Led Zeppelin I – Led Zeppelin

This could cause some controversy but I’m not fussed. Opinion is just that. There are critics out there whose job it is to justify their thoughts and these are the people to rate the “excellence” of all forms of art. Whether I agree with them or not doesn’t really matter. I do think that there’s something important about the idea of learning how to appreciate certain aspects of art. It’s hard for me, as a layman, to see how a movie has been put together and what was difficult with it although that might still not make it “good”.

I don’t know how much we can standardise our subjective thoughts. We might take expert opinion and use many of those to form a consensus about certain issues, that seems a sensible approach. Suppose we asked the population the question “what is the best food?”. You might imagine many many types of answers to this and I would need clarification because sometimes a burger is what you need and sometimes cheese on toast is required. These views across the population could possibly be why this country is in this particular political state at the moment. Maybe we shouldn’t ask the population its thoughts on things as the population is quite often wrong.

The plebiscite was wrong about proportional representation and the “leaving the EU” question. In fact, most people didn’t vote. That is what is amazing. This country is heading towards a cliff top at full speed because it is the “will of the people”. Well, fuck you. It was the vague idea of about 35% of the voting age population. The rest of the lazy cunts didn’t vote. People didn’t know what they were voting for. People don’t understand the issues because it is really fucking complicated. Don’t ask the people! We have an elected representation of (hopefully educated and intelligent) people who we let make these decisions based on our behalf. Even when some are wankers, some are thick, some are motivated by unreasonable needs and some are just plain corrupt.

This brings me to this and the next few albums. Because I have been reviewing these albums in alphabetical order by album title it means that most artists are spread out throughout this website. But there is Led Zeppelin who named their first four albums (maybe more) numerically. This means there follows two more communications about the same band. This is slightly annoying.

Led Zeppelin lie in that circle on the Venn diagram of bands I know needed to exist to create the music that inspired all the music that I like but at the same time I find them a little boring. This boredom is precisely because they inspired my kind of music. My kind of music has moved on, it’s evolved, it’s become dirty and dark and is allowed because bands were magical in the early 70s and 80s. Along with Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin inspired the heavy metal bands that formed ten years later. All music is traceable along the ages.

This album has some excellent songs on it. It is historically important. It is highly rated by critics and is important in the history of music. It is summer music. I don’t play it that often.

Lean Into It – Mr Big

This, as far as I know, was the second album by Mr Big. They were a supergroup. They had a massive hit with the dong “To Be With You” which is the last song on this album. Can I remember any of the other songs? Not really. I think the album is fine for a US rock band. It’s just never really hooked me in.

Laughing – Re-Animator

I’m pretty sure I got this album sometime in my third year of university. Although I can’t remember the specifics I do suspect it was in the “metal” section at a music shop. Obviously this was in the days before streaming and even previewing an album. What you bought was what you got.

I’m not sure this is a serious album. I mean musically it’s pretty good and the songs are good but there are plenty of songs with humour in them and start with clips of audio from film etc. If you like heavy slow paced thrash metal then this is a good album for you, assuming that you don’t mind the odd piece of fun.

The following songs are stuck in my head, even after twenty (or more) years.

  • Rude Awakening
  • Kipper ‘n’
  • Research – has French spoken at the beginning
  • Another Fine Mess
  • Monkey See, Monkey Dance
  • Don’t Patronise Me

I guess you could stream this album now, for nothing, listen to it and then dismiss it. Over the last few months I’ve come back to the idea of paying for music properly! Sad old me and my liberal sensitivities.

Killing Joke – Killing Joke

This is the last of the “k” albums. I got this album after getting Pandemonium by Killing Joke which is an awesome amazing album. This one though excites me less so. I don’t often listen to it but there are some highlights.

Requiem, Wardance and The Wait are all excellent songs and The Wait has been covered by Metallica so that gives you an idea of the influence of this band and their music.

Killing Is My Business . . . And Business Is Good! – Megadeth

This is a Megadeth album which I came to late. My start with Megadeth was watching a BBC2 documentary called “Heavy Metal”. In the film there was a clip of Megadeth playing Peace Sells at an outdoor venue in Northern Ireland. Quite a while after watching the show I kept playing the riffs over and over in my head and I thought I ought to get the album. I wasn’t quite a full on thrash metal fan and I remember being disappointing at the opening song Wake Up Dead. “just another thrash band” I thought. The song “Wake Up Dead” is listed on this site as one of my favourites, THREE classic riffs in one song.

When I got hold of this album a good few years later I was surprised and shocked. It has a very much less-polished feel that the other albums, I guess as you would expect for a band’s first album. It’s faster and more melodic than Metallica, which, given the history, you would expect. MegaDave play hard and fast melodies and it’s their signature sound.

Last Rites / Loved to Deth – piano opening getting you to think you’ve got the wrong album and a little wiggly guitar work and BLAM – Megadeth riff hits you. A fast, heavy, bruising song.

Killing Is My Business – that opening riff is ace. The bounce and feel of it is enough to get anyone jumping around. The songs ends in a speed fueled repeating chorus, lovely.

The Skull Beneath The Skin – the title sounds gross but is really probably just a line from a biology text book. Cantering opening and then a Dave scream with a climbing riff followed by ring chord strokes and then – Kaboom! A galloping ride of guitars and drums over the fields. It’s always amazed me how some riffs are so amazing and then bands only use them for tiny sections of their songs.

Rattlehead – Here I Come. A bass line I can’t comprehend, smash cymbals pushing you to jump either way and this is a dose of metal you need.

Chosen Ones – Oddly this is not a song that sticks in my head. It’s not that it’s bad, it just doesn’t quite do it for me.

Looking Down The Cross – very wiggly at the start. A good song with a blisteringly paced kick drum through. Excellent.

Mechanix – If you want a proper version of Four Horsemen by Metallica then this is where to come. I remember seeing Megadeth play this live at Cambridge and it blew me away. Amazeballs.

These Boots – you can guarantee that there’s always one shit song on a Megadeth album and this is the one on this album. They are like The Crue, chuck in one song that’ll annoy everyone. I do not like this one.

Killers – Iron Maiden

There’s something about the raw power and sound in this album that has stayed in my core. Along with Iron Maiden, Killers has that kick in the teeth, it pushes you around and beats you up with its riffs and lyrics. I bloody love this album. My feelings for the first two albums often goes against the grain of general fandom. In my view Iron Maiden were good until the end of Seventh Son. After that they went shit. Or maybe I just grew out of them?

The Ides Of March – Borrowed from Samson and written by Bruce before he was part of Maiden. This opener gets you ready for the onslaught.

Wrathchild – rolling bass line with bouncy riffs. A great song.

Murders In The Rue Morgue – such a melody that I get shivers down the spine.

Another Life – You can imagine jumping around to this song in an East End pub in the early 80s. The riff change halfway through is ace.

Genghis Khan – This song pops with the main riff. What out for the speed change that doesn’t accelerate it just knocks you flat.

Innocent Exile – Another bouncy tune that keeps me jumping around the room.

Killers – Entirely about stalking someone and killing them. What do you expect from a band named after a medieval torture device?

Prodigal Son – Devil’s got hold of my soul. But with a ballad feel. Although it’s not a ballad.

Purgatory – high speed danger in this song. It races along daring you to join in.

Drifters – The symbol crashes on the off beat excite me in this song. Just one of those things. This song canters along with room for a breather at the end of each verse.

This whole album encapsulates a teenage yearning for power and respect. You can feel the angst in the writing and the production. It still excites me after over thirty years of listening. I bloody love it.

“Sanctuary” isn’t on this album and so probably wont’ get mentioned until “Live After Death”. That’s an “L” album and so won’t be too far away. As a clue I’ll let you know that “Live” is simply the best Maiden album.

Kill ‘Em All – Metallica

I’ll keep posting album reviews here while I suffer from such anxiety and anger about the current state of politics in this country and the world. The entire Brexit bullshit needs to be mostly ignored else I’ll get too worked up and angry about it all. An electorate who were lied to with illegal spending and Russian money voted to leave an organisation it knew mostly nothing about because of a systematic campaign over thirty years by right wing newspapers to remove cooperation and friendliness between countries. If you aren’t sure about that last bit then have a look at this website. It’s a list of all the lying claims by the UK press.

Now it’s time to be happy about reviewing this album. This album starts a small series of “Kill” albums that are bloody amazing and ground-breaking. Kill ‘Em All is the fist studio album by a tiny band called Metallica and while they are shit now this collection of songs is bloody amazing. The sheer raw power and energy in the songs is more than in anything else they have produced. It is probably something to do with Dave Mustaine having helped write a lot of it. Once you get to the Black Album it’s all gone wrong. I’ll review that one in about a year I guess.

I was asked recently what is the last decent Metallica song. I took some time and went with “Harvester Of Sorrow”. The question asker plumped for “Shortest Straw”. Fair play. Blackened is also a choice for that but the rest of “Justice” aren’t that good.

Back to “Metal Up Your Ass”. This album, in my view, helped create thrash metal as a genre and introduced chugging as a “note” to be used below lyrics rather than the swinging bouncy guitars used by Iron Maiden.

Hit The Lights – starts with a crash ending of a song and I’ve always loved that. It’s hard and busy.

The Four Horsemen – smashes you in the face with it’s blistering pace and makes you want to rush into the pit.

Jump In The Fire – would be great to sing out loud. It’s got a good moshing pace and plenty of Hetfield trademark “yah!”.

Pulling Teeth – blows my mind. The noise and cacophony that Burton pulls from the basss guitar makes me smile and wonder at the talent. When Ulrich enters the drums create a rhythm perfectly matched that gives a good swing to this bass solo.

Whiplash – I can remember playing this at top volume in school. We were in the sixth form and there was a music box in the common room, which was opposite the staff room. We would open the windows, put Whiplash on full volume and leave the common room leaving the music playing as loud and obnoxiously as possible to the staff trying to enjoy their break time away from those pesky kids. Fast, heavy and a standard song in thrash. Seeing Newstead play this at Download in 2013 was brilliant.

No Remorse – chugs away with a canter. Brilliant. No regrets.

Seek and Destroy – I don’t think you can get better on this album than this song. It’s my favourite and I love it. I once saw Metallica at Milton Keynes bowl and I think the concert was broadcast live on Radio 1. I got a friend to record it from the radio for me and the version they played there crunched away in my head for years. Brilliant.

Metal Militia -we all are aren’t we? Why don’t normal people “get” this music? Why is it that when you play metal to someone who doesn’t understand you can hear their brains pop? You can see the disconnect in their minds as they struggle with the noise. I’ve tried to persuade people to metal over the years and now I don’t bother. I’ve tried playing aggrotech to people but they don’t get that either. It’s all fine by me. Being at a music festival with eighty thousand people all enjoying the same music gives a kinship.

Kerbdog – Kerbdog

I do think that this album was another of my early buys on CD in the days when CDs were the latest technology. I don’t recall where I bought the album but it released in 1994 so that puts me at college. I don’t know a great deal about this band, I do know that when I got another of their albums I was slightly disappointed with it.

This album has some excellent riffs and can only be described as having “wavy” guitars. I used to have quite a bit of resistance to that term but over time I have decided it does represent a style of riffage.

I’m not sure I know any of the songs by title but I do know that I quite often hum the main riff from End Of The Green. It starts with a rolling riff that then hits hard when the rest of the band enter. The vocals are quite haunting also.

Dry Riser hits home as well. A good riff with a sudden pace change towards the end.

Dead Anyway crunches the squawker with its guitar work.

After that the songs fade from my riff-memory-centre. I’d definitely recommend giving the first few songs a blast over Spotify – whoops – just checked and this album isn’t on Spotify.

Keeper Of The Seven Keys: Part 2 – Helloween

This album carries on the story from where Helloween left off. I don’t know what the story is though. Lyrics kinda aren’t my thing. I don’t think this is as good as Part One but it does contain more humour within the writing. I wrote about the speed-opera metal in the last communication. This album is just as epic.

Rise and Fall, Dr Stein, and I Want Out are my highlights from this album.

KotSK2.jpg
By Source, Fair use, Link

The titular track is over thirteen minutes long. I reckon if I had to go through that live I would fall asleep!

Keeper Of The Seven Keys: Part One – Helloween

Gosh. I can’t remember when I got this album but it was probably in the late 80s. This was my introduction to German speed metal with an epic operatic over-arching theme. It was utterly different to anything else I had listened to. It has such a story telling power with blistering guitars and drums all the way through along with excellently written and arranged songs giving such a sense of completeness once the album is finished. I really like it.

Highlights from this album include “I’m Alive”, “A Little Time”, “Haloween” and the most excellent “Future World”.

I want to say that this album is listenable by all. But I expect I’m wrong on that. When I haven’t listened to metal for a while I get all misty-eyed and think that almost all songs are excellent and everyone would appreciate it. That feeling when you play some metal to your family after they’ve been listening to Heart FM and you promise they’ll love it but as soon as the first bar ends you know you’ve made a massive mistake. They don’t get it. They look at you ever more weirdly. Oops.

Keep The Faith – Bon Jovi

I really liked “Slippery When Wet” it started my descent into metal. “New Jersey” rocked as far as I was concerned. It has a good collection of excellent songs.

Keep The Faith stutters it’s way through the genre and marked a turn in sound for the Jovi in my opinion. I don’t know what the sales figures are, I’ll come back in a moment, but this album pretty much left me cold. I didn’t like the indie-U2 feel of the song “Keep The Faith”. There’s a tranche of ballads which I guess the Jovi do very well. But it all just leaves me meh.

It sold 12 million compared to 18 million for New Jersey.

Katmandu – Katmandu

If you Google Katmandu band you get a list of results that aren’t anything to do with this band. Many years ago in the days of music cassettes and long playing records I use to browse the music sections in the Our Price shop close to Harlow bus station. I was earning money in a job on my “year off” before university. I don’t really count that year as a “year off” but technically it was. I’m not sure if I’ve explained that within these communications.

I’d always be looking for new bands and music to listen to. I’d always browse the section called Rock/Metal but even then you can’t really be sure what type of music you are going to get. So I would often base my purchases on the cover or what I had heard about that band. Another album bought in these circumstances would be Blue Murder by Blue Murder.

With my pennies in hand I went and bought following music cassette to then listen on my “walkman”.

Katmandu – Katmandu [1991]

What do I think about this album? I love it. It’s a rare case of an album I bought without previous knowledge but I found myself really enjoying to vocals and guitar work. Is this “metal”? Nope. Not by a long way. I reckon it’s an album that closes off the excesses of 80s hair rock.

I do like bands with a decent plodding bass sound and this band manage that very well. There’s a certain slimy/creepy quality to the sound. The guitars are heavy and well produced. The songs are perfectly structured.

I remember liking God Part II and then I found out it was a cover version of a U2 song and I felt bad as I’d always slammed U2. I still don’t like U2 but am willing to appreciate their contribution to music, just.

The Way You Make Me Feel – the album opener and it’s a lovely heavy track with excellent mix of steady riffs and start-stop types of stuff. You’ll know what I mean if you listen to it.

Love Hurts – Oh yeah, it does. Also, in the chorus it has a lovely wacka-wacka guitar sound which is perfect.

Sometime Again – could make me cry on a bad day.

When The Rain Comes – A slower paced but still heavy track with vocals matching the guitars and a great middle section with rolling drums and steady-beat-bass.

Heart & Soul – A summer song for playing American Football on the beach, drinking beer and watching the sun set.

Ready For The Common Man – opens with a WTF moment with vocals suggesting the “sometimes I feel like a motherless child” and I have no idea what this is about. Then it smashes into awesome 80s riffing and halfway there are gang vocals. It’s a great mix of everything. This YouTube version misses the vocals at the beginning and so I think some of the effect is lost. Ah. I’ve just googled “motherless child” and now I’m not sure about this song. Is it cultural appropriation or a valid part of this album. Quick, turn that part of my brain off.

Only The Good Die Young – this we know. I’m pretty sure there’s a Maiden song called this too. This is well worth it. A lovely chorus and it would have been great to sing along to this live.

Let The Heartache Begin – opens quietly and then blasts you with a wall of classic ballad heavy rockin’.

Medicine Man – Whatever happened to the Medicine Man?

Pull Together – opening with a bass line and then heading to a wavy-riff of lovely erk sounding guitars.

Warzone – fast and war like. The vocals are perfectly matched to the subject matter here. Would be a good song to be in the pit while playing live. It’s the perfect pace and then the crowd would stop and scream out the chorus together. It’d be great. I do love a decent bass-drum bit with the guitars shutting up.

Look. This album was a lucky find. The songs still play through my head nearly thirty years after buying it. That’s the sign of a good mix of writing and production.

The band split up after this, their only, album.

K – Kula Shaker

I bought this album because didn’t they feel like they could be a rock band? I’m sure there was one good song.

I’ll pop it on the music maker thingies in the house.

<waits>

First song: “Hey Dude”, seems ok, I guess. Nope. Change that. Got to the chorus.

<skip>

Nope.

<skip>

<repeats>

Oh, here’s a song called Hush. Pretty good song. But it’s NOT theirs. It was by Deep Purple. That’s why it’s a good song. It also isn’t on this album. I added after downloading it.

 

Just Say Ozzy – Ozzy Osbourne

The thing about this album is that the bass sounds so bloody lovely. It’s a live record and when you look at who’s involved you see that Geezer Butler is playing bass guitar and you go “ah, now that makes sense”.

The tracks on this are all proper Ozzy. Really good songs with blistering guitar work.

Miracle Man, Bloodbath in Paradise, Shot In The Dark, Tattooed Dancer, Sweet Leaf and War Pigs.

The last two are Sabbath classics. This is a great album [EP], well worth a listen, but not necessarily worth the £15 on Amazon I just saw! I’d recommend Tribute instead.

Zakk Wylde on guitar, Geezer on bass and Randy Castillo on drums? What more do you want?

Judgement Night – Various Artists

This perfectly amazing album is what happens when a music label crosses over its artists. I will write about this album as if the second song had never appeared on it as I think it’s a travesty. Here’s what you need to know:

“Just Another Victim” by Helmet and House Of Pain: an excellent opener giving you a taste of what’s coming. The grinding opening riff rips your brain out. The pace change half way through bounces your grey cells once more. Brilliant.

“Me, myself & my microphone” by Run DMC and Living Colour: ringing chords leading to heavy riffs and a hiphop beat. Heavy crashing sounds.

“Judgement Night” by Biohazard and Onyx: Yeah, motherfucker. A bouncy beat with squealy guitar sounds throughout. A bonkers song.

“Disorder” by Slayer and Ice-T: Sorry Ice-T but Tom Araya smashes your scream, he takes it, rolls it up into a small box and disintegrates it to a million pieces. We don’t need your war. A rolling beat with classic Slayer riff and solo until halfway. Hold on to your hats because this song knocks you off your feet. It hits you the way the LA riots hit LA.

“Another Body Murdered” by Faith No More and Boo Ya T.R.I.B.E. A classic Faith No More start to this song with pumping rap lyrics and the gentle piano in the background. The screams part way through are horror-movie standard.

“I Love You Mary Jane” by Cypress Hill and Sonic Youth: this is one chilled out song. A slow rolling beat with the distinct vocal style of Cypress Hill. This works. It’s relaxed. It’s strange and smooth.

“Freak Momma” by Mudhone and Sir Mix-A-Lot: I know little of Mudhone but what I do know is this song is in their distinctive style. The beat catches up with itself at times and tries to overtake in your head. Almost a summer garden song.

“Missing Link” by  Dinosaur Jr. and Del the Funky Homosapien: a groovy bass line with rapping and a singing lead guitar. Another chilled out song. Something to relax to.

“Come and Die” by Therapy? and Fatal: imagine you’ve got zombies chasing you around the neighbourhood. You are jogging away, hoping you don’t turn a corner and get caught by a separate hoard. That’s the pace and feel of this song. It’s also the music that should be playing in the movie where you are running from zombies. It’s a meta song.

“Real Thing” by Pearl Jam and Cypress Hill: want to bounce your head, nodding with the beat while walking or chilling in your sofa in the garden. Well, get the wickerwear out, put the cushions on and lay back and relax. Hold a finger in the air and direct the music from your slouch. Feel the beat take you.

The song I’ve not mentioned is “Fallin'” because it’s shit.

This entire album was the soundtrack to a chunk of my time at university. It was amazing and still is. It has that raw powerful sound of anger and sadness. I feel like we haven’t moved on. Society is still suffering and these songs and artists could easily make all this again.

At its time this was an amazing album, a collaboration of artists of metal and rap who weren’t Aerosmith. This crossover is brilliant. I love it. I really love it.

Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop – Jeff Beck

This album was originally bought on music cassette and has since bee played a reasonable number of times. My ignorance comes to the fore here as I don’t really know who Jeff Beck is. I think he wrote “Hi Ho Silver Lining” but I could be mistaken. I don’t want to Wikipedia him because that’s cheating. My suspicion is that he used to be a member of an awesome 60/70s rock band and then was part of a few super-groups.

This album was late 80s or early 90s and it’s good fun. It’s not rock by a long way but it has gentle rhythms and sampling along with some spoken word lyrics. I quite like it as something different for the summer evenings. Perfectly pleasant for company I guess.

Jar Of Flies / SAP – Alice In Chains

It has been a while since I wrote some stuff about albums I own and what I think about them. Hopefully I’ll have a push to produce more communications over the next while. It’d be nice to get a load of stuff written that isn’t just pretty pictures I’ve taken. This site was turning into a little bit of a photo-blog and while those communications are important I should be getting back to the purposes of originality.

Jar Of Flies.

Don’t listen to this if you are slightly depressed and alone. It’s a struggle to listen to this EP when perfectly happy and emotionally stable and alone so any worse off and you need to hide your shoe laces away.

This EP perfectly uses the haunting vocal style of the lead singer [dead – drugs] and the gentle guitar sounds of Seattle. Every song on this album makes me feel. This was one of the first ten or so CDs I bought, I think I owned it before I owned a CD player. This EP is perfect and tearsome.

You must listen to it at some point. Preferably when you are well. And in a brightly lit room. Laying on the floor, in the dark, with sunglasses on and beer in your system is not the ideal listening position.

Well, it is really but we shouldn’t go there. This album takes me back to 1994 with the opening three seconds.

Get your fucking hair cut.

Iron Maiden – Iron Maiden

This is the next draft in my list but I’m not sure I’ve completed all the Is before this one. However, I don’t care. This album is SEMINAL.

There’s a communication somewhere here called Descent into Metal. I’m not sure if this album appears but I still rate this as the second best Iron Maiden album after Killers. I love the raw sound, the anger and the power behind this album. It’s brilliant.

Prowler – awesome
Remember Tomorrow – shivers down my spine
Running Free – YEAH!
Phantom Of The Opera – Lucozade advert anyone? plus tempo changes and harmonies!

 

 

Transylvania – incredible instrumental
Strange World – mysterious magic
Charlotte The Harlot – what you gonna do?
Iron Maiden – Marvellous.

My CD version also has Sanctuary on it which is a super song. Just brilliant.

Now, I’m not known as a wordsmith, far from it. Hence this communication doesn’t quite match my emotional relationship with this album. I have listened to these songs since I was 14 or 15 and I still think it’s a great album.

Hybrid Theory – Linkin Park

This potentially will annoy many people but I remember these guys having a really big hit and I thought that it sounded good. Definitely a new sound and worth checking out. I  bought this album and liked pretty much all of it, but I just don’t play it anymore. Then the singer chap died. That’s very sad but it didn’t make me play this album. I reckon I’m just out of the age bracket for this to be a formative sound.

Iron Man 2 – AC/DC

This is a compilation so songs will be reviewed elsewhere.

  • Shoot To Thrill
  • Rock ‘n’ Roll Damnation
  • Guns For Hire
  • Cold Hearted Man
  • Back In Black
  • Thunderstruck
  • If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)
  • Evil Walks
  • T.N.T.
  • Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be
  • Have A Drink On Me
  • The Razors Edge
  • Let There Be Rock
  • War Machine
  • Highway To Hell