life, and a little more

80′s Bands Carry The Torch Of Great Music

Apr 28

metalman777audio, music 80's metal, crazy lixx, europe, hair metal, kiss, krokus, ratt, reckless love, scorpions, slash, stryper, Treat, winger No Comments

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

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!

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The Scorpion's Sting In The Tail

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!

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Winger's Stone Cold Killer

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.

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Krokus' Rock N' Roll Handshake

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.

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Kiss' Yes I Know (Nobody's Perfect)

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”.

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Treat's Tangled

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.

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Ratt's Take A Big Bite

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.

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Stryper's Mercy Over Blame

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.

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Slash's cover of Paradise City

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!

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Crazy Lixx's My Medicine (R.O.C.K)

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!

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Reckless Love's Back To Paradise

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.

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80's Top Five Playlist – Done!!

Apr 01

metalman777music, videos 80's, hair metal, music, videos 2 Comments

So we are heading to an 80′s party this weekend and the only thing we are required to bring is a playlist of 5 of our favorite songs from that era.  Initially I thought this would be a very easy task, but it turned out to be harder than I thought.

If you haven’t seen my earlier post about trying to narrow my songs down from 100 to 40, I suggest you watch the video I posted there.  This has been a very painstaking process!

The criteria for picking my top 5 are as follows:  What makes me remember being a teenager in my room air guitaring all over the place and what just had that fun 80′s rock feel that made you want to be with your buddies?

I’m gonna count down from 5 to 1, so here is my fifth song:

5.  Ratt’s Round and Round

Ratt was one of my all time favorite bands back in the day.  Their music was infectious and groovin’ and fun.  I picked them from pure nostalgia.  I probably listened to more Ratt than any other band.

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4.  Dokken’s Burning Like A Flame

Burning Like a Flame isn’t the best Dokken song, I know.  I love it and again, this song is chosen from good memories as a teen.  I grew up in a small town and we didn’t have cable, so I couldn’t watch MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball.  I had friends that would tape it for me, and it always seemed that Dokken’s Burning Like A Flame was being played.  I love the album artwork and I love the entire album.

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3.  Tesla’s Love Song

Tesla just has to be in the top 5.  They have sooo many good songs that it was very hard to pick which one I love the most.  I figured that the power ballad needed to be represented, and Love Song is one of the best.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_2w4vl9mt8]

2.  Van Halen’s Summer Nights

5150 was the very first hard rock album that really grabbed my attention.  I was in 8th grade when it was released and it turn me onto hard rock for life!  You can read another blog I posted about this experience here. So needless to say, I had to pick a song from 5150 just because it was this album that made me what I am today!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMKHc3JURFo]
(I know the audio quality is horrible on this video, but it was the only one I could find!)

1.  Stryper’s To Hell With The Devil

Yes, Stryper has my number one song of the 80′s!!  Even as Van Halen’s 5150 made me give hard rock another listen, Stryper’s To Hell With The Devil made me give God a second look.  This album was a huge catalyst for me becoming a follower of Jesus.  I had the above album cover as the big back patch on my jean jacket in high school.  I was THAT cool!  Again, you can read about my experience here!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KubgMDSMXfI]
(unlike the Van Halen video, Stryper is spot on and sound just like the album! Premiere musicians, these guys are!)

It’s been a lot of fun picking these songs.  As soon as the party is over I’ll be posting pics of all us dressed up goofy and having fun!

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80's Music Playlist Meltdown

Mar 26

metalman777audio, music, videos 80's, hair metal, itunes, music, playlist 1 Comment

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Samples from all 11 songs of Stryper's new album, Murder By Pride

Jan 12

metalman777audio, music, videos christian metal, hair metal, murder by pride, stryper No Comments

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number of view: 229

More samples from Stryper's Murder By Pride

Jan 03

metalman777audio, music, videos christian metal, hair metal, music, stryper No Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4k2EjbpZno]

number of view: 186

Samples from Stryper's forthcoming Murder By Pride

Dec 21

metalman777music, videos christian metal, hair metal, music, samples, stryper No Comments

from Stryper’s website:

“After years of speaking to fans and hearing comments like “more guitars”, “more solos” and “more screams”, I decided to keep those comments in mind as I wrote each song. It was important to me to try to get back to that early sound of Stryper yet at the same time, to remain relevant today. It’s certainly not an easy thing to do but as I listen to “Murder By Pride”, I think that was accomplished.

I got the idea of the title “Murder By Pride” from seeing pride consume dreams, goals and many times, lives.  We all deal with pride and it can be crippling, so I wanted to write a lyric and a theme that would be a constant reminder of that. This record has been in the works for a long, long time and I can only hope that it was worth the wait!” ~ Michael Sweet

Of the three, I have to say that 4 Leaf Clover sounds really awesome!  Well, listen below and see for yourself!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skcNDMm41c8]

number of view: 149