"Maiden England '88" by Iron Maiden

IRON MAIDEN! HORNS UP!

This summer they finally came back to St. Louis. Being an old man now, I went with my friend and his son, who's nearly as old as I was the last time I saw Maiden and older than I was the first time! This is relevant because Iron Maiden was recreating this 1988-89 Tour and played a nearly identical set list. There were a handful of songs that were different between the 2013 and 1998 versions.

Well, why are we looking at a 25 year old Iron Maiden live album? Because this is the 2013 re-release with extra tracks and presumably the reason why the Irons thought it would be a good idea to get back on the road and play all these songs again.  The show was spectacular in case you're wondering. Megadeth opened and played a great set and Dave didn't talk about any of the things that have made us all collectively groan....

Album Review: "Spell Eater" by Huntress

Do you know whom I love?

Iron Maiden and King Diamond.

For awhile, I thought that King Diamond was Iron Maiden every time I heard them because of the way the King and Bruce both sing. Huge and rangy. Couple that with twin guitars of death and throw in some scary, metal imagery and you're already 65% of the way to an awesome metal record.

Well, now let me get to the point of the matter. When is the last time you heard a metal band like that? For me, it was in 2008 when King Diamond released "Give Me Your Soul Please" and in 2010 when Iron Maiden released "The Final Frontier," but obviously neither of these two bands are new. Fast forward to to 2012 and a new band has arrived to pick up the mantle of whatever the hell kind of metal this is....Huntress.

Welcome To My Glacier

Good afternoon.

Thank you for stopping by today. This is my introduction to what I am doing with this bit of the web. I am going to begin by explaining who I am and what I do.

My name is Nik and I'm also the author of the 13 Blog. There I review, beers, slingers, fish frys, and other slightly strange food stuffs. Though I am a big sports fan, beer snob, father, and a thousand other things, my first love has always been music. An old friend of mine has always like to throw a quote of mine back into my face in a fairly sarcastic tone..."I was a music buff when I was eight." I suppose music buff was a pretty poor choice of words, but it is an accurate statement. At that very early age, I can remember Kiss taking the make up off and the premiere of the "Lick It Up" video on Friday Night Videos. Iron Maiden, Quiet Riot, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Run DMC, the Fat Boys, Black Sabbath, The Beastie Boys and so on and so forth. Over time, my tastes grew and I now appreciate a bit wider variety of music than I did when i was little, but I still love all of those old bands as well.