2008 was a great year for music. A number of popular 80′s metal bands released new records. New music from Dokken and Whitesnake and White Lion and King’s X and Def Leppard! I wrote about these albums in a blog post you can find here. Could life get any better?
It sure can! 2009 and 2010 have seen some incredible releases from veteran rockers from the 80′s as well.
Europe’s Last Look At Eden was released in 2009 and instantly became one of my favorite albums of the year. The music is hard and driving and these guys bring the melody!
The new Scorpions album, Sting In The Tail, is the band’s farewell record. What a way to retire! Apart from the 3 ballads, this album rocks from start to finish. Definitely a must buy for any hard rock fan!
I’ve always been a big fan of Winger. Their blend of hard rock and sugary pop metal is just something I love to listen to. In Karma, Winger pulls out all the stops and gives us fan some terrific songs.
I can’t say that I was a fan of Krokus back in the 80′s, but their new album, Hoodoo, is a great slab of rock. Definitely leans towards the AC/DC sound, but fun to listen to none-the-less.
Sonic Boom made it in my top 5 albums of 2009 for a good reason! It is so much fun to listen to! Kiss brings the funk and the hard rock in a big way with this album. I totally believe Gene Simmons when he sings “Yes I know, nobody’s perfect, but baby I come awfully close”.
Treat is new band to me, although they’ve been around since the early 80′s. I downloaded a “best of” disc and was instantly hooked. Now the rockers bring us Coup De Grace and it is an instant hard rock classic.
Of all the 80′s metal bands, I’d have to say that Ratt was one of my favorite. I had their posters in my room as a teen and was constantly listening to Out Of The Cellar or Invasion Of Your Privacy. I was quite excited to hear they were releasing new material in the form of Infestation. I have to admit, I didn’t like the new album so much, but with multiple listens, it has grown on me.
Woohoo! Stryper’s release, Murder By Pride, was my favorite album of 2009. I’m glad to say that it was the music that put it in that position, and not just because Stryper is one of my all time favorite bands. Everything about this record is awesome, from the beefy bass lines to Michael Sweet’s soaring vocals to Oz Fox’s amazing guitar licks.
Ok, Slash isn’t exactly an “80′s band” but he was a founding member of Guns ‘n Roses, and he is covering one of their best songs from Appetite for Destruction. I still have mixed feelings about the entire album. Most of it is good, but some it is pretty mellow. I will say, that if Fergie got herself a metal band, I’d buy that record!
Never heard of Crazy Lixx? That’s because these guys were probably still in diapers in the 80′s. I added them because they play hair metal so well! If Poison and Def Leppard had a child together, they would have named him Crazy Lixx!
Reckless Love is another “new” band that plays 80′s glam metal perfectly. Listen to the above song and tell me that would not have been a #1 hit in 1984! The entire album is great and I highly recommend it.
War Of Ages was one of the first introductions to a musical genre called “metalcore” that I actually loved. I’ve been a huge metal and thrash fan since I was a teen-ager, but metalcore was a different beast. The drum beat was fast, and there was lots of screaming, but the music was made of dissonance and melancholy, with no melody or guitar solos!
Enter War of Ages. My first listen was 2006′s Pride Of The Wicked, which to this day, is still in my top 10 best albums ever made.
Then came Fire From The Tomb, which was a re-recording of WOA’s first self titled album. It was good, but no where near the caliber of Pride of the Wicked. 2008 saw the release of Arise And Conquer. A fine musical piece, but still not as good as Pride of the Wicked.
Last week, WOA released Eternal, a brand new album! How does it stack up to the fabled Pride of the Wicked? Let us take a listen and compare notes.
01 Collapse
Pretty good song. Starts out with the strong “dirty vocal” contrasted by the cleaner singing from As I Lay Dying’s lead singer. Good fast pace…the guitar work is pretty good.
02 Desire
This song starts off like it is from Pride of the Wicked. I gotta say that the growling vocal kind of grates on my ears…but wait, there’s the chorus with a nice change up. Again, the melodic guitar is very good.
03 Failure
Starts with that layered melodic guitar, and the galloping fast drums are great. A very good WOA song.
04 My Resting Place
War of Ages does doom metal? oh wait, there’s the pickup. Man, Leroy Hamp’s vocals are just a one note show. I’d like just a little variety. The guitar really shreds around the 1:41 mark!
05 Eternal
What? Is that Sonny from P.O.D.? Yep, sure is! Very cool. Sounds like a very heavy P.O.D. song. Five songs into the album, and it all is starting to sound the same. Not a good sign.
06 Indecision
There we go…some heavy chugga chugga chugga of the guitars sounds good to my ears. Unfortunately, Leroy Hamp can only scream in one note. As a stand alone song, this is probably the best song on the record so far.
07 Lack Of Clarity
Huh? Is this Dokken? Gone is the ultra-heavy sound of guitar from the previous song. If you listen to just the guitar, it doesn’t fit with the hardcore vocal. I don’t like the sound of the chorus either.
08 The Fallen
I’m not sure what kind of song this is supposed to be. Starts out super fast thrashy, then devolves into a very slow, sludgy doom metal beat. The juxtaposition isn’t a good one.
09 Your Betrayal
These vocals are really starting to get on my nerves. I hate to say it, but I’m not digging this album so much!
10 Instrumental
A soft instrumental ballad? It’s good as far as instrumental songs go, but instantly forgettable as soon as the record is done.
Over all, I’d say that Eternal falls a long way short of Pride of the Wicked. I honestly feel no compunction to listen to this album so much. The vocals are all the same, even though there are two guest vocalists on the album.
I was going through my iTunes library trying to mix the perfect playlist for my upcoming first Half Marathon and ran across this song by Christian rockers, Disciple. It is simply entitled, Easter Bunny. It is from their “My Daddy Can Whip Your Daddy” album.
Guess I’m filled with the Christmas spirit
Celebrate a jolly man in red
Hope my kids don’t find out Santa Clause isn’t real
Maybe I should have told them about Jesus instead
Last time I heard about it He didn’t come in a Santa outfit
Santa Clause is dead!
Guess it’s time to thank the easter bunny again
For doing absolutely nothing in my life
What the heck do a bunch of colored eggs
have to do with the Son of God being raised back to life
Last time I heard about it He didn’t rise in an easter outfit
The easter bunny is dead!
Christmas is when I celebrate Jesus’ birth
Easter’s when I celebrate Jesus’ resurrection
Jesus is alive!
When I run across music from the 80′s that I have never heard of, I always ask, “How did I miss that band?” I ask that same question in regards to the band Treat. How the heck did I miss this hard rock goodness?
I’ve been reading about their new album, Coupe de Grace, and how good it was. It hasn’t been released in the States yet, but I could get a taste of their back catalog with the album, Weapons of Choice. Whoa! These guys are awesome! Imagine Heart, mixed with a little Bon Jovi, mixed with some Kiss and Firehouse and some more modern hard rock of Harem Scarem or Pink Cream69. That’s what you get with Treat!
Ever have one of those dejavu moments? I’m coming home from work and listening to the local rock station. A song starts to play and I know for sure that is a band I have listened. A not-so-well-known Christian rock band even! Jonah33 () has a new album? I thought they broke up in 2009!
No, what’s that the deejay just said? A band called Three Days Grace ()? Can’t be. That music and vocalist sounds EXACTLY like Jonah33. A quick wikipedia search shows that Three Days Grace is a modern band that formed in 1992, way before Jonah33 ever started. And no, two different vocalists. But holy moly, they sure sound a lot alike! Take a listen to Jonah33 below:
In 2006, Oz Fox of Stryper fame joined Bloodgood and there was talk of a new Bloodgood album. In 2009 Oz joined Stryper on an international tour to support Stryper’s 25th Anniversary (of which I had the honor of attending) and that was the last I heard of him with Bloodgood.
Fast forward to yesterday, when a music blog I read posted a blog about Liberty ‘n Justice, a compilation band with a new album that features a wide variety of musicians. On this record is a song entitled “Treading On Serpents”. It features non other than Les Carlsen, Bloodgood’s lead vocalist, and Oz Fox, guitar player for Stryper and Bloodgood.
Wow! I’ve had this band on my iPod for about 4 weeks but haven’t had the chance to listen to them until now. What a wasted 4 weeks that has been!
Los Angeles’ Neverland is a melodic rock masterpiece! The songs are hook-laden and very well produces. The entire album, from start to finish, is a quality listen.
This is from Frontiers Records website:
Frontiers Records is pleased to announce the release of LOS ANGELES second album entitled “Neverland” on December 4th 2009 in Europe and January 12th 2010 in the USA.
LOS ANGELES debut album revealed to the unsuspecting international Melodic Rock audience, the talents of the awesome Italian singer Michele Luppi. He cut his teeth at the VIT Los Angeles, with Robin Randall (co-writer of hits for FM, Mark Free, James Christian etc) as one of his musical coaches. He teamed up in 2007 with bass player and producer Fabrizio Grossi (Glenn Hughes, From the Inside, Vertigo etc.) to give birth to a project that could make him express his Melodic Rock artistic roots.
Michele’s name became known during the years in the Hard Rock and Metal scene, when he became the singer of the Italian Progressive Metal band Vision Divine, on 3 studio albums and one live DVD. More recently he became the leader and frontman of a new Melodic Metal band named Killing Touch.
LOS ANGELES concept is to tribute the AOR greats that shaped Luppi’s singing and songwriting abilities. Contrary to the first record that relied heavily on external songwriters, this new album sees the songwriting collaboration between Luppi and Grossi blossomed in full, with more contributions from Eric Ragno (China Blue), Joey Sykes (Hugo), Roberto Priori and ex Dokken axeman George Lynch (on “Nowhere to Run”). There is also a stunning new version of Richard Marx’s “Nothing to Hide”: another fitting tribute to one of AOR music giants and two songs offered (“Wait for You” and “Tonight Tonight”) by Tom and James Martin (Khymera, Sunstorm, House of Lords).
Musicians include Tommy Denander, Joey Sykes, Roberto Priori on guitars, Eric Ragno on keyboards, Tony “AJ” Morra on drums and of course Fabrizio Grossi on bass. While Luppi’s astounding vocals can be described as Mark Free meets Eric Martin, LOS ANGELES “Neverland” is a true AOR beauty which is truly a must-buy for all the Melodic Rock fans.
“Neverland” tracklisting includes:
Neverland (MP3 sample)
Nothing to Hide
City of Angels
Promises (MP3 sample)
Wait For You
Nowhere To Run (MP3 sample)
Tonight Tonight
Higher Love
Living Inside
Welcome To My Life
Paradise
Living Sacrifice has reunited and have a new album, The Infinite Order, coming out in a few weeks. Of course, I tried to get an early sample off of Bit Torrent and thought I had succeeded! Don’t worry about me pirating the album, as I plan to buy it the day is released!
Just in case you don’t want to visit my individual blog posts with my individual Top 10 videos, you can scroll through this playlist and watch the ones you want!
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The Scorpion's Sting In The Tail
Krokus' Rock N' Roll Handshake
Kiss' Yes I Know (Nobody's Perfect)
Slash's cover of Paradise City
Crazy Lixx's My Medicine (R.O.C.K)
Reckless Love's Back To Paradise
