it was Yahoo Answers (again) that dug that crap up but seriously, Vin Diesel? As far as my metal ass knows he ain't one bit of a BA for one second of his fame! 
Well I shouldn't be askin that in the first place. It's Clint Eastwood, no shit. 


You must have seen this coming. Who's the ultimate Rock N Roll badass?? One thing's for certain, it's not Glenn Danzig.

Talk about bad reflexes! On a serious note though, fuck that rap metal dude. Just the name of his band makes me flinch thinking of the thug music they bring. I wish I had more space here to bitch about that. 

Going back to bad reflexes, a few years ago I was browsin on some news of a then-rising Velvet Revolver, I remember reading all of the members enlisting and training for some Kung Fu shit or some other martial arts training. To 'relieve stress', apparently. But with all those lessons and after all that happened before (Dimebag, Lennon), Slash is still kind of slow in his reactions during his Sweet Child solo in Milan. Click here for the full Blabbermouth update. It didn't make that much of a noise, being buried in all the Big Four blow-by-blows at the height of the Sonisphere mayhem. Jump to 1:15 for the rush.

It was cool of Slash to just make fun of it, to just 'air guitar' his way out of awkwardness. I won't take him for a BA really, but I dig his guts confronting Chris Holmes of W.A.S.P. at the Rainbow. That part of his book is just insane.


Now I can't help but share my favorite video, which, well I got from a martial arts mind-conditioning talk, how 'bout that. As a classic example, obviously. I would say that from the way Keith handled and maneuvered his guitar, either he might be King Arthur's descendant or he's really into some serious broadsword training! Look at how he got back to shaking his A, it's like he never missed a single fucking note! Now, that is badass..

If you still can't accede to the fact that Keith has to be in this article, go to the Facebook group 20 Reasons Why Keith Richards is a Fuckin Badass! and know why. Maybe you're too much of a sloth to do that, lemme lay down the list:

A group stating the top twenty reasons why Keith Richards is one of the original bad boys of rock and roll
He:
1. sleeps upside down to prolong his life
2. has snorted his own father's ashes
3. survived falling out of a coconut tree only to get up, board a jet ski, and knock himself out again
4. has told Mick Jagger to fuck off privately and publicly
5. gets his blood changed like the oil in a fucking chevy
6. has been punched out by chuck berry and lived
7. has tried every drug known to man and is living proof that the D.A.R.E. program is a crock of shit
8. cannot be killed by conventional weapons
9. has been rocking for 40+ years
10. has been known to drink, smoke, sing, and play the guitar at the same time
11. once threatened an interviewer by sodomy by bananna
12. casually flicks cigarette butts at his screaming audiences
13. has called Frank Sinatra a motherfucker
14. has had orgies with a mars bar
15. claims drugs aren't his problem, cops are
16. has been arrested 10 times
17. could use his face as a baseball mit
18. kicked Ronnie Wood in the ass for being sober and constantly makes fun of his newfound sobriety
19. was awake for nine days straight( drugged of course). When he finally fell asleep he fell face first onto a amp and broke his nose
20. When the end of the world comes all that will be left is dirt, cher, roaches, and Keith.

Avenged Sevenfold's Nightmare hits Billboard Top and Eminem gets to step down!

The Deathbat has finally snagged it!

Whew, it's been a nail-biting week for every A7X fan. I've been trying to get this one confirmed but apparently Billboard has not come up yet with a clear fuckin chart that says so! But Blabbermouth came out guns blazin' with the news, with no official link whatsoever. And as expected, Metal Hammer had echoed everything from there out. As of the time of this writing, the Billboard charts have not changed but the news section HELL! already has declared that Eminem has stepped aside for the new kings of the charts.

Again I'm giving you the Billboard News link, but here are other cool sites that were first to be shoutin' in the streets of hell!


Revolver Magazine, by far, the coolest article. And get the copy! It was this magazine that got me into A7X in the first place via their M Shadows/Metallca cover edition. 


BLABBERMOUTH was the first, as expected.
and then there's Metal Hammer - 're-tweeting' of course.


Some say it was the death of The Rev that had propped up the curiosity and therefore the sales. I'd say there was some hardwork too! And the sweat off the previous records has paid off as well.


Truly we no longer care if Metal gets to be on the charts again, we'd listen to it and love it no matter what. 


But ain't it cool to have the flag waived again? Especially if it's Eminem that's being crushed, and with a band of an Old School touch on the helm doing just that! 

Avenged Sevenfold's Nightmare - the initial album review and the Metallica resemblance.

I'm aware I'm not ahead by a damn sight in doing this review even if I got this record on it's first day of release. And as seasoned readers most of you may well be, you know for a fact there's really nothing proverbial to say if you have only been listening to tracks you just got a few days ago. Not even if you had looped the songs non-stop. So at this point, it's only initial impressions. And I bet those are what you may be wanting for if you're reading this right now. Unless you enjoy that 'song-opens-with-a-thunderous-explosive-stick-count-ends-in-an-apocalyptic-bassdrum' kind of bullcrap, I'm not doing that. It's a waste of time, that kind of literal horseshit account. Hear the tracks in Amazon preview for fuck's sake rather than have somebody describe them to you in words.

Believed to be the heaviest record to date from these Huntington Beach rockers, Nightmare for me stands in a laterally different category with their past releases. Heavy is relative. Arguably I can't label this effort as such. If it's one thing, Nightmare is their saddest record so far. Even If I had not known the passing of The Rev, I could and probably would have stated that there's the sad signature in this record. Still not convinced? Give me one song, just one song from Nightmare where we can unanimously concur that they just went out there and played for the fun of it. Something like they did with Bat Country from City Of Evil or Scream from the self-titled one. Quite noticeably, there is not one 'fun' song in this record. Predictable to an extent, of course, losing Jimmy just recently. And let me just add, having been a huge follower of their behind-the-scenes videos, that I'm pretty much sure The Rev was the happiest camper in the pack. So abandon all hopes of fresh radio-friendly hooks and stripper tunes, there are just none in this new output.

Yet in the same light, there's no mistaking that this is unashamedly and unabashedly an Afuckin7X record.

It's no big task backtracking some to shed light on how they came up with the sound in Nightmare. With Mike Portnoy filling in on The Rev's shoes, a kind gesture I must say, there's really no reason for Dream Theater fans to be checking this one out for his drumming. There's almost no difference- even The Rev's trademark 'double ride' was effortlessly executed by his icon, as heard in 'Natural Born Killer'. As you may have noticed, everything was on 'template' already, with Mike suggesting a few tweaks here and there. Thus that leaves us no basis as well to gauge how much creative output expired with the Rev as he was a part of the laying of the groundwork as everyone was. But the recording is another matter, and his screaming is sure missed. At least he had graced us with his 'let it burn..' part in the song 'Fiction'.

The loudest buzz going on with respect to initial reviews is how much of a resemblance this record is to the early Metallica sound. And that is what I want to objectively tackle. Too many haters seem to disagree but cannot prove that there's nothing Metallica-esque here. True, it may be, that it all sums up to one's perception. But I'll give it a try. 

No painstaking scrutiny needed here, but it should be made clear whether we refer to the 'rig' or the 'riff'. Some tracks do, on occasion, sound like it used the same rig or set-up with the ones used in Master of Puppets, though I doubt there were any ESP's but there's no mistaking in the depth of distortions. The amps, the environment, lots of other factors may be the same. Even the clean guitar employed on the song 'Victim' is evidently Hetfield-reminiscent. 


As with regard to the 'riff', well that's a different subject. As much as I hate to stride on these grounds, I will have to name a few. The song 'Buried Alive' embarked on to its heavy part with something that sounded like the 'Orion' main riff, and by the outro I seriously thought they were flagrantly quoting 'Ride The Lightning'. I hear also, 'My Apocalypse' via the same Death Magnetic style palm-muted chugs in the rhythm filler of the solo to 'Welcome To The Family'. One thing that is not Metallica thrash here is the song 'God Hates Us'. Albeit with a familiar title, conversely it doesn't translate to that Slayer song. The main riff rings to me like another thrash song that has even got something synonymously resonant of the title -Death Angel's 'Lord Of Hate'. If you have noticed anything even remotely Pantera about this song, or any other track for that matter, name it. Otherwise you're just another Wiki junkie who happens to have taken M.Shadows' word for it.

Moving on, I'm on the high road to being a dog with two dicks, thanks to this new record. I honestly do not care one bit if it sounds like something else. Before being the legends they are, Metallica took several strikes for sounding like Diamond Head, or whatever the critics thought close to them at the time. Yet the records they made are our anchors to everything that is great in this whole metal lineage.  Initial impressions are far easily transcended the more you play this record, as there are more than just the sound to consider. On top of everything else, Synyster Gates is as unfailing as ever in writing his guitar parts. Nothing too flashy, technique wise, but hell those licks sure make their mark. Had he lived through the eighties he would have blasted away many other pop metal axemen. Double that up with Zacky's guitar and you got a pyro of a duo that's sure to light up the sky. And we do not have that much of a tandem recently. 


With their efforts altogether, they have given us once again a full-on barrage of dark, fuck-this-world, furious songs and sad ballads that conjure up images of a funeral pyre, slow processions and a stormy weather farewell rites to a friend. Not wishing tragedy to befall anyone, but this sure is a great record to carry anyone through his darkest days.


That's how this record falls into the great halls of awesomeness. Its an album that's not a repetition of past ones yet it still maintains that hallmark sound. 2007's Avenged Sevenfold may have been well-received by the big-ass critics in the industry, in the same way that City Of Evil was taken back in '05, but evidently those two albums never sounded thematically the same. And here we got a new one that is no way inferior to the previous two. And one that just might knock-off Eminem at the Billboard top spot.


In summary, Nightmare had all the workings of a classic. It may be disparaged by your usual A7X hater, possibly not in the same degree that hair metal was criticized back then, but surely this will be one revered album now, and even 20 years after.

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.