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.

Album Review: "The Afterman: Ascension" by Coheed and Cambria

Have you ever heard of an album and then really hoped you would be able to enjoy the music it contained within? This is what happened to me when I heard about "The Afterman: Ascension."

I had never heard of Coheed and Cambria and honestly if I had, I may have very well dismissed them on their name alone, but I read the article I received in my email about their new concept record: "The Afterman."

As someone who grew up wearing out Pink Floyd "The Wall," I was interested in the double album that was forthcoming from the band.

I even watched the trailer, though it didn't really contain any music to speak of. This may also be the first trailer I've ever watched for an album. Upon reading the article, I was disappointed to learn that the double album was a series of two single albums, but my interest was still piqued.

Classic Album Review: "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" by Pink Floyd

Momentary Lapse of Reason

We are now at the 25th year of this album's existence. I first received it as a Christmas gift in the early 90's or late 80's. I do not recall for sure. Then, like now, I was trying to expand my musical collection and this was one of the albums I was given. I had no idea at the time of the three phases of Pink Floyd. I only knew that my cousin loved Pink Floyd, my step-dad loved Pink Floyd, they used funny sounds on their albums, and that Pink Floyd The Wall was a creepy movie that moved me, but I didn't know how.

I originally had this album on cassette and I don't remember what happened to that cassette, but I did listen to that tape about a million times over and over. I recently purchased this album on CD finally. This time, I know that the career of Pink Floyd has spanned three major phases and that a lot of people do not particularly enjoy this album, but there is something about it that made me want to own it again, so I bought it.

Album Review: "Monster" by Kiss

Who's your favorite band? Be honest. Mine is Kiss.

I have been listening to this band since I was about 7 years old. So, it's hard for me to look at this album objectively, but this is my subjective opinion on everything anyway right?

I do love all eras of the band at least to a point, but not to the point that they can do no wrong and everything they do is awesome.

I need to make a couple other quick points. Ace Frehley is my favorite guitar player and I have a real hard time seeing Tommy Thayer dressed up as Ace Frehley. It's not right. Now that I have those two things on the table, I can begin in earnest.

Monster is the second album by the world's highest paid Kiss Tribute band, Kiss. When I first heard Sonic Boom, I was unimpressed, but as time wore on, I grew to enjoy the album more and more and I accepted the fact that even with their new lineup, Paul could still write some good tunes. The Gene tracks on that album were just terrible and Tommy's song was about lightning and Eric's song was ok, even if the lyrics didn't make a whole lot sense.

Album Review: "The Whippoorwill" by Blackberry Smoke

My wife and I were driving, and she told me about some southern rock band she'd heard about on NPR's "All Songs Considered" and that our daughter was rocking along like it was the be all end all of music. So, as I'm trying to make her a music aficianado, I bought her this CD, but I've kept it in my car for the most part.

The band refers to themselves as an apolitical southern rock band, but I don't really recall much politics out of Lynyrd Skynyrd. I know they worked for George McGovern's 1972 campaign and they made reference to the Watergate Scandal, but that's about all I can recall. As for the modern Skynyrd, well, honestly I don't pay that much attention to them, so they could be saying all sorts of things.

Well, on to Blackberry Smoke's record. This album opens up with a lively rocker called "Six Ways Till Sunday," and it doesn't take much imagination to guess what he's talking about, even before hearing the song.

Concert Review: Marilyn Manson Verizon Wireless Ampitheater 10/05/12

I have been a fan of Marilyn Manson for a very long time. I saw, then, them at Mississippi Nights on the Smells Like Children Tour in 1995, at least I think it was 1995. Well, in the seventeen long years since that show, the them has morphed into a him. At that point, there were two replacement members in the band already, Twiggy Ramirez and Ginger Fish.

Now there are no original members in the band, and only Marilyn and Twiggy have the band's iconic Serial Killer and Sex Symbol names, but Mr. Manson is still making music, and apparently still touring. As I had the opportunity to see his show at the Verizon Wireless Ampitheater, I definitely made sure I was there.

Now, let me say, this was a Twins of Evil Tour date with Rob Zombie, but I did not stay for the Zombie set. This was the only time I have ever been cold in St. Louis's premier outdoor concert venue. About a year before this show, I saw mc chris in Columbia, MO and it was a hundred degrees that day. This year, it was about 38 and hailing. While we were finishing our very healthy meal before heading into the show, pea sized chunks of hail started pelting my windshield in the middle of a frigid torrential downpour.

Classic Album Review: "Hooker'n'Heat" by John Lee Hooker and Canned Heat

It was recommended to me that I purchase this album. I send a youtube link from James Leg and I was told that I needed to purchase this record. So I did.

This double album is the combined efforts of John Lee Hooker and Canned Heat. Based on the laid back timbre of the songs and talking between tracks. I'd wager this was recorded over the course of a weekend with basically no rehearsal. John makes mention of how no matter what he does, he can't lose that guy.

I'm not really much of a fan of the blues, but that's changing. What I do find myself enjoying these days though are collaboration albums. Painkillers by James Leg and Left Lane Cruiser, Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed, etc. I also really enjoy double albums. I think that if a band has the material, they should put it all out. On this record, they surely did. I would wager that they just all got into the studio and sat down in the big room and just waited for the red light to come on.

Album Review: "The Strange Case Of..." by Halestorm

The Strange Case Of...

Do you remember records? What about tapes? If there was ever a case for an album to be released on either of those formats it's this one, but I'll get to that in a little bit. I don't want to get ahead of myself too much.

This is the sophomore effort by Halestorm. This band piqued my interest because there is a female in the band, Lzzy Hale. I hope there will come a point where this no longer piques my interest, but until such point, homogeneity is the enemy of all art forms. Unlike a few other female metal vocalists, Lzzy does more than just scream. She is also credited with guitars and keyboard on this album.

This is another of my many recommendations by Amazon.com. As many know, that is where I purchase the vast majority of my music. I checked out a couple previews of this album and and on the wishlist it went.

Album Review: "Greetings From Welp City" by the Hooten Hallers

Welcome to Welp City. You may remember my concert review of the Hooten Hallers show. That was the second time I had seen them live and the show was just phenomenal. When I saw them the first time at El Lenador, I was floored and I really wanted to pick up their CD, but sadly, I only had so much money and I purchased "Painkillers" that night instead.

The next day I began seeking out information if I could acquire their physical CD, but alas the only want to get it was at their shows. There are several ways you can purchase the entire album on MP3 though, but that's just not my scene. I need to have a physical CD. Part of that is being old fashioned, part of that is I can't really hook up an MP3 player in my car, and part of it is wanting a physical backup to all of my music. When they were in town last, it was a release party of their 7" vinyl, of which I'm also not a fan, but I was holding out hopes that I would be able to snag one of their discs. I was able to snag what was apparently the only CD they had brought with them. In fact it still has the LAST ONE written on masking tape on the front of it.

Album Review "Omertà" by Adrenaline Mob

I find myself getting back into heavy metal. I had long sworn off the genre because to many bands were coming out like Korn and Meshuggah. I just really can't find myself enjoying the djent metal bands. On this blog I'm not going to separate the metal subgenres too much because I find that to be exhausting. Yes there are different kinds of metal and yes there will always be a new corner of the metal world, but I'm just don't have the time to pigeonhole things that extensively.

This brings me to the full length debut release by Adrenaline Mob. For some reason I had it in my head that this was their third album, but I was wrong. Upon listening to this album a few times, I am glad to find out that this was their debut release. I'm not going to say this is a flat out bad record, but this group shows its shortcomings a little more clearly than I would like over the course of the nearly fifty minutes of Omertà.

Album Review: "Blunderbuss" by Jack White

Blunderbuss

From time to time I am surprised by what I end up purchasing. "Blunderbuss" would definitely fall into that category. With the death of commercial radio, or would it be un-death as the continue to play the same things over and over and refusing to let them die, I am not exposed to new music anymore.

Because of this, I had never really heard anything by the White Stripes. I knew the song "Seven Nation Army," but that was about it.

I did kind of dig that song though. My big issue is that during my time of hating all things new, I had judged the White Stripes without ever having heard them.

Even now, I still haven't heard anything else by them, but I have redeemed myself somewhat by purchasing Jack White's new solo record, at least I feel that I have. Because of a complete lack of familiarity with the White Stripes and Jack White, I really had no idea what to expect when I put this album into the CD player.

Concert Weekend 9/14 & 9/17 Hooten Hallers and Butterfly Boucher

This will be a slightly strange post, but  here we are. Over this past weekend, I saw both the Hooten Hallers of Columbia, MO and Butterfly Boucher of Nashville by way of Australia. I'm aware this is a bit of a strange mash up, but here are. There were many other bands between these two bills, but I'm only going to talk about the bands we were there to see.

On Friday night, I was a the Off Broadway club with some friends to take in another show by the soon to be legendary Hooten Hallers from the middle of my home state. I had heard of this group in early 2012, but for some reason, I did not really check very deeply into them. I suppose it could be their name. I suppose that even though intellectually I know that the vast majority of great band names are taken, sometimes I'm still a bit put off by what a group, or in this case a duo, chooses to call themselves. I saw them for the first time at El Lenador when they took an open spot on a bill opening up for Left Lane Cruiser and I was floored. I was very excited to see them again and headlining this go around.

Review: "The Story of Light" by Steve Vai

The Story of Light

I love Steve Vai. My affection for him and his playing is not represented in my album collection as well as it should be, but I'm working on rectifying that. Mr. Vai and I go back a long ways. I still remember seeing him for the first time in the David Lee Roth videos. (This is the second recent album review of a former DLR guitar player. There most be something about Diamond Dave wanting to work with the best.) Do you remember that triple necked ambidextrous heart guitar?

In this day and age, Steve Vai is an elder statesman of instrumental guitar. In my playlists, Mr. Vai's music goes into to spots: metal and instrumental. Neither one of those categories accurately reflects what Steve Vai is. He is a stunning artist on the guitar. When I listen to his music, I simply get lost inside what he has created. In my mind's eye I see complex textures and landscapes when he is playing a melody line. Though he's often simply called a shredder, he's far more than that. Leonardo da Vinci was simply called a painter, but that was only one aspect of what he did as well. I could wax poetic about what Mr. Vai is and isn't for about three thousand words, so I suppose I should move on with this narrative and get to the CD.

Review: "De Vermis Mysteriis" by High On Fire

This is my first foray into what is called Stoner Thrash. I can remember when I was a little kid listening to what we termed heavy metal because that's what Steppenwolf called it, but now there are so many designations of what metal is and part of it is where it's from, but this really has nothing to do with this album, and I'm rambling about this, so I'll move on.

High On Fire is a power trio from Oakland. "De Vermis Mysteriis" is the sixth release by the trio and it's supposedly a high minded concept album about a very strange story.

 The story line revolves around a character who's the twin brother of Jesus Christ who has to give his life force to the incubating messiah so that Jesus may live and redeem the world as foretold, but then after giving his life force to his in utero brother, he becomes a time traveler on the order of Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap. Confused yet? So was I, but I became very intrigued and I bought the CD.

Review: "God Told Me To" by John 5

God Told Me To

Once I started playing guitar again, I rediscovered my love of a few things: death metal, instrumental guitar, and Guitar World. This John 5 album really touches on all of those things.

He plays bone crunching metal, all of his solo records are instrumental, and I read about this album in Guitar World.

John 5 is more than just a virtuoso guitar player. He is one of the most important players of our time, but almost no one has heard of him. His two most prominent gigs are as a sideman for Rob Zombie (current) and Marilyn Manson (past).

He has also recorded two albums with David Lee Roth under his given name John Lowery. He's recorded an album with Rob Halford and more. I know this makes him sound like he's a metal guitarist and nothing more, but he's also recorded for KD Lang, and many others. As a young player, his goal was to be a session player California. Well he's achieved that and more.